The Creators: Book One by

I eased my finger off the trigger, and sat back, but kept my hand resting on the stock. There were two possibilities with this young man: either he’d possessed an astral being and named it his sister, or… well, that was the only option, really, because the alternative was impossible. Nearly impossible, anyway. Those legends are older than I am, and I’m five-hundred years old. That age has passed, and that magic is dead; dead and gone forever. I mean… I couldn’t be sitting in front of a god, right?

“OK, boy,” I said, looking at him sharply, “where are you keeping the gemstone?”

“The gemstone?” he asked.

“That’s how you captured the astral being, isn’t it?” I replied, “The charm on the doorway should have detected it though, so you couldn’t have brought it with you.” I looked the young man over, running through the options in my head, “…though you wouldn’t need a gemstone if you’re really an elf. Hmm… no pointed ears, and your eyes aren’t the right shade of blue… the freckles certainly don’t fit…wrong shade of blonde, too…”

“I uh…” the young man said, shifting nervously, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Nymphs don’t need gemstone’s either,” I mused, feeling my options dwindling, “but you certainly aren’t one of those… OK, I give up; how did you capture the astral being without a gemstone?”

“Like I said,” the young man replied, looking very nervous, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have a gemstone, and I don’t know what an astral being even is.”

I leaned forward, staring intently at him as my finger twitched against the trigger of the crossbow. Something clearly alerted him to the danger he was in, because he flinched as my hand angled into the firing position.

“An astral being is a force a nature,” I said, searching for recognition in his eyes, “it’s what makes magic work. There are thousands of types of astral beings, and more than a few of them can give the user the power to snoop around my fucking house.”