Everywhere, people rejoiced. All, but one, that is.
Two years had past since the reign of the evil Queen Zeal. The long ice age had ended, leaving the earth to thaw and grow. Now, it seemed, was the time of revival, and the time to rebuild. In that short amount of time, the land grew as lush as Zeal once was, and many cities had been built
The barrier between the Earthbound and Enlightened Ones had crumbled. The incredible power once known as magic had disappeared from the entire world, leaving them all equal ... almost equal, that is. There was still one who possessed the dreaded power.
Everyone was content with this new style of life. Queen Zeal, her horrible little brat-for-a-son Prince Janus, and her terrible General, Dalton, were all gone. The citizens of New Zeal only mourned the loss of Schala, Melchior, Gaspar, and Belthasar. This time, though, the one wasn't against it.
This "one" was Crystal of Zeal, niece of the Queen, and one of the only living survivors to come out of the Ocean Palace. Out of all who had entered, only the heroic time travelers, the prophet, and Crystal had departed from that accursed place. While the Ocean Palace was collapsing, Schala had used her powers to transport Crystal to safety. It had been too late for Janus, who was sucked into a strange portal before the Palace had collapsed.
Crystal, like all the others, watched the Black Omen fall, with her remaining family in it. Her mother, being sister to the Queen, was in the Ocean Palace, with her father a well.
Now all of them were dead.
Crystal lived in the heart of Zeal City, the capital of the rebuilt kingdom, appropriately called New Zeal. Here the houses were built from bricks and rocks, instead of the crude huts once accepted as fine homes. Crystal earned a living working at a popular inne called "The Five Imps." Due to her loyalty and dedication, she had her own room behind the kitchen.
Crystal had very little belongings. Gaspar once had a secret cave on Earthbound Island, that only few knew about, and Crystal was one of them. She had claimed a few books and journals, (mostly about gates, and gate experiments, magic, and history) as her own.
These books were relentlessly studied. The girl had been planning on creating a gate for the longest of times, just like the one Janus and the gurus had been sent through. She was first going to go to somewhere called the "End of Time," which had been told in one of her dreams. Up until she would go, she had to wait patently, and had to study.
She new that soon, she would unlock the secrets to making time gates. Crystal would find Janus and Schala, and go live happily ever after.
Or so she thought.
This, my friends, is the record of her adventure, one that could challenge even that of the heroic time travelers.
Many questions will be answered, many secrets revealed. I ask you to turn the page with me, and begin what is now know as "A.Z. - After Zeal."
And begins our story, at the inne of The Five Imps.