Three thousand years before the human uprising.
Räel Efreet was a being of few words. He looked about thirty-five or forty years old, but in fact had lived for three thousand years. Red eyes and red hair to match, three horns adorned his scaled head like a broken crown. Cursed with longevity, he had lived a life with many regrets.
Räel was a coward at heart, and no one knew it as much as he himself. Though he was not one to shy from battle, he kept his distance from all other magical beings that called the Kingdom of Re'lih home. Räel learned early on that the average life span of these magical beings were far outclassed by his own, and he began to watch as his friends and family died while he showed no signs of aging. For the first few hundred years of his life, he did his best to find a cure for his ailing clansmen, who had begun to die out quickly from the red fog. However after he lost his lover, Calista, he began to slowly take himself away from the seemingly mortal world.
He left his home and began devoting all his time to coaching the younger generations in the far-flung reaches of Re'lih, while maintaining his cover of just being an average person. He taught men how to fight and women how to endure. He believed that through him, the magical beings would learn how to rule the land and live in peace instead of the constant cycle of life and death he was now so used to. During one lifetime, he was a royal adviser who gently guided the king and protected his predecessors. In another, he was a soldier who would inspire his allies to great heights while slashing away at his enemies. However no matter how much he was stabbed or beheaded or burned, he would always reappear within the roiling red fog of his homelands. The original clan he was born into had long since passed away, unable to adapt to the red fog that permeated his birth place.
Every time he died he would go and visit Calista's grave. The grave marker had long since began to wither and warp, but after visiting so many times he could never get lost. Once he arrived, he would gather the nearby dread lily and place them on her grave. He had always remembered how dread lily were her favorite. After he had cleaned her grave, he would go back into the mortal world. This trek through hundreds of mountains had been done by him over a thousand times, but every time he arrived there would be a new town with no familiar faces.
He would settle in, making a name for himself as a healer or a fighter while protecting the weak and feeble. He used inscriptions and concoctions known only to him to heal the blind and the scarred, as the process for their use had died with the knowledge of the previous generation. However Räel would always do his best to spread the knowledge of these practices around, as if keeping it alive would miraculously bring his dead kin back to life.
Three thousand years slowly dredged on, and his latest reincarnation brought him to a small island at the heart of the kingdom. There was only one way to get to the island, and it was by constructing a boat from dead tree trunks and dead moss. The water around the island was seething with acid, making it extremely deadly to those who could not navigate, but it also did nothing to something that was already dead. Luckily thousands of years worth of experience was trapped in the mind of Räel whom at a moments notice could recall the information he sought as he headed toward the island.
He navigated expertly through the acid that attempted to jump at his skin, which would almost fall upon him before being deftly maneuvered around. Once he arrived to the island, he docked the boat and looked around. The island was covered with a silverish haze, not thick like the red fog, but one could not see more than ten feet ahead of oneself. As Räel moved through the fog, vague shapes came of huts and buildings came into view. There was actually a community that lived on the island!
The dwellers on the island were known as the Thousand Eyes Clan. They had inhabited the island for a thousand years, protecting the secrets beneath the waters. They had many seers, who had already predicted the arrival of a man who would bring them great change. Whether the change was good or bad had yet to be divined. They sent a representative, who casted wind magic to disperse the fog, revealing the entire village.
The representative was a beauty known as Rin. Rin had just turned two hundred when the strange visitor arrived. She wore a veil that covered a beautiful symmetrical face. She had pursed red lips and slender brows, but few had truly seen how she looked. A long white silk dress draped around her as if it was made especially for her. The moonlight basked in her presence, giving her an almost ethereal glow.
"Greeting Young Master, I have come on behalf of my clan to escort you." This was the first time in hundreds of year that they had a visitor. She knew the circumstances outside the island better than anyone, because when she was younger she tried to escape and was burned horrendously on her arms and legs.
"Greetings, please lead the way." Räel was not unaccustomed to being escorted, he was a stranger in a new land and had to act appropriately.
Rin lead Räel through the village as onlookers gawked and pointed towards the man. He was quickly lead through a winding path to what appeared to be the center of the island. There stood a large twisting tower that seemed to warp and bend as if it would fall at any moment. Rin quickly ushered him inside and closed the doors behind him.
From the dim light, vague figures could be made out of the seers. They sat in a large circle around the room chanting harmoniously as if in a trance. Rin asked Räel to step into the middle of the circle and meditate. She then took her place in the circle and began to chant in sync with the others.
