Group Info Group Founded 11 Years ago 30 Members
3,090 Pageviews26 Watchers

Announcement

This group will be migrated to the new design soon. Please contact the group admins to start the migration and save content the group may lose access to.

Affiliates

:iconnurturing-narratives::iconwriting-rampage::iconthe-novelist-club:

Visitors

You're not here because you're not logged in
  • :icongrenegoobler:
    grenegoobler
    Visited here May 6, 2023, 12:38:37 PM
    Isn't a member
  • :iconjustsomeordinarydude:
    Justsomeordinarydude
    Visited here Feb 17, 2022, 11:14:37 AM
    Isn't a member
  • :iconlunadarklore:
    LunaDarklore - Members
    Visited here Sep 25, 2021, 2:54:59 PM
    Hasn't contributed yet
  • :iconthedarkgallade:
    TheDarkGallade - Members
    Visited here Sep 13, 2020, 11:26:58 AM
    Did something awesome on September 12th, 2020
  • :iconnickninja02:
    NickNinja02 - Members
    Visited here Jun 3, 2020, 7:30:50 PM
    Did something awesome on June 3rd, 2020

Gallery Folders

Featured
GodsknifeALOX-7 was the name that had been given to the moon orbiting the gas giant Kiber Prime. It was basically irrelevant to most of the universe. Most things are. But nobody there knew it by that name, Exion they called it. The inhabitants had never been contacted by the rest of the universe, there was no reason to.The inhabitants had barely gotten the use of the Atlatl down, they were as smart as men, but not advanced enough to interact with them. Their bodies were raptor like, maybe more ostrich like. They were able to use tools thanks to two three jointed arms coming from the base of their long swan like necks. Each arm had a three fingered hand with one thumb. They had evolved from pack hunters, giving them strong sharp toothed jaws and muscular legs for fast running.Once, while transporting various supplies to a nearby planet a small spacecraft dropped a shipping unit of utensils while within ALOX-7's atmosphere. This was the extent of ALOX-7's interactions with earth.This is the story of that box of utensils.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------There was a great crash in the sky, it looked like a great ball of fire. Fire could be seen coming down from the skies. Black ash stained the white deserts. A small group of warriors may be called from the village to investigate, it could be a sign from the gods.A warchief was sitting in the house of the shamans, His hide armor and bone helmet afixed, the stone walls surrounding him, carvings of the gods and spirits surrounding him staring him down. He spoke to the high shaman, "We cannot let the raiders to the north take our land. We have no need to investigate whatever may have come from that event in the sky. It's to our south, the raiders are coming from the north, there's no reason to go there. We need all our fighters to protect the settlement."The shamans looked to each other, red paint covering the white of their scales, animal bones decorating their aged heads. The high shaman spoke to the warchief, "It is of the gods, if we go to it there may be a higher chance of victory."The warchief replied, "The gods have never done anything for a war. Not in my life, nor my ancestors.""What is your clan?""The Izeta Clan, my father was Arzen of the Izeta Clan. I am Ereze of the Izeta Clan." Ereze raised his chin with respect.The shamans looked down upon him. The High Shaman spoke, "You and two of your fellow warriors shall go into the desert to investigate the event. The soul of your father shall guide you home, and your respect for the gods will be a second shield when you battle the raiders.”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze went with two of his most loyal warriors; Karkar, a large fighter who barely spoke from an allied village, and Oro, a young warrior with speakaled scales. They left at midnight, when the red of the planet they orbited consumed the sky.The deserts were calm when it was dark. It wouldn't seem so in the day, with the raiders, with the beasts. But at night it was quiet, it was calm, even for just a few moments.Oro asked while walking through the sands, "What do you think we'll find once we get there?"Ereze replied, "Honestly, nothing."Oro was confused, "You believe it will test our faith?"Ereze made a slight buzzing noise with his teeth, "I believe the shamans were mistaken.""The shamans were guided by the gods.""They are flesh and blood, they can mistake prophecy for dreams."Oro tapped her claws a bit in anger, but she said nothing.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Karkar spotted something on the horizon, charred black sand with something in the center. There were strange objects all over the ground.Oro pulled out her spear when she saw it, there were boxes, it was boxes scattered on the ground. They were too perfect though, not like a box one would shape from clay, but like one that one would draw in the ground with a stick. It was like a perfect shape, and it was made of unknown material.Oro struck the box with her spear, interested but terrified of how it would react. To her shock the spearhead shattered. It was completely broken. Oro hissed in anger.Ereze ran over to inspect, he picked up the box and shook it. Sniffed its parameters. Karkar spotted the strangeness of the boxes and threw one against a large stone.To everyone's surprise the box opened. Not like it had been broken, but some sort of unlocking. Strange shimmering appeared from inside, it was a glistening of the stars' reflection. Strange tools were inside, they were of an odd grey shimmering material, they looked like knives.Oro asked, "Are these the gifts of the gods?"Ereze grasped one of the shining knives and cut Oro's spear's shaft in two; nobody had ever seen sturdy material chopped by a knife so easily. It only took a single strike, it could take hours to do that with a stone or bone knife. Ereze dropped the knife in shock, and replied to Oro, "For once, they are gifts of the gods."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The three of them took as many boxes as they could take, twenty five they carried to their village. Each box brought new chances to their people, new gifts from the gods. With blades like that they could win any war, they could become heros, they could rule every land and village known with peace on honor.They entered the village near dawn, the young were playing and the old still asleep. It was so calm, yet so fragile, one invasion and they'd all be dead or slaves. The fighters of the village screamed to the sky to honor their returning comrades, those watching the three of them enter the village looked inquisitively at their boxes, rotating their heads in curiosity.A youngling, his scales still blue, pulled on Karkar's tail and asked, "What are those?"Karkar repliead, "Knives, probably from the gods."The youngling's eyes widened. Ereze tapped Karkar with the back of his axe, "You shouldn't tell him that you fool. We must first see the shamans, these must be inspected."They entered the temple to meet with the shamans. They removed their bone helmets, laid down their weapons and walked into the temple.Smoke of burning fire surrounded them. From out the smoke the shamans emerged. The high shaman spoke, "What have you found from the fires?"Ereze took one of the boxes from off of his back and opened it revealing the knives inside. He spoke to the shamans with excitement yet honor, "These items at the inspection. They are knives like none had ever seen before." He raised the box to show the blades, "They're gifts from the gods, with these we can beat back the raiders. They can chop through wood in a single slash. If we use them as spearheads-"A Shaman cut him off, "Similar weapons have been heard of wielded by evil spirits, demons from the stars. They may easily be cursed objects."Ereze exclaimed, "They are a gift! They will save our village and all allied villages!"The high shaman replied, "We shall inspect them, if we prove them valid by the solstice then they may be used. Until then they are to be kept here.""We may not be alive by the solstice. We must use them now."The shamans muttered among each other, "if we follow what the gods wish they shall protect us.""Countless villages are forever burnt to ashes and buried underground, what do the gods think of that?""The gods choose what they may. We must follow tradition or we fight for nothing.""If we lose we fight for nothing!"Ereze ran out in shame.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Oro, Ereze and Karkar left again, back to the boxes, this time with fifteen warriors, each with a spear, an axe and a club. Three more were taken less encumbered.Oro asked Ereze as they headed out into the desert, "Why are we going there again?"Ereze replied, "We need more boxes, even if we can't use them now they'll be so useful once they're allowed.""The shamans won't like this.""They never do."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------When they got there they packed the boxes upon their backs. They opened some boxes revealing not only knives but also spoons, pans and other such tools. The warriors began to attach the knives to their spears and axes in place of the stone heads. They attached the unbreakable shimmering spoons to their limbs, bodies and necks over their hide for protection and put them on their clubs to increase their power. They discarded their helmets and used large pans instead.Oro objected, "This isn't what the shamans would want."Ereze replied, "It's what the gods would."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the desert, on the return journey, a large beast was encountered. Creatures of that sort had been seen before. It was the type with large fangs and four clawed legs that made it faster than the wind. Some warriors spotted its black scales on the horizon. With most encounters with creatures of that sort it would take several spears to kill. But one throw of a spear tipped with an unbreakable knife and the beast was dead. The warriors looked over the bloodied corpse, they knew these were truly weapons of the gods.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze entered the temple once more. His warriors waiting outside loyally. All the warriors he kept outside were of his clan.Ereze bowed his head to the shamans, "Hello again."The high shaman replied, "You were gone."Ereze was amused, "I was getting more of the god's knives.""You weren't meant to.""The god's told me.""We speak for them."Ereze was filled with joy and rage, "If you follow what the gods wish they shall protect you."He pulled out an axe, its head a gleaming knife of the gods. He struck the high shaman's neak, slicing off his head in a single slash. The others tried to run but they couldn't, it took a single strike for each of them to fall.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze walked out of the temple, the orange blood of the shamans staining his hands and arms. He told one of his warriors, "It is done, the gods have spoken. This time through knives instead of tongues."They called the village together along with everyone in nearby villages. Ereze spoke for all to hear, "The gods have gifted us weapons like none other. We now have knives and other such goods made of an unbreakable material. We must henceforth head into the deserts to the south, and bring back their containers."Someone shouted from the audience, "We must get these quickly. The northern raiders may come any day."Ereze replied, "We must get them now. For we will not simply defend, we must take the battle to them, with these weapons and this armor we may destroy their villages like they did ours, we shall win the war."Ereze passed Oro on the way out, she spoke to him, "You killed the shamans, did you not?"Ereze replied, "The gods did so. I was but their hands."Oro rotated her head in curiosity and asked a rhetorical question, "Is that not what they all say?"Ereze changed the subject, "The mating season is coming up. You and I could create a good bloodline. We'll need it if I am to be a leader."Oro gave no reply.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A thousand warriors from nearly twenty seven villages marched north. They wore spoons as armor, pots and pans as helmets. Knives as axe heads and spearheads. Spoons were affixed to shields for reinforcement. Ereze led the charge, Oro to his left and Karkar to his right. In his hands was a massive axe, a cleaver as its head.Oro giggled as they marched, "We are fighting with pots and pans."Karkar replied, "If a spoon makes us heroes there's no shame in that spoon."Oro said, "We aren't heroes yet."Ereze shouted, "Yet? We will win this battle. They are already calling me Ereze godsknife. We'll be told in stories for generations to come."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Soon the terrain changed from desert to plane. They were in the home of the raiders. But this was their raid now. They swept along the land like a swarm of demonic pests. The raiders didn't stand a chance. They were the ones being raided now.The spears of the gods ripped through the northerner's hide armor and shields. And the northerner's stone spear tips shattered on the spoons that made the attacker's armor, just like Oro's did on the box. There was no battle with the knives of gods, only victory.Soon Ereze marched his warriors home, slaves that were once raiders marched with them. And loot and treasure was carried that had been taken from their ancestors. The spoils of war were marching home at last.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze made his new home in the temple the shamans once lived in. The confederation and the raiders were united now, though the raiders didn't want to be, justice they called it, you loot us we loot you. Ereze's village was the heart of an empire now, and they named it then, Erezehome. It was named after the hero of their empire; Ereze of the Izeta clan, high chief of the empire, the godsknife, slayer of the false prophets, raider of the raiders.Erezehome had grown. When Ereze had been born it was about three hundred strong. It had become two thousand strong now that it was so close to the boxes. And so close to Ereze.Karkar led the warband, they found new villages, and took them under the wing of the empire. When working together the villages used fire and heat to reshape the knives and other utensils, they turned what had been before shaped like spoons and knives and the boxes that held them into true spearheads and armor.Every piece of their warriors' bodies were covered in unbreakable material, their axes and spears had radiant shining heads that could cut into any lesser material.It was not just weapons that this new material made use of. They created axes that cut down plants for wood and built structures twice as fast, more than twice. They could plant food and sow the land more efficiently with tools made from these things, and cut plants with better blades. They were the gods now.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze sat upon a throne of jewels and bones. Oro was by his side. She kept the records now. Record keepers began to stylize their illustrations more and more, the symbols represented but were no longer depictions.Oro came to Ereze with news, "The boxes, the gifts of the gods. They're running out."Ereze asked, "What do you mean?""It's been years since you first found them. There are no more boxes in the sand.""We will melt more down. We have time, we won't worry about running out for a long time."Oro explained further, "We are losing material every time we bring them to the forge. We are only gaining people, only gaining uses. Even if we use the material we have today we will not be able to keep up with the new uses, the new people.Ereze replied, "Then we shall each go, you to the southeast and I to the southwest. Both of us in search for more of the material beyond the borders.""How many warriors shall each of us take.""We must both go alone. My empire is built on the tools of the gods. If we speak to others of losing them they will tear us apart.""Is your empire so meaningless, that when you lose the power of your weapons it falls apart.""Call me a cruel leader, but I am no fool. What do you think has brought this empire to the beautiful conclusion that it is today? Loyalty, it has always been fear, the knowledge that I can wipe them out, you will go into the desert, as will I, I shall hear no complaints."-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Ereze walked for hours. For once there was nobody to guard him, his armor was of the gods' material, but a lonely soul is protected by armor.Ereze walked past the place where children once played, they worked now, shining grey axes in their hands.He walked by the field where they first found the boxes. It was empty now, all the digging in the world couldn't get that.Beyond the known lands Ereze came upon a deep canyon, he could swear he saw Oro on the other side of it.As he walked on he came upon a strange creature. It stood upright, though it had arms and legs, and such a short neck. Its body was made of a grey material, it was made of the material of the gods.Ereze raised his head in honor, "Creature, may you be a god that I see on this sunburnt path? Have you come with more material?"The creature made an odd screeching sound then spoke, "Native language optimized. Greetings alien lifeform, it seems a community from your species is using [redacted] to advance their civilization, we will fix that, all violators will be destroyed."Ereze replied, "You seek to destroy my empire?""I seek to protect your race. I only need to burn a few villages to purge all stolen goods."Ereze said under his breath, "May the gods protect you if you truly protect us."Ereze jumped onto the creature, constricting it with his body, and pushed all his weight onto the creature's body, sending it deep into the canyon below.The creature's body shattered when they reached the bottom of the canyon, as did Ereze's.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Oro continued down her path, she reached a great canyon, swore she saw Ereze on the other side.She walked past the deserts, through to a dismal swamp. Maybe here something could be found here. The blues of the foliage surrounded her.Desperately she felt through the wetlands, her foot felt something. It was a hunk of something, she pulled it out, reddish, lumpy and porous. It felt like the material of the gods', it even looked a bit like it when degraded. The workers may be able to do something with this, could it be shaped into something? Maybe with this new source of the material things could be done better. At least there was hope, hope she had done something good for her life and maybe this world may become something more than it was before.
Time Travelers Need Not Apply The city streets were calm that morning; children played without care, men went about their work - the bakers, the butchers, the blacksmiths. Autumn had come and harvest would soon begin. The city walls held strong, with steady stone and archers perched at every tower.Then they heard the noise, like thunder or a bear's roar; huge machines that crawled across the ground and flew through the sky. Some cowered at the noise, others looked to see what was happening. Women brought their children inside their homes; the city guard readied their bows atop their high towers.What army could have such machines? Even the Emperor of Byzantium or civilizations of the East could not hope to create such terrors. Soon, soldiers of some sort began to appear on the horizon, their banner was three stripes, white, blue and red. They wore strange green armor and held bizarre tubes as weapons, they were tall and strong, stronger than the city's men, stronger and taller then any known to man.They seemed like angels at first, that or devils. But an archer shot at the strange soldiers, they were men, they bled. Then a howling noise could be heard and some strange object flew out, the walls were hit. The city walls crumbled before the citizens' eyes. No siege, no battle.These were not angels nor devils, these were men, men nine hundred years hence.☜-------------------------------------------------☞It seemed at first that the Janus machine was a failure. That nothing had come from it. Founded in secret by the British government in 1992 it had been in production since then. The idea was to use quantum physics to examine the past, they thought all they would get was readings, they didn't even expect to get images, hoping for little more than numbers about natural occurrences. It was turned on in 1999, February, most of the people at its facility were presumed dead and the project was thought a failure, people had disappeared, people but soon the English county where the Janus project was conducted began to experience a strange phenomenon.The project was meant to simply give a clearer look at the past, but it ended up creating a bridge using quantum physics that not even our worlds greatest scientists could explain. After some tests it appeared that an area of nearly ninety square miles was a chaotic bridge to the year 1100. The two time periods connected at the same point in the world, and the rift was tied to earth's gravity so the planet's movements were irrelevant. The time periods moved together, meaning that two hours in 1999 was two hours in 1100. The final discovery was that changes made in 1100 do not affect the present, meaning that it was its own separate timeline.This made it so that as long as it was irreversible then 1100 would essentially be its own nation or at least like a group of nations, with travelling between the same as traveling from one place to another, and with technology and understanding developing to control time period while in the affected zone.By August both populations knew of each other and their ability to travel to each other without consequence of changing the future. A treaty was signed between President Bill Clinton of the USA, Emperor Alexios of Byzantium, President Vladimir Puitn of Russia, Emperor Henry IV of The Holy Roman Empire, Prime minister Tony Blaire of England and King Henry I of England, declaring that the nations of both times shall be treated as equals, and that their sovereignty should be recognized by each other, with the exploitation of the nations of the past being forbidden by the nations of the future and the cultures and way of life of the past being respected in any possible trade or communication between timelines.