TT2_TonightTheStarsRevolt

1. TIME TWIST

Legend: Consequential Relocations

Hundreds of years before the current humans came to the Eastern Lands, the land was inhabited by the Old Ones. This said people were great and powerful, having built large and magnificent cities that gleamed under the shine of the Sol and beneath the glimmer of the moon. For years and years they lived in peace until one of the Old Ones challenged the gods, and was responsible for the downfall of his entire people’s empire. Out of the remains of the Old Ones crept the humans, rising to grasp at a new and more dominant era. An era that the gods wouldn’t end with an angry war. But what wasn’t mentioned in the few scrolls and pieces of parchment that were the history of the Old Ones was that five visitors from afar had been involved in the terminus of the Old Ones. The history that was left unwritten and unknown to all of humanity follows beneath.

~~~

It all began a couple of days after Midwinter, the King was holding a meeting for all mages to discuss the Scanra situation and the plans of where each would be stationed. All the mages from all around Tortall were there, even the wildmage, village healers, and shamans from Bazhir tribes. It had been the largest gathering of magic for a long time. Something was bound to go wrong, and as it turned out, something did.

"I’ll need all the healers to be widespread among the war sites and refuge camps." King Jonathon of Conte’ continued on speaking of the positions they take. An hour passed and near the end of the meeting when several different mages had spoken, Jonathon spoke again.

"I will have no mage out on the field whose Gift is not working. I want to make sure everyone is running hot on their power before leaving this room."

With that said he had had all the mages in the room (there had been quite a few) power up and perform the simplest spell of any kind. This wouldn’t have been a problem if one of the mages’ Gifts had been defective, I suppose, but unfortunately all powers were intact. Also, I’m shamed to say that I had chosen that moment to walk into the room.

~~~

I am Keladry of Mindelan, and yes, the second lady knight of Tortall for hundreds of years. Outside, to the rest of the world, I was cool and composed. But if you could be inside my head, you’d probably be hearing something along the lines of, "Stone, I am stone." or "I’m a peaceful, cool lake and so-and-so is just a cloud over me."

I was only a first year knight when it happened and on that fateful day in winter I had been sent from Lord Wyldon with a message to the King. Scanra was the first war I had ever been in, and I’m sad to say that I was excited about it.

I hadn’t known that there was a mage gathering in the room at the time that I entered, otherwise I would’ve stayed out and waited. But no one had told me, so I made the mistake of entering.

I suppose I should explain what it is exactly that I’m talking about or else this will make no sense at all. So here it is: when you have such a large gathering of mages in one room and they all use their powers-- that’s okay by itself. But if they all use their powers and a non-magic-blooded person walks into that room, it can have disastrous effects. And in this case, a time-twist.

