Prologue

When ken was a young boy, he became insatiably fascinated by the arcane. The unknown to be more precise, and he loved anything mythical. Like any young boy, he was fascinated by the legends of dragons and gods. But where others were content with the bedtime stories, he was not.

At the juvenile age of ten, his passion for study were well and truly ignited by a family trip to South America. A visit to the Mayan ruins left a grand impression on his young mind, and his studies of history and especially languages ensued. He may have even started earlier if he was smarter at the time. Alas, his interests were ignited, and he was off like a manic sponge.

By the age of twelve, he started running out of interesting documentaries, so he focused on languages. This way he could read original old texts and scriptures. His birth language was English, having been born in the USA. The second language he became proficient at was Latin.

When that started sailing smoothly, he started in on Egyptian, then Ionic from the ancient Greeks followed by the Attic Greek from later generations. By the time he hit high school, he still hadn’t had a decent relationship, as he was too enlightened by history to find interest in their narrow minded thoughts.

Having read old documents and accounts of great scholars from history, his mind was beyond that of a child long ago. At least maturity wise, he was leaps and bounds beyond others his age.

His body was average by all accounts, and possibly even considered short. His body was slim, though he worked jobs often for study money. He worked at an old grain mill in town since he was thirteen, and moved irrigation pipes or mended fences daily during the summer months. His parents weren’t poor, but he still had to support his own interests.

During his junior year of high school he found interest in the ancient language of Futhark, having seen it often used in games and lore. It was by far his favorite, and in his opinion it had a certain edge to it. Unlike other languages, he felt a kindred connection to it. It was also the easiest to learn, taking just under three months to fully comprehend.

Unfortunately, his interests waned as fictions and novels took center stage during his senior year. He was enthralled by the idea of another world, and day dreamed constantly. Finally one day his teachers banned him from novels in class, along with any electrical device. It wasn’t that he needed the credits for the classes, since he far surpassed the requirements long ago. But his influence on the other students was detrimental.

They either looked up to him, or hated him. Mostly it was just a childish competition to prove they were smarter than him. It made the other kids more interested in their work, and even when they flaunted high grades in his face, he simply waved it off as childish.

He was usually disinterested in the other kids’ conversations or affairs, so when the teacher explained to him after class why his attentiveness was necessary to keep the others on track… he wasn’t happy in the least.

So, during classes he was detained to boredom and busy work. Finally, he simply did a month’s advance worth of busy work from his overzealous teachers just to gain some peace. Thus, it was during calculus class, as he sat quietly observing the grains of wood in the desk that his life would change.

Chapter: 01

He stared at the flowing grains of wood in the desk, contemplating a new game coming out that evening. He had it on preorder, probably already downloading as he waited for school to release him from stupendous boredom. His keychain rattled on the desk as he played with the mini ankh (Egyptian Cross). A small amethyst embedded at the center refracted sunlight across the room glaring off the teachers monitor.

Of course, the teacher knew he was screwing with her, and this was her punishment for taking his book rights away last quarter. Evidently reading manga in calculus gave off the wrong image.

So now, his peers and the teacher sat irritably as they regretted their actions. Of course, he could doodle on the desk, but a priceless mural he drew already took up most of the space. Hieroglyphs covered the surface talking about war gods and eternal freedom. A depiction of Anubis smiting a man touching a book as a shrine to Ken’s punishment took the centerpiece. A summoning circle in the upper left written in Futhark was a belated attempt at summoning a book.

Of course, nobody else in the room could understand much of it, and they definitely didn’t understand the cuss words scrawled at random in different languages. He finally put away the extensive keychain, much to the others relief.

He faced the window beside him, and for whatever god given reason stared at the sun for a moment, as if to contest its unwavering gaze. Maybe he was just pissed it wouldn’t move faster, or maybe it was fate. Whatever the reason, his actions were rewarded with a large blind spot at the center of his vision, and for reasons unknown, that feeling like something is close to your forehead appeared.

The tickling sensation ran up his brow, over his head setting his scalp tingling. Flinching back he reached for his pencil to feign disinterest, but he couldn’t see anything. A moment later he glimpsed it beyond the dark spot in his vision and reached for the blurry image.

