Zendreyu returned to his family ranch with a steady but heavy heart. His father was murdered, and his mother was missing. The ranch had been in the care of his younger half siblings for just under a month since it was determined that Willicus of House Tilon was actually dead. Zendreyu was used to death after his time abroad but it still hurt to the core of his soul that his father was no longer around. They were supposed to go fishing together and check out various restaurants from his Patriarchal family's holdings. Zendreyu's mother was missing too and that was another problem altogether as his mother was known to leave for years at a time after he turned 5 years old. This time however no one was able to contact her by any traditional means.

Zendreyu set his gear in his room and kept his parent's room pristine, untouched except to dust it and sweep it webs. While sweeping his parent's room Zendreyu noticed a parcel peeping from under the bed. The place where father always "hid" his gifts for mother was just under the edge of his side of the bed. Zendreyu smirked to himself at the childhood memory as he picked up the object wrapped in paper a surge of violet energy briefly pulsed through Zendreyu's body. Zendreyu could not use magic outside of a basic internal healing spell and that energy was not like the violet energy that surged through him a moment ago.

Zendreyu reviewed his body briefly out of military habits and found that the energy was actually familiar. With no other recourse Zendreyu opened the parcel to find a book. It was written in a language that Zendreyu somehow intuitively knew. The urge to give voice to what he was reading internally was nearly overpowering. Zendreyu knew this trick... Something or someone was trying to get him to give voice to a possible spell which this book would either empower or unleash. This would have worked when Zendreyu was younger but not now, with age comes wisdom from experiencing mistakes. After the urge passed the book grew warm within his hand. Zendreyu carefully set the book down and made a clean sweep of his parents' room for any obvious markings or spell trappings. Zendreyu did not open any dressers or remove anything from the closets as that would be disturbing his parents' privacy and they had been very big on keeping things private and on a need to know basis.

As Zendreyu prepared to leave the bedroom he looked back to where he had set the book down and to his disbelief the book and its wrapping had disappeared. Another quick check of the room showed that the book had somehow displaced itself and as Zendreyu looked outside of the bedroom door he found the book on the kitchen table with its prior wrapping neatly folded and set aside next to it. Zendreyu did not sense any danger or killing intent. Neither the feeling or scent of magic beside the brief pulse from earlier abound. Zendreyu closed his parents' bedroom door like his was blocking an avenue of retreat before approaching the kitchen table and taking a seat in contemplation.

"Should I read the title of this book again?" Zendreyu asked himself as for the life of him despite having just read the title and being able to see the strange yet familiar lettering of the book in front of him Zendreyu could not REMEMBER the title he had read only moments ago.

Zendreyu went out for work since there were no horses to be trained or farming to initiate during the end of Summer. His father’s mysterious death weighed on his mind, after checking some ads at the local Veteran Agency Zendreyu found a one day service quest to work in Luluhawa. It only took Zendreyu 96 hours to sort through that one quest. It was a relief to be able to pay the taxes on the ranch. The land was paid for but taxes were eternal. With a content sigh from his working one day vacation Zendreyu found himself sitting at the kitchen table staring at the strange book. An emerald ear cuff flickered with the light from the evening sun as Zendreyu ended his contemplation and reached out and touched the mystic book once more. As Zendreyu touched it violet energies spelled a title atop the cover and this time it didn’t flicker away to where he could not read it. The title of the book read “Bindings & Oaths of the Abyss…” A brief moment later Zendreyu found himself clutching his chest as his eyes turned golden red. It seemed this book had a deep effect on him as Zendreyu focused his will to read the first page.

The first page had a brief synopsis on the books content:
TO WHOMSOEVER READS THIS BOOK IN ITS ENTIRETY YOU WILL COME TO KNOW OF THE CONTRACTS AND OATHS THAT BIND MORTALS TO DEMONS AND DEVILS ALIKE. LET THIS KNOWLEDGE GRANT YOU WHAT YOU SEEK AT THE LEAST COST TO YOUR SOUL.

The 2nd page on the backside of the 1st page listed books by the same group of authors:

The Last of Zenshai
Wizards of the West
Thunder Children of Thor
By Zennikki Zucker Abara

Zendreyu was taken aback immediately after the first three books were mentioned to be authored by his mother. The violet energies surging from the book made reading the names of the other authors impossible. Soon Zendreyu found himself reading his mother’s opening written words under the symbol of what Zendreyu thought was her own make but it turns out it was a family crest mark.



The symbol leapt from the page in a burst of violet energy and violently entered Zendreyu’s heart. Zendreyu passed out instantly as information filled his mind while dark runes began to fill his body.

Magnus watched over Zendreyu as he slept at the kitchen table. It was enlightening for the large exceed to know that although Zendreyu could not cast magic his body seemed especially capable of containing mystical energies. Magnus decided he would have a talk with Zendreyu about it later as he left the kitchen to go outside and train himself in the nearby orchard where he could eat as many seasonal apples as he wanted as long as the tree was not marked for harvest.

Zendreyu was in a deep sleep as his mind and soul went inside the realm of the book. When Zendreyu looked around he saw his mother but she looked a lot younger as she sat in an odd chair writing with a some kind of bone remodeled into a pin. Another young man lay face down on a small cot next to her. This man had horns and a tail and was giving off a large amount of violet colored mana from three points on his neck. Zennikki was literally dipping her bone pin into his neck and using his blood essence for ink.



"As she did so she sang a very familiar song

One, two, Nikki's coming for you

Three, four, better lock your door

Five, six, grab your crucifix

Seven, eight, better stay up late

Nine, ten, Demons go to sleep again"

Zendreyu remembered this song because his mother would sing it to him so happily as a child. These were also his mother’s dueling steps that she would teach him now and then between his father’s lessons. 1 Strike, 2 dodges, 3 nerve strikes , 4 blocks, 5 bloody wounds, 6 steps of defiance, 7 broken bones, 8 counters, 9 lethal wounds, 10 finishing blows. This was her system of combat and when done in sequence, it was lethal. It did not have to be done in sequence as he remembered but certain areas of the body were always targeted in sequence. From the looks of the horned man on the cot he had suffered the full wrath of his mother’s attacks.

Zennikki continued writing her stories on what looked to be ancient paper that absorbed the blood essence from the bone pin with each distinct stroke.  Zennikki then made a motion with her hands leaving an ephemeral energy dancing in the air that resembled his mother’s lineage family seal or crest. A massive amount of knowledge flowed into Zendreyu and the seal appeared in his heart once more. It began to react with his father’s bloodline armor placing intricate DEVILISH seals upon it. A vision of his mother when she was young stayed prominent in Zendreyu’s mind.

Zendreyu woke up to a basket of apples to know that Magnus had checked on him as Zendreyu found his face wet from tears he had shed in his sleep. After checking the clock and the light outside Zendreyu slowly realized he had been asleep for 2 days.

Zendreyu found his mind full of methods to maintain, update, severe, form, and overpower contracts with beings from the abyss. It would have been fascinating if it didn’t lead Zendreyu to question his mother’s true identity as his mother and father had always claimed to be demihumans. “What in the abyss is going on?”

The book gave him a clue, there was a set of old tournament tickets for a place in Fiore. Intrigued Zendreyu went to the county clerk to pay the land taxes before setting off for the Tournament Grounds in Fiore.