Prologue

As the sun rose, it slowly burned away the mist that had submerged the valley the night before. Gradually, the smoke from chimneys replaced the fog, and the picture of a tiny country village appeared at the bottom of the valley.

This village had that timeless feel, yet today, there was a disturbance to this village. The repetitive sounds that gave this village part of its charm stuttered then gradually stopped as the villagers paused to look as a stranger meandered down the only path into their village.

With all the villagers staring at him, the cloaked stranger walked toward one of the few villagers', Nick Tomaz. At first, the villagers moved forward to block the stranger, but then the stranger stood up straight and as if on command, the wind blew through the village kicking-up a screen of dust.

When the dust settled, the villagers were able to catch a glance at the stranger as he placed his hand upon the villager's head before they both disappeared. The villagers would not see Nick again until he became a very different man.

FIRST STEPS

I woke up in a room bigger than my old room or at least it seemed to be, but my memory was so fuzzy that I couldn't tell if they were my memories or just a vivid dream. I was pondering this as I looked around at the brightly colored walls filled tastefully with beautiful paintings of different landscapes.

My inspection of the room was interrupted when the door flew open, and a man dressed in a black suit entered the room. He made a small bow then pointed his hand toward the hallway as if to indicate that I should head into the hall. Being a little obstinate, I did not jump to his command having still been engrossed in my observations of the room and confusion with my memories.

After he stood there for five minutes, a small frown appeared on his ordinarily expressionless face and with what seemed like an enormous amount of effort he uttered, "Young Master, please proceed down the hallway to the double doors and wait to be called in by the Master."

Stolen novel; please report.

After conveying this message, he resumed his stance pointing towards the hallway being so still he could have been mistaken for a statue. I continued to lie for a moment before realizing that my patience certainly wasn't going to last longer than the man who was currently impersonating a statue.

So taking a deep breath, I began walking down the hallway which had marble archways every ten feet. After what seemed to be a mile long hallway, I arrived at a set of ornate marble doors on which was a depiction of a mountain so realistic that it caused me to stop and verify that it was truly an engraving and not a window to a view of a real mountain.

While I was inspecting the door, a voice rambled out filling the entire hallway with reverberations of the word, "Enter"! As the vibrations faded, the doors without a sound opened to reveal a massive room with a ceiling that seemed to soar endlessly into the sky. Stationed in the middle of the room, were two rows of colossal steel statues holding large spears with points touching creating a corridor a 100 feet tall.

As I passed through, the weight from their presence seemed to press down on me in waves making each step I took harder than the last. As I hesitantly made my way through the room, my eyes were drawn to a man lounging on an ornate chair placed at the end of the room.

His presence exuded a kind of stoic grandeur. He looked down at me with his dark brown eyes with a sort of confidence that everyone would obey any command he demanded. When I approached, he uttered, "Kneel" softly, yet with a weight that caused the work to settle in on my shoulders and tried to force me to my knees. It took all my willpower to stay standing.

Before I could let out a reply in defiance, he sat up and let out a laugh that rumbled across the room. Now sitting up, he stared straight into my eyes with apparent interest as if he had just found some kind of valuable specimen.

"Welcome to my home, this is where you will stay while you are my disciple. Here you will discover the facts of the world you never knew existed. In fact, I have already given you a small gift of knowledge while you were sleeping to help speed along this process." I just stared at him not knowing how to reply to this statement.

Before I could react, he stood up and placed his hand on my chest. As soon as he touched me, a vision flooded with sparks of color overlaid everything visible; the only thing with a solid color was the man shimmering with deep brown as if he was made with constantly shifting rocks.

Then he dropped his hand, and my vision snapped back to normal. "So, how did you like your new world?" He then indicated for me to sit as a chair appeared out of the ground. I sat down, and he continued with his speech. "Now, I believe it is time for me to explain a few things. First of all, my name is Tera, and from now on you will be known as Azur. Until you master your magic to an acceptable level, you will remain here. So, since it is in your best interest to finish this training quickly, are you ready to start?"

He then glanced at me with his weighted gaze rooting me to the chair and driving any thought of argument from me. With some reluctance and for reasons unknown to me, I uttered two words that would change my life, my name and my fundamental view of life, "Let's start!"