The Prophesy: Book 4 - Armageddon

 

It had been several weeks since Harold had paid a visit to the Matriarch, and, for one reason or another, he kept missing Harp. Either the boy was training others in magic, supervising exams, or even explaining the Dragon bonding to those who were interested. The prince kept busy monitoring the Pterodactyls, or helping Paschal with another of his pet projects. The arrival of the first giant mineral cargo Spiders from Ian's last surprise added to the boy's workload as he helped Thorsten and Paschal prepare the proper ore processing unit. Paschal had changed the earth-bound mineral processing units so they now had two strange-looking wings on the top that acted as parabolic mirrors and made the solar energy converge on the photovoltaic converters. It did not match the capacity of those that were found on the moon, but at least, the royals would not have to port the mineral to the moon on each arrival.

He was planning to see the boys as they met to hear Enron's judgement on the Black Mage Elf. That would be today. He also wanted to talk to Yamato about the Orcs they now had in cryogenic stasis. He did not plan to second-guess Harp, Paschal and Sitar's decision, especially since the decision had been unanimous. Something must have driven the three boys, who hated Orcs with a passion, to review their assessment.

By tierce, the courtroom was filled to the brim. Every single royal was present, and Harold was there, as Liege Lord, as was his right. Harold was surprised to see every leading figure of the Yamato expedition present, as well as all the members of the Ian Amazon expedition, including a new figure he could not identify.

«Before returning to your duties, I'm expecting you in my offices for a face-to-face report on the progress and discoveries made so far,» he informed everyone.

Enron walked in the room from a side-door, and made his way to the Throne of the Elves. He slammed his stave three times on the floor of the room to bring the assistance to silence.

"My Lord, we must now render judgement in the case of one of our own for breaking his Vow of Fealty to the Crown. May we proceed?"

"Proceed in fairness and good judgement, but with compassion," replied Harold.

Enron curtseyed to Harold, sat on the Throne, and called out the bailiff.

"Bring the accused before us."

Five minutes later, the Black Mage Elf stood, chained, in front of the assembled royals.

"Elf, by joining the enemy of our kingdom, you forfeited your word, your vow of fealty to the Throne of Nature, a vow first taken for you by your genitors; renewed by them on your sixth birthday, as you began your first day of schooling; a vow renewed by yourself later as you became a teen, and finally reaffirmed as you entered adulthood and left the kingdom in search of your destiny. A vow of fealty that was taken four times and broken four times when you began working for the Black Keep. What do you have to say before we render judgement?"

"I do not recognize this kingdom ruled by a mere child. I do not recognize my genitors binding me before I was even aware of things such as bonds. I do not recognize bonds forced by social conventions."

"Elf, you have associated yourself with our hereditary enemies, joining ranks with the Orcs, and, apparently, reaching a prominent position within their society. What do you have to say before I render judgement?"

"It was difficult, but I managed. They are your enemies, not mine."

"Finally, it was brought to our attention that you attacked an expedition led under the auspices of the Throne of Atlantis, our liege lord. What do you have to say before we render judgement?"

"I no more recognize this court and its bindings then I recognize your zoo as binding me."

"Whatever you do or do not has little effect on the consequences. For forfeiting your vow of fealty, a death penalty is mandatory. Therefore we must condemn you to the death penalty."

"Four times, I would wager? I just want to see you succeed with the other three!"

"For high treason by associating with Orcs at war with our kingdom, the penalty is also death. We must also condemn you to the death penalty."

"For assaulting an Atlantean expedition, of which our kingdom has bonds of Fealty, the penalty is also death. Therefore we must condemn you to death."

"I see! Six death sentences! I want to see how you plan to execute that penalty. I can only die once!"

Enron bit his lips to the point of drawing blood. Oh how he wanted to skin the guy alive for his attitude, but Yamato's comments kept coming back to him: do not shame Harold! Above all, do not shame Harold!

"We have spent the last week thinking about what to do. We could simply execute you by beheading you right off. However, we came around to the argument proposed by a much better defender of your case then what you could have found in the legal department of the Kingdom. He has offered that we fight. We know you have lost your magic. We have decided to offer you a chance to buy back your honour. You are offered the choice of simply getting beheaded, or to fight a warrior; if you manage to draw first blood, you will have bought back your honour; if you do not, you will have lost it forever."

"Will I be let free?"

"You are asking a lot."

"Honour without freedom is worthless."

"Some people thought otherwise. So be it. If you draw first blood, you will be let free. However, be aware the warrior will try to kill you. You can try as well."

"Agreed, if you guarantee that the opponent does not have magic."

"I can guarantee that."

"Where do I gut your warrior?"

"Here. Let there be a duelling arena!"

The usual sand arena appeared.

"Pick your weapon, Elf."

"The mace!"

"Are you sure? That is a short range weapon."

"Yes."

"So be it. Let there be a mace! Check its balance!"

After grabbing the mace, the Elf balanced it on his fingers and found the mass equilibrium to be perfect.

