Post by Vash, the Angel's Moon on Nov 7, 2011 9:18:57 GMT -5
A/N: Here we are again, a new chapter of Prophecy of Lunar! I'm a bit behind on my NaNo, so I just finished this on the bus this morning. Most of the chapter's been written for a while, I was just having difficulty finishing it. Warning - the document is nine and a half pages, so prepare for a long read. It's lengthy.
I'm looking for any kind of constructive criticism you have! Lay it on me; what you like, what you don't. Note that some places where there was emphasis there isn't because I"m not going through all nine and a half pages and putting it all back in italics again.
Also, I'm taking some creative liberties with the CR universe, so please, cut me some slack.
---
-Chapter the First: My Story Begins
My name is Astran, and I am not human.
This world I live on… it’s known as Allorum. Governed by the thirteen Elements of Magic, each of Allorum’s thirteen lands is dedicated to one such element.
Many thousands of years ago, my creators, the Ketulunans, fell from the sky onto the surface of this planet, desperate to escape their burning, decimated home. Ketuluna was dead and dying; her people needed a new home. And so, I was created – myself, and my thirteen siblings, gifts to the people of Allorum to stay their blades and make sure that the Ketulunans were welcome here.
I hadn’t thought of it in a long time – not before that old man told the stories. I lived those stories, breathed the air that nourished them. I knew the careful hands that penned them, etched the words onto the pages of history.
None alive in this age know my story, and none who still breathe remember the struggles that created this era of peace. Only I still recall the strife and turmoil of my birth, and this is the story of how it all happened.
Back then, I knew nothing – I didn’t know anything about Allorum, or the thirteen Elements, or Lunar Knights, or even what and who I was…
---
Thud-thud.
I floated in blackness, weightless, substanceless.
Thud-thud.
That noise… there was a feeling with it, a vibration. I felt a whisper as something passed me, and I felt the noise begin to slow, the vibration begin to weaken. I reached out to it, feeling something call out to me.
Thud-thud.
That vibration, that noise again. I touched it, and I was no longer weightless. I fell down, down, down into that black abyss.
I felt… cold, I realized. Had I ever felt ‘cold’ before? I struggled to recall. My mind was blank, empty; the world was still dark, and I was still floating, but that noise echoed and echoed in my ears, over and over, repeating. My mind searched for the word, but came up with nothing.
“Is he breathing?” The voice reached my ears, and I could feel myself being drawn out of that black, floating void. I could feel something against my back; I was lying down.
“Kiran?” One of the voices said – yes, voices. More than one. Words came back to me. “Is he alright?”
“No! He can’t… he can’t be…”
“Shiira, stay back!”
“He’s breathing!”
Breathing? I took a shuddering breath and realized I was, and I remembered what ‘breathing’ was. Humans breathed. They breathed to live.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
I felt. I felt the vibration in my chest, and then I felt someone’s hands around my shoulders. I opened my eyes, and I saw.
Light. The first time I would ever see it, and it was harsh and blinding. I closed my eyes, opened them again, blinked away the glare of the light off of the white walls. Staring into my eyes were another pair, green, and there was water leaking from them – tears.
“Kiran,” breathed the voice that had cried out earlier, and then she – because it was a woman – grabbed me, taking me in her arms… but something was terribly, terribly wrong. She let go of me, and I gently touched her arm, moving it aside. “Kiran?” she asked, searching my face, but I shook my head.
“Kiran…” I said, and my voice was hoarse, it didn’t sound right. I coughed, breathed again. “Kiran… he isn’t here.”
She slid back, confused. She was on her knees, on the floor next to me – a white floor. I was sitting up, now, and I could further take in the scenery. Six or seven other people – humans, all of them – stood, looks of confusion, shock, and anger on their faces. My mind added new words by the second.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
“What do you mean?” She laughed, nervously. “Kiran, this isn’t time for jokes…”
“This isn’t a… joke,” I replied, my throat becoming more and more used to talking. “I’m not Kiran… he’s…” I searched for a word to describe it. “Kiran is…” I almost had it, but it slipped away. “He’s gone,” I finished weakly, knowing that ‘gone’ wasn’t the word I was seeking.
