1 Chapter 1: Prologue
In the world of Throne there are people know as Spirit Contractors.
Only 1 in 10 are born as Spirit Contractors. Upon their birth, a spirit animal will congeal out of the ether above them and form a contract.
This contract links the souls of both parties for all time. No one knows where these spirits come from, or why these people are chosen.
Some believe they are a manifestation of the innate strength of the Spirit Contractors. Others believe that something about the Spirit Contractors calls the spirit animals to them through time and space.
One thing that is certain is that only Spirit Contractors have the strength needed to push back the hoards of monsters and clear the deadly dungeons so that humans can continue to live.
The day of Alex's birth was a day like any other. That morning David, his father, went to work in the forest gathering herbs as usual. He was a tall man with a robust frame, black hair, and grey eyes. His job as a small time herbalist was barely enough to make ends meet. With the baby on the way David had been spending more and more time in the forest to try and make as much money as possible.
Unfortunately, David was not a Contractor so he could only gather regular herbs, since all spiritual herbs grow in areas rife with monsters.
One rare spiritual herb would be enough to feed their family for a month! Since they were the only know way to increase the growth of spirit animals outside of monster parts or crystals, they sold for very high prices.
If he could find a rare or high grade fire elemental herb it would be no different from winning the lottery. This was due to the fact that the city they lived in was run by the Pheonix family.
This family of Spirit Contractors was tasked with protecting and expanding the city. In essence they ruled the Fire Bird City. Every Contractor in this family had two things in common, their spirit animals were always birds of some sort, and they were always fire element in nature.
As such fire element herbs sold for a premium.
That morning Annette saw David off.
She was a small woman with green eyes and deep brown hair, but in the morning light fiery red highlights could be seen throughout her hair.
She had felt off all morning, but didn't want to worry her husband. She still had two more months before she was due to deliver.
As she watched him walk down the cobble stone road, she prayed for his safe return.
Annette worked a basic enchanter, she would take some of the herbs from her husbands gathering and mix their sap with different components to make a special ink. This ink would react to the ambient mana and create a circuit that could have magical effects.
In this world enchanters were as close as a human could get to using magic without being a Spirit Contractor.
It was a very difficult profession as it was not widely understood. Even scholars, who spent their whole life studying enchanting, could only produce effects that were "helpful" or "convenient" such as creating self propelling carts or bags that could hold enormous amounts of materials without getting any bigger or heavier.
Unfortunately, the former took months and cost much more than a horse and cart, and the latter required so much skill and so many rare monster parts that only those on the level of the Pheonix family could own them.
Normally, Annette would spend her time enchanting tools. She had a contract with the near by lumber mill.
She would enchant their tools to keep their edge and to stop them from degrading. She would also do upkeep on all of the older runes so that they do not lose their effect.
It was tedious work, but she was skilled after all of these years. Lately it was different though.
Today she walked through their small 2 bedroom wood house seemingly checking each board in the wooden floor and every panel on the wall.
If anyone saw her they would be confused. She seemed to be looking at both nothing and everything at the same time. But if anyone were to look closer they would notice that all of the walls, windows, floorboards, and even the ceiling had tiny runes carved on them.
Never out in the open, always expertly hidden, but every single board had the same enchantments carved into them.
She seemed to be checking them, but her machine like movements would tell any observer that this was something she did frequently.
What no one else knew was Annette had finished all of her back logged work load last month. Since then she has been secretly plotting.
Annette came from a family of Spirit Contractors, that was why she was able to learn how to enchant.
Later in life she was forced to leave her family.
Growing up as she did Annette never wanted her own child to grow up normal.
She desperately wanted her child to be a Contractor like the rest of her family. She wanted her child to have the best chance at a good life.
Ever since she found out she was pregnant she began planning how to improve her child's chances.
She came upon an idea one day.
It was said that some families chose to give birth in areas with dense mana. This was in hopes that the ether was thinner there. That way it would be easier for their newborn children to call a Spirit Animal to them.
The only problem was that mana rich areas were prized by man and monster alike. So, Annette got to work engraving their home with mana attracting and sealing enchantments. The only problem was the material and runes used.
Since Annette was only an average enchanter she didn't know any powerful runes. She also did not have any rare or powerful mana conducting materials. Therefore she could never test her enchantments.
If they worked they would only work for a very short time before they began to break down.
She knew she only had one chance, and that was to empower the enchantments only at the last second before she gave birth and hopefully the house would not fall apart or catch fire.
After she finished making the rounds and checking all of her runes, she went into the living room and moved the rug.
This rug had hidden the only piece of rune work that was neither finished nor hidden in the house. Simply put, she did not have the skills to hide this type of enchantment.
It was a directional manifold for mana. It would direct all of the mana in the house to the area inside the circular runes.
As she stared at the runes, checking for any faults, that strange feeling she had since this morning began to grow. She couldn't explain it, but it made her feel pressure to finish engraving the runes today. These runes were the most difficult she had ever written in her life.