☜-------------------------------------------------☞It was the Lord's year 1101, but it was the year 2000 everyone seemed to care about. It had been little more than a year but the streets of Constantinople had begun to change. It might not have been clear most days, but occasionally you'd see something wrong, an anachronism, a nobleman walking down the streets could sometimes be seen with some gadget he had gotten from the future. Or a merchant could be seen coming from the harbor proudly sporting the futuristic style of dress.Was it really true? That these future men lived so well? That even their peasants lived better then the Emperor? That even their children could show miracles unknown to the Pope? That even their simpletons knew more of the way of the world then the alchemists?He walked through the streets, his green eyes full of hope, he was still young, barely a day over sixteen. He was rich, for his era, his father a merchant, he was studying to be a surgeon himself. Alexander was his name, it was an ancient name, a proud name.Alexander walked through the marketplace, trying to see if there was anything from the future there. He saw some metal screws that were supposed to be from the future, no proving it either way. He spotted a strange machine, a box of odd gears and such, being presented as a machine from the future, he came up to the seller curious as to its validity, "This machine, where did you get it‽ What does it do‽"The seller looked up at Alexander, "It's a machine from the future that works on mysterious principles."Alexander became skeptical of the claim that it was truly of the future, "What does it do though?"The seller replied scriptedly, "What would it do, the future men do strange things."Alexander walked off, the machine was a bunch of gears and bits of metal scraped together made to look futuristic and confuse people not willing to think critically about what they see. Everything does something. Why would the men of the future make a machine that does nothing? It did do something: convince gullible people with money to spare to waste it on a trinket.Alexander walked to his home. A large enough house for the city, red brick, it had been his grandfather's and his great grandfather's before it passed to his father. His father was out on a trading ship, but maybe when he returned to Byzantium he'd be carrying some news of the world of the future.Alexander's sister was home, Sophia was her name. She was a young girl of fourteen, black of hair and blue of eyes. She wished to be a lady to some European lord some day, she had a courtly demeanor to her, she would fit in well, but her birth meant that it would be far from likely.Sophia greeted Alexander at their doorway, "Hello again dear brother."Alexander bowed his head mockingly, "Hello again dear sister.""You didn't bring your sword? It's dangerous out there.""Don't worry, I'll be fine. I can be undefended one day."They walked inside and sat down to talk further. Sophia asked, "Have you seen anything of the future again?"Alexander replied, "Nothing real. I hope to hear of more when father returns.""Maybe we shouldn't be so quick to rush into this other time. It's a strange and unwelcoming place. The neighbors and others of the city have moved to live there with hope, but we cannot know what happened on the other side, they never wrote back. The future folk are powerful enough to wipe us out, the only reason they haven't is our insignificance.""That's not true. They haven't wiped us out because they are kind. They at least take those who wish to enter their realm, take those fleeing from famine or the crusaders. The future brings wonderful things that we cannot dream of-""It also brings terrors that may be unspeakable. They could destroy our way of life, take away everything we hold dear. The future isn't some adventure for you to quest on, it's a world of strange and terrifying things that we can barely know of, we do not know what they may want for us. We know they cannot be true worshippers of Christ as the crusaders declared them an enemy for their deviance and heresy."Alexander slammed his fist on the table, "The crusaders will attack anything they see that has more money than them. They sacked our cities when passing through our land, their pope excommunicated us too. I'd sooner trust a tomcat on theology then a European!"Sophia spoke softly to calm the conversation down, "I'm just saying to be wary. Our way of life may die with the future's corruption, we must protect our tradition. It's a good thing our emperor is wise in that regard, wary of everything the future men say, Alexious knows not to let them destroy us. Unlike the Holy Roman Emperor, who they say is dressed in future suits and hats now.""Well, unlike Henry, Alexious has a brain in his head. But we always knew that." Alexander smirked."Oh, I forgot to mention. I found one of your leeches in the kitchen again this morning, please keep those things to yourself."Alexander blushed, "I need them to practice my bloodletting. I can't learn everything from manuals."☜-------------------------------------------------☞That morning Alexander was awoken early, not that there was ever much of a standard time to wake up. There was something happening in the streets outside his window. There seemed to be a rapidly forming crowd. Alexander walked outside and asked a man in the crowd, "What has happened here? May I be of some service?"The peasant replied, "Some future man was stabbed, damn fool was walking around in the middle of the night with his… daughter."Alexander was slightly disturbed but mostly excited, "I'm a surgeon, or at least I'm training to be one. I'll get my tools."Alexander rushed into his house and back out to get the instruments he needed to heal the man. The peasants let him through. The person laid down was like none Alexander had ever seen before, he was tall, strong and well groomed to an extent few in Alexander's world could reach. The wounded man was dressed in strange clothing that he knew to be in the futuristic style. In his hand was a device that looked like a black box with some sort of tube in front. A future girl stood above him, her hair a strange pink color and bits of metal sticking out from her face.Alexander assessed the future man's wounds, they weren't too bad, a slash more than a stab. Alexander addressed the crowd, "I can save him, possibly, but I'll have to bring him inside."☜-------------------------------------------------☞While Alexander was patching up the wounded, Sophia waited downstairs along with the future girl. She was about the same age as Sophia but she looked completely alien. The strange jewelry that seemed to have been affixed into her skin was what stuck out to her at first. Sophia had nearly fainted when the future girl was first let in at seeing how gruesome she looked. Besides that her clothing was strange, she wore a baggy hooded coat and pants that revealed much of her strangely hairless legs.The appearance of this stranger made Sophia think of tales she had been told of savage pagans who sacked Rome in ancient times. But this stranger is peaceful, despite her grotesque appearance. She must have been frightened, tapping her feet, her father had been wounded. Why wouldn't she be afraid?Sophia remembered her hospitality, she asked the stranger, "May I get you something to eat."The stranger blushed, "Oh, I'm fine."They looked at each other for a moment, Sophia's eyes lingered on the stranger's exposed and hairless legs, they were beautiful in a way. She was pretty in a strange exotic way, like a queen from across the sea. Sophia asked, "And what may your name be?"The stranger replied, "Ashley. Yours?"Sophia replied, "My name is Sophia, my lady."Ashley laughed a bit, her teeth were white as pearls, "Don't call me my lady. I have no royal title to speak of."Sophia had heard that the future men lived mostly under republics like those of ancient times, though she at least expected there to be some sort of nobility. Sophia asked, "What brings you here?"Ashley blushed, "I've been travelling across the past with my father, my father wishes to write a book on the culture of this world, fearing it will soon be destroyed. He wishes we had never made contact at all."Sophia replied, "Well, it seems to be good for us that you're here.""My father says that in a few years time we'll have destroyed your cultures. Destroy your national identities, your way of life.""Why would that be a fear? All identities are destroyed. Look at your people, are you not our descendants?"Ashley smiled at that, "I've been feeling the same way. I kind of forgot that you don't have nation states here.""Nation states?""Sorry if my Greek isn't that good, or if the concept is foreign to you. It's nothing you have to worry about."☜-------------------------------------------------☞His knife was steady, cutting away the flesh that may be corrupted as his sutures bring the skin to a close. His oil was hot as dragonfire, it fused the skin that way, holding in the blood. Blood… blood! He thought to let blood and prepared his leeches thusly. This was his first real surgery, but it seemed like a good idea to let some blood out. Maybe to help with the bleeding, though he had just cauterized the wound.The blood began to stop gushing out of the cut. And the wounded began to return to the world of the living. He clenched his teeth in pain and sat up then addressed Alexander, "Thank you. I would have died if you hadn't been there."Alexander replied, "I'm sorry I can't do more. You'd be much better off in a future hospital-"The wounded cut him off, "No, no. I respect your culture. You're just as good a surgeon as ours, maybe better." It was clear he was lying. The tone of voice he used was like that one would use with a child. "I'm very sorry if anything I am doing would go against your customs."Alexander replied, slightly confused, "No worries about that sir. Do you wish to tell me your name?"The wounded replied, "Aaron. And what may yours be?""Alexander." The two shook hands. Alexander said, "I assume you'll be staying with us.""Oh no, I have to get on my way.""Sorry, but you cannot get back to the future like you are now. And it would be disregarding my hospitality to let you attempt to."Aaron obliged, "Oh, I would not want to disrespect your tradition. We'll stay here for as long as you want. I'm sorry if my daughter isn't respecting your culture, she can be inappropriate to you people." If Alexander was a worse person it wouldn't be good to say that, but it seems Aaron assumed the best.Alexander thought to himself, I don't think she's the one who isn't respecting us.☜-------------------------------------------------☞Alexander and Sophia prepared a meal for their new guests. They prepared some fish that they had gotten from the market. It wouldn't be what the future folk were used to, but it may be enough to fill their bellies.Sophia set the table for Alexander, Aaron and Ashley. She hadn't cooked for four in a long time. Her father was always out with his caravan and she hadn't gotten guests since who knows when.After Sophia set the table Aaron stated, "I am vegetarian, but to respect your local customs I will oblige in eating it."Sophia asked, "What may that mean?"Aaron replied, "It means I do not partake in eating meat.""Then it's good that this isn't meat, its fish."Aaron tried to seem polite, "I will accept your definition of that as correct, even if it is not mine."Ashley rolled her eyes. Alexander then joked, "We have that here, we call them peasants."Ashley broke her reserved demeanor and began to laugh. Aaron scolded her, "Don't laugh at their beliefs", he didn't seem to have realized that what Alexander said was a joke.After a few odd moments of silence Ashley asked, "How old are you both?"Alexander replied, "I am sixteen years old and my dear sister is fourteen years old."Ashley was surprised, she must have expected them to be much older than they were, "I can't believe you're really that young, I'm fifteen, how am I older than Sophia? God, you guys shouldn't be living like this, you should be going to highschool and worrying about, like, homework or your first crushes or something, not living out here struggling to survive!"If Alexander and Sophia's father had heard one of them say something like that he would have brought down hell upon them. But the future man showed himself less direct, "You shouldn't say things like that around them, you might offend their sensibilities. They shouldn't be living like we do, that's a colonialist attitude, they are living in their traditional Byzantine way of life. We shouldn't expect or want them to be like us."Alexander replied, "I would honestly much rather be living like you two do."Aaron replied in a voice one would use when speaking to a child, "Oh, don't say that, your way of life is sacred to you."Alexander came close to drawing his sword, "Do not tell me what is or isn't sacred to me in my own home! By God's blood this is my own house and you shall not insult me here."☜-------------------------------------------------☞The future folk went up to the room where they were staying. It had been known that they would not want to stay together due to the future custom of only couples sleeping in the same room, but it's the best they had.Alexander put his ear to the door, there was some noise coming from the guest room. He could hear Ashley's voice say something, "...They aren't something to be hidden away from the modern world, we need to use our resources to help them, they may look different but they are the same humans as we are… What do you think it would be like if I was born here, do you know what they'd do to me, what they do to people like me..."After a few moments he could hear a muffled replay from Aaron. Then Ashley stormed out of the room seeming offended, she told Alexander, "I'll be sleeping with Sophia- sleeping in Sophia's room tonight."☜-------------------------------------------------☞Ashley opened Sophia's door that night. Ashley was surprised, she hadn't had something like this happen before. It's not like it was a man coming into her room, her virginity was not threatened, though she had heard of future folk having deviant relations that would have been forbidden by the church of 1101.Ashley seemed upset. She slept in clothing more revealing than Sophia had expected, it wouldn't be hard for one to imagine her naked. She was somehow more threatening like this, she was no longer just sitting meekly, now it was dark and her piercings were shimmering in the shadows. She was somehow both monstrous and beautiful like some eldren spirit or fey creature.Sophia asked, worried about the answer she'd receive, "Why are you here."Ashley replied, "I'm to sleep in your room tonight. Sleeping in the same room as my father was not a good idea."There was only one bed, but it was big enough to give them space. Sophia had been in the same room as other girl's before, but those were all girl's of her time, girl's with the expectations and traditions of her culture. Before this night the most exotic person she had even shared her house with was a Russian. And this barbarian was far more bizarre than a Russian.The two tried to be silent for a bit but soon it became awkward. Ashley asked Sophia, "What do you want to do with your life?"Sophia replied hesitantly, "I wish to marry into nobility."Ashley responded, "Why? You could do so much more. Would you really want to marry some stuffed up lord twice your age, would you want to wake up next to a face you do not love every day?""It doesn't always matter what I want, I need to think about my future child, and about my current family. That's just the way the world works."Ashley put her hand on Sophia's shoulder, it felt soft and gentle, "Not anymore. The future exists now. A new world exists now!""I have to do my duty in the society I live in, I can't just become you like… even if..."Ashley slid her hand down from Sophia's shoulder towards her chest, "Even if what?" Her touch was gentle yet strong, the type of touch Sophia wanted her future husband to show her.Sophia blushed, "I believe I know what you want from me, but it isn't allowed. Maybe for your people but not mine.""We are all one people, we are all human. If something is wrong it is wrong, culture shouldn't matter." Her eyes were like glistening stars of the unknown, her skin like morning snow, her body made Sophia wish to go against all she had known to be holy.Sophia rolled over, "I'm sorry. Some things can't happen, at least not tonight."☜-------------------------------------------------☞The future folk left the next day. Aaron was to return to his home in the city of New York with his daughter. He wasn't happy about what happened that night, though he seemed to be accepting of it, nobody would know the future folk's law on such things, about any of what transpired. Alexander wished he had some more time to ask them of the future's wonder, but they were gone too early.☜-------------------------------------------------☞One night Alexander awoke to good news, his father had returned home from his caravan. His father looked different since when he had last seen him. He'd taken on the future style of dress, wearing the type of suit that future men were often wearing, he shaved his face as future men almost all did, and on his head he wore a wide brimmed hat from the future that kept the sun from his eyes. But he didn't look happy in any of it, he looked emotionally destroyed.It was nearly dawn when he had entered his home, and he fell to his knees as he did. Alexander was the first to greet him, once he had heard something he rushed downstairs, his sword at his hip in case the person downstairs was not his father.He almost thought it was not his father at first. He had changed so much, but when he saw the man's face he knew who it was.His father looked up at him, "Alexander? It has been nearly a year since I have seen you."Alexander replied, "Over a year.""It is so then.""Father? You seem upset.""Thebes.""Thebes?"His father smiled for a second before reverting back to his exhausted tone, "You really haven't heard? The future nation of Russia tried to make first direct contact with Thebes. A stray arrow from Thebes' guards hit one of Russia's men and they responded with a force unknown to our world. I was there when it happened, my entire supply of goods was ruined, I returned home without profit. The walls crumbled like children's blocks, it was like God had turned on us."Alexander was shocked, there was no way they could survive for much longer with a setback of this sort, "What are we to do now?""We will do what many others have done. We will move to the future. The nation of America has taken in many foreigners, we can have a better life there, maybe one better than even we had here before."☜-------------------------------------------------☞They packed in the morning, there was almost nothing to pack though. Alexander took his sword, some of his surgeon's tools and the clothes he would need. Alexander's father informed him that none of those would do him well in the future.Sophia was devastated when she heard they were moving, she always loved Constantinople, the high society, its bustling streets, she'd never see any of it again. Her father assured her that the future would contain cities twice as large and twice as civilized. But it wouldn't be Constantinople, it wouldn't be home.They traveled across the Balkan mountains, there would be passage to the future only through the kingdom of England, meaning it was needed to cross the Balkans. The mountains were hard terrain but shortly they joined a larger group of travelers headed to the future as well.☜-------------------------------------------------☞The mountains were frigid compared to the warmth of Constantinople. Alexander could be happy to have a cart to sleep in, he did not have to worry about his legs, many of the others were stuck walking. The mountains of the Balkans were desolate, rugged and unpleasant, their natural beauty killed by their difficulty to traverse.Sophia sat next to him, she looked out upon the barren landscape. It was a shame that they must travel in such bleak weather. Alexander put his hand on his sister's shoulder to comfort her, "Don't fear the future, the unknown is like the night's darkness, you'll think it hides nightmares but it hides the same world that the day reveals. The future is full of wonders, it's just our world with better technology so that people live better lives."Sophia replied, "It is not just fifty or a hundred years, it is nearly a thousand, they are as far away from us as the second century. It is like us interacting with the Pagans and Barbarians of that era. Their culture is not ours, you've seen them, their deviancy, their strange behavior. They have no love for God, they only know their own deviant desires. They are as the mythic Atlanteans were, decadent and self obsessed.""You don't know that, you do not know what standards they follow, what laws govern what to them is deviancy."Sophia spoke quietly, as to prevent her father from hearing, "Their women act as men, Ashley did at least. She almost turned me to sin. How would I live in such a dark and distorted world, one where I work as a man would, dress as a man would, I'll be forced to live the life of a man in the future."Alexander comforted her, "We do not know their customs when it comes to men and women, we cannot know what you may or may not be permitted to do.""How can we live somewhere you know nothing about?""We are all born to a world we know nothing about. The future holds technology beyond our wildest imagination, the lives that will be granted to us there are better than the ones we had before. Whatever you wanted for yourself in the past the future will give you a thousand times over."Sophia replied bitterly, "I wished to marry a gentleman in the world of the past. Now it seems I'm unlikely to marry at all. I'm to just degrade myself with any boy or girl who catches my fancy aren't I?"☜-------------------------------------------------☞Alexander was about to reply, but he was cut off, a sound rang out throughout the mountains. The first thing they heard was the voice, "Deus vult!", then came the fire, and a sound like a thunderstorm. Smoke and fire rose out of the earth like hell had been dug up. Bodies consumed in the nightmarish blaze of flame and ash, lives snuffed out, about half the travelers had been burnt to death, as if all the fire and ash from hell had chosen to smite them. It smelled of sulfur and death, death of a proportion and power none there had seen before.A few people from the party took the time to examine the area, though there was little time to waste. One traveler explained "The crusaders have turned their holy war to the future, they're adamant on destroying the 'deviant' nations of the future, and all those who wish to travel there. The weapon used must have been of the future, something similar to Greek fire, though the man that used it and any potential comrades have been destroyed by the fire, so it should be safe to travel on."The travelers continued their journey, there was nothing else to do. Their dead were but ashes, there was nothing to bury.☜-------------------------------------------------☞They continued across the mountains of the Balkans and into the forests of Germany. The German landscape was easier to cross, lush forests grew around them and the land was flat and temperate.Eventually a steel vessel came upon. Alexander's father explained to him, "This vehicle is a ship of the future, it may not look seaworthy but it is faster than any ship that you have seen in Byzantium, it can take us to Britain by the end of the night."Alexander knew to trust his father on matters of this sort. He had been closer to the future then anyone else Alexander had met, well except for Ashley or Aaron, but they weren't there so it did not matter. Plus, nobody from Alexander's time could build a ship of metal.After paying a toll the travelers were ferried to the British isles, and to the patch of land where time was distorted. They were assured by the ferrymen that this place would send them to the future, though the exact nature of how is unknown, the best idea would be to wander around or rest and hope that the future would meet them shortly.It was dark, Alexander's father had been right, the ship was fast. The travelers decided to sleep, the future may see them in the morning. If they were lucky enough they'd awake in the future.