PROLOGUE
Light.
All was light.
Pure, unchanged light. It was not yellow. It was the purest white, lighter than snow, truer than clouds.
It was undisturbed. No shadow crossed it, and no one entered it.
No one left it either.
In the center, a figure sat slumped. His head was bowed, and his robe of blue was left abandoned, forlorn, left on the floor.
But what was the floor?
Nothing was here. Up could be down, and you wouldn't notice. The rules of the world failed inside of Adarnaz, and whether it was designed that way was a philosophical debate between scholars, because the ones who had made it were so far ahead of everyone that it was laughable even to try to understand it.
Ardarnaz was a prison of last resort, a desperate measure intended for only the greatest of entities.
Unfortunately, due to that, the power of the prison bore down on the one inside it, nearly driving him mad with pain. It was endless, and it was inescapable.
Suddenly, the light beside the prisoner stopped, forming a hole of darkness speckled with stars. The suppressive force of Ardarnaz retreated, and the prisoner gasped.
From the hole, a man holding a golden scepter walked in, his regal coat of white trailing behind him, but ending when it hit the hole, flowing like a foaming river.
"Sendrias," the man's voice boomed.
"Betrayer," the prisoner responded spitefully.
The man used the scepter and hit the prisoner across the face, splaying his body all across the floor. The man's tall form loomed over him, but it did not cast a shadow.
"You dare disrespect me?" the man demanded. "You dare ridicule me in a place of my own design?"
The blow had not been hard, but blood trickled slowly from where the prisoner, Sendrias, had been hit. "Oh, forgive me, my lord," he said, standing up slowly. "Please, I have made a grave mistake. Forgive me!" He held up his hands in mock fear.
The man's face contorted into hatred. "If the Pact had not been made.." he said slowly, staring into Sendrias' eyes, "You would have been dead by now."
"If the Pact had not been made," Sendrias said equally slowly, "Then we wouldn't be here. Actually, that's not true. If you had stopped bending the rules of the Pact, we wouldn't be here. If you had stopped pretending to be a great mastermind, trying to control the others, we wouldn't be here."
The man stared, then said softly, his voice losing its arrogance and lofty power, "Something else moves us, Sendrias." He clasped his hands together behind his back. He stared at the 'wall,' back turned to Sendrias. "Something else.."
Sendrias spat on the floor.
Aghast, the man turned back to Sendrias. "What-"
"You disgust me," Sendrias said. "You are a spoiled mortal with power and mortal interests. You disgust me.." he looked at the ground and sighed. "But if working with you is what it'll take, I will assist you."
The man looked even more shocked, but then righted himself and smiled. "Good, you have come to your senses." He lifted his scepter and began to unlock Adarnaz, the light opening.
Sendrias took in a deep breath, eyes closed.
Then he shot into action.
He jumped up, running towards where the man began to open the prison and punched him on the back of his head. The suppressive force that was Adarnaz retreated, presumably due to the man opening it. He felt his self return to him, the well of power returning to him. He felt his eyes shift to the regal purple he was used to, and he stared at the man, who had dropped his scepter and was now kneeling at his feet.
"You..." he let out a laugh. "You never change."
Sendrias smiled. "You haven't, either."
He walked over to where the scepter of the man sat, defeated, on the floor. He grabbed it, deliberately holding it up to let the man watch it, no longer his, held in Sendrias' hands.
Sendrias began to draw some of the scepter's power into him, slowly at first, but then it began to increase, light coming out, into him, like streamers in the air. He breathed it in, but then his skin began to flake, light coming out from it. He screamed and dropped the scepter to the ground.
"That's what you get," the man said, standing up shakily.
Sendrias was slumped over on the ground. In his mad rush for power, after being locked away for so long, he had lost his only chance at escape. He closed his eyes.
A second later, they shot back open. Ardarnaz was still open.
He bolted, jumping up and running for the exit. The man screamed behind him, picking up the scepter and trying to use it to close the prison, but it was too late. Sendrias let out a scream of exhilaration as he left his prison behind.