Normally, I wouldn’t even be writing this, but I felt that there should’ve been some report of tally of what happened in the beginning. So here it is.

~~~

Sir Keladry of Mindelan,

The Time Twist,

Beginning.

So the moment I had walked into that room, some bright light had shot up in the middle of all the mages. I was thrown up against the wall, as were a few others and fell unconscious. The last thing I remember was the piercing ring of the blast.

When I awoke, which I’m told was a few minutes later, everyone in the room was still. Thinking they were staring at something, I edged around to look in the middle.

There was nothing there.

I tried waving my hands in front of someone’s face as one can be expected to do if a companion is spacing out. No reaction. My patience is usually a great thing, I can outwait almost anyone, excluding my family members. But today my patience wasn’t as long as it could’ve been. So you tell me this: when everyone around you seems to be frozen and you want to make them move again, what do you do? I know what I would do, and what I did do.

I punched one of them.

It was like trying to box a stone wall; it hurt. I brought my hand back, shaking it and coddling it, trying to work some feeling back into the fist. As I tried to work feeling into my knuckles I looked around the room for any sign of movement.

Something groaned behind me, and whirling around to face it, I found Sir Alanna of Pirate’s Swoop and Olau stumbling to her feet and rubbing her head. Of course, she was a mage, and she must’ve been knocked out as well. Before, when I was a squire, I would’ve been shy and out of the way. But I have now met her and gotten used to her.

Sensing my presence, she looked up at me. Even when standing she was shorter than me by a long shot. But I didn’t say anything of it, I never say anything of anything. I prefer to be the more polite kind of person rather than be rude, even if my thoughts are always not so.

"What happened?" I asked, motioning around us with my left hand. Alanna peered around me at the stagnant mages and shrugged absentmindedly.

"We must be still mobile because we were knocked out, I think." she theorized, walking around me and to another side of the room.

"Ah ha! We weren’t the only ones knocked out!" she called over to me. I walked to where her voice was and spotted the King on the floor. A few feet away a black-robed mage named Numair Salmalin lay dead to the world.

Alanna knelt down next to the King and pinched him lightly on the nose so he couldn’t breathe. It worked and he awoke, sputtering slightly. Without noticing their surroundings he rubbed his nose and glared slightly at the Lioness. Then he noticed me standing there and the people around him all gazing unblinkingly at nothing in particular.

Jonathon stood and I bowed, not knowing what else to do at the moment. He nodded slightly but continued to stare around at the people. Alanna had rushed on to wake Numair.

"This is very strange." Jon commented quietly and moved to test the motionless people out himself.

I walked away, around the other side of the room, in search of anyone else who may have been knocked out. In the end I found no one but Daine, full name Veralidaine Sarrasri. When I had woken her, I had told her (I talked to her more because I had known her longer and was closer friends than either Alanna or Jon, much, who I doubt are my friends at all but mere acquaintance and my king.) about everyone around us and the others that were awake.

She stood up and dusted herself off before following me over to where Numair, Alanna, and Jonathon were all discussing what could have happened.

"There’s no one else in the room that isn’t frozen." I announced to them as we joined. Everyone in the group exchanges glances.

"Very well, let’s go check out the rest of the palace and see what the effect was there." Numair suggested. The five of us walked over to the one door in the room and I opened it.

~~~

I just want to take this moment to explain that I’m not the type of person who gets excited or scared easily. I’m not bragging, for I don’t have much of an ego, if anything, I have a low one. But the fact I’m explaining here is that I’m usually calm and collected. And I never curse.

~~~

Verdant scenery, bright and flourishing, tall grasses among large trees and the sounds of animals mixing in-- that’s what was outside the door. Not the palace corridor, but a wide pasture that led into a thicket of trees. Above the blue sky showed that it was around midday.

Slowly I closed the door, blocking the view of the wilderness.

"And what the hell was that supposed to be?" a voice demanded.

~~~

I said I didn’t curse, but that doesn’t mean that Sir Alanna didn’t.

~~~

"Open the door again, Kel, we can’t just stay in here. We need to see where we are." Jon commanded.

I did as I was told and this time we all stepped out into the glaring Sun’s shine. I shielded my eyes and looked around at where we were. Insects flew around the clearing, feeding on flowers that sprung up from the long grasses. Birds sang in nearby trees and it was a nice, warm temperature. It was a beautiful day.

But for some reason I hated it.

"Well, let’s get walking, we’re obviously not going to find anything here." Jonathon declared. Judging from his tone of voice, he didn’t think much of the landscape either.

"We need to find civilization." Alanna pointed out, "And we dare not split up, we clearly don’t know our way around here." we all knew it was true, and nothing but silence fell over us at that moment.

We began walking, North, I think, judging from the position of the sun. Anyway, we soon had passed through the clearing and were in a dense grove. The trees overhead reached high into the sky, blotting out most of the sun’s rays. The grass underneath was scarce and thin, and was littered with twigs and pine cones. The bugs in the trees were thicker and more abundant than they had been in the clearing and swarmed around us constantly. All in all it was hardly a pleasure walk.

Alanna strode ahead of us all, even Jonathon, seemingly placing herself the guide of the group. Numair and Daine walked next to each other in back of Jon, surveying the area around them.

Daine was probably calling out to the animals around the forest because she kept suggesting advice to Alanna on where to go. I have to admit that I wished I could’ve been a wildmage like Daine, with the ability to speak to all animals and even the immortals who can’t talk to humans. But I don’t have power like that, and I guess I’m okay with that. Even if I do feel out of place with the others. They were all mages, I am not.

We traveled for about an hour through that grove, which turned out to be a large forest as we found out later on.

When we had emerged from the forest, I surprised to hear Alanna exclaim that she knew the area.

"How do you know the area?" Jon asked sharply, after all, it did seem odd. This land was apparently none that I had ever seen.

"This is the land near Olau!" she said, looking around, "A lot of the land is different but I recognize a few things, like that boulder over there." she pointed to a large rock at the side of the road. "I distinctly remember that shape!"

"So you think we’re near Olau? But why is the land so strange and uninhabited then?" Numair asked.

Alanna shrugged, frustrated, "I don’t know! I just know that this is Olau."

"Let’s keep on the track then, maybe we’ll arrive at Olau and can get horses to go back to the palace." I suggested.

Numair looked skeptical as he stated slowly, "I don’t think we’ll find the palace." he offered no more explanation when asked and said that he didn’t know anything about what happened to them.

So we continued our trek up the hill towards our fate. We never had a chance.

