Excerpt from The Codex of Sacred Knowledge
North
Ashgan stood totally still; she was one with the river, one with rocks that scattered in the river bed.
Water flowed all around her, she moved her right hand slowly as if caressing a secret lover, then she twisted her arm slowly and the river slowed down.
She moved her left hand even slower still, her arm twisted and the world changed.
Time stood still, she stood up slowly and stepped on top of the now hard surface of the river.
She took 7 steps, and time started rushing back knocking her out of the river and into the bank violently.
“You moved your left foot in concordance with the stream, you are not focusing Ashgan” screamed the older woman sitting on a cushion of ferns by the far bank “I'm starting to doubt that you will ever be capable of Using time streams any efficiently ever” she shook her head in disdain.
“But, Mistress Lida; I did not move my foot in the direction of the stream. You, pushed time at me” stood the indignant Ashgan facing her mentor while nursing the bruises on her back and thighs.
“You are a rebellious child, I think you are the worst student I ever took.” shouted Lida back, yet secretly she was admiring the determination and the growing sense of time weaves her student is developing.
Of course, Ashgan didn't make a wrong move and yes she did push time at her.
It was all part of the tradition of the honorable Guild of Users.
You can't be a real user unless you can counter pushed time.
To the outsiders, the Guild is just another of the magical and mythical guilds that provides services for wealthy (for a hefty sum of gold).
A wealthy farmer would like to ripen his crops earlier, or prolong the rain some days.
Or a playful lord to prolong his “playfulness”.
But, mostly it was ladies, buying youth time to prolong the beauty some more years.
In reality, the Guild was one of the Dark Bay Guilds. The Dark Bay Guilds were formed 10 centuries ago to face the threat of the rising of the Dark in the West and the fall of the old civilization of mankind to the onslaught of the Dark forces' growing army of Darklings. Hence, the name Dark Bay, because they were created to keep the dark at bay. After the grand priest Amous shown the world the prophecies of the mad monk Theovar, the need for these guilds was immense and unavoidable.
She remembered when she was picked from her village to join the guild, great honour and all glory it was.
She realized the truth after her initiation into an adapt, this is when she was allowed to read the Incomplete Codex; which in reality was only 4 pages from the original Prophecies.
She was extremely terrified and she worked hard and long to achieve the rank of master, just to be able to protect her loved ones.
This was one hundred and some years ago, the curse of the longevity and youthfulness comes with the trade of using and storing and archiving time, making her purpose nonsensical only using is left.
Ashgan disappeared, she flicked her fingers and was in extended time.
Amazing, thought Lida.
Her student was a few paces away she started to move her arm to push time at her student again when she noticed the black shape flying above.
A Shade.
Only Shades can move freely in extended time.
She ran forward shouting to her student and wove her hands as if washing them and a ripple ran through reality.
Ashgan stood in mid stride, the shade looked as if it was in stop motion.
Lida rushed towards them, flicked her arm as if saluting and a flash moved upwards from her hand towards the shade.
Sparks cascaded over the shade, which looked like it was losing substance.
Amid the rolling vapour that was the shade stood a short grim looking man, he started moving faster yet far slower than her and he suddenly had a sword of cranias in his hand. Lida swore under her breath, she stood almost as if embracing her student.
She wove her hands as if knitting and a bubble started to form around her and her student.
The dark shade rider snarled, then rushed towards them.
Lida wove her hand again and bubble transformed into a shield. By the time the cranias sword was hitting the shield, Lida was waving both arms.
The sword and its bearer suddenly were sucked into the shield.
She threw her assailant 50 years into the future and fainted.
Ashgan was pushed out of time and felt that her head was buzzing. She looked at the body of her mistress who laid still next to her in puzzlement.
Then she noticed the black mark that looked like an imprinted hand that covered her mistress arm, and screamed.
South
Radhy was moving as if carrying the weight of the world, slowly, shuffling his feet with hanging arms.
He hated doing errands for his mother, it was humiliating.
