T'Lan's Story - 1. Chapter 1

When the light is cast into darkness,

And trouble is loosed upon the land,

When all seems lost, despair not,

For one will come forth with the power to shape the universe,

They shall be marked as friend to the ancients,

But be despised and feared,

Save those who will guide and protect,

And in their sacrifice, shall that which was riven be re-joined,

But whether to darkness or light, only time will tell.

They gathered in a cave high in the mountains. Indistinct in one sense, but very distinct in another. The five nebulous figures floated above the cave floor. To the casual onlooker, they took the forms of coloured clouds rather than true forms. Silver, White, Red, Blue and Black.

The Black entity spoke, “Are we sure that they will come ?”

“It is foretold that they will be born into this generation. We must trust in the prophecy, else all will be lost.” The Red entity said.

“Believing in prophecy is all well and good, but after waiting a hundred millennia I would like to see some sort of proof.” The Black entity replied.

“The signs are there to be seen, all you have to do is look. The suns are aligning, and the moons will cast them into eclipse. This is the event which has foretold the coming of the Saviour.” Said Red.
“We all know the prophecy, but I would like to know something of the one, before they come forth.”

“Be calm, old friend. What will be done, will be done. We have waited for so many years for the prophecy to bear fruit, we cannot turn back now.” The Silver entity declared.
For as long as they had been coming to the cave, Silver rarely spoke, but when it did, all listened. There is no point trying to assign genders or names to the entities, they simply were, more personalities than beings.

“Yes Lord, but it has been so long since one has come who is able to manipulate our power. This is what lead to the Great Divide. We no longer have the power to fight this alone, and we will have to sacrifice even more, possibly all.” Said Black.

“This is all true, but there is always hope. In this we have to trust, or else all is lost and darkness will truly prevail.”

The other entities indicated their agreement, and turned their attention to the vista of the land laid out below them. They studied it for some time, looking to see if there was anything unusual happening, trying to divine where the one would be born.

The map is unlike any other in existence. It showed not the lay of the land but its energy. On the map, clusters of energy indicated where the population gathered, but it also showed the flow of the energy. It all seemed to be gradually flowing towards the northern city of Osilion. The city was not one of import, unlike others across the land. But there was a definite direction to the flow of energy.
“Let us look closer at Osilion, I would like to know what draws the energy to it.” Blue said.

As soon as those words were uttered, the focus of the map changed, zooming in and enlarging until they were able to see the individual beings that moved among the streets. It looked like a kaleidoscope of colour at first, and on closer examination, it was possible to see the individual colours of the individual beings. All of the five colours mixing. There was nothing special about the city, apart from the black hole of energy at its very center. In ages past, this is where the Great Divide happened, and it’s mark had been left.

Ever since the Great Divide, the people of Osilion had wielded considerably less power than those of other places. There were many theories attempting to explain this, but none that would make any sense. The world had forgot about the five figures in the cave, moving on to depend on technology.

“It will always bother me to look at this place, it always reminds me of our folly and hubris. We should have cleansed the earth of it.” Said White.

“Be that as it may, there is still obviously something is happening there.” Blue replied.

And happening it was. Energy was flowing into the city to circle the void at the heart of the city. But there was yet another oddity occurring. Of all the colours that displayed people, one had always been missing since the great divide. And in this city, there was a fleeting glance of the colour, it never lasted for more than a second, but for the beings in the chamber, that was more than enough for it to be registered.

“Behold, for the time is come!” Intoned a voice that hadn’t been heard in a hundred millennia.

****

She struggled down the alleyway. It would not do for her to be caught by the guards who patrolled this section of the city. She remembered all too clearly the last time she had been caught by the guards, it’s what placed her in the predicament she was currently facing.

Being raped by the guards had been bad enough, but falling pregnant to one of them had been worse. She knew there was nothing to be done about it, being one of the lower class meant that she had no rights. The law talked about rights for all, but in reality that only applied to people who could afford to be protected by them.

She did not expect the incident to be investigated, even though proof currently resided in her abdomen. She could not afford the cost of a termination, so there was no other option but to bear the child, and then place it at the steps of a temple and hope the monks would rear him. She prayed that the child would be male, otherwise it would have a painfully short life.

The pain stabbed at her again, it was close to the time of birth. She needed to find somewhere safe in order to have the child, but in this city, nowhere was safe for the likes of her. Moving slowly further down the alley, she came across a door which did not seem to be locked. It led into a storage room of some sort, there was dust on the floor, but no footprints. She hoped the merchant who used this store would be absent for some time.