"It is perfect. Who is my opponent?"

"Alistor, step forward, young man."

A boy aged six years old, stepped out from the crowd of observers, His blond hair shone in the light; his blue eyes looked at his opponent, gauging him at every step, as he walked to stand in front of the king.

"My lord, you called for my services?"

"Yes Alistor. You have attracted my eyes during your training and again during the last war. Even the Centaurs were impressed, and it takes a lot to impress a Centaur Master of the Blade. You are chosen to champion the Crown of Nature. The orders are simple. Kill that Elf. Choose your weapon."

"I choose the dagger."

"Do you need two, or one?"

"One will suffice, my lord."

"So be it. Let a dagger be!"

A twelve-inch long double-bladed curved knife appeared, known as a Snake Bite, because of its strange, twisted shape.

The boy tested the quality of the instrument of death, while looking quizzically at Enron.

"We do not wish to give you too much of an advantage, young man, we decided to give you a blade you were not familiar with: this is the ritual knife used by the Aztecs to extract the heart of their sacrificial victims. Furthermore, it is made of finely sculptured obsidian with a lacquered wood handle. It is primitive, easily breakable, yet deadly."

"It is more then enough, my lord."

The Black Elf was stunned by the youth of his opponent, and by the exchange between the Champion and the king. It would be a breeze to get his freedom! But the king was talking and the Black Elf needed to know as much as he could on his diminutive opponent.

"Remember, Alistor: you do not have acquired magic yet. Be on your guard for anything you do not understand coming from the Elf. He has had a month to recover since his capture by the Prince of magic. Keep the battle short and to the point."

"Yes, my lord."

"Black Elf, step into the starting ring. Alistor, do the same on your own starting ring."

As the two opponents eyed each other, the king asked the ritual questions:

"This fight is to the death. Do all parties agree?"

Both nodded.

"Ready?"

Both nodded also.

"Start."

The magic wall that had kept the two opponents separate fell. The Black Elf lost no time charging the boy, mace high. Alistor dove under the charging man, ramming the knife between the legs, making the mage lose balance and fall head first in the sand. The boy jumped right up and went for the spine, missing it by a fraction of an inch as the Black Mage rolled away and tried to stand up. The Black Mage used his mace to try and sweep his opponent off his feet only to see the boy do a forward flip and land on his face with his feet, smashing his nose and blacking out one eye. As he grabbed Alistor by the ankle with his free hand, the boy let himself fall down with the knife placed at a forty-five degree angle. The knife entered the belly just below the plexus and gutted the Mage to the pubis. As the mage released his ankle while hollering in pain, Alistor slammed his feet on his chin, using his legs to push his body forward and drive the knife even further down in the genital area, before doing a back flip with the help of his free hand and extract the knife out while twisting it ninety degrees. By then the Black mage had dropped his mace, and his eyes were glassy. He was dead.

"My task is accomplished, my lord."

"And it went within acceptable parameters Alistor. Thank you."

"Can I keep that blade?"

"Certainly. Ask Harp to clean it up with magic. Black mages have bad blood."

"I'll do that right away, Alistor," said Harp, as he walked out of the observing gallery.

Harp lifted the knife from Alistor's open palm, and a bright flash of light encircled the strange blade. After a few minutes, Harp let it drop into Alistor's hand.

"Here is your first duelling trophy. Stand still, Alistor."

A green light enveloped the champion, and after five minutes, it disappeared.

"You had a tiny cut from the Black Mage's nails when he grabbed your ankle. That was enough to begin the poisoning. You are now healed."

"Thank you for your help, my lord."

After a hug from Harp, the boy returned to his place within the crowd, beside a very proud father and a still very worried mother.

"Vanish!"

The arena and the corpse disappeared, ported directly into the lava chamber of a volcano.

"Better be safe then sorry with that kind of crap," explained Enron.

***

The royals returned to the Imperial Suite, not that Harold would have taken to this naming lightly had he bothered searching the minds of those that kept trying to flock around him and were desperate to catch his attention.

"Before we start, would you introduce us to your new pick-up companion, Ian?"

"Dad, I need to transfer his language to all present so we are all on the same page. Everyone relax, it will take a few seconds. I must also warn you that he believes we are gods. For him this place is so advanced it must look like Heaven. I'm surprised he hasn't asked to see some of his dead best friends yet."

"That will be problematic, Ian."

"Not really, since he will receive all the data during his stay in the cryogenic chamber for his reprogramming. I doubt it will bother him once he understands what we are doing."

"Why have you not sent him directly to the chambers?"

"Because he is a mage in the making, and has an almost uncanny sense of what is natural and what is not. He has proven himself by being able to track us even if we were invisible."

"Now I understand. Transfer the language so we can chat with him directly."

It took a few seconds, and everyone could finally talk to the boy in his native language, without resorting to telepathy. The first thing Ian did was to introduce everyone to the young boy, and then he asked the native what his given name was.