☜-------------------------------------------------☞That night Alexander dreamed of the future, of the massive cities of high iron towers, of the warriors with weapons of fire and thunder, the great universities and libraries. He wished to be a part of it, he was excited to be a part of it, to finally see the meeting of heaven and earth, where blackness and the night sky was blotted out by shining cities of infinite light.Sophia dreamed of horrors, of the noise and light of eldritch cities of steel, of the crusaders wielding new weapons with her new home as their target, the dark knowledge that god had forbidden. She saw only chaos in her path, fear consumed her mind, to step where earth had sunken into hell, and the stars were black as fiery cities had turned god's sky to darkness.☜-------------------------------------------------☞When they awoke there was no grass underneath them, they were on a floor of concrete. Futuristic soldiers watched them closely, they wore black armor that was a strange mix of metal and cloth with black glass covering their faces. It was like demons or phantoms were watching over them. A man in a blue suit in the futuristic style walked up to Alexander's father and spoke, first he tried old English, then old German, then finally he tried old Greek, "Are those your children." This world felt cold, alien, it was hard to even see their warriors as human, nor their structures are real.Alexander's father nodded his head. He was then brought back to a back room as Alexander and Sophia were then to wait outside. Eventually he came out and told his children, "We're free to go."Sophia asked, "And what would it mean if we are not free to go?"Her father replied, "It is better not to think of that. They allow all merchants and our kin through, I fear most of the commoners we traveled with will not see as lucky a fate."☜-------------------------------------------------☞They left the next morning, they took a boat similar to the one they had seen in the past, it was made of metal like the other one, but it was painted in blues and whites. It was a fast and sturdy ship, able to get them across an ocean in no time. The future men had no need to sail near islands, they needed not even sails.They came upon the city at night, its lights nearly shocked them, the stories were true, it outshined the stars. It was like seeing heaven's light, the yellowish white light was a more beautiful sight then any had ever seen. The steel towers were taller than they had imagined, like castles of giants shooting up from the ground. It is like they had reached up to heaven itself.When they entered the city they did not know what to do. A guide had gotten them good houses, he was assigned to them, but he barely told them anything other than where to go, he didn't speak Greek well.They were at the docks as they entered, it was bright, it didn't even feel like night, felt more like dusk. As they were led through the city they began to feel as if they had made a mistake, it was unimaginably large, thousands of uncaring souls walking by them, and howling iron monsters rushed through the center of the streets. Debauchery and degeneracy commonplace as well, women walked around nearly nude and signs and stores that would be called heresy in Byzantium surrounded them. Sophia asked, "Where are we to stay?"Her father replied, "I was able to buy a small apartment in the city the guide will lead us there. We will stay there. He will help us adjust after that."And, eventually, they came to their new apartment. At first Alexander and Sophia did not know what they were gazing upon. It looked like a stone tower. Alexander asked, "I see a tower, but I doubt we'll be inhabiting that?"His father laughed a bit then replied, "The apartment will be a small part of the tower, a few of its rooms."They went into the tower, the rooms inside looked like daylight, like as if they had put the sun in a bottle. Their father told them to step into a strange metal room, he then pressed a button and they began shooting up. Sophia screamed at first until she realized it was meant to do that.Alexander asked, "Most people in this building seem to be from our time? Why is that?"His father replied, "We must stay together for safety, I have heard the people do not take well to all of us coming here. Also, the government of the city likes to send us all to the same place. It is easier for all parties."☜-------------------------------------------------☞It was hard at first, everything they knew the world to be was gone. Their father spent the last of his money taking out a loan for a storefront. The people of the city had a taste for exotic meals, so anyone from the past who could cook well could make a living selling medieval cuisine. As a business venture it was definitely a step down, but it was the best they could manage after losing so much.Alexander and Sophia were to go to school the next year as autumn came in. But they still have a few months before that was to be done.☜-------------------------------------------------☞Alexander seemed to be socializing well with the other boys in the neighborhood, they had all come from the past as well. He was able to make himself at home better in the future then both his family members. And he tended to enjoy going out into the wider city and seeing the marvels of the future. Some things were easier to adapt to then others, ice in water was a favorite of many.Alexander was fascinated by the serpentine vehicles that slithered under the city. "Subways" they called them. He decided to start using them, he didn't actually have anywhere to go, but he enjoyed spending time with them.He was taking the subway on a new route, he wanted to see where this one would take him. Everyone could tell he wasn't from this century, he still wore a sword at his belt. Nobody looked at him twice, he was far from the only medieval person there.Alexander got off at a new station. This one was fairly large, large was good, many people, many new things. He looked to some boxes in a window that produced illusions, "televisions" they called them, he was always fascinated by them since he first saw one. This one was showing some sort of fight. From what he knew of American language one of the people was yelling "Get back to your own century."From what Alexander could tell someone was attacking a person from the past. He'd heard tales of native's hatred towards the men of the past. Hearing that they were discriminated against in some regions, though it seemed like it was mostly in the backwater south of this strange country. From what it seemed while New York was a great civilization, the southern regions of the country were little more than barbarians.It was rare for Alexander or his family to see much hatred from the natives. He just heard of it a lot. He honestly wished people would stop talking about it so much. Though he did know America elected its leaders, and he had heard that this new Bush fellow wished to become leader and he did not like the past folk much.He stepped inside the store that the illusion boxes were in. He wouldn't be able to afford one, but there might be other stuff there. The store sold many assorted items, many of them were based around the city, seemingly for travelers to use. Small depictions of the towers he had seen upon the skyline, or the great green statue he had seen in the water, or that strange banner that read "I 'heart' NY".He picked up a tiny statue he thought looked interesting, it was of one of the towers being scaled by an ape. There must have been some legend about it.He slid it over to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper told him "Ten dollars." The shopkeeper was a tall thin man, native to this time, a bit older than Alexander.It was a bit overpriced, but he liked it anyway, and slid over the money. Alexander was able to converse in English now, at least a bit, "You sell a lot of these small statues, what does the ape mean?"The shopkeeper smiled, "There's an old movie where a giant ape scales that tower." Alexander had some idea of what a movie was, he knew it was something like a play.Alexander replied, "Ah I see."The shopkeeper looked down at him, "Where did you move here from?"Alexander replied, "Constantinople." Anybody would know which one just from looking upon him."Ah, I see. How are you enjoying your time here?""Oh, New York is much better. I have learned more of the world than I ever thought there was to know. Constantinople is nothing more than a footnote compared to what I now know. I've seen so much, my old beliefs, garbage, it is like as if I had gotten knowledge from god himself."The shopkeeper replied, "Yes, that seems to be how it is. The world is much bigger than you must have thought it was. There is so much more to learn here, all the science and technology of thousands of years of history are here for you. It's certainly a step up from peasants and lords back in your time."Alexander smiled back at him. Suddenly someone rushed into the conversation, she was upper class for this city, whatever New York's version of a noblewoman was. She scolded the shopkeeper, "You shouldn't be insulting their culture like that, how would you like it if someone insulted your home like that? The people of the past are wiser than us, they live humble lives without the vanity of today." She then turned to Alexander, looked at him like one would to a child, "I'm sorry that man was so insensitive to your homeland…" she pulled out some money, the green kind that future folk used, "I know I could never repay the damages done to your people but here is some repayment from my people to yours."Alexander could call himself many things, but he was no beggar, he ran off, escaped the situation while he still had his honor and his ape statue.☜-------------------------------------------------☞Sophia looked out at the metallic skyline. She never learned most of the building's names, she remembered the empire state building. Something about the term 'empire' reminded her of home. The people of New York did not know most of the things she had known in the old century, they had no nobility, no grandiose places, no valiant horsemen, no princes who'd give flowers to ladies before they marched off to war. This place was a city of tall unfeeling towers, their warriors were dishonorable snipers, their monuments were that of steel and glass, their leaders shadowy and scheming.She didn't know what she would do with this strange life she had been handed. In this city she'd be from the past, but if she returned to Constantinople she'd be from the future. She would not be marrying any nobility here, the closest thing would be one of the shadowy oligarchs she'd seen images of, and even then it would do nothing for her family. She couldn't improve the status of her family, though she could advance through the system of wealth that this world had.She heard a ring of her doorbell, she still hadn't gotten used to the sound of this bell, it didn't sound real. She looked through the hole in her door, it looked like someone from this time period. She scanned the person's face for a moment before realizing who it was.It was her. Could it really be her? She remembered her name, Ashley. She looked somewhat the same, the same green eyes that shone like a summer's forest in the darkened hallway. Her hair was different from what it had been before, it was blue now, Sophia would never understand that girl's hair.The doorknob felt like fire in her hands. She wanted to just leave the door locked forever. But she couldn't.Sophia did not know what to think about this. She feared this strange woman as much as she wished to see her again. What would her life in this world be like now, what could this creature make of her? Was she supposed to lie with her like she would a man? If she acted like most of the women of the future world did she would be little more than a man. But this wasn't just a girl of this world, this was Ashley, this was someone Sophia knew.Ashley flashed her strange half smile, "Hello. It took a long time to find you. When I heard that you might have moved to the city I looked all over for you."Sophia replied, "What is it you wish to talk of." She tried to seem as medieval as she could.Ashley laughed, in Constantinople ladies did not laugh like that, though this was not Constantinople, "You know what I'm here to speak of. You know what happened that night. You remember sharing my room."Sophia could not reply. She wanted to say it was not allowed, but who was it not allowed by? Ashley put her finger on Sophia's lips, her hands were gentle, she possessed all the traits that Sophia would want in a husband, she wasn't in the body that Sophia expected, but she was beautiful in a strange and exotic way.It was like for once she was truly without the world, if only for a moment. Sophia didn't leave that night, she was of this city now and obeyed its laws. The future and past were no longer relevant, her eyes were not that of New York nor Constantinople nor any other city, her eyes were just eyes, her skin was just skin. If it was only a night they were together without the world around them.☜-------------------------------------------------☞The apartment was like a castle, but it was colder, it was mazelike. Alexander returned home to his friends, other medieval lads who had moved there with their families looking for work and leisure. There was Ode, a small boy of fifteen who had traveled from medieval England with his grandfather after the death of his mother. There was also Taki, a Dane of seventeen whose family had come hoping for work in America's army. They would have seen each other as foreigners in the past, but now they were all in one place, and they all felt like they were from one medieval world, one identity. Even those from beyond the lands of Christendom, the Mongols, Moors, and Persians were part of this new medieval identity too. They had all come from their own primitive world and entered this new utopia to seek a better life.Alexander rushed home, he had the ape statue in his hands, when he saw his friends on the street corner he pulled it out to show them, most of them hadn't left the medieval neighborhoods. They marveled at the intricacy and detail of the statue. Taki asked, "Did an ape really climb that tower?"Ode objected, "No, it must be from some sort of coat of arms."Alexander explained, "No, it's from something like a play. American's love their entertainment. I bought it at a store in one of the wealthy parts of the city."The boys seemed interested in that. Ode asked, "I've heard that the natives dislike us, you should be careful there, you're a commoner and foreigner."Alexander replied, "Everyone in the city is a commoner. We could be the city's elite if we work hard enough."Ode replied, "Yeah, but you don't see a lot of us folk at the tops of those big towers, do ya?"Taki added, "Do you really expect the king of America to have one of us in his court?"Alexander retorted, "We don't have a king, I learned that the hard way. The city elects its leaders, like they did in ancient Rome."Taki laughed, "You Byzantines are so obsessed with Rome. You're only a bit better then the Germans. Me and my father would have been guarding you prissy emperor if we hadn't decided to fight here instead.""I'm a byzantine no more. I'm an American now. We're here now, we must act as it."Ode objected, "I don't want to be an American, they're a deviant culture, godless heathens who cannot control their citizens. They lack any respect for society and culture. Any respect for the natural hierarchy of the world, forgoing the wisdom of nobility for mob rule. As we discussed earlier, they don't even have a king, they'd rather have men choose their leaders then god."Alexander retorted, "You've come here? What do you expect to be? You're living in America, I'd suggest being American."Suddenly they heard someone approaching from behind. They'd seen him before, he was a tall Englishman by the name of Willmot, they'd all seen him around the neighborhood but nobody actually talked to him. He put his hand on Alexander's shoulder, "You've forgotten who you are, little roman. You don't really want to become as twisted and evil as the folk of this land. But don't worry little roman, the crusaders have turned their holy war west. Soon they'll have a kingdom in this place. No more of this pagan democracy."Alexander jerked his body away, "I've seen what the crusaders really do, they set off a bomb in my caravan."Willmot grinned, "A caravan of cultural traitors.""If we were treasonous for coming here, then why do you stand where you stand.""Oh, I have my reasons." He had a mace at his side. Alexander was starting to have an idea of who this person was. Alexander wanted to pull out his sword, to duel him in the streets, but his will was strong and his arms were tired. He left, saw where the situation was going.☜-------------------------------------------------☞Sophia's head was resting upon Ashley's shoulder, Sophia wasn't sure what to do now. She had never been with a woman before, outside her mind she had never been with anyone, what was she meant to do afterwards. Her view of Ashley's body shifted from that of the affectionate, to the anatomical, she began to notice how hairless she was, how pale her skin was, her perception shifted from that of lust to that of fear.Sophia began to realize how bad this was, this would be considered an abomination against god. What would her family think? She might be safe within the city though, it was known that the city had no laws on moral issues lesser then murder or theft. Sophia wished she'd been born an American, she'd know a freedom she could never know, even in New York she still was living with those of her time.Her emotions were not tied to her heritage. The way she saw Ashley's body, the feeling in her blood, the love and lust she felt when they were together, that was not something affected by the circumstances of her birth.Suddenly she heard a knocking on the door, whoever this was it wasn't someone to use the doorbell. Ashley got up first, she seemed to recognize the knock. She rushed to be somewhat dressed before answering the door.It was someone that Sophia recognized, Aaron. Thank god it wasn't someone from the past. Aaron seemed angry though, he spoke to Ashley sternly, "Why are you here, I've been looking all over for you?"Ashley replied, "I was just visiting an old friend."Aaron looked around the room, "You're visiting someone from the past. And she's naked. I won't let you exploit this girl.""I'm not exploiting her, I love her.""She can't understand what she's doing, her culture doesn't understand what you're doing to her. You also can't just do something that goes against someone's culture, it's wrong to just disregard her beliefs like that."Ashley seemed angry, then she realized something, "You don't even know who she is do you? You've met her before, but she's not a person to you is she, nobody is."☜-------------------------------------------------☞Alexander was returning to his apartment, it wasn't good to be outside as the sun began to set, even in a city made of light. More and more past folk seemed to have sympathy for the crusaders.As he was rushing towards his apartment building he saw someone he recognized rushing the other way. It was Aaron, pulling his daughter somewhere. Alexander tried to be polite, "Aaron! Hello!"Aaron looked at him and handed him a slip of paper, "Here, if you need some social help." He then ran off.Alexander looked at the paper, it was a ticket of some sort, it read, "free admission to any class at the 92y for underprivileged youth." He pocketed it and ran towards his apartment.The apartment stairs felt infinite, they always did. Alexander never got into the habit of taking an elevator, never remembered to.☜-------------------------------------------------☞When he entered his apartment Sophia was weeping. She was tucked in a corner with a blanket over her back. Alexander rarely saw his sister upset, at the very least she was better at hiding it.Alexander asked her, "What's happened?"She batted him away, "You couldn't understand."Alexander tried to guess, "You saw Ashley and Aaron again today?""As I said you wouldn't understand."Alexander sighed, "I'm smarter than you think. You loved Ashley, did you not? You have no reason to fear me, we are in the city of the future now, you will not be punished. And even for our people, instances of cases like your own were common in ancient Greece, you will never have to fear me as long as you are my sister.""It isn't you whom I fear. It's not fear that plagues me brother. I thought that the future men were different.""Aaron was opposed?""He was opposed for he did not see me as Ashley's equal. We are not their equals. They say it's the south that hates us, but here they see us as children, they wish to protect us but they see us as lesser. The nobles of this city will back up the crusaders if they come for me."☜-------------------------------------------------☞No matter how condescending he was Alexander would still take advantage of Aaron's gift. He couldn't afford a class at the Y but he could get them with the gift. He chose a music class, he'd always liked music, well everyone likes music, but he'd always wanted to play an instrument.When he got there he was surprised on how clean the building was, Constantinople lacked the technology for cleaning, nobody cleaned his apartment or the streets or the subways. This place was strangely clean. Someone must have cleaned it more than anywhere else.Alexander entered a white room, he was early, everyone else had something to do. Soon enough a few others entered the room. An older man who he presumed to be the instructor told Alexander, "Hello, you must be the 'underprivileged youth' that Aaron talked about coming. We'll be waiting for a few minutes for more people to come."Alexander released his sword was at his belt, they must not allow that here, unsure he said, "I'm sorry about the sword, if you'd like me to-"The instructor interrupted him, "we wouldn't want to suppress your culture."It was often hard for Alexander to remember that he was visibly medieval. He had the same color skin as everyone else, the same eyes, the same hair, but he talked differently, his mannerisms, his dress (even when he tried to dress more modernly).Alexander decided to interact with some of the other students waiting for the class to start, he went up to a girl who looked like she was bored. He tried to be polite like the future folk would, "Hey, how's… life."She seemed startled at first, but when she realized who, or what, he was she became passive in her nature, the people of the city were told to be trusting of those from the past. She told him, "Life's good. We're actually here for a class."Alexander replied, "Yes, I'm taking it.""Oh, you do know that they're not going to be using your people's music…" The instructor looked at her sternly, "Not that's yours in any worse. You can probably play your… style if you want."She hadn't heard his style, hell he hadn't even heard his style yet. But the world only saw him as one of his people.The rest of the class only got worse, they were too afraid to teach him. It was pointless interacting with future folk, they'd never see him as human, they had all the mercy for him, but no respect. Their acceptance for the past folk was false, as they did not accept them as equals.