The first tremor of the magic awakening in Guardian Against the Forbidden World.
From the Journals of Famoon, the Star-Reader
My father found it wrapped in the skin of a beast I did not recognize. He told me it was a gift, but even as a boy, I knew it was a burden.
For forty years, I have stared at its pages. I traced the swirling black script with my fingers until the ink stained my skin. I whispered the words, shouted them, pleaded for them to speak.
But the book remains dead in my hands.
To me, the letters are just shapes; mysterious, silent, unyielding. I memorized the patterns, I charted their geometry, but the fire never came. I am a scholar of a language that refuses my tongue.
They say magic is a skill to be learned. They are wrong. Magic is a living thing, and it chooses.
When my destiny drove me into the cursed realm, no one believed three young wanderers could survive the place that has haunted mankind for centuries. I did not imagine I would survive it either.
For months I traveled through forests of gnarled trees, valleys shadowed by the ruins of forgotten giants, and mountains where unseen creatures watched from the snow.
I found them in a place beyond description. Its purity, its grandeur, its untamed strangeness – no ancient word can contain its meaning.
They did not welcome me, but I carved a space beside them. Walking together, hunting in the hills, uncovering old legends, I learned how they had endured this forsaken land.
But my eyes were always drawn to the elder girl.
Yesterday, by firelight, I saw it – the faint, shimmering Kofon in her gaze. My father had spoken of it. You do not choose magic; it chooses you.
She was chosen.
When the others left to hunt, she remained. I told her about my past, and then about the book.
Her eyes brightened. She wanted only to see it.
I placed the book in her hands.
The moment her gaze touched the parchment, the ink stirred. The ancient letters uncoiled like waking snakes, rising from the page and humming with a sound that cracked the clay pot beside me. The land beneath my feet trembled and the roar of the waterfalls fell abruptly silent.
Then they struck.
The words did not vanish into air; they poured into her. They seeped through her skin like black rain into dry earth. I watched the pages bleach themselves white as snow while her veins darkened with the power I had chased my entire life.
The book is empty now.
Because the spell no longer lives on the paper.
It lives in her.
She opened her fractured eyes, and a white staff appeared in her hand, its crest glowing with an otherworldly light. Startled, she tried to let it fall.
It did not fall.
Suspended between her palm and the air, bound by threads of smoky light, it drew itself back into her grasp.
The magic had chosen her. She now carries the power that druids, seers, and witches only dreamed of. It is not a magic of spells, but a magic of sight – a force born in the eyes that bear the Kofon.
The earth of Ogshun shook, the air folded, and the world itself leaned toward her, as if everything that ever lived had been waiting for the moment she opened her eyes.
FAQs
What is The Awakening of the Kofon about?
It’s a fantasy short story about Famoon, a scholar obsessed with a magical book that refuses to speak until destiny reveals the one chosen to awaken its power.
Who is Famoon, the Star-Reader?
Famoon is the story’s narrator scholar and seeker of ancient magic who discovers that true power chooses its wielder, not the other way around.
What does “Kofon” mean in the story?
The Kofon is a mysterious mark of sight and power, an ancient form of magic that awakens within the chosen.
What themes are explored in The Awakening of the Kofon?
Themes include destiny, the burden of knowledge, the nature of magic, and the idea that power is a living force that chooses who wields it.
Is The Awakening of the Kofon part of a larger series?
The story reads as a standalone journal entry but hints at a larger world that could be part of a continuing fantasy saga.
What genre is this story?
It’s a dark, mystical fantasy short story with mythic and atmospheric storytelling elements.
Who is the girl with the Kofon?
She’s a mysterious companion of Famoon who becomes the chosen vessel for the book’s ancient power.
Why does the book lose its ink?
Because the magic within the book transfers into the girl, the words become alive again, but within her.
What inspired The Awakening of the Kofon?
The story draws on classic fantasy tropes ancient texts, forbidden magic, and chosen heroes but told through a poetic, journal-style voice.
What is the message behind the story?
That true magic or power cannot be forced, learned, or owned; it awakens only when the time and the person are right.