The Blue Ruby Rose
Chapter One: The Scar of Temeus

The only audible noise is the clicking sound of two pieces of flint being hit against each other. Then, a candle is ignited. The soft glow from it reveals the silhouette of a person. A burly man enveloped in a thick, long hooded purple robe lined with dark blue sits alone in a desolate and dark room in front of his desk with his head down. He mumbles to himself in a very deep voice as he appears to be writing down the formula to an incantation of some sort, using a tongue only familiar to those disciplined in the ways of Necromancy, more commonly known as Black Magic, which is the practice of raising deceased bodies and employing them as servants to the summoner. His only light source is the illumination of the one lit candle set next to the parchment paper he is writing on. Periodically, his mumbling pauses for a few seconds while he thinks of the next line to write. He continues in this fashion for quite some time, probably an hour or two straight, never lifting his head even once due to his intense concentration. Then, from a distance behind him, he hears the creaking of a door being opened, but doesn’t bother to turn around to see who wants to enter. Until he hears a dominating male voice calling his name from the door,
“Ades dum Temeus. Nunc olis.”
(Translation: Come, Temeus. It is time.)
At these words, Temeus quickens his writing, and he mumbles to himself,
“Bene habet, paene adfectum...”
(Translation: All right, almost finished...)

He finally finishes his document. He holds the single sheet up to the light and looks it over once more. Satisfied with his work, Temeus blows out the candle and rushes out the door, to accompany the other voice outside. As he turns around, he sees the man that called for him. He is wearing a long plain purple hooded cloak, just like Temeus’, but without the dark blue accent. This is all that is noticeable as he is making his way down this extensively long and dreary hall, while Temeus quietly follows.

They eventually reach the end of the hall where another wooden door is awaiting the both of them. They barely reach it when the first man simply puts his hand out to the door while still walking, palm open and fingers spread, and calls out “Ostium apertum” and unlocks and opens the door. They both enter the next room, which is dimly lit, but oddly enough, has no candles or torches hung from the walls. This room carries a heavy stench of death, and an unearthly atmosphere as well. Just as these two men come in the room, they see three other massive-looking men, again, all veiled in plain black robes. None of these men’s faces are visible due to the obscurity of the room combined with the darkness of their clothes.

In the middle of the room is a red pentagram. At each point of the star, the three other men are standing ready, facing the center of the star, waiting for Temeus and the other man. These two made their ways to the two other open points of the pentagram. Temeus looked at each of the other four. All four were looking back, waiting for a signal. Temeus did nothing but bow his head, and come to his knees. He was followed by the man in the plain purple garb, then by each of the others simultaneously. They all reached into their robes and pulled out one candle. All three of the men with the black cloaks had black candles. Temeus and the man in the purple had a red one each. They placed a candle on the edge of the star, respectively. Then, Temeus picked his up and lit it by touching the wicker with his thumb and pointer finger and pressing them against each other, then quickly letting go, at which point the wicker began to smoke, while chanting the words “Addere dilucescerum”. He needed only to chant the phrase once before the candle came to life in his hands. He then held the end of his candle out to the man to his left and uttered only a single word, “Epsus”, to the man in the purple - apparently his name - and waited while Epsus lit his own candle, then he held it to his left and said “Amadeus”. Then Amadeus held it out to his left and said, “Theophilus”, then Theophilus, in turn, held his candle to his left and said “Gottleib”. With each progressing candle, the room would brighten just a little bit more, everyone’s shadows would expand a little more and dance a little more than before. When they were all done with the lighting of the candles, they all placed them back on the point of the star in front of them.

At this point, Temeus dug into his clothes and pulled out the parchment document he was composing earlier and placed it in the middle of the pentagram. He looked up at the others again, and motioned for everyone to hold hands. As they did so, they all slowly stood up. As they got up, the paper also began to rise as well. Temeus then began to read from the floating paper about how the three men in black robes have now become graduates of sorts from this necromantic cult:
“Thurh tuus perfetuli multi exsecutionis, vos habere coarguo vos perdignum membresco superius ordinus. Thus, trivos ego ipse nunc nuncupatio Brethrenus. Effectus emolumenti progressus, tu fieri non potest quin oblocutus imperio quo vos perdignus summatus. Dispositura sic evenio, ipse potest decedere aevus. Donec bivium nigrum Aeternitus...”

(Translation: Through your many accomplishments, you have proven yourselves worthy to become members of a higher order. Thus, you three I now title The Brethren. As a result of this progression, you may not answer to any authorities for you will become the authority. In order for this to happen, I must move out of your way forever. Until we meet again in the dark side of Eternity...)

Having said that, everyone let go of each other’s hands, but remained standing. Temeus stared at the floating parchment in the middle of the pentagram. With gazing eyes, he raised his arms straight out in front of his body, and made fists, palms down, leaving about a foot distance between his hands. He then moved his wrists so that his palms were facing each other. He opened his fists, waited a couple of seconds, brought his hands together, then pulled his hands closer to his chest, his eyes still concentrated on the document. As he began to rub his hands faster and faster together, the paper generated a light, and then ignited itself into a compact orb of bluish black fire. This burning blaze actually depleted the room of its light, which seemed to delight Epsus, who was wearing a wicked smile. This is an indisputably demonic form of magic. The more furiously Temeus rubbed his hands, the more light the fire would consume and the hotter it would get, but the heat didn’t seem to bother any of the five men here.

