"Shapers of Reality... Thieves from the Void..." Ren said the words out loud. He showed the stone tablet to the girls.
Elara's eyes went wide. "The Thieves from the Void... that is a story we tell our children. A horror story. It says they came from the dark space between the stars to steal the magic of our world."
"It's not a story," Ren said. "It's history."
As Ren thought about the word "Shaper," a strange feeling moved through him. His [PRIMORDIAL] bloodline felt a connection to the ancient word. It felt like a memory from a dream he could not quite remember.
The old Loremaster looked at the tablet. "There is an artifact here that was found near the place where this tablet was discovered." He led them to a glass case. Inside, on a soft cloth, was a single, beautiful scale. It was as large as Ren's hand and shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.
"It is the only thing we have from that lost time," the Loremaster said. "We do not know what creature it came from."
Ren felt a strong pull towards the scale. "May I... touch it?" he asked.
The Loremaster hesitated, but then he saw the look in Ren's eyes. He nodded and opened the case.
Ren reached out and gently touched the surface of the scale.
The moment his skin made contact, the world exploded.
He was no longer in the library. He was in a vision. He was flying over a world that was young and wild. Giant trees reached up to the sky. Rivers of pure lava flowed next to rivers of pure water. Strange and wonderful beasts, big and small, filled the land. And in this world lived the Primordials. They were beings of light and energy. They did not build cities of stone. They 'shaped' the world with their thoughts, creating mountains and forests with their will. Ren felt a deep connection to them. They were his ancestors.
Then, the sky turned dark. From the darkness, cold, geometric shapes appeared. The Thieves from the Void. The "gods." They were beings of cold, hard order. They did not create. They consumed. They wanted the world's energy for themselves.
A great war began. The Primordials fought with wild, chaotic creation magic. The gods fought with a cold, rigid power that put everything into neat little boxes. They created the System. The System gave ranks and levels to all things. It turned the wild magic of the world into something they could control and measure.
Ren watched in horror as the Primordials were defeated. Their wild magic was trapped by the rules of the System. They were killed or put into a deep sleep. The gods had won. They had stolen the world.
The vision ended. Ren was back in the library, breathing heavily. Lyra and Elara were looking at him with worried faces.
"Ren, are you okay?" Lyra asked.
Ren looked at them, and his eyes were full of a new, hard light. He now understood everything.
"The gods are not gods," he said, his voice low and full of anger. "They are parasites. And the System... the System is their cage."
Just as he said those words, a loud, clear bell started to ring throughout the entire city. It was the Silverwood's alarm. The city was under attack.