Grimoire

Prologue- Five Pendulum swings past

"Dr. Agula, I have noticed some irregular brain waves in the Arkane, he's regaining consciousness."

"Dose him with the strongest sedative, we cannot have him wake." Dr. Agula replied.

"Yes sir, but you must understand that sedatives might not work on him. Over the years we have had to change the contents of the sedative to keep him asleep. The new serum will not work for much longer and we have yet to develop anything stronger that will not kill the Arkane."

Dr. Agula snatched the scientist by the lapels of her lab coat and snarled, "I do not care what it takes, the Arkane must not be allowed to awaken. If it is eternal sleep so be it, better a dead Arkane then one awake who realizes that his Grimoire is gone."

The scientist gently pried Dr. Agula's hands from her lapels and said, "I understand sir."

Dr. Agula peered through the thick lazar-proof glass into the bright white room in which the Arkane lay strapped to a medical table, dormant.

Gods look at him, he thought, he's magnificent.

He had been extremely fortunate that he captured the Arkane and what a specimen he was. Usually, it was nearly impossible to capture an Arkane or a Grimoire given as it is extremely rare to find them separated. The Arkane which lay before him had done something foolish, he had done something to make his Grimoire leave. Without a Grimoire, an Arkane cannot use his powers. Even though he was powerless now, it did not impede the fact that he was still essential to Pendulum and the continued growth of the human race.

It never ceased to amaze Dr. Agula that something so foreign and mysterious could appear human. The creature that lay in a drug-induced sleep could have fooled anyone, including himself. The Arkane looked like a regular male in his late twenties, topping off at 6' 9", he was quite taller than human males. His muscles were denser, making him ten times stronger.

The Arkane's skin was much darker than the pale humans who have not seen the sky in centuries. Although most bathed in the lights of artificial suns, their tans seemed fake in comparison. Never had he seen such an olive hue. The only physical aspect that differed from humans was the color of their eyes. Their eyes were always such a bright and intense hue that they glowed.

This particular Arkane had such livid green eyes and made all cringe who looked straight into their orbs. Though during his research, he had only seen the eyes a handful of times. The facility was more interested in the Arkane's skin, blood and mana, than the reason behind glowing eyes.

Though they captured the Arkane nearly twenty-six years ago, they still did not know what his face looked like. A top his countenance sat a paper-thin white mask; it obscured most of his mien except for his eyes, lower lip and chin. Five-inch, thick lengths of fabric flowed from the top of the mask.

By feel, the fabric was silk but it remained impervious to every attempt to destroy it. The strips of material were six feet long and filled with arcane script, symbols and glyphs, which all seemed to flow upwards into the face of the mask.

Underneath the mask flowed crimson hair, they had cut and shaved his hair so many times, it did not matter now; it grew back impervious to their ministrations. They now kept it tied back in an elegant french braid sitting between his shoulder blades.

Every method they had tried to remove the mask failed. There were many mysteries behind the mask but one fact was for certain, such an object could only be the Arkane's Athamè.

An Athamè is an Arkane's or Grimoire's weapon. The Athamè was much more mysterious, they have never had the chance to observe the weapon in action, their function remained completely foreign.