"I am known as Colibri by the Gods, but my people called me Ishmael. I do not like that name. I think my grandfather was waiting for something to put me on the Sacrificial Rock and open my chest to eat my heart, because of that name."

"That is a very ancient name, young one. It comes from a very far place, and is in a language long unspoken, Hebrew."

"What does it mean?"

"God will listen," said Yamato.

"And the Gods did listen to my prayers," replied Colibri as he looked at Ian with adoring eyes.

"Are you happy with my son?" asked Harold.

"Oh yes! He is so gentle! He listens to me all the time, he protects me from insects and snakes; he feeds me, I am kept warm at night, and I've never felt so good!"

"Has he told you what his mission is?"

"Yes, but I do not understand all of it. I do my best to help him."

"And that is all we ask. Eat up while I continue talking with the others. They too have missions, and I must now see to their progress."

The boy found a plate of sandwiches and a glass of sweet peach juice in front of him. Ian winked to his dad and transferred to Colibri the proper etiquette to eat at a table. Then he turned to his dad.

"We are now barely starting on the Ucayali, dad. We have to be careful since it is in this area that Harp reported seeing these Orcs. We have not found them yet, but we are barely at the mouth of the river. We have done about half of the tribes, give or take ten percent, since population density varies considerably."

"I need the bathroom!" piped up Colibri.

"I'll go with you. I don't need to be here for the reports," said Ian as he led the young native out of the room.

"Fine. Next, Yamato."

"We are three quarters of the way up the Congo River. We found a new human species, a very primitive one, maybe an intermediate between the Orcs and us; we have yet to establish whether these are the first attempts at converting humans to make Orcs out of them or the final results of the research with the Orcs being an intermediate experience gone haywire."

"Enron, that's the Elves' specialty. Identify and try to determine the position of these humans relative to the humans found in the kingdom."

"I wish we had Orcs to compare them to."

"We do. They are in cryogenic chambers, awaiting reprogramming," said Paschal.

The look on the face of Enron revealed he had no knowledge of this.

"I was going to ask that question, if you don't mind?" said Harold as he saw Enron get red in the face.

Turning to Yamato, Harold looked at him questioningly.

"We discovered that Orcs have a culture that goes beyond eating up everything that moves. I have been thinking a lot since we made the discovery we did during the last war and I have come to a conclusion. Orcs are a mystery to us in more ways then one. Who would have thought they could build these long tunnels? Who would have thought they had the workmanship to make these invisible doors in the rock faces? Who would have thought they could domesticate an animal-plant, the Ogres? Who could have thought they could build ships and sail them right to New Zealand? Who would have thought they could have domesticated the Pterodactyls? And did you see the quality of saddles they made out of the skins of the Pterodactyl juveniles?"

Everyone looked at each other pensively, as they digested Yamato's tirade.

"And what triggered this rethinking about Orcs?"

"Their nests. They are extremely elaborate. They are marvels of engineering and planning. They also have art, in the form of sculptures and paintings on the walls. I would not call them classical beauties, and most are either some type of Venus or phallic symbols, along with some rather strange-looking figures. Nonetheless, these represent art, as do the rock wall paintings, that display animals and animal hunts in such vivid form you can almost taste the meat. They have ways of recovering water from the atmosphere in desertic areas, and cooling their nests. Nestor himself was surprised, and we contacted Paschal, Harp and Sitar. All three decided it was worth recovering the Orc artists, the engineers, and also to duplicate a nest for them in one of the tessaracts. It was done before we disposed of the nest we found in Africa. I thought Harp had told you about this?"

"I talked to Paschal and Sitar, and they agreed it was a good idea to recover the Orcs. I just passed a quick comment to dad, since we all agreed on the principle. Even Ian was consulted and agreed it was a good idea."

"Is the reconstructed nest occupied?" Enron asked.

"No, all Orcs recovered are in suspended animation, until such time as we can have resources for reprogramming. For now, we are busy finishing the clean up of the Kingdoms of Americus population we recovered, minus the blind people in the last bunker. These will take a lot of resources, since they need both rewiring of their visual pathways and full reprogramming of social mores. At least they are humans. Orcs will need a lot more planning and study to get fixed, since there may be some unexpected differences in brain structure. Not that many, but still," answered Paschal.

"I'm surprised you managed to get over your hatred of Orcs, all three of you, Paschal."

"The past is the past, we must look in the future. If the Orcs we rescue contribute at some point to our understanding of life and its infinite diversity, we must be ready to open our eyes and our ears," replied Sitar, much to the amazement of everyone present.

"And, Enron, we must not judge Orcs on their learned behaviour or on the subset of their population we have been in contact the most with. The warrior caste is probably the most vicious of the Orcs, and we have mostly dealt with them. They are at the top of the food chain in the Orc society, much like Franz of Sophia was at the top of the shit pile. It would be like equating every Elf with his henchmen!" added Harp, the destroyer of Orcs!

"You seem to believe they are organised in castes?"

