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Before the Black Wind Howls....Chapter One
By Marie the Esper Girl
Note: If anyone has this fanfic up somewhere, or knows if Marie has written anymore chapters, PLEEEEEEASE email me!!! I've been looking for the continuation of this story for some time. Or hey, I wanna bug Marie to start writing more of it. *grin*
I was a child once.
We all are, innocent and pure when we are born. So most people think. I sincerely doubt it. If we are all born innocent and pure, then how come we kill one another? If we are all born innocent since the beginning of time, then we would know no pain or hate.
We had two sides. Most people had light sides and seem to forget, or want to forget, dark sides. I haven't forgotten it. Most, perhaps all my life I have accepted my darkness and it.
Well, not treasured it. I used it to my advantage for my magic. As a child, magic meant nothing to me. My older sister, Schala, felt almost the same as I did. But of course she was blessed with Shadow magic, like I. Schala wasn't for that type of magic, too brooding and dark for such a gentle heart and spirit. My sister was beautiful, a graceful girl with long, shimmering blue hair and gentle green eyes and a kind smile. But it was more than her beauty that attracted her to other people. It was the caring heart, the gentle words and the promise of hope she always had.
Schala was eternal optimist, shimmering with love. The perfect child. I agree with that with no spite. She was my only friend, next to my cat, Alfador. I think that was why people loved her. Schala was one of the rare innocents.
I, Janus at the time, was the opposite of her. I was a small, frail and skinny child with a dark awkward way of speaking. My hair was a darker blue and I had brown irises before discovering my channel of magic. My nose was a little too long and I always frowned. I only smiled and laughed around Schala.
I, seemingly had no power of magic within me. The Guru of Life, Melchior, knew my worth. I think Schala did too. Both knew I thought magic was useless and I couldn't care less if I learned magic. I knew the reason people were cold and dark to me was because I had no magical powers that you could see with the blind eye. This aura of anger and ignorance would soon fall and drag down Zeal with it.
Zeal was a beautiful place. Lush and green with flowers of the brightest reds to the palest yellows. Rivers were cool and clear and the island itself was always warm and comfortable. If a child would want to go play in the snow, they'd use a land bridge to visit the snowy Earth Bounders' world.
My mother, who was once known as Jean Salvac, was married to Xavier Zeal, King of Zeal, and gave birth to Schala. Xavier soon died in a Earth Bounders attack on him when he went to collect salves from Terra cave. The stupid bastard.
My father wasn't any smarter than my sister's. His name was Zacharia Deland who was a duke in Zeal Court. The man was a womanizer, perhaps that is where I got from, cold and stupid. Extremely stupid. Yet somehow Jean, or now known as Zeal, fell in love with the bastard. While pregnant with me, Zeal found Zacharia in bed with his latest lover, an Earth Bounder.
Suffice it to say that my father had one last good fling before my mother charged him with adultery. Zacharia was sentenced to death and was mangled at the Xathoz River, the river of the dead. Rumors claimed that her bed was made of her husband's bones. I though that interesting as a child. Now I wished could have it. I became that morbid.
It was before she was convect with me when she found about Lavos' power. Her mind was taken over slowly as she worked with the Gurus of Life, Reason and Time to make the Mammon Machine to catch Lavos' energy waves. During this, her mind slowly ebbed away from saneness into a wild burr of insanity. Only god knows what would happen if Lavos' mind entered me a embryo. How can I be sure he didn't?
No.
He did not.
I am not a pawn like Zeal was.
After the death of her husbands, she decided to pick a Chancellor, an insane bastard known as Dalton Figpen. A twit if I ever saw one. A large man who always seemed to be drunk and had a red face. He was good with magic, I'll agree to that, and had the same insane ambitions as Zeal. The flop always was bothering with Schala. The flop had an idea in his mind that he'd get in favor of the queen and marry Schala so he could capture the throne. Dalton was also given the aero-plane called the Blackbird. I myself had never been on the damn thing and I thank Gods I never did. Dalton hated me as much as I hated him. We had explosive verbal fights that would sound everywhere in the gorgeous Zeal Castle.
After my birth and when I was too old to be fed my mother's breast, I was given to the nanny and Schala's care. I don't think the Nanny really hated me, I know she wouldn't have minded seeing me dead though. Schala kept her eye on me as she struggled with Dalton's advances and her visits of mercy to the Earth Bounders with Melchior. At the age of three, I tagged along and was more welcomed in the Earth Bounders' world than in Zeal.
As we made our trips and grew up, Zeal ordered a pendant to be made to control the magical barriers that the Mammon Machine created. Zeal couldn't handle the power of the Dreamstone Pendent like Belthasar, Guru of Reason, expected her too. So for two years the pendant was forgotten by Zeal and Belthasar. Zeal used the Lavos power and built the Zeal Kingdom to the pinnacle of its power.
Melchior was a grandfather to me. He didn't love me, but he protected Schala and me from Zeal's wrath and anger. He helped the Earth Bounders with cooking, hunting and clothing and tried to teach them to use magic. Few could use low-caliber magic. He also taught them to resist slavery until Zeal heard about this and placed him over Terra Cave on the Floating Mountain to mock the Earth Bounders.
Melchior would also take Schala and me on outings such as fishing or picnics. I remember a few conversations about me when they thought I was asleep.
"Janus looks so peaceful asleep," my sister's soft voice said.
"The boy has great power. Such a shame to keep it all locked within himself," Melchior's voice answered.
"He doesn't like magic. Janus thinks it's a waste of time. I do notice he's powerful. He gets cold all the time when I do. He calls it 'The Black Wind'."
"Hmm, very strange."
I would quietly laugh to myself and listen to their worries and stories about my mother. I found out that as a child that it is best to keep quiet and listen. If you stay quiet, you disappear and people would forget someone was listening and tell secrets. I heard many this way. When I met Ozzie I used this secret to my advantage.
When I was five, I noticed that Schala was more sullen and quiet. I also noticed the beautiful Dreamstone pendant and the new doors and chests that seemed to appear almost over night.
And I became more angry and dark and fought more often with Dalton. I also gave people my lip when I visited other cities. Of course, my cat Alfador never left me; he seemed to watch me when Melchior or Schala couldn't.
Strange, I like animals, and they like me too. If anything is really innocent or the true chosen ones of the gods, then it must be animals. Animals do not judge the living, and they treat all humans like friends unless threatened. Cats and dogs seem to have the strongest quality among beasts. A monster like me could go up to one and the creature would show no spite or anger.
Killers, criminals, mad men, mentally ill and the handicapped were hated by humans yet animals gave them nothing but love and understanding. Also, we humans are the ones who keep killing for no reason. War in a synthetic creation of man.
Alfador and I would be by ourselves as Zeal grew more insane and Zeal Kingdom grew more powerful. Schala was pulled into the dark web of power lust. Lavos didn't touch her mind; perhaps the pest knew Schala was the true hand that fed him. I have no idea what torture Zeal put my sister though, but I am sure it wasn't good. I could feel my sister's pain all the time, even while deep asleep in the darkest of dreams.
My life was going down quickly. It became worst when he appeared the year when Schala was being used to control the Mammon Machine.
The Wandering Prophet.
Chapter 2
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