☜-------------------------------------------------☞Alexander left, he'd paid no money thanks to Aaron, he had no reason to stay.The subway was delayed that night. Some crusader had stabbed five people with a sword. They don't let future folks have knives on the subway, but they never stopped Alexander with his sword, not when they heard his accent. To the common past folks the condensation of the future men was an insult if anything, but to the crusaders it was a shield, it was how they marched their holy war to the new century, nobody would be so offensive to question their motives so they were let to slaughter heretics of the future and past alike.But for Alexander it was just a train being held up, for most people that was all a stabbing was. And for many of the future folk that may be a sacrifice of tolerance, especially when the crusaders are more concerned with killing assimilated past folk then they are with killing future men.He thought of all he had seen on the ride home. Though of all he could do and couldn't do. All the free passes all the restriction, he wanted to slash all of it down, to take his sword and slay the eyes that saw him as the other. His culture told him things to, told him not to forgot from where he came, fuck culture he thought, every tradition, every rule, ever piece of his culture that effects me, fuck it, by gods blood fuck it all. Never did me any good. The Medieval was of swords and kings is gone, it is time for a new one.☜-------------------------------------------------☞There was a knocking at her door. Sophia hoped it would her brother, maybe her father, but it was far too early for either of them to be back. She had hoped it was Ashley, but the knocks were too fast, too strong.Sophia looked through the peephole, it was a tall man who she'd seen around the neighborhood before. There were a few other men behind him. Nervously she opened the door. The tall man walked in the room, and introduced himself, "Hello young maid, I am here to see the matter of a crime against our people. I am Sir Willmot of the isle of Manhattan."Sophia wanted to laugh, nobody had knighted this zealot, but she saw chainmail under his clothes and a mace by his side, one of the men at his side held a helm and shield for him. He was not a man to be taken lightly. Sophia replied to him respectfully, "If there has been a crime then best let the police deal with it-"Willmot cut her off, "It is not a crime those heretics have any desire to punish. We have seen a young girl of the future folk exit your apartment, we have gathered evidence from talking to the people of the building that she had slept with one from this home. If you know if it is your father or your brother you must tell us in the name of the Lord."Sophia asked, cowering away from the men at her door, "Will you hurt her?""The hore who exited this abode? She's not of our kind, we hold no sway over her. It is the one who has lived here who stands accused of pre marital sex and if confessed to be guilty shall suffer the punishment."They had to be talking about Ashley, who else could have it been. These men thought it was her brother or father who had slept with her, an assumption that could save Sophia's life. She could lie, throw her kin in front of herself, they'd confess to something they did not do to protect her. And no doubt she'd suffer worse consequences for lying with Ashley then her brother would. But Sophia could not bring herself to punish a member of her family to protect herself. She bowed her head, "It was me."Willmot laughed, "You want me to think it was you we saw exiting? The girl had pink hair.""That's not what I meant. I was the one to lay with her." Saying the words of her confession sent shame and guilt through Sophia's bones. She had committed a crime against nature, given into lust when thrust into a time filled with it.Willmot spoke with the authority of God, "You hereby stand accused of violating the law of your people and your god, for violating nature and giving into acts of lust with one of the same sex. How may you plead?""Guilty." She mumbled it at first, spoke again so that she may be heard, "I plead guilty."Justice was swift to these men, Willmot pulled the mace from his side. A million things rushed through Sophia's head, the streets of New York, the streets of Constantinople, the streets of ancient empires, the streets of nameless towns, towns of nameless streets, the mountains of her homeland, the blinding light of the future cities, Alexander and her playing when they were small, tea on a sunday morning, mass on a sunday morning, a thousand priests she'd seen, a thousand merchants she'd seen, a thousand passers by, young couples kissing, Ashley kissing her lips, Ashley's lips, Ashley...The Mace swung down upon Sophia's head with the force of justice. And justice was swift.☜-------------------------------------------------☞The police never came, they don't handle anything between past folk. They wouldn't want to disrespect their culture.
Escape from Eden Chapter One: Road to the Unknown ____________________________________________________________________________The air was dense in the dungeons of the Core. Flies and mosquitoes were even denser there then the rest of the city, and that's saying a lot. The smell could knock out a swarm of bats too. I guess dungeons don't have a lot of janitors. Maybe it was wrong to have dungeons, but what else could be done.As I was led down maze-like corridors of the dungeons I heard the prisoners and guards whisper of me, "If they're here there's something serious going on... What would they want in a place like this... Someone's done something really bad if they're here..." They only saw me for my profession, I was only "they" to them, no name graced my ears, maybe it was better that way.Eventually I was led to a door of iron and stone. One of the guards spoke to me, "What are you doing here? We don't usually see knights around here."I replied, "I was given orders by the Great Intelligences themselves to see the prisoner behind the door, you must know what the deal is with them."The guard replied, "We do not even know their name, but if a knight says they are meant to see them then they shall enter."The doors slid open and I saw a cage in the corner of a dark room, with some machinery next to it. A scientist was there, looking over the cage studying whoever was inside.I approached the cage to see what was inside. The creature who stared back at me made me gasp, it made me audibly gasp. It was like a human, almost human, but different, it's body was hairy, all over it's chest and arms, and on its face most of all. It's form was different too, much stronger than even a knight like me, its shoulders unnaturally broad, its jaw large and square. I turned to the scientist and asked, "What is this creature‽"Before the scientist could speak, the creature itself replied, its voice deep and distorted, "I am your past, and I shall be your future. I am man!"The scientist put their hand on my shoulder, "Before the child mills, humans carved out new children within their bodies using strange organs. This... being is somehow related to that. This creature was once a respected professor, who took some sort of hormone associated with that process of reproduction turning them into that thing."I looked into the scientist's eyes, then the creature's. Could any human truly become like this thing, and at one point did they all? The idea of a civilization of those things was almost too hard to entertain. "Man" they called it, not human but just man, even the word sounded primitive. What would I even report? Why was I even sent here? I almost felt sorry for it, like a rat in a cage.____________________________________________________________________________The encounter came to nothing. We didn't actually end up gaining anything from my reports. Just that the creature existed, that it was created by long removed hormones. Eventually I returned to my quarters. Through the spotless halls of the Core. The marble corridors guiding me back to my home. I lived, at the time, in the palace of wyte, with the other knights. When returning I made my way to my bed in order to get some rest. I was interrupted by my coworker Delmen, they held a silver pistol at their side and wore a long black coat that day. They spoke to me, "So, you've seen the creature. They took me in to see it the other day."I responded, "Why would they send multiple knights in to see the same thing, then report on it with no progress."Delmen thought for a second then responded, "They might not be sending us in order to study it, they might be studying our reaction to it. I know I've said things like this before but something is going on."I wondered for a second if what Delmen had said was true, then I asked them, "This creature, it is said to be what some past humans looked like in order to reproduce? Do you know anything about this?"Delmen replied, "Yes, a bit. Maybe a bit more than I should. Long before humanity went to the Core in order to avoid the monsters of the surface. Long before humans were grown in the child mills. Long before anyone alive today was alive. Humans were split into two… segments, one was called 'man', it was the creature you saw, it was some sort of living syringe. The other segment was called 'woman', we have even less evidence of them, they were said to be able to create a human within themselves, after the 'man' creature injects them."I asked, "Anything else? Have you researched any details?"Delmen responded, "Very little. Most if not all history from that time has been made confidential, this is just what I got from some amature anthropology, looking at scraps of media from that long gone past. The actual process of creating humans within humans, and the organs used to do so, they're something that humans were very shy about. But I do know one thing, humans who reproduced with each other, and even more so the humans they created, were bonded to each other in a weird way, they cared about each other more than their nation, more than themselves, more than their ideology. There's a reason those societies aren't something we are taught about, there's a reason even I, a knight cannot find out much about them. That bond, what ancient humans called 'family', was dangerous."The final thing I asked was, "But any trace of these segments and the ability to reproduce this way are removed fully. A true restoration would be impossible?"Delmen replied, "Don't worry, no modern human can be 'man' or 'women', those parts are removed in gestation nowadays. The creature you saw in the dungeons was only a cheap mockery of what a man once was. It lacked reproductive organs, it may have been horrifying but it was toothless."____________________________________________________________________________Eventually I returned to my knightly duties. Part of me wished I was assigned to the surface, to fight the half human half machine monsters said to inhabit it. But I knew my destiny was irrelevant to the greater good of humanity. I was a knight, my goal was to defend to Core, humanity's last home. If I was stuck defending threats within the city that was my duty. A few days after seeing (and mostly dismissing) the creature in the dungeon, I was assigned to investigate reports of what seemed to be either a child stolen from an academy or a child illegally created. The report was in the lower section of the Core city, where crime and degeneracy was more common. For some reason I was assigned body armor, a helmet, and a firearm for the inspection. Never before had I been sent any arms or armor to inspect something of this sort. But I knew it wouldn't be good to question such things.I was lowered through the city. Past the barracks between the city and the surface. Past the central halls with its shops and halls of marble. Into the ghettos before the abyss, where most civilian conflicts tend to break out. I came to a small home. It was but a hole in the wall. If someone Bricked off the door nobody would think someone lived there, it would just look like wall.I knocked on the door and a person in an apron and some leather robes came to answer. They took off their hat to greet me. They said, "Greetings knight. It is rare to see one of your kind here." I replied formally, "I'm here investigating the report of a unregistered child. If one is here they should be living at a school."The person fiddled around their apron and pulled a card, "Here, I have an apprenticeship license. I'm a technician and I'm training the child."I asked the technician, "What's the child's name?""Pandora""Strange name? Can I see them."The technician brought out a skinny child who I assumed was Pandora. The child seemed afraid, almost embarrassed. Pandora was a young teenager, maybe younger. Their face wasn't particularly ugly but it was covered in red marks, little bumps, a skin filled with fluid. They also seemed to be embarrassed of something on their chest, though they were wearing a large coat that hid it.Pandora was afraid to speak at first. For a second I feared they would speak with the same deep voice I've heard from that creature. But when they spoke their voice was high and even a bit pretty, they said, "Hello, some neighbors complained about me. I'm just an apprentice, nothing to worry about."I sternly asked them, "Is that thing diseased‽"The technician replied, "They're fine. They may not have been the mill's best work but they're normal enough not to be cast into the abyss."I replied, "Then I'd like to inspect them, without the coat." I knew I'd see something horrifying if I did, Pandora would have reproductive organs, some sort of horrific injector or living child mill was under that coat, something terrible I had never laid eyes on before.The technician replied, "I know my rights. If they're without a coat you'll have to remove your body armor. Any inspection must be between equals in equipment."They were right, if I was brave I'd take the risk, take a risk that every citizen must. But I didn't want to be shot in the back, nor did I feel it would be of service to the Core for me to die. After considering it I said, "I'll feel them for severe mutations... but I'll feel them through to coat."Pandora's reaction to being felt was odd. They seemed extremely uncomfortable and ashamed to be felt for mutations, even as routine as it was. Their fat distribution was strange, like nothing I've seen before. It seemed like their chest was developing growths around the nipples. At least I understood their shame about that. I could even feel some tufts of hairs growing under the arms. But there was nothing I could find that was serious.I threw the child to the ground, they were crying. I'd never seen anyone cry from an inspection before. I told the technician, "They're fine, ugly but fine. Tell them to be brave, you're their master, teach them to be a bit less weak." Before I left I asked, "How old are they? I might need to know."The technician replied, "Fourteen, could be fifteen, could be thirteen. I do not know." they handed me a photo of what looked like a normal child, "This is what Pandora looked like a few years back. They were normal once, I wish they still were."I turned back before leaving, "You're getting too attached. Don't!"____________________________________________________________________________I returned to the palace. The walls of blue and black surrounded me. A soft piano played against the murmurs of the crowds. Over all of it the high commander of the knights was giving a speech, "Your selfish life is not worth more than the collective good... You must learn to overcome your desires to overcome evil...You must learn to die for what is right…" It didn't fit with the pianist or the crowd, like a movie's climax playing in the background of its opening.When I was back in our apartments I looked to see if Delmen was there. But soon I noticed that their apartment was empty not only of themself, but that their furniture was gone, everything they owned was gone. After asking where Delmen was at the front desk I was informed that Delmen was gone. I didn't get any further information on them. But usually when someone is just gone like that they never come back. Well, sucks for them, I never knew them enough to care.____________________________________________________________________________I was sent into my commanding officer's office that morning. I was shown some security footage, it was what must have been the home of Pandora and the technician. Pandora wasn't visible but the technician was. They were talking to someone I hadn't seen before, someone in black robes.Through the grainy footage I could hear the technician say, "We ran into some issues today, a knight came to my door but we got them to leave."The stranger in black replied, "Do they suspect anything?"The technician thought for a bit and then spoke, "No, they just think Pandora is diseased. But that brings up the issue. They've become less… human."The stranger corrected them, "They look more human than you or me. We're the real freaks."The technician became a bit stressed, "Who cares‽ I can't deal with this! Pandora is experiencing bodily… processes that I just can't predict. Early on it was easy, the reproductive organs were barely noticeable and they otherwise looked normal as a young child. But recently Pandora has been… transforming. I've gotten those lumps on the chest removed right after the knight visited, but there's nothing I can do about the marks on their face."The stranger became angry, they pressed themself against the technician and started yelling angrily, "You lay a hand on Pandora again and I will make you wish for death! You mutilated them! I should have been more clear when I told you not to remove anything.""You… you told me not to remove their reproductive organs! And in the last report you told me that those lumps were not for reproducing, that they just produced milk. Making them look more like... us protects them."The stranger dropped the technician, "Well be it then, it's not like anyone will care. As long as Pandora is fertile. In general have things been normal?""No!" the technician screamed, "Nothing has been normal. I don't understand how Pandora is or should be developing. They've become squeamish and shy, but at the same time they've become overly affectionate with youth their own age. Their reproductive organs have begun to pulsate and bleed on and off, how worried should I be worried about that?""No, you shouldn't be worried about any of that, that just means that Pandora is healthy, and now they're even fertile.""Normal! Normal! That's fucking normal for them! What kind of cosmic horror was I assigned‽"The stranger in black became angry, "Pandora is not some sort of cosmic horror! Pandora is the future! They, she will be the savior of humanity. Pandora will bring us a better future, Pandora will make the future the past and the past the future and repair this broken world… If you cannot protect her then I will…"The footage began to fade after that. I was still shocked. At what I had seen. Pandora wasn't only a woman like I had feared, they were fertile, they could create a human being inside them at any moment. And the pronouns that the stranger used for then "her" and "she", were they some sort of symbol of royalty or holiness?My commander spoke to me, "They are part of an organization that we had been tracking for awhile; The Fruit of Knowledge. Apparently they're trying to restore the ancient form of reproduction. Until recently we didn't know much about them other than their vague goal of restoring the old ways, and that their symbol was a snake and an apple. But we know more now, they created Pandora and put them with the technician in order to hide them until they were ready."I asked my commander, "Ready for what.""To meet with another, maybe a group of them. A man their own age that has been hidden in the abyss that would give them a child and begin a generation of creatures like themself that will slowly take over society. Reduce us to our primitive ancestors! After Pandora's children are grown more fertile children will be created and put in the core to breed a third generation, and after that the Fruit of Knowledge will overthrow the core using this ancient race.." My commanding officer handed me a helmet with a communicator, a pistol and an axe, "Go to the technician's home, and save the world."____________________________________________________________________________Again I was lowered down into the slums. My commanding officer listening to me the entire time. Slowly I crept down into the house that I knew Pandora to live in.I knocked on the door, it felt heavy in my hand. Like it was made of stone. The technician answered the door, "Ah, hello again. Me and Pandora were just talking about you."I tore away their welcoming tone, "The woman child, you have it!""You won't lay a finger on Pandora. They are the savior of humanity." The technician grabbed a hammer and pointed it at me threateningly.I raised my pistol, "Strike me once and both you and Pandora will be obliterated. Let me in and you might both live. We just need to destroy the organs, the child is of no significance to us."The technician tried to strike me. They were amateurish. Missed badly. It took one shot to the head to end the technician's life. There wasn't much blood, it was a quick death.I walked in to see Pandora cowering in a corner. They were afraid. I wondered why they had to do that to a child, Pandora never chose to be "the savior of humanity" whatever that means. They could have been a productive member of society, maybe they could be once the reproductive organs were taken out.I used the calmest voice I knew, "Pandora, we're here to help you. Some terrible people tried to ruin your body, but if you come with us we can help you. We can fix you and make you normal."Pandora shrunk back and rejected me, "They told me what you'll do to me. I know my body and I don't want you to take it away."I extended my hand, "We'll make you like everyone else, and everyone else will like you. Don't you want that?"Pandora replied, "I'm healthier than everyone else, my master said if everyone else soiled themselves that they would mock the only person who is clean.""Those people are trying to use you, please just come with me and you'll be happier."My commanding officer buzzed in, "Can't you see it is too late, Pandora's body has begun to transform, they can not be saved. We gave you an axe for a reason."For a moment I raised my axe. I spoke to Pandora as mercifully as I could, "I'm sorry child. Don't worry, this isn't because of what you said to me."Pandora's soft grey eyes looked at me with fear and confusion, they hadn't done anything, they didn't even really know why this was happening. I could see the dread in those trembling eyes. Their lips trembled, almost saying something but not wasting the world. My axe fell towards them with strength and valor. But I stopped, I couldn't do it. Only a single hair was cut from their head. Panicking, I turned off my communicator so that nobody could hear me, (they break all the time so it wouldn't surprise my commanding officer). I shouted to Pandora, "Run!"Pandora looked at me for a second, "Where?""Anywhere, anywhere you can survive, the mills, sweatshops, the stations, anywhere."Pandora scampered away, she ran like a rat from a flame. Soon enough they were out of sight, and hopefully safe. Safer at least.I turned the communicator back on and spoke to my commanding officer, "The kid's fast. They got away. There's no knowing where to."