Prologue
The remains of a party were scattered all around 45 Recugrian Street, Yoshibane. Gaudy streamers still draped the walls, with some now detached and lying in crumpled heaps upon the floor. An empty glass was on its side on the coffee table edge, the crimson liquor it contained now dripping with a slow and steady rhythm onto the mother-of-pearl coloured carpet. The stereo system was still loaded with CDs, and informing the world by blinking its LCD screen silently that it had come to the end of its playlist. Outside, the eastern sky was turquoise with the first morning light, and a bird had already started its trill. The four-hundred-day clock on the mantelpiece spun its four balls around one way and then the other, before five small chimes filled the room.
The clock had an audience of one: the owner of the house and organiser of the party: Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi von Kippo, Ph.D Yos.Ana, Guardian of the Cyan Arc. Everyone called him Lich, out of convenience, and other reasons.
As he sat slumped on the sofa, he recalled a conversation a few hours ago spurred by "those other reasons".
"So," Vector Sprint, the blue Yoshi who came from a time yet to come asked, "Why's your nickname Lich?"
"Well,"
Lich replied, still relatively sober, "it's 'cos
o' the Dyluck and Thanatos
bit. On Fa'Diel, there's an evil sorcerer call' Dark
Lich, and 'e resided within the chief priest o' the
Lich then uttered the fatal words to start the chain of events: "But I didn't like it, and preferred t' be called Dy."
"So, why do we call you Lich then?"
"Because I 'ad a change o' mind."
"Why?"
"Reasons," Lich shrugged.
"Such as?"
"Too many to say now."
"Then, why don't you write it all out?"
Everyone who was listening to the conversation nodded in agreement.
Lich's head throbbed from the hangover, and his eyes were heavy.
"Yeah, alright, I'll try," he muttered. "After I have some placebos…"