She shook her head frantically. Her hair was an odd color – almost white, with highlights of pale blue. “No! No, you’re lying!” she shouted at me. One of the other humans kneeled down next to her, put a hand on her shoulder.
“If you’re not Kiran,” he said, and his voice was slightly threatening, “who are you?”
Who… was I? I thought for a moment, but nothing came. Just blackness, abyss.
“I… I don’t…”
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
Something was coming.
“I…”
I could feel it, on the tip of my tongue.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
That noise again… it bothered me, there was something not-right about it. As if it shouldn’t be there. I closed my eyes, shut it out. There. There was the word.
My name.
“…Astran,” I said, opening my eyes again, confused and worried at what it all meant. Shock touched the whole room, everyone’s eyes going wide, some stepping back, some looking at each other; the woman with blue-white hair said just one word.
“No,” she whispered, then she fell to her hands, her eyes on the floor, not looking at me. “NO!” she screamed, and I reached out to her.
“Don’t touch me!” she cried. “Don’t… just…” She sobbed, her tears falling to the floor.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” asked the man who’d asked me my name.
“I don’t even know what I’ve done!” I protested. “I don’t know what it all means!”
He snorted. “You have no right to ask.”
The woman with blue-white hair looked up at me again.
“…you… don’t know?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know anything. I just don’t understand!”
I had the feeling that maybe, just maybe, if I understood, things would go back to normal. But then again… I had no idea what ‘normal’ was…
Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
The noise, the vibration, had sped up; it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. I knew the word for this feeling, I thought. What…?
Fear.
That’s what this was. Fear. I was afraid of this man, of what he would do to me. I was afraid because I didn’t understand, because I didn’t know what the future held for me.
“Understand this, then,” said the man with the harsh voice. “You are nothing more and nothing less than an abomination. That body is not yours; the mouth with which you speak, the lungs with which you breathe, the hands with which you reach out, even the heart which beats within you - you have stolen them all away. You are not like us; you are an abomination, puppet, and you live at our mercy.” With that, he turned and walked away.
The woman watched him go, but I simply clutched at my chest.
He was wrong. This… this noise…
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
Noise? No. This… this heartbeat, it was mine now. If I had stolen this body, as he’d claimed, my heart… yes, my heart… wouldn’t beat like this.
“No,” I repeated aloud. “I am… I am me!” said, clenching my fist over my beating heart. “I’m no… ‘puppet’.”
And yet, it still bothered me. Even though I knew the name of the noise, even though I knew what it meant, there was something wrong with it. A part of me knew that at least partially, that man’s words were true.
All of the people surrounding me looked at me; they must have heard my affirmation, but none stepped forward.
The woman on the floor in front of me sat up, wiped her tears away with one hand.
“Astran,” she said calmly, “what… what happened to him? To Kiran?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “He was gone… I felt him leave, and then…” I shook my head. “I… I don’t really understand what happened…”
She sank back on her heels, nodded. “So, he was already dead…” she whispered, and it felt as though my heartbeat paused.
Dead.
Gone forever – that’s what ‘dead’ was. The word that I was looking for, a word that I knew was incredibly important to me, although I didn’t understand why.
Death.
I nodded. “I… I think so,” I said.
Without another word, she stood, looked at the others around her; suddenly, her sadness was gone, replaced by determination, an ‘all-business’ attitude. Part of me wondered where all these new words were coming from, but I shoved that to the back of my mind.
“Come,” she said, and the tone was an order. “Can you stand?”
One of the other people looked at her with shock still on their faces. “Shiira, are you sure? It…”
“He is the ultimate result of our experiment,” she said, staring them all down. “We have created him; he’s our responsibility now.” She returned her gaze to me, and I could tell she had hidden all her emotions – those eyes were cold as ice. “I asked you a question – can you stand?”
Could I? I didn’t know. Weakly, I got my knees under me, then pushed myself upwards.
