#1 - PeaceBreaker

The adventure begins!?

An evening of thick silence progressed sluggishly for the drowsy and slightly irked Zeil Illum. Face down in a puddle of boredom, the boy sat at his homework desk, blank answer sheets with nary a math problem solved reminded him of his poor resolve and lack of gumption to finish his nightly assignment. He ran through the usuals of what would happen the next day, for procrastinating was so much more delightful than schoolwork.
First, he would walk to school with knots all in his gut. He would fuss and fume about not doing the problems and imagine all sorts of beasts that his math teacher, Ms. Magreson, would turn into. Perhaps a dragon she would become. She would breathe blue fire and melt the entire class; A monstrous vile glop of acid would be just as plausible.
After such colorful daydreams, as Zeil would near the school building, thoughts of skipping class would grip his panicked little mind. He had no guts for that though, and his father stayed at the house all day to keep it. He really had no other place to go for six hours. He'd curse himself constantly and under his breath so no one heard him utter such dirty language, and then eventually resign himself to be smacked around by his own fate.
What snapped him from this nightmarish session was the telephone, and presently it made Zeil very nervous. Telephone calls at night were always one of three things. It could be a telemarketer, Ms. Magreson, (with some very fun news for Zeil's parents) or an emergency call from family. Zeil hoped and prayed it was a telemarketer, and indeed no one answered it for three rings. Curiosity bubbled within Zeil, which was very strange to him, and eventually he stood and made his way to the kitchen.
It may have been his intense aversion to homework that caused an intense swell of his inquisitive feelings that night, or after the events that transpired, it could have been some sort of enchantment. Either way, he glanced over at his parents who were sat at the table with bills and funny stuff that required some basic skill in arithmetic and asked about the caller ID on the phone. Zeil's mother peeked up at her son from beneath her spectacles for a split second before returning her focus to the checkbook.
"It's probably just another telemarketer," She sighed, "If you or your father would just answer it and tell them to buzz off, perhaps we wouldn't be bothered by them." A large frown wrinkled the face of Zeil's father before he feebly agreed. For the better as well, sometimes Zeil mistook his mother for Ms. Magreson, though it sometimes occurred that his mother was many times worse!
The tenth ring came and went, and it seemed that the phone was becoming louder. The noise became grating and caused everyone to grit their teeth.
"Zeil! Go pick up that phone and tell whatever is on the other end that they are going to find their head separated from their shoulders!" A vicious look came into Zeil's mother's eyes that told him her patience was dead and gone. "Rest in peace patience!" Thought Zeil as he finally made his way towards the phone. His curiosity once again aroused by the persistence of the caller, Zeil picked up the phone and, hesitantly, greeted the apparently very patient caller.
"Hello?" Zeil barely got the word out before a very sudden whispering noise crawled from the receiver. The breath seemed to become as a bug that crawled into the boy's ear. Very swiftly and all at once, Zeil dropped the phone and lifted his hands to his ear. He did not even notice his own screaming, nor the fact that no one reacted to it. Around him, everyone and everything had frozen in time and the atmosphere itself took on a pale, bluish hue.
Instead of hearing his own screaming, Zeil was tuned in to some sort of horrible plane in which disembodied voices by the thousands cursed and insulted him. Worthless, they called him; Spineless, stupid, useless, boring, good-for-nothing, selfish, cowardly, less than an amoeba. So many terrifyingly depressing things were heaped upon him. Finally, Zeil's screaming turned to sobbing. Tears streamed down his face, and those tears began to reflect images of faces. Horrid, ugly faces with impossibly large, yawning black mouths that emanated fear.
"End it!" The chorus of indignant howls hissed in unison as a large knife appeared at Zeil's side. "End it!" All at once his tears stopped and a despicable look came upon his face. A smile of disgusting relief. A toothy grin that only devils should wear, and anyone who saw him now would realize that something was controlling the helpless boy. He grabbed the knife and gazed into the blade.
"Such a weak-looking weapon." Zeil (or was it really Zeil?) whispered aloud, "Though it is good enough for someone like me!" Quickly, He adjusted his grip and without wavering, plunged it into his stomach.
What came out was not blood, indeed the blade did not even make it to his navel. A gloved hand grasped his own tightly. A mysterious girl, her face hidden by a hood, had stopped him forcefully. A black mist that filled Zeil with rage and indignation began to dance upon his skin. He spat and tried to power through the girl's strength. No such luck. Suddenly, and nearly without Zeil wanting to, he stood and moved to attack the girl, hissing and growling like a rabid animal with each swing of the knife. She moved like water around a rock. No jerkiness, no apprehension, she seemed to dance around the violent thrusts and swings with ease. Having quite enough, Zeil (Was it truly him?) rushed to pin her down this time. This time, she moved in at surprising speed; She was so fast, Zeil did not ever understand what exactly happened. In an instant she was upon him and the next, the boy's vision faded and all was black.