Räel did as he was asked, and began to meditate. Instantly he was connected to the minds of the seers, who used his longevity as a lifeline to guide them through his past lives. All was revealed before their eyes, including the countless deaths he saw and suffered. They saw the death of his wife and son, the death of kings of old and comrades whos name will never be written in stone.
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Once they were done, Räel returned to the waking world and sat quietly while they gathered to pray. Who they were praying to remained a mystery to Räel, but as long as they did not need a sacrifice it really did not bother him.
After a few days passed, the seers emerged from their chambers and saw Räel quietly meditating. The visions the seers were granted confirmed that Räel was crafted to lead the magical beings into endless peace. However, there was one who threatened this peace. A young human boy was envisioned as the downfall of Räel, wielding darkness magic that raged wildly in his heart.
"Räel, of the Efreet clan. One of the lost primal clans who directly made a pact with the god of fire, only to betray the pact and unleash the roiling red sea on this earth. We have seen your fate, as the gods have granted us permission to do so. We see your past, present and future. All your lives, your deaths, and who will bring you your eternal slumber."
A seer stepped forward and pressed her palm into the heart of Räel, as the latter looked on incredulously. This was the first time he had ever met seers that were not faking their abilities. How else would they know he had lived for thousands of years. No previous 'seer' had ever guessed correctly.
"Gods grant us the minds eye to show him the visions you have given us." The seer chanted some incantation Räel had never heard and suddenly his mind went blank.
Räel saw the body of a young beautiful woman, clutching her stomach. She had been stabbed and left for dead, bleeding against the ruins of a building in a dense forest. Räel saw the vision of himself, running quickly to the side of the woman, holding her tight.
She spoke quietly, gasping for breath. "Räel, I am truly sorry I could not protect our child. Please, don't let others suffer as we have suffered. Our time was short, but it was the best thing that could ever have happened to me. I will be waiting for you in eternal slumber my love."
Räel clutched his heart as the visions unfolded in his mind. He thought he had already resolved himself to never love again, but that was not his destiny. His destiny time and time again was to lose the women and children he loves.
Rin looked on solemnly toward Räel, her heart beating rapidly. She had saw the visions, and understood it was her that was lying there, bleeding against the ruins. She understood what needed to come to pass, in order for the magical beings to live in endless peace she needed to be sacrificed.
Räel retired to a guest room provided to him after the visions subsided. However, in the night, Rin approached him and claimed that she had a way for the visions not to pass. In order for it to work, he must take her off this island and into a small forest in the North Continent.
He did as she asked, and prepared the boat off the island. He navigated expertly as she looked on lovingly, her face still covered by the veil. The two silently fled into the night. Once dawn had arrived, they had reached back onto the mainland and immediately fled to the Northern Forest.
Once they entered the Northern Forest, they set up a small straw building and provisioned some food. They built a large sustained bonfire and talked through the night. Räel regaled her with stories of his previous lives, and even though she had already seen them because of the visions, she listened intently.
After some time had passed, night came and it was time to begin the ritual. She explained the process she was about to undertake, and told him that there was something he needed to do. She told him that in order for the ritual to begin, she needed to lose her chastity, and the resulting blood would be used in the array that needed to be placed on a large stone pillar.
Though he did not understand anything about this ritual, if it saved his future wife and child from death he did not intend to hesitate. He began to mate with the young woman which he had only known for a night, and deep inside for reasons unknown to him, his heart ached.
Once the mating ritual was done, she gathered the blood and placed it inside a vial. She thanked the man and returned to the house, and slept in the straw bed. The whole ritual did not sit well with Räel, but he did as he was told and ejaculated inside her as she had asked. The pleasure he felt was incomparable to his previous lives, which he decided was most likely because he had not made love for thousands of years.
The next day, while he was hunting, he came upon a natural waterfall. The water was cold to the touch, but was completely clear, as if it had never been tainted by the hands of mortals.
Unknowingly, he had also stumbled upon the young woman as she was bathing. He saw her enticing figure, and quickly jumped in to greet her. She hid her face but greeted the man nonetheless.
Räel was not impressed at her hiding her face all the time, and forcefully moved her hands away from her face. She was powerless to resist, and instead pouted as his eyes came to rest upon her. He immediately recognized her as the woman in the visions, and realized he had been tricked.
Though he had been tricked, he could not be angry at her in his heart. It was too good to be true that there was a way to change the fate the gods had bestowed upon him. He embraced Rin under the waterfall and that night they furiously made love, until the morning had come and they finally lost the strength to continue.