Gone was the jovial old lady who was talking with an unnatural young voice that made you shudder in fear,

now she was sitting before me looking intimidatingly strong and ready to kill anyone who tries to defy her or make her angry,

there was not even a hint of a smile left on her wrinkly face. She looked terrifying

I nodded silently.

The old lady smiled mockingly at me

"Good,"

"Now let me tell you a story about a group of people called 'The Guardians', they were born of the darkest magic. Their power is so immense, that you'll never have an idea of the number of things they have been capable of. They created the world of this world and gave life to the humans, the gods, the devils, and the spirits, to name a few,"

the old woman's voice sounded like it came from a distant echo as if someone was speaking to her in a distant room

"They're supposed to be very powerful, so powerful that they control everything except death, destruction, and despair. Their greatest achievement was giving life. They were o powerful and so great that proper words can't express it."

Her words echoed in my head like the echo of a song you hear whilst listening to a horrible song, the melody of it making your skin crawl

"Their names are Zira, Nefertari, Amara, Alarina and Nelisah. but those were not their real name you see they were beings so ancient that their true names had been lost in the sands of time, only the name 'Guardians' remains to guide us to salvation."

"The god of light Nefertari"

"The god of darkness Nelisah"

"The god of order Amara"

"the god of chaos Alarina"

"The god of knowledge Zira"

She spoke of each name with such reverence that it almost seems like she is worshipping them.

" They have many titles which mean different things depending on who you are, the guardians of this realm"

"the spirits of the world and heaven, they protect humanity from all evils."

"The guardians of the beasts, the mothers of elves, the great givers, the gods of life and death"

"They also possess unimaginable powers,"

"but they cared little for us the mortal races, to them no matter what happened in this world as long the balance was maintained they were happy,"

"But this balance was not enough for us the mortal races, we wanted more. We wanted them to care for us, cradle us in their arms, and teach us to love, and care for others just like true parents, but they were uncaring and uninterested in indulging the whims and wishes of foolish mortals."

" so did things to gain their attention, but nothing we did had any effect what so ever then we tried to do something different,"

"We began destroying the balance we did everything from genocide to killing their children, in order to take revenge against their inactions, but no matter how many times we tried they simply didn't give a shit,"

"That's when we discovered magic,"

The old woman paused in deep concentration as she stroked her chin in deep thought, she was so deep in thought that for a minute she

forgot I was sitting beside her.

"What does this have to do with me?" I asked quivering with fright.

She snapped back to reality and turned to look at me again, annoyed and irritated

"Patience mongrel, to understand the ending you must first listen to the beginning,"

She suddenly stood up and spat into the darkness, causing the place to burst into an eruption of purple flames and brimstone, illuminating the entire room.

"Have you ever wondered why all living creatures can use magic the same way in the beginning yet with every advancement they achieve, magic gets subdivided into different types of multiples abilities and classes?"

The old woman said, as she walked past me and began walking around the room.

She stopped before one of the stone tables in the corner of the room and leaned over it whispering something inaudible, before straightening herself and approaching me,

"Magicians, warlocks, mages, witches, Arcanist, sorcerers, Alchemists, magical knights, mystics, druids, enchanters, artificers, mancers, Conjurers, Elementalists, Runesmiths, Runemages, Shamans, and I don't how many other titles I know nothing about which are out there among the mortals who practice magic but there are millions of practitioners in this world not to mention the practitioners of the other lesser energies such as aura, qi; " she grinned triumphantly at this statement as if to make sure I knew how many hundreds of thousands of practitioners practiced magic,

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

what was the reason she had chosen to bring me here?

"Magic itself is not a single skill, magic is alive and flourishing the very essence of creation."

"It is in us, it lives deep within our very soul, our very blood. Magic exists in us, whether it be physical, metaphysical, spiritual, or psychic."

'Good gracious god this woman is barking mad one moment she talking about living gods then she is rambling on and on about magic' I thought as tried to follow the logic of this pointless rant

'why doesn't she get to the point?'

'why am I here?'

"Magic is part of us, it always has been, so when we truly discovered it we immediately challenged the gods with it, you see the people were no longer satisfied with neglectful oversight and guidance they felt entitled and wanted justice for themselves. From what? for what? I couldn't say.

The people simply went mad, not just the humans everyone went mad,

They believed that by controlling the elements they controlled the heavens themselves which would make them the ultimate rulers. The gods had given up on them so they decided to change things themselves, that's when the war started."

She then paused thinking about something as rubbed her hands together

"If you ask we simply wanted more power, rather than caring gods," she added

she took a deep breath and then continued

"It started off with the death and destruction of temples and then ended with tyrant Demi gods ruling over us like tyrants, but we did not surrender to them. We continued fighting till we found an answer to the question 'how do we defeat them?' and that's when we started creating the Radiants, the bane of our enemies."

