Chapter1:

In his apartment in New York City, Doctor Anton Mordrid sat in his study and made notes in the margin of papers he was preparing for another lecture at the local college. His concentration was soon interrupted however when he could feel the pull in the forces. He stood from his desk and checked his apartment, secured the door and walked to the map on the far wall. As he had done many times before he opened the portal and walked though the blinding light the abyss that was his place of channeling to the Monitor.

The eyes were there in the heavens, ready for the questions it was sure he had.

"I feel a pull in the forces." He said simply.

"No more then the pull that is in my veins," he heard a voice reply, but it was not the deep haunting voice of the Monitor. He turned quickly and saw the girl standing opposite him. She was a young wizard, dressed in a blue hooded cape, pulled over her eyes. "Mordrid" the Monitor said finally. "A new pull in the powers has erupted, the balance is shifting, and this girl is no longer safe where she was born."

Anton looked at the hooded girl and could see no signs of wealth or power upon her. Until she reached forward and pulled back her hood and tilted her head to the light. It was then he saw the crest upon her forehead, same as the amulet he wore around his neck. She was Xandra, the chosen, the guardian.

"But it is too soon?" he said softly.

"soon or not the time has come."

"I understand." Anton acknowledged, and looked up at the Monitor. Then reaching a hand towards the girl she reached forward and lay a gloved hand in his palm. He gripped it and pulled her towards him, and they both nodded to the monitor as the portal began to open for his return to his home.

Back in the apartment the two travelers emerged. Xandra followed his silhouette through the light and in to his study. She paused a moment watched as the portal closed behind them.

With the room now silent, and peaceful, she looked around the apartment, and its many wonders.

"Are you tired?" Anton suddenly asked. He watched as she gazed in wonder. The dimension she had been raised in was not blessed with such technological advances. "These are televisions" he said noticing her curious stare at the wall of news reports from around the world.

"There is so much I need to learn."

"Yes." He replied leaving the room for a moment as she marveled over the moving pictures. When he returned he was dressed in his earthly 'street' clothing. He found her sitting on the steps in front of the portal looking at her hands with sadness. He walked over to her. She didn't acknowledge him, nor look at him. He knelt in front of her, and saw the red blood dripping from her finger tips. Concerned he looked at her face. She was in pain, but it was more emotional pain then physical. "I'm going to help you" he said and took hold of her wrist and looked at her hand. He saw the symbol upon her hand was intact, but it was the only thing, the skin that was to either side of it was sliced pretty deep. In the human world, he would be taken to a hospital for stitches, but this was magic. He put his hand over hers and concentrated his magic on the wound, willing it to heal. He hadn't noticed that she had already ungloved her right hand which she then placed over his on her left and looked him in the eyes. The magic within her veins knew the spell, they knew her will. He was paralyzed a moment, looking in her deep brown eyes, as her magic pulled at the knowledge in his brain.

Everything he had known of this world was being pulled in to her, the sensation made him feel drunk, or even sick, but it soon past as he looked in her eyes, and the tears that fell from them. Her lip trembled in sadness and fear, her skin flush red with anger and shame, and a soft sob escaped her lips. Her grip on him loosened and he pulled away from her grasp, and put his hands around her face, steadying her view, making her look at him, wanting to make her understand that this world was good, no matter what evil she had just seen from within his research.

"Xandra, no, look at me."

"This place is awful, evil, how can you stand it!" she sobbed. "The pain, the destruction!"

"No!" he pleaded. "It's not like that."

"For a supreme being, I must be really stupid to you." She said still crying.

"No!" he said. "You are not stupid. These things, you are not familiar with, you are frightened by them. It's understandable."

"How can you stand it?" she asked.

"You adapt I suppose." He was interrupted then by the alarm clock near his desk. It was late, and he still needed to do his lecture that evening, but he had not counted on such a visitor at this time. It was too late to cancel. Should he leave her there? Or call in, or take her with him? He didn't know.

