Prolog Arya

Dark clouds filled the sky to the west and, the sun was blurred by haze. Thunderstorms were coming. It was strange that the wind hadn't picked up yet. There was a feeling that the doomsday was near but Arya didn't care about that. She squatted down near the eaves of one of the rooftops in the city of Teosopolis. Next to her sat a golden eagle, her familiar and calmly watching the city together with her.

The town was crowded with people moving in a bustle, across the city streets and alleys that crisscrossed without any planned structure. The houses were elegant with ornate designs and bright colors. The sound was deafening with the clang of blacksmiths, the shouts of merchants, and the general chatter of the commons.

Arya was still troubled after the letter she had received from her sister who sat on the council. Demons from Araldur had been sighted on the coast in the north but, it was far away. The report was uncertain as the north was almost entirely wasteland. The only question was what Lodge would decide to do about it or the royal court. There would probably be a scout expedition.

But who will act first? The division of power between the royal court and the Lodge was not entirely clear. There had been repeated misunderstandings. The court accepted the Lodge only for the protection they provided against demons and a foreign power. Most witches and wizards belonged to the Lodge but, some stayed with the court. Politics was always difficult, messy, and even deadly.

In the Lodge, there were witches, wizards, warlocks, and guardians. Guardians were like magical warriors. They had superhuman strength, speed, and healing abilities. Not as good as vampires or werewolves, but close. But they couldn't use magic or runes. Witches and wizards could bind guardians with magical bonds that enhanced the guardians' abilities, but at the price of having to show absolute obedience to the witch or wizard.

Arya herself was not a witch but a warlock and had the same abilities as a guardian and a witch, but couldn't form any magical bonds with guardians, which was just as well. And luckily, no one could bind her with such a bond. Several attempts had been made and that without consent, as some thought she was a guardian. It was a crime to do it without approval, but it was sometimes overlooked.

There were almost no warlocks at all in the world. Many thought they were just fairy tale characters in myths. But in the Lodge, there were three, of which Arya was one. She was the only one of the younger generation, at the age of twenty. Witches, warlocks, warlocks, and guardians all had long life spans of several hundred years and remained ageless after twenty-five.

Arya felt the power of her magic runes pulsing. She only had a few left on her right arm.

'I'll have to get new runes,' she thought.

Women's runes have to be drawn or carved with Yang energy and men's with Yin, and no runes are permanent, once they are used, they disappear. I wonder why that is, she thought.

She still remembered her first lecture on runes and magic almost verbatim. It had been Sofi, an elderly witch who loved to teach, who had given the lecture:

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"There are two types of runes Yang and Yin. Yang runes can only be drawn by men while Yin is created by women.

For women to use magic, she needs Yang runes and, in the same fashion, men need Yin runes.

In other words, men need to draw Yang runes on women's bodies and, women need to draw Yin runes on men. If a Yang rune is drawn on a man, it is useless. The same is true for Yin on women. Consequently, only the opposite sex can draw runes for you.

All wizards and witches need to learn the art of drawing runes. There will be special classes for you where you will learn this vital art.

How powerful your magic is will be determined primarily by your own ability to use mana, not by the rune itself. However, the quality of the rune does matter.

When you use runes, the magic will manifest itself around you or in you, depending on which rune or runes you use. So all magic will emanate from you. For example, if you want to light a fire a few feet away from yourself, the magical fire energy needs to move from you to the place where the fire is to be lit before it can turn into fire. It is your own magical power that determines how far you can move the fire energy or how much magical fire energy you have.

Runes convert your mana into useful magical energy for the purpose the rune describes. Once used, it is spent and, a new rune must be used to do the same thing again..."

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Sofi had once said that if I covered my entire body with runes, I could fit forty to fifty of them. It's not a lot of spells, but I'm lucky it's my own mana that determines how strong they are. And she grew stronger with each passing year, in an unnatural way. But not many knew about it.

Arya sighed.

Suddenly, a gust of wind grabbed her ponytail and the chiffon she wore around her waist and made them flap wildly. She almost lost her balance but managed to parry at the last second.

'Maybe it's time to go home, the storm will be upon us soon,' Arya said to her familiar through the magical bond they had. Through it, they could talk and even share emotions and impressions. The band had nothing to do with runes, thankfully. It would be extremely annoying to use runes to say hello and make small talk.

"Let's go," said Arya

Arya jumped from one rooftop to another and the golden eagle glided silently beside her.