____________________________________________________________________________When I returned to the upper parts of the Core there was a large panic. Everyone was afraid. They had received the news hadn't they?The high commander of the knights was giving a speech, and this time everyone was listening, "The creature will want to do things to you that none could imagine. It will commit strange and perverse rituals to create unwanted children, and use them to bring down our city. It's face is red with vile marks, and its body is broken and animalistic! We know little of its behavior or mechanisms, but we know it must be dangerous, and we know we can stop it. Though from what we know it may have ten times the constitution, strength and Dexterity of a normal human."I ran back to the palace, and bowed to my commanding officer, they gestured for me to stand and spoke to me, "You shouldn't be here, the woman child is reported to have crept down to the mills."I asked, "Did it seem like they plan to stay there or go farther down.""Let's assume it's in the mills, the abyss will take care of the situation four out of five times, if the mutants rip the child apart or even accept it the problem is the mutant's now.""So I should head to the mills.""That's the idea, backup is behind you.""Any chance the child could live.""No, as we've discussed, the hormones have changed its mind and body too much. It's best for its sake to put it out of its misery."____________________________________________________________________________The mills smelled of chemicals. A thousand people must have been working there, rushing in and out, from one room to another. And a thousand more must have been grown there, countless wombs lined the walls, hulking contraptions of steel and glass, each one housing the smallest of humans inside, humans that would one day be walking and talking, humans that would give something to society, to make the world a better place. How could Pandora even have something like one of these machines inside of them? It must have been more advanced than the technological wombs.Why did I spare their life? One strike of my axe and I'd have saved the world. I don't like to believe that anyone is too far gone, they were still a citizen of the Core, the womb inside them could be removed. I couldn't bring myself to hurt a cowering child? I would bring Pandora as a prisoner, reform them that way before they transform more?I made my way to the reject pit, where mutant newborns crawled ready to be cast into the abyss to be raised by their own kind. Even the mutants weren't to be killed, they were children of the Core. I spotted Pandora from across the pit, they were banging their fists against the walls, trying to get out.I yelled to them, "I'm not here to help you- To hurt you, I meant to say hurt. I can get you help, I can get you out of this pit."Suddenly the floor began to fall, it got steeper and steeper as the newborns fell past us. I held on to Pandora shielding them from harm as we fell.When I could make out my surroundings again everything was dark, I lit my lighter to reveal Pandora under me but there weren't any nearby walls. We were in the abyss.____________________________________________________________________________Chapter Two: a Flame in the Shadows____________________________________________________________________________Pandora scrambled out from under me, they brushed debri off of themself and then shrunk down to try to cover their distorted body. I told them, "Don't bother hiding yourself, it doesn't help."We couldn't see our surroundings, but I could smell ash and rotten blood in the air, and feel the humidity of the abyss on my skin.Pandora tried to run away from me, I grabbed them by the collar and told them, "Don't try to get away from me, we're in the abyss, if you wander through here alone you're dead."Pandora replied, "They told me where to go, they told me that my husband was waiting for me here, they gave me directions."I responded, "Husband, what is that?""A human man, not one I've met before but one that the fruit of knowledge told me about, they said that they'd create children with me, whom we would raise together and alone like people did in the past. They said that by the time our children were grown they'd have seeded more people like us in the Core so that they could be the husbands and wives of our offspring.""Ignoring the many horrifyingly wrong things in that statement can we focus on the fact that the abyss is filled with outlaws and mutants that would gladly rip you to shreds, wherever you're going you need me. And the great intelligences don't plan for you to become a living womb to someone you've never met in the depths of the abyss.""What would they have me be doing, working myself to death in a sweatshop? Fighting senselessly on the surface-"I cut Pandora off "Working for the greater good of humanity!""I don't want to just serve humanity, I want to live a life for myself. And even if I can't the children I create will do better for the Core then I would ever as a knight or a worker, even as a scholar or lawmaker I wouldn't be doing as much good as I could down here. Plus you can't even get to the surface right now.""You're right on the last part, we need a guide to help us get anywhere. But first let's find a wall, the corridors of the abyss are safer then the big open spaces."We walked forward until we found a wall, then we walked across the wall until we found a door, then we wandered into the abyss in search of a guide, with only each other for company and only ourselves for guidance.____________________________________________________________________________"Rook two to E3. Check, I think.""Ruler to D5.""You can't go there.""Why?""Because you have a piece there.""Look, I don't think this is possible. I can't play this game without a board to look at.""We've been walking for hours, we need something to entertain us."It was true we had been walking for hours, and we did have very little to entertain ourselves. The corridors of the abyss were dark and unpleasant. Many of them were so ancient nobody knew what their purpose ever was. Unfinished walls, pipes and wires and other industrial things were exposed. In general it was a very unpleasant place. Plus you alway had to look behind your back every moment, wondering if there was anything looking to chop you in half. Suddenly we heard some scampering, Pandora hid behind me. I pulled my pistol and shot in the direction until my gun was empty. I looked over to see what I had shot at; rats, I had shot rats, wasted every bullet on them. At first we were horrified, and Pandora snickered, "You definitely got that rat."I slapped Pandora, before realizing that even as an untrained kid they were stronger than me. Their bones were denser than mine, I'm a knight and their bones were denser than mine. Was this red marked monster really healthier than me?I asked Pandora in curiosity, "Take off your coat, it's hot down here."Pandora replied, "I'd rather not, I just got those lumps removed.""Then you look human." I pulled the coat off their back, they wore a tight sleeveless shirt under it. They were slim and dexterous, and slightly strong. They looked like they could be a good acrobat. And based on what I had seen in the dungeon they would have been stronger if they were a male. I asked them, I asked her, "How does it feel… to have a body like yours?"Pandora thought for a second, "Once I transformed everything.. Changed. My body was physically superior, but I wanted to run and jump less, even though I was less clumsy and physically superior my skin started to degrade. I got these red marks and… oily."I asked, "Did you feel different... In terms of how you acted."Pandora replied, "It's weird, I cried less, I got scared less…" I thought to myself Ah, a psychopath "... But I also got more embarrassed, felt more shame..." good I thought you should "And I felt more empathy, I cared more about other humans and their feelings, I was more socially conscious, I stopped playing with toys and started caring more about my friends... and that meant I lost my friends. Then there were… the urges, the desire to… to do something... But I don't really want to talk of that..."Of all the things that I'd expect from that thing, empathy isn't one of them. I asked, "Does it hurt? You know to…""No, none of it hurts, physically.""Even the organs? It must hurt to touch them at least?"Pandora just snickered to that. I gave them another slap.____________________________________________________________________________Suddenly something grabbed me from my back. It was some mutant, I couldn't make out it's deformed shape from the shadows. But I saw in its hands the gleam of knobbed mace. Pandora screamed at the sight of it, and ran to the walls, "What is that thing‽"I replied, "It's a mutant, a human that was not sufficient for the Core due to womb error, they're cast into the abyss but many survive."I tried to shoot it, forgot I was out of bullets, I threw the gun in its face, then swung my axe down on it until it stopped moving. Pandora asked frantically, "It's dead? Is it dead."I replied, "Yeah, axes tend to do that to you- to the general you. You should pick up the mace you'll find it quite useful out here."Pandora asked, "Do you think I'm strong enough to?"Pandora was stronger then the mutant by god the kid is stronger than me. I thought it better not to tell, "Maybe you're right you shouldn't be handling weapons right now."We moved to a nice place to make camp, I didn't have a gun anymore but at least I had an axe.____________________________________________________________________________We made our way to a small room that looked like it hadn't been inhabited for over a hundred years. They looked military, some sort of barracks, some nice cots for sleeping. Pandora pointed out a poster on the wall, it was of two figures standing together, one holding a baby, the other not holding a baby. The one with the baby wore some sort of robe and had their hair worn long. The one not holding a baby had grey hair on their face and held themself in a dignified position with a cane and suit. Text was written above it, "Fight for a better world for them! Fight to protect them!"I commented, "It's some sort of propaganda from days long gone."Pandora replied, "It feels closer to another world. A world that maybe we could see again. Could that person with the child one day be be, could this one day be us? And could it be here now on some forgotten shore?"I could hear the excitement in Pandora's voice. And I could feel my axe in my hands, that sense of duty, that sense that I had to save the world. The thought of what Pandora would do to the world if I let them live. And the look of wonder in their eyes, the look I couldn't just snuff out.I talked to take my mind off my strong desire to do something about Pandora, "Some of these costs will still be good for sleeping and we shouldn't be wearing these clothes asleep, it's too hot down here."Pandora replied, "I'd much prefer to keep at least my pants on. I always feel uncomfortable without much clothing on."I asked, "Why? It's fine if you want to stay clothed but why?""I don't know, it just feels… inappropriate."Maybe it is, you have some sort of eldritch body horror between your legs. "Ok, you do you."We then set up some defenses to keep our zone safe. Some curtains to make it look like our cot wasn't there.____________________________________________________________________________When I woke up Pandora wasn't there. Quickly I donned my armor and uniform and searched for some sign of them. I found a small note that stated, "We have the kid, if you want them back visit us at this location." And under the note a crude map was drawn.It couldn't have been mutants, mutants would have just passed us by thanks to the curtain. These were the actions of outlaws. Smugglers, thieves and other criminals who fled to the abyss to escape punishment, the knights mostly left them alone as smuggling was important to the Core's economy.After getting dressed I made my way to where the map showed me. The corridors I traveled through were maze-like and confusing but the map showed me at least where I should be.____________________________________________________________________________Finally I got to an outpost of some sort. I could hear some music from inside, and see lights through the windows. It was nice to go somewhere where there was actual light and not just my lighter.I slowly creeped inside. It was some sort of bar, probably selling unregistered drinks. Surrounding me were outlaws drinking and gambling. They looked at me at first but they didn't care much, went back to their games. The bar was made mostly of bricks, and looked like it had been a bathroom and shower in the ancient times, though that wouldn't explain the partitions and divisions that would have hidden the toilets and showers that once were there behind metal doors. Either way it was a bar now, with tables and chairs set up and a large counter set up where a barrier had collapsed. There were a lot of people there, drinking, joking and gambling with each other, criminals, every one of them.In the back of the room where broken skins lay there was a hooded figure with a guitar, gently stroking their strings. They looked at me with introspective eyes. They spoke, "Ah, the knight, we were expecting you."I replied, "Why do you think I'm a knight?"The guitarist stepped down from their pedestal, "Well, you dress like a knight. You act like a knight. You seem to protect the woman child, and us outlaws know a bit too much to let that monster persist. Come back with me and we shall discuss the creature's fate."____________________________________________________________________________Chapter Three: the Last Girl____________________________________________________________________________The guitarist led me to a room in the back of the bar, they spoke, "We have a woman child. But we won't let you have her."I asked, "Her?"The Guitarist answered, "She and her were singular pronouns that replaced they and them for women.""I've heard Pandora called that, never knew what they meant.""It's sickening isn't it, I've done jobs for the fruit of knowledge, I know too much now."I asked, "What do you know about it? I know the basics?"The guitarist grimaced, "You know too little if you're protecting the woman child. I've seen images of that society, of that... biological process. She'll create a brood of her own clones, she'll care more about them then she should. She'll care more about her spawn and mate then about the collective good. And if everyone is like that, what would happen to the city‽""Says the smuggler.""How old are you?""Eighteen, though I'll be nineteen shortly. Why do you ask?""You're young, you'll learn things soon, I'm a guide, I do my best for the city, even when the great intelligences disagree. I've seen what men and women did… what they might one day do again, I've seen images, even videos of how they created children! And the degeneration of society that came with it, Pandora will be obsessed with the act if she's allowed to continue, the perverted desires will overtake her, she'll wish to do nothing but degenerate acts of pleasure and protect her spawn. You know we cannot see that on a societal level, not again.""Then why did you call me here."Pandora was brought out, their hands in chains and their feet bound. The guitarist spoke, "I'm not sure if she should be killed, maybe she can just be fixed, if you help us figure out her anatomy. You'll have to pay for her life though, the Core wants her dead and they'll pay good money for that."I said, "I'll pay for Pandora's freedom but they'll only be sterilized if they want to be."The guitarist replied sternly, "You don't understand the disgusting degeneracy she'll commit. The Fruit of knowledge talks about love, but do you know what that love is, do you know what that love physically entails.""It doesn't matter how disgusted we are by it, it's Pandora's life, they can do what they want." I pulled out my axe and dropped it towards the guitarist, they dogged and pulled out a knifeBefore anything else was done Pandora yelled out, "Stop! I have a solution you'll all be happy with." The guitarist said, "What solution would you like that wouldn't be bad for all of us?"Pandora replied, "While the idea of removing my reproductive organs may seem good for you it's something I would very much not like you to do, and unfortunately for you that's not something the Fruit of Knowledge wants either."The guitarist stated, "I don't care about what the Fruit of Knowledge wants, I have no association with them.""But what about if I'm able to reproduce, the fruit of knowledge would reward you much more handsomely for that then the Core might for my corpse. If you were to be my guide in the abyss then it's likely you'd be hailed as a hero by the Fruit of Knowledge, and after I reproduce I'd likely be their leader, I could give you a high ranking position and a well paying one."The guitarist unlocked Pandora's chains.____________________________________________________________________________Lucky the guitarist had a better light than my lighter. We made camp again in a dead end hallway, now with a guitarist guiding us to where they thought the Fruit of Knowledge likely was. The guitarist played a soothing song and sung of forgotten dreams and shattered memories, "The rains shall fall through their highest towers, and winds may howl through the streets. Yet only demons hear, may only demons hear".Pandora lied next to me, they were more willing to remove clothing to deal with heat. Maybe it was somehow easier with the guitarist around. I asked Pandora, "Should I be calling you 'she', now? I've heard it’s what should be used for women."Pandora replied, "I honestly couldn't say. I've still been raised in the Core so I'm still used to 'them', even if my anatomy would say otherwise. The guitarist calls me she, though they only see me as my role as a woman, not really as a person. The guitarist honestly scares me, I should sleep near you tonight."Pandora slept close to me that night. Closer than most would feel comfortable with. They fully embraced me, rubbing their body on mine and feeling me throughout the night. I know there was something Pandora wanted from me, something that I couldn't give. I know there was some way Pandora felt about me, some way I just couldn't feel. Maybe something the man they were being sent to could give.____________________________________________________________________________We awoke the next morning, thankfully nobody was gone. The guitarist asked, "Is the woman child moist this morning?"Pandora replied, "I am not! Why would you even imply…"The guitarist laughed, "I know how your kind works, it's fine. Just don't test me. The knight knows what they're getting into, if they want to deal with you then be it."I responded, "I'm not having to 'deal with' anything."The guitarist replied, "You will, I wonder what dark ritual she'll make you perform first, the one with the mouth or the one with the hands." The guitarist giggled to themself with glee.Pandora seemed offended, "I would never ask them to do any 'ritual'. I don't even know what you're referring to."The guitarist shrugged and replied to Pandora, "It doesn't matter anyway. I'm still your guide but you never asked me to bow to my apparent queen. You and them should come with me… or should I call the knight him, that would be nice a little man knight. You'd make such an 'adorable' couple."Before we got dressed I whispered to Pandora, "Some people are only alive because of the external consequences their death would cause."____________________________________________________________________________We walked into a huge empty space, it looked like some sort of ancient mall, long abandoned but I could still see what were once escalators and stores. It was hard to imagine but this strange part of the abyss was once as bustling as the malls and shopping districts of the Core.Pandora looked at some sort of mannequins wearing robes. The manikins were women like in shape and the robes seemed to be presenting womanly characteristics, faceless they were yet still a depiction of what a woman once was. I pulled Pandora away, "We shouldn't linger here. There's mutants and outlaws everywhere."Suddenly I noticed the guitarist was gone, then Pandora was gone, then my leg was ensnared, then I was gone.____________________________________________________________________________When I could see again I was with Pandora and our guide again. As the light faded out from the guitarist's lantern we began to see a hoard of mutants. They held makeshift melee weapons, crooked clubs and crudely hammered out spears. Their bodies were broken and twisted, limbs where they shouldn't be, no limbs where they should be, missing and distorted facial features. There had to be at least twenty of them, they were staring at us, their eyes were angry but afraid. Though there may have been manikins, boosting the mutants numbers by sitting in the shadowy back rows.Pandora ran to me when they saw I was there with them, they clung to me for protection. The guitarist waved around their lantern like it was a grenade, though the mutants did dislike light they did not shrink from it as much as the guitarist hoped.A mutant was brought out on a salvaged throne, this one was short, the size of a child but with adult proportions, that was probably why that one was considered a mutant, they were far too short to do any type of advanced or simple labor.The short mutant spoke, "Who are you that you think it wise to trespass on thine holy land? You bare presence to the monarch of the broken ones, if you do not prove yourself worthy you shall face thine end. You are of the Core, so you must give us a good reason to let you live, you know as well as I that we despise the Core."I almost spoke to them, but Pandora did first, "I am here to speak with you on your terms. I am surprised you have not heard of me. I'm the Core's number one enemy."The mutant monarch looked at us with confusion, "Pandora? What is your purpose here? We wish to destroy the Core, we could use an ally upstairs."Pandora said, "I am the queen of the Core's greatest rival, the fruit of knowledge…" The mutants chattered while Pandora spoke, "If you let me go I will destroy the Core in its entirety. And when I am queen of my new world I will make you part of my army."The mutants then dissipated, we were free to go. We found our way back to the mall area and continued on our journey safely. ____________________________________________________________________________We continued our journey down towards wherever the guitarist was leading us. I asked Pandora, "How did you manage to do that. I wouldn't have told them who you are if I were you."Pandora replied, "I just sort of... read them. Figured out what they wanted and gave it to them."I replied, "Good job."The guitarist said, "Just wonderful. The creature has gotten to be a manipulative psychopath. Congratulations."I responded, "Pandora is smart. They could be a great member of the Core even if they're not from the side that we want them to be.""You call the woman child 'they', have you forgotten what she is? She'll be the queen of her brood in no time, how long until she's doing what her kind did in the past?"Pandora yelled at the guitarist, "You have no idea what I am! I am potential! I can create a better world. And if I am to be your queen then you have been promised to be my knight! This world is cruel and unloving. If every child is born of a parent who cares about them, then they'll be more than what society tells them to be. It will give them a chance to strive for greatness."The guitarist laughed, "Humans will have nothing to die for. They'll lose their loyalty, become loyal only to creatures that spawned them or that they have spawned.""People need nothing to die for, we need more to live for."I placed myself between the two, "You two need to stop yelling at each other!" I turned myself to the guitarist, "You're our guide standing in front where your lantern will be of most use."