The Guardians of Celesk

Prologue and Chapter 1 : The Sanctuary

The Guardians dragged him like a beast, letting him howl in mercy as he was dropped repeatedly to his knees. His hands were restrained behind his head and he carried a large harness, which kept him hunched over in agony as he was forced towards the gate. The villagers could only look on in horror as their brother was cast out into the wastelands for the last time. The gates opened but none of them knew the death and destruction he would bring them when he returned to the sanctuary.

A woman started out after him, slipping over the bloodied path that trickled behind the walking corpse. A fellow Guardian halted her, but she pushed past in a last act of defiance. "You can't bring him back".

"This should not be his end," she said.

"He decided this. His actions!" 

"At least let him walk out with some dignity," she begged.

"He deserves nothing. You try and tell that to the body he left behind." 

She continued toward the gate, ignoring the glares of the community as she went to the side of the exile. In a surge of speed, she deftly cut at his restraints, watching as his harness fell to the floor.

He looked back at her for the briefest of moments, as his harness became engulfed in flame, along with his body. He channelled the flames through his arms and set fire to the gates, causing his captors to falter as he escaped out of their vision. When they steadied themselves, all they heard was a voice on the wind, firm and succinct, promising them that everything would burn.

Act 1

CHAPTER 1 : THE SANCTUARY

It came during the most desperate of times, after a reign of bloodshed. It thundered on in spite of terror, hopelessness and the great chain of inequity. It shattered shackles and in its momentum gathered all in its wake. It was hope.

In the new era, it rewrote the narrative and finally set the world free.

The people who wrote the new laws and established the scrolls that all would live by were all long dead now, evolved to a new level of existence but in their place and in the multitudes of Millenia to come, were their descendants who lived now in the place known to all as the sanctuary.

The Sanctuary was, through no mere coincidence, at the centre of the world. It sat atop a modest mountain, flecked with greenery during the summer and enveloped by streams which ran off from it like a system of arteries branching off from a beating heart of solitude. The sanctuary boasted high walls with rounded points and was clad in a dark purple that glinted an eerie red at sunset. During winter, it would be blanketed by snow but the rich cavernous hearths and the glowing rock walls breathed enough warmth and comfort to keep all of the people of , the enlightened ones in a state of serenity. This was highly valued in the world of Celesk, each society stemmed off its centre with invisible lines forking out across the realm that had once divided nations of people, only to unite them. There were no longer individual nations or races. Species were only classified by a brief physical description however this system was eventually disposed of. It would seem that in this perceived utopia that all stood in equality, however, this would all eventually come to unrest just as a slack tide is broken by waves.

But such matters were not at the forefront of all citizens of Celesk, such as those held by a person named Artreide. The only thing that had ensnared his conscious mind was the proximity of the wooden staff swinging towards his face. In a multi-second he brazenly rotated his own weapon to meet it and in doing so, swatted back the ferocity of his attacker's onslaught. The architect of this frenzied attack was his loving wife, Bohina.