It was two days to his naming day; he would finally reach the age of manhood.
He moved long the tortuous alleys, sand always pushing in his sandals and the constant scorching sun casting long shadows to his strides.
Two hot, long, and boring days.
Then, he would join the Guild of Traveling merchants, and see the world.
He would travel beyond the deserts of Kasah, his nation’s home.
He wanted to be of renown like Imam Abou Khatwa his hero, who was a peddler who went further than any other human.
The man who went past the Sahara, crossed the great Sea of Turmoil, and even went to the fortress of the Guardians far in the West, he even ventured into the Dark lands past the fortress.
His mother mocked him and told him that his hero is just a children's tale spawn by the Guild of peddlers, who had no life or income, to enrich their vaults using tuition gold payed by foolish dreamers who wanted to follow the steps of Abou Khatwa.
He, on the other hand knew that she is saying this to keep him from fulfilling his dream, she wanted him to join the Guild of Glass-makers like his late father.
His father died because his Cranias furnace lost essence and exploded in his face.
Another reason for why to join the Guild of Peddlers is to face the makers of Cranias in the North and punish the idiot who made his father's furnace.
Now he had to go to Rakheem the herbalist to buy rodent repellent herbs, his mother constant complains of a rodent problem in her grain store.
He shuffled his legs forward muttering curses under his breath.
Arriving in the thriving ever crowded Zohour plaza, where all the florists, herbalists and apothecaries held shop.
He stood in a cacophony of color, smells and deafening noise of the ongoing bartering and selling,
He noticed weird commotion, a larger mass of the crowd, only standing still not
waving their arms and shouting at lungs end in the ancient proud process of “Trading”. The crowd was gathered towards the south end of the huge plaza.
He went towards the commotion, as only curiosity would lead a boy, fast.
A man in strange robes with disheveled hair stood on a wooden box holding a gnarled staff and shouted at the crowds waving his arms in erratic movements.
“And, Lo and Behold, the prince of night shall ride his green stead upon thy lands. He weaves the air to blister the skin of the infidels, he looks upon the land and fire burns your crops. He sets the false prophets and their false tomes to fire, he saunders the land he visits, he will bring doom to the worshipers of the false Light God.” He shouted in a deep voice “Thus, spoke the mad monk Theovar declaring the end of Light and the rein of Darkness. But, the Prophecies of Zonn tells of a savior, the one born of no man and a master of power. He, shall come forward at the hour of our dire need, he will break the world not to fall under the dark. Seven shall follow him, and seven will oppose. He shall rule the fourteen nations and unite them. He shall face the prince of dark and on the last dying sun, and he will conquer the dark hordes. From his eyes the new sun shall be born, his blood shall be water to parched earth, his liver will bring new life upon your scorched earth and the light will prevail.”
Radhy shook his head as if coming out of a trance, another omen of doom and harbinger of death. The fifth, just this month in the city of Karkara. He moved slowly towards the shop of Rakheem.
Suddenly the earth erupted in fire, Radhy jumped back. Something came out of the earth and leaped past him, he felt as if a thousand furnaces exploded at his side and he fell in pain.
Through the haze of pain he saw the Shoukrat, a creature from the horror tales often told by his grandmother to keep her grandchildren from mischief, charge towards the old man, who turned around in a violent manner and stroke his staff on the ground for water to rise from where it stroke and arise as a wall facing the enemy.
The robes fell, so as the years that the older man carried, his face changed and his hair looked like a hollow of light.
It was Harod the immortal, Radhy couldn't believe his eyes, and Harod started twirling his staff faster than the eye could see.
The wall of water engulfed the enemy and started to darken then Harod pointed his staff to touch the ball of water and a strange flash passed through it to the water. Radhy, screamed, he felt as if the flash went out of his body as well. Harod turned, looked at Radhy, then the water became a ball of light and exploded into a million sparks. “Child, you have the gift of light casting, come to my home in the wilderness, follow the light flies” Harod knelt over him, spoke these words and disappeared. Radhy fainted from his pains.