____________________________________________________________________________As we walked further into the endless darkness Pandora asked me, "What is the surface like?"I replied, unsure of what to tell them, "It's a dangerous place. It's open, there's no walls, it's vulnerable up there. And the heat, it's worse than the Core, like a fire in your eyes, not like the abyss's more moist heat." I paused for a second, "Its natives are why it's such a problem, they were once humans like us, or maybe more like me then you… but that's not the point, they became obsessed by perfection and ended up combining their anatomy with machinery and turning themselves into monsters. We know little about their history or culture but we know they kill us."Pandora asked, "Why do we even go up there?""Wood, farmland. We need outposts on the surface to get our meat and plant material. We need to send knights to keep the half mechanical monsters at bay.""How far do the mechanical creatures' borders reach?"I thought about it, not really having an answer, "We can't know. Most assume they control the entire surface but it's unknowable if that is true. The farthest we've gotten is a few miles away from the Core's entrance. It's not like there are walls up there, it's just endless plane so it's very confusing to most of us.""Could it be possible that there are other civilizations on the surface, I've heard that the surface is unimaginably large. There's room for people other than just the machine people. Maybe far beyond the lands of the machines exist another civilization. Maybe even one with men and women like in our past."I didn't know how to respond. Pandora was basically right. We knew so little about the surface world there was no way of knowing if there were other civilizations out there. But did it matter, when there was no way of knowing?Pandora then asked, "You always wanted to be sent there, didn't you."I replied, "I am a knight, I am a citizen or the Core, I serve my purpose as it best helps the greater human society. If I had the choice I would be up there right now, but that is not my fate."____________________________________________________________________________We reached a winding yet unbranching hallway, the guitarist handed me a smaller version of their lantern and told us, "I can't take you any further. The rest of the route should be obvious from here on out."As the guitarist walked away I commented to Pandora, "They never betrayed us. They hated you but they never did anything about it."Pandora replied, "They never betrayed power, they never do. I could read their type too well to be afraid of that creature."I asked, "Then why did you come running to me our first night?"Pandora giggled, "A woman never reveals her secrets.""What? What! Wh- what did you just say?" Pandora was getting more powerful, maybe the guitarist was right, that Pandora was just a manipulative monster bent on humanity's destruction. But those eyes, that face, it couldn't be that way...____________________________________________________________________________We continued upon the last leg of our journey. The hall led to a gigantic room probably the largest we had seen in the abyss, most of the floor was an endless void of inky black water. Strange vehicles of metal sat within the water, they looked like they were older then time. Above the water there were broken walkways, they probably once hovered above the water uniformly but there was no way they could be crossed with how destroyed they were.At the other side of the water there was a house of some sort, the lights were on, I could see a human. Pandora looked out and told me, "They have hair on their face."I replied, "It's a man.""It's my future husband!" For a few moments Pandora looked at the creature across the room, obsessing over its movements.____________________________________________________________________________I spotted a boat of some sort on the horizon, it seemed much more recent than the half sunken vehicles surrounding it. While empty it still drifted to us, Pandora ran on and I cautiously waited until going on too.A computerized voice rang out from the boat, "Hello. Welcome aboard, I am the ferry of the abyssal lake. I am an AI assisted boat, please do not attempt to control me yourself."I said, "Fancy, something like this isn't supposed to be in the abyss. How can we get this thing to move?"The computerized voice replied, "This boat was put here by the Fruit of Knowledge to serve [redacted]. It may only move when authorized persons. You are not an authorized person. Pandora is an authorized person."____________________________________________________________________________Before we could figure out what to do another person stepped onto the boat. They touched my shoulder and I turned around to see them, they were a knight in uniform and a visored helmet. Pandora shrunk back in fear.The visored knight spoke to me, "Hello again. I'm very happy to see you."I raised my axe into a defensive position, "I won't let you lay a single hand on this innocent creature!"The visored knight removed their helm, it was Delmen, I thought I would have never seen them again after they disappeared. Delmen said, "You know so little don't you. If you've seen what I've seen you'd know. You must have thought I died, good friend. But I didn't die, they took me to a training camp, told me everything nobody knew about the societies of the past. Then I was put on a secret task force for destroying the Fruit of Knowledge. Give me the woman child, I'll know what to do with it.""You'll kill them."Delmen smiled, "I wouldn't do that, you definitely couldn't. And we can't be fighting the Fruit of Knowledge forever. I want to correct Pandora, we'll make them an upstanding citizen, and the greatest propaganda tool against their creators. The Fruit of Knowledge will lose all motivation when their messiah is their enemy. Pandora will have their reproductive organs removed and studied, and our best scientists will do their best to reverse the transformations they caused, we already have drugs that will suppress their… desires. Pandora will be put in our best schools, given our greatest honers, and all we have to do is remove those reproductive organs."I looked at Delmen, then I looked at Pandora. Should Pandora really live like this, always running, always with their eyes over the back of their neck. Maybe it would be better for them like this.Delmen noticed me considering, "You know that the woman child is dangerous to be allowed to spawn children. And you know that really they're broken, you must realize that they need to be fixed. We did it to dogs and cats before we did it to humans, but we've figured out now that it makes humans function better too, tames us."Before I could respond Pandora yelled, "I don't want to be tame!" I looked at them for a second, this was the first time I saw Pandora mad, saw the wrath of the Core's queen, "You wish for humanity to be tame, you want us as your pets."Delman held a piece of paper up and addressed Pandora, "Look, kiddo, we can help you. This little slip of paper just needs a knight's signature and you'll be free. You just have to work with us if we want to get there."Pandora retorted, "You cannot withhold freedom from me and that gives it back at the price of my body. I don't want to be mutilated that way, it disgusts me just to think about it.""You having those parts disgusts me to think about.""Then be it! You know as well as I that I am not you. Just let me live as I want. I will not be the dog that you fix!"Delmen dove towards Pandora, before I could even think I defended my true loyalty. I swung my axe down doing what I should have done long ago.____________________________________________________________________________I pulled my axe from Delmen's head. It was clear that Delmen died in a single swing of my axe, splitting their skull down to their nose. The paper was still in their hand, I picked it up, Delman didn't lie, all I had to do was sign and Pandora could return to the Core.Enthusiastically I told Pandora, "You're free, we can head back to the Core. All I have to do is sign this and you can come back to the Core with me, you can be a knight, and they'll be nothing anyone can do to you. You'll never have to worry about your husband or the Fruit of Knowledge again!"Pandora was looking out at the house across the lake, watching the male, studying their movements, interested in them in a way I could not understand. After a few moments of distraction Pandora responded to me, "Yeah, I'm not sure that's going to happen."I replied in shock, "You're really going to go to that creature? Don't you want a better life up in the Core."Pandora responded, "I'd rather go with my husband. There's something from them that you just don't have. Some sort of affection.""I can give you affection."Pandora looked at me, with those same eyes that they looked at me when I spared their life, "It's more than that. It's more than just the affection, it's what I want the world to be like when I leave it. I've seen the Core, humans have grown too cruel and too weak, maybe if they were raised by parents it would not be so. I don't want to be the last woman, I want to be the first. I want these feelings, these abilities, to still be with humanity in the future, I want to bring back gender, for everyone to have it. And even besides that, I have a need for a type of affection you cannot give for me, emotionally or physically."I was horrified, "You can't. You need a good life, I need to be able to protect you.""I'm sorry, you can't protect me any longer. You should be signing those documents though, the Core is a wonderful city, I'd like to raise my children there someday."
Conquest of WaterThe plane of red rock extended in every direction. They were in the center of lunae planum, some of the flattest and most desolate lands on central Mars. There was no nearby settlement, if either party's vehicles were damaged they’d have to call for help, but it might not have come. The outpost was small, a single building, it functioned for life support but not much else. The traders who came first were the earthlings; they landed in a white ship carrying loads of the goods. They entered the outpost awkwardly, not being used to airlocks, they wore black suits and carried phones in their pockets.Soon the colonial trader came, he was a young man by the name of Flint, coming alone on a large rover. He wore a white t-shirt and black jeans, his hair long and face unshaven. Even here he kept his head high and bowed to no god or man.As Flint entered the airlock he began to negotiate with the earthmen, “How much for eight greattanks?”One of the earthings replied “American or colonial standard?”“Colonial.”The earthling thought to himself for a bit, “two million.”Flint rejected, “The most I can do is One point five.”The earthling laughed, “Would you like your township to have crops? Would you like your people to die? One point nine million, final offer.”Suddenly they heard movement on the horizon. Eight humans, five in a rover three on speeders, all with armor, lances, and axes. Flint had seen bandits before but the earthmen had not. Soon the first wall of the outpost was breached, Flint and the traders were given little time to think before their skin froze and lungs emptied. One of the bandits stepped on to the empty ship and removed his helm, the bandit was still new enough to be impressed, fifteen greattanks, all in one room. The most he had seen before in one place was maybe a single greattank. But now fifteen entire tanks of pure fresh water stood before him.Conquest of waterStory by Thomas Frix. Concept by Elijiah Brahmi.I walked through the bridges and domes of Lunae city, watching the small sun set over the planes of maroon and scarlet stone from out the city’s windows. The streets were filled with thirsty mouths, dried lips and sunken eyes begging for water to quench their unending thirst, but none would come to them. They looked to me, they could tell I had the wealth for water, they could see the color of my skin, the moistness in my hair, the tears coating my eyeballs, it was like I was a different species compared to the creatures surrounding me, but they were still men, starving shivering and thirsty but still the blood of earth.A boy of about seven, most likely marsborn, cut the neck of a hound and drank its blood to relieve his thirst. It wasn’t likely he was naturally evil, if he’d been born to a wealthy earthman the thought of harming a dog would disgust him, but the conditions of mars made him desperate.As I walked through the city the people's stares made me sweat, further revealing my wealth. An old man licked some sweat off my achilles tendon as I walked by. Noticing him I pulled my saber from my belt and pointed it at his face. The man reeled back and spoke to me, “I am sorry madam, it seemed there was some water on your leg that you were not using. Do they not say that every drop is sacred‽”Not wanting to seem careless to my people but still not wanting to be licked I retracted my blade and spoke, “My body is sacred too, I wish for you to gain all the water you may need, but you must respect my consent if we are to live as a society.”The old man laughed, “And what do you and your creed wish to do to help us?”“I am headed to the aluminum castle to talk of these issues with the colonial government, hopefully our scientists shall find a way to deal with these issues. Or our generals shall breach the walls of new iceland. Either way licking me will not help.”As I walked away the man chuckled, “Keep your sweat, I’m sure your comfort is more important then my life.”I approached the aluminum castle, a single bridge connected the city to the castle, the base was not only without an entrance but the first floor was a block of solid metal preventing all outside penetration by any army. The castle was so large it seemed to be another district of the city, all of the colonial government’s members and their families lived inside. It was the tallest building as well, consisting of many concrete and metal spires that pierced the sky.As I approached the door a wall mounted camera scanned my face, a computerized voice spoke at me, “State your name.”I replied, “Ash Donovan.”The machine took a few seconds, “Hair color, eye color, age, ID.”I realized that the camera couldn’t see me well enough to understand my features; it had to list off my information. “Red, green, twenty four, 12-20.”After a few seconds the doors swung open allowing me to enter. The castle was windowless unlike the mostly glass city. It was also quite warmer inside, maybe it was the better heating, maybe it was the natural humidity. The castle had running water and natural humidity for the same reason it had heating, it was the home of the most wealthy class of the city. Merchants, workers, and beggars would dry up outside as the bureaucrats sipped their wine and spirits. The warmer, more earth-like feel of the castle attracted serpents and rats to live in its halls of both the literal and metaphorical kind.I made my way to the hall of the colonial government to attend the council. Most members did not attend, only two others appeared that day. The first was the representative of the house of scholars, he was a thin man with a long black beard who seemed slightly ill, though it could have just been his complexion. The other was the representative of the house of workers, a young man with bright yellow hair who wore a pinstripe suit.The worker’s representative looked at me and asked, “You must be one of our new members, who may you represent?”I replied, “I am Representative Donoven of the house of traders. Who may you be.”He replied, “I am representative Steven Arexion, I represent the workers of this city as my father did before me and his father did before him.” I wondered what great feat his grandfather must have done to get miners and builders to vote for a man who looked as if he’d never lifted a tool in his life.Questioning the previous comment, “Why didn’t you know who I represented by who I replaced?”Arexion awkwardly replied, “Well two left at the same time because…” He paused.The representative of the house of scholars finished where Arexion left off, “One killed the other. Though I do not think it polite to speak of it any more.” The scholar’s representative then shook my hand, “My name is Dr. Viscera by the way.” His face showed a false and crooked smile.Arexion interrupted, “It was a debate over the water crisis, the man you replaced killed our common’s representative, just so you know. Our representative of the house of warriors hasn’t shown up either yet, but that’s to be expected of him, he’s an honorable man, fighting in the Kasei valley for our people. Though I assume a trader like you wouldn’t understand, our last member from the house of traders opposed the war. We'll have to wait for the next election to replace the dea one, shame as it may be.”I didn’t know how to reply, “Well, I hope I serve better than he did. I do believe you have put too many resources into it, the Scandinavian colonists will fight to the last man to defend a single town, they will make sure the resources we hope to gain from taking their land are less than those we spend. Putting too many resources into this war is exactly what they want.”Arexion replied, “Ms. Donovan you don’t really believe that old myth do you? We must take their land, the ice they mine, the ice that we may melt. Outside of the unproven ramblings of my dear friend Viscera, and imports from earth, there is no way to get water other than taking those colonies. We must keep our heads high!”I replied, “Do not ignore the possibility of trade, the water we get from earth and the Russian colonies is gotten through trade.”“And we’re going thirsty because of it, our men and women die of thirst, our crops fail! We must do something. What if we were to give more unites firearms?”Doctor Viscera interjected, “Firearms are dangerous in colonial warfare, a few scouts and field patrollers have them. But any soldier who may be fighting inside colonial structures cannot use them as it would risk destroying the colony and killing anyone inside who lacks proper gear.”Arexion thought for a second, “Why should we care about destroying some Scandinavian colony?”I said, “Because we are fighting to take them for their industries and people, if we destroy the colonies we invade it’s as useful building new colonies in land we’ve already claimed.”Over a small period of silence we stared at each other. Suddenly a servant came in carrying a tray with glasses of water. Arexion yelled in her face, “You serve us water‽ In this time! There are men dying of thirst in our streets!”Dr. Viscira calmed him, “She’s not the one to give the order, do not lash out at her. We will have water soon when we’ve won the war young man.”Arexion mused, “Why is water not free.”I replied, “Water is scarce, it takes money to trade for it.”Arexion said, “Well, we’re colonies of America, why not have them give it to us?”“They need to send it over the time of weeks, and pay those who man the transport ships,” the men Arexion was meant to represent.After the meeting was adjourned with no conclusion, Doctor Viscera asked me to come with him to see something. He led me down the serpentine halls of the aluminium castle and deep into its labs. The doctor finally led me to a large red door with warning labels on it. He opened the door and showed me what was inside.There were about a dozen of them, red a bloated, their muscles breaking through their scrubs, their hair stiff and plentiful. Some of them weren’t as developed as others, they must have been early on. One of them turned its head to look at me, rage and frustration showed in his bloodshot eyes. Keeping my calm I told the Viscera, “This must be the newest batch of orcs.”Viscera replied, “They’ll be the American colony’s first line of defense against the scandinavians. They’re proven at least ten times more effective then common troops, hopefully we’ll be able to dispose of them next battle.”I asked, “Dispose of? They’re our warrior elite, shouldn’t we be trying to have as many as possible.”Viscera said, “The hormones we put them on are for life, they’ll regress to normal humans if they’re taken off. And they require more hormones to achieve the same effect as time goes on, they become desensitized to what we’re giving them, and their various glands stop producing such hormones naturally. Three years after someone becomes an orc it becomes so expensive to keep them that we tend to… put them in harm’s way more often.”