It was… difficult. I could tell immediately, I had never done this before. Was that strange? I searched my mind, but again, no answers. I came to my feet, but wobbled, almost fell. I felt a strong hand grab my arm and help me straighten up; grateful, I looked up, only to see that Shiira – I was guessing that that was what the white-haired woman was called – was the one who had caught me.
“Thank you,” I said, and she shrugged. Letting go, she crossed her arms and looked me over.
“Don’t thank me yet – you need to try walking next.”
I took a step forward; then another. Balance was the key, I realized – and when I realized that, everything became easier. My body balanced itself, and with Shiira’s help, I made it across the room.
She gave me a look-over with that same critical eye, before nodding. “Alright,” she said. “I suppose you’ll do, Astran.”
There was an ever so slight pause as she said my name, as if it were as difficult for her to say it as it was for me to walk.
“Th-thanks,” I said. She didn’t say anything else, just started off down the hall, seemingly expecting me to follow, which I did.
We walked in silence for a while, so I got the chance to look at the world I’d woken into. It was a lot of white and grey walls, pretty boring. There were some windows, but not many. Looking out them, the world outside was a black abyss filled with thousands of points of light.
Stars, my mind informed me. They’re called… stars.
Whatever they were called, they were beautiful.
“What is this place?” I asked Shiira, always eager to learn. She sighed.
“This is the space colony ‘Valkyrie’,” she explained. “The people you met back there are the last of a dying race.”
I looked at her, startled. I realized that when we were standing next to each other, I was just a little bit taller than she was – it was strange.
She stopped walking, crossed her arms again. “This is one of five ships that escaped the dead world of Ketuluna before it was rendered barren by the gods’ servants. Of those five, it is one of only two that is still able to orbit the lower world. Of those two, it was the only one with the equipment necessary to complete the purpose we were given.”
With Shiira stopped, I was able to walk over to the window and look out. I gasped, pressed my hands to the glass as I stared down below us.
We hung suspended in that endless void, blackness with stars all around us, and below us hung a huge sphere, so huge that I could only see part of it, blue with swirls of white that passed over green… even as I watched, my mind told me its name.
Allorum. The lower world. The white swirls were clouds, the green, landmasses that floted in endless blue oceans. It was a sight to take one’s breath away… and something else flickered across my vision as I watched, something that I only saw for a moment; colored light that flickered and danced across its surface, a massive web of colored light.
Then I blinked, and that was gone, leaving the sight before me no less wondrous, even as it left.
“What… was that?” I asked, turning back towards Shiira.
“What was what?” she asked, perplexed. “Just the planet.”
I shook my head. “Not the planet… it was like there were all these colored lights…”
Her eyes widened. “You must have been seeing Allorum’s Weft. At least, that’s what we scientists call it.”
“Weft?” I asked, puzzled. She nodded.
“A ‘weft’ is a weaving term for the horizontal threads that hold a work together. Allorum’s Weft is the pattern of mana flow across the planet’s surface.”
I walked back towards her, still confused. “Mana?”
She sighed. “Mana is the energy used for casting spells. Practitioners of magic begin by drawing mana in from outside their body; then, after collecting an amount sufficient to their purpose, they shape that mana to their will. Allorum is incredibly strong in mana – Ketuluna, our home world, had a decent amount, but…” She shook her head. “It was nothing like the Weft.”
I nodded. “So… the different colors represent different kinds?”
She smiled. “Well, at least you’re learning quickly, and have no lack for intellect. Come on,” she said, beckoning me to follow her again. This time, though, she explained as we walked.
“Mana is simply a form of energy; pure mana is just that – energy, unaligned, which can be manipulated to any purpose you give it. However, most mana is bonded to certain natural features – it is produced by the world, and bonds with the world in ways not even we Ketulunans are able to explain. This altered mana is called ‘aligned mana’, and as far as we know, it aligns itself with thirteen natural phenomena; these thirteen categories are called ‘elements,’ and can be used to cast only spells aligned with that element.”
I listened intently, fascinated. “So, you study these elements?” I guessed.
