Prologue

Ambrosia

Belial had at last been defeated. His body had been pulverized to an evil spirit and a bag of bones, and then the spirit had been drained of its potency. “Yay! He's dead!” I shouted with joy. All of a sudden though, I felt something weird. You know, you're watching a movie and there's something scratched up with the video and it skips? Anyway, that's what seemed to happen, there was a sort of ripple, and the villain disappeared from stage like a frame stopping. “What just happened? Guys, what do you think...?” I looked around. Nevras was gone too. So were the others. “Guys??? What happened? You're... gone. Why?” And then everything fell apart.

The space around me fell away completely leaving only openness. Where before there were walls and ceilings, chandeliers, and other things, now there was only white empty space. I looked around, and saw the floating triangular form of God. I believe I can answer that, God said to me. As she watched however, the recognized form of God fell away, and I stared at my own face, identical except for clothing. This version of me carried a long robe and a stylized staff tipped with the Trinity symbol. “Or, should I say,” she said in actual words, “I believe I can.”

I guess I kinda shrugged it off. “You're me? But...” I sighed, “Oh, nevermind. After evil twins, nothing surprises me anymore.” Then God shrugged, “You should be at least a little surprised. After all, this will be hard to take at first. You've heard, I gather, about the First Oracle?”

Yeah, I'd heard the legends, “Of course. The Oracle completed his training and then went off to face Belial, but he disappeared and...”

The Dream

Alethea woke up from her bed with a start. The town she was living in was known as the town of Winter. It was so named for very obvious reasons. A curse of some sort had locked the town in a single season. While other towns had summer, spring, and fall, Winter had... well, you guessed it. The time in this town was frozen, so seasons didn't change.

Winter was not actually in a cold climate. It was in the same latitude as one might find Virginia in the US, rather than somewhere in Maine. So while snow storms were a regular occurrence there, they weren't the intensity of some area up north. Not that there was a Maine, or even a Virginia. Everything about this land screamed "fantasy world." Well, sort of. The houses were something straight out of a Thomas Kinkade painting, quaint houses surrounded by spruce trees, with lights inside and smoke spewing from the chimney, a gentle stream nearby, and deer that posed for the painting. Roads connected a series of similar quaint houses, until at last the town ended near a harbor and a bridge. All that could ruin this picture was that this town wasn't a charming painting of light, but more of a sepia tone.

And then there was the magic, what was at this time called divine art. Later on, magic came from a more corrupt source (when it was called magic). Still later, it was further corrupted into necromancy and sorcery. But here, this was before all of that. This was when the divine art was pure and undefiled. The light inside the house at any other era could have been from the fire or from electricity, but it wasn't either. These were the power of runes.

Before recorded history, and well after it (as would later be called the New Earth), human beings were able to access particles of energy that floated in the air. These were discovered well before such a term as "atom" was coined, but they behaved much like atoms, able to divide themselves and release energy, or merge with others in the same was as oxygen could couple with other atoms to make carbon dioxide. But the reactions when these were put together were much closer to bringing about heat or cold seemingly from nothing. Magic followed the laws of physics, sort of.

This older world had laws of its own, just as it had its own history and even its own language. The town was Winter in the English language, but the sign to the town read . This was a land that predated even ancient Egypt and Babylon, a land that was just as modern by its own magical advances as the 20th and 21st centuries were. But even a dreamer could tell. Winter's days were numbered.

Alethea was still a child, so she knew little of all of this, but she did know about the magical world, as much as most of the people in this town. To start with, they were living in a town under a curse. Two hundred years ago, an angry witch had cast it in order to torture a man who cheated on her. It didn't work out like she'd liked, but she'd used all her power making it permanent, she couldn't exactly withdraw it easily. It was bound to a bracelet she stuck on the man, but the man was now a bartender loved by all, while the witch was a malingerer living alone on the edge of the town. Alethea visited her sometimes when she was bored.

Also, Alethea routinely interacted in this town with the likes of dragons, goblins, and angels. Her friends were a dryad named Arboria, a gnome named Autumntwig, an elf named Aellisa, a mermaid named Marina, and a kitsune named Renata. But everyone called her Rena, which was similar to the word for "fox." Likewise, many people called her Alicia because it was easier to say than Alethea.

Now Rena was her best friend, who she met with every day, to explore their backyards and play games. They talked for hours about life outside the town, or about anything really. But right now, Alethea had more pressing concerns. It was night rather than morning. What woke her up with a start was not the sun but a series of crimson flames off in the distance. "Brimstone," her father said. She didn't know what to make of this until he announced, "Demons."

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Alethea's father was a priest and her mother was a teacher. But those things meant something entirely different in this world than the modern one. A teacher didn't just teach reading and math, but the divine arts. What many would in the future call "magic" was originally the divine arts. And both of her parents were experts at it. Alethea's father, as a priest, had power enough to slay most demons. Which was probably good, if they ever came to this town.

At that, Alethea was shocked. "Are you sure?" she asked. Her father nodded, "There are only a few causes of this brimstone smell. The first is if God is going to rain down judgement upon us. The second is if we're near a sulfur mine or sulfur spring. But neither of those make sense here. Dear, put Alethea in the basement for shelter." Her mom rushed to obey, but the girl objected, "What if I get trapped in the house, and it gets burned down with me?!?"

