A mighty being travelled over continents and oceans, unnoticed by everything but the earth itself. A blur sped across impossible terrain, faster than even light. Every second, the shadow parsed every hidden crack and crevice of entire kingdoms, searching. In a breath, it traversed oceans, scanning the seabed, then in an instant flickered to the zenith of mountains. Within moments, the primordial beast touched upon the surface of an entire planet.

Mutterings were left unheard by worldly ears, the sound stretched into unintelligible, incoherent mumbles. Neither mortal nor divine listener could decipher the molecular vibrations conceptually isolated across the great distance travelled between the emission of each wavelength. Heard only by the Ahken forming it’s greater self, Ishfeut murmured to itself. “To...ar...” the sound was stretched across a vast desert. “...ot enou...” a new message was whispered as the primal force moved through a great rainforest. “No...llenge...” sound waves were scattered through the cities of a prosperous empire.

The lord of shadows searched for an ideal place, a place with great potential prominent through the lines of fate. It placed utmost importance upon the task and assigned a great portion of it’s consciousness towards achieving it. When Ishfeut set it’s will to something, it was done. In a time that seemed almost instant to a mortal, it scanned the whole planet and identified the place with the greatest potential wound through the most threads of destiny.

Upon the chosen settlement, a gift was bestowed — well, that was how the primordial darkness chose to see it. In reality, the ‘gift’ would have little effect on the surrounding area, but the treasure would go on to reap massive rewards for Ishfeut. In another second, a quick exertion of it’s will caused the prize to fall in a favourable position, and the lord of shadows fell back into it’s eternal slumber.

* * *

Mistrag Sagrid hated his job. As a result of his family’s background, and as the youngest child, he had been forced into the guard. In order to pay off his and his siblings’ tuition, he was conscripted to seven painstaking sun cycles in the town’s army. Seven dull, boring, lifeless sun cycles. The same simple routine over and over. For seven sun cycles.

It had been a single week, and Mistrag already hated it.

Nothing had happened during his shifts on the outer wall. It had just been cold nights of pacing up and down, watching for a danger that would never come. The only little spark of excitement Mistrag got was on Wrinheru, his assigned rest day. At least then he got to go back to town centre, with his friends and family.

All the same, that was hardly a break. They didn’t really care for him as a family was supposed to. He was left alone even in his time with them, all but forgotten by the world.

Mistrag sighed as he reached the edge of his assigned portion of the wall and turned back around to walk over that patch for the thousandth time. Oh, wow. I walk in a different direction now! How exciting. He shook his head and let out a quiet groan, then spoke out aloud. “There’s no point in complaining. Nothing I can do anyway.”

As he neared the western gates, he spotted something… off at the edge of the path leading out into the wilderness. There was… a lump that hadn’t been there yesterday.

No one ever goes outside the town. Mistrag was suddenly concerned. It’s dangerous, even for the elders.

He pulled a drop of mana from his core, through one of his channels, and into the air around him. Mistrag pulled on his vision and understanding of the element of light to exert it’s force on his environment. He performed the simplest spell, learnt by children, with barely a thought, then expanded the light he had created to fill the hungry void of darkness impeding his vision of the path outside the gates.

Well, this certainly is something exciting, he thought. Maybe it won’t be so bad, if things like this keep happening.

Mistrag concentrated his attention inward and set about casting the more complicated spell taught by the captain of the guard, a signal flare. He wondered what had caused this. Mistrag chuckled to himself as he set his eyes back outward, focusing on the oddity he had found.

Mistrag focused his eyes on the baby, laid on the ground in a simple cradle.