She nodded. “Much of Ketuluna was devoted to magical and natural research. We believed that by combining magic with technology, we could create a better future for our people.” A sad look crossed her face. “Kiran… he used to talk about it all the time.” She shook her head. “Anyway, the thirteen Elements of magic are Earth, Wind, Lightning, Fire, Water, Ice, Light, Darkness, Twilight, Life – or Growth – Death, Steel, and Void.”
“Void?” I asked. “Isn’t that the same as Death?”
She shook her head. “No. Death is simply the end of life, the continuation of the journey. Void is the absence of everything, and is a much, much darker force.” She turned her gaze on me, her eyes intense. “You must remember that, Astran. Death and destruction are not the same – Death is as much peace as it is violence, as much calm as it is rage; never, ever forget it.”
I was startled by the intensity of her words, but I nodded. “Of… of course.”
I had no way of knowing how much those words would impact me; at the time, I remember wondering why she was so intent on it, and what it had to do with me. The next day, I would learn the answer to the second question; it would take me much, much longer to learn the answer to the first.
She seemed relieved when I said it, and we resumed walking.
“The elements,” she continued, “have special meaning to the lower world people. Allorum itself is intensely aligned with these elements; the Weft lays over the planet like the weft of a loom, structuring and guiding the flow of energy. Each Element has its place in the Weft, and because of this, the elements strongest in each area of the planet have changed the very nature of the land they run through; as such, Allorum can be roughly divided into thirteen areas based on the alignment of the land itself, and the natives of the planet have done so, making each elementally-aligned land its own country, ruled by a king or queen descended from a family naturally attuned to the land’s element.”
'“That makes sense,” I replied.
“It does,” she said. “Anyway, we’re here.” She stopped in a corridor lined with doors, and I stopped behind her. She turned to one of the doors, and placed her hand next to it; the door opened. “Mage-locked,” she explained. “Only someone tuned to the door can open it; it keeps out unwanted intruders. Naturally, the head researchers all are tuned to the locks of every door on the ship – we are expected to keep the peace.” She gestured me into the room.
I stepped inside and looked around. It was small, but homey. A large window looked out over the majestic sight of the planet below us, and shelves filled with books lined the walls.
“This was Kiran’s room,” she said quietly, and I turned back towards her, just in time to see her gingerly take a step inside. “I… I don’t think he’d mind you using it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling every ounce of it. I could tell that whoever Kiran had been, he was incredibly special to her.
She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “N... No. Don’t be. He… he wouldn’t be.” She gave a sad, soft laugh. “If it hadn’t been him, if it had been anyone else… he’d have had you take his room and gone and slept in the other room, just because his was more comfortable.” She laughd again, but there was an edge of something else to it, and I could see tears coming from her eyes.
“Shiira?” I asked, reaching out a hand to her. She stepped back.
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to pull all of her feelings back behind the mask. She wiped her eyes. “I’m just tired… It’s… it’s been a long day. Get some rest, Astran; the real trials begin in the morning.”
With that, she turned away, sealing the door behind her, and I sighed, looking down at my hands. I didn’t know anything, didn’t understand anything; I only had scattered words and explanations from Shiira and my own mind. I looked around my new quarters, finally having the time to explore my new surroundings. As I had noticed before, they were fairly small, but it was what I found tacked to a wall in an undiscovered corner that interested me the most.
It was a mirror. For the first time, I was able to truly inspect what I looked like. Blonde hair framed my face, pulled back with a band into a tail, probably to keep it out of my… well, Kiran’s, way. I didn’t understand how I’d come to be him when he passed on, but there was no denying Shiira’s words or my own instincts. Blue-green eyes stared back at me from the reflection. A silver ring hung from one ear.
Stepping back from the mirror, I could see more of myself – tall and thin, what the voice in my mind called an ‘athlete’s build’. I wore a protective white coat over a black high-collared shirt and pants, ket up by a belt with a simple buckle. I got the impression of a simple man; some of the other people in the room I had woken in had worn more ornate versions of the same outfit, while others had worn much the same thing as I was wearing. My mind informed me that Shiira had not been one of the fancier ones.