...

"Zeil!" A voice. A sweet voice. "Zeil!" Louder, with more than a bit of worry in it this time. In the darkness of his mind, the boy saw a rosy candlelight ahead, very far ahead. A guide to the afterlife, he thought. The pressure of living as a giant failure was gone. He equated the feeling to dropping his heavy school bag and forgetting about it for the weekend. Only now he never had to worry about it again. No more math to bomb, no more Ms. Magreson, and most of all, no more parents to disappoint. Small though it was, a wave of regret passed through him as he pictured his mother and father. A small silence passed by, and Zeil listened intently for the woman's voice to call him back to the warmth he had just been feeling.
"Zeil Illum, you are no longer injured! So wake...Up!" In sync with that final word, a piercing sting pulled the boy into consciousness and forced him upright.
"Ouch!" Zeil's hand flew to his cheek. For a few seconds, a bright light stunned him back into closing his eyes. Gradually, as he got used to the brightness, he realized that his house had disappeared. A field of beautiful roses. Impossible roses, for they grew individually and from the earth, rather then in bushes. The vast swath of red was somehow a comforting sight, and the crimson did not assault him in the slightest. It awed Zeil so powerfully, he forgot everything that had just happened and asked, half to himself, where he was.
A long and very audible sigh emerged from the girl next to Zeil. She stood and stretched, raising her hands up to the sky, which appeared to be taken from a watercolor painting, and pulled the hood of her cloak back. She pulled back her long chestnut hair and let it fall outside of her cloak. A stern, but beautiful face was brought to the light of the gargantuan, also impossible, sun. Brown eyes blinked a couple of times to adjust, and after turning her head to face the horizon, she spoke.
"This is the Meadow of New Flames, one of our last safe havens and--" She paused to look directly into Zeil's eyes, "--You are lucky to be alive." Truthfully, she meant to express her thankfulness at him being alive. This boy, as idiotic as he appeared, would play a very important role later on.
"Wait, hold on. Who are you? Where is my home? Didn't I..." Zeil's voice trailed off as everything began to seep in once again. Instead of relief, profound terror stopped his mouth and twisted his gut.
"Hrunters." She spoke the word with a strange accent. "Controlling devices developed to control your dreams, ambitions, goals. They used them on you to pull out your insecurities and force you to commit suicide. Lucky for me, they only used a time-type barrier. You would have been dead had they used something stronger." The girl stuck her hand out and helped the distraught young man to his feet. "Right now, you are within Somnium, the realm of dreams. Right now it is my dreams that you dwell in, but soon you will be able to safely dwell within your own."
"What do you mean, and who are you?" Currently, Zeil had much on his mind, but chose to follow the current flow of things. He did not want to remember his attempted suicide. The girl smiled and asked if he could walk. When she was certain he could, she walked ahead of him and turned. With a bow, she introduced herself.
"My name is Selia Astraughta. Second student of the master Moreph, whom I am to bring you to." Selia held out her hand as she finished speaking, "Welcome, Zeil Illum, you are now a student of Moreph!" The girl's smile grew even larger while Zeil stood, dumbfounded and completely lost in this incomprehensible situation. If only he knew what awaited him in the near future.