Diana Elekitel's Story

To call Elekitel a place was wrong. To call it a people was wrong. To call it a title was wrong. Elekitel was an organism. It existed on both the physical and mental plane. Elekitel was a mind and it knew everything that occurred with in it. A mind consisting of millions of minds could keep tabs on absolutely everything. But, Elekitel was rather monotonous, like a clock. Every day, it did the same thing. Farming, mining, manufacturing, gathering, sleeping, eating, breeding, growing. But Elekitel rarely complained, for it had no room to complain. Elekitel may have always been unsatisfied, but its emotions couldn't get in its way of its true goal. Elekitel thought about it every day; I must become supreme. I must contemplate the nature of all of existance to become omniscient. I must conquer every single square Yojana to become omnipresent. I must upgrade myself with new weapons to become omnipotent. My will must be absolute and to do that, I must destroy all those whom oppose me.

But, it was on this one particular day that Elekitel brought its attention toward a single existence, one whom was slightly different. She always was different. Diana may have been nearly identical to the rest of Elekitel in nearly every way, except for the fact that she was the last surviving existence of Elekitel to have lived on the surface. She was Elekitel's only memory of better life; better food, better housing, better life. But she also carried horrible memories with her that Elekitel wished to forget, memories of fire, of light, of poison. Diana was deemed unfit for producing children, so even at the age of 25, she has had no children, unlike the rest of the women of her age whom likely would be producing their third of fourth child. Elekitel once considered ridding of her, a blighted existence, but feeling stopped her. Elekitel often ignored its feelings, but somehow, it felt immoral to rid of even one of its existences, even if it lost hundreds every week.

Diana had suddenly experienced something huge and important and Elekitel realized it had to listen. Suddenly, Elekitel understood everything.

---

Diana grunted as she hit the floor. She was groggy with sleep and her arms and knees were sore from breaking her fall. She heard the bed mechanism behind her groan as it fell back into place. The room was pitch black with the exception of dimly lit beads that were lined up in grid patterns along the entire room to mark where the floor was, but it was filled with sounds. Vnamen didn't have the best hearing, so they mostly ignored it, but the very soft sounds were hardly mute, hardly disturbing either. The sounds of the breaths and snoring of countless amounts of Vnamens could be heard, along with the ticking of their own bed mechanisms.

The Section B sleeping chamber was designed just as all the others were, great big rooms filled with specialized bed mechanisms, elevated cots with no pillows or bedsheets and worn down after years of use. Below the cot was a mechanism of a bunch of gears and springs. Upon lying on the mattress, the pressure would activate the gear mechanism, causing the bed to rotate extremely slowly, until it made a full rotation in six hours. Once it made the rotation and the release mechanism was knocked away, the spring would rotate the mattress into a standing position and drop the Vnamen out of the bed, waking them from sleep and resetting the whole mechanism.

Diana wiped the grogginess from her eyes when she got up. She could hear the thoughts of a few others in the room whom had woken up at the same time as her as well as the random faint patterns of the dreaming. Dreaming is all about reflecting upon the past and predicting the future, so even while sleeping, the Vnamens of Elekitel were assisting their nation. Slowly and quietly, she made her way through the sleeping chamber, falling the dimly lit blue dots to prevent herself from bumping into any of the beds, and made her way to the exit.

After retrieving her personal female dressings from her locker (in an absolutely huge room consisting of many lockers), She made her way through the long dark narrow hallways toward the Pit. The halls were hot and musty and dark with the exception of the gas lights of which hung from the ceiling and the Glowworms of which inched around on the walls. They weren't very heavily populated in the area around the sleeping chamber, likely due to workers grabbing them on their way out toward the Mines or the Pumping Station. No hall was complete with a bunch of pipes lining its sides, carrying all kinds of resources. Each one was crawling with Pipe Sniffers, spider-esques with antenna that checked the pipes for even the smallest of leaks and patched them up with a temporary bright green silk which would be obvious to any repairman. Pipe Sniffers weren't the only things crowded in the halls. Diana continually passed by other workers on their way to their own destinations. They payed each other very little mind, but they could hear everything that was on each others minds.