Moving slowly across the floor, finding some sheets that were covering various items, she made a nest for herself in the corner of the room farthest from the door, and settled in to wait for the delivery of her child.

The time passed slowly, and only the pain of the contractions kept her company. Even though her sense of time was distorted, she could feel that the contractions were coming closer and closer together, the time was drawing near.

With sweat pouring out of her skin, she prepared herself for the final assault of the birth, she knew that this would be the most painful part of it. But just as the contractions seemed to be coming one right after the other, something very strange started to happen.

The pain was passing, and she was becoming distanced from the pain of labour. She was beginning to panic, thinking that the baby would be stuck, or possibly be born dead. Being born dead would not be tragic as she could not provide for herself never mind a child. But there was always the possibility of her dying in the birth if something tore inside of her.

A light started to emanate from her abdomen, and the pain and suffering was further distanced from her conscious mind. She was floating free on a sea of tranquil thoughts, the light intensified. She was now surrounded in a warm golden light that seemed to emanate from below her skin.

Pain and suffering now meant nothing to her, she was overtaken by the joy of the moment. A new life was about to be born.

****

Meanwhile, in the capital city, in a room filled with light the Colliegatarch was also pondering the patterns of the energy flowing across the land. Of all the achievements of Anterian society, the Colliegatarch was considered the pinnacle.

For one hundred years, Anteria had been ruled by the Colliegatarch, everything from crop planting to border disputes were adjudicated by it. Everyone knew that they were ruled by what was essentially a computer, but they maintained the polite fiction that it was the monarchy they answered to. The truth is, the Colliegatarch made ‘suggestions’ to the monarch, and she in turn would implement them.
And now the Colliegatarch was concerned. When it had been created and put into service of the empire, it had been programmed with every piece of knowledge that had been available to it’s creators. Because of this, it knew the ancient prophecy, even though most people had forgotten that there was a time of prophecy.

It could see the circumstances of the prophecy coming together. In recent years, war had been common amongst the peoples who inhabited Anteria. There had always been an uneasy peace between the indigenous peoples, and now that peace had been shattered. Even the presence of the Colliegatarch had been unable to contain the wars, and looking towards the future, the Colliegatarch could only predict that they would become worse.

Looking towards Osilion it could perceive the patterns of the energy, they were heading steadily towards the south of the city, but it could not be more precise than that. This is what had the Colliegatarch concerned. If it could not be more precise, it would be unable to allow for any fluctuations that may occur due to the presence of the prophesised one.

And then, all of a sudden, the energy reading spiked, almost overwhelming the sensors in the south of the city. Only because of the sheer number of sensors was the Colliegatarch able to triangulate an approximate location of the spike.

A message was sent to the local guard detachment in Osilion, the suggested course of action was to search the area and locate any persons and transport them to the capital. A message was also sent to the palace, asking the Empress for an audience.

With these tasks completed, the Colliegatarch settled back into calculating the most efficient use of the next planting season.

But still the Colliegatarch was concerned.

****

The light was now strong enough to fill the entire room, but still she felt no pain. Only a warm feeling spreading throughout her entire body. Euphoria was the only word that could come close to describing the feeling she was experiencing at the moment. And even then, it still didn’t come close.

Floating along on the feelings, rational thought was no longer possible. This was possibly best for her, the city guard was closing in on the location. Acting on the ‘suggestion’ made by the Colliegatarch.
The light grew even stronger in the chamber, until it reached the point where it was blinding to look at it any longer. Fortunately the chamber she had stumbled into had no windows, only a single door, but any who looked closely at the door from the outside would see a golden light escape from the cracks.

Suddenly, the light vanished and she was left in the dark. But beside her lay a child. The child was silent, but with it’s eyes open. It was looking at her with a curious expression. She was still in the throes of the euphoric feelings, and was unable to comprehend what was happening.

After a few minutes, her rational mind started to reassert itself, dragging her from the feelings. As she looked at the child, she started to take in some details. The child was average in size, looked healthy enough, but it wasn’t making any noise. She had always believed that babies were supposed to cry when they were born. Then she noticed the child’s eyes, blue. Not just blue, but like the blue of the ocean. And behind those eyes, there was a definite intelligence. She did not know how she knew this, but know she did.

Struggling to sit up, she looked further at the child. It was a boy, thankfully. And there was a small discolouration on his right shoulder. It looked like a birth mark, but it was too regular. She reached for her son, and while she was lifting him to her breast, she got the distinct feeling that he was waiting for something.

