"Jim Farris - Mage 1 - Mage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farris Jim)

Chapter One

"...and it came to pass that in the one thousand, six hundred and thirty-fourth year following the
end of the Great War of Devastation, or 1634 NCC by the New Common Calendar we use today,
the Ancient One did return from the Void. Not in the manner a new birth enters the world, or even
in the manner of a sleeper awakening from a long sleep, which is how the Ancient One once
described this moment. No, it was more in the manner a maggot hatches in a fresh corpse, life
arising from death."

- Lord Caladis, The Eddasine Chronicles, 1817 NCC

The pain woke me eventually. A long, dull, throbbing pain that couldn't be ignored, yet had to be. I
slowly became aware that I was nude, prone, face down on a cold, stone floor in the dark. I tried to
remember what had happened, who I was, or even what I was, and found I couldn't. The only thing I
knew was that I was alive.




I felt a warm wetness on my head. 'A head. I have a head,' I thought giddily. Somehow, that was
reassuring. Reaching up to it, I realized I had arms and legs as well. 'I think I'm a human - or
something very like one.' Passing my fingers over myself in the darkness, I realized I had breasts. 'I
think I am female - or something very odd indeed.' Somehow the idea that I was female didn't seem
right. I checked my groin, and found I was, indeed, female. 'This is strange. I don't remember being
female before. Somehow, that doesn't seem right,' I thought, puzzled.




I reached up and examined my head again. 'I am wounded,' I realized, my head throbbing as my fingers
gingerly felt the large goose-egg on my scalp and a sticky wetness that apparently was blood. No cut
was apparent, though the whole of the area was very sore. 'Something happened to me. What was it?'




Wherever I was, it was black as pitch, and I could see nothing. I reached out with my mind, without
thinking, feeling the flow of Mana around me until I felt the vibration of a particular frequency of Mana I
needed to correct that problem, then paused in realization. 'Ah. I'm a sorcerer. Or sorceress, as the
case may be. Somehow, I seem to remember that not everyone can do this. How very interesting.'
Opening my mouth, I spoke the words of power that somehow lay within my brain, and a flare of light
appeared at the fingertips of my left hand. 'Ah. I'm in a pit of some kind,' I thought, looking around.




There was a low, stone edifice within arm's reach, engraved deeply with scenes of battle and mayhem - it
looked very familiar. I realized after a moment it was a sarcophagus. 'No, I'm in a tomb of some kind,' I
thought to myself. 'Why is that sarcophagus so familiar, though?' I wondered.