Chapter 6

No one knew exactly how the Guardians came to be as the knowledge had been lost in time. Even the oldest among them, had only met speculations as the true story had already been buried in many rumors as time went by. The stories were many indeed and still many more were created with every retelling.

In one of them, it was said that Guardians were made by the Sire himself, after he created his treasured Angels. That he made them out of the same essence as of the five realms. He entrusted them with the doorways to his realm and later the souls that beared resemblance to him. Another tale spoke of Guardians as beings who came by after a massive battle in the Sire's realm. A rift created between the Angels led to a massacre that led to the deaths of many of them.

The Angels who were defeated were chased out and thrown to the darkest of all the five realms while the winners were bestowed upon honor by the Sire himself. As for the fallen Angels, their shattered spirits were mixed with the energy of the realm and formed beings that were less powerful than Angels but had a connection to the energy that was used to create them. From this the Sire got the idea of making beings from himself and the humans were created.

The Guardians, by then had been placed in the realm next to the Sire's and to honor his fallen people, they were given a way of opening a doorway to his realm in case they needed his help . Once opened, the door would be sealed shut never to open again, what would happen to those who remained on either side, no one knew but that was how the story ended.

The longest tale of them all and certainly the most popular one told was of the seven spirits that once dwelled in the Sire's realm. Each one of them was special and together they made the realm a place of tranquility. But as time went by they drifted apart and in order to bring them together the Sire made a realm that required what each one had to offer. Fire, Air, Water and Earth used their powers to form the realm while Light and Darkness existed above it. The seventh unknown spirit was said to have been placed to guard the realm and the humans made by the Sire.

As a show of good faith the spirits decided make a bridge between the two realms, to enable the Sire's creation to reach him. Earth was first, taking a piece of herself, she made a beautiful land that connected the two realms. The residual energy took form and became beings who looked similar to the spirit and were able to control small amounts of her energy. On seeing this the other spirits were delighted, the beings they made could take care of the new realm and also guard the bridge.

Each spirit took a turn to create the new beings. Fire was second, taking a single lock of her fiery hair, she placed it on the ground and watched it burn. From the flames emerged a people with hair as red as the fire they were made from. Water could not help but cry at the scene before her and as her tears reached the ground, they solidified into beautiful ice statues that transformed into new beings. Air called onto the four winds and together they made her people.

At this time the spirits were busy with their new creation that they didn't notice the evil that creeped in from the abyss, flooding over the mortal realm they had created and surging in through the bridge with the aim of devouring the highest of all realms. The beings warned the spirits and together they fought off the demons and even though they were able to hold them back, it was at a great prize. In order to keep the demons away from the uncorrupted realms the spirits sacrificed their physical forms to form barriers that burned away any form of evil energy that dared to cross.

To this day the wards still stood, as powerful as the day they had been made. In service to their respective spirits, the Guardians stayed on the bridge land that was their Isle and protected the doorways to the Sire's realm, though none of them could actually pass through. Even as the spirits had lost their physical forms, their energy signatures were still felt by the Guardians as each was made from a piece of them but that meant that only four were sensed.

Light and Darkness had never had a chance to create their own Guardians and so their signatures were lost to the skies, each one concentrated at different times creating both day and night. Light ruled during the day while Darkness ruled during the night. The Guardians were also placed in charge of the human souls that needed to pass through the Isle before they reached the highest realm. The wards around the Isle burned off all the corruption of the mortal realm from the souls before they could journey on to whatever awaited them in the Sire's realm.

Just like each one of the stories that surrounded the birth of the Guardians, this one too had its false notes and even some truths but no one was yet to prove which parts of it were true and which were not. Miran couldn't help but laugh at how much mystery surrounded the origin of every Guardian, his was not an exception. The Sages, knowledge keeper of the Isle, swore that he had the essence of the light spirit and a significant amount of it at that. They didn't understand how it was possible but they couldn't deny what was in front of them. They had reached a conclusion that maybe the Sire had found a condensed form of the spirit's essence. Any question asked after that was answered by, "The Sire's ways are incomprehensible, who can understand them?"

Most of his training as a novice had been directed to finding the limit to his powers but even after exerting himself to forty eight hours he had never come close to a burn out. His energy recharged fast and especially in the mortal realm where the sun's intensity was stronger than in the Isle. So how was it that he burned out after only a few minutes of using his power. He thought back to what had occurred the previous night and nothing made sense.

After the dark forcefield, whatever it was, disappeared, the loss of power had been small, negligible even. He hadn't used his powers after that, so how could the burn out be explained? The only thing he had done after that was carry the woman they had rescued to the residence. He had collapsed immediately after letting her go. Now that he was thinking clearly he remembered the feeling of having her in his arms. He had felt the electric tingles when he had first touched her, the yearning to see her face had been overwhelming and when he finally had her, he never wanted to let go.

If she was the reason for his drain then there was only one logical explanation behind it. If it was what he was thinking then they were up against a formidable opponent. Miran checked his energy and found it at an adequate level. He could risk another encounter with her. Miran knew Serena had stayed with her the whole night, just in case of anything. His friend was stubborn and no matter what happened, she would always put her duty to the Matriarch and her honor as a Guardian first.

Miran got up from the bed he had been laid in the previous night and changed out of the night wear he was in. After a shower and fresh clothes he had brought with him from the Isle, he went in search of food for Serena, whom he knew from experience had not had anything while on guard duty. The kitchen staff were kind enough to direct him to where she was after they got over being flustered by his presence.

Most of the staff in the residences were humans, but they had no clue of who the Guardians really were. They still felt the pressure of their energies but human minds were not capable of handling the knowledge of their existence, so the Guardians just let them come up with their own theories. After a lot of pleading, he was finally allowed to carry the tray of food that had been prepared without hurting their feelings. During his past stays, he had learned that they actually felt offended and afraid when they saw him or anyone they considered as high ranking carrying out their chores.

Her knocked the door to the room he had been instructed to go as he balanced the tray on one hand and when he heard Serena's voice, he entered. Placing the tray on a table that was on the opposite side of the room, he turned to face the two women who were seated on the bed.

Just as he was about to open his mouth, something heavy landed on him and he fell from the force of it.

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Thanks so much for reading, don't forget to vote and comment.

In this chapter I tried to bring out what the Guardians are all about and the legends surrounding them, because we all have our origins right?