Prologue:

The Wizards academy brought forth many new candidates this year.The counsel had a brief meeting before the procession of Wizards that were about to participate in the upcoming event. The big event that every young and old magic user should be awaiting. This was to determine if you were even good enough to practice magic. If you were a better magic user, then you could be one of the few who were able to join an assigned party along side other members on a quest to a far away land and fight demons and evil monsters that threaten to lay waste to this rag tag world of ours. It was a world of magic, fighters, clerics of different divinations, gnomes, dwarfs, elves that thought they were too good for humans. It was the fight for humankind that was the key issue. If humankind were to be wiped out entirely from this world then all hell came loose. As if hell did not lay siege to the adjoining lands that neighbored ours. This land was perilously close to becoming destroyed by the mighty dragon demon, great Cirrus. A blood red dragon that kept vigil atop a dark and massive mountain that no man nor beast could climb. No other dragons would dare cross this demon of a dragon for fear of not being scorched, nay, this was the least of the problems…..the magic that this one possesses….it would not just kill but bring one to eternal torturous madness forever plunged into the abyss that no one can bring you back.

Tapry Keep was where this contest of magics were being held. Many new wizards or so called magic users applied for this contest. Many did not make it because the practice of magicks in this day and age were few and far between. One had to be immensely focused, diligent, practiced, intelligent, and above all…talented. It was even more helpful if a wizard to be were apprenticed to a well-known wizard. This was not the case because a decade ago, few of those good practicing magic users were destroyed by Cirrus. The ones that were left were not even bothered. This is where Nephrite came in. She was the daughter of the greatest wizard that ever lived, and disappeared long ago. Rumors had it that this Wizard disintegrated into dust many years ago but Cirrus did not know of him because the great Romalus had not existed when Cirrus made himself known. Romalus took to the hills of Eve, with his two daughters and son. The son was deathly ill and did not make it before he was ten and the unknown facts of the two daughters were not known until one of the daughters made herself back into society at fourteen. She had no recollection of her past life and as if the memory banks within her mind had disappeared…she had made herself comfortable into the town of Evenshone and married when she was fifteen. She was not a pretty child, neither unattractive but possessed a great kindness and gentleness. Mauve beget several sons and because she was the great wizards offspring, the counsel of the Tapry supervised her the first few years after her return from the hills of Eve thinking with some hope that she would possess some of her great father's talents. Sadly, they had given up knowing with some disheartened consolation that she was as normal of a human as was her mother before. The Counsel of Tapry wished to possess some of Romulas's great magicks and bring down the ruin of Cirrus one-day. For every ten years he came down from his mountain of fire and ice and burned and took many virgins to his cavern. Cirrus was demon dragon who lusted after the virgins of the world and knew that after ten years new virgins came into the world. The young maids between the ages of birth and 10 he left behind knowing in ten years many of them would remain virgins…because many young men were gone to fight in the wars of monsters and demons that laid waste to many lands. Many young men tried out as fighters and cavaliers, paladins, and other soldier duties and mercenary figures. If Cirrus did not get the virgins that he received after ten years then he made sure he destroyed everyone's crops, everyone's homes, and so it was with great sadness that the Counsel of Tapry tried valiantly every year to find new Wizards…to find the great magic user.

Nephrite was Romula's youngest daughter and she possessed great magicks, even greater than her own fathers. No one knew this except her and her little dragon pet. She lived in seclusion deep in the heart of the hills of Eve and harvested her powers to greatly benefit herself and what she wanted. She wanted nothing of this world or what it could bring her. She cared not for the human life nor did she even bother. Her way of life was to go forth to another distant universe where her magicks would be most useful. She looked around her and scoffed at the way everyone was anticipating the contest. She kept herself distant form the other magic users for she did not want to expose her gender immediately. Women were not considered good magic users and usually ended up with healing magicks or could pursue a position as a great cleric. Few became clerics because the job that it demanded was rough for a woman. Magic was not generally used for their gender because of the menstrual period once a month. It took great strength, concentration and effort, every cell in your body had to use its utmost potential to generate even the magick to produce a small heal. Women also did not possess the physical strength men had unless they were born with large amounts of muscle fibers not usually found in their gender. Nephrite overrides this deficiency through the help of her father. She did not have to sacrifice her gender's handicap for many of the uses of magics that were to be done.

"Hello." A voice startled her from her deep thoughts. It was not often when she was surprised like this. She usually kept her guard but this was after all the first time in years since she has returned into society again. Her eyes caught the dark pools of the man across from her. He was interested in her that she knew from the wicked gleam of his expression. She sighed, she supposed she would have to put with the idiosyncrasies of a man's lust. She nodded, "Hello." Her voice, soft, lilting, melodious floated to the man's ear and his eyes widened a bit. Intrigued further to find a woman among the wizard's dining room he thought maybe she was lost and that she did not know the way to the healer's dining area. "Mayhap you are new here?"

"Yes."Hoping to evoke more of a response from her, the man smiled broadly, "This is the Wizard's dining area, you are perhaps a magic healer? We could certainly use more magic healers, especially beautiful young women as yourself." Groaning inwardly, she smiled slightly, "Nay, I need not know where the magic healers are. I am curious. I want to stay here, thank you." With that, she turned around, hoping that her show of rudeness might waylay his eager tongue and look.

Love's sweet breath…..

Angels rise,
as we speak,
our breaths lightly pass
between vibrant energies,
which mingle like that
of heated couples,
and bring forth,
of northern lights,
they fall upon sacred ground,
for you are my love,
my brightest,
my darkest,
my purest mortal man,
who has come to give me...
his breath of life....