Eternal Beasts

Prologue: Vault of the Watcher

The guard captain looked uneasily over his shoulder as the sounds of fighting continued to echo down the long corridor leading to the shrine's inner most sanctum. As heavily armed and skilled as they were, it wouldn't be long before his soldiers failed and the shrine's outer perimeter fell. That glance was swiftly followed by an anxious look at the knot of robed and white-bearded men and robed women gathered around the heavy stone plinth dominating the room's heart. He could only hope whatever they planned, they achieved it soon or they'd join his valiant command in death at the hands of their assailants.

Simple in form and function, the inner sanctum was a perfect circle exactly fifteen paces in diameter, with slit windows reaching from midpoint on the wall to the ceiling, hand wide and spaced evenly a pace apart all around the room to let natural light spill in. On the stone walls between the windows were brackets for torches, necessary when the sun's light failed, currently empty. Other than the plinth, an unadorned cylinder of granite the same gray as the stone forming the walls, ceiling and floor, the chamber was stark and empty.

Yet, despite its lack of beauty, the floor was worn smooth by the feet of countless visitors, all come over the span of thousands of years to see not the room, but what sat upon the plinth. With quiet murmured questions, the knot of robed men and women stepped away from the plinth and its burden.

"Is it ready?" one whispered, his words carrying the locution of the far southern kingdoms. "Is it enough?"

"Only trying the spell will tell us that, comrade," another answered, his voice tinted by the rhythmic slur of the western kingdoms lying along the Sea of Blood.

"Then let us do so," spoke a third, this one standing closest to the stone column. She slowly and reverently closed the cover of the massive book that sat on the plinth's angled crown.

"Before the enemy breaks through and takes possession of the Watcher."

With the guard captain still looking on, the knot of men began to chant softly in a language both alien and powerful, each syllable enough to send a ripple of warmth washing over the guard captain's skin. A single, sharp word of command and a spinning line of pulsating, golden light appeared to loop over the book, continuing around until it formed a shimmering circle at an angle over and beneath the heavy tome. 

A second spun into existence immediately after the first, directly over the book and through the plinth and a third at an angle on the final side, all three intersecting in front of the column. They raced around the book for a brief moment before flattening and expanding toward each other until they formed a sphere of light at their meeting, completely encapsulating the book. A brief flash of light and the sphere, along with the book inside it, was gone.

The guard captain felt a smile of relief touch his lips. Finally it was done; the great book was transported by powerful magic to a place safe from their enemies, safe from the forces of Darkness. He didn't savor the satisfaction long; before he could turn and draw sword, fully intending on joining his command out on the shrine's defenses, a sharp blow struck him between his shoulder blades.

Staggered, he stumbled into the doorframe, his balance momentarily stolen. Yet, even as he struggled to regain that balance, he felt his legs weaken, the blow transforming into piercing pain and the captain dropped to the floor with a groan. His eyes remained focused long enough to see a booted foot step over him and he heard several sharp reports of magical discharge before all faded into a cold black. 'At least the honored Watcher is safe,' he thought then the world was gone. 

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