"MLC: Ch3" by Preston Walker

            And so it came to pass that the messat stone, that was once so holy to the realm of Mezzolin, crumbled.  The son of the Savior, Challisous II, was at that very place , to witness the horror of Tasheval’s rebirth.  As he rose, he looked more of a beast than human.  He had fleshed horns sprouting from his head, and his skin was dark red.  He seemed to have no feet, as his form kept rising, and rising.  He stopped at twenty feet above Challisous II.  Tasheval never made eye contact with him, he merely looked around at the terrain.

            Soon all would be explained.

            Also, from the smoldering crater that the evil being lurked from, black and red cloaked figures emerged from the hands of the beast.  The outlanders…No one had known the logical existence of these people.  They hailed from the inhospitable deserts of the planet, and they had never caused any alarm.  One figure stuck out from the rest, he wore a violet cloak with a gold sash.  He stepped foreword.

            “Today is the day of Syxn!”

And then there was silence.

                                                                        -The Vessalouge: 3:4

*    *    *

            “Why have you brought me here?!” Torry tried to scream, yet it came as a squeak.

            Scelestra, Heaven’s keeper, said nothing.  She had answered none of the mortal’s questions for several minutes now.  She continued to meditate in the strange room.  All around were stars and constellations, and slow, everlasting pendulums and sundials.  There was an eerie blue aura surrounding the room, shaped as a sphere, so as if Torry would move, the sphere would rotate.  Scelestra’s form seemed to be at rest, her long blonde hair had bright brunette highlights that  always sent a shiver through Torry’s soul.

            “Where is Scieta??!!” He said more hostilely.  She slowly opened her eyes, and looked at him peacefully.

            “She is in her bed, safe and asleep.”  She stood and began walking to the limits of the room, where she put her hand on the flat wall, yet turned a random sundial as if it protruded from the wall.  “She will awaken from her bed where I left her, and she will think the entire ordeal was a dream.  No proof, not real.”  She said smugly.  Her hips swaying proudly as she returned to her original position.

            “Yea, well I appreciate your help very much and all, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful…but WHERE am I?”  He said trying to hold back his initial anger.  He had gotten rather used to being transparent, helping his former fiancé get over his death, now she was almost taken advantage of by a family enemy, and no doubt scared to her wits end by seeing Torry alive!

            “Your rage is acceptable for one in your…’circumstances’.” She turned back to him and sat in front of him, her eyes an ice blue. 

            “Can I ask you a few things?”  Torry said patiently.

            “No, but it wont stop you.”  She said with a grin, waiting for his onslaught.  Torry was silent.  He blinked a few times.  He wondered if she was joking or if she was actually perturbed by his sudden curiosity with his new world, which he found made him furious. 

            “If it pleases your holiness…” He slung together.  “Would you mind informing me why I was brought to this place, and why mortality has returned!”  He pulled up his sleeve, and pointed to his arm.  There was obvious muscle damage, and it was swollen, but there was no pain whatsoever.   The purple blemish covered all the way around his decently muscular arm, at the point where it was broken while in the spirit realm, how she would explain that he knew not.

            Scelestra smiled, “Alright mortal,”  Torry was visually fuming.     “I’ll make this easy to comprehend.”

            So she explained it to him in terms even he could understand, in a friendly, feminine voice.  “Okay, I do apologize for this inconvenience, but you just might be the last hope for the human race as we know it… I brought you here to ensure that you are ready for your journey ahead; which believe me, you are not.  You do not have a choice in the matter, you will help save your kind or you will be the first to perish with it.  I am here because this threat is also a danger to the Heaven realm.  So you can imagine how much your kind will be blown over.  My name is Scelestra, and I am your only hope of surviving…Hope you got all that,” She breathed evenly and eyed him with a witty smile, “because I’m not repeating it.”