This is my attempt to write the Wizards of the Black Circle's backstories. The story is told from Gantlos's perspective, so some parts of the other wizards' past will be explained only through what they tell Gantlos, but everything relevant should be covered.

Gantlos didn't know how long he'd been trapped in the dark, frozen hell of Omega. An hour, a week, a century? There was no time, no light, no freedom, nothing but the endless darkness of his own mind. He'd always imagined that being trapped in Omega would be like a long, dreamless sleep, but he was awake. He was aware. He could think. But he could do nothing else. Nothing but think and feel the endless cold. Sometimes he'd drift into a kind of slumber, where awful, nightmarish images besieged him, but mostly he just stared into the darkness and tried not to think that there was to be no end to this torment.

Ogron and Anagan had been next to him when he'd been frozen, but he had no idea whether they still stood beside him. He dearly hoped they had somehow been spared this torture, but he knew they hadn't. They had captured the fairies of Earth, and this was their punishment.

Gantlos felt his consciousness slipping away, and he hardly bothered to fight it. What would be the point? He'd face his dreams whether he chose to or not.

'Gantlos!' Gantlos turned at the sound of his father's voice. 'Are you coming?'

'Be right there!' Gantlos called back, hurrying to the door of his family's home where his father waited.

'There you are. You're starting to take a little too long checking you look normal, you know.' Alrick Ahlström ruffled his son's hair affectionately.

'I think he's taking a very appropriate length of time, considering how important it is.' Gantlos looked up to see his mother walk into the hallway.

'Elvira, you worry too much.' Alrick rolled his eyes good-naturedly at his wife. 'What do you think is going to happen?'

'I don't know,' Elvira replied. 'And I strongly advise against finding out.' She walked over and pulled the hood of Gantlos's cloak up. 'I don't see why you can't wait until twilight to go; or why Gantlos has to go with you at all, for that matter.' She twirled a lock of her long blonde hair around her finger worriedly.

'Elvira, he will be fine.' Alrick put his hands on his wife's waist and kissed her softly. 'We are just going into the woods to gather potion supplies, not to Solaria.'

'Fairies have a strong presence in the woods.' Elvira looked at her husband sternly. 'And, as for your little Solaria comment: don't even joke.'

'Very well; no joking about Solaria. Pray tell: are there any other planets of the Magic Dimension I should steer clear of in my jests?' Alrick raised an eyebrow teasingly.

Elvira harrumphed, but the ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of her blood-red lips.

'Perhaps you should avoid them all, and simply stick to spell-craft, as your abilities in humour leave much to be desired.'

Alrick gasped as though deeply offended. 'You would mock my jests? My pride is wounded! Wounded, I say!'

Gantlos smiled and stifled a laugh at his parents' playful behaviour. His father had been deeply in love with his mother since they had met, and that love had never waned in the almost two decades that had passed since then. Many would think Alrick Ahlström a fool for falling for the vampire sorceress, but, as he said on a regular basis, marrying Elvira had been the best decision he'd ever made, even though his wife's nature had to remain a secret from all but their close family in fear that others would not be nearly so accepting as the wizard.

'Alright, I think it's time I and my jests take our leave.' Alrick kissed Elvira softly. 'We'll be back before sundown.'

'...Just...be careful.' Elvira stared up at her husband, her red eyes filled with worry. 'And, Gantlos...' She turned to her son.

'I know, Mother. Move at normal, human speed, stay out of strong sunlight and don't show my fangs. Father is right; we'll be fine. I am sixteen now, after all. I can keep my appearance steady.' He turned and double-checked his appearance in the mirror beside the door. His ears were rounded, his teeth were flat, and his eyes were the same light-brown as his father's, instead of the blood-red colour they turned when he switched to exhibit the vampire side he inherited from his mother. Gantlos had two sides to him: his wizard side, inherited from his father, in which he appeared completely human and had the ability to summon powerful seismic waves and use magic, and his vampire side, inherited from his mother, in which he was quite evidently not human. He had red eyes, pointed ears and sharp fangs, along with incredibly heightened senses and physical abilities. He could switch between his two forms at will, though he would sometimes change without noticing, hence his mother's concerns over his appearance. Gantlos knew she deeply feared someone from their small village seeing him in his vampire form and spreading the word. Fearful villagers were one thing, but what Elvira feared more than anything was word of her and her children's nature reaching the ears of fairies, who might take it upon themselves to rid the world of such 'monsters'.

Despite widespread beliefs about vampires, Elvira, along with most of her kind, did not drink blood, and simply lived as humans did. Though, in Elvira's case, while most humans left their homes, Gantlos's mother rarely ventured out of her well-warded home, afraid of revealing herself and bringing danger upon her family.

'Are you two leaving now?' Gantlos's sister, Serena, appeared at the top of the stairs.

'Yes,' Gantlos replied.

'I'll come say goodbye.' Serena vaulted over the banister and effortlessly dropped down a storey to land in front of her family. 'Goodbye.' She hugged Gantlos, and he could feel his sister's vampire strength in the embrace.

'You could come with us, if you wanted,' Gantlos offered as Serena gave their father a quick farewell hug.

Serena shook her head. 'No, thank you. I'll stay here with Mother; I don't really feel like spending two hours checking over my shoulder and making sure my fangs aren't showing. I can be much less paranoid at home.'

'Alright then, see you later.' Gantlos waved to his mother and sister and followed his father out of their house and up the rocky trail into the mountains.

'I wish Serena would come out with us more,' Gantlos said, crossing a stream after his father.

