Prologue

Long, long ago the Du’ad Misbaah was an upright ruler in a land heavy in magic. He had but one child, his daughter, who was very precious to him. The child grew wanting for nothing under the loving, patient, and firm guidance of her father. Saleema blossomed safely in the shelter of her father’s estates. And had an inherited magical ability not surfaced in her fifteenth year, it is possible her adult life would have been as tranquil and happy as her childhood. Not that the emergence of the magic itself caused turmoil, but it set into process a series of events that dramatically changed not only Saleema’s destiny, but that of her father and even the lands themselves.

For her own safety, and for the safety of those around her, it was necessary that Saleema learn to manage and control her magic. While heretofore all of Saleema’s studies had been conducted by private tutors who traveled to her father’s estates, to master magic, it was now Saleema who needed to travel. Arrangements were made for her accommodations at a boarding school for the arcane arts that was not too distant from her father’s lands. And still, all might have been well, for the school was a good one and Saleema was content there. Yet, one of the trustees of the school, a powerful arch-mage, encountered Saleema on one of his annual tours of the school. Saleema was seventeen at the time, and had become a beautiful young woman indeed. The arch-mage took an immediate fancy to her and found numerous reasons to visit the school over the next two years.

When Saleema, at the age of nineteen, returned to her father’s estates, the arch-mage began a formal courtship of the young woman. In addition to frequent social visits and extravagant gifts, he began to politically pressuring Du’ad for Saleema’s hand in marriage. Although Saleema held no affections for the arch-mage, she could sense the difficulty refusing him was causing for her father. She might have consented to the match for her father’s sake save for one other detail. This other detail was a captain in her father’s guard had been in charge of the escort accompanying Saleema to and from her school for holidays and other visits home. While Saleema found the arch-mage cold, arrogant, and unnerving, her captain was kind, humorous, and personable. While no overt romantic declarations had passed between the two, Saleema suspected, or at least imagined, that the captain returned her affections.

At last, Saleema could take the pressure of the arch-mage, the difficulties of her father, and the uncertainty of this secret attraction no more. She resolved to determine whether the captain did indeed have feelings for her. If he did not, Saleema decided she would agree to a marriage with the arch-mage. If he did, Saleema would make her true feelings known to her father and seek his counsel on the matter. To this end, she had a servant carry a note to the captain, in which she hinted at her feelings and asked if there was any way the two could meet for a private discussion.

What happened next might be attributed to a lack of judgement on the captain’s part. However, the small indiscretion on the captain’s part would have ended innocently enough if the arch-mage had not been making a habit of unscrupulously scrying on Saleema. What the arch-mage witnessed, therefore, was a dashingly handsome man climbing the trellis of a moonlit courtyard garden to gain access to a balcony that led into Saleema’s private chambers. That it was only a conversation that transpired between the two was irrelevant in the eyes of the arch-mage. Insanely jealous, as well as ruthlessly cunning, the arch-mage began devising a terrible method of ensuring Saleema became his, and remained only his forever.

Millennia ago, the Princess Safira was similarly pursued by the king’s most trusted arch-mage. Building on the tattered remains of that ancient research, Saleema’s powerful stalker began constructing a diabolical entrapment. Obsessed beyond all reason, he payed a terrible price to enable his success, yet the item was completed. Teleporting into Du’ad’s estate to kidnap Saleema and return with her to his stronghold was the easiest portion of the plan. Du’ad spared nothing in discovering his daughter’s location and amassing forces from his both his own lands as well as from his allies to recover her. But before the army could be fully mustered, it was already too late. Unknown to her father, Saleema’s fate had been sealed.

The battle between Du’ad and the arch-mage devastated the lands and that section of civilization beyond a quick recovery. Du’ad himself perished and the arch-mage was destroyed and presumed dead. In the chaos of war, and in the ruins of the arch-mage’s stronghold, a small puzzle box was lost, not to be recovered for generations to come. No one knew what became of the young woman who’s capture started such a wide-spread conflict. No one would have guessed to search among the rubble for an insignificant item such as a puzzle box to find her.