"The nest structure will reveal to you this fact. There are distinct levels and these levels seem to be tightly regulated by guards. There is the lowest caste, which seems to be in charge of maintaining the nest; the carvers, those dig and build the master part of the nest; the fine craftsmen, that include the sculptors, the toolmakers; the ironsmiths that make and fix military material, and finally the military, that occupy the top of the pyramid. They are also the most numerous and control the nest. Apparently, females are even lower then those that clean the nest since they are primarily seen as seed receptacles. Now you see why we will have a lot of work to do with those that we rescued."

"Ok. I'll visit with Enron later. For now let's continue with this. Paschal, you never actually exposed what you were up to."

"I've sent collectors back in time to recover every single written document ever since the Soul Eaters showed up. I've also sent a second wave of collectors to recover as much of whatever was constructed. The Ancients did their best, but we will have full duplicates, exact to the atomic structure. I have blocked duplication of all nuclear devices, rest assured of that. I'm interested in preserving buildings with architectural value, not in blowing us up. The nature of what constitute architecture will change as the collectors progress back in time, to allow for cultural change and evolution of technology. The last wave of collectors I sent was to get samples of genetic material from all now disappeared species, in the hopes we can actually reconstruct entire ecosystems that now have vanished. And no, contrary to the Ancients, I'm not that fascinated with dinosaurs, notwithstanding the Pterodactyls and the monsters we met during our Ordeal in the Pyramids."

"What is the expected mass?"

"Relative to what we will get when we begin recovering ecosystems planet-wide? It is less then one percent of the entire mass of Thebes. The ecosystems will represent an added 0.05 percent mass. Life is but a thin veneer on the rock surface of the planet."

"Talking about Pterodactyls, how are things?"

"They are nesting quietly, if you can call that quiet, but they are nesting. I have no idea of the incubation period, but it should be near hatching time," replied Enron.

"I forgot to ask. Paschal, how is the recovery of Atlantean stuff progressing?"

"We have finished the Atlantic, the Arctic, the Antarctic. The Indian Ocean is almost done. The Spider recovery army is now mostly concentrated in the Pacific, converging toward the Equator from the two poles. Everything should be done within six months."

"I'm sorry to put you under so much pressure Paschal, but how about Greywolf?"

"His body is half rebuilt. In six months he should be finished and ready to receive his memory implant. The body itself is complete. It's the intensive testing of genetic mappings that Greywolf collected since he became a shifter that takes all the time now. Over the years he has collected over three hundred and fifty maps."

"Talking about Greywolf, dad, I've begun training the runt of his family. He has a knack for magic. And he is no longer the runt of the den! Ness gave him Dragon Growth Hormone, and he is bigger then his dad now, even if he still has six months to go before reaching adulthood!" said Harp.

"What about bonding to dragons?"

"He needs his magic first. I've also begun training his littermates and his mother. It's the minimum I can do for Greywolf."

"There is something I keep forgetting, and it concerns you Harp. Give me a minute."

After scratching his head a couple of minutes, it came back to him.

"Harp, you remember the Seraphrims that we rescued? There is some news on that front."

"I didn't speed up their maturation, dad. We have to recover the tailings on the moon if they are getting close!"

"That's not it. The Matriarch has decided to undergo the procedure. I do not know if it is restore or gain, because something strange happened when I talked to her."

"What? Did she go in convulsions?"

"No, nothing like that, but something just as dramatic. She told me of the only prophesy of the Seraphrims."

"How does it concern us?"

"It concerns you, and by association, us."

"Oh no, not another prophesy! We are already immersed in a long-lasting one concerning Ian, and now I got my own burden to carry?"

"We all have, son."

"I hate prophecies!"

"You, better then anyone, should understand the nature of time and its binds."

"Why do you think I hate them, dad?"

"Anyway, young man, you were bound by prophecies from the moment you took your first breath. Get over it. Do you want to hear it from me or from the Matriarch?"

"Let me have it. At least, I'll be able to blow steam without looking too childish to the Matriarch!"

"Would you mind going to the ice shelf to blow steam, big brother? I don't think you want to give an immature image of the Gods to Colibri."

Colibri had returned to the table with Ian from his foray to the bathroom. Everyone had long forgotten the native boy's presence, and he had kept quiet, afraid to be sent away from paradise if he reminded the Gods of his mere existence.

"You got a point, Ian. Colibri, we're sorry, we forgot you were with us. You must feel lost. Ian, my little brother, tells us you have strong innate magic. Come stand in front of me, so I can see how this is so and how strong your magical core really is."

Colibri stood up from the very comfortable chair and made his way to the young god. He trusted Harp because he couldn't see any malice in his intentions toward him. He also sensed, deep down, that this god was as deadly as the others and did not hesitate to kill an enemy, and Colibri certainly did not intend to end up on that list if he could help it.

Harp touched the boy along his spine and then at the solar plexus. Harp then muttered an incantation, and a very bright white halo appeared around Colibri's head.