What did it all mean, I wondered, turning back to look around the room again. I thought about looking through Kiran’s books, but I was feeling tired, so I found the switch on the wall that controlled the lights, took off my – Kiran’s – coat, hung it up, then turned off the lights and laid down on the bed.
I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.
I'm looking for any kind of constructive criticism you have! Lay it on me; what you like, what you don't. Note that some places where there was emphasis there isn't because I"m not going through all nine and a half pages and putting it all back in italics again.
Also, I'm taking some creative liberties with the CR universe, so please, cut me some slack.
---
-Chapter the First: My Story Begins
My name is Astran, and I am not human.
This world I live on… it’s known as Allorum. Governed by the thirteen Elements of Magic, each of Allorum’s thirteen lands is dedicated to one such element.
Many thousands of years ago, my creators, the Ketulunans, fell from the sky onto the surface of this planet, desperate to escape their burning, decimated home. Ketuluna was dead and dying; her people needed a new home. And so, I was created – myself, and my thirteen siblings, gifts to the people of Allorum to stay their blades and make sure that the Ketulunans were welcome here.
I hadn’t thought of it in a long time – not before that old man told the stories. I lived those stories, breathed the air that nourished them. I knew the careful hands that penned them, etched the words onto the pages of history.
None alive in this age know my story, and none who still breathe remember the struggles that created this era of peace. Only I still recall the strife and turmoil of my birth, and this is the story of how it all happened.
Back then, I knew nothing – I didn’t know anything about Allorum, or the thirteen Elements, or Lunar Knights, or even what and who I was…
---
Thud-thud.
I floated in blackness, weightless, substanceless.
Thud-thud.
That noise… there was a feeling with it, a vibration. I felt a whisper as something passed me, and I felt the noise begin to slow, the vibration begin to weaken. I reached out to it, feeling something call out to me.
Thud-thud.
That vibration, that noise again. I touched it, and I was no longer weightless. I fell down, down, down into that black abyss.
I felt… cold, I realized. Had I ever felt ‘cold’ before? I struggled to recall. My mind was blank, empty; the world was still dark, and I was still floating, but that noise echoed and echoed in my ears, over and over, repeating. My mind searched for the word, but came up with nothing.
“Is he breathing?” The voice reached my ears, and I could feel myself being drawn out of that black, floating void. I could feel something against my back; I was lying down.
“Kiran?” One of the voices said – yes, voices. More than one. Words came back to me. “Is he alright?”
“No! He can’t… he can’t be…”
“Shiira, stay back!”
“He’s breathing!”
Breathing? I took a shuddering breath and realized I was, and I remembered what ‘breathing’ was. Humans breathed. They breathed to live.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
I felt. I felt the vibration in my chest, and then I felt someone’s hands around my shoulders. I opened my eyes, and I saw.
Light. The first time I would ever see it, and it was harsh and blinding. I closed my eyes, opened them again, blinked away the glare of the light off of the white walls. Staring into my eyes were another pair, green, and there was water leaking from them – tears.
“Kiran,” breathed the voice that had cried out earlier, and then she – because it was a woman – grabbed me, taking me in her arms… but something was terribly, terribly wrong. She let go of me, and I gently touched her arm, moving it aside. “Kiran?” she asked, searching my face, but I shook my head.
“Kiran…” I said, and my voice was hoarse, it didn’t sound right. I coughed, breathed again. “Kiran… he isn’t here.”
She slid back, confused. She was on her knees, on the floor next to me – a white floor. I was sitting up, now, and I could further take in the scenery. Six or seven other people – humans, all of them – stood, looks of confusion, shock, and anger on their faces. My mind added new words by the second.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
“What do you mean?” She laughed, nervously. “Kiran, this isn’t time for jokes…”
“This isn’t a… joke,” I replied, my throat becoming more and more used to talking. “I’m not Kiran… he’s…” I searched for a word to describe it. “Kiran is…” I almost had it, but it slipped away. “He’s gone,” I finished weakly, knowing that ‘gone’ wasn’t the word I was seeking.
She shook her head frantically. Her hair was an odd color – almost white, with highlights of pale blue. “No! No, you’re lying!” she shouted at me. One of the other humans kneeled down next to her, put a hand on her shoulder.
