Egrariand Chronicles Book 1: The Curse of the Black Stone

The Lord's Tale

"You're the man we saw at the hallway," said Lucas as he looked at Lord Pierre, sitting comfortably inside his chamber. "I don't want to be rude, Mister-Sir-Lord, but what are you doing here in my room?"

Lord Pierre didn't answer, instead, he stood up and walked toward Lucas and stared at him like he was examining him from the inside out. "Interesting," he smirked. "I could sense that there is some ancient magic residing within your blood," he said with a wry smile and held Lucas' hand.

Lucas stared blankly at the man as he wrinkled his forehead. "Y-You're weird," he blurted out then tried to pull back his hand, but the Lord didn't let go of him. He felt his grip tightened as if he was crushing his hand. "Y-You're hurting me. L-let me go—"

Lucas saw the Lord's eyes glint in bright silver light, and suddenly... a stabbing ache crept its way out to a cramp up to his head, throbbing like hundreds of rocks kept on banging it. An excruciating pain tormented him up to the depth of his soul.

"Stop it!" screamed Lucas with the wrenching sensation that wouldn't cease, gradually turning into outrage. Anger started to curl hot in Lucas' core, and it was becoming unstoppable, like a blazing inferno, giving him the extreme urge to burn that man thoroughly.

In a blink of an eye, by some unknown force, Lord Pierre was thrown away from him, causing the Lord to plummet against the mirror resting at the corner. The air was suddenly rented by the sound of breaking glass.

Lucas stood in a dangerously calm manner as he walked toward Lord Pierre.

"Pain," he whispered.

The Lord's body twisted as it was about to break. He heard him scream in agony, but he didn't bother as all he wanted at that moment was to crush that man. Shards of glass floated in the air as they gathered around him in a rapid circular motion.

Then froze.

The shards pointed to the Lord, aiming to impale him... anytime.

Lucas was about to send the shards to pierce the Lord's body in every direction... but... the surroundings slowly and deliberately turned black. He felt his body fall to the floor in a crumpled heap as he heard the muffled sound of footsteps getting closer to the door slowly fade away.

Lucas opened his eyes and looked around, and all he could see was the obscurity of the surroundings, as dark as the night sky. He walked into that nothingness, trying to catch a glimpse of even a tiny ray of light, but failed.

"Helloooo!" he called. "Emily! Jack! Jane! Where are you? Hellooooo! Anybody?" he heard nothing but an ear-splitting silence.

He felt his blood pound in his ears as his heart thudded in his chest. He had to get away from there. He ran and ran... "Please! answer me! Where are you?!" but he seemed to be going nowhere. Breathing was getting hard, really hard, as if he had just run a marathon.

He cried their names, hoping for them to hear him. His chest had grown tighter with his bile rising in his throat. "Pleeeeaaase!"

Then a voice echoed from a distance, a female voice of someone he had never heard before. He followed the voice until the surroundings lit up in a very bright light as it started to have its form. 

Lucas shielded his eyes with his hands from the bright rays of the morning light, passing through the transparent colored glass windows, with maroon colored curtains on the sides. He looked around and saw a boy, sleeping peacefully under his blanket. He frowned as he realized he wasn't in his room anymore, but somewhere else similar to it.

'Where am I?'  

He could hear nightingale birds, singing sweetly at the background as a young lady intruded with full excitement, and disturbed the boy in his sleep.