"This is truly remarkable. Colibri, your heart is totally pure, not tainted by any self-centred ambitions. And you are a very powerful mage. The fact that the halo is spread over a part of your head indicates a lack of focus and control, but, once this is acquired, you should have a very thin, but vibrant halo."

"What does this mean?"

"Simply that, once you have finished helping Ian in his mission along the Amazon, I will be expecting you back here and we will sort your experiences so I can begin training you in magic."

"Will that make me a God?"

"As close to one as can be."

"Ok."

"Paschal, I want a genetic mapping of Colibri like yesterday. That kind of power is way beyond normal human range."

"I'll do that right after the meeting. Not let's get back to that prophecy."

"I was hoping we would forget it!"

"In your dreams!"

After collecting his memories of the meeting with the Matriarch, Harold told everyone of how things went. He pulled out a safe box from inter-dimensional space. The box itself had a biometric key lock. After looking at it, touching it and giving a verbal keyword, the box opened. Harold then pulled out the note he had written as soon as he had come to his study. Harp began reading the note, not really understanding the meaning. Meanwhile Harold called Ian to his side.

"Son, as my heir, you need to be logged to this safe box. It is stored in the intrinsic matrix of space-time, bond to Thebes itself. It contains things that must be kept within the family. As you know, people keep bugging us for jobs that we do not really need to fill. That was the case with that persistent and nosy self-proclaimed secretary. Power attracts fleas like shit attracts dung beetles. Jefferson got rid of his issues, and I was too busy to deal with the kingdom so it got out of hand to the point I had to practice cold-blooded surgery on the ever-more invasive power-seekers. Some people would like nothing better then to know things that are none of their business, especially the future, in the hope of being at the right place at the right time to gain leverage."

Ian nodded. If there was something his current expedition in the Amazon had taught him, it was the true nature of humans when power was concerned.

"Now, put both hands on that surface."

A few seconds later, the scanner was done and beeped.

"Now look into these eye holes. And no, do not expect a peep show, you little pervert!"

Ian laughed and did as asked. A retinal scan occurred.

"When you reach full adulthood, I will add verbal identification. As you have yet to reach your full magical potential, I will delay that signature as well. You and I now have access to this safe box. The number of people with access to it is unlimited, but we need to keep it within the family." As he looked around, he added "Ladies, gentlemen, you will be next. I'm sorry, Colibri, but it will have to wait for you, for several reasons."

Harp had been reading and re-reading the prophecy and was not getting any closer in understanding what it meant. He shared it with the others, in the hope of getting an understanding.

Paschal was the first to propose an interpretation.

"Harold told us earlier that it was when he told the Matriarch that you had revived Silver Moon Lord Agramon of the Equines that the Matriarch's attitude changed. Immediately after that, she asked that eyesight be given to her, something she had been resisting for some time, much to our surprise."

"Yes, that much I had understood, but that is not related to the prophecy."

"I also understand that this prophecy refers to you given you were able to go fetch Silver Moon from beyond death, Fetcher of Life beyond the Veil," commented Ian.

"Stop it! I am already freaking out!"

"It's a natural state for you," said Sitar.

"No less then for Enron!"

"Will you guys ever get over it?" complained Enron.

"No!" chorused the boys, laughing.

"I also understand that you must give her back something that was taken away. Could it be sight?" Typhoon asked.

"You mean to tell me their species had sight and lost it?"

"Why not? We have found numerous examples so far."

"But Ian, from what I read, it was done intentionally!"

"I feel that is the case, but you forget it was done so they could protect their eggs by digging themselves in the crust of a planet to hide from a terrible enemy."

"What enemy?"

"We may never know. But does it matter?" asked Sitar.

"And who could have done that?" continued Harp, ignoring Sitar's question.

"Again, who knows? And does it really matter?"

"Yes it does! If I am to use magic to fix the issue, I must understand how it was done in the first place!"

"I see. Well, let's go visit the Matriarch and you can scan her magical core or what not that must be scanned."

"And how many eggs are we talking about?"

"Fifty million or so " said Typhoon.

"But I'll be spending the rest of my life fixing them!"

"Do not panic, son. Maybe there is a way out of this bind."

"Yes, Annabelle, there must be a way out. Paschal, how long will it take to get the genetic mapping of our friend here?"

"A blood sample, and an hour. I'll start it, and one of my assistants will bring it back to this room when it's done. Dad, let's walk to the biological laboratory. I'll do the sampling, and then we'll continue to visit the Matriarch, and then off to visit the Pterodactyls. I'm sure Colibri will like to see them."

***

"Paschal, while we walk to your laboratory, I wanted to know how Thebes' repairs are progressing?"

"We found the original plans, stored in the Pharaoh's Cave, under Kantar. I have been organizing the work according to three types: cleanup, that is done by janitors; minor but high-precision work, done by the Elves; and major structural repairs or, more commonly completing structuring work, done by the Dwarfs. As each segment is completed, cleansed or repaired, the diagram of Thebes lights up. We are now at ninety-nine percent completed, and given the number of people working on it, numbering several thousands of each of the above-mentioned Atlanteans we should be done within a month. I had initially estimated six months, but the number of volunteers to do non-specialized work was such it was a breeze to find the proper staffing. People are all wanting to have something to do."

