Volume 1: Prologue

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In the Realm of Celestia, the first realm created by the Grand Design, there are three worlds: Sylrillia, Rathnoria, and Ulnoria. First, the Grand Design gave life to the Ulnorians, its first children, whom he placed in the world of water, they guard the many beautiful creations brought to life by the Grand Design. For centuries, the Grand Design watched and marveled at the lives he created and how the Ulnorians learned to do interesting things, they played, they laughed, they went on adventures, invented new technology, created art and tamed wild creatures.

Then the Grand Design had an idea, it would create multiple Realms and populate those with different kinds of people and living things, collectively these Realms became the Refalms of the Universe. One day, it turned its attention to Realm of Westia, it noticed that the people of one of the worlds started destroying their own planet, then warred heavily against one another, till it enslaved all weaker races. The Grand Design was horrified and tried to interfere, only to learn that it could not interfere with the beings directly once the creation took place, so it turned back to its first Realm, populated Syrillia with a more powerful race and enable the Sylrillians to travel between Realms to make things right, to restore humanity where it is lost, to raised heroes, to be the guardian angels of the Realms of the Universe. Born in the light, the Grand Design’s favored children are tasked with ensuring that all goes well in other Realms of the Universe, the Grand Design instilled goodness in their hearts so that they may not be corrupted by the power that it had given them.

However, the Sylrillians were not able to restore order to all Realms, and when some threatened others, the Grand Design knew it had to destroy worlds that it had created. With the Sylrillians unwilling to do so, the Grand Design created the Rathnorians, to carry out the task of destroying Realms. Born in darkness, Rathnorians were made no less powerful than their counterparts but were also instilled with values that would allow them to better carry out the Grand Design’s tasks.

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It all started on that day when the Sylrillians were unwatchful and the Rathnorians unaware. The gates on both worlds were unlocked and two young souls slipped through. It was the gate to a planet in our own Realm, the planet Earth of the solar system which opens up to a scene in the wilderness.

Out of the gate came a little girl with grey eyes and ash brown hair. Having emerged into an unknown Reality, the girl was amazed to find sand beneath her feet and see the smooth surface of a lake surrounded by trees which she had never seen before. Taking care no one was around, the Sylrillian child spotted a rock ledge which jutted out into the water around fifty paces away. She walked towards the rock and nimbly climbed onto its flat surface, sticking her face above the water to look at her own reflections. She sat down on the edge, carefully removed her winged slippers, and broke the still surface with her feet.

Suddenly there was a crack of a twig behind her and she spun round, certain that her tutor had found her, but was faced with a young boy her age with ruby red hair and eyes the colour of garnet. She startled in surprise and would have fallen off the edge if the boy hadn’t grabbed her shirt and pulled her back.

“Wh…who are you?” she stammered, not knowing what to do. “Why did you sneak up on me like that”.

“Who’re you?” he countered. “I didn’t sneak up on you. Besides, no one is supposed to be here.”

“And why are you here? If no one’s supposed to be here then -”

“I asked you a question…” the boy cut in.

“And I asked you first.” Knowing this conversation wasn’t getting anywhere the boy sighed and answered her question.

“Just call me Flare, and I’m here because I got bored with my lessons so I slipped away from my master when he’s not looking. So unless you want to become enemies, you will not tell him I’m here.”

“Of course not. I don’t even know your master. Besides, I slipped away from my tutor too.” She said. “I’m Rain, nice to meet you.” She held out her hand which Flare, unaccustomed to shaking hands, refused to take.

“My father told me I am not to make contact with other people. He said that I am different from everyone else. Physical contacts are not for strangers or enemies. I am not to make friends as friendship is unnecessary for me. I was meant for greater duties.” Flare recited his father’s command.

“You know what? My father said the exact same thing about strangers but my mother said that friendship is the greatest gift of all. A friend cares for you and shares your happiness and sorrows. A friend stands by you when no one else is on your side. A friend loves you and is there for you to love. Doesn’t that sound good? Hey sit down” she grabbed his arm and pulled him down to sit beside her. “You should ask your mother, maybe she thinks differently-Flare what’s wrong? You look so serious”

“I don’t have a mother. She died because of me, that’s why people fear me. That’s why I would never understand what you just said. You should stay away from me before I hurt you too.”

“I’m sorry about your mother, I never-”

Flare waved away any further comment and stood up to leave. However, it was not in Rain’s nature to give up and so she grabbed him by his boots and pulled hard. The red haired boy toppled into the water and Rain jumped in after him in a big splash. When Flare emerged he looked around and to his horror found that Rain wasn’t there. He was half surprised that she pulled him but was more worried that something might have gone wrong and that she must have drowned. He called for her but there was no answer. He took a deep breath, ready to dive to her rescue when she emerged behind him with a loud “Boo!”. The shock caused him to swallow a mouthful of water and he spent the next minute spluttering. Rain was wracking with laughter until she realized that Flare was coming at her. She quickly swam stroke after stroke towards shore and once there, continued laughing.

“What the hell was that for?” Flare asked, angry at her and his stupidity to have fallen for such a trick. “What’s so funny?”

“See? You’re not one single bit scary. I’m only six and I guess you’re not much different.” She laughed “You shouldn’t just believe what adults say you know. You’re in perfect control of yourself and you’re even scared for me. Unless you go mad and start hurting yourself, I don’t think you’ll even hurt a fly”. She smiled at him as any young innocent girl would and sat there cocking her head to one side. Flare looked into her grey eyes and found warmth, the kind of which he had never known before, this strange girl who is so different and yet similar to his inner self in many ways has offered him that which he longed for all his life, friendship.

“You…will be my friend?” He asked. “But we might never see each other again. My master will be here soon and he’ll never let me here ever again if he knows I met you here.” Just to make sure that his master was not around he looked behind him.
“What the adults don’t know wouldn’t hurt them right? Of course I’ll be your friend and you’ll be mine. Make this a secret between us, yes? And if we’ll never see each other again, you’ll still be my first and best friend. In here.” Rain put her hand to her heart and held out her little finger in a gesture of promise. Flare linked his little finger to her hands and for the first time smiled.

“Aye, a secret between us” said Flare. They held their fingers linked for a long time then both started laughing. Gone were the worries of their masters finding them, gone were the fear of one another.

The children played together from then until sun set. They jumped into the lake and swam for hours, ran along the shore of the lake, into the woods and back out again. When the sun went down past the horizon, a voice was heard from across the shore, it was Rain’s tutor. They both exchanged their final farewells and went their separate ways.

Thus was a great beginning of love and friendship between the two souls from Sylrillia and Rathnoria of the Realm of Celestia who were never meant to meet outside their Reality let alone be friends. They are the two souls that would one day change the fate of their two worlds forever.