Prologue

Ekin rounded a rocky stone ridge, an ominous thunderhead looming before him. Contorted volts of blue and white streaked and lanced across the blackened sky, crackling loudly. He could feel the clasps resonate through the grey stone ground and ping through his feet. As he turned the corner, lying upon the ground was a beastly monstrosity, easily bigger than a fully grown whale. It’s immense, rib-like protrusions splattered with thick, grotesque blood. The creatures thin, web-like skin was sliced open at the stomach. The long, sliver-thin incision slashed down the grey underbelly as if slicing through silk. Ekin recognized the incision, how could he not?

As he passed the bloodied corpse, the twirling horns mounted atop its massive head were broken off violently. They lay cracked and shattered along the jagged stone ridge. It’s arrowhead shaped skull and jaw unblinkingly stared down upon Ekin as he passed. He shuddered with an eerie chill.

Whisking away, leaving the gigantic beast behind him, Ekin sped toward the black tempest crackling in the sky, a long piercing spear held aloft over his head. A silver and blue flag fluttered in the surging wind at it’s peak. Scattered across the shattered stone plates several bloodied, foul corpses littered the ground. Hanging in the sky, a fetor stench of decay swam through the thin air. The eastern wind swept the odor into Ekin’s nostrils as he passed. His expression was blank and stony, it did not even twitch.

Rippling chaotically, a sterling silver cape broke and flapped along Ekin’s back. The sky above him was grey and tainted with thick, black smoke. Ash swam through the air. Clinking as he walked, his gleaming silver armor glowed through the grey sky brightly. A long, slender sword dangled from his hip, sheathed in a magnificent blue scabbard. Tipping the hilt, a sapphire gemstone gleamed like a glimmering star. A silver hood rippled upon his head, whipping in the wind.

Hastily trekking across the barren, rock plain, the ground shattered in massive plates, Ekin’s ocean-blue eyes fixed on the horizon. Spiking into the sky, giant rock spires sliced the thin air. Mountains of rock and stone jutted out of the ground to the far north. In the distance, a black drape seemed to be cast over them, their jagged edges and peaks masked by blackness. As far as the eye could see, a desolate, rocky waste engulfed the vision. Ekin was soon underneath the swirling black thunderclouds, searing blades of striking white blasting down through the sky around him. The erratic bolts illuminated the barren, rocky earth vibrantly.

Ekin stood before a massive rock spire. It spiked out of the rock floor and shot into the sky as if it was thrust from beneath the earth. The piercing point at its peak was sharp and keen. At its base, Ekin began to unsheathe his magnificent sword from its deep blue scabbard. In the flashing white light, the long narrow blade gleamed as if wrought of pearls and crystals. Gripping the battered leather hilt, Ekin lifted the sword to the stone spire. There was a sharp clink that sounded when it hit. Ekin began to slice down the spire with the point of his blade, a golden tail beaming behind it. When he had finished, a long gilded line ran down the center of the spire, glimmering in the darkness of the storm.

A deep rumble reverberated the ground. The hard stone spire began to split open at the gleaming line that etched down the face. The thin sliver grew larger, the rumbling bellowing loudly. The sliver swelled to a wide opening about twelve feet high and seven feet wide. Sheathing his mystical sword, Ekin entered the rock spire and descended into the bowels of the earth, darkness consuming him.

Winding away into the depths of the rocky waste, Ekin held a  jewel in which he had procured out of a small linen pouch along his waist out into the blackness, illuminating the uneven underground. Underneath the earth a thin, body height tunnel burrowed deep into the heart of the land. In time, after several turns and descents, Ekin found himself exiting the tight confines of the tunnel and standing in circular cavern, lit by dim flickering torches bolstered upon the jagged stone walls, casting a ruddy light over the room.

In the center of the room, wrapped around a large, round stone table, thirteen stone thrones rested. Standing around the stone table, garnished with the same silver armor and swords, six knights stood, in deep conversation. As Ekin entered the room, the six knights stopped curtly from their discussion and shot their heads at him as he stood under the rocky threshold.

“Is this it?” Ekin said, his voice echoing through the small room.

A tall, bearded knight replied, his grey eyes were sullen and morose, “Sadly.”

“Do you have any knowledge of their deaths? How could this have happened again. I thought we were protected.” Ekin said, walking toward the knights gathered round the stone table.

“Indeed.” The knight responded. “Karro, son of Cirro, was slew by a Niron boar during the second assault. It was bloody and cruel. He had not the clue that it was coming. I tried, you see,  I tried to aid him, but their was just too many to kill. I’m lucky I myself wasn’t killed. The Niron, there must have been a dozen, that traveled from Kioor. We had no presumable answers over their appearance.”

“And Eyar?” Ekin said gloomily, resting his gloved hands on the smooth table.

“Slaughtered by an onslaught of Scirr, from the north.” The bearded man said. “It was a brutal demise, really. We could not have saved him either, for the Scirr were too many. Such brutes they are, killing and killing for the reasons of joy and delight." The knight stroked his beard solemnly. "We are dying Ekin, all of us. Our power is dwindling. In due time what do you suppose will happen? Our entire Order wiped clean out? It cannot end like this. Can it?”

There was a long, grim pause that consumed the room, “I suppose it is.” Ekin broke in darkly. “How many are we now seven? We were once seventeen. In the days of our reign. In the days our people obeyed by our commands. Ten of our Order have died in the last year from this dreaded war that is sweeping over the land. It appears as though it isn’t over either. These are grave times we fight in now, very grave. The dangers and terrors that patrol this world are too great a force for us anymore. We are past our prime. Our reign is ending.”

“I fear the same.” Said the bearded knight, dropping his head. “But is there any way we can preserve it?”

“I fear not.” Ekin said, shaking his head glumly. “For we have already tried. There is nothing left for us in this world. We are too weak to protect the people we once did and the force we now fight is too strong. We are now merely soldiers among many. The power of our Order is finished. There is nothing left for us anymore.”

“What shall we do?” Asked another knight, his short almond brown hair curly and wild.

“We do what is best.” Said Ekin. “I feared the day I might say this, but the day has come and it shall not be abandoned.” There was another long silence filled with sorrow and despair. Ekin resumed, “It is time for us to leave this world. Our aid is needed not any longer.”

“I feared this day.” Said the bearded man again, falling into one of the stone thrones. “But it has come ever so quickly. Quicker than I had hoped. Quicker than all of us had hoped. But I now see there is nothing else for us. I agree.”

There was a long, deep silence that engulfed the room, then was shattered by the voices of the five other knights. “I agree.” They rung in unison.

“Very well.” Announced Ekin. “Let us depart and fade into the patterns of the world. Do what you will, but never speak of this Order, for it is sworn upon you. Any knowledge of us must diminish and disappear into the shadows of the land. Hang up your useless tools and crafts of our creation now. We have no need of them any longer. Lye them beside you throne and unbind your armor. Then depart this room and vanish into the wide world. Our reign and power have now ended.”

The six knights, following Ekin’s orders striped themselves of their sterling silver armor and their great, ancient swords and rested them beside their thrones. Exiting the secret, ancient room, Ekin glanced back at the empty stone table. It was time.