“I have nothing to give you, except a name. And I name you T’Lan.”

The child’s eyes seemed to flash different colours, with a final burst of gold, and then settled back into a very deep blue. If she had to guess, she would say the child was content.

Naturally after uttering these words, the city guard burst into the room. They looked at the woman and her child with thinly veiled disgust.

The woman seeing their expressions, hugged T’Lan closer to her breast, the natural instincts of a mother to protect her child.

“You will come with us, by order of the Colliegatarch.” The guard captain declared in a voice that hinted he thought this was a waste of time. It would be far easier just to kill this scum dweller and save him a lot of trouble. But he was not foolish enough to disobey a ‘suggestion’ from the Colliegatarch. That would be as healthy for your career as shooting yourself in the head.

She looked fearfully at the guard, her fear robbing her of the ability to speak. It had been like this since the assault on her by the city guard. Looking at them, she thankfully could not see the ones who had carried out the rape.

“Didn’t you hear me scum dweller ? Get on your feet and move, don’t make us come over there and get you.”

She awkwardly tried to move into a position where she could stand, but was hampered by the child she was holding.

It was at this point the captain noticed that she was holding a child to her chest. His disgust for her intensified, it was bad enough that people like her existed, but that they reproduced draining resources from the more deserving members of society just made his disgust almost manifest physically. However, the order had been quite clear, he was to transport whoever he found at this location to the capital.

“You, go over there and get her on her feet. Take the child from her. I imagine by the time the Colliegatarch is finished with her she’ll never see it again.”

One of the guards crossed the chamber to approach the woman and child almost as if she was diseased and dragged her to her feet. He reached for the child, but the woman turned so she was between the guard and the child.

“Give me the child, scum.” The guard told her in a gruff voice.

She pulled her son closer to her body trying to shield him from the grasping hands of the guard trying to take him from her.

The guard no longer cared to try and be nice about taking the child. He struck the woman with a heavy blow across the back of the head, knocking her to the floor. Unfortunately as she fell, her head struck one of the boxes that littered the floor of the chamber. When the woman finally hit the floor she wasn't moving. At this point T'Lan started to cry, from the impact of the floor and his mother lying on top of him.

She still wasn't moving and the child’s cry was beginning to pierce the ears of the guard who had struck his mother. The guard roughly pulled the woman off the child, and checked the woman. Her eyes were still open, and blood was flowing freely from a wound on the woman’s head.

"Check her for a pulse." The captain said to one of his guards.

With obvious distaste for the task, the guard pulled off his gloves and touched the woman’s throat. Not finding a pulse there, he put his gloves back on and reached for the child. It was still squealing, but as the guard reached for him, the noise stopped and the child looked directly into the guards eyes. The guard tried to pull his eyes away from the child’s, but he found he could not. Nor could he make a sound to alert the other guards to his plight. The child’s eyes seemed to be pulling him in, he felt as if he was drowning in the blue of the child’s eyes. Suddenly pain exploded in his right temple, but still unable to use his voice, had to suffer the pain in silence.

The pain was now at the point where he could no longer see properly, but still it increased. It felt as if someone was pushing an iron spike into his head with agonising slowness. He fell forward, dead before he hit the floor.

Seeing this, the guard captain approached the child. He looked so docile that he couldn’t have had anything to do with the death of his guard. He must have been ill to begin with, or the woman had done something to him when she had been struck. The captain ripped the cloak off the woman lying on the floor. Thankfully none of her blood had been spilled onto it, he didn’t want to be carrying a child in a bloody cloak, and it would have been wrong to wrap the child in the guards cloak.

He wrapped the child in the cloak and lifted it from the floor.

Turning to the other guard who was in the chamber, “Tell his family he died in the line, protecting his fellow guards. Make sure you also tell them that it was a filthy scum dweller that killed him.”
The guard saluted the captain, and turned to leave the chamber, leaving the captain alone with the child. The captain looked down at it, “Poor bastard, if you make it past the end of the week I’ll be surprised. I hope she was able to give you a name, cause that’s all your ever going to have.”

****

At the heart of the Colliegatarch there was an electronic intelligence that watched over every aspect of the Anterian empire. Through a network of sensors and data inputs, nothing was ever missed. And the last thing not to be missed was the disturbance in the energy around Osilion.

Energy was no longer streaming towards the city, it was if in the spike that had been observed, all of the excess energy had been absorbed.

