Mage light hung along the walls illumanting the room as the long dorment magic flared to life as the sounds of shouting filled the ancient hallways. Spells cast from long ago kept dust from settling and keeping the air clean for when the fated day arrived.

That day was not today as two scholars of the book of prophecy tried to stop the olive skin wizard pushing through them as his own two body guards kept the guardians of the book away from Antiarius... the Chairman of the American Arcadia Pact Accord.

He grunted in mild annoyance as 'this was the defense' they held for the book? History spoke of all those who tried to break into these hallowed halls as ancient spell and traps had been set aside. Wizards and witches being called upon for the exact day predicting when anyone would try to attack... unless they had been chosen to read from the book.

The Chairman marched towards the wooden pedistal where the ancient book laid as a growing mixture of fear and anger filled his heart at being able to get so close to the book... and a twisted hope. If he was stopped then he'd curse fate itself, but if he wasn't stopped... if he took hold of the book?

"Then it changes everything." The voice whispered in his head. "It shows that it was flawed... that your life was a lie."

One of the defenders of the book of prophecy stood infront of him trying to figure out what to do as if... he had no idea on what to do. The vaulted ever knowing and all see defender was as blind to what would happen next as a bloody Mundi!

"It pains me to have to do this, but..." Chairman Antiarius sighed "But for the good of the magical world I must." He raised his own wand "Eviciora"

A burst of red light flared from his Elder Wood wand as the River Terror Spine core flared to life. If the man thought fate would save his life... then who was he to deny his faith to see if those musty old pages would save him now?

The curse lashed out tearing flesh from bone as the foolish wizard was tore to shreds. No last second magical words, defenders jumping in at the last minute, or even the sudden 'gasp' of some plucky young soul hidden behind a random pillar or something.

Nothing happened!

Glancing back at the other two 'protectors of the book' who just stared at him in disbelief. Fate's will broken and undone... undone and unbound, broken and twisted, again and again. Like so many times these past twenty years.

The chairman kicked the corpse out of his way as he pulled the book open as myth and legend would have you believe that those who sought the book would turn straight to the page that prophecy spoke of them. That it showed the scope and scale of the Albion Accord that guided the magical world since Merlin's death...

Only to find Myth and legend where just that... Myth and Legend.

"This isn't it! Archmage Veltarious vanished twenty years ago like the other half of the magical world!" He screamed in hatred "He can't exist to do this if he doesn't exist anymore!"

He throw the book down onto the floor in seathing hatred. He followed the dam prophecy for all these years. He was told what to do and followed it without thinking... without question for it all to be fake!

Fake!

Those dammed scholars and 'protectors of the book' probably wrote the so called 'future' after it had already passed! Already a few dozen spells came to mind at how it could be faked! How they were fools for even letting it get as far as it had!

"Please stop..." One of the protectors of the book of lies shouted "You must..."

"Our world is dying... it's falling apart." Antiarius hissed in rage "The Mundi Warding charms are failing. The spells of old refined from the age of Merlin are dying..."

The problems he was supposed to fix... the ancient spells set up by blind faith in the past were now unraveling apart with no way to fix them. Plans set up with people no longer existing to forfill the plans. His own daughter...

"It wasn't enough that half of population across the world just went up and vanished over night..." Antiarius spoke outloud in a mixture of disbelief and anger "As if that wasn't enough..."

He chuckled as the sheer insanity of living his life to an old book written by a dead man centuries ago really was. How utterly insane it actually was that everyone just went along with the utter nonsese that had been shoved into their stupid little childish minds making them believe this joke was real!

"And the civil war that followed when half of the magical world just upped and vanished over night!" The chairman screamed kicking the book "Where is that in the book! Where in the bloody world did those old fools of long ago write that! Maybe a hint or a warning, or a plan! Where is the plan I ask you!"

His wife was dead. His daughter was dead. His family had died because he trusted ink on a page to guide his life. He tried not to laugh as it was as if the blinders had been removed and it just became so clear on how easy it would have been to protect them.

If he just taught his daughter some basic protection spells. If his wife was taught what a gun actually was instead goverment mandated nonsense of living in blissful ignorance.

Where was that blissful ignorance when the trigger was pulled unleashing a small piece of metal tearing through flimsy leather, flesh, and bone could be. How if he simply treated a mere mundi as a threat instead of a joke... they'd... they both would have been alive.

They both would have realized how stupid it was to trust a book that stated she was going to become the next greatest witch of the comming age.

How was she supposed to claim her destiny when she was dead!

