I was a child once.
We all are innocent and pure when we are born
according to what most people think. I very much doubt
that little white lie. If we are all born innocent
and pure then how come we kill one another? If we are all
born innocent since the beginning of time then
why would we know the pain or hate? How come some of
our goals in our lives must hurt others? If we
are all born pure then how come we are so tainted with blood
and lies? We all have two sides and it seems
to me that people tend to forget children have two sides. They
all assume they are pure goodness and light and
forget the dark sides. Forgetting tiny things like that are for
the weak. They cannot understand it and they
refuse to understand their darkness. It's not evil, it won't bite,
and it's just darkness. Live with it. I have
accepted my darkness and treasured it. I used it to my advantage to
my goal to find the thing I hated the most, my
magic. I lived in the darkness so I could survive using it's
magic. Ironic because I've always hated magic.
Even as a child magic meant nothing to me.
My older sister felt almost the same disregard
as I did. But of course Schala was blessed with Shadow magic
when I was apparently crippled in it. Schala
wasn't made for that type of magic. It was too brooding and dark
for such a gentle spirit. Shadow magic is choking,
hungry, lustful and heartless and it simply did not apply
for my sister. She was beautiful, graceful girl
with long shimmering blue hair and gentle green eyes and a
kind smile. But it was more than her beauty that
attracted her to other people. It was the caring heart, the
gentle words and the promise of hope she always
had. She was the last of the rare innocents. Schala was
eternal optimist shimming with love, the perfect
child that I agreed with no spite. She was everything when I
was a child, my sister, my mother, and my only
friend. She was my beacon of hope for the future when I
became an adult.
I was the opposite of her. I was a small, frail,
pail, and skinny child with a dark awkward way of speaking
that always was tinged with sarcasm. My hair
was a darker blue with brown irises before discovering my
channel of magic. My nose was a little too long
and I always frowned. I only smiled and laughed around
Schala. I seemingly had no power of magic
within me. The Guru of Life knew my worth. I think Schala did
too.
At the very least I know that both knew that I
hated magic and deemed it useless. I couldn't care less if I
learned magic or not. However the world had more
to say to the matter than I did. I knew the reason people
where cold and dark to me was I had no magical
powers that you could see with the blind eye. This aura of
anger and ignorance would soon fall and drag
down Zeal with it. Zeal was a beautiful place. Lush and green
with flowers of the brightest reds to the palest
yellows. Rivers where cool and clear and the island it's self
was always warm and perfect. If a child wanted
to play in the snow, they'd simply use a land bridge to visit
the snowy Earth Bounders' world.
I hated Zeal!
Everything was false to my eyes. Nothing was the
truth. All because of the wonders of Lavos! It would be a
name that I would grow to hate. I also hated
Zeal because it shared the name of that woman who destroyed
everything in her because of greed.
My mother.
Once known as Jean Salvac my mother was a beautiful
mage that was married to King Xavier of Zeal and
gave birth to Schala. Xavier soon died afterwards
by the Earth Bounders hands' after proclaiming to them
that they would be slaves for the great Kingdom
of Zeal. My father wasn't any smarter than Xavier. His
name was Zacharia De Land who was a duke in Zeal's
Court. My sister told me he was a handsome man, a
womanizer, proud, haughty, smart, and vain.
My mother fell completely in love with him.
She soon found out he was also cold, power hungry,
and idiotic when she was pregnant with me. Jean found
Zacharia in bed with his lover, an Earth Bounder.
Suffice to say was that my father had one last good fling
before my mother charged him with Adultery. Zacharia
was sentence to death and was mangled at the
Xathos River known as the river of the dead.
When I was in her womb when she found about Lavos'
power from records of her first husband and set
to work on her new lover.
The Kingdom of Zeal.
Her mind was taken over slowly as she worked
with the Gurus of Life, Reason and Time to make the
Mammon Machine to simply catch Lavos' energy
waves. During this her mind was slowly being ebbed away
form saneness and into a wild burr on insanity.
She soon would be known simply as Zeal.
And I times I wonder if Lavos effected me.
No.
He did not.
I am not a pawn like Zeal was.
