Author's Note: At last! The Demon Flame Chronicles have arrived! Be aware that this is just the prologue and that I will not be writing like this through the rest of the story. Also, these characters may not show up until the second or third book. My second story!! Enjoy!
They lived before the history of humans was written. Some were revered as gods and others as monsters. The first were the Ancients, existing long before language was spoken off a human tongue. Their names were Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia. Later, when mankind created communication with words, these names would become the Latin terms of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride.
Their kind was the demons. The Ancients never knew evil. It did not exist in their time, but that soon changed.
Often dwelling upon their thrones, the Ancients gave no attention toward the growth of humans. Humans had begun to create. Pictures were painted on walls. Nature gave them music. Discovery of tools led to magnificent hunting, carving the way to clothing, domestication and such. And yet the Ancients slept, unaware that humans were progressing, no longer beasts, but curious creatures with purpose. Through all this, the humans had begun to speak.
Empires started to rise and grow and expand. Demons were afraid of the humans' intelligence. They called for the Ancients, and they at last awoke. Fury filled the hearts of the Ancients. Never before had any other race rivaled theirs. They came up with a plan.
Humans were incapable of true sin. Therefore, the Ancients cursed them with new emotions. They were the seven sins of legend. With these feelings humans began to fight, and the first blood was spilled out of anger and hatred. This was the first evil.
War broke out between nations. As the people fought, the demons celebrated. Mankind was returning to the caves from which they came.
But three Ancients, Luxuria, Ira, and Invidia, took pity on them. What other demons did not see, they did. Along with the sins, humans had created their own emotions: love, hope, sadness, and happiness. Men and woman called the three Ancients the Sacreds. The Sacreds, having been discovered for their sorrow towards the humans, were banished to mankind's lands.
Luxuria disguised herself as a human and left to find a home that would give them shelter. She came upon a small village next to the sea. Their leader was a man named Nari. He waited on the shore with forty men when Luxuria arrived. Her predicament was explained with swords at her throat. Once she was heard, Nari knew she was not one of his enemies, and she was accepted. Luxuria called for Ira and Invidia. They lived within the village for one year.
Soon, the villagers had become wary of the Sacreds, so they pleaded with their leader to send them away. Nari spoke with the three demons of the trouble. Ira and Invidia agreed to continue their journey, but Luxuria insisted on remaining. So that she would be safe, Luxuria was married to Nari. This was the first union between the races. Ira and Invidia left. Within months, Dishan was born to Luxuria and Nari. They called him an Ember, a child of demon and human blood.
Word had spread of the Sacreds arrival by this time. A great Empire under threat of other nations prayed for Ira and Invidia's help. Their pleas were heard and the two demons arrived. Now, the selfish King Balis, who was old, childless, and unwise, ruled this Empire. While his people begged for an end to the fighting, he refused to surrender to his enemies.
Ira and Invidia stayed in the priestess' temple. Keera was among the Higher Priestess and had gained the Empire's respect. She was rejected her family name and sent to the temple after her previous husband died in battle. The priestess was declared barren.
Hearing the cries of the humans, Invidia listened to the thoughts of the citizens. They wished for a new leader and an end to the killing. Invidia took this knowledge and killed King Balis. After his death, Keera became queen. The war ended neutral.
Time went by, and the people of the Empire became anxious. Queen Keera was unmarried and infertile, insufficient to produce an heir. Invidia visited the queen's throne room. He rested his hand on her waist and she was filled with pain as a blue fire enveloped her. It was the power of the demon flame, the giver and taker of life. Before long, Queen Keera gave birth to the Princess Devini, daughter of Invidia, and the second Ember. Invidia remained with the queen to raise Devini.
Ira left to seek acceptance with the warriors of the forests. The people did not approve. The last Sacred waited outside the forests for years for them to reconsider. They did not.
During this time, the remaining Ancients were once again enraged, and shocked. Humans were believed to be the lower race, and it was considered disgusting and lowly to multiply with or protect such foolish and fragile beings. The Ancients attacked the Upperworld, where humans lived on Earth. Many upon thousands and thousands began to perish. The world was entombed with evil.
The Ancients visited Ira and asked him to join them in killing off the humans, including the Embers. Ira refused and was chained to the roots of the forest. Warriors from the forests saw what Ira had done for them. The tribe asked Chief Tyris for his daughter, Lilith, who was a skilled hunter with a bow and arrow. When Lilith stood facing Ira, she pricked his thumb with a thorn and smeared his blood on her obsidian arrows. Aiming for the chains that bound the demon to the roots, she freed Ira with his own blood.
Ira told Chief Tyris what the Ancients planned to do and they agreed to send Lilith with him to the Empire. Upon their arrival, Ira commanded to speak with Queen Keera and Invidia. The royal couple was warned. He told them to take enough of Devini's blood to smear on her bedding, so that when the Ancients arrived, they would believe her to be dead, killed by her own father. The same message was sent to Nari's village, in which Luxuria would be the killer.
The Ancients came to the Empire at dusk. Citizens hid within their homes and the temple. Invidia stood at the front of the gates to the city, a sheet in his hands, smudged with blood. He told the Ancients that he wished to erase his betrayal by killing off the humans of the Empire. The Ancients were convinced.
Nari's village was prepared as well. The villagers took the fishing boats and went far out to sea, enough to be hidden. Luxuria beheld a knife with a gold handle, dripping with Dishan's blood. Luxuria said that she had already killed all the humans of the village, and pointed to the red stains on the ground to prove it. The Ancients were content and left. The people returned inland. The blood on the ground was from slain cattle and other livestock.
Ira met with the Ancients before they returned to the Underworld. He lied and told them he had thanked the forest tribe that freed him by decapitating them. The Sacred held Lilith and said that he had forced her to watch her people be slain, and she expressed fear. Ira swore that he, Invidia, and Luxuria would destroy the existence of mankind, so that the Ancients could sleep.
And the Ancients, along with most of their kind, slept.
Having saved the human race, Ira returned Lilith to her tribe. She was with child and gave birth to Thian, son of Ira, the third Ember. The Sacreds remained with the humans until their children had children. A shrine was made for Luxuria and she sat upon a marble chair, turning herself into stone, sleeping until she was needed. Invidia sat upon a throne of gold, placed in the temple, also asleep in stone.
Ira took Lilith into the heart of the forest. Built for them were two obsidian beds inlayed with intricate designs made of opal. Lilith lay on her bed, letting Ira turn her to stone. He hoped that her time sleeping would make her stronger as the years went by so that she may become a demon as well. Then Ira himself was turned to stone and slept. Over time, trees surrounded the forest heart, the Earth changed, and the Sacreds were forgotten. They would not rise until, once again, the world needed them.
Author's Note: Pretty exciting, and it doesn't stop here! Meet Dilann and Aeron in the next chapter! Please, please, please review!! All comments are welcome!