It was shortly before sunset on a warm, mid-September day when the ceremony began. The long-awaited wedding of Reoc Haidar and Renalda Camersley was taking place on the grass of a rocky cliff on Amera Island, overlooking the shimmering crystal sea. The sky was painted in fiery shades of orange and red as the fifty invited guests took their seats in anticipation of the entrance of the Sarcan Commander and his bride.
Carmen Fox sat in the first row of white chairs on the right side of the aisle beside her Souls of Destiny—Blaze, Stellar, Glamis, and Anubis. Around her neck, Carmen wore the gray claw belonging to Dagtar, her fifth and final Soul—the Dragon who had been the Partner of Merlin Cloud, the creator of Kelmar. On this day, Dagtar’s claw gave off a pleasant warmth against Carmen’s skin. She could feel the deceased Dragon’s presence with her as she sat before the white wedding trellis, which was adorned with lilac and yellow flowers.
The fact that Carmen was here to celebrate her instructor’s wedding in the magical world of Kelmar was amazing in and of itself. Carmen Fox was a sorcerer—and no ordinary sorcerer at that. Just over a year ago, Carmen had arrived in Kelmar as a quiet and naïve girl who would train in Thunder Academy under Commander Haidar to develop her magical strengths and take her place as the chosen Guardian of Kelmar. Along the way, she had met her Souls of Destiny, who helped her to battle and eventually defeat the evil Desorkhan and his Magicon followers.
Carmen was a sixteen-year-old girl with golden-brown hair and green eyes. All of her friends sitting next to her were magical creatures native to Kelmar. Her best friend and Partner, Blaze, was a creature called a Sarcan. He had golden fur with blue, flame-shaped markings, and he wore a navy bandana around his neck. He also possessed bat-like wings, large blue eyes, and a yellow lightning bolt-shaped horn. Together, he and Carmen had journeyed across Kelmar and fought by each other’s sides to combat Desorkhan and his Sarcan, Singe. Blaze, as well as the rest of Carmen’s friends, was unique, and what made Carmen unique was that she was not just a sorcerer but the one whose very destiny, and her fulfillment of her duties as Guardian, made her a legend in Kelmar.
Days after Carmen’s birth, a Dark sorcerer named Lucifer Mondalaus had found her in the non-magical realm. Under the orders of the Dark Master, Desorkhan, Mondalaus had set fire to the printing factory owned by Carmen’s parents in an attempt to murder their infant daughter—the one chosen in an ancient prophecy as the child who would lead the Kelmarians over the Magicon. Carmen’s parents had been killed in the fire, but her grandfather had rescued her and raised her from that day forward.
Though Blaine loved Carmen, and gave her everything that he could, Carmen had lived her life as a virtual outcast in the non-magical realm, unable to make friends, and always feeling as if she didn’t belong. She would spend countless long and lonely hours in her grandfather’s secondhand bookshop searching for her true purpose.
That was Carmen’s life, until just over a year ago, when her grandfather presented her with the gift of a magical golden key on her fifteenth birthday, shortly before she found an enchanted book called The Book of Kelmar, which imprisoned the soul of Desorkhan. It was on that day that Carmen’s world changed in nearly every way imaginable.
She traveled to Kelmar and learned of her story, taking the journey of a lifetime through a world that, at the time, knew only war. Most of its inhabitants lived in fear of the Dark Master, who desired to take control of Kelmar, and killed anyone who stood in his way. Just prior to the conclusion of her formal training that year, Carmen and her friends found themselves in battle against Desorkhan and his Magicon fighters. Carmen defeated and ultimately killed Desorkhan and his followers by stabbing The Book of Kelmar with a magical saber called the Dark Sword—realizing her destiny as the Guardian of Kelmar. At the moment, Carmen’s grandfather, Blaine Fox, was sitting to her left. Blaine was tall and had caring blue eyes, wispy white hair, and a lined face. Though he was older than most of the sorcerers present here tonight, he was quite strong and sharp-witted.
To Blaine’s left was Alazar Friar, a friend of both the bride and the groom. Alazar was seated beside his Partner, Redge—a small, furry brown creature with a long tail called a Lenkin. Renalda’s Frelark, Enn, was sitting next to him. With a body resembling that of a koala, Enn had violet fur and bright eyes.
The sorcerer named Alazar was middle-aged, with silvery russet hair and friendly green eyes. He walked with a limp from an injury he had sustained in battle decades prior, but he was as active and wise as he ever was. The eccentric inventor was absentmindedly fiddling with his camera while he waited for the start of the ceremony. Alazar had modified his bulky black box camera to produce pictures that, when tapped with a wand, would change to also feature the person who took the photo.
“You never know. A meteor could strike the island, and there would be no one else around to take the picture,” Alazar had explained earlier, as he proudly showed off his newest gadget to Carmen and her friends. “If that were the case, I couldn’t possibly snap the photo and be in it at the same time. This type of scenario is just what this little device is for. It’s also much more convenient than taking another picture to include the person behind the camera.”
|