The Life of Susu Septis, Prologue
Years ago, in a small house amid the evergreen forest, a Xacha girl has opened her eyes for the first time on a cold and rainy day of Novari. Her father held her high, and named her Susu. Susu grew up in her father's laboratory, learning about the ways of potion making, distilling essences, grinding herbs her mother brought from the forest. The young girl loved this life, isolated from civilization, learning about the ways of nature.
As days passed, Susu grew up to be a curious and quiet young girl, her silver hair was flowing down her back, like a waterfall. Her eyes like emeralds in the sunset, reflecting purity and clarity. Her skin like silk, twinkling and sparkling in the light. She was not beautiful, but she was fair, and bright. Susu found more interest in knowledge and secrets than in social interactions and small-talk. She soon found herself wandering about in the forest with - and later without - her mother, collecting many herbs and other plants of a healing nature, and also queer looking and foul smelling poisonous mushrooms and weeds from boggy areas, she wasn't supposed to go. While walking unexplored paths she soon became fascinated with the dead silence and solitude she found amongst trees. Her uncanny manners were noticed by most people around her, but she never cared about rumours and whispers. She walked away in the mirky woods day after day all the same. Relations spoke of her as the 'will-o'-the-wisp', the 'gray wayfarer' or 'bogwraith' (which she considered most amusing). Susu wasn't concerned with people, talks and guesses about her doings meant nothing to her. Although the hunger for knowledge often drove her to long journeys to find wise people, glyph keepers and elderly lemurs, remembering the old days, historians with books about the creation of Yliakum and the Glyphs.
On her trips into the swampy lowlands she met others like herself once in a while, some of them seeking solitude, others knowledge, and some ... more mysterious individuals. They appeared silently, standing in the middle of a sizable plane without any sign around them indicating their approach, as if they stood there for days, or appeared out of thin air. The winds ceased, and the voice of the birds, and the world died, the air became damp and heavy. These beings stood motionless, their outlines uncertain, like dark towers of flame, their edges danced, evading the eyes.
Susu was not easily intimidated, but dread came over her. Her limbs refused to move, chill pierced her skin, her very bones ached and she swam in cold sweat. A deep and dark torrent of desperation came over her, and she fell on her knees, the world around her seemed to be covered in shadow, the silence was unbearable, forgetting everything before that moment, feeling the terrible weight of eternal damnation to this darkness, hearing her heartbeat drumming slowly in her ear became the last remnant memory of the living world. The figure of dark flame than approached Susu and spoke thus:
'Darkness bound thee,
so heed this warning,
thread carefully,
near the beacons of mourning.
Hitherto cometh thee
longing with questions,
seeking thy answers
and usefull suggestions.
There thus remains,
only one direction,
explore the Ways,
and achieve perfection.'
The fell voice ceased, still echoing as if it came from a great depth. The ground trembled, and the dark figure motioned towards Susu, in it's hands appeared a glyph, and shone with a piercing red light from within. Scribed with fine markings. The figure gave Susu the glyph, and it closed it's hands, and never spoke again. Short after, like a gas flame demising, it disappeared entirely. Susu knelt fatigued, catching her breath like after emerging from a deep pool of water, her bones and muscles still aching, her fingers numb, and frozen. She fell to the ground, and slumbered for hours, exhausted completely. When she awakened she found the glyph to be missing, only the imprint remained faintly in her palm, like a memory of a nightmare. She rose and went home.
Years passed by, and as an effect of this peculiar event, young Susu became more intrigued by the ways of magic, and made up her mind, that one day soon, she will set out, and learn all there is to know about the Ways. Susu heard much from her parents about the city life in Yliakum, but she never was keen on meeting it's people. On the other hand, she understood the cost of knowledge is to mix up with townsfolk. For now though, the girl decided to explore deep into the wilderness. Thus begins the Pilgrimage of the Glyphs, and Susu's journey.
Dear reader! This story shall be expanded. Come back once in a while if you will!