Songs of Fire

Prologue: The Birth of a Flame

Prologue 

Laylany walked briskly through the cold and dark hallway of the Lucernam east wing. Her black hair dangled down her back and the short white dress off the deprived swished as she walked. They no longer had enough oil for the lamps, so darkness made her pale white face and full lips look black, hidden in the shadows. The Discipulum had been banned access to the east wing hallways and the Deprived,which she had once proudly called herself, only trekked the Lucernam during the suntime. Well, she had no longer thought of herself as a Deprived and she definitely did not have time for the myths that monsters roamed the very grounds they lived on. True she had once called herself a deprived, once thought the word of the lucis to be holy, but now she new better. Tonight, she would leave the wretched place she had once loved. So long she had trained, trained to see the will of the light done. she closed her eyes tightly. She couldn't go on like this. She wanted to live, not be a pawn to a man who said he new what was best for her. No, she would leave tonight and she would start living.  

The wind howled outside and a distant thunder crashed through out the night. Beams of light shot through the skinny windows of the stone walls as another burst of lightning landed closer to the east wing walls. She cursed softly as the lightning made the darkness recede from her face and lit up her emerald green eyes. lightning was a bad omen. Well, not always bad. Lightning was a omen of change; brutal change that could either be good or bad , but always violent and sporadic in the coming. It was only one on the elongated list of omens she had been made to remember. One of the easiest and most entertaining things she did was reading the omens of the world, the highlight of her days.  

The wind picked up also as she walked down the hallway. Howling like a mourning mother, or a wounded soldier. A strange prickle ran down her neck and the small hairs on her arms raised like new spring flowers shooting from the ground.  

A glow flowed around her, the darkness being pushed back by a strange but familiar light. She cursed wildly in her mind as her head turned from side to side. The light of the Lucis, holy leader of the council of the flame, encased her. Barring her from her path as sure as iron chains. Had he found out that she planned to leave? No, that was simply impossible. She hadn't told anyone. but why then? He seldom left his rooms.  

Her plans of leaving were growing more and more distant as she turned and met the mans eyes. They were hard, eyes of a man who had seen many a thing that would grind your mind to dust. But there was a softness to them to, faint and just barely visible but still there,hiding behind something dark that she couldn't guess. Grievous eyes that a forgotten man hid behind like a sword that had long ago rusted over, And a muscular build but more gentle than most men with his kind of power. He wore the legendary robe of Akilmar, seldom donned by the Lucis with the exception of ceremonies. It was pure white with loops of purple encircling a large golden orb on the chest that resembled the sun. Something must be going on tonight,she thought quietly. something very important. His deep musical like voice spoke right as a crash of thunder sounded of to the east.  

" Deprived, Laylany, " He announced formally. " You have been chosen to serve the light, The darkness stirs and the lords of fire grow restless in slumber. The light can no longer hold the darkness." And she thought she heard him say something else under his breath, something like "If it ever could". She shook visibly. He had given a speech much like this to the whole population of the Lucernam, even the guards. But this was different. He seemed deeply troubled. She had never seen the man upset like this, or maybe he wasn't upset, perhaps that look was sadness?  

" I see and acknowledge the light," Laylany said slowly. " what would the light need of me?" The Lucis sighed and held up a orb of light in his hand.Laylany never could get over how he did that. There were some who said it was all just a trick, but she couldn't believe that. It was the only thing in her life that really amazed her, made her think that there was more than just living, working, and dying in this life. That light alone used to make her believe in the man she had served. still, doubts of tricks were always there, even if she would not admit it to herself. 

" You wish to leave, You want to run," The man said softly to her with a astute look. 

"No!" She held up her hands. " No, that's not it."  

" Be still child," he said in that soft tone. " Many a day I have thought of it myself. So many think of me as some kind of god, or the next thing to it, but do you know the truth? I am just a man said to represent the light to give us hope. Do you want to know what I think? I think the light has abandoned us. I think we are on our own..." He trailed off as he looked outside through the narrow window as a patter of rain bouncing of the stone started to echo through the hallway. He looked back at the globe of light he held in his hands. The darkness seemed to eat at the light trying to push it back.  

The man looked up into the stone ceiling of the hallway, as if he could see through the stone and through the clouds to the stars.  

" I'm not sure whats going on anymore. I hide in my rooms like a coward because I cant handle what people expect me to. What would you do if a town got sick and you had no cure, If you knew that there were men, women and, children dying because you couldn't save them?"  

She tried to think of something to say but what did you say to that? He continued on in that soft voice. 

" I was once a soldier, and I once had a love that was more than this world to me, But as this world so often gives us, war came and I went marching to it. For many months I fought An enemy that I knew little reason of why I was fighting. Perhaps because of land, or money. Oh, but when I returned, the village that I lived at was gone, Burned down. By bandits, or maybe by slaver and with it my love and are single child were gone. I looked for them for so long, so long until I finally found this place. Did the light save them? No, no one could have saved them but me and I did not." He looked at her with a sad gleam to his eyes. " I am going to leave this world, And hopefully meat my Iliana and my child. If not, well then at least I will have peace. I know, I am a coward. But I am not fit for this; I am not fit to lead, to give hope. My eyes have lost the ability to see any light. when I sleep, when I breath , all I see are there faces. Calling for me even though I'm a thousand miles away.  

The reason, I tell you this. The reason I burden you with this, is because I can not die before I tell someone this information that is inside my head. It is the reason I am not yet dead. You though, I have watched you since you came here as a child. You have the heart and the soul to carry what I could not. Please listen, I can not tell the council of the flame. There is something wrong with them that I don't understand. 

So I will tell you what a man long ago told me."

" From dust will a light raise, from darkness will our failure be written a song of light and a burden so deep must be carried, to a child who is a man, to a man who was once a child If this flame dies before it burns then so will darkness reign,  nothing is foretold but what was once supposed to come."

"I think this is a riddle of sorts, Now take your things and what I have told you and go west. Go west until you must stop. You have to trust me, You will know when you have made it to your destination." He looked at her one more time, smiled, and stepped past her to the entrance of the west wing.  

" what just happened?" she asked herself in a whisper. Motionless she stood there, not knowing exactly what to do.  

She took a step forward and again started walking towards her rooms were she had all ready packed her belongings. She gradually started walking faster until she was running through the hallways. It seemed she was going west. At least that was settled. She didn't know whether to cry or laugh, or both.  

She closed her eyes tightly and continued running, listening to the thunder and the lightning strike.