Ages passed and the Renaissance began. With the birth of the Industrial Age

came

the rise of technology, which reached its zenith with the Nuclear Age. Then

came

the Collapse, when the power-hungry technocrats exhausted the weary world's

resources and the machines had finally stopped. The world was once more

plunged

into darkness until the spell that had held Merlin prisoner was broken and he

returned to bring back magic to the world.

"I ended the Collapse by fusing magic with technology, with thaumaturgy as

the

new energy base," explained Merlin. "In the years since I awoke, I've

established programs of thaumaturgic study so that now every nation has a

college of sorcerers in at least one major university. The world had

forgotten

the ways of magic, and I wanted to bring it back to them. They had forgotten

so

much. I wanted to teach them how to live in harmony with the natural forces

of

the world. But I had overlooked one thing. The world may change, but

fundamentally human nature will remain the same. One of my most gifted

students

could not be content with carrying on the honorable traditions of the white

mage. Rashid wanted more. He wanted power. And as his feet began to stray

from

the rightful path, his way brought him ever closer to the Dark Ones."

"But I thought they were dead an' buried," Billy said.

"Buried but not dead," said Merlin. "The Dark Ones do not die. They must be

killed. Over the centuries they have fed off the evil deeds that men did, and

little by little they grew stronger, until they were able to reach out and

seize

Rashid and take his soul. They brought him under their control and led him to

the place where they were buried. By now Rashid had become a wealthy man, and

he

financed an archaeothaumaturgic expedition to unearth what he thought were

enchanted relics. And, in a sense, that was exactly what he found. He removed

the enchanted runestones from the golden chest within the warding pentagram,

and

thus he opened up the way for the Dark Ones to escape."

"An' did they?" Billy said, caught up in the story, not noticing how people

stared at him as he walked down the street, talking to himself.

"Not right away," said Merlin. 'They were still weakened from their eons of

confinement and they needed to gather their strength. Rashid had lost the

runestones, and they knew that so long as the runestones still existed, they

could never attain their full power."

"So they 'ad to destroy the runestones first," said Billy.

"Exactly," Merlin replied. "Only the runestones were not so easy to destroy.

Remember that the life force of the ruling council of white mages was

contained

within them. Yet, by themselves, the runestones could do little, so they

needed

to chose champions, three people with whom they could unite, so that they

would