"Our magic and technology combined with the powers of the magic we were able to create new weapons and armaments that we called the divine radiants."

"But of course, there are some powers which cannot be meddled with without a price and those powers are the Guardians, which is how we became aware of them."

"You know what happened after that I mean every living soul knows what happened, the Radiants rebelled against their masters and caused their extinction."

The old woman sighed deeply before continuing:

"And when I say extinction I mean near extinction since you the first make radiant is sitting right in front of me "

She pointed toward me and smiled smugly

I wanted to scream but in the presence of this lunatic I could do was clench the armrests of my chair. My heart pounded loudly in my chest as fear and terror overwhelmed me.

I couldn't move I was frozen like a statue

"You've heard of the legend correct?"

"Yes, I-"I began

"So when the world killed all Radiant they destroyed their body completely so that the next generation would not be able to recreate them".

She smiled and continued

"I can explain to you in simpler terms the reasons behind our downfall, I can explain why we failed, but I will not because that is a waste of time, now than enough with the stories, let's talk about what I want from you, you see the first radiants were created by a group called the philosophers, you see I am a philosopher too, and I want you to be mine"

"What!?"

"You must agree to become my experiment."

This statement shocked my mind, I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

My whole body shivered violently, I knew that she was serious and that this meant danger

She chuckled softly. "Relax young beast, it's quite all right, you are safe, I won't harm you,"

My body relaxed slightly and I nodded my head nervously, I knew she wouldn't lie to me.

she was too powerful to see the need to lie to me.

I felt her hand gently caress the side of my cheek and I flinched away from her touch

"I see you have finally learned manners young lady, well now that we are getting somewhere we can start properly. What I want from you is your soul," she whispered as she held both of my hands in hers.

"But you must understand something, you are not my prisoner,"

"I am not?" I asked confused.

The old lady shook her head gently

"You're free to go whenever you want. I will not move a finger to harm you, but I'm afraid that those waiting for you outside will not be as kind. So, I'm offering you a choice."

She stepped back and then looked at me with her blazing gaze

"Stay here with me and help me with my research. Not only will I save your life, but I will also give you power beyond your wildest dreams. Or you can leave and be hunted to death by this world,"

I stared at her speechless in shock and wonder,

the old witch looked at me expectantly.

"Are you saying that I will be killed if I leave?" I asked.

"No, I'm saying that you would be dead and buried if I didn't help you. The moment you get out of here, nothing will stop your enemies from achieving their goal." the old woman replied.

"What enemies?" I asked once again confused.

"Why stupid dog the world of course,"

"So this is blackmail!" I was so angry that I overcame the fear and managed to stand up.

"Either I submit or you throw me into the wolf's jaw, correct?"

"Blackmail is the coward's weapon." the old woman shook her head. "If you want to stay here, you are more than welcome to do so, As I already said I will not move a finger against you nor will I share your secret,"

Her answer shocked me, I was more confused Than anything else now.

Why did she offer me such a great deal in exchange?

What was her end game?

or was this just a game to her?

"Just answer me this, what could possibly change if I do not help you?

you will stay a salve to the whims of a fickle moron,

you will still die my dear mongrel as is the case with every other salve the prince had ever bought,

and don't you understand the implication of being a radiant?

what if you were found?

if you weren't, what then?

If you are found and killed, then that is it, the world will end!

do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?

don't you want to live rather than survive?" the old woman said

I felt scared angry and disheartened

I stared at her in bewilderment, I never considered that before, but now that she mentioned it, everything made sense

"Please think about it," she pleaded to look down and then raised her head back to stare straight at me

the words came to me

'take what is offered'

"I want this" I spoke, I don't know where they came from or what was

in my brain, it wasn't me I swear, they just came tumbling out of my mouth,

Just speaking those words made her feel dirty inside.

'If I refuse, they will just kill me. If I accept, at least I'll have an opportunity to survive.' I thought, not trusting these women one bit.

I was new to this world, a prey amongst the predators, I needed time and space to master my abilities and learn how to protect myself; I would have plenty of opportunities to find out what kind of creature I really was.

And adapt to the ways of this new world if I expected to achieve a certain level of success with them.

But this world wasn't ready for me yet, it might never be ready for me. The way the old woman phrased it, I guess the whole world might come down around our ears if I refused to cooperate.

I needed time, space power, and knowledge and I would have to earn them. I needed a chance to survive to live that is all I needed.

The old woman smiled widely, it was as if she saw through the walls of my mind and read my thoughts, my entire body tingled in fear, I felt as if she could see my soul.

She stood up and walked towards me while staring straight into my eyes,

"Then follow me,"

she said before leaving the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed after her.

"You'll see shortly,"

I just stood up and silently walked behind the duo silently praying in my heart.