[Prolouge] An Unadvised Trip

[Lance]

"Oh yes," Kevin smiled fiendishly, becoming more and more aware of the unnatural aura within the room. He had been one of the last to follow after the others, so caught up was he in the moment. But when he finally rejoined the group in the next area, he nearly burst out in laughter.

"Keep it up, Ardelia!" he exclaimed, cheering her on from the sidelines while the girl flipped through page after page of the mysterious book.

The young man laughed. At this point, he found himself caring even less about the book and more about the people involved. Their reactions were just so priceless.

Then the unthinkable happened: Kevin farted.

Bang!

It was hard to tell whether the noise came from the explosion behind the group or the explosion within Kevin's trousers-so perfect was the timing. But one thing was certain, as the uncharacteristic distraction caused heads to turn and the candle to fall.

"I hate fate."

However, as soon as those words left Kevin's mouth, the candle and the pages that fell erupted into purple flames, as if to contest his words. All heads were turned now as the flames began tracing an intricate pattern on the floor. First a line, then a squiggly, then somehow an ENTIRE circle was formed.

Light drew out from inside and within moments, the room was fully engulfed. And though Kevin squinted his eyes in a vain attempt to see what was really going on, all he could make out were the forms of the other students as they each winked out one by one. The light intensified then and even he felt he was being removed from the place.

In sudden reflection, the feeling that stirred within him then was strange, but oddly liberating. And before the light could encompass him completely, just before he could "wink" out from existence like the others, he briefly thought that this was how birds must have felt in those precious few moments before they first achieved flight.

When his vision finally returned, Kevin quickly realized he was in another place. A familiar voice let out a small "O-Oopsies?" from nearby, however, bringing him back to reality; his smile re-emerged.

"Good job, Ardelia!" Kevin laughed while patting her on the back. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

But before the conversation could continue, another flash of light and he now found himself somehow strapped to a chair, while a hooded dude with purple hair was busy talking while practically breathing down his throat. And though he found the discussion mildly interesting and just somewhat satisfactory, he had a far more pressing issue at hand.

"You," he basically yelled, "Yeah, dude with the hood-the one too ashamed to show his face."

"Mind dropping the whole 'THOU SHALT NOT MOVE' thing?" he asked in a polite tone.

"My nose itches."

[Asta]

Lilly took a deep breath, and then another, and then one more. Each long inhalation brought with it a little bit of equanimity, and soon her panic was all but forgotten. She needed her wits, how else would she get through... whatever this was?

The dark haired boy in the coat was shouting something at the woman, so Lilly was unconsciously forced to look at him. There was something she found particularly repellent about him. His eyes maybe, or just his general volume. Now that I think about it, wasn't he encouraging Ardelia to mess with the book?

Lilly wondered for a moment, how the dark haired girl felt about all this. She was certainly uncannily talkative for her previously shy behavior, and maybe that was a coping mechanism for stress. Regardless, Lilly turned to Ardelia and gave a gentle, but wan, smile.

[Mysticsage]

?These chairs act as anchor points to allow you to stay within the observatory for the moment you may move you may move the rest of your body freely she said not even glancing to look at Kevin. Otherwise she ignored his ploys to get a raise.

?The curse? She said getting back on topic, ?was set in motion before you all approached the Book of the Tiamat?. As she spoke the air seemed to come alive with energy. And the darkness seemed to fade slightly. Turning the surrounding void to a grey.

Norn bit her lower lip slightly as the energy faded back to as it was before, ?I must make this quick. We do not have much time to talk before you all are forced back to your world?

Speaking with more urgency now Norn continued, ? The book has the ability to rewrite the very fabric of reality upturning the world order completely in favor of what has been placed within its pages. This has happened only once before draining the tomes strength greatly. What had been left has now been spent in enacting this new curse. Nothing will be spared from the coming changes-?

Norn stopped once again as the lights dancing from the crystal ball dimmed drawing her attention. ?The only reason I was able to pull you eight here in the first place was because you burned the medium releasing a little of the book's power.?

?The curse will warp everything including peoples memory. Everyone but the caster of the curse is meant to remember the world of the past. However now here you all are in the same position as they are.?

