Prologue
Eric Yagaro sat in his room in a night tunic, a quill in his hand as he wrote his report for Brother Bagaldan’s History Class. His hand was sore, he had to write a two-foot scroll. Just a few more lines though. The ink traced its way over the parchment slowly. He paused a few times in thought. A few more strokes and… done!
Eric let out a breath of relief as he sat back against his chair. He looked out the window of his tower. It was dark out already. He used to have more time before nightfall, but that was three months ago. His Aging Day was the first day of fall, and the days gradually got shorter with the sun setting earlier. This never happened on Dragoran.
Eric had already eaten dinner after a day at Castle Scholar, attending classes with his friend Karia Calamen, the smart, beautiful red head. She’d returned his book Days with Dragons a couple days ago and thanked him for lending it to her. He looked back at where he’d put it on his bookshelf before going in closer and scanning the volumes. He noticed a blue book that he’d never seen before, he reached in and pulled it out. It had a light-yellow cover edged in light blue, with the illusion symbol on the front in the center beneath the title, Memory Book. At the bottom black letters read
Property of Derair and Margery Yagaro.
Eric gasped. He never knew his parents made a Memory Book. Those were made by sorcerers to share their stories through illusions rather writing them by hand. He opened it. The pages were blank but something small fell out. It was a note.
Eric picked it up.
Dear Eric,
If you are reading this then something has probably happened to me. I concluded this book the day we left Sortar and planned to show it to you sooner or later. It shows memories from both your father and I when we were young. Our early lives, and how we eventually met and fell in love. I hope you will find it someday.
“Yes, mother. I have,” Eric said. “Bifo mi partaka fa Spirakus.” Bring my parents from Spirakus.
Both Derair and Margery Yagaro appeared in their spectral white forms. They looked around for a moment.
“Ah, I see you’ve found our old memory book,” Margery said.
Eric nodded.
“What do I need to do?” he asked.
“Just touch the pages and the magic we enchanted it with will show you our memories,” Margery said.
Eric touched the first page, which was blank. But as his finger tapped it, he could feel the memories entering his head. He could see his parent’s stories when they were younger. See the young boys sparring in the courtyard of Soyagone.
“My that was a long time ago,” Derair said as his spirit walked into Eric’s body, allowing him to see what his son saw. “Corgo would have been thinking about his attack here already most likely.”
Eric could only guess how that might have played out.
***
Corgo sat in the throne room of his tower. The eyes of King Zaro looked at him through the stone on the table in the middle. He grinned at the red glowing eyes. The time was almost upon them. Soon the red sorcerer would be born. Another decade, maybe just a few more years. The people of the Sorcerer Kingdom clung to the foolish notion that this sorcerer would be the one to save them. But Corgo knew otherwise. There was no chance this so-called savior could defeat him, for he, Corgo the Bat Demon was invincible. That silly prophecy was just something the people of the Sorcerer Kingdom clang to in order to have some sense of hope whenthey were doomed. Corgo would kill or enslave them all.
“My king, it is almost time.”
“Yes, Corgo. Soon the red sorcerer will be born. I can see the future before me now. It will be born in twelve years’ time, in the Year of the Sky. That much is certain. Hmm… that particular animal is resistant to illusions and can detect lies. Your ability to freeze people that come near you might not affect him... or her.”
Corgo scoffed. “It matters not. I win no matter who… or how many I face.”
“Yes, thanks to the power I have given you,” Zaro agreed. “When the red sorcerer is born, I will know when and where. You will take him and bring him here, extract his red sorcery and use it to open the portal to this prison space between life and death. I shall then be free at last… and nothing shall stop me from opening all of Panarus. Sorceria will be mine!”
***
That was how Eric imagined that happening between Corgo and Zaro, something along those lines. Now he could see flashes of Derair and Margery’s lives.