~~~

We emerged from yet another hill and stopped immediately in our tracks. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Below us, yet another hill rose up to meet the sky.

And on top of that hill was the gates of a enormous city. The city’s gates and walls were all a gleaming brownish red that shined in the sun’s glare. The gates were open, inviting anyone in. From what we could see of this inside, the buildings were high and majestic-- the same gleaming color coated onto them as well.

"The Old Ones’ city." Alanna whispered faintly, not tearing her eyes off the city.

"What?" the other four of us asked in unison.

"The Old Ones’ city," she explained, still staring at the gleaming metropolitan, "I have visited it a couple of times with Myles. Jon, you remember I found--"

"Lightening there." Jon finished.

"Anyway, the ruins were all coated with that same stuff and sense we thought we were near Olau..."

"That must be it." Jon finished again, he turned his gaze from Alanna to the city.

Wait a second! There is something slightly off about that piece of information. That’s what I remember thinking at the time. Oh yes, I know what’s wrong.

The Old Ones were only around eons and eons ago.

"But if the city is still built," Daine began.

"that would mean that we are back in the time of the Old Ones." Numair said heavily. The five of us sighed and stared over at the city.

"Well, they won’t actually hate or fear us will they?" I asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

"There is no answer to that, our kind came after they had been destroyed and so the two races have never actually met up." Numair said in his regular scholarly elegance.

Alanna turned to face us, "Well, there’s only one way to find out what they think of us, isn’t there?" Before our minds could register what she had meant, she turned on her heel and began striding towards the gates confidently.

Eyes widening (with the exception of me, thanks to my apathetic facade), we all ran to catch up. Doubt lingering at the back of my mind but I pushed it away, there was no turning back now. Well, I could’ve turned back, but where would I be then?

We slowed at the gates and simultaneously entered... and then stopped. No one in the Eastern Lands or anywhere for that matter living has actually seen an Old One. No one had any idea of what they looked like. I can give you a basic description of what the Old Ones looked like.

Picture tall (each of them was about six feet tall) human figures with short or long light blue hair. And the strangest thing about them all was that they looked young, not a day over twenty-five. But later on Alanna told me that the Old Ones all feared aging and came very close to beating it all together. I have to say, I was impressed.

The few Old Ones that were outside of the magnificent buildings noticed us immediately. Some seemed reluctant to near us and others looked curious. But I couldn’t help notice that they stared at us as hard as we stared at them. Couldn’t blame them though, imagine that you’re used to everyone being blue-haired and extremely tall and then a group of people walk in that look nothing like your people at all. And that’s putting it lightly.

For an example, Alanna was the most opposite a person could be from the Old Ones, in appearance anyway. She is very short and slender with purple eyes and bright red hair that was neither long nor short. And then there is Numair and Jonathon who both have black hair. Jonathon has blue eyes and was tall. Numair had black eyes and was taller, extremely lanky. He feasibly could fit in with the Old Ones if he died his hair and changed the color of his eyes. And Daine, she was of medium height and hair brown curls to her shoulder with blue-gray eyes and a stubborn chin.

And me? Nothing really to say. I have short brown hair to my earlobe and green hazel eyes. And then there’s my height. I’m around five foot ten, maybe eleven inches tall. A little too short for the Old Ones, but good enough I guess.

