The Red Necromancer's Lost Diary

Written in the year 2, the Lost Diary is one of several books kept in a lead room to prevent the leakage of radiation from their pages. Together, these texts are known as the Books of Fire, due to the sparks a person spits when reading them aloud. 

The most powerful among them, The Red Necromancer's Lost Diary details the account of the great magician Ahkin Alivan during his apprenticeship as a Bee Tamer in the wilds of Nag Eiden. According to the diary, Alivan was a young boy living at the desert's edge when an elephant caravan stopped to trade goods. An enchanted Beehorn was displayed. It was a beautiful instrument, crusted in jewels. When told that the player of the Beehorn could tame entire swarms of bees, the young Alivan stole it, and fled with the horn to a nearby cave.

From the safety of his desert hideout, Alivan practiced the Beehorn in hopes of mastering its secrets. Unknown to him, however, was that the horn was not perfect. It bore a small dent, which he had caused in his haste. After some minutes of blowing upon the Beehorn, a sound arose in the distance. The sound was faint, but grew louder as he played. His heart beat faster as the sound became a buzz, and he realized the Beehorn was working- he was taming the bees!

Alivan next caught sight of a small, black cloud over the desert. The cloud floated toward him over sun-hot dunes. When the swarm of bees was so near that their clamour deafened his ears, Alivan took in a great breath and released a final blast. The swarm descended upon the boy and stung him.

The diary describes how Alivan lay unconscious for days at the mouth of his cave. The desert sun beat upon his brow, and scorched his skin, and the venom of the bees twisted in his heart. When he finally woke, he forevermore heard a loud buzz in his ears, and his mind was illuminated like the sun. It was not long after that the boy set out upon the magician's path, and later proved himself the most brilliant sorcerer of his day.

It is only in later chapters of the diary that any explanation is given for the incident with the bees. The diary tells how Ahkin Alivan, as a grown man wandering the world, rooting its secrets, once again encountered the trader from whom he had first stolen the Beehorn. The dent in the horn, he was told, may not have tarnished its beauty. But the quality of the horn's music was tainted, and instead of taming the bees- drove them mad.

Since then it has become a tradition in Nag Eiden for young boys to break a wooden horn over their knee on their twelfth birthday. This is believed to bring health and good luck to the child. During the holiday of Terakhin, clay horns are placed above the doorways of each home, and women wear smaller version in their hair. Though no one remembers the exact reason for this, historians believe its origins lie in the story of Ahkin Alivan and his life shaping moments as a Bee Tamer.