Sun's Heart

Chapter 1 - Artificial Limits

"What turned Warlocks into monsters?" Sorceress Katelynn scanned the room. "Is it greed? Lust for power? Is it humanity? Is it war? The short answer is, we don't know. We know very little, in fact, except that monsters from the Rending were products of an imperialistic regime sweeping across the globe. The Stelphic expansion cost more than just humanity. It nearly cost us our world." A cold light hummed in her eyes, contrasting her flowing blond tresses. "Was Adjinn a monster created by war? Or was he a victim of it?"

Goosebumps travelled over Gale's shoulders. She watched it move through the other four students. Dark dread hung over them like a cloud. There was something in a name that carried meaning beyond its sounds. Adjinn, of all the names in existence, was one which also carried feelings. Moments. History. It was a curse.

Gale hugged her bag close to her chest. The Rending was two-thousand years gone, but everyone remembered. It was burned into their memory, a warning of the dangers of magic. The surface of Ketsa, the world the four races called home, was riddled with jagged scars and pockmarks where her beauty was forever maimed by magic's jagged saw.

A fear so lasting it was known, rather than taught, was a fear without description.

Dain Hill sighed, leaned back in his chair, and said, "If you want to scare us into not becoming monsters, maybe Adjinn isn't the best example. Adjinn is dead, yeah, but we hear about him almost daily here. Give us something different. Mix it up."

Katelynn arched a golden brow. "And what is your suggestion?"

He shrugged. "There's always the Wraith. He's not dead and rotting in some maybe-real-maybe-not-real magical prison. He's closer to home. Reports of him wandering the countryside, punishing wrongdoers... Wraith is a dead man walking among us. That's a fate worse than death."

"Adjinn's not dead," Patiq said, exasperated. She flicked her straight black hair over her shoulder and coolly peered over it at Dain. "He is trapped in the Rift, ah?"

"Well, I'd say that's as good as dead. Perfect prison or not, he hasn't seen light in two millennia. Hardly scary when you think the monster in your wardrobe was shackled and collared so long ago no one remembers where his prison is."

Katelynn chuckled. "Then have you heard of the Lutelien ruins? They were recently discovered by Cerulan divers. There are archways, fountains, roads, palaces, homes, and monuments with intact writing. These ruins were one of the first places struck by the Rending, and they remain one of the greatest mysteries of our time. But do you know what truly makes them strange?" She leaned forward. "The buildings are made of a different material now than they were pre-Rending. As if every brick and plank had been replaced at once. And it all sits on a shelf below the water, transported there by something or someone. Food remains on tables. Market stalls are left with wares. But touch any of it, and you disappear. Gone."

Dain cleared his throat. "Alright. That's... strange. A good lesson for..." He waved a hand, thinking. "For not being too curious, I suppose. Still not as unnerving as the Curse of Col Cadirrh. Or Solle's standing dead."

"Agreed. Of all the things we learned from the Rending," Katelynn continued, gracefully nodding, "perhaps the most important is the infirmity of natural law. Where magic exists, there is no law. It's why we place runelocks on each of you, to prevent any potential misuse. The last thing the world needs is another Adjinn to put down."

Gale reached up and touched her forehead. Though she couldn't feel it, she knew the runelock's inky black swirls rested there. A wall through the center of her magical pool, reducing it to a mere puddle with nothing but her hands to scoop it up.