Now the only reason I’m comparing us to the Old Ones is because I need to point out the potential danger of being an ordinary Homo Sapien in a tremendous city of Old Ones. When people or things don’t understand something they tend to be unfriendly towards it, maybe even hostile.

But don’t think I wasn’t slightly doubtful of all that was happening. No, at that moment I had gone into the regular I-think-I’m-having-a-nightmare-and-all-this-isn’t-real phase. It was very possible that I was still unconscious in that palace room and this was all a dream.

But if this was a dream than why do I still feel like running hard a fast away from here? And if this was a dream why did my hand hurt when I punched that frozen mage in the meeting room? I’ll tell you why.

It wasn’t a dream.

~~~

2. TRANSPLANTS

Legend: Consequential Relocations

It was around Mid-Sol that day when the strangers entered our city. As I moved out of my dwelling, several mothers could be spotted hustling their children inside the shelters and away from the strangers view. Typical motherly acts. But I didn’t have a mother to do that for me, two reasons why: one, my mother and father are dead, and two: I’m twenty-three.

I trotted easily around the buildings, making my way towards the city gates where the strangers were waiting.

~~~

My name is Diago Ifson Mek-son, and yes, I am what you humans call an Old One. The only reason I am writing this down is because the human called Kel asked me to. But that was a few months after they arrived, and I’m supposed to be writing my view from the start.

So you know my name and the fact that I’m an orphan. Being an orphan is an extremely bizarre thing to be in the Old Ones society. Only very rarely does someone of our civilization die and the fact that both of my parents died at the same time makes it even weirder. Oh yeah, and my parents didn’t die, they were found murdered at the foot of Mt. Wintry, the nearby religious mountain peak.

That happened when I was ten terms old, and at the time I was taken into the care of the village blacksmith. I learned a great deal from him about metals and architecture. I also learned a lot of colorful language.

Anyway, I should get on with my account of what happened, lest I want Kel finding out I made the entire thing about myself. I guess I’ll get on with it then.

~~~

Diago Ifson Mek-son,

Transplants,

Post-Beginning,

I jogged nonchalantly out of the mass of buildings surrounding me and into the clearing that was the City square and entrance. I slowed to a walk and then to a stop. The sight that met my eyes was a little hard on the eyes at first.

Not more than ten yards away stood five beings. They looked like my people except they had weird colored hair and strange skin and no sigils on their forehead. Two of them had brown hair, two had black, and one had red! And their skin? It was a light brownish color, later which I found out was because of the Sol-star darkening their skin. They called it tanned.

Anyway, I guess I should explain why they looked so strange to us. My people all had light blue hair and our skin was very pale, almost white. On our foreheads are our birth symbol. Each of us have a different birth mark, though they are always very simple.

I’m slightly taller than the average height of six feet and my light blue hair is cropped short and hopelessly spiked atop my head. The sigil on my brow was a deep emerald (matches my eyes) diamond cut into to pieces face each other symmetrically.

I surveyed them for a moment, reading their faces as I knew they were reading mine. Slowly, I took a few strides over to them. All right, time to try and communicate.

~~~

One of my jobs in the city was as accoster. Any visitors we may have I’m supposed to greet and find out their needs.

~~~

"Hello, welcome to Helsire." I pronounced slowly, wondering if they even used the same language. After all, it wasn’t everyday you meet a bunch of weird-looking beings. How are you supposed to know if they understand you or not? The red-head turned and whispered something to the rest.

"Qrayg ras le?" the black-bearded one asked. Apparently one of them understood me, but guess what?

I had absolutely no idea what he had just said.

Their dialect was nothing I had ever heard of before, and frankly, it sounded to bizarre if anything. My emotions must’ve showed on my face because the red-headed woman grinned slightly and said something to her companions.

"You don’t speak my language do you?" I asked. Hey, it was worth a try.

To my great and utter surprise, she replied, "Yes, I do, but my companions here don’t." she turned and translated to her comrades then turned back to me, "So where are we again?"

"Helsire, it’s our city."

"Are you an Old One?"

The question didn’t startle me much. We are only called Old Ones by other people. To ourselves, we’re just... us. I nodded shortly and then shook my head, snapping back to reality.

"Who and-- forgive my bluntness-- what, are you people?" Glancing to the others, I noticed that they looked nothing short of perplexed. Except for the tall, short-haired woman, she remained impassive.

"We’re humans," she glanced at the others and continued on uncertainly, "And we’re from the... future."

Ah ha! Time travelers, that explains pretty much everything, was what I had thought. Once in awhile we do meet time-explorers but usually they come in different ways rather than just walking into the city gates. It was then that I knew where to bring them. I accepted the answer and motioned for the five to follow me. As I led them between several smaller buildings, I questioned them.

"What are your names?" If they are going to be here and talk to us we might as well know their titles.

The red-head (which I learned was called Alanna) was the one who introduced them. Such strange names they were! I mean, there was no Old Ones who had names like Jonathon or Keladry-- or any of those alias.

I ushered them away from the large city-hall buildings where I knew the stuffy politicians would be peering out at them from the top floor windows and towards a smaller dome-shaped domicile.

