Running... All I knew... Ever since I left the House I've been running... The Orichons look by day, the Police by night... and the magic at any time...
I ran, ran as fast as I could, stopping only when a danger came, at which point I hid, holding my breath for fear of capture. One day this changes. My life of running, my life of hell. It all changes. It isn't necessarily better, but it is changed. My life gets flipped upside down. That's when I find the key. It was a book, hidden in a cave. It wasn't charted in any of the maps I had stolen from careless soldiers, it wasn't in any of the records I had managed to hack into. Myris Cave. The legendary place of study for the great ruler, Casiur, long before he was cast from power, long before he too disappeared, long before the world began its decline. I was the first to find it in... all of time...
I flicked out a small torch, dimming its light so as not to alert anything to my whereabouts. It was a long and winding tunnel, but there were no forks in the road, no hidden traps, or at least, I encountered none of them. It was full of net-like webs of spider silk, but devoid of all life. I finally reached the end, where a Light hung on the wall, illuminating the wall for all eternity. In the centre of the small, rocky room was a lectern made of oak, carved into the shape of a dragon with outstretched wings. Nothing like this had been seen for millennia. A large tome, layered with dust, lay on the lectern. I blew, and the dust flew off into the inky darkness of the floor. As I reached out to open the leather bound book, complete with inscriptions and panels depicting strange spells and transformations, a chill blew over me.
I turned and nearly screamed, only managing to suppress the urge from the years of running I had spent trying to find this place. In front of my stood a young woman; she must have been in her twenties. She stood in the shadows, half in the light, half out. Her grey, flowing hair reached her mid-back, just before her waist pinched in and her hips flared, giving way to beautifully long legs. Her slightly large breasts were easily contained in a faded red, sleeveless tunic. Her tight fitting black, leather trousers were equally faded. Her eyes were pools of dying moonlight, her face half wreathed in shadow. Her whole body existed and didn't at the same time. She was ghostly.
"I wouldn't touch that." She whispered sternly. She may have been a spectre, but she was to be believed.
I was frozen in time and space. I couldn't move for fear. This was the first living thing I'd seen in most of my life, and I couldn't be sure if she was real.
"W-who are you...?" I asked, when my mouth had become unlocked again, fear ebbing away slightly.
"I am Cassie. I used to own that book. Now I dare not go near it. I am old, the world has moved on. I cannot save it any more." She said, sadness riddling her voice.
"Cassie...? But... The owner of this book was Cas..."
"-Iur, yes. Me." The strange woman finished. I was left mid sentence, once again frozen.
"I was taken, many years ago, from this once wonderful world. My life of happiness and good will was lost and I was killed. I wandered the Seven Planes looking for this book, my one sanctuary from this cruel unending death. I held it and wished for my pain to end. It has, but this is what I got." She gestured to her feminine body, poked a breast. "Take it if you must. Save this world. Save my spirit from this world. Let me pass from here. Do the world good." Before I could reply, she had turned and walked away, disappearing once more into the unending shadows beyond. After a few seconds I turned back to the book. I had spent my life trying to find this book. It held the secrets to the world, the ones I could use to save it and everyone else within it. As worried as I was by the strange woman's words, I took the cover of the book in my hand and opened it.