At this Norn dramatically waved her arms, ?You all being separated from the curse even for such a short time while it begins to take root shall be the only line of defense against the ensuing insanity. By maintaining your own memories you shall have the ability to affect change to your own advantage. Only by building a network of bonds will you all be able to succeed and save your loved ones from  their fates.?

The entire space began to shake violently as Norn began to seemingly evaporate into the darkness. ?To help you in this task I shall do all I can from here! In times of struggle or demanding decisions look for these,? From Norn sleeves flew a deluge of blue glowing butterflies. ?These shall be my markers and my messengers watch out for them!? she yelled before she was completely gone. As if on cue the storm of butterflies surrounding you in a vortex of colors obscuring all else and then suddenly nothing was left.

The next thing you all know you wake up heads pounding just as your alarm clock go off in your respective bedrooms. You all have no memories of the observatory or the strange occurrences there in. In fact your memories seem to have gone missing about the entire experience having been replaced with a simple sneaking into the restricted section finding it boring and leaving.



It is Tuesday August 27th the first day of school.

Everything seems normal as you ride the bus or are driven to school, nothing out of the ordinary the usual chatter and sights. Only when you get to your respective homerooms do feel a strange sense of electricity run  up your spines setting your hair on end. The teacher has yet to enter the room as you glance around uneasily.

[Oath]

When Norn began to speak, Ardelia felt relieved. It wasn't her fault that all of this was happening, in fact because of her there might be a chance to right things down the road. After that initial amount of relief, all that remained was confusion. Every so called answer only raised more questions. She sat silently, hands cupped around her mouth as she listened to Norn's words. As Norn faded out of existence and the swarm of ethereal azure butterflies fluttered about, Ardelia felt as if it were a scene she could never forget. The butterflies had distracted her just enough for her to be a bit slow in realizing that Norn had vanished. So many questions were left unanswered. What is this ragtag group of teenagers, who don't even know each other supposed to do to fix the world? What exactly was the "network" of bonds supposed to be? Were they supposed to be friends with each other now? Or meet new people and somehow gain power from that? Hoping it was the latter rather than the former, Ardelia continued to ponder. If something like this had happened before, how come there isn't a record of it in history? Surely if the world was changed so drastically someone would remember it. Who would even bother casting such a spell? What was so wrong with the world that it had to change?

As the butterflies dissipated, the world went dark. Ardelia lay in bed, confused at what had happened. She felt as if something was off, but could not put her finger on it. The sun had managed to rise far enough in the sky to shine through her blinds and into her eyes. She closed them in a response, and a loud knock came upon her door. As she was barely becoming conscious it seemed that her brother Noel had come to make sure that she was awake, being late for the first day of school would be in bad form.

Leaving the house, Ardelia was greeted by her childhood friend Issac, and they went off to school. They were in the same class again this year, it seemed. Everything appeared to be normal despite how weird the previous day was and how it felt like a chunk of memory had just vanished. She waved timidly at the people around town who she regularly came into contact with, just like always. At school, everything seemed to be normal, she was greeted by the usual suspects, and caught the odd glance here or there from people that she had shared classes with in the past. They never were really more than classmates, anyways.

Sitting in the classroom, Ardelia and Issac made some idle chatter while waiting for the homeroom teacher. They hadn't shown up yet, which was a bit odd, though they were not particularly late, but also not early. Some of the students seemed to be particularly nervous about the situation, but Ardelia didn't think it seemed that odd. "Perhaps they are just getting a few logistics issues out of the way" she suggested to Issac.

Looking at her, Issac shrugged. You could tell that he wouldn't mind if the teacher didn't show up at all.
"You know, if they are 15 minutes late, I am gonna get out of here. Maybe I will head over to the arcade and waste my day away. We respect the times they tell us to be here, so they should too! If they can't do that there is no point in staying, it's the first day, so I doubt i'll miss anything important."

Ardelia's brow furrowed, as she looked a bit upset with Issac.
"Skipping the first day is not the way you want to make a name for yourself Issac" She was sure he knew this, but felt the need to remind him none the less.

Shrugging again, Issac put his head down on the desk looking idly out the window. Either way the situation would resolve itself soon. Either he would see the teacher walk in and have his hopes of freedom dashed, or he would burst into the hallway with a whoop of joy and run off into town to spend his day that way. If he isn't going to be at school, he sure doesn't want his parents to know.

[Mysticsage]

prolouge finsihed please move to designated first chapter