"I'm not about to complain."

"As repairs progress, there are more and more control desks appearing around the Cave. I noticed that these desks adapt automatically to whoever occupies the seat, when the desk is fully operational. When it does not, I've learned to have the Elves and some of the best Dwarfs look into it. Sometimes the issue is a faulty proximity sensor grid, and sometimes, it's that the desk controls sensors that are not yet operational and therefore the desk itself is kept in locked-down until things are fixed. We had several that had missing power lines as well. The teams are fixing all these things as we go."

"That is fine. I did notice that the number of doors that open as we get close is increasing," said Annabelle.

"Yes, and we are also running tests on air locks, at night, when there is as little activity as possible."

"Are there many missing pieces still?"

"We recovered everything we could from the Atlantic, dad. In the Pacific, the stuff was on Easter Island. We also recovered some essentials from under the Sphinx; the rest was lost, but since it was some trinkets, I have replaced them already."

"What about the bottom of the Indian and Pacific Oceans?"

"There were very little of Atlantean origins there. We did lose ships, but apparently, we were an Atlantic-first sea-faring people. We are recovering some materials on some maritime routes that probably linked Atlantean outposts, but most of what we recover come either from America's culture, or from the spice trade and exploration of Cathay and Siam by colonial powers. There is nothing much of Atlantean origins there. As I told you earlier today, the Spiders are almost finished."

"What will happen when it's done?"

"I will regroup the Spiders on Easter Island and port them en masse to the Sea of Rain for disinfection by gamma ray exposure. When the last bits of the stuff on the Sea of Rain is processed, including the mineral tailings for the Seraphrims, every one of them is moved into storage under Thebes. Some will get retrofitted to handle repairs of Thebes, according to the plans I found in store. As to why we might need them, I have no idea."

"Are you telling me you still do not know everything about Thebes, oh great Architect?"

"By far, dad. We are still following a prophecy blindly, and I learn of the need for something when I sense it. That is the case for the mineral carriers that are now burning a new road from the Amazon to our doors, numbering several thousand."

Colibri held Ian's hand like a lifeline. The vastness of Heaven was daunting to him, and all his senses were at a loss. The Gods must have had extraordinary senses to know where they were going because, as for him, not seeing the sun was like walking blindly, worse still then the pitch-dark night without the moon or the stars. Ian understood the boy's fear and hugged him reassuringly.

They reached the biological laboratory, and Paschal put on Novocain on Colibri's elbow crease.

"You will feel nothing for a few hours. Relax."

He then did a quick blood draw and put it in a fragmentation centrifuge. As he was finishing the setup, one of his assistants walked in.

"Do a full genetic map on the blood sample. I also want a full blood formula, and the complete range of acquired immunity and carried sicknesses. Bring the report to dad's office as soon as it's done. This is confidential, so sit on it, whatever any paper scrapper asks questions. Here is a port key, to use if you believe you are being harassed. It will bring you to me, along with the report. Just make sure you know the name of the arsehole, so I can recycle him into fertilizer!"

"Yes, Prince Paschal."

"Let's get going."

Everyone followed Paschal out of the laboratory.

"Why the port key, son?"

"Most Atlanteans cannot port, dad. He is one of them. He is a conscientious worker, dedicated to his work, but magic and him do not add up. If Colibri is as powerful as Harp says, it will be the first new addition to the porting community outside of Thebes since we added the Dragons, and they gained it because we bond."

***

The arrival of the Royals to the Seraphrim nest was totally unexpected for the Matriarch. She immediately detected their presence, as it modified, even slightly, the humidity level. She made her way to the entrance, wondering what was up.

«Good day Matriarch, I hope this visit finds you in good spirits.»

«This notion of day is hard to grasp, but I will say I do feel good.»

«I am glad to hear it is so. I have a surprise for you.»

«Oh?»

«We brought the one mentioned in the Prophecy with us today. He has questions, and needs to examine your body to figure out what was done and how things have changed over time.»

«Please follow me to my resting place. The ones you call Dwarfs have just finished polishing my shell again and I feel tired. You will have all the leisure to examine my shell there. It feels so good when they polish it I feel like my conscience wants to close down.»

"Sleep, I gather?"

"Is that what it is? Is it dangerous?»

«That is what happens to us; for us it may not be dangerous, but for you, a sleep cycle may be several planetary orbits long. I do not think you would appreciate that, especially since, in your own words, your eggs are getting near their maturity.»

«You may be right Patriarch of the Patriarchs. We are now in my resting alcove. It is very well designed, better then the one I had built in the old nest. Thank the person that did this.»

«It is I, Matriarch,» replied Paschal. «And there is no need to thank me about it. It was my duty as host to see to your comfort.»

