The former Grand Wizard Eldridge (now mostly known as the Great Sage, or Sage Eldridge) had been overseeing the project proposed by one of his students for almost 20 years. It was an ambitious project, based upon an interesting interpretation of prophecy. It took almost 10 years just to assemble the catalysts needed to perform the ritual. Then there were the trials, as one attempt after another were made and the ritual was tinkered with. Their race was doomed. He knew that.

It had been prophesied a little over 2,000 years ago when the Usurper, who’s name shall always be cursed, Darius took the head of the Silver Dragon King. Making the Sun God and Patron of Humanity Elis turn his face from the race of man. Man alone lived in a perpetual world of shadow. The sun which rose on the other races and creatures was not the sun that rose on man. Man lived under a deep blood red orb, it did not provide enough light for agriculture, nor for heat, nor for much of anything; somehow the curse seemed to know which crops were being grown by man as those crops grew withered regardless who cultivated them.

Man grew feeble, diseased, short lived. Most humans faded out from assorted reasons by their 30’th birth year. Humanity was dying. The monsters which once served man now eat him. Or would if humans had enough meat or weren’t so diseased for it. The races which once lived in harmony with man now enslaved him. Not that men made great slaves, but the edict of the gods was clear, and no one was to AID mankind. In a way slavery was actually a boon, and insured humanity would not be extinct. Many slaves to Fairies or the Kindred or the Gnomes under the ground were healthier and lived longer lives then the free humans. They got to eat filling food, even while they were worked to the bone.

While the humans enslaved by other races maintained some dignity those free or those enslaved by other men were little more than animals. With a sky high infant mortality rate humanity was forced into a race against extinction, with men encouraged to sire as many offspring as possible whenever possible and women encouraged to bare as many as possible. The result of course was women being treated as a quasi-slave population whether they were slaves or not. The value of a woman being how many healthy children she could bear before her body collapsed. Life was a dehumanizing hell, that was being suffered by humans over and over and over again as the years marched on.

So when his disciple proposed a solution to the curse of course he had listened. The solution was bold. The prophecies left behind from that time spoke of a hero or king who would return. Potentially the grey king himself, reborn. Though there was a lot of debate on that point. The key riddle was the lines in the prophecy which spoke about the champion being “untouched by the curse”. This lead to conclusion that perhaps a human from another world could be summoned to this one. A human who grew up without the curse, who might be immune to the curse after the summoning. This type of human might be what the prophecy spoke of. Then the human who was not in the disfavor of Elis may be able to convince Elis to remove the curse from humankind.

There were many problems with this theory; even Eldridge knew that. There was nothing which guaranteed that there even were other humans in creation, born away from this cursed place. Years were spent scrying to find more humans on a plane or planet SOMEWHERE. And once it was certain they lived without a curse from Elis, then it was more years designing a ritual and accumulating the required equipment and focuses for it. Finally, while the last years of the project wore on, and his disciple passed due to poor aging, Eldridge took over the project, and added his own touch to it. A picture encyclopedia, and a slave. The slave would be the key to the encyclopedia, as long as the summoned human was relatively smart (and they took precautions to insure he was) he should learn the language quick enough.

He had not been present during the summoning, he no longer had the strength for such types of magic. As the body aged man’s connection to magic usually withered as well. It was believed this was the result of the flame of life within a human being finite. And the smaller the flame the smaller mana they could channel. ‘Well that is one theory anyway.’

Rounding the corner his hurried stride slowed down as he took his first look at the man they summoned. He was like a living god. A full two hands taller than any man he had ever seen, ‘dark hair! Green eyes!’ colors which did not exist here. He was muscular too. The robes couldn’t hide it, the man had a strong chest, broad shoulders. His skin wasn’t pale white, but had color to it. The man seemed strangely tense, looking for the cause he finally noticed the sword blade pointing at his chest.

“Put that sword down you fool!” He shouted in a rush, panic on his face.

The guardsman jumped and looked over at the aged mage, then sheathed the blade and quickly saluted fist to chest.

The young man didn’t seem any less tense and was rocking back and forth on his feet as he watched the old man close the distance

Eldridge looked at the slave kneeling on the ground behind the young man “quickly tell me what has happened, did he give you his seed?”

The young woman shook her head

“Slave, did you offer yourself to him?”

“I did master. He didn’t even get within arm’s reach”

The old man frowned and looked at the young one. The young man seemed to be trying to pantomime something to him. Frowning, Eldridge studied the hand motions. First the man made a serpentine motion with his hand then he squatted down, then he ran his hand over his rear end, before standing up. Frowning at the almost clownish behavior he was a little worried that despite all their precautions they summoned someone insane. The boy, despite his undignified actions seemed to be fairly insistent. Watching the body contortions with growing concern the young man with a frustrated look on his face grabbed his manhood through his robes and holding with one hand seemed to stretch with a happy look on his face and pelvis thrust out. A light of understanding seemed to alight in the old man’s eyes, then the old sage spoke slowly. “Do you think you can show this young man to the privy?” He directed the question to the slave girl.

“Yes master.” She stood up then tried to guide the tall man with her hand.

He actually flinched back from her touch, a very disgusted look on his face. She made some hand motions and the man seemed to understand something then followed her down the hallway. The look of disgust on the young man’s face was stamped in the old man’s mind as he pondered.

This could be bad if his language teacher was unacceptable to the man. It took almost two years to teach her everything he could think of she might need to know to teach him the language. He taught her every language on the continent, he taught her every ancient tongue and the standardized writing style of the continent, he taught her non-verbal language skills, and taught her how to teach others to write without SPEAKING a word. Of the 20 slaves he purchased for this task she was by far the best. Better still she was fertile and untouched. He thought she would make a fantastic present to the man. Yet the man seemed very unhappy with the present.

Speaking absently to guardsman who had the sword out at some point, Teral he thought he was called, he asked a question “Do you think that young man might not like her? He seemed rather ill disposed toward her?”

The guardsman grimaced “you’re overthinking it sage. You see that boy’s teeth? White. I mean white like… white. He has them all too. His nails were like a lady Fairy’s perfect, just like a fairy he smelled like some sort of scented flower or something. That man ain’t like the rest of us Sage. I think he doesn’t like how us humans live here. He looks like he baths daily like some noble fairy.” Snorting back a laugh the man then added “He even had the skin cut on his manhood like the fairies do it. You sure he’s human? I mean he’s as tall or taller than a fairy lord though might even be stronger and heavier than most Rock Devil I’ve seen. All he’s missing is the pointed fairy ears. My guess is you’d need to make that girl attractive to a fairy before he would be willing to be within 10 spans of her. Good luck with that one.”

The sage frowned at the guardsman’s comment. “I’ve overlooked something big haven’t I?”

“Seems like it. Not all plans work perfect”

“I should have thought about what a human not living under a curse might look like. What that might mean for his tastes. Well can’t do anything about it now. Just going to have to see how clean I can get her. Then keep her clean.” The sage felt a headache building. “I hope this human is worth it; 20 years. And remember, your job is to keep him alive not kill him. If I hear you harmed a hair on his head, I’ll kill you and enslave your family for the next 10 generations. Don’t think I can’t do it. Make sure the other guards know it as well”

Fist to heart the guardsman paled about the threat. Usually the old sage was a genial fellow, but he heard tales about some of the things he had done to those who displeased him. Genial fellows don’t often live long enough to have grey hair anymore.