He would have to take her with him. It was not safe to leave her alone at this time.

He looked at her. The marking on her forehead was high towards the crown, and about the diameter of a quarter. He would need to cover it with something, but wasn't sure. Edger cawed from his post behind him and Anton smiled. He went back to his desk and removed a blue scarf from his drawer. He unfolded the scarf and removed a bright dagger that it held and handed the scarf to Xandra. She took the scarf and looked at him. He touched his fore head where her mark was and she nodded in agreement and wrapped the scarf around her head, and tied it in the back . It lay just over her fore head and covered the mark. She wouldn't try to explain her clothing, but rather handed her his case and told her to trust him. She did as instructed and followed him.

From behind the stage at the auditorium she looked up and watched as he gave his speech of the occult, and magic's to a room of skeptics and nonbelievers. She knew everything he spoke of. She had read it from his mind before. What was it he was to teach her, that she now, didn't already know?

After his lecture he waited until the auditorium emptied, before calling her out of her hiding place, and they walked from the building. As he opened the door she looked up to the sky, and the moon over head. She had never seen a moon like this one. Always her world had 3. As she was marked my 3, so three was how she centered her power. He stopped and looked back at her looking at the sky and touched her hand. "I'm afraid" she confessed. "I feel like a weapon, unstable and destructive. And it's only a matter of time."

"A time bomb." He said correcting her. "You feel like a ticking time bomb." She looked at him curiously.

"Time bomb?" she repeated.

"Your description was correct, only with fewer words, you would say, ticking time bomb." She didn't protest, but rather nodded.

She followed after him still in her robes as she was familiar, and looked around at this world, that was not. They walked to the taxi that waited, and she got inside and waited as he told the driver their destination.

He looked over at her in the taxi as she removed her gloves and looked at her hands. "cursed" she whispered.

When they arrived at his apartment, Anton walked her to his door and looked back sadly at the door closest to the exit. It had been years since she had been killed. A simple gun shot, nothing magic, nothing he could heal. She was gone. He wished she was there with him now. Helping him, perhaps explaining things to Xandra better then he knew how. But she was not. He looked back to Xandra, who was watching him. Then he opened his door, and let her in, closing it behind them.

In the mean time, in the dimension Xandra had just escaped, her captor paced a great stone chamber cursing and gritting his teeth in anger.

"I was so close." He muttered.

"not close enough." A woman said. She entered through a passage behind him. "and your mutterings will not change that fact." She was older, dressed in black and seductive in her movements. "Had you been successful I would have the power and the changeling would no longer be a factor."

"Madam Sonja. Had those idiots you sent with me, not have stopped, we would have had her."

"Yes Stephan, but wasn't it you, who tried to damage my prize even before it could be delivered."

"What?" he protested.

"I heard of you striking her, in her hand no less. Breaking the mark?"

"No…the mark was not broken."

"You don't know this." She replied. "But it will soon be clarified. I have my sorceress channeling for the girl now. With the first sun eclipsed, the others will soon follow, awakening more the power with in. She will be like a beckon in the cosmos, calling us to her."

"And you will remove her power, transfer it to yourself, and raise our power to all the worlds."

"Ambitious, some may say. I prefer to view myself as just always right." She said basking in the thought of her future victory.

"What do we do until we find her?"

"Prepare. The eclipse will not complete until she is back on this plane." She explained. "we will find her."

"The dimensions are endless."

"Yes, but if my theory is correct, they have sent her to a particular one. And this can be to our advantage."

"How?"

"Time is different here to us, what will seem like hours here, are days there."

"So we can strike at anytime.?"

"Yes, that also mean we need to be quick. Come…we will prepare the temple to for the transfer. The magic will wait for her…it has no choice. Until she returns this world will stay as it is…" Stephan bowed to the woman, and they left the chamber to travel far to the temple she had prepared.