«Nonetheless, thanks are in order. Let me position myself.»

The Matriarch settled herself in a bed of dry, very fine salt, and sank in. Her entire lower body was suspended in the salt, leaving her legs slightly above the salt pit's bottom, relieving them from the need to bear the Matriarch's body weight.

«I am ready.»

Harp walked near the salt pit and began examining the Matriarch. His first task was the study of bodily structure. There were no indications that there ever was a visual pathway, but that meant nothing.

He then proceeded to look at the magical core for any sign of manipulation. There he found a subtle signature, very well obfuscated by several masking layers of false leads and circular referencing to a series of wards, spells and other treatments designed to smooth out the real process done to the Matriarch.

"Paschal, Ian, Sitar, and Enron, I'll need you. We need to map the intrinsic structure of the Matriarch to get the equivalent of her genome. Typhoon, when we proceed, can you do a task for us?"

"Sure."

"Compare your genome to hers. I know it's not the same species, but maybe some tips might be there to help us figure out how hers ticks. My other brothers and I will be busy doing the extraction and analysis without being intrusive."

"Thorsten, can you take care of Colibri while we do this? It might be a while."

"I can be patient "

"Ok, Colibri. Just do not be afraid if we look like dead men sitting. It is because our task will require so much concentration we will need to enter a special state, a trance, that gives observers the false impression that death is upon us."

"I understand."

"Go sit with the one named Thorsten," said Ian, as he indicated the Dwarf King.

The boy dutifully moved to sit beside Thorsten, who gently grabbed Colibri's left hand with his right, reassuringly.

The five boys, sitting in a five-pointed star position, entered a very deep trance. Indeed as they reached the deepest of the trance, their breathing slowed down to such shallowness and low frequency they seemed dead.

The first task was identifying the chromosomal structure. This proved a challenge, because, contrary to the Dragons, the Matriarch's cellular structure was polynuclear and prokaryotic whereas the Dragons had mononuclear prokaryotic cells.

The next issue was the establishment of the location of the genetic material and its nature. There, a very rare event helped the boys: a cell division! It revealed that each nucleus in a cell contained a single chromosome, based on a crystalline structure that reproduced by controlled crystallisation. Each chromosome was built from a series of dodecagonal crystals, whose shape represented one of the building blocks of what amounted to a crystallized protein based on silica rather then carbon.

It rapidly became apparent that the structural differences between Dragons and Seraphrims were so important that no clue on the functionality of the Seraphrims' genomic could be gained from a comparative analysis.

«What do we do?» asked Enron, as the boys eyed their discoveries so far.

«We map each nucleus' chromosome, and send it to the Pyramids for storage and ulterior modelisation.»

«She will be unhappy, Harp.»

«I doubt it. They have been waiting for countless eons for this event. It's not a day or even a year that will bother her. Do we have the count of nuclei?»

«There are fifty-four,» said Ian and Enron simultaneously.

«OK. Let's spread the work. Enron, you work with Paschal. One checks the other one doubles-check. Ian, you work with Sitar, using the same protocol. I will transfer the data you collect and validate it prior to transferring to the Red pyramid for storage, acting as relay booster. Transmit to Typhoon as well to allow for transmission validation.»

The process began. At first, it was slow, as the protocol had to be agreed on by all parties, even the Pyramid's Artificial Intelligence. But once that was set, the transfer rate picked up and reached several terabytes per second at its peak. An hour and a half later, and some fifty-four thousand terabytes later, the process was completed.

The boys emerged from their deep trance and brought their body back to functional levels.

«Matriarch, we must now analyse the data we collected from our investigation on your body structure,» said Harp. «I have several questions that might guide us in our understanding of what needs to be done and what we found so far?»

«Ask, I have no secret for you.»

«First, what are the enemies you were trying to hide from?»

«They are the Destroyers. They came to our planet, the mother planet, where we had lived for so long. They destroyed the eggs, sucking life out of them, eating the guardians.»

«Eat as destroy their body?»

«Yes. They had jaws that would crush us alive, reduce us to powder, and kill us. Then they would use the body of our loved ones to build more of their own.»

"I would say machines, Harp. Automated mining machines, which would travel from planet to planet to reproduce. This is bad! Real bad."

"I agree, Paschal. Let me continue."

«What happened after their arrival?»

«We were few left, and desperate to find a way to survive. There came another ship from the stars. They fought the first invaders, but it was a losing battle. Noting our despair, they offered us a way out: They could not escape, as their ship had been destroyed but they would give us a way to do so. They said that they would modify us and allow us to travel the stars as they fought the rear battle to allow us to escape. They said we would first escape below the surface, out of reach of the Destroyers, and once we had accrued enough of a special mineral in our body we would be able to leave the planet, enter sleep, as you call it, and reach other worlds to repopulate. We had to be careful of the world we choose, because not all would have enough of the mineral to allow a colony to migrate to the stars, and that we had to respect the life already present there, in whatever form it held.»