After the death of her second husband she decided
to pick a Chancellor to quench the queries of the
Kingdom a month before I was born. His name was
Dalton Figpen, a large man who always seemed to be
drunk due his eternally red face and his stumbled
walking which gave me the idea to christen as the Flop. I
always was disgusted with this man, he wasn't
worth my hatred but I will admit he was good with magic. He
had the same insane ambitions as Zeal so for
the first time she finally made the perfect choice for a co-ruler
of Zeal. The Flop always was bothering with Schala.
He had an idea in his mind that he'd get in favor of the
queen and marry Schala so he could capture the
throne. He was also given the Aeroplane called the
Blackbird. The good thing is that Dalton hated
me, so he never sucked up to me. We had explosives verbal
fights that would sound every where in the gorgeous
Zeal Castle.
But I'm getting ahead of things.
When I was too old to be fed my mother's breast
I was given to the nanny and Schala's care. Nannies could
not stand me and I knew most of them wouldn't
of mind seeing me dead so Schala keep her eye on me as
she struggled with Dalton's advances and her
visits of mercy to the Earth Bounders with Melchior. At the
age of 3, I tagged along and was more welcomed
in the Earth Bounders world than in Zeal.
As we made our trips and grew up, Zeal ordered
to make a pendent to control magical barriers that the
Mammon Machine made. Zeal couldn't handle the
power of the Dreamstone Pendent like Bethasar, Guru of
Reason, expected her too. So for 2 years Zeal
and Bethasar forgot the pendent and used the Lavos power
built the Zeal Kingdom to the pinnacle of it's
power.
Melchior was a grandfather to Schala but had no
love for me but protected Schala and I form Zeal's wraith
and anger. He helped the Earth Bounders with
cooking, hunting and clothing and tried to teach them to use
magic. Few could use low caliber magic. He also
taught them to resist slavery until Zeal heard about this
and placed him over Terra Cave on the Floating
Mountain to mock the Earth Bounders. Again, I'm getting
ahead of myself. I tend to do that at times.
Melchior would also take Schala and I on outings such as fishing
or picnics. I remember a few conversations about
me when they though I was asleep.
"Janus looks so peaceful." My sister's soft voice
said.
"The boy has great power. Such a shame to keep
it all locked within himself." Melchior voice answered.
"He doesn't like magic. Janus thinks it's
a waste of time. He gets cold all the time when I do. He calls it
'The Black Wind'."
"Hmm, very strange. Perhaps because of your blood
you both can feel this 'Black Wind'."
I found out that as a child that it is best
to keep quiet and listen. If you stay quiet you disappear and people
would forget someone was listening and tell secrets.
I heard much this way. When I met Vinegar I used this
secret to my advantage until I could stand on
my own. When I was 5, I noticed that Schala was more sullen
and quiet. I also noticed the beautiful Dream
Stone pendent the new doors and crests that seemed to appear
almost over night. I became more angry and dark
and fought more often with Dalton because my sister was
turning sicker and weaker. I also gave people
my lip when I visited other cities. My cat Alfador never left
me, he would watch me when Melchior or Schala
couldn't. I like animals. They're one of the few things I do
like and they like me too. If anything is really
innocent or the true chosen ones of the gods then it must be
animals. Animals do not judge the living and
treat all humans like friends unless threatened. Cats and dogs
seem to have that quality the strongest among
beasts. A monster like me could go up to a small kitten that
would show no spite or anger. Killers, criminals,
mad men, mentally ill and the handicapped are hated by
humans yet animals gave them nothing but love
and understanding. We humans are the ones who keep
killing for no reason. War is a synthetic creation
of man's wisdom. Alfador and I watched as Zeal grew more
insane and Zeal Kingdom grew more powerful. Schala
was pulled in to the dark web of power lust before
my eyes. Thankfully Lavos didn't touch her mind,
perhaps the pest knew Schala was the true hand that fed
him. I have no idea what torture Zeal put my
sister though but I am sure it wasn't good. I could feel my
sister's pain all the time, even while deep asleep
in the darkest of dreams. For a year and half we suffered in
this state, our life was going down quickly,
it became worst when he appeared.
The Wandering Prophet.
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