Time Upon Time, Chapter 1

The rift appeared suddenly in the sky, breaking through the morning light with a swirl of colors and rays of golden and violet hue. From the center of the rift a small spark falls to the ground. As suddenly as it appears, the rift fades away leaving witness confused and doubting if they saw anything at all.

Breathing heavily on the ground, kneeling on all fours was a creature with the appearance of a male human. Only when the head raises up, the similarity ends. Long tapering pointed ears, no eyebrows, slanted eyes, a narrow pointed face leads one to believe this is not human at all. Standing in confusion, his sharp eyes sweep the landscape, trying to determine where he is, wondering what happened, what went wrong.

Landylyne Loreth'ara breathes slowly, his hand clutching the artifact. He notices several differences instantly between where he is, and where he was. The sky is clouded and polluted, the ground filled with sparse grass and dying weak looking trees, the air rancid with filth. Shaking his head, and almost stumbling he tries to concentrate, to link to his magic. At first the air leaves his lungs, unable to re-connect to his magic, he falls to his knees, pounding the ground in frustration. In his anger, he senses a brief connection, very faint, very weak. Quickly tracing the trail of the strands of magic, he begins to create a tenuous connection with the magic present in the land. Disheartened at how weak it is, he pulls only enough in to cast a minor spell, to discover where he is.

"This cannot be", he mumbles to himself. "Everything is wrong, dead, backwards. I sense life, but of a dimmer source."

His brow furrows in concentration, and he cast another spell, and receives the same results. Sighing in defeat, he slumps to the ground. His home, his life, his loves, his family is nowhere to be found. All because of this damned artifact.

He reflects briefly on his home, the shining towers of Lorean'al on his home world of Drelen Leandor. He remembers the high wizards admonishment to him when he brings the artifact forth.

"Landylyne, the artifact you hold, is of ancient origin. It fell through the sky many ages ago. No wizard nor scholar has defined its purpose, only that it is one of change." Shuffling around the house, the elderly wizard stretched, reaching for his pot of tea.

"This artifact speaks of magic cast from another place, it does not belong here, which is why it has remained hidden for many years, its existence known only to a few. How you stumbled upon it is indeed baffling, but not sup rising".

Arrogantly, Landylyne smiled clutching the talisman in his hand. "Indeed Elder Larafene, there is not much I can not find out on my own. Nor there is not much I cannot do."

"Landylyne, that sounds like you have greater ambition then your own rank would allow. The power you seek, the power you think you wield, is not your power. It is the power of all our people. Elevating yourself over others through abuse of the magic is not tolerated."

Standing swiftly, Landylyne held out his hand, the magic glowing in front of his outstretched hand. His eyes narrow in concentration and he pulls more and more magic through him, compacting it into a glowing sphere which hovered inches from his palm.

Sneering at the old man he replies"Enough of this, enough of the rules, enough of the process. I am gifted, powerful beyond any of you, and I will have what is rightfully mine!" Swirling power surrounds him, as he recklessly continues. "You are nothing to me, none of you are. This power is mine, it is not shared, it is not divided, I have mastery and control of it, a mastery that you could only dream of."

The old wizard Larafen looks calmly at him, a touch of sadness in his eyes. "I had truly wished we would not part like this, I had hope your desires would be kept in check. I see now that you indeed have nothing left to learn, nor will you ever wield magic again." As he raised his head to confront his student, the one he had groomed from the beginning, his eyes widened at the madness seen in Landylyne's eyes. Bringing his own magic to bear on his student, he found to his sup rise, it was paltry to the amount Landylyne had. Dropping his hands, he calmly waited for the end.

Landylyne stares at his master, his friend, and sees for a moment how terrible a mistake he is about to make. He begins to call the magic back, slow it down, return it to whence it came. As it begins to drop, he senses three presences an instant before they appear. Three wizard guards teleport between himself and Larafen, their magic in front of them as shields. Howling with rage and betrayal, Landylyne recalls the magic, sends it coursing through the guards shields, through their bodies, eradicating any trace of their existence. The magic, free now begins to encircle him, he feels the artifact pulse with life, he senses lives, he senses past and present, he feels at one with everything. Screaming, back arched he rises in the sky, the artifact pulsing faster and faster as it consumed more and more energy. With a final howl of agony and pain, he was sucked into himself, artifact and all.

Staring at the ground, the pain of the memories flashing before his eyes, Landylyne wonders if his mentor lived. A brief smirk comes to his face as he remembers that he did solve the riddle of the artifact, and that he is indeed the most powerful Elven wizard. Briefly the smirk remains, surpassed by sadness. What price power, with exile as the result. His power is all but gone now, only weak power remains on this planet he is on. Shaking his head, he realizes it will not be enough to activate the artifact.

Standing up, looking west he starts to walk. Walking through a desolate land, deserted, he senses a small remnant of life and heads towards it.