'Serena doesn't have as much control over her different sides as you yet. She'll come when she feels more comfortable.'

Gantlos nodded, but didn't say anything. The fact of the matter was that Serena probably wouldn't venture out much even when she could change her appearance effortlessly. There was no way she'd ever leave their mother home on her own for hours on end to worry and fear for her family.

Gantlos and his father reached a sheer rock-face, and Alrick turned right to take the long, sloping trail that would eventually lead to the top. Gantlos followed him, though not without some regret. For a moment, he imagined what it would be like to switch to his vampire side and scale the rock-face in a matter of seconds, to run through the forest too fast to be seen, to run and to jump and use his vampire powers to their full extent without fearing that someone would see him. He sighed and pushed the thought out of his head; that way only lay trouble.

'Welcome back!' Serena threw her arms around her father and brother as soon as they walked back into the house.

'Hello, baby girl.' Alrick ruffled his daughter's hair. 'Ooh! Not so tight, Serena! Fragile wizard, remember?'

'Sorry, sorry,' Serena apologised, releasing her hold and stepping back a little. 'How'd the gathering go?'

'Excellent!' Alrick grinned. 'We found everything we needed, so I can finally finish some of my potions.'

'Where's Mother?' Gantlos asked. 'We got the silver moss she needed for her elucidation potion.'

Serena pointed to a closed door down the hall. 'Study. She's working on something; not sure what, though.'

'Thanks.' Gantlos walked to the door and knocked. When he received no response, he slowly turned the handle and opened the door.

'Mother?' Gantlos poked his head around the door of his mother's study. 'Father and I are back, and we collected the silver moss you needed.'

His mother was kneeling in the centre of the floor and didn't respond, focused intently on something in front of her.

'Mother?' Gantlos walked down the stairs into Elvira's underground study. He walked up behind his mother and saw what it was that had her so focused. She was staring at a black ring with thorny spikes along the outside. The ring was glowing purple in a red circle of Elvira's runes.

'Mother?' Elvira finally noticed Gantlos's presence; with senses as strong as hers, she must have been truly absorbed in whatever spell she'd been casting on that ring to not have noticed him entering the room.

'Gantlos, you're back!' Elvira smiled up at him.

'I got the silver moss you needed.' Gantlos held up his satchel.

'Oh, wonderful! Thank you very much.'

Gantlos looked back at the ring on the ground in front of his mother. Elvira noticed him looking and smiled and patted the floor next to her. Gantlos put his satchel down and knelt next to her.

'What is it?' he asked curiously. He could feel a powerful magical energy emanating from the ring.

'It is called the Black Circle,' Elvira replied softly.

'The Black Circle?' Gantlos had heard of the fairies' White Circles: powerful objects forged of pure light that strengthened the fairies' magic. Was this Black Circle like those? It was clearly not forged of light, though. '...Is it like a White Circle?'

Elvira smiled. 'Not exactly, no. The Black Circle contains the power of a realm of eternal darkness called the Abyss. Its magic is that of shadow and darkness; if it were to come into contact with a White Circle, it would likely react very dangerously.'

'Why do you have it?' Gantlos couldn't tear his eyes away from the Circle as it pulsed with dark energy.

'Such power as is contained within the Black Circle must be kept safe, and that is a task that has recently fallen to me,' Elvira said softly.

'How?'

'The previous keeper was unfortunately killed not long ago, and he entrusted the Circle to me to ensure it didn't fall into the hands of those that would use it to do us harm,' Elvira said sadly.

'Why did he entrust it to you?' Gantlos asked curiously.

'Because very few people know where, or for that matter who, I am, and so I can keep it safe better than most. Its power must remain hidden from the forces of light, who would see its capacity to overwhelm their magic as a threat, but it must also be hidden from some of those who live in darkness and might use it to try and start a war of light and dark.' Elvira spoke no more of those who lived in darkness, and Gantlos didn't ask. He had never met any other vampires, and the topic was seldom mentioned in their home, but he had gathered that most vampires would have fairly strong feelings on his parents' relationship, not to mention his and Serena's half-vampire nature.

'What are those runes for?' Gantlos pointed to the circle of glowing symbols.

'They are an attempt to understand the full power of the Circle,' Elvira explained. 'So far I have not had much luck unravelling its mysteries, and this spell too is proving fairly ineffective.'

'So you don't know how to use it?'

'No, not really. I theorise that strongly emotional magic may be the key, as dark magic is usually fuelled by strong negative emotions, but if strong negative emotions are needed to unlock its power, then I sincerely hope I never manage to do so.' Gantlos nodded his understanding and continued to watch the Circle's magic.

'It's alluring, isn't it?' Elvira smiled at her son.

Gantlos tore his eyes away from the ring to look at his mother. '...Yes.'

'Power usually is. But you must never lose yourself to power; it can corrupt all too easily, without you even realising what it's doing to you.' Elvira reached forward and picked up the Black Circle, putting it inside a wooden chest.

'Mother? Gantlos?' Mother and son turned at the sound of Serena's voice outside the door. 'Come up; Father and I have prepared dinner, and it will get cold.'

Elvira got to her feet. 'Coming, Serena.' She reached down and helped Gantlos to his feet. She walked to the steps, but not before putting the chest containing the Circle on a table off to the side. Gantlos followed his mother up the stairs, but before he closed the door, he found himself staring back at the chest.

'Gantlos?' He turned at the sound of his mother's concerned tone.

He quickly shook himself out of it. 'Coming, mother.' He closed the door, flicking one last glance to the Circle's resting place.