“If you’re not Kiran,” he said, and his voice was slightly threatening, “who are you?”
Who… was I? I thought for a moment, but nothing came. Just blackness, abyss.
“I… I don’t…”
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
Something was coming.
“I…”
I could feel it, on the tip of my tongue.
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
That noise again… it bothered me, there was something not-right about it. As if it shouldn’t be there. I closed my eyes, shut it out. There. There was the word.
My name.
“…Astran,” I said, opening my eyes again, confused and worried at what it all meant. Shock touched the whole room, everyone’s eyes going wide, some stepping back, some looking at each other; the woman with blue-white hair said just one word.
“No,” she whispered, then she fell to her hands, her eyes on the floor, not looking at me. “NO!” she screamed, and I reached out to her.
“Don’t touch me!” she cried. “Don’t… just…” She sobbed, her tears falling to the floor.
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” asked the man who’d asked me my name.
“I don’t even know what I’ve done!” I protested. “I don’t know what it all means!”
He snorted. “You have no right to ask.”
The woman with blue-white hair looked up at me again.
“…you… don’t know?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know anything. I just don’t understand!”
I had the feeling that maybe, just maybe, if I understood, things would go back to normal. But then again… I had no idea what ‘normal’ was…
Thud-thud. Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
The noise, the vibration, had sped up; it wasn’t a comfortable feeling. I knew the word for this feeling, I thought. What…?
Fear.
That’s what this was. Fear. I was afraid of this man, of what he would do to me. I was afraid because I didn’t understand, because I didn’t know what the future held for me.
“Understand this, then,” said the man with the harsh voice. “You are nothing more and nothing less than an abomination. That body is not yours; the mouth with which you speak, the lungs with which you breathe, the hands with which you reach out, even the heart which beats within you - you have stolen them all away. You are not like us; you are an abomination, puppet, and you live at our mercy.” With that, he turned and walked away.
The woman watched him go, but I simply clutched at my chest.
He was wrong. This… this noise…
Thud-thud. Thud-thud.
Noise? No. This… this heartbeat, it was mine now. If I had stolen this body, as he’d claimed, my heart… yes, my heart… wouldn’t beat like this.
“No,” I repeated aloud. “I am… I am me!” said, clenching my fist over my beating heart. “I’m no… ‘puppet’.”
And yet, it still bothered me. Even though I knew the name of the noise, even though I knew what it meant, there was something wrong with it. A part of me knew that at least partially, that man’s words were true.
All of the people surrounding me looked at me; they must have heard my affirmation, but none stepped forward.
The woman on the floor in front of me sat up, wiped her tears away with one hand.
“Astran,” she said calmly, “what… what happened to him? To Kiran?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I said. “He was gone… I felt him leave, and then…” I shook my head. “I… I don’t really understand what happened…”
She sank back on her heels, nodded. “So, he was already dead…” she whispered, and it felt as though my heartbeat paused.
Dead.
Gone forever – that’s what ‘dead’ was. The word that I was looking for, a word that I knew was incredibly important to me, although I didn’t understand why.
Death.
I nodded. “I… I think so,” I said.
Without another word, she stood, looked at the others around her; suddenly, her sadness was gone, replaced by determination, an ‘all-business’ attitude. Part of me wondered where all these new words were coming from, but I shoved that to the back of my mind.
“Come,” she said, and the tone was an order. “Can you stand?”
One of the other people looked at her with shock still on their faces. “Shiira, are you sure? It…”
“He is the ultimate result of our experiment,” she said, staring them all down. “We have created him; he’s our responsibility now.” She returned her gaze to me, and I could tell she had hidden all her emotions – those eyes were cold as ice. “I asked you a question – can you stand?”
Could I? I didn’t know. Weakly, I got my knees under me, then pushed myself upwards.
It was… difficult. I could tell immediately, I had never done this before. Was that strange? I searched my mind, but again, no answers. I came to my feet, but wobbled, almost fell. I felt a strong hand grab my arm and help me straighten up; grateful, I looked up, only to see that Shiira – I was guessing that that was what the white-haired woman was called – was the one who had caught me.