She began the work of engraving the final set of runes almost immediately after she finished her checks.
As the day progressed her feeling of urgency progressed into a sense of dread. She engraved runes into the floor like a mad woman.
Luckily, the house was on the edge of town otherwise someone might have heard or seen her at work. As it was, her nearest neighbors were a 10 minute walk away and they were not on a main road.
It was now nearly four in the afternoon.
Annette had worked all day without rest, caring only about her child and this impending sense of dread that threatened to crush her.
As she began carving the final runes, the ones that would direct the mana to its concentrating point, she felt it.
A powerful contraction in her abdomen.
A cold dread crept up the back of her neck, still on her hands and knees, she looked down between her knees to see small drops of blood and clear liquid begin falling from her dress.
The fear in her eyes at this moment was undeniable.
Frantically she continued carving and drawing runes on the floor. But as she worked the contractions became more and more powerful.
Her head was swimming in a pool of fear, anxiety, uncertainty and dread.
Eventually, she finished the enchantment.
There was no more time, she could feel the baby coming.
She looked out the window and saw the sun hanging over the horizon. She knew David would not be home in time.
Part of her wondered if that was not for the best. Even in her fear, she knew that David would never let her risk her and the child's life on this crazy idea. But she had to, she needed him to have a better life.
With a sigh of resignation she focused on her contractions as she lay in the center of the runic circle.
Nearly an hour later, through clenched teeth and muffled screams she gritted her teeth and activated the enchantments in the house.
Within moments the whole house began to fill with faint blue light. It was the light of the mana she had attracted. After a moment the light built to a crescendo she could see and hear wood splintering around the house. Some spots even began to smoke. The front door even began to catch fire.
She didn't care.
She needed to gather as much mana as possible before the next part.
Fires sparked up all over the house as she began the final push.
As she screamed out in pain she activated the runic circle. Immediately, all of the mana in the house, and all of the mana still streaming into the house, flowed toward her.
Annette was now focused only on delivering her child. She had done all that she could.
She was tired, so tired. If not for the pain and anxiety over her new born child she would have immediately fallen into a deep sleep. She was so tired as she moved forward to lift her wailing child that she did not notice that there was no mana in the house.
She also hadn't noticed that a raging fire had started to consume her home.
She only saw her newborn son.
He had deep black hair and emerald green eyes. She laughed silently to herself as tears fell from her eyes.
It was at this moment that a heavy feminine voice cut through her mind.
"Who are you?" said the disembodied voice.
Slowly Annette looked up to see a pair of silvery blue eyes peering down at her. The eyes seemed to radiate light like fire. She gawked as the disembodied eyes continued to float above her.
"Child, give me your name. Now." The final word was said with such finality that it felt to Annette like a nail in her coffin.
"I am Annette Samson, this is my son Alexander Samson." She said in a stunned voice as she began to look around and noticed that all of the fire seemed to be swaying in slow motion around her.
"Samson? Why have you contacted me? I have no pact with your people, nor anyone of this plane." If Annette didn't know better she would have sworn that the eyes slightly tilted to the side as they said the name. The voice had said it in a strange way, almost as if it was tasting the name to see if it was appealing or not.
"I am sorry great entity. I did not mean to contact you. I only meant to try and find a Spirit Animal for my son to contract." Annette began to blush fiercely as she look down at the ground. It was then she noticed the mistakes she had made in her rush during the creation of the runic circle earlier.
"It is the luck of your lifetime that you have contacted me. Especially at this time." The voice seemed to calm down as it almost cooed these words into Annette's ears. The words seemed to carry a compulsion.
"While I cannot contract to your son, my child can. Normally, I would not allow this, but this child will not live without a contract." As the eyes looked down at Alexander's small body so did Annette.
It was only at this point that Annette realized just how small Alexander was, and how much he seemed to be struggling to breath.
"Please, please help my son! I will do anything!" Annette desperately begged as tears dropped onto the small Alexander.
"As a mother I can not simply watch as a mother loses her son." Once again that powerful compulsion radiated from the voice.
"Unfortunately, you have not gathered enough mana to open the portal to my realm, and I can not open it from this side. You will need to make a choice." As the voice said these words a sense of finality entered Annette's heart.
She knew, just as everyone knew, that non contracted humans do have mana, but it is not much. She had used most of it this day to engrave all of the runes. The only mana she had left was the trace amounts left in her blood.
As dark fell over Fire Bird City David was slowly making his way back from the forest.
He had a good day today. He was able to gather many herbs and even some medicinal ones. Nothing rare or expensive, but they would bring in more money.
They could use every copper as they were saving for the baby.
With a smile on his face he looked down the road to see smoke rising in the distance. After a moment of staring the quizzical smile fell from his face and he dropped his pack full of herbs and ran back to the city. A heavy stone now hung in his chest.