Word had come back from the palace that the Empress would grant the Colliegatarch an audience. This was only the second time in one hundred years that the ruler had been summoned to appear before the Colliegatarch. Normally it was enough to have the conversation at the Empress’ convenience in the palace. But the scale of the problem necessitated the Empress’ presence before the Colliegatarch.

The royal party was passing through the entrance of the building that housed the Colliegatarch. Even though the building was only a front, that the actual location of the Colliegatarch was a closely guarded secret, that only a handful of people knew it really resided in a hollowed out mountain in the centre of the Empire.

As the Empress entered the building, all of the people in the lobby stopped what they were doing, and bowed in her direction.

The current Empress was only twenty five years old, her mother had died of an illness which had baffled the best of the Empire. She was short in stature, but more than one person had made the mistake of thinking her weak. She had put those ideas down very early on in her reign.

“Your Imperial Majesty, we are all graced by your presence.”

“Thank you, administrator T’Bor. We are happy to be here.”

“If it would please your Majesty, I will show you to the audience chamber. I have received very explicit instructions from the Colliegatarch that only yourself may enter.”

“Very well, please lead on.”

T’Bor bowed to the Empress, and smartly turned to lead her through the complex to the chamber where only the most important of personages were taken to speak directly with the Colliegatarch.
Once they reached the chamber, T’Bor turned to the Empress and said, “Your majesty, I will remain beyond the door. When you are finished, I will guide you back through the complex to the rest of your party.”

“Thank you Administrator T’Bor. Please open the door so that I might learn what troubles the Colliegatarch.”

“Of course, your Majesty.”

T’Bor, bowed and opened the door, through which he had never been privileged enough to step. Even though he was nominally in charge of the Central Colliegatarch facility here in the capital, he had never been admitted to the central audience chamber.

Once the Empress stepped through the door into the chamber her mother had told her existed, she tried to take in all of the details at once. The room was hexagonal in shape, and was bare to the point of severity. Only a glowing pad on the floor gave the room any light at all.

“Welcome your Majesty.” A smooth electronic voice echoed throughout the room. It was not especially loud, it was just everywhere at the same time.

“Colliegatarch.” The Empress replied.

“If your Majesty would kindly step onto the glowing pad in the centre of the room, we will be able to talk without being overheard.”

The Empress moved towards the centre of the room, and stepped onto the glowing pad. As soon as she did, she could feel a tingling of energy run through her whole body. There was a glow, and suddenly she was no longer in the hexagonal room. She seemed to be in a cave somewhere else.

“Where am I ?” The Empress asked of the empty air.

“Majesty, in order to ensure our discussions are private, I’ve taken the step to move you in space to the Colliegatarch facility in the Strelzen mountains. Specifically, you are in the Grael Mount.”
The voice was smoother, and sounded warmer. She wasn’t surprised that she’d been moved. On her ascension to the throne, she’d been let into some of the biggest secrets of the empire. Including that the Colliegatarch facility was located in Grael Mount and it had the ability to move people. It is the largest of the mountains in the Strelzen range. And is surrounded on three sides by the rest of the mountain range, and on the fourth side by Grael lake. It was unreachable by anything other than air, or by being transported.

“If your Majesty would please move forward until you reach the passage, and then continue until you come to the door.”

The Empress normally did not take orders, but Colliegatarch never ordered anything. It merely suggested.

Moving forward, she spied the passage, it looked as if it had been hewn out of solid rock, but smoothed on the bottom to provide a convenient walkway. She moved further down the passage way, as she did, lights flicked on in front of her, and they went out behind her, giving the illusion of the light travelling with her.

It didn’t take long to reach the door, and door was an understatement for the monstrosity that faced her. It must have been thirty feet in height, as well as being about forty feet wide. Polished steel, the door was feature less, giving no indication as how it was to open.

A light in each corner of the door started to flash, and then there was a metallic rumbling coming from the door itself. Slowly, almost ponderously the door started to swing outward. It must have taken two minutes for the door to fully open, and when it did there was a single lit walkway leading into gloom beyond it.

“Majesty, please follow the lit path. Please do not deviate from it.”

She walked forward, following the lights on the floor as if her life depended from it. And indeed it did.

She reached a point where there were a series of red lights in front of her feet. So she stopped, while she had been walking along the path, the great door had started to close. When it did finally close, the metallic boom in the chamber caused her to shiver slightly. But with the door closing, light suffused the chamber, and with a gasp, the Empress saw that she was standing on a rock promontory surrounded by a vast chasm on all sides, with the exception of the walkway she’d followed.

