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Kershan Saga Chapter 1

Truce 994 A.D.

James wandered aimlessly around Truce. It had been two weeks since he and his mother had arrived, quite possibly the last two Kershan remaining on the planet despite his mind insisting that there must be others. He closed his eyes and remembered the image of his home, the endless lessons about how to be a proper Lighting, the things they didn't teach you like the fact that being a Lighting meant that every unmarried/unattached female Kershan between the ages of 9 and 32 would be constantly flirting with you. He frowned as he remembered the utterly dull council meetings that the adults forced you to attend because "you're going to be part of the council one day. It's your destiny." "Like I ever believed in destiny", He thought with a touch of bitterness.

He smiled, remembering the times he wanted nothing more then for the girls and his other friends to leave him alone so he could read and think in peace. They rarely listened but when he was six he had mastered the art of flying and reading at the same time though it greatly slowed his reading speed and he could only fly a few hours at a stretch. When things got really bad he would pack a book or two, some food, and a blanket and fly off to one of five secluded spots where he had rigged lean-tos or found a good cave, and camp out for a night or two.

His birthday parties were literally the biggest parties in the village's history. He had been the first Lighting born in over one hundred years and the other Kershan had seen him as proof that their people would survive. His mother was an author and poet so she had always given him a copy of her latest work for his birthday. The afternoon after the party he would go on a trip to one of his sanctuaries to read it and relax a little.

James began frowning again as he realized where these memories were leading him. His tenth birthday had gone as usual, his mom had finished a new poetry book so the next day he had left for the night. When he got back his uncle was waiting to chew him out because the council was holding an emergency session and they were running late. For once the meeting had actually been interesting. The council had decided to end the village's self-imposed exile from the rest of the world and they were debating whether to contact the humans first, the mystics first, or try to contact both groups at the same time. James had hoped that they would contact the humans first since the mystic capacity to hold a grudge was legendary. When he was 8 or 9 he had wished that the council would make a mistake so he could laugh at them and rub in it for the rest of their lives.

He should have been careful what he wished for because by the time anyone knew that the council's mistake had been a mistake he wasn't laughing, and they weren't breathing. The Mystics hit the village at dawn just under two weeks after the ambassadors to Medina had left. The Kershan managed to repel the first assault but it was clear that they would eventually be overrun by sheer force of numbers so the decision was made to abandon the village and run to the Zenan Continent. James and his mother had been placed on a mid-sized ship captained by his uncle with 3 other families and some treasure and artifacts. The Imps had attacked about halfway through the journey and the ships that had survived the first wave were scattered. The Imps had chased the ship James and his mother were on until they were within sight of Zenan and what was left of the ship had crashed about half a day west of Truce. James and his mother were the only survivors so they salvaged everything they could and burned the bodies and set up a wooden marker from some of the hull material in their best improvisation of a Kershan funeral.

Then they had traveled to Truce where they had bought a small house and after two weeks his mother had booted him out with orders not to return until he had at least one human friend. Which left him wondering Truce when he heard an explosion and saw a thin cloud of smoke rising from a nearby alley. Worried that this might mean that, against all logic, the Mystics had either tracked him and his mother here and decided to launch a direct assault to finish them off or had picked now to start a new war with humanity he ran toward the source of the explosion. As he turned the corner into the alley he felt himself crash into something and as he barely managed to hold his balance he heard a small yelp and the sound of several metal objects hitting the walls and ground.

Author's notes

1: Sorry it took so long. I had planned to update all my stories on the same day but while I was on vacation my PC ate all of my work so I had to start over.

2: Most of this chapter covered the parts of James' life that he can't really talk about without revealing what he is. I might someday write a prequel that goes into more detail on his earlier life, but I have a lot of other story ideas ahead of it.

3: In case anyone didn't understand the ending James just literally had a run-in with Lucca. Originally this chapter was much longer and covered everything in the chapter plus the rest of his first meeting with Lucca, his first meeting with her family and the rest of the day until he goes to sleep that night.