That’s when his life changed forever. The pencil was pointing upward, and when he reached for the blurry image, confident in his actions. The pencil rolled across the desk slightly, towards his outstretched hand.

One moment, then two, then three passed. Time seemed to freeze as his mind stopped working like an overheated motherboard. Then his brain seemed to realize he wasn’t breathing and he gasped, realization dawning on him.

Was the pencil haunted? Making a discreet Greek hand sign to ward off evil, the pencil didn’t react. Some of his peers were giving him weird looks, so he was forced to stop.

‘But… what the blazes was going on here! Did he bump the table, or was there a tremor? No, it was impossible for the pencil to move sideways like that. Plus the pictures on the walls were all stationary and even.’

Going over the events from memory, he recalled the only thing odd was his staring at the sun and that odd sensation. Steeling himself, he stared at the sun again and turned back. The dot was back, though fading and the feeling was faint but present.

Taking his hand, he grabbed at the pencil. Unfortunately he grabbed it that time, despite the hindered sight. So he tried a couple more times, and finally the pencil rolled towards him. The trick was being confident about grasping at a pencil physically, fully expecting it to move. When the pencil moved, the tingling sensation became a pulse.

It spiked for a moment, familiarizing him with the newfound sensation. On further inspection, he felt the sensation originated inside his head. Have you ever felt your brain move before? Neither did he, until that day, and at that moment it greatly confused him.

It was as if he was a newborn who just realized the limbs attached to itself could move and grasp things. That his legs could take him places and his muscles could stretch and grow.

Fully sure of the sensation now, he tried replicating it. The easiest way to feel the sensation was hovering his finger just above the skin of his forehead between the eyes.

He faced away from the class leaning on his arm, hand on face. His finger angled oddly to hover over his forehead. The more the sensation rushed over his head, the further it spread. Down his neck, to his shoulders, down his arms and finally his hands. At that point, he no longer needed to hold the weird posture.

Like his new ‘muscle’ had finally woken enough to move, he could sense it constantly now. As a test, he stopped thinking about it and the feeling receded until it was only a pinprick in his forehead.

Concentrating on it once again, brought out the sensation to its fullest and it continued inching down his body. His skin crawled with the new sense, and his intrigue was completely captured. Unsure what he just discovered, the bell rang and he shot from his seat pulling his oversized backpack behind him.

It was his last class, so he raced down the hall weaving past towering tall kids in a hurry to get home. His old pickup truck rumbled to life, and ten minutes later he was fast closing on his home.

His father owned a small ranch, and his mother worked from home. She worked over the internet for some financial company. As usual, his parents were out with friends since it was a Friday night. They had an adult game night at different houses every time, and he was in luck since he had the house to himself.

He didn’t want to be disturbed, and their incessant whistling or talking irked him on normal days even. Today, he wanted quiet more than normal. So, as he entered the kitchen near the entrance, he slipped the pizza they ordered him from the counter, and made a beeline for his room down a hall.

He scarfed down a slice of extra cheesy meat deluxe, before collapsing back onto his bed. The sensation was soon back and making fast headway. It was disturbing to feel when it passed his groin, but he persevered. Slowly at that, but it crept along. Imagine a hundred bees buzzing dangerously around your jewels and see how well you react!

For whatever reason, along the way he noticed it would pause momentarily, like it was blocked. Then move on as if persevering passed a dam of some kind. When the sensation finally passed his toes, a searing pain engulfed his head. Then, just like before, the sensation passed down his body slowly.

The pain was so excruciating, his breathe stilled for long moments as it came to pass. When the pain finally tapered off, his breathing returned to normal and he let loose a halfhearted scream. Cursing his curiosity, he groaned sinking further into the bed. Of course, being who he was though, this event only pushed his mind beyond curiosity, into the realm of speculation.

His thoughts had little time to process though. Passing out from exhaustion, he dreamt of random flashing lights and endless abyss surrounding a pulsating sun. Aurora flared across the surface in a myriad of colors, finally calming his mind, before everything went dark.