~~~

In Helsire we have buildings for many things and the dome-shaped dwelling is for astronomy. Professor Lit spends every waking and sleeping hour there. It is said that he hasn’t been outside in the Sol’s rays for well over a decade. If anyone could work with these humans, it would be he.

~~~

"Wait here for a moment." I instructed the one called Alanna, "And if anyone comes up to you, merely say that you are awaiting guidance from the professor and that you don’t have permission to talk."

The short human nodded and translated to the rest of the crew. I left them there and entered the building.

It was like stepping into nighttime, when you enter the astronomy lab, because the entire ceiling and walls is a dark blue, almost black and lit up by stars. If Professor Lit had been anyone but himself it would’ve been a clean and spacious room. But the professor was absent-minded and many-a-time has left things lying around. Tables near the walls were covered in gadgetry and basket full of devices hung from the ceiling.

I spotted the Professor immediately over by his narrow bed, about to climb in to sleep. Rushing over and carefully avoiding the obstacles in my way, I tugged him away from the bed gently.

"Professor? I have someone here to see you." I stated clearly. When I had been growing up, a lot of my free time was spent with the professor, learning what I could of the stars and planets. I knew that when he actually did rest, he was very drowsy and incoherent.

"Eh?" he muttered, cocking his shaggy, unshaved head to the side. He sighed and motioned grudgingly with his hand at me.

"It better not be another visit from Palser. I’ve had enough of that young man!"

~~~

Palser is the same age as me and has decided to dedicate his life to politics. He frequently comes up to batter Professor with questions about the stars so he could claim himself educated and sneak by the voters without a second glance because of his empty promises. It’s a sleazy life. It’s dishonest. And Palser loves every minute of it.

~~~

"No, Professor, there’s a crew of time-travelers outside. The only one who can speak our language is a short red-head. I was thinking you could give them speech transplants so they could understand and communicate with us."

"And they need help with their craft?" the formerly sluggish professor inquired.

"I don’t know what they need. Shall I escort them in?" I asked. The professor nodded vigorously and was already rummaging through the room for his transplant equipment and sterilizer.

I wove through the tables and poked my head out of the arched doorway. Motioning with my hand, I led them inside.