The sound of a cane hitting the stone floor seemed to echo throughout the room. The protectors of the book looked down the hallway in fear and disbelief trying to pull out their own wands only for his bodyguards to cast a stunning curse on each of them.

Chairman Antiarius watched as the man in the yellow suit entered the room as the black iron cane left it's mark on the ancient stone floors.

"See it's just like I told you." He spoke with a grin "Fate is a word people use to absolve themselves of responablity. The tale told to easy the pain of decesion and choice."

The cane spun towards the book as he adjusted his black shirt and silver tie "Fates says you'll make it. Reality says it'll break it. The spells are fadding and charms are breaking. Your books says to wait for a child while I say you should stop waiting for answers."

The wizard turned to the man in yellow. He wasn't a wizard as he was not bound to the Albion Accord, but he knew more than him... more than any wizard Antiarius had ever run across with knowledge more reliable than an ancient book written by ancient fools.

He glanced at the book. He could take a leap of faith and trust the book... or thrust his hands upon fate's false weave tearing it apart as he made his own choice... the right one.

"I know I'm not what you wanted." The man in yellow spoke as he strolled towards the book "But I am exactly what you need."

Antiarius stared at the book that had been causally kicked aside as if it was garbage... no it was garbage. Nonsense whispered to the masses to tell them what the false prophets had spoken of and the lies they had woven.

Twenty years... twenty years to change their tone as reality itself had proven more real than their fairytale book. Twenty years wasted... as their world wasted away.

"I need magic... magic so great I can ensure our safety." the chairman spoke as he tried to picture the scale of magic he needed "One that would rival the Albion Accord... one that would change the course of history itself."

"Like this?" The man in yellow spoke revealing a black leather bound tome.

Antiarius looked into the book and nearly laughed. Each page typed up as various notes had been added along the sides of the pages or stuck on by sticky notes. The creature it spoke of was a monster plain and simple... a monster that would be spoken in the worst stories and the greatest of nightmares.

Such a book would have been banned and handed over to the Department of Mysteries... or every wizard and witch within the High Council would have tried burning it. Yet the man in yellow handed it over as if it was one of those Mundi Yellow pages...

"You can't be serious... such a thing is..." He nearly said 'impossible' until he thought about the location... the cost... the magic it would unleash if properly utlized. "And the price?"

The man in... no the creature calling itself Lord Velkear shrugged "A name, a paper, and a vote." He pulled out a scroll and revealed it to be a contract written in golden ink as he produced a blood quill in his left hand "So do we have a deal?"

"You can't trust this... this demon!" One of his own bodyguards shouted "The book may have been false, but the ideals it stood for..."

A burst of green light splashed over him as the other body guard lowered his wand. The bodyguard who spoke out against him fell dead to the ground. The shadows clung to the walls as... was this what it felt like?

Antiarius chuckled as this is what Mundi leaders must have felt when making a decesion wasn't it? The quill had somehow made itself in his hand. The simple act of making a choice and living with what would happen next...

The knowledge that history itself would be written or rewritten upon this final act. Would his own magical core turn into an Abysal core if he agreed to it... if he wrote his name?

His own maddened smile was matched by the demon in yellow as the pale skinned monster spoke "I have it. You know where it needs to go."

His hand hovered over the quill as he read the contract. It read almost like one of those stories of the Fae... a contract made by mortal kind and unnatural kin from the forest that were spoken of with awe and horror. A True Fae instead of the pretenders that the Shade Court dressed up as.

The demon in yellow had lead him here... whispered each detail in his ear... and he was not foolish enough to believe they were allies. No each truth it spoke only served to further it's own goal as Antiarius was just another piece on whatever board it was building.

"I know what you are thinking. I know what they'll say... Oh it's a shame your daughter is dead, but your prophesied daughter shall mend the hole in your heart." The demon mocked him "How she shall be picked to be blood adopted to become the savior of the magical world... that her and whatever idiot the book picked shall bound together and fix everything with a twirl of their twigs."

"So trust the nonsense made by Twig Twirlers who failed your family..." He pulled out a small glass jar that devoured the light nearly plunging the room into darkness "Or seek the Shadows? See that the Abyss has seen you... and heard your cries."

Antiarius eyes focused on the jar as Velkear had everything didn't he? Like some sort of dark sibling to the Book of Prohpecy... one that knew what to say to pull his strings.

There was only one thing he could say "Why? What do you want from all of this?"

Lord Velkear the demon in yellow put away the jar "Why I thought it should be obvious." He grinned as Antiarius took a step back "I want to be noticed."