Her parents sighed. They realized that they weren't any safer in home than outdoors and the three of them left the house. Her mother explained to her the importance of keeping close to strong spellcasters for safety, but warned her that the two of them would likely be far too close to the action. She asked, "Why don't you go hang out with your friends, Alethea? I trust them to keep you safe." Many townspeople had likewise left their home, huddling in family units or with their friends to avoid crowding too much and giving the demons an easy target. Well, those who hadn't decided it was safer at home, and had their houses burned down with them in it. Some of these people went to help fight the demons, while others decided to stay back.

Her father and mother were in the thick of spiritual warfare against demon kind. They had just defeated several minor demons in the span of a few seconds, and were about to use their divine arts against some more. The demons breathed hellfire at them, only to have them guard with barriers of divine art and parry with blessed objects, then launch into a counterattack. Hellfire was nothing to mess with, but they deflected it as easily as

Demons had attacked this town before, but her mom and dad were considered heroes because they singlehandedly fought off a scouting unit that time. They were just a schoolteacher and a priest in Alethea's mind, but everyone respected them. But now they dealt with an entire army, led by a greater demon.

Now, there are two types of divine art, miracles and prayers. Miracles are passive, a product of grace itself. With a prayer you ask for an effect, and it happens. Unlike modern day prayer, the people of this age could always count on their prayers being answered, though miracles seemed to be entirely at the whim of God. In addition to there being two types of divine art, there were two ways to cast it. For instance, the divine art they were currently using was called Holy Cross. Either they could simply shout, "Holy Cross!" or they could recite a longer prayer that was something like, "May evil be driven back to where it came from, by the divine grace of the redeeming cross. Holy Cross!" And yes, the people of this land knew what a cross was and what it stood for. Christ may have died once for all, but there was an entire hidden history about him which modern people knew nothing about.

Anyway, the general rule was that longer prayers were much more powerful, but there was a greater risk of being wide open to attack. For this reason, two people were typically paired in such combat. One was to provide cover with quick prayers, while another would take their time with the bigger effects. Her father chose the role of providing cover, not because his wife was a stronger user, though she did know more divine arts, he was actually stronger due to his religious background. No, his real reason was because he deeply cared for her, and couldn't risk any harm coming to her. His strong feelings became a well of strength, as he summoned forth Holy Cross, Divine Shield, Sacred Arrow, and many others in rapid succession. She recited the words, "May light that is beyond all other lights surround me, removing evil from nearby. That all that seeks us harm be removed from my sight. Exorcising Aura!" At once, a large dome expanded all about her, turning the demons within a 30 foot diameter to bones, then turning those bones into dust. She appeared winded, but after a few deep breaths, she was ready to start again.

The demons were sneaky creatures, so they tried a flank attack. They kept the two distracted with a large force of smaller demons, while two larger demons snuck around the buildings. "Look out!" her father called to his wife. She turned around, scared as much for her own safety as she was at the prospect of leaving her daughter without her mother. She had no divine art prepared as she was caught completely off-guard, and he wasn't in a clear line of sight to defend her. The demons might have made a snack of her, but that the creepy old witch called out the words, "Solomon's Temple" in a raspy voice. A large pillar of light covered the two demons as they screamed and disintegrated, freeing the couple to focus on those in front of them. Other townspeople got into position. Just as if there had been a fire, everyone lined up to perform a task. Some guarded the rear, some assisted her parents, and some fought different groups of demons in other sections of the town. Different people united out of loyalty to their home.

Alethea quickly found her friends while her parents fought. Alethea's friends were quite powerful. Alethea had currently not learned to actively use her divine art, but her friends were more than capable of defending her. More important than their power though, was their sense of teamwork. Alethea joined her friends in everything from sledding to sleepovers. It was difficult to explain how they got to be friends, though, as Alethea was a human and her friends all weren't. But it was a question that could be answered more by chemistry than biology. Alethea was close to her friend Renata, and all of Rena's friends respected and deferred to her. Over time, these friends of Rena became Alethea's friends. Here, where demons were pouring in, things like a community and having friends mattered. It was the power of friendship that you could trust with your life.

Her friends could use powers of sorts too, but they were more like racial abilities than divine arts. Marina as a mermaid could use water and song abilities; all elves had natural abilities of geomancy, perfect physical ability, and invisibility, so Aellisa had them too; Autumntwig had mastery over earth and illusion; and Arboria could do things like teleporting through trees, summoning vines or leaves, and so on. As for Rena, she had the nine powers of a gumiho (fire, illusion, shapeshifting, telepathy, telekinesis, luck, protection, light, and time).

However, demons are relatively hard to destroy. While radiant energy and blessed weapons could dispense with them, most other types of damage had trouble getting through their thick skin. While her friends were quite powerful, Rena hadn't really mastered her light powers yet, so none of them were very effective. Alethea would have been scared, except for the fact that they excelled at defensive abilities. Compared to them, she felt helpless with no prayers to use.

The tide of the battle began to turn. Demons are quite weak to holy power, and they indeed were falling in great numbers. But their numbers were nothing to sneeze at, and they have sharp fingernails, horns, and pointed tails. One of them caught her father off guard, giving him a nasty slash in the leg. This in turn broke her mother's concentration, and she stopped praying. She rushed to her husband, but the demons were swarming in. "No!" Alethea screamed, "Nooooooooooooooo!!!!" Alethea had passive protective effects on her because she was a child, but when she screamed something changed.

In the background of the town, snow was falling, specks of white on the backdrop of evergreen trees and wooden houses. And then, the scene faded to white, and the dream ended.

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