~~~

Kel has told me to mention the process in which they received the speech transplants. She has told me that she is a diplomat’s daughter and that speech transplants could help communication through the realms and hopefully make it easier to promote peace. So I’ll do so.

~~~

I quickly performed introductions and explained to Alanna about the transplants. After a minute or two of discussing it with her familiars and questioning the safety and side effects, they agreed. Being the interpreter, Alanna didn’t need the transplant. The others seemed resistant to be the first until the one called Keladry stepped forward.

Hesitantly, she sat down in the chair provided and attempted to relax. Clearly that was a hard thing for her to do with a grizzly scientist standing over her with a needle, pump, and data-download system.

"You won’t feel a thing." Professor Lit said, dipping the needle into some sterilizing fluid. The other humans watched in fascination as the professor worked, apparently intrigued of the operation.

Professor took the short cord of the data download and plugged it into the end of the needle. Then he began searching inside the database for the file of language. Taking the needle out of the sterilizing fluent, he also grabbed up a tissue sodden with some type of chemical made up entirely of the element Bromine and dabbed it onto her right temple. Then, he inserted an ounce of Mercury into the needle. He blew carefully onto the hot top and paused for a second.

Then he injected the needle into her right temple.

She didn’t scream, but instead bit her lip hard and shut her eyes tight. Professor kept one hand on the sheathed needle and the other was telling the database connected to the needle to start downloading the language into her brain.

When the process was over, the other three followed suit, each of them sitting down and receiving the transplant while the others and I watched.

The professor finally set down the needle and database and sat down on a stool, facing the five travelers.

"Now, what did you need help with?" he asked cheerfully, not aware of their severe headaches.

The one called Jonathon spoke up, "Help? Listen, we have a problem..." He went on, explaining how they ended up here. They were indeed from the future but not so far as we thought.

"You mean, you’re not from the third millennium?" Professor interrupted.

"Third millennium?" the five seemed utterly confused at the thought of it.

"Oh dear..." Lit rubbed his head, "So you didn’t come here in a craft-- a ship of any kind?"

"No. I’ve already told you, we didn’t sail--" Jonathon began.

"No, no, not sail but fly, you know, through time and then in the air?" Professor no gave them his full attention, the ringing of discovery was about to crawl it’s way through his voice.

"No, we came by magic." the tall human named Numair said, he seemed curious about the idea of a flying ship but stored it away for later.

"Magic!" Professor snorted in derisiveness, "You can’t rely on magic, no, no, my dear boy! You can’t expect correct time-travel by magic!" he chortled shortly.

"Look here you damn fool!" Alanna snapped, pointing her finger at the professor, "We didn’t come here on purpose! We just want to get back!"

Professor Lit stopped his laughter and gazed at the short human in wonder, no body had ever called him a fool. I was standing beside him and covering my face to hide a smile.

"You didn’t come on purpose?" I asked when I recovered.

"No." and she set off explaining what had happened and how the arrived.

"A time-twist!" Professor gasped excitedly, "I’ve been trying to theorize what would happen about to much magic and the result of-- oh yes!" he stood up, "You will help me with my theory!"

"No, we’re going to go home." The woman called Daine said frankly.

Professor waved impatiently, "Yes, yes, that’s how you’re going to help with my theory. I’m going to run tests and the objective is to get you home."

I glanced at the five, reading their faces to see what they thought. Alanna looked slightly suspicious, Jonathon the same, Numair curious, Daine open to help, and Keladry-- nothing. She was apathetic to everything said it seemed.

"All right." Jonathon said at last, "We’ll submit to your tests and I hope you’re right. Now, what is your idea?"

Professor Lit spoke, "The basic way of undoing a spell is to do it again. Now, think, how did the time-twist occur?"

It was Kel who spoke, albeit quietly, "All the mages of Tortall were in one room, using their Gifts." she winced slightly, "then, I walked into the room and there was a blast--"

"There!" Lit said cheerfully, "Mages were using their power, and a non-magic-blooded human walked into the chamber. This caused a blast and I suppose you were knocked out?"

The five nodded and he continued, "Obviously there is not enough power in the four of you to give off a big enough Gift energy at one time that will be sufficient in time-twist ways. So everyday I want you here, giving half of you Gift into a chamber I will prepare. But no more than half, otherwise you’ll collapse. Then, when I say there is enough power, the four of the Gifted ones will enter and stay there overnight. Then, the non-Gifted will make an entrance and hopefully all will go well."

The instructions winded Professor out and I could see that his sleepiness was returning. I led the scientist over to his bed and then ushered the humans out.

"Will he be okay?" Daine asked cautiously, peering at the dome once we were outside again.

"He’ll be fine, Professor goes days without sleep and this is his one day of rest a week." I looked at the five who stared back at me silently. Obviously it was up to me for instructions.

I sighed, "All right, uhh, I guess you’ll be here for a couple of days so I should give you a tour?" I glanced at them for confirmation. They nodded and I set off.

It felt kind of weird, giving tours to people who are older than me, excluding Keladry. Even though they were older, I felt, for the first time in my life, senior. Ah well, I guess that’s just the way things turn out.

~~~