"Prologue - Sheni" by Sophia Tula Rose Dique

Prologue

The first time a Sheni was captured, it was by the greatest of mages. The immortal beast was held within a slab of stone, runes engraved around the edges to trap and hold the animal. The mages saw the Sheni as a menace – the only beings powerful enough to prey on humans, and the only beings that humans themselves were too weak to attack. So they set out, lugging their immense stones across the land. With these stones they caught and held the Sheni they found, even the most peaceful.

It wasn’t for a long time that they felt the inconvenience of their stones; when they did, they set out to create something that was simpler, lighter, more convenient. Wood was used; then cards. And eventually, their cards were sold to the general populace.

When the first cards had been created, the mages modified them from their original idea. Why not, instead of simply trap the beings, enslave them, so that they must and would obey their captors?

Obey their captors they did. The Sheni could be summoned from their cards at will, forced to obey their holders. The Holders – that is what bearers of the cards began to be called – were usually fierce hunters; the Sheni had to be defeated in combat before they could be enslaved. The Holders employed many tricks to give them the advantage over the immortals. More often than not, a Holder paid mercenaries or villagers to help him, or her, gang up on the beast. Thus were the Sheni enslaved.

The cards went down through the generations. Ones collected by the Holders of a family were passed down to their descendants. It became the fashion for the oldest son, or daughter, of the family to have as many as fifty cards.

The ones who inherited the cards became known as the Bearers. Only people who went out to capture the Sheni themselves were allowed the right to bear the title of Holder. Soon to see, or hear of a Holder became rare. No one wished to risk themselves catching the Sheni, when they could swap their cards with a friend, or receive a card as repayment for a job.

The world forgot that the Sheni had once been feared, powerful – the cards became part of their everyday lives, and soon the cards themselves depleted in worth. It didn’t matter that the most powerful magic ever performed had been placed upon the cards. Bearers were so often seen that their social status was much the same as ever. Only a Holder was respected, and looked upon with awe.

Wild Sheni were sometimes spotted. Most people chose to forget that they had seen them. It was too much effort to make all the announcements to the community, about one lone, wild beast. They often decided that they had been mistaken. The Sheni themselves retreated from civilisation. They had seen what had been done to their brethren. They nurtured a deep dislike of humanity. In some, the dislike blossomed into hatred. Those that hated often attacked and killed any humans that came across their paths. When attacked, many humans were stupid enough to call upon their enslaved Sheni to defend themselves; which made the Sheni more ferocious in their desire to destroy.

As it was generally thought that Sheni could not feel, the humans decided that wild Sheni were in general fierce and bloodthirsty. The fact that all the attacks had been on Bearers passed by them unnoticed; the humans began to fear the wild Sheni, and view them with either hatred or disgust. So the rift between humanity and the wild Sheni grew.

The original creators of the cards had long since passed away. By some, their memories were honoured; by others, cursed. Either way, the cards changed both societies.