MageFire

MageFire FrostRiven- "MageFire"

"A heart that is shattered can never hold pain again; eyes that have wept for a thousand years have no more tears to shed."
-Lahayota proverb

There was more corruption in the city of Senleneya than was acknowledged by the Federation. It's not to say that the Duke was corrupted; Magtel was weak-minded and indesisive, but he had no lurking evil ambitions. In the chronicals of great dragonic kings, dukes, warriors, and sorcerers, Magtel and his son Megtel are barely mentioned. They arrived at the throne through blood alone, and not through any act of courage or battle prowess; but while they had no heart for any mighty act of goodness, they had no heart for any act of evil either. No, the Duke alone was not capable of perverting that majestic city- not alone. Because Magtel was indesisive, he kept about him a great court of all races and counted upon their wisdom for guidence; but most of all, he relied upon the sharp wit and keen tongue of his Court sorcerer, Trandeth'lin. Evil is seductive and difficult to escape from, and when Magtel held court, usually only the sorcerer's advice was followed, despite the other advisors' violent objections, for Magtel was afraid to displease Trandeth'lin.
Trandeth'lin was the most powerful sorcerer on Caldrin at this time; even feared Lightning DreamCaller and Shadow TurnedLeaf were but breezes before the gale-wind that was Trandeth'lin. The dragon could've easily shattered the World like an egg had he wished, but then would have had no toy with which to amuse himself. He attained his power swiftly through sacrifices and prayers to the Dark Lord Nanthrum, and has since then repaid his Master a hundred times over. Trandeth'lin put a thousand to death for treason, and thousands more were given a cold soldier's burial in pointless wars prevoked by the sorcerer. He sky-rocketed taxes and created harsh laws with cruel punishments. He ruled Senleneya with an iron fist.
Trandeth'lin kept no apprentices, no students of his master-mind. He held lower sorcerers in vilest contempt and killed over a hundred on simple whim (Lightning escaped this slaughter by moving to Keron for a time). He had no lovers, for none would touch his corrupted flesh; he had no companions, for none could trust him. He was alone with his evil.

DarkStorm FrostRiven, daughter of ShadeStorm PatchedSky, daughter of ShadowStorm TurnedLeaf, daughter of the High Queen of the Lahayota StormStarGazer, wanted to become a powerful soceress. She'd combed through the Great Libraries of Still Water and Keniya searching for true power; she listened to the oldest shamanistic lore to be found in the Diamond Nations and Lindra She found power, but no one was willing to teach her. She even sought the council of the High Queen, but Storm calmly informed Dark that a shaman could not help with a soceress's problem, and told her to seek the council of Lightning, her twin, or Shadow, her daughter.
ShadowStorm was as elusive as her name, and Dark chased her foremother far across Caldrin, only to catch a single glimpse of her once. Lightning was easier to locate; rumor had it that he never left his home in Senelenya, and so it was that CeaNuelia traveled to the fabulous City of Dragons. She was warned on her path to avoid Senleneya, but this only encouraged her. She knew not the terror and power of Trandeth'lin. So when DarkStorm arrived, she was immediately arrested for practicing magic and for being of the royal line of the Lahayota, and was shown to Trandeth'lin.
Trandeth'lin had tortured many sorceresses in his time, but his inability to manipulate CeaNuelia and the steel-strong look in her whirling emerald eyes won his grudging respect. She learned of his magical mastery, and slowly Trandeth'lin accepted her as his student. DarkStorm was there as he manipulated the Duchy; causing virgin priestesses to engage in wild orgies with the barons, accusing ambassadors of murder, causing the Duchess to commit suicide; and she enjoyed it all as much as he did. He possessed a strange charisma that bound her to him; he forced her to love him, to crave his gentle cynicism which at any moment could turn to abusive cruelty. He touched her with infinite tenderness and almost a sense of sacredness one moment, then threw her down on the cold stone floor and took her so roughly it might as well have been rape. And she loved it all.
Trandeth'lin's reign lasted until Megtrum. Megtel's son, took power in the Lahayota year of 86. Megtrum despised his father's weakness, and hated the sorcerer's manipulating. Trandeth'lin and Dark went into hiding, and Megtrum offered the crown jewels of Senelenya for their heads on pikes; but none dared cross the might of that dark socerer.

Trandeth'lin grew even more dangerous, plotting revenge against the City that was once in his ebony talons and the Duke that routed him out, the one who's son would be king. Even DarkStorm grew afraid of the great midnight-colored dragon, for his moods were fickle and all were savage. It was only love that held her there. A small Tyana overheard Trandeth'lin's plans to destroy Senleneya: to "burn that marble and ivory gate, and silence every voice so that mine may be heard over all of Caldrin!", and the Fox ran back Megtrum to warn him, but here was little they could do against the socerer's magical might.
Sorcerers from all over Caldrin were hired to create a spell or artifact to reflect a magical attack, but it was always deemed impossible, until the Kalamsha shaman, Reflections-in-the-Water, invented a way to use a living being to block the attack. And so a dragonet was born, a sacrifical lamb, called by all Refraction, to save Senleneya. The backlashing of magic destroyed Trandeth'lin, Refraction, and Reflections, who's life was tied to his creation. Senleneya was saved; and still DarkStorm FrostRiven, child of the line od Storm, survived, to face a new life without Trandeth'lin.