«Where does the Prophecy come from?»

«It comes from them. We have no capacity at this. It was the last of their numbers, that told us the prophecy. He had survived so long against the machines because he could tell where and when they would attack. His people had long since been eaten as well, after giving us the means to live underground. He told us he would die the next day, unable to escape the assault on the cave we had dug for him. My ancestors wanted to stay and fight but he ordered them away. They had hoped he would follow them in the deepest caves, but he made the wall collapse as soon as they had left, thus ending his life and blocking the access to the network of caves below the surface. The story says my ancestors heard the claws of the Enemy as it tried to find the Path, and that they searched for hundreds of years, never finding it. Finally, we were ready and left the World.»

«Did they tell you where they came from?»

«He said they came from an animal that did not yet exist but would in time, an animal made of stars, the Wolf. We never understood that part. Do you?»

Harp wobbled on his arse, almost collapsing from shock.

"The Wolf constellation, dad! The Wolf constellation that contained Atlantis 1! The Wolf constellation, that is only visible from Earth! The Wolf constellation named that way because it is only on Earth that wolves exist! The Wolf constellation that marked Ian's birth! The Wolf Constellation from which destruction will come for this planet according to the simulations we ran during our Trial! This is just too much to be pure coincidence! Should we tell her?"

"Harp, this is your call. It is your prophecy."

"Do you need to remind me every minute?"

"Yes."

Harp had been quiet for a few seconds on the telepathic waves, and then decided that it would not be such a bad thing if the Matriarch had that information.

«Matriarch, we are those people. It is our ancestors that visited yours. We are from the Wolf in the sky and we are the Wolves. Our own planet was at the core of the Wolf made of stars. Even on this planet, the seat of power is called the Wolf Throne, and Ian is the Wolf Heir. It is only from this planet that this grouping of stars gets its name Wolf, because it is only on this planet that the Wolf exists. The Wolf was our first and closest ally on this planet.»

«How could this be? So many stars have blown to dust since that prophecy we lost count!»

«Matriarch, to understand why it is so, one must understand how prophesies work. Do you know what a web is?»

«It is what links the stars, it is what we use to walk on to reach one of them from another.»

«That is one web, the string of Matter web. However, there are eleven dimensions to this Universe, and the web of matter is but one tiny part of the Web that unites space, time, magic, life, everything. We, like you, are stardust coalesced along a strand of the Web of Life. The Atlanteans, namely us, have long had a capacity at manipulating the strings of the Universe for our need, not always with the expected results, but nonetheless we can. This is why we have magic. Until recently, precognition, or the ability to know of events before they came to be, was a rare gift, and it was limited in range and scope. Nonetheless, those with precognitive power had forewarned us of many things that came to pass, and some that are still to pass, in the form of Prophecies. This place is the result of a concerted effort, spanning seventeen thousand years, at getting ready for such an event. It is now perilously close to us, we feel it in our magical core.»

Harp took a long pause, waiting for a question that never came.

«Foreseers, precognitive individuals, can combine their power together and gain either a view further in time, or a more precise view of near events. We, meaning my brothers and I, can see to the end of time when we combine our powers together. The one that gave you this prophecy probably worked with the entire crew to access this vision over billions of years. He walked the Web of Time. But it should not be a surprise to us that he found this particular nexus, for this is the Nexus, were everything started. For that foreseer, this Nexus must have been like the dark sun in the centre of the Galaxy: so bright it was blinding. Everything led to it, and everything moves away from it. That it is this precise moment that is foreseen is clear, because the Wolf made of stars not only exists in this spot, but also in this precise time. As the stars move, the Wolf will change and be replaced by another animal. We are quite aware that some of the stars that create the Wolf in these skies are now dead, but the light from these explosions has yet to reach us.»

Harp took another break, hoping for some questions, but the Matriarch was still expecting him to talk.

«One last point before I conclude. We discovered only recently that it was on this planet, this exact planet that the accretion of energy was made to create the Universe, or, to be honest, eighty-five Universes. This is why this planet is the Nexus. The entire Universe finds its origins due to events set in motion seventeen thousand years ago due to foreseers. Talk about circular referencing! Yes, you understood me right. We created the Universe by accident, or more properly, an accident led to its creation. You can say that the Universe was born from a sunken ship in a storm. The foreseers of old could not miss this Event; it must have been impossible to see beyond its blinding light. All they knew is they were heading toward it; we know we are heading away from the Event. As for the act of seeing, it is like we see the web, every critical decision is a nexus, a node, but we do not see the bumps in the strands joining the nodes. There are many strands leading us forward, but we follow only one, which has its own quirks. We are so close to the Nexus we cannot see it, it blinds us but lights the Web.»

The Matriarch kept silent, digesting the information. These Atlanteans were definitely full of surprises.

«We will let you think on these things. We will be back to do the Task. It may not be tomorrow or any time soon, but we will be back,» stated Harp as the boys stood up to leave the nest.