A Man In My Mirror - Prologue
PrologueIt was the coldest winter night so far in the kingdom of Salvargren. The sky was utterly black, there was no sign of moon or stars, but it felt gentle somehow, it was like a delicate blanket had been wrapped around Salvargren, resembling how a mother would swaddle her child. Large snowflakes were falling from the darkness, dancing in the air before landing on the ground or buildings. The whole town was resting under the layer of whiteness and it was actually pretty pleasant sight, straight from a fairytale. Some little children were staring out of the windows, mesmerized by the dance of snowflakes in the light of the street lamps and they would fall asleep while watching this silent play, and then their parents would carry them to their warm beds and send them to the dreamlands with a goodnight kiss. All in all, people were about to go to sleep and rest in order to face the next day. No one could anticipate that tonight, something very extraordinary would happen.Tonight, the future of the world would change.The town had got founded around the great hill that rose from the ground. And on this hill, the magnificent castle of Salvargren was built. Usually it would stand tall and dark, but the snow had given it a nice white coat that made it look different. It was like it was a huge creature that had fallen into hibernation. But the life inside the castle was busy as always, even during this late hour.Defying the cold and darkness, there was a lone figure walking up the hill towards the castle. A hunched old man, dressed in a dark blue hooded robe that had decorated gold, silver and purple patterns embroidered on the sleeves and lower edge of garment; a sign of his high status. The hood hid his face furrowed by wrinkles, only his long silvery beard was visible. He was grasping a gnarled white staff that helped him to walk and it left small round marks on the freshly fallen snow along with the old man's footprints. Slowly he made his way to the grand gates of the castle that were open and welcoming as always and a sudden gust of wind billowed his robe. Usually two guards would stand by the gates, just in case of an emergency, but today the weather was too cold and they had retreated into the depths of the castle. No one was greeting the man as he passed the gates and proceeded into the courtyard.The area looked fairly empty, the castle walls surrounded the courtyard all around and only in the middle of it all there was a small garden, which was sleeping under the snow at this time of the year. Pure white blanket had buried all the beautiful flowers, only the single mighty tree that stood tall at the very center of the garden was visible. This garden was waiting for the spring so it could bloom once more, but for now, it would slumber. The old man bypassed the center, heading to the great red double doors that would give him access to the insides of the castle. His lonely figure waddled across the courtyard and when he was at the doors, he raised his staff briefly, and this caused the doors to swing open by his soundless command and he entered the castle, leaving the cold and snow behind him.The doors slammed shut as soon as he had managed to take few steps further into the castle. There were three clear possible directions to go: left, straight ahead, right. The old man chose the middle one, and continued to walk further inside, following a red carpet that stretched into the belly of the castle and seemed to disappear into the darkness ahead and it muffled the sound of his steps. Occasionally narrow pathways would connect with the hallway, forming a complicated layout in which a couple of people would surely get lost. Candles that offered a gentle light on those who would stride along this great hallway illuminated his journey, they flickered and the dance of small flames created playful shadows on the darkest corners of the hallway. The old man did encounter a couple of people who were dressed in simple green clothing; the attire of servants. They bowed to him as he passed by and he nodded his head as a sign that he had noted their courtesy. The servants had stopped their chores just to watch how the old man was walking towards the throne room and despite the light of candles, he disappeared from their sight as he kept proceeding further. They resumed their work as soon as they had lost the glimpse of him.The old man was once again facing double doors. This time they were black and had complex golden inlays that formed vine-like patterns around two foxes. Just like he had done previously, he repeated his trick with the staff and the doors opened up for him. They were the entrance to the heart of the castle: the throne room.He stepped inside and found himself from a spacious room. Black tiles served as a floor and the light stone walls surrounded the area. The red carpet of the hallway didn't reach the room and was replaced with a blue one that ran through the room. Few sets of relatively narrow windows that were taller than two men combined gave more spacious look to the room. Many tall golden candelabras were standing near the walls to offer some illumination and the lit candles in them spread a sweet scent of honey that lingered in the air. And finally, at the far end of the room, a golden throne with a red seat, the great symbol of power, was waiting for the king. It was decorated with amethysts, sapphires and rubies, and the gold was gleaming in the light of the candles. The old man slowly made his way to the lonely throne and as soon as he had managed to get to it, he sat down, and a sigh escaped from his mouth as his journey was now finally over and he could rest his old bones.He was king Opucrunon, the ruler of the great kingdom of Salvargren.Time passed by as he was sitting alone in silence. The throne room remained empty and there was a good reason for it. The old king was waiting for a very special guest, someone he had last seen over a hundred years ago. Just like back then, Opucrunon had received a message in his dream. Emperor of Celestial Beasts wanted to meet him. And just like before, the old king wasn't sure why Emperor desired to have an audience with him. Previously, however, the world had been in turmoil, so it had made sense that Emperor had contacted him. Invaders from another world, dubbed as Nightstrikers, declared a war against all living things. They came out of nowhere and it never became clear why they were so hostile against everything and just had the desire to destroy life. Back then, humans weren't really aware of the existence of Celestial Beasts, but because of the invasion of Nightstrikers, Celestial Beasts made themselves known. That was when the world of humans started to be called Earth and the world of Celestial Beasts became known as Heaven. Earth and Heaven united their forces and crushed their common enemy, driving it out of their world. An age of peace bloomed once more and the humans and Celestial Beasts lived quietly in their own realms.But now things were different. Nothing was threatening Earth, as far as king Opucrunon knew, but was there some trouble in Heaven? While waiting for Emperor to arrive, he was trying to figure out what possibly could be the reason for Emperor's visit. But no matter how hard he tried to ponder this matter; in the end he knew that he could only guess.He wasn't sure when exactly the ruler of Celestial Beasts was coming. While waiting for him, the old king began to cast different kinds of magical spheres; a big red one, a tiny blue one and an average green one. Nobody knew this, but he enjoyed to play around with magic like this whenever he wanted to relax a bit. It was his little secret. Opucrunon waved his white staff around with smooth movements and the spheres were flying in the air, bouncing from invisible walls and making faint hissing sound as they moved around. The old king continued entertaining himself and kept his private magic show going for a good while.But at some point a sudden, immensely bright flash of light outside stole his attention. Since the sky was black, this abrupt phenomenon easily caught the interest of the old king and he had turned his head towards the nearest window in order to watch what was going on outside. The cause for the light was a blue lightning that slithered from the heaven and shattered the dark clouds. Strange thing was, this lightning lingered in the sky for a while, it didn't behave like lightnings usually do. Then it was gone, vanishing just as suddenly as it had appeared. The sky was utterly black again. But Opucrunon could see that something was flying with a high speed towards the castle. Its pale figure was easy to spot as it was outlined against the dark canvas of the sky. Opucrunon knew exactly what the being was.It was Emperor of Celestial Beasts.The old king noticed that one of the windows began to change. Suddenly its surface became like liquid, gleaming in the colors of a rainbow. It had turned into a gateway, he realized. And soon it was put in use as Emperor flew through it with ease, and Opucrunon could swear that he saw Emperor's body shrinking. The window changed back into an ordinary one as soon as the great beast had managed to move past it. Now that the Celestial Beast was inside, its size grew a little back to its normal proportions. The old king stared at his guest intently and a smile appeared on his face.The ruler of Celestial Beasts was a magnificent dragon. He had a long snake-like body, covered in pure white scales that were shimmering in the light of the candles. Around his head he had a silvery mane, like the one of a lion, and this same silvery fur had spread also to his back where it ran across his whole body like the ridges of a castle's walls, all the way to his tail where the fur formed a tuft. A little bit of this silvery fur could also be found from his four feet. On his head he was wearing a pair of dark antlers that were like a crown. He had two whiskers attached to his muzzle and they were waving around gracefully. His dark claws were scraping the tiles of the floor as he walked a little bit closer to Opucrunon. His gentle light blue eyes were fixed at the old king and Opucrunon could see the leniency and wisdom of this mighty beast in them.After few more steps, Emperor stopped and lowered his majestic head. It was his way of showing respect to Opucrunon.“Welcome to my castle”, Opucrunon declared and spread his arms in a welcoming way. “It is good to see you again after all these years.”“Greetings”, the Celestial Beast said with his strangely tolling voice, it was almost like a sound of bells. “I sincerely hope you have been in good health. I see that you are doing well with your magical abilities.”The old king ended his little magic show by waving his staff one more time, causing the spheres to stop and fade away.“Yes, I have learned a trick or two during these years”, Opucrunon answered, chuckling a little bit, while Emperor nodded in agreement.King Opucrunon was the first human ever to gain magical abilities. He had also lived longer than anyone, being well over hundred years old now. It was all thanks to the connection he had made together with Emperor back in the day when Nightstrikers invaded. It was like their souls had entangled, giving both of them a powerful, unexplainable sensation. They could still feel it even after all these years of separation.The old king stroked his long silvery beard. “May I inquire what is the reason for you to grace Earth with your presence tonight?”Emperor got straight to the point: “Our situation in Heaven is not good. We are still dealing with the aftermath of Nightstrikers invasion. We lost many of our friends, too many. Because of this, it has been hard to keep things in order in our land.”Emperor paused for a moment. King Opucrunon remained silent, waiting for his guest to continue. He did wonder, however, what could possibly be going on in Heaven. Celestial Beasts were almost immortal beings; they could be killed but they didn't really age after reaching certain point. That was pretty much everything the old king knew about those mysterious creatures. The old king was very curious about what Emperor was going to tell him.The dragon continued soon. “We are in dire need of mature Celestial Beasts and their powers. It would take a long while before our younglings would be able to aid us. This is where we need the help from Earth.”“How could we possibly assist you?” Opucrunon asked.Emperor raised his head and seemed like he was staring into distance. “When we constructed our connection over a hundred years ago when Nightstrikers invaded, I felt that my powers increased slightly. I have been pondering this matter and I believe that when a Celestial Beast and a human link their souls, while humans get a longer lifespan, Celestial Beast's growth will quicken.”“So, you want that this kind of connection would be established between more humans and Celestial Beasts”, Opucrunon guessed.The dragon lowered his head again and his blue eyes were gleaming as his gaze fixed on the old king once again. “Exactly. I am here to propose you a contract. I wish that I can choose a group of your younglings and take them to Heaven where they will form a companionship with young Celestial Beasts. Our generals will teach them how to control magic. This benefits both parties as you will gain magic users and our younglings will reach their full potential sooner.”The old king was thoughtful for a brief moment, although he couldn't come up with any disadvantages concerning Emperor's suggested contract. But he wasn't responsible of the whole Earth, even though Salvargren was one of the greatest kingdoms that existed. However, king Opucrunon was a well-respected man, in his own domain and even in other far-away lands. Leaders of other nations would probably agree with his decision. Besides, ever since the Celestial Beasts showed themselves to the humans, dwellers of Earth had been interested and fascinated by magic. This was a perfect opportunity for humans to get hold of magical abilities and find out what kind of benefits it would grant to Earth. And of course, if the Celestial Beasts were really facing trouble right now, it simply was the right thing to do to help them, since if they hadn't fought by the side of humans, Earth would be now immensely different place, dominated by darkness, misery and despair.After a short moment of silence, king Opucrunon said: “I will accept this contract. I believe it will be tremendously useful for both parties.”Emperor raised his majestic head again and it looked like he was smiling and seemed to be very pleased by the old king's decision. “I am grateful for your kindness. However, there is one more thing I would like to add.”“What is it?” Opucrunon asked.“As a pledge that we will bring your younglings back to Earth, I will leave my tongue in your hands”, Emperor responded.This was unexpected and astounded the old king. Emperor was giving him the greatest weapon there was. He had seen it with his own two eyes how destructive Emperor's Song of Judgement Day had been; it had been so powerful that the ruler of Celestial Beasts had earned everyone's respect. Emperor's powers were mostly manifested through his singing, so if he gave up his tongue, he wouldn't be able to sing anymore and thus, would lose most of his powers.Opucrunon was astonished for a second. “If you are sure about this… Then do what you must.”The dragon nodded. “It seems we both agree with these terms. I think it is time to seal the contract.”He lifted his head so high that his snout was almost touching the ceiling. Opucrunon could feel how an enormous amount of magical energy began to circle around Emperor; he was getting prepared for something grandeur. Then the old king saw how something blue, like finest powder, was sparkling around the dragon. The sight was marvelous. Right before his eyes, forces that were beyond human comprehension were at play. Opucrunon felt privileged to be able to witness this moment. So he watched, watched how something unparalleled folded in front of him. Gradually the magic that surrounded Emperor became stronger and stronger and the old king could feel it in his old body as well.Suddenly the dragon looked down again, his eyes locked on the king one more time. Then he commanded: “Once my song is over, cut off my tongue.”The old king nodded, staring at the mighty beast with admiration. Then Emperor raised his head and began to sing with a miraculous voice. His song echoed in the throne room, then the windows opened by the power of his song and it infiltrated to the outside world as well.At that moment, everyone in Heaven and Earth knew what had been agreed upon. It was the moment that changed the world....
Kurjin
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