Prologue

Matt Willis risked a glance sideways at James Bourne. It reassured him to see that his friend looked just as confused as he felt. There were two official looking men conversing in what sounded like gibberish a few metres away. “Why are we here?” he whispered to Charlie Simpson, who was on his other side.

Charlie looked uncomfortable, despite the fact that all of their butts seemed to have sunk into the soft leather of the sofa. “I don’t know. I need to get packed. Fightstar’s tour’s starting soon.”

“So what if you have a tour? I have an incomplete album.”

“I have a headache,” James muttered. As Matt turned to stare at him, the two men came over to them.

“Gentlemen,” one of them said in very rusty, heavily accented English. “We very sorry to tell that you being hunted down by killer team.”

Charlie stared at the speaker for a moment, “I’m sorry, what?”

“We’re afraid that you’ve all been found on the hit list of one of the biggest killing groups in our world,” the other told them in a light Canadian accent.

James leaned forward, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Unfortunately not. You have to stop any plans you have for the next six months, at least. And we’ve arranged protection for you.” At their blank looks, he leaned back to address his companion in the unidentified language again.

“Meana,” the other grunted, motioning to Matt and Charlie. “Morte,” he added, pointing at James.

The Canadian sighed, “You’re kidding?” He sighed, “We have something we need to tell you three in order for you to fully understand all that we are saying. Come with me.”

*          *          *          *          *

There are four species on the Earth which take the ‘Human’ form. The ancient witch races, Detirioqi (“San”) and Nierriao (“Dan”), the newer witch race- the Demons (“Kan”), and, of course, the Human race (“Ran”).

The eldest witch race are the Detirioqi (singular: Detirioqa). They originally were formed on Earth in order to control the stupidity of Humanity. Powerful and even tempered, Detirioqi can be recognized by the fact that when they use their magic, the iris’ and pupils of their eyes turned a shiny black.

However, some Detirioqi didn’t believe that the Humans merited their assistance, and so broke off and formed another witch race, the Nierriao. The word ‘Nierriao’ at the time meant ‘better than’ in their language. They cursed themselves after time, so every Nierriao set of eyes would go a full shiny black when using their magic.

And finally the Demons. Demons were created when a Detirioqa and a Nierriao decided it would be cool to merge together in order in the hope of finding an immortal being. It was a success, and many more copied their ‘clever’ stunt. It was one when two of the new beings decided to merge that things got ugly. They exploded, along with ever other merged witch in the world. After that, these ‘immortal’ beings were simply born into the world- randomly. They were named ‘Demons’ when the Detirioqi Church believed them to be evil. They have now proved to be as evil as every other race (meaning some are and some aren’t). It’s very difficult to spot a Demon, as many of them have no eye change when using their magic. However, some do, and the colours can range from aqua-marine to mustard-yellow. Demons have all the regular witch abilities, but they also have one or two abilities of their own. These can range from being able to control the weather, to being able to fluff a pillow correctly. All Demons are flawless looking, but infertile from birth, and 90% of Demons are born with a ‘magical malfunction’ (something goes wrong).

And Humans. Although some Humans do perform what id known a Wicca, none of them possess gifts like the witch races do. There are five types of Human. The Meana, who know nothing of the witch races and show no interest in wanting to find out. The Monos, who are equally oblivious, but have the extra abilities of the Demons without understanding why. The Mortes, who can sense magical activity and it makes them curious, but they can’t work out where it’s coming from. The Menas, who know of the magical races. And the Meena, who know everything about the magical races and- the price for doing so- are stripped of their emotions at the age of six. Human types are not always set in stone, for example, a Meana could find out about the witches and become a Mena, or a Mono could find out and become a Mona, as they would still be Mono despite the fact they are aware of the magical side to the world.

All the witch races are known as Rediunyn. And, with Humans, included Dananic. The Rediunyn-Dananics have their own cluster of islands, called the Dananic Isles, where they can escape judgement from Humans. There are five islands in the cluster, Rediunyn Isle, San Isle, Dan Isle, Kan Isle, and Ran Isle.

They also have their own language, which only the witch races, and the Meena Rans can speak. It is downloaded into their brains at birth and- to stop people from working it out- a word is changed every 0.5 seconds, the new word is simply uploaded into the brain and the old one erased.

*          *          *          *          *

Matt stared at the blank screen for a while after the information DVD whirred to an end, “Did you guys understand a word of that?”

James looked like he was about to be sick, “We’re being hunted down by witches?!”