Spectrum
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Spectrum
Adam Cairney
Copyright 2015 Adam Cairney
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Prologue.
The cobbled streets twisted and turned in a thousand different directions, crazy spiraling patterns through a city rich with history, with adventure. Wherever you went, tall buildings lined the streets, leaning and tilting against each other like a precarious house of cards. The structures seemed to ripple and sparkle with a rainbow of colours, sometimes flashing the deepest, purest blues, and other times glowing intense, fiery reds. The cobbles, flagstones and bricks reflected this a hundred times over, dazzling even those familiar with the sight from time to time
The city itself had become so well known for these incredible displays that it had earned itself a fitting nickname. No one really remembered what the place had originally been called, and those that did never bothered to use the name any more. Everyone knew it simply as the city of Spectrum. Spectrum; home to sorcerers, scholars, inventors, those who fought for what was right, those who wanted nothing more than to watch the city burn, and much more besides. It was also home to more than a few chroniclers, bards and minstrels, including one in particular, quite popular with visitors to the city, named Niels.
Now this one old storyteller had managed to gather, as he typically did, a sizeable crowd of people to tell his tale to. He didn’t do it for the money, fame, fortune or anything grandiose, but because it was a story that needed to be told, that deserved to be told. The crowd around him were varied; men, women, children, and they were eagerly waiting for the story to start. Niels decided not to keep them waiting any longer, and began to speak, his voice echoing out across the people.
“Gather round, that’s it. Come a little closer everyone. Is everybody listening? Good, then let us begin.
Spectrum, as I am sure you all know, has a glorious secret that is…well, not so secret. It is what gives the city its magnificent colours, and much more besides. Long ago, when the city was first built, people began to notice odd things happening. Things would occasionally disappear and reappear somewhere else entirely, buildings seemed to shift and physically alter in shape and size. Spectrum, you see, had been built on top of a huge underground reservoir of ether, the lifeblood of the planet, and the thing that makes all sorcery possible.
Of course, as the then village grew into a town and eventually the sprawling metropolis that it is today, word spread of the fantastic things that one might witness, just from walking down one of the many streets. The place grew more and more popular, and of course with the sheer number of people eventually settled here, and the amount of interest people had in the ether, there were bound to be one of two fascinating stories to tell.
That is where we come in. This story is about one particular young pair, a man and a woman. It’s a personal favourite of mine. You see long ago, the ancient scholars of this place dug too deep into the secrets of this world. They released a powerful force which they couldn’t contain, and tried to imprison it. But of course, things rarely ever work out as easily as men plan them to, and the city would soon find itself in dire peril…”