Finally, after a minute or so of intensely rubbing his hands, Temeus suddenly stopped, and as he dropped his hands to his side, he took one step over the red candle and into the pentagram. At the very moment he placed his foot down, he opened his mouth and deeply inhaled. The fireball swiftly bolted in Temeus’s direction, and plunged into his mouth. This made his upper body move back a bit, but he kept his balance with his arms. Temeus had inhaled the ball of burning magic. When it seemed that he had successfully swallowed the fireball, and he began to pull himself together. But then, he paused for a second, with a look of complete calm on his face. He took a step back to where he was standing previously. His eyelids then began to flutter violently as his eyes turned upwards. His image was now becoming visible from underneath his heavy hood for the fact that his face began to glow from inside. His eyes became ablaze. From his nose and mouth bluish black fire spewed as well. Some force made Temeus hold his hands out open with his palms down. The others were now focused on Temeus’ hands.

The back of his hands started to bubble; his skin was acting aqueously. It looked as if there was something underneath his skin trying to push itself out from inside his skin. As whatever was beneath Temeus’ skin attempted to drive itself through his skin, it took on a shape of some kind. The others around him noticed this, but did nothing to help in any way, because they were expecting this to happen. In the same fashion, Temeus appeared to be in pain, but was not screaming, nor did he have his mouth open wide, but his open lips, clenched jaws, and furrowed eyebrows illustrated his torture to the others. He, too, was expecting this reaction, and his discipline was presenting itself by having him suppress his pain.
Then, the entity inside the back of Temeus’ hands formed itself into a design and stopped moving just long enough for everyone in the room to observe it. It was as if time itself stood still for that moment only so that the black-cloaked men may look at Temeus’ hands. It was an image of an encircled miniature burst of fire.

When the possessed entity decided that time may move at a normal pace once again, it suddenly ripped through both Temeus’ hands, and turned back into the blackish blue un-light, and split itself up into six different fragments, each individual miniature fireball aimed for a single hand of each of the three Brethren - Amadeus, Theophilus, and Gottleib. On each of their hands, it left a scar on the backs of their hands with the same stamp that was bulging out of Temeus’ hands.
When the bluish black fire accomplished scarring everyone’s hands, it simultaneously maneuvered into the center of the pentagram, where it formed into the original sphere of fire. This is where it transformed back into the parchment document, and thus gave back to the room what little light it had in the first place, and hovered in the air before slowly waving back and forth and then drifting to the ground. When it finally concluded its wicked scarring demonstration, it lay lifeless on the ground, where the Brethren saw what was inscribed on it, and saw that it was a hand-drawn depiction of the scar that developed on Temeus’ hands prior to exploding through his flesh.
The attention of the men left standing quickly turned to Temeus, who was now left on his knees, with his arms inanimate next to his body; simply hanging off his shoulder bones. Temeus’ hood had come down from the incident, unveiling his bald head, which was lowered from both exhaustion and pain.

A concerned Epsus, being second in command, was the only one to speak.

“Temeus?” he said, waiting for him to respond.

Temeus barely moved anything but his wrists to display the scars to the others. This movement seemed to entirely drain his body of all energy, until he swayed back and forth a couple times before falling to his side, never to get up again.
When Temeus gave his last breath out and collapsed to the ground, his body was moved magically to the middle of the pentagram, while the others were pushed back, away from the pentagram. Temeus’ body continued to move towards the center of the circle, and was lain over the parchment. The document then combusted, instantly engulfing the corpse in a blast of fire, not having the same dark bluish color as before. Instead, it is the shade of scarlet given off by normal fire. This time, the fire, being much larger than previously experienced, and also being true light, illuminated the room with an intense glow, adding heat to the cold-ridden room while also establishing the crackling noise of the flames. While everyone was sustaining this excess light, none of the remaining four moved even an inch, until a loud, grim male voice came into the room and spread throughout the walls.

The voice said a single word, “Concremare” (Translation: Burn entirely). and the four others promptly dropped to their knees, and bent forward, so as not to show their faces in idolization to this unseen speaker. This word seemed to make the body of Temeus burn hotter and brighter than before. Then Epsus, the current leader, replied, “Our Titan of Fire, Pyros, speaks. Master Pyros, by what occasion have you appeared to us?”

Pyros answered, “Look at your former mentor’s burning hands. They are branded with the mark of what is to become an annual ritual in worship to me. It is my command that from this day forth, all first-born daughters in the land of Ashaat be brought to the Citadel to be examined, to verify that they are descendants of Temeus. If they are found to be of the same lineage, then they will be chosen that year to be included in the Divine Line in the name of the Brethren to be sacrificed for me. And I also make it the duty of the town scribe to be solely responsible for the inclusion of those girls into an ever-growing book, to be known as the Brethren’s List of Offerings. If these demands are not met adequately, then I, along with Lithos, shall unleash our temper unto all living souls.” And with that message, the voice of Pyros disappeared from the room. When it did, the flame in the pentagram had faded away as well, leaving only an incinerated mass in its place. As the bonfire went away, the light that it had brought followed, once again leaving the cryptic room with its shadowy presence of light.

Epsus stood up, motioning the Brethren to do so also. He began to talk.

“Master Pyros commands us to fulfill his criteria. Now you must go among the townspeople and introduce yourselves as the Brethren, presenting them with your mission, and striking fear into their hearts so that we may satisfy our Master.”

“What of you?” said Amadeus.

“I am to remain here in these desolate chambers, living out my mortality until the time will come for me to be called to the side of the Titans.”

“Then we shall go, never to return here, “ said Theophilus.

“But what if the villagers do not comply?” said Gottleib.

“Do not worry about the people not yielding. They have feeble minds, and weak souls. They will fear for their miserable lives too much to revolt against you,” replied Epsus.

“Then we shall go and spread word of the desire of our Titan Pyros,” said Amadeus.

With that last statement, knowing their objective, the Brethren left their dwelling place, knowing they were never to come back.