Prologue - Fate

In the beginning, there was fire [Lilith], and the fire was with Sun [Helios]. He held her dearly and loved her truly. At noon, the fire gave birth to the first being of bright fire [Marid, a djinn]. It was a beautiful baby with slight grey skin and fiery red eyes. He had two reddish horns protruding from both his temples. The Sun loved his child and gave him monarchy over the land. And Marid proved to be a benevolent king. But then, night fell and the Sun bid his goodbye to his loving family.

The first night:

When night fell over, the Moon [Chandra] turned up and wreaked havoc everywhere. He had the ability to capture the hearts of living creatures in a jiffy. Even the war-mongering fauns loved him and forgot to look at his dark spots. Marid, the king, tried his best but they could not stop him from winning the hearts of their innocent people, and Chandra drove him away from his fiefdom with his power over the night, and then; something utterly unexpected happened.

Once, moonlight fell on the fire in a forest and it was fascinated to look at the thing whose light was even more powerful than moon's. It hurried above to tell its master, Chandra, of the beauty of the fire. Upon hearing the news, the Moon pledged to woo Lilith into obedience and so he did. The fire leapt into matrimony with the moon and they had a child, a being of darkness and deceit. They named her Ifrit. Her grey color was so dark that it almost felt like black. Coupled with her silver eyes, her beauty was so glamorous that she was considered even more of a beauty than her father. She also had two pitch-black horns protruding from her temples.

A long time passed and the Moon started loving his wife honestly. Their daughter, albeit born out of deception, loved her parents and yearned to see her brother whom the creatures of the land spoke about tearfully. And then, inevitably, the first ray of sunlight made its way over to the Realm and the moon ran away, afraid of the power of his archenemy. As Helios rose high once again, Marid came out of hiding and stood by his father's side.

The fauns and shadows sang the tale of Lilith and Chandra to the Sun and made him so infuriated that he killed his wife that he once so dearly loved. After committing the murder, he felt so overcome with grief that he lost his glow and the Realm became dimly lit even during the day.

It was at that moment, that someone told him of Ifrit, one of the last memories of his dear wife. He found her, hidden and afraid of her half-father, and, to her surprise, embraced her like his own and split the Realm and gave her half of it for governance. Marid, an equally loving brother, happily agreed. And so, the polar opposite siblings ruled over the realm, both with their own set of different rules and government. As the Sun showered his blessings, the Realm prospered like never before. Eventually, Ifrit also came to love her brother and they lived in harmony.

The second night:

And then, night fell again. Furious at hearing the death of his beloved, Chandra went on a rampage and rained darkness at the land. And then, he set out to seek revenge. As he stood in front of Marid, to kill the last of his enemy who had killed Lilith, Marid faced him bravely and just as Moon was about to deliver the final blow, his daughter, Ifrit stood between them. She pleaded her father for the life of her brother.

Chandra, the king of the night and the ruler of deception, softened at his child who looked very much like her mother. He left the realm forever in hopes of finding peace in nothingness. And just like the day in that dark realm had turned dim, the night also went pitch black.

***

Six thousand years later:

It was dark. There was no moon decorating the eerie night of the Jann Realm, and though there was hardly any noise except for the loud howling of the wolves; the low huffs and rustling of the leaves in the purplish forest were not audible at all. The two tall, black figures ran for their lives stealthily in the darkness. Moving through several purplish grey alpine trees and crimson red thorny bushes, the figure at the front jumped into a clearing and dashed in a nearby cave, the latter one following close behind.

As one of the cloaked figures sat down catching her breath, the other one turned to her, lowering his hood and revealing a slightly but inhuman silver skin color, black eyes, and two grey horns, he said: “I think we lost them.” And he also sat down near her. The woman had now taken off her cloak and put it on a nearby stone, exposing her bluish skin color, royal blue horns, tranquil blue eyes and a newborn baby in her lap who was covered in a blanket.

“Why do you think he’s after our baby?” The female djinn asked the male one as she lit a blue fire floating at the center of the cave with a swish of her long, blue fingernails.

“It’s obvious, really. If you close your eyes, you can feel it too. Also, since the moment he was born, do you remember seeing him cry even for a moment? Our child… he is… different!” He cast a slight look of discomfort at his own child which then turned into one of firm resolve. Continuing on, he said:

“Well, even if that Furath himself comes to take my child from me, I shall send him to the eternal darkness.”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk… What courage!” A grave and vicious voice sounded from within the darkness of the cave as the mother clutched the baby strongly and hid beside her husband.

The figure with the voice came out in to the blue light to show himself. It was a vicious creature with a skin color of pitch black and eyes so fiery red that it almost felt like there were three flames of fire in the cave. He was wearing a long, black, silky robe which covered even his hands.

“Well, Baneer of the unnamed! I, Shah Furath, King of the Ifrits and the second councilman of the Council of Control, am here to take your child from you.” Furath spoke in his grave voice as he kept moving like a ghost towards the trio. “What will you do about it? Kahahaha!” he started laughing manically as the flames in his eyes grew warmer and he raised his right hand whose long, steel, silver fingernails sprouted like the long blades of an assassin.

Sticking the tip of the nail of his index finger in Baneer’s raised chin as he winced, Furath stopped laughing to hear Baneer’s wife who cried:

“No! Not Baneer! Kill me instead. Not Baneer, please!” She knelt down before the black clad demon as she kept on pleading: “No! Please! I will do what you say!”

“Will you, now?” Furath seemed amused. Baneer could not speak because of the pressure the King of the Ifrits exuded, not because he was not strong enough to deal with such a pressure, but because his bloodline was not as pure. “Okay then, I will give you another chance, give me the child and both of you shall live.” Furath said plainly.

She hesitated, then lowered her head down to see her baby looking up at her calmly, his skin just as blue as his mother’s. After a long moment of decision, she held her baby even more strongly than before.

“I am highly disappointed.” Furath said sadly as he sighed and thrust his nail up Baneer’s neck.

Blood splurged all around the dark floor of the cave and his wife’s cries and screams echoed through the spacious cave. The motionless silver body fell down on the rough floor of the cave with a thud.

“Now, Innayah! Since you are a direct heir of the Saktur Tribe, I shall give you one last chance. If you give up your child, I am willing to ignore your impertinency and give you another life.” Furath said, unbothered by the ongoing series of screams.

“Go on! Kill me! But I know… I know why you are afraid of my child!” she said determinedly. A feeling of pure wrath crossed Furath’s eyes and she kept on saying: “Go on! Kill me! My son shall avenge me! He shall kill you! All of you!”

“Shut up!” Furath raised his hand high up in the air and the nail of his index finger kept growing longer than ever.

“Slash” blood spurted once again all over the floor of the cave as the mother-son duo was slashed in half.