Prologue
Jensen The Scribe made his way down an expansive stone corridor that was kept lit by little orbs of white light. The light filled the corridors and would never extinguish unless prompted too, unlike torches and lamps that needed to be replaced or refilled. As Jensen made his way down the stone corridor his rhythmic foot falls echoed off of the white limestone and announced his arrival to the guards on duty and the awaiting Counsel. Jensen was a complicated man with an even more complicated life, a life he couldn’t talk about freely due to the magical laws of his Innate ability. As an outsider to Collective and its people the nature of Jensen’s magic made it very hard for them, or anyone, to trust in him based on what he could say. Jensen though had seen the world in a way no other had and the Council of the Collective had come to see that there was truth in his words.
He came to a halt before a set of heavy ornate doors larger than most homes in Materia, they were painted with intricate designs of layered lines that crossed one another in some kind of unknown Runic Spell to Jensen. On the side of each door was an armed guard. Each of which was wearing chainmail and a tunic the bore the crest of the Garden Archive, an apple tree before a setting orange sun. Jensen The Scribe gulped hard and turned his head to the right to address the guard,
“Is the Council ready to see me?”
The guard didn’t say anything in return, instead with a face vacant of expression, as the guards always wore, he reached up and knocked on the door three times. After a few moments Jensen nearly lost his balance when an attractive woman with red long hair and a long flowing simple black dress that did little to conceal her womanly curvature passed through the doors as if they weren’t even there. He had seen Beatrice ‘phase’ through things plenty of times and yet he could never get used to it. Not even with everything he’d seen in his life which was a lot more than most, far more. It was just unnatural to expect someone to answer a knock at the door without opening the door. Beatrice was smiling and so Jensen, after recovering from her sudden appearance, greeted her with pleasantries, or at least tried to.
“A remarkable entrance as always Beatrice, I hope you are well this day and that your husband and chil-“
“Enough with the formalities, we will see you now.” Beatrice said as she flicked her wrist to indicate to the guards that they were to open the doors and allow Jensen to pass however, she herself didn’t wait and she walked on through as if nothing were in her way.
It took a few moments for the guards to open the heavy doors enough for him to pass, they stoped when he had and began closing them without saying a word. Inside the Grand Council Chamber were six people each of which were the king, queen, or otherwise respective leader of their own people, and keeper to their respective Archives. Jensen made his way around an extremely large ornate glass lamp filled with a black liquid that seemed to suck the light out of the lamps surrounding area. When he got closer to where the council presided in their high stone benches Bazure, the king who presided over the Garden Archive and head of the council broke the silence.
“Jensen The Scribe we have considered your two requests and after much discussion we have come to our decisions.” Bazure paused to clear his throat. “The first of our decisions we have come to unanimously, we will not destroy the Cosmos Lamps nor will we discard their oils. If you could tell us more about your magic than we could further discuss it but you’ve made it clear you can not or will not and so we must preserve the lamps and the oils.” He paused again and after looking around at his fellow council members he settled his eyes on Jensen the Scribe, Jensen used the opportunity to offer his remarks feeling fearful his earlier pleas had fallen on deaf ears.
“I am bound by the nature of my magic to not speak or reveal what I’ve seen, that is the law of my Innate Ability. I am forbidden from divulging altering information. Its for that very reason I have made the second request.”
Bazure cleared his throat again. “Beatrice the Enchantress, this lies under your expertise.”
Beatrice sat forward a little in her high bench and leaned her elbows onto the desk, and held up a small leather bound book. “I have a journal here Jensen, and I was able to spell it the way you have requested. However,” she pulled back the small leather bound journal with the title ‘The Scribe’ written across the front that she was holding up. ”We will only allow you the one, if what you have told us holds any merit at all, even if its only a scrap of truth than allowing you even this journal could prove catastrophic should it fall into the wrong hands and so I have added a spell of my own. Once the phrase ‘Journal Complete’ is written on the last page the journal will only be able to read once. Once the journal has been read cover to cover it will burn to ash but, that’s not all. You only have a day to fill out what you you want, after that the pages will accept no ink. So you better start writing.”
“The one journal is all I require, and your addition was wise.” Jensen the Scribe bowed his head in thanks, “I am grateful you have granted me this.”
Beatrice tossed the leather bound journal down at Jensen who caught it as if it were a fragile egg in danger of breaking. Gently he rose the journal before himself and with a giddy smile and whispered to himself, “Now, where do I hide you?”
~If you have been intrigued thus far please like my story and follow me to keep up to date with the magical new world of Materia!
Also please keep in mind this is still a rough draft and am making edits daily. I hope you enjoy the adventure!~
-D.M.R.