“Thank you,” I said, and she shrugged. Letting go, she crossed her arms and looked me over.
“Don’t thank me yet – you need to try walking next.”
I took a step forward; then another. Balance was the key, I realized – and when I realized that, everything became easier. My body balanced itself, and with Shiira’s help, I made it across the room.
She gave me a look-over with that same critical eye, before nodding. “Alright,” she said. “I suppose you’ll do, Astran.”
There was an ever so slight pause as she said my name, as if it were as difficult for her to say it as it was for me to walk.
“Th-thanks,” I said. She didn’t say anything else, just started off down the hall, seemingly expecting me to follow, which I did.
We walked in silence for a while, so I got the chance to look at the world I’d woken into. It was a lot of white and grey walls, pretty boring. There were some windows, but not many. Looking out them, the world outside was a black abyss filled with thousands of points of light.
Stars, my mind informed me. They’re called… stars.
Whatever they were called, they were beautiful.
“What is this place?” I asked Shiira, always eager to learn. She sighed.
“This is the space colony ‘Valkyrie’,” she explained. “The people you met back there are the last of a dying race.”
I looked at her, startled. I realized that when we were standing next to each other, I was just a little bit taller than she was – it was strange.
She stopped walking, crossed her arms again. “This is one of five ships that escaped the dead world of Ketuluna before it was rendered barren by the gods’ servants. Of those five, it is one of only two that is still able to orbit the lower world. Of those two, it was the only one with the equipment necessary to complete the purpose we were given.”
With Shiira stopped, I was able to walk over to the window and look out. I gasped, pressed my hands to the glass as I stared down below us.
We hung suspended in that endless void, blackness with stars all around us, and below us hung a huge sphere, so huge that I could only see part of it, blue with swirls of white that passed over green… even as I watched, my mind told me its name.
Allorum. The lower world. The white swirls were clouds, the green, landmasses that floted in endless blue oceans. It was a sight to take one’s breath away… and something else flickered across my vision as I watched, something that I only saw for a moment; colored light that flickered and danced across its surface, a massive web of colored light.
Then I blinked, and that was gone, leaving the sight before me no less wondrous, even as it left.
“What… was that?” I asked, turning back towards Shiira.
“What was what?” she asked, perplexed. “Just the planet.”
I shook my head. “Not the planet… it was like there were all these colored lights…”
Her eyes widened. “You must have been seeing Allorum’s Weft. At least, that’s what we scientists call it.”
“Weft?” I asked, puzzled. She nodded.
“A ‘weft’ is a weaving term for the horizontal threads that hold a work together. Allorum’s Weft is the pattern of mana flow across the planet’s surface.”
I walked back towards her, still confused. “Mana?”
She sighed. “Mana is the energy used for casting spells. Practitioners of magic begin by drawing mana in from outside their body; then, after collecting an amount sufficient to their purpose, they shape that mana to their will. Allorum is incredibly strong in mana – Ketuluna, our home world, had a decent amount, but…” She shook her head. “It was nothing like the Weft.”
I nodded. “So… the different colors represent different kinds?”
She smiled. “Well, at least you’re learning quickly, and have no lack for intellect. Come on,” she said, beckoning me to follow her again. This time, though, she explained as we walked.
“Mana is simply a form of energy; pure mana is just that – energy, unaligned, which can be manipulated to any purpose you give it. However, most mana is bonded to certain natural features – it is produced by the world, and bonds with the world in ways not even we Ketulunans are able to explain. This altered mana is called ‘aligned mana’, and as far as we know, it aligns itself with thirteen natural phenomena; these thirteen categories are called ‘elements,’ and can be used to cast only spells aligned with that element.”
I listened intently, fascinated. “So, you study these elements?” I guessed.
She nodded. “Much of Ketuluna was devoted to magical and natural research. We believed that by combining magic with technology, we could create a better future for our people.” A sad look crossed her face. “Kiran… he used to talk about it all the time.” She shook her head. “Anyway, the thirteen Elements of magic are Earth, Wind, Lightning, Fire, Water, Ice, Light, Darkness, Twilight, Life – or Growth – Death, Steel, and Void.”