“I see, is this what you wanted me to see.”Doctor Viscera seemed a bit lost in thought, “See you, yes to see you... Oh yes! I need some of your blood.” I flinched away from him a bit. “Don’t worry, Miss Donovan, it is only for my study. It might help with the water situation.”I cautiously extended my arm and the doctor extended his needle, under his breath he whispered, “For blood for water, for sacrifice for rain.”After that I was sent back to my quarters, my things had already been delivered, they were even put into the places I had instructed. My suite within the castle already looked like it was my home. I felt tired from the day I had just experienced, so I removed my coat and shirt and flopped onto the couch. The black serpent began making his way up my leg, his cold scales making my hairs stand on end. I apathetically pet his scales. The genetic engineers stated that enhanced reptiles were a more water efficient alternative to cat or dogs, but they never quite felt the same. Slowly I drifted off to sleep, apathy and fear carrying me to unconsciousness. The morning of the first day of the next week Doctor Visera told me and Arexion about a new development he’d been working on. He summoned both of us to the council hall. He told us, “As you know water is a rarity right now. It seems I have found a new way of getting water. The human body is mostly water, with what I have found it is entirely possible to use that for real usable water for consumption and agriculture. If we take a live human body we can, over a period of weeks, turn it into up to twelve ledstones of usable water. I can confirm we can do it now, though I do not believe we will.”Arexion looked at him for a few seconds, “You’ve been talking about this since I first met you?”Visera replied, “But I can do it now!”Arexion seemed confused, “But you won’t?”Visera explained, “As of now, but we could do it if we need to.”Arexion replied, “Ok… I’ll be keeping that in mind.”Suddenly we heard a crash from the east, Arexion covered his eyes until he realized he was safe. Alarms began blaring, and two soldiers ran in, fully armored, equipped with tasers, spears and shields. One of the warriors reported to us, “Scandinavians, they’re attacking from the…”Visera finished his sentence, “East?”The other soldier replied, “You’ve felt it true, that’s the ram, a machine of war that’s knocking on our city walls. Five divisions of common soldiers approach, and seven squads of eunuchs are protecting the machine, another handful could be inside the city.”Arexion said, “Then deploy even one of our units, every soldier, every machine, and every orc!”The soldier replied, “We’ve done that already sir... And you aren’t our commander.”Arexion said, “Good, then we shall be seeing the representative of the warriors soon. I’ll be there with you.” The soldier meekly said, “You shouldn’t be.”Arexion smirked, “My voters will disagree, Ash and the Doctor should be in the safe room.” I wasn't even given a choice. Should I have been?Before Arexion rushed off to battle you could hear the soldiers mutter, “You should be down there as well.”Viscera and I were escorted to a small dark room. Machines of war prowled the walls, they were shaped like giant metal cats, with whiplike bladed tails, sharp steel fangs, and a single red eye on each of their heads. We were assured they were there for our safety. It was strange for something so terrifying to be there to protect us, that metal monsters and stone walls would save me, that the atmosphere would kill me if I walked outside.We waited in the bunker for what felt like years. Only the sounds of battles outside gave us information. The machines of war towered over us, watching the door and our faces. Dr Viscera didn’t talk at all, he just stared at the wall, muttering something about blood. The shadows on the wall became my friends, the towering drones my family, and if only for a moment time was gone, there was only fear.Eventually a man in a black cape and green armor opened the door to our bunker; he held a large shield in one hand and an electric mace in the other. The machines roared at him at first but he signaled to them with a device in his shield and they bowed to him like loyal dogs. He slithered up to me like a great serpent ready to strike. He spoke to us in a booming voice, “The battle is over, we have won. Viscera, I see you’re doing well,” he then looked at me, “And you must be the new representative of either the commons or the merchants?”I stumbled on my voice a bit, it was like I had forgotten to speak, “Merchants, it’s merchants sir…” I paused to collect my thoughts, “You must be the representative of warriors?”He replied, “Yes, that would be my title as far as politics goes.”After a moment I asked, “How is Arexion doing?”The representative laughed, “Don’t worry about him, he’s been kept safe, his type always is, though men like him could learn to keep their heads as low as they demand from others. You two should be heading home, it’s late.”It was a strange prospect, I was meant to just head home after fearing for my life. Though where else would I have gone? Before I left I asked, “I assume I’ll be seeing you around from now on.”He replied, “I try to be unavailable whenever possible.”I walked home, the city walls had never been broken, the city seemed oddly normal. For all the fighting I heard none happened here. And the news seemed to be that we won the war, or at least that this was the last battle. Negationations between the homeworld governments were happening as we spoke, orders given three hours ago by the scandinavian president to cease fire had just reached mars. And similar notices from our senate seemed to be on their way.The next morning we were called in to discuss an important issue, as I walked through the city streets I saw the same thirsty faces as always, they hoped to see water from the war, all it got them was chaos. It was hard for those folks to keep their heads high, but they managed. When we entered the council hall, the representative of the warriors spoke to me, Viscera, and Arexion, “After the battle nearly one thousand scandinavian ground troops, shock troops, and specialists have been captured. They are in the custody of the colony, not the feds. You figure out what to do with them.”I asked, “You aren’t going to stay?”The representative said bluntly, “I have better things to do, as far as you know.”After the warrior left Arexion tapped his fingers, “Nearly a thousand. I know of this too well. They are in our prisons as we speak, and if we keep them in our prisons they’ll be drinking our water, eating our food, draining our resources. And if we wait any longer the feds will take them and they’ll be returned to a hero’s welcome in New Stockholm.”I replied, “What do you expect to do with them? They’re prisoners of a soon to be over war. They should be treated as fairly as we would want our warriors treated. And if any of them have committed war crimes they should go to trial.” Arexion became angry, “You expect us to keep them? To give them our American water? When if they had breached the walls yesterday they would be killing us as we speak! Let’s not waste water on these savages, we should make them useful.” He thought for a second, “Viscera, would you be able to turn people to water on the scale of thousands?”Viscera hesitated, liked he’d been told he was going to die, “I suppose, well… Yes, if you give me a few days we can set everything up. But that’s a big thing to do.”Arexion hissed back at him, “You’d rather let their bodies go to waste, or let them be held in jail and waste more water. We live in desperate times, the mercies you two are asking for are not something we can afford. If they are allowed to live others will die, if we liquify them our thirsty subjects will be given a chance to live.”I rejected him, “This is a violation of human rights. And this is terrible for our international relations.”Arexion became angered at my statements, “Then go out and tell the men and women dying of thirst that you will not give them water for the sake of treaties and diplomacy. Take your rights and use them to refuse the saving of lives! Tell them that you put the lives of those who attacked them over their own!”We stared at each other, both of us looking in the other’s eyes believing themself to be righteous. Viscera broke the silence, “My philosophy tells me to side with Ash, but it is not a position I could explain to the public. I shall vote to liquify the captured.”Arexion spoke, “Be it then, two to one. With no further discussion may the meeting adjourn.”Arexion left the room but Dr. Viscera and I were left behind. I spoke to him angrily, “You voted to kill humans because you didn’t want voters to criticize you.”Viscera replied, “That is the point of democracy. Is it not?”“You have no principles,” I replied bluntly.Viscera replied, “I do, they just aren’t yours. You have much to learn, you are still young. As to is Arexion, and as to does he. Mayhaps you will see things from my point of view one day.”“We can’t just... just sacrifice people.”“Worked well for the Aztecs. The Aztecs sacrificed prisoners of war to bring rain for the harvest, just now it works. Remember those orcs from the other day, well they aren’t here anymore, we sacrificed them all and won the war for it. But the debate is over either way, the people have decided.”In the following days a new source of water had been announced, the source of human flesh. And soon because of those soldiers we had more water to ration. Men in navy blue suits came in navy blue trucks out upon the streets. They handed out flasks of cool fresh water. And the people loved them for it. They drank like kittens sucking at their mother’s teat. We had given them water. We had given them life.There were less thirsty people on the streets, less begging for water. There were more people walking, with more money due to not having to worry about your next drink more people would spend so more stores opened. And with money not meaning life there was less crime, less people needed to steal to live.People stopped leering at me, I was no longer the only person with normal skin, I wasn’t the only person with sweat or spit. There was even a bit of recreational water in some of the nicer parts of the city. Trees were planted in the gardens of wealthy homes, there was even enough water for them. And people gave credit to me. The entire council had made the decision, so I was thought to be one of the people responsible for our new source of water. People hung my portrait on the wall along with my fellow conselmen’s.I was given a spot on a homeworld news network to be interviewed about the new plan. I didn’t know what to say, I don’t even think I remember what I said. Things were easy to forget, nobody liked to mention where exactly the water had come from, everybody knew, but nobody spoke of it.I walked down through the streets once barren of joy and a stranger walked away from his work to speak to me. His brow was covered in sweat from lifting crates, his eyes happy to see me. “Hello! Ash.”Awkwardly I moved backwards, “Do I know you?”The man laughed and replied, “Remember when you first came to the city? I was so thirsty I licked your leg. You did what I asked you to, you gave us water, you put your comfort beside and you saved our lives.”Before I could respond another person yelled at him. It was a young woman, clearly foreign from her voice, “Monsters! Monsters all of you! My brother was conscripted into the division you murdered. Do you not realize there is blood in the water! There is blood in the water!”I ran, I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know who I should side with.I returned to the aluminium castle, it was the only place that hadn’t changed. The only place where the mood was still dark as the night sky. After entering the castle I was shortly informed to enter the castle. We had been summoned to our first urgent meeting in weeks. The first meeting since we solved the water crisis. The council hall had been redecorated, blues had become popular now that water was more common.Viscera was the one to speak to us, “As you know the majority of our current water supply comes from the bodies of the many men captured at the battle of lunae. But that was still technically a temporary thing, we’re rationing it but it will soon run out. I have no suggestion on what to do. But you two should probably come up with some sort of solution.”Arexion stated causally, “What about death row?”Me and Viscera looked at him for a few seconds.He reiterated,”They’ll die anyway why not turn them to water. We can expand the death penalty too, kill people who would have otherwise been in prisoned for life.”I rejected him, “We cannot turn our own citizens to water. You are now proposing a system that encourages Americans to be given the death penalty. We can't go down this road."Arexion laughed, "We're only killing the dead. These people aren't going to contribute anything to the colony otherwise, we must use them for something. And with prison labour no longer in demand due to the war effort we needed to be downsizing our prisons anyway."With Viscera voting for Arexion's plan and the others constantly absent or dead, there was no way for me to see my way again. Days passed and water was still plentiful. Earth was starting to see interest and sent a reporter to interview us about our new policy. I remember her asking us "So many people on earth have been talking about how your new plans affect the colony’s future-"Arexion prematurely replied, "We here have used the miracles of science to give our people water, to give them life. Thanks to us we have the resources needed to give our families water so that they may see another day."The interviewer replied, "Well, many people have complained that your method of obtaining water through human bodies is inhumane."Arexion became more serious, "Then those people are anti science. It is science that brought us here, and it is science that we must obey!"I injected, "Science cannot govern our morality. It might be able to tell us if we can do something but we can never go to science to know if you should do something."The interviewer then turned to me, "And what may be your view on the matter?"I replied, keeping my composure, "We must always remember to keep human rights in our minds when dealing with a crisis such as water."Arexion replied, "Human rights is the same excuse those wishing to tear our colony down use, are you wishing to signal to them!" It's around then that they stopped recording. When we were exiting the interview I was handed a small note by Arexion. It read, "Human rights are concepts upheld by the United States and united nations. While those organizations are technically controlling us there is something you must remember; they are on another planet, and I am here."As time went on the city expanded. Colonists from around the solar system began to come to our city. Our population was getting larger and our crime rate was getting lower and lower, this was something very bad for us.Watermakers, those who managed the conversion of humans and animals to water, became a profession with their own department in our colony's government. There was more water to pass around, they even legalized ice. There were murmurs of creating a public pool or a man made lake in the middle of the city, but it never happened. Earthside business came to the colony as well. More stores opened up that had brands we could recognize. For the first time in history a M&M store opened up on Mars. Lunae became like a Martian New York.More ships came from all over the solar system, and rovers from around mars. More and more people are wishing to live here. In the following months our population nearly tripled. But with the more poor and wretched we could not give water to them all. The growth of a middle class decreased crime, and that meant less water for more people. The colony had gone from everyone going thirsty to a class of men going thirsty.One day I awoke to a strange noise in the castle. I was able to fudge myself back into a sleeping position but in the morning I awoke to horrific news. Our entire supply of orcs had been killed by a man with a halberd. They died unarmed in their sleep. The killer was caught and liquefied after claiming the orcs were "an abomination and an insult to god". Turned out the murder was part of some eugenics society. I forgot about the incident within a week, no meeting had been held because of it, our orcs had become useless anyway.Another meeting was held about a month later. The rooms in the castle were nicer but the mood was only more stressful. It was as if all we gained was something to lose.When I entered the halls of discourse Arexion was already yelling at Viscera, "Failures! We have failed and I am sure it is not because of me." He was less composed than before, more erratic. When he saw me he turned to me, "You! You've been the one voting against me... As you can see the stress of our recent development is weighing on me. We don't have enough crime, and far too many people. I've done my best to 'streamline' the court system but it just isn't enough is it!"I tried to calm him by putting a hand on his shoulder. I spoke to him, "There isn't much we can do right now. But just think about how good this would have seemed a short time ago. Only a year ago there was a war and everyone was starving. You cannot save the world. You cannot solve every problem with new laws."Arexion replied, "They put us here to give them water. Yet they still beg for it. Maybe not as much as before but some still do. You cannot save a man by pulling a knife most of the way out of his back.""There are other problems too. There are extremists out there. Remember the slaughter of our orcs. Maybe it is due time we address that."Arexion's eyes lit up, "Extremists! You've found it. Why haven't I thought of it myself." Viscera and I eyed each other, wondering what he would say. "There are thousands of members of the eugenics society who would gladly replace our government with their hellish nightmare."I replied, "How is that relevant to water-" then I realized, "You wouldn't think to?"Arexion replied with righteous fury, "They would have us killed. They might not have done anything now but if their ideology is allowed to spread they would cause unimaginable harm. And is our job not to protect the people from harm? Let us liquify the eugenicists, we will be protecting the people from them while protecting the people from death."I replied, "This violates the first amendment, this violates human rights.""So you will let a piece of paper prevent me from saving lives!"For a moment I could not reply. Before I could, Viscera raised his hand, "It's settled then, I've sided with whatever Arexion said."It was too late. Were we just appealing to Viscera? One councilman was gone, the other was dead. There were only three. And with two always voting against me I could never win.The next day eugenicists were taken out of their home by men in blue suits. "Watermakers" they called them. Sometimes they would put up a fight, sometimes not. But when they were taken away they never came back either way. Not as people, not outside a plastic bottle. Protests broke out the day after we took the eugenicists away. Those who supported the liquefaction would like one to think it was only eugenicists. But if you got close to them you would see that they were not. Men and women from every class and every ideology took to picketing that day in order to protest the fact that citizens of a colony of American's had been murdered by their government for what they believed.Arexion called me. He didn't even summon me, he called me. I didn't even know how he got my number, he just called me, "Hey, so there are protests now fighting for the rights of people who want to commit genocide."I responded, "They're fighting for their countrymen not to be murdered.""They're fighting for the rights of eugenicists. We could not have let those monsters live when there was fresh water within their bodies. The people who are protesting against their deaths must have agreed with them.""That is not true. You don't have to agree with someone to support their human rights. Voltaire once said-""Don't read to me from some old books. This is the modern world. You are either allied with someone or against them. And that gets me to the point, it has been ruled that expressing ideas that could spread extremism shall be met with liquefaction, and protesting that ruling would lead to the spreading of those ideas. Thus the protesters will be liquified, and nobody will be voting on it." And in that moment freedom died, following not an election, nor conquest, but with a simple piece of bureaucracy. A shard of law leading to the destruction of all we held dear.The city lived on, nobody dared picket after what had happened. There was little crime in general now, yet more crimes always had to be invented for the city to survive. If you ignored everything, thought your way past the blood in the water, then it was wonderful.I was cursed with intelligence and knowledge, the type of intelligence you have to exercise like a muscle, the type most did not get to exercise. Nobody thought enough about the water to know why it was so wrong, nobody who hadn't become water themselves. If you try and figure it out on an intellectual level it’s obviously wrong, but if you never give it a second thought then it makes perfect sense. In the times of the Aztecs prisoners of war were sacrificed to the gods and it was said to bring rain, to relive the drought, now it works and it is no better a practice because of it.I could see the storm clouds of tyranny looming on the horizon. If I left I would be a coward, abandoning the city I fought for, there would be nobody to fight for the people. If I stayed I'd be a fool, remaining in a city where those more noble than I were being liquified left and right.And if I did flee where may I flee to? Other martian cities would be liquifying humans as well. Earth would make the situation more public, even then I'm not sure I could make it on earth after all this time. Other planets would require their own period of adjustment to navigate politics and daily life. I had the skills to make it as a traveling merchant, the money to hire a crew and buy a ship. Even then I'd always have a price on my head from America after all of this. Maybe I could live stress-free near the edge of society, the deep sea, the outskirts of the solar system, mercury or pluto maybe. Staying would be better than running, keeping my head low and not running for office again might allow me to survive as a merchant. Survival of the self was no longer aligned with the survival of the colony. In fact it seemed to be opposed to it.Maybe I could try to get them to liquify animals. Though people were far more attached to their pets then they were to their fellow men. And cattle was worth more than humans nowadays. One day Arexion came to my door looking desperate. With true fear in his eyes he said, "Please, you have to help me." He spoke to me as a friend, maybe he was in some sense.I asked him servously, "What is it?"He replied, "Imports!" I was confused at first, "I imported a lizard, or a non lizard of sorts, from New Zealand. Turns out it was endangered. You have to listen, they're going to liquify me."It was too late though, there was nothing I could do. As I closed the door on him for what would be the last time I could still hear his cries for mercy, "Please, you have to help me! I don't want to be water!" But there was no mercy for me to give, the last sentence I ever heard him say was, "I'm sorry for asking for this world…" Life continued, more and more water was made. And more and more people learned to keep their heads low. The city grew and less and less people about the deaths required to keep it alive. The water and its making became an ideology, it became our ideology. It wasn't just an institution it was the city's institution, just as Britain had it's dynasty and America its constitution the liquefaction was ours. Questioning the liquefaction process and its necessity was important to our people, and to question it was to question our people.And it was not all bad it made us wealthy, it made us safe, it made us happy, at least for those it did not make dead. Soon the liquefaction began to be seen as something holy, something to be revered. It was like a gift from some great god.And in the end the little children went through the streets quenched and plump, wanton for nothing, but with their heads kept low. And every month on the first day of the month countless sacrifices were made to the water god so he may give water, and water he did give. And all who survived were joyous....

