Games of the Powerful

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  A whirlwind of a week passed preparing for war or making ready for long journeys. For Leadyl and Mitch, it had been a week of reading dusty old tomes and scrolls searching for the elusive clues that they needed to find. Finally, toward the end of the week Leadyl tried strictly using her imagination successfully locating her scroll. Excited she explained to Mitch how she did it and he was able after some effort to find his. Each scroll said essentially the same thing that each of them would travel to their towers and gain entry to the gifts of the light inside. Leadyl would go north to the black tower on the lake and Mitch would go to the black tower in the swamp. Each tower carried the weight of evil upon them and that insidious evil would keep them from entering the tower. To enter the towers they will need to purge the evil encompassing them making them pure in the light.

  The scrolls told of an ancient story of good against evil, light against dark. Ithandus a great wizard lived in the south tower and an equally great wizard named Sythandria lived in the north tower. Sythandria with her long-red hair and pale skin with beauty beyond compare loved the mountains and the snow. Ithandus was handsome beyond compare with his long brown hair and brown eyes loved his swamp, forests and the plains beyond. It is said; they loved each other more than their beautiful marble white and gold towers, their mountains, and swamps and the creatures that lived there. Ultimately married by the light, they gave birth to many children bringing humanity to the world of Rhewan. With humanity, still young and a fledgling race, the faery creatures, elves, trolls, dwarfs and the like thrived in the light the two wizards brought.

  Then something dreadful occurred that changed everything. The darkness ever jealous of the gains of the light sent evil minions, dark creatures to spread hatred between the races of man and faery creatures alike. A dark time came to the world of Rhewan, which means creation of love and the name of their first child. The ever-encroaching darkness threatened the entire world, people were slaughtering each other in nameless wars for the greed of land and gold, and mothers were selling their children into slavery or outright murdering them because they did not have enough food for them. The land became barren, as did mothers of all races human and faery alike and all the creatures of the land and sea. Food became worth more than gold or silver or all the barren lands combined. We now fought wars over dwindling food supplies and clean water. Small pockets of people tried and did survive for a time but it became evident that the end was near the darkness had won.

  Sythandria and Ithandus waged incessant battle against this darkness suffering defeat after defeat. Thousands of their children of the light lay dead their dismembered bodies strewn across the world and still they cried tears of pain at the great losses. At the last battle the last futile attempt to stop the darkness, they began to realize they would have to make the ultimate sacrifice to stop the onslaught of darkness. They could retreat no further, their towers fell to the darkness, and soldiers lay dead about them on the field of battle. They took each other’s hands and kissed one last loves sweet kiss joining as one. The wash of light grew as bright as the sun above and wherever it spread, it destroyed the darkness. It spread across the world in an instant to culminate in a flash of brilliant light as if a star exploded. The world fell silent waiting with bated breath for more but their light of true love was gone forever a victim of the darkness and all that remained of the darkness was their towers like two drops of black indelible ink dropped on the world.