[TITLE IN PROGRESS]

Prologue

HUNDREDS OF YEARS AGO

Two hooded figures stood atop the tallest mountain in the realm, shrouded in fog. The cool night air whipped around them, ruffling their cloaks and trying its hardest to push them off of their high perch.

"You said this was safe!" A male voice yelled, brandishing a book in his hand. The other figure yelled in reply, but their words were muffled by the wind.

Frustrated, the figure bearing the book thrust his free hand to the side, and the wind parted around them, creating a bubble.

"This book has the power to change life as we know it! You as a mage knew this when you made it, Lance!"

Lance sneered and stood his ground, making a fireball in the palm of his hand. "I created that book to help this world! By sealing away evil in it we can save our kingdom!"

"And what? Push this problem on someone in the future to deal with? That isn't right, Lance!" The figure holding the book yelled.

"I don't know what's right anymore, John!" Lance countered. The fireball in his hand seared with heat, ready to be thrown.

John conjured up a ball of lightning in his free hand, and loudly declared. "Upon orders given to me by the council of mages, I hereby place you under arrest!"

Lance screamed out in rage and chucked the fireball at John. The blazing hot ball of destruction whirled its way to its target.

John tried to counter by blocking the projectile and failed, the fireball searing him across the arm. "Agh!" He yelled, dropping the black leather book in his pain.

Lance approached John, an evil grin on his face. "You thought you could stop me, you PEASANT." He spat at John's feet, conjuring up another fireball to finish the brave mage off.

As Lance was about to deliver the killing blow, John drew a dagger from his robe and with one movement, he drove it into Lance's chest. Lance tumbled to the ground next to John, gasping for air and screaming out in pain. "Bastard!" Lance gasped, holding the hilt of the blade that was now embedded in his chest.

With some struggle, John stood, holding his shoulder. He stared down at Lance disdainfully, dissapointed. "Is that really all you have, brother?"

Lance snarled and winced, giving John an angry glare. "I wanted....to give peace to this nation....locking the evil away in a book so it couldn't be here...to harm us." He gasped, looking to his prize, his creation laid next to him, clasped shut.

"The problem is is in that world the evil is unchecked! It'll ravage the world within the pages, and eventually it will break free, stronger than ever!" John preached, holding the book in his hands. "You've trapped all four beings of chaos inside this book, along with an entire world of villages you deemed unworthy of presence in our reality!"

Lance laid there in silence, then getting an evil idea. "Magic ruins the hearts of people.." he murmured, and with an evil grin he looked up to his brother.

"I'll purge the magic from this world and lock it in this book, starting with you!"

With the last of his energy Lance kicked open the book and began chanting, the pages glowing with a red light. Lances eyes glowed with the same hue, his voice harmonized with voices of millions. He spoke in a language unlike no other, his chants seeming to write history as they knew it. The wind grew still, not a single breeze atop the mountaintop.

The book turned to a blank page and the pages slowly filled with ink. The clouds in the sky turned crimson red, and a beacon of light sliced through the sky, emanating from the book. Creatures like dragons, minotaurs, goblins, elves, kobolds, and all beings of magical origin were sucked into the book, sealed within its pages. Once the spell was done, Lance stopped chanting and with a resounding thud the book slammed shut, the clasp on the side locking it forever.

Lance's head fell back to the ground, his wounds finally getting the better of him. John looked to the book and to his brother with horror and fear of what had just been done. John tried to call upon lightning,  but to his struggle he couldn't make a single spark. Lance had purged this world of magic, and locked it away in that cursed book.

John looked again to his brother, who had grown still in the grass. Lance was dead.

With trembling arms, John got up on his knees, weeping for the loss of his only brother. All the while the book laid next to its now passed author, glinting in the moonlight with a malevolent glow.

"I'll lock it away somewhere safe....somewhere it can never harm anyone again....Lance."

John looked up to the stars, knowing what had to be done to protect what was left of this world. He must do his duty as the bookkeeper, protect the book, and someday try to unlock it and free the magic imprisoned inside.