“Void?” I asked. “Isn’t that the same as Death?”
She shook her head. “No. Death is simply the end of life, the continuation of the journey. Void is the absence of everything, and is a much, much darker force.” She turned her gaze on me, her eyes intense. “You must remember that, Astran. Death and destruction are not the same – Death is as much peace as it is violence, as much calm as it is rage; never, ever forget it.”
I was startled by the intensity of her words, but I nodded. “Of… of course.”
I had no way of knowing how much those words would impact me; at the time, I remember wondering why she was so intent on it, and what it had to do with me. The next day, I would learn the answer to the second question; it would take me much, much longer to learn the answer to the first.
She seemed relieved when I said it, and we resumed walking.
“The elements,” she continued, “have special meaning to the lower world people. Allorum itself is intensely aligned with these elements; the Weft lays over the planet like the weft of a loom, structuring and guiding the flow of energy. Each Element has its place in the Weft, and because of this, the elements strongest in each area of the planet have changed the very nature of the land they run through; as such, Allorum can be roughly divided into thirteen areas based on the alignment of the land itself, and the natives of the planet have done so, making each elementally-aligned land its own country, ruled by a king or queen descended from a family naturally attuned to the land’s element.”
'“That makes sense,” I replied.
“It does,” she said. “Anyway, we’re here.” She stopped in a corridor lined with doors, and I stopped behind her. She turned to one of the doors, and placed her hand next to it; the door opened. “Mage-locked,” she explained. “Only someone tuned to the door can open it; it keeps out unwanted intruders. Naturally, the head researchers all are tuned to the locks of every door on the ship – we are expected to keep the peace.” She gestured me into the room.
I stepped inside and looked around. It was small, but homey. A large window looked out over the majestic sight of the planet below us, and shelves filled with books lined the walls.
“This was Kiran’s room,” she said quietly, and I turned back towards her, just in time to see her gingerly take a step inside. “I… I don’t think he’d mind you using it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling every ounce of it. I could tell that whoever Kiran had been, he was incredibly special to her.
She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “N... No. Don’t be. He… he wouldn’t be.” She gave a sad, soft laugh. “If it hadn’t been him, if it had been anyone else… he’d have had you take his room and gone and slept in the other room, just because his was more comfortable.” She laughd again, but there was an edge of something else to it, and I could see tears coming from her eyes.
“Shiira?” I asked, reaching out a hand to her. She stepped back.
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to pull all of her feelings back behind the mask. She wiped her eyes. “I’m just tired… It’s… it’s been a long day. Get some rest, Astran; the real trials begin in the morning.”
With that, she turned away, sealing the door behind her, and I sighed, looking down at my hands. I didn’t know anything, didn’t understand anything; I only had scattered words and explanations from Shiira and my own mind. I looked around my new quarters, finally having the time to explore my new surroundings. As I had noticed before, they were fairly small, but it was what I found tacked to a wall in an undiscovered corner that interested me the most.
It was a mirror. For the first time, I was able to truly inspect what I looked like. Blonde hair framed my face, pulled back with a band into a tail, probably to keep it out of my… well, Kiran’s, way. I didn’t understand how I’d come to be him when he passed on, but there was no denying Shiira’s words or my own instincts. Blue-green eyes stared back at me from the reflection. A silver ring hung from one ear.
Stepping back from the mirror, I could see more of myself – tall and thin, what the voice in my mind called an ‘athlete’s build’. I wore a protective white coat over a black high-collared shirt and pants, ket up by a belt with a simple buckle. I got the impression of a simple man; some of the other people in the room I had woken in had worn more ornate versions of the same outfit, while others had worn much the same thing as I was wearing. My mind informed me that Shiira had not been one of the fancier ones.
What did it all mean, I wondered, turning back to look around the room again. I thought about looking through Kiran’s books, but I was feeling tired, so I found the switch on the wall that controlled the lights, took off my – Kiran’s – coat, hung it up, then turned off the lights and laid down on the bed.
I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.
