1st of 'Visioneer's Tale'

Chapter 1 – The Book of Souls
By Dragon-the-imagineer

"Damnit!"
  Tanya leaned back gloating. Yet another win for the scoreboard. So far, she was beating Silver fifteen nil on super smash bros. melee.
   "Face it, Silver," she purred, "you're no match for a master like me."
  "I just can't win!" Silver bawled. "You must be cheating!"
  Tanya smirked, "You're just jealous" she had to turn away just to stop laughing. In truth she had cheated, if only enough of her hypnotic mesmer to slow his reactions. She yawned loudly.
  "Well, unless you can put up a better fight, I'm of to bed. Smell ya later!" she giggled, as she got up. Smiling still as she went, she made for the kitchen to grab something for the night, when something caught her eye.
   Greg had left his door ajar.
  This itself would not be unusual, if you didn't know the person who owned the room. Greg rarely let the rest of the housemates into his room, especially Tanya - she often messed with his mind, literally at times. The only person he generally let in was SR. The rest of the time the door was locked. Which raised another question.
  There was no lock. And if there was no lock, how could it be locked?
  Being the person she was, Tanya decided to have a look around; if Greg was careless, he would have to suffer the consequences.
   With a slight (but only slight) twinge of conscience, Tanya pushed the door open.
   Greg's room was quite plain, with green walls and a wardrobe built into the wall of the mansion. Surrounding a computer monitor were hundreds of photos, mainly of Greg and SR, and a few shots of the others and some people Tanya didn't recognise. A single bed lay on the left side of the room, and for a moment Tanya's eyes lingered over it before turning to the door. But as she did so, she spotted a glow coming from under the mattress. She padded over to the bed, curiosity overwhelming all her other thoughts. Well, it was the quietist housemate, after all. Everybody had to reveal their secrets someday.
  Under the mattress was a book, bound in a strange, leathery material, quite like reptile skin yet with larger scales and a deep emerald colour. Embossed on the front were the words, "know thine enemy" in gold leaf so thick, it stood off the page. Tanya was so caught by the radiance of the book, she did not move a hair from her position until she heard a loud click of the door being pushed shut.
  It was Greg. In his hand he held a key that glowed with the same radiance as the book, though Tanya did not notice. Outlined under the door handle for a moment was a keyhole, which faded out of view. Tanya started to feel a bit nervous; the only thing standing between her and freedom was Greg and when he wanted to be, he could be really scary. Tanya tried the innocent approach.
  "Hey Greg. You left your door open. I only got in here a moment ago..."
  But Greg's eyes had locked onto the leather-bound book, still in Tanya's hand. Instantly his face passed from calm to pure cold fury. His eyes blazed as if lit by a flame within him. This was what Tanya had been dreading. The sight of all that stored, channelled, focused power in one body would scare even Shadow. The only way out Tanya could see was to tell the truth.
  "Look, you left the door open and I wanted to have a better look into your life. Is that so much to ask? You never open up to anyone except S, and her lips are sealed. And I haven't looked in this book yet, so if it's a diary then you'll be glad to know I've done nothing." Tanya dropped the book onto the bed, walked past Greg and made to open the door.
  It wouldn't budge. Tanya tried again, then glanced back at Greg, rattling the handle all the while. Greg started to turn around, and for a moment their eyes met.
  That one glance was enough. Tanya felt her eyes drawn toward his. Greg was staring angrily at her, and his eyes flashed briefly with a golden flame that paralyzed Tanya. She struggled to free herself from the effects but she was sinking, ever deeperinto the darkness. Her last thoughts before she fell to the floor unconscious were, "how did he lock that door?"
  Greg's face softened as she fell. He stood a moment longer before crossing to the bed where the book lay. He picked it up, looked back at Tanya, then said aloud, "I think now would be the best time to tell you a bit of my past, Tanya.”

   "As you know, S brought me into the group from some ways away, the last of my clan, the visioneers. However, I never told SR about how the visioneers perished, because it would have made her life a lot harder as a result.
   "I was free to go wherever I liked, and I did often. Naturally, the clan heads noticed my love for the open world and decided to make use of me. They gave me the task of crossing the world in an attempt to create a book that contained every piece of information on every person that had power enough to threaten the clan. That way, the clan could be prepared for anyone that tried to defeat the clan. To help me in this journey, they bestowed me with the ancient knowledge of the Dragon Arts, techniques created by the very first visioneer, Dojun Zhou. My great-great-great grandfather, as a matter of fact. Among these techniques was the one I just used on you, the Wyrm's Gaze, useful if in a tricky situation. Paralyzes the target until the user moves out of its range, and the target is still aware of their surroundings. So, equipped with my new skills, I set off into the world.
  "At first, the travel went well. The book rapidly grew as I toured from place to place, collecting data from fighting the potential foes of the clan. Each town, village or city had its own renegades who I recorded in the book. I also made sure to collect something of theirs in battle, say, an eyelash, hair or something else. This was done for a reason; if the person the item belonged to started to come towards the book with the intent to kill, the book would glow. Through this simple piece of magic, the clan could be forewarned of an advancing threat.
  "But then, when I got back, the village was under attack. I didn't know it was under attack for one reason; the attackers were new, unheard of in the various underworlds of the Earth.
  "We fought valiantly, but, as you can tell, we lost. I was knocked unconscious by a blast of magic, just after securing items for the book. When I awoke, the buildings were destroyed, the streets were bathed in blood. It was standing in those ruins that I finally realised, they were dead. Not even Dojun Zhou could bring them back.
  "I continued on my travels with the book, but without a purpose. There was an almighty void created in my heart that day. Soon after, I met S. She's helping fill the void, as are all of you, created by the deaths of the people I had to protect.
   "And now, I must protect the group", he muttered as he took hold of Tanya's sleeping form and lifted her up.
  "You would get in the way too much, so you're staying here" Greg grunted as he kicked open the large crate-like case at the end of his bed. He carefully placed her inside the heavily padded box and magically bolted it shut, making sure not to hurt her.
  Sitting back down, Greg took the book in both hands and let it fall open, onto the enchanted pages that revealed the foes. Greg's eyes flew over the pages, then widened with shock. The book tumbled to the floor, still open on the page it had opened on.
  "Not them... Please!"
  The book was displaying the pair who single-handedly destroyed the Visioneers.
  Kom and Odo.

End of chapter 1