Group Info

Frankly-Fiction is a group created for original, regular fiction. It's a place for authors and writers to come and share their original works to all so that it can spread. Poetry and fanfiction not allowed. Please come and visit our writing club now!
Group
Founded 11 Years ago
May 5, 2013

Location
Global

Group Focus
Writing Fiction

30 Members
26 Watchers
3,090 Pageviews

Admins

Founder


:iconigilix:

Deviants

Hey guys, it's me, Igilix. I founded this four years ago and then completely forgot about DeviantArt for two years. Now I've returned, and while I don't plan on being super active, I guess this group had a lot more members than I realized. People have been posting all this time. I'd love to get this going, because as a writer, I know there's nothing better than finding people to read your work, be their reactions good or bad.

That being said, I don't really remember all the nuances of DeviantArt, particularly admining a group. Do any of you members have skills running a group that would be willing to help get this page back on its feet? Comment or message me if so and from there I'll let you know if you seem like someone good to get Frankly Fiction going.

Thanks, guys. Keep on writing.
More Journal Entries

Favourites

Literature
Unexpected Cargo Ch. 1
Running
      A desperate man fled through a desolate landscape east towards the safety of the weathered stones ahead.  With any luck, he had lost his pursuers for good this time.  The new day was already promising a blistering heat and he carried no water, no food and no gear to help him to survive for long.  His dust colored robes and pants billowed back in the rising wind and he worried that a sandstorm might be approaching.  It would a blessing if he found shelter in time.
      Jonathan Taylor Smith, also sometimes known as Desert Rat, didn't know why King Richard's guards were still perusing him so determinedly across the Red Sands Desert.  He was just a political nobody that transported cargo and passengers.
      Not all of his cargo and business ventures were technically legal, but he never hauled anything like weapons or narcotics.  His last commission seemed a mere kindness
:iconCherokeeGal1975:CherokeeGal1975
:iconcherokeegal1975:CherokeeGal1975 65 22
Literature
Eden Symbiotic Prologue
     
Prologue:

     The beginning of Eden’s history is a strange and tragically violent one.  In the beginning, Eden had another name, Za-ru-crosh, which meant "New Hope" in the language of the Ozbeen.
     Za-ru-crosh was an uninhabited planet with Earth-like conditions that spun in a solar system much like Earth’s own with three moons instead of only one.  The first was a bit smaller than Earth’s moon and the farthest out.  The second moon was smaller still and the third and closest moon was the smallest.  They were called The Three Sisters.  Even centuries later, after Za-ru-crosh’s name was changed to Eden, their name endured.
     The recorded history of New Hope begins in another distant galaxy when a fleet of colonial ships “set sail” across the void to their new home world.  It begins with a hope for peac
:iconCherokeeGal1975:CherokeeGal1975
:iconcherokeegal1975:CherokeeGal1975 17 14
MechWarrior: Living Legends: The Novel II by S7alker117 MechWarrior: Living Legends: The Novel II :icons7alker117:S7alker117 12 0 MechWarrior: Living Legends: The Novel I by S7alker117 MechWarrior: Living Legends: The Novel I :icons7alker117:S7alker117 21 13
Literature
Cosmo Warrior ep 2: Welcome to Bright Dawn City P2
Previously on Cosmo Warriors...
This is Duanne Sewer, and I'm here with Buster and Babs Bunny. These two glorious Tiny Toon Stars, along with their friends, have stopped yet another attack on the city. Here they are right now with their courageous tale,” The young female reporter stated, lowering her mic to the two rabbits.
“Well Duanne...” Buster went on and on about how he led his friends to villain and defeated him. Babs simply agreed with him, stating that she used her Super Babs persona to save a few of their friends. Then, the others would explain how they went off and help save the world.

Dear Rakita,
How have you been? For me, things have been going great in Bright Dawn City. Diana and Xavier were looking forward to meeting you this weekend, but somethings have come up and we won't make it this time. Maybe next time. Although, I'm welcoming you to come visit us. Here's some money for a train ride. Th
:iconDiapercat:Diapercat
:icondiapercat:Diapercat 1 0
Literature
CW Episode 1: Welcome to Bright Dawn City (Part 1)
Several news crew have gathered around a pier where a massive aircraft had crashed into the water. The group to be interviewed were heavily bruised, medical attention attending them at the same moment the news crew had arrived. However, the true group responsible for stopping the aircraft had left.  They knew better than to steal their thunder.
“This is Duanne Sewer, and I'm here with Buster and Babs Bunny. These two glorious Tiny Toon Stars, along with their friends, have stopped yet another attack on the city. Here they are right now with their courageous tale,” The young female reporter stated, lowering her mic to the two rabbits. 
“Well Duanne...” Buster went on and on about how he led his friends to villain and defeated him. Babs simply agreed with him, stating that she used her Super Babs persona to save a few of their friends. Then, the others would explain how they went off and help save the world.
Yet, none knew the truth. It was true that the
:iconDiapercat:Diapercat
:icondiapercat:Diapercat 2 4
Literature
Cosmo Warrior Ep3: The Need of a Team
Rakita sat at her desk, the tip of her pencil point resting against her tongue. She was stuck on an Algebra problem; math was never her strong suit.
“If X equals y plus 6, if X equals 9, what's y equal to?” Rakita mumbled. While not being mentally challenged, she found math to be extremely hard. 
“Y equals 3.” Xavier answered, grabbing a chair and sitting next to his sister. From that moment, Xavier assisted Rakita with tonight algebra homework. Providing his sister with as many shortcuts to answering the problem, minus usage of calculator, to arrive at her answer. Soon after the female started up her computer, preparing to see Max was ready for their video date.
“Yesterday, you left before we ask to if you required assistance in your heroics deeds.” Xavier stated. 
Rakita grabbed a brush from a container underneath her bed, brush any knots out of her tail. The tabby responded with, “So what?”
Xavier glared, “While your po
:iconDiapercat:Diapercat
:icondiapercat:Diapercat 1 0
Literature
CW ep4: Does this Skirt Make Me Look Fat
Rakita closed her locker door, her literature book within her paws. The tabby flinched as she saw Gareth behind her, his claws tapping against each other. Gareth shot the girl a sheepish grin. Confused, Rakita smiled back. This went on for about thirty seconds before Rakita spoke.
“What do you want?” She asked. Strangely, Gareth fell to his knees, appearing as if he was going pray. Although she knew that he was gonna beg her for something.
“My paren's wan' 'o marry me off.” Gareth started. Rakita shot a confused look.
“They can do that?” Rakita asked. The canine nodded.
“It's 'he way of my people, Raki'a. A' 'he a random age, selec'ed by my paren's, I'm meant 'o wed 'o a woman of 'heir choice. Unless I have a girlfriend, I'll be engaged for marriage.” Gareth replied. Rakita shot up her paws in a defensive matter. She already had a boyfriend! One that she loved and knew loved her back. There was no way she'd dumped him just to play pretend
:iconDiapercat:Diapercat
:icondiapercat:Diapercat 6 0

Comments


Add a Comment:
 
:iconthe3ss:
the3Ss Featured By Owner Oct 13, 2015  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Hello! I noticed that you said artwork of stories was allowed to be submitted to the group, and I was wondering if you would allow comics to be entered as well? 
I understand perfectly if that isn't allowed, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask :)
Reply
:iconigilix:
Igilix Featured By Owner Jul 14, 2017
Yea, sure, comics can be allowed! Sorry for the late response, I was asleep. 

Just kidding, I just didn't check DA for like two years, and for whatever reason, I just now saw this after like 3 weeks. 
Reply
:iconrandomality101:
Randomality101 Featured By Owner Jun 9, 2015  Student General Artist
I'm so happy to be able to join! However, I did notice that "contribute to gallery" isn't an option right now...though I would really love to submit! Maybe you could enable it? :)
Reply
:iconigilix:
Igilix Featured By Owner Jul 21, 2015
How do I enable it?
Reply
:iconrandomality101:
Randomality101 Featured By Owner Jul 25, 2015  Student General Artist
I've never been admin of a group before, so unfortunately I have no idea... Is there another way to submit a deviation? 
Reply
:iconigilix:
Igilix Featured By Owner Jul 30, 2015
I think I fixed it. 
Reply
(1 Reply)
:iconmetamirror:
Metamirror Featured By Owner Nov 18, 2014  Hobbyist General Artist
Would this group be interested in this original storyline I wrote six or seven months ago?
metamirror.deviantart.com/jour…
Reply
:iconigilix:
Igilix Featured By Owner Apr 19, 2015
That link isn't working for me. And sorry for the really late reply @_@. But I would be interesting in checking it out. This group doesn't really get any action, but if you'd like to join, that would be awesome! 
Reply
:iconkumura:
Kumura Featured By Owner Aug 24, 2013
U-um... I would really love to join this group if you'd have me and my fiction, b-but...
Your join requests appear to be closed at the moment. ; w ;'
Reply
:iconigilix:
Igilix Featured By Owner Sep 29, 2013
Yeah, sure, I'll take you. It'll be great to have new members. :)
Reply
Add a Comment: