Prologue
Every mage citizen in the city of Vergis flocked to the square to see Lyza’s execution. Despite how afraid she was, she showed none of her fear. Holding her head high, she walked in step with the White Serpent guards escorting her to the place where she would die in just a few minutes’ time.
Lyza’s eyes found the statue of King Arthur in the center of the square and beside him, the sword in the stone - Excalibur. Seeing them again brought her some peace of mind as she approached the blackened runes of death etched on the ground in front of them.
Those runes would be her demise.
If I could do it all over again, make different choices… I would not change anything, she thought bravely.
*****
Present day; few months ago...
The orc warriors surrounded a broad-shouldered man who desperately fought to survive. Clinging his sword against the large orc’s battleaxe, the man pressed forward with all his strength. He won and the large orc stumbled backward. Seeing the opening, the man seized his chance and sliced his sword across the orc’s chest.
Suddenly, an axe swung toward the man’s head from behind, cleaving his skull in two.
GAME OVER.
Bold letters flashed red on the screen and the store clerk at Gamestop, Kenji Saitou, sighed.
“Dad, check out this game!”
Kenji turned his head to see a young boy about eight excitedly jumping up-and-down beside a middle aged man with sandy blonde hair and a matching beard. There was something strange about the boy’s skin; it lightly glowed, with a purple-ish hue to it. Creasing his eyebrows in confusion, Kenji cleared his throat. “Um… Uh, excuse me, sir…”
As his voice trailed off, the man and boy turned around. The man frowned, gazing from his son and back to Kenji, silently waiting for Kenji to continue.
“There’s something wrong with your son. He’s… glowing.”
At the sound of the word glowing, Lyza, who had been in the back, peaked around a shelf full of video games for the XBOX ONE. Sure enough, the young boy’s skin was glowing a bright violet color - more prominent to the Lyza’s trained eyes. It was the color of excitement, bringing forth the magic inside the boy’s body. Lyza’s skin crawled. Mages. They’ve found me.
As Kenji and the man began talking back-and-forth in soft, rushed voices, Lyza used their distraction as a chance to slip out of the small Gamestop store unnoticed.
Lyza slid into her red Suzuki Reno and drove out of the parking lot. Normal people would have felt something like panic or fear, but Lyza had better control over her emotions. She had to. Emotions fueled a Mage’s energy and she had been on the run long enough to keep hers in control. Without it, the Mages would find her and when that happened, she was a dead woman. For years she had been on the run, never stopping too long in one place. A Mage’s emotions would often cause their magic energy to bleed into the area around them, making it extremely easy to track. Pressing her foot on the accelerator, she rushed out of the city as fast as her car would go.
Lyza didn’t stop until she was in a completely different state.
