Prologue

Listen to me read to you here: https://soundcloud.com/user-972573532/the-ravenwall-prologue

The Great Mage Alyximeme (Al-eye-xi-meme) sat in his pegasus skin chair writing a report. He scribbled furiously with his right hand, while squeezing his left thumb and pinky over his temples rotating in small circular motions in an attempt to sooth his growing migraine. The room was dark with the only source of light being from the flickering flame of the fat white candle placed at the right hand corner of the desk. The ash desk contained many encrypted files about various dark witches and wizards, murderers, and even immortal Dark Shadowlords. It seemed hours ago since light penetrated from the stained glass window behind the big fat plumpy office chair currently sat on by its owner. Alyximeme realized he may have missed dinner again and the last time he drank fluids was that morning.

“Director Alyximeme, we have a problem here. There is some escaped dark magic in this vicinity. We need your help on extracting it. P.S. This one is more powerful than the last few ones. Our wizards couldn’t purge it.” inscribed a magical note floating midair with a red slightly-slanted URGENT mark stamped on the top.

Alyximeme sighed. In the month before, there had been many cases of dark magic seeping into the Anti-Dark Magic Institution (ADMI) headquarters. Many of those tried to corrupt him into becoming a dark wizard. As the best-known ADMI director in history, Alyximeme never budged to the death, capture, and even invitation threats from dark magic users.

Alyximeme walked over to the end of the room and pushed open his office door hoping to walk down the hallway to pour himself a cup of coffee from the pantry. He prayed that no one had turned off the coffee machine before they left the institution for the day. Suddenly, a wisp of red and black smoke caught his attention. Without warning, the small flame of the candle on his desk was extinguished by a nonexistent gust of wind. The room plunged into eerie darkness. From years of experience, he knew that this could only be Dark Magic!

“Reveal yourself!” Alyximeme commanded. Despite his weariness, he leaped into action, splaying his hands and letting crackling, brilliant magic flow through his fingertips. The blast of energy slammed into the wisp of Dark Magic but it had no effect as the Dark Magic thickened and swirled.

Alyximeme summoned a glowing sphere of power in his hand but before the sphere could substantiate into a powerful weapon, Alyximeme felt a sudden stab of pain on his wrist. He glanced over. Dark magic wrapped around his wrist, extinguishing the magic in his hand. But it didn’t stop there. The red and black smoke crushed his wrist, causing Alyximeme to cry out. The smoke continued around his body and covered all of him in a cocoon of darkness, squeezing. Alyximeme writhed in pain. He closed his eyes in concentration and tried with all his will to generate enough power to escape. Unfortunately, the more he tried, the more painful it was, making it even harder to retaliate.

“How come you are so powerful?” Alyximeme croaked out, choking on his own words, “I have not met such a powerful surge of dark magic in my life! Not even from the Shadowlords!”

“THERE IS MUCH YOU HAVE NOT LEARNED ON THE ABILITIES OF THE TWO MOST POWERFUL DARK SHADOWLORDS!” boomed a loud voice.

Alyximeme’s eyes went as large as golf balls when he recognized the voice was from a Dark Shadowlord known as Castrum the doom-bringer, the most destructive of all Shadowlords.

“SILENCE, CASTRUM!” an obscured raspy voice called out, “LET ME DEAL WITH THE OLD VEGETABLE WHO CALLS HIMSELF A MAGE.”

“FINE, BUT I SHALL BE THE ONE WHO WILL LEAD THE FINAL STRIKE, ZABULAS” Castrum replied.

Alyximeme’s eyes widened even further when he realized he was dealing with the most dangerous and powerful dark Shadowlord. He immediately foresaw his painful death but secretly hoped it would be swift and painless. He scoffed at his own wishful thoughts. Of course his death would be stretched, most probably with plenty of screaming.

“ADMI WILL NO LONGER BY A THORN IN OUR SIDE! I SHALL CONSUME YOU IN DARK MAGIC! FROM NOW ON, YOU ARE MY SLAVE. YOU SHALL BECOME A SERVANT OF EVIL AND DARKNESS…FOR I AM THE SHADOWLORD ZABULAS!!!” Zabulas cackled.

“We will push the Ravenwall and you will be obliterated.” Alyximeme roared with his last breath of energy.

“SO IGNORANT, SO PETTY! I MIGHT EVEN MISS YOUR HUMOUR WHEN I DISPOSE OF YOU!” Zabulas scoffed.

Alyximeme let out one final scream and disappeared in the swirling storm of dark magic.

Click here to continue to Chapter 1: The Note