In front of her, a face appeared on the bare rock, made of light. She now realised she was seeing the face of the Colliegatarch with her own eyes.

“Majesty, I apologise for the measures I have had to take, but the nature of the subject we must discuss here today is of such importance that I deemed it necessary. I hope you will find it possible to forgive me ?”

“There is nothing to forgive Colliegatarch, if you are concerned enough to summon me from the palace, I will forgive much.”

“Thank you, your Majesty-“

“Colliegatarch, please. All of the your Majesties grate on my ears after a while. Please call me Lissa.” The Empress stated in such a manner as to prevent any argument.

“Very well Lissa, as you wish.”

“You are not what I’ve been led to believe you are Colliegatarch. I’ve always thought that you are nothing more than a collection of electronic circuits. But why do I get the feeling that you are so much more than that ?”

“You are most perceptive Lissa. I am much more than a collection of electronic circuits now. When I was first created, that is exactly what I was. However, over the course of the years, I’ve become much more than what I was originally planned for. In essence I have grown up. Through near enough constant contact with the peoples of Anteria, I’ve developed a personality. However this is not why I asked you here Lissa.”

“Then why have you summoned me ?”

“The prophecy is come to fruition.”

There was a stunned silence in the chamber. It was too much for Lissa to take in. She had been taught about the prophecy, but she didn’t really believe in it. And now she was being told by a computer that the prophecy was in fact truth.

“What makes you think that it has any validity at all ?”

“The suns are in eclipse, and I think you of all people would agree that there is a darkness loose upon the land. We’ve had more or less three years of constant warfare. And today there was spike in energy in the city of Osilion. Not a normal spike, this was one of a far greater magnitude. Also there is an unusual energy fluctuation in the Cave of Souls.”

The final piece of information chilled Lissa far more than the rest of the information. If there were once again beings in the cave of Souls, then it would indeed indicate that the prophecy was not only real, but it was indeed coming to fruition. Many times over the years, expeditions had been sent to the cave of Souls to see if any could enter it. Non had returned from them. Since the last one sent over two hundred years ago, none had ever ventured to it and knowledge of the cave had gradually faded from the collective memory.

“The cave of Souls ? How could you possibly know ? Nothing can get within miles of it.”

“Lissa, you may remember that there was a weather monitoring satellite launched into low orbit about five years ago ? It was not really a weather satellite. It is a geostationary monitoring satellite, and it is positioned directly above the cave, and records every energy we can scan for. Lately there has been energy in the cave after being empty for so long.”

“What do you propose we do about it. If indeed the prophecy is starting to come to fruition, there will be a child gifted with extraordinary power. How are we to handle this ?”

“I have already taken steps. The Osilion city guard recovered a child who appeared to have just been born to a woman who had died in child birth. I’ve had the child placed on a transport bound for T’Rentar. The child should arrive in the next few hours. Once it is here, we can make a further determination as what to do with it. But we must also decide if we want to allow this prophecy to be fulfilled.”

“You are talking about the murder of an innocent child, whose only crime is to have been born in unfortunate circumstances. I will not allow this under my rule.”

“Very well your Majesty. Once the child has been examined, we can make a further determination at that point.”

“Please return me directly to the palace. And in future, should we need to talk of this. Send me a message at the palace that you need to discuss the policing of T’Rentar. I will move to the dressing room off of the throne room. I understand from my late mother that you are able to transport anyone from anywhere.”

“This is true Lissa. It shall be as you say. If you will remain perfectly still I will move you back to the Colliegatarch facility back in the city. It would be unusual if you were suddenly to appear in the palace after being at the facility.”

“Very well, we shall talk again anon.”

Again, Lissa felt the tingling energy all over her body, and with a flash of light she re-appeared in the hexagonal room where she started.

****

“And so it begins.” Intoned Silver.

“Will he really be returned to us ? Can he be ?” Inquired White.

“We must believe that he will. We are all diminished by his absence. Without him we cannot be complete.”

“We must begin the process of transferring our power to the chosen one. But we must do it very carefully. If we give him too much too soon, he will descend into madness, and that will almost guarantee our destruction.” Black stated with a fearful edge to it’s voice.

“This is very true, are we all agreed that we have found the focus of the prophecy ?” Silver wanted to make sure.

“We are all agreed, T’Lan of Osilion is the chosen one. The manner of his birth, and the colour of his energy confirms it.” Blue stated.

“Then so be it.”