Eventually, Diana made it to a much larger chamber, the Pit. It was a great big gap that was several meters across, as long as a great big Steam Engine. Other sections had Pits just like it. An unfathomable amount of distance up were the closed silo doors. When open, they flooded the upper levels of the Pit with light, but Diana was too far down for it to be too visible. Occasionally the huge cargo elevator in the center would carry huge train cars from the depths or big loads of coal and stone, or uprooted trees dropped from the surface to be processed, or occasionally, the giant War-Bears. On the far side of the pit were the various communal elevators that brought workers back up from the depths, but on the near side were but large chrome poles just off the edge of the balconies of which had no railings. Diana looked around the pit for a second to look for a specific person. Standing right next to the edge of the pit a few meters away with his hands behind his back was another person in a repairman's wear, sporting goggles and some sort of metal harness. A small monkey-esque creature chattered away on its shoulder, chewing on feed in its fist. Diana nodded to man and he nodded back. Her thoughts were easily conveyed to him. Diana reached for it with both arms and brought it close to her chest while releasing her feet from the ground, and instantly, she was shot down the length of the pole by gravity.

Many tens of hundreds of floors and balconies passed through her vision as she plummeted toward the ground. The length of the pole continued to shoot upward out of her grasp as well. The skirt of Diana's dress also shot upward, catching the air coming up from below, but Diana payed it no mind. Her heartrate only increased slightly. Diana was used to the rush of gravity when travelling down the poles. It was the quickest and most efficient way to move down, as opposed to waiting for one of the elevators, which would have to already be moving down for her to board it. As long as she kept a firm grip around the cold metal pole, she wouldn't plummet to her death. Her view on everything may have become blurry, but she could tell exactly what floor she was passing by as the Pit Guards saw her pass by. Their job was to convey where she was to her and when she was to tighten her grip on the pole to slow down when she made it to her destination. Of course, her destination was at the very bottom at the Section B Terminal, so even though there was no chance of her missing her stop, if she didn't slow down, gravity would halt her forever. The Pit Guards also dealt with any issues involving the pit such as repairing the elevators or assisting in moving cargo. Both them and their preformed assistants had the freedom of moving in both directions on the poles and could relay information on which poles were unavailable.

Diana also was reminded from them that it was the day of Fire, on the week of Air. On Air-Fire, Diana used to go down to the Preformation Chamber to operate one of the huge lenses used to see things on the microscopic level, the only way to be able to see the base forms of all living things. It usually took at least a few hundred people to preform an operation or experiment, taking between one and three people to operate each lens, a person to look though the lenses and an entire team at the bottom to preform the operations. The lens chamber itself was about 90 meters in height, but nowhere near as high as the Pit. Only the Vnamens could accomplish the exact precision needed to operate the huge device, as they could synchronize their actions. just as the Pit Guards did. The entire team at the bottom could see through the eyes of the seer at the top, and the Seer could adjust the lenses through the operators. The team at the bottom used a bunch of hands to operate a few tools of which were required to work with the base forms, along with the four elements. Manipulation of the base forms was very difficult and despite the fact that Elekitel literally crawled with preformed creatures, everything about it was still experimental. It usually took tens of hundreds of hours to complete a single creature and Elekitel worked around the clock, but the tiniest of mistakes would require an entire do-over, and that was counting on the fact that the design was functional in the first place. Changing the blueprints of Idros was very extremely difficult and creating new ones was unthinkable as of presently. Elekitel, however, was in the process of designing a new Multiscope that would consist of over 200 lenses, along with tools that could work with even more precision.

Diana had wanted to put her effort into designing the new Multiscope, but her duty on the day of Air-Fire was to train in the magical arts. It was ever since the Order had seeked her out personally. 'Personally' was a foreign concept to Diana, as it was to many Vnamens, but the Order did recruit her. Elekitel was honored, but ever since then, Diana felt different. Diana was used to being considered slightly different, but only in experience. Yet, because of this, she sometimes thought slightly deviantly. Now, she still had the mind of Elekitel, but she began to make comparisons. She compared herself to Elekitel and contemplated the nature of her own existence. She recognized that while she was part of a collective, she really had her own will and her own body. This was a thought she hadn't had since she was a child, when Elekitel was much different. When Elekitel lived on the surface...

Diana knew very little about magic, but as she contemplated the nature of the mind and the nature between the difference of the mind and the physical world, she had realized that the physical world took on only one shape while the mind was spontaneous and constantly transforming and could create something from nothing, such as a lie or delusion. She began to accept that the physical world was reality, yet the physical and mental worlds were equally existent. Indeed, Vnamens were a race connected by mind, but these minds were boundlessly connected to the physical plane, as they observe it. A mind could not kill another mind, but a person can physically kill another. A mind could only use up energy, but it could not feed itself. A mind could create, but its creations would do it no good until they are created on the physical plane. The mental and physical worlds were connected, but the mind only received information about the world through sense, while physics were only influenced by the mind through action. Diana realized that if she could manipulate that connection, she could become very powerful. To control the mind's perception of reality, cutting it off from one of it's connections, would render any thought-based creature helpless.

Thus, Diana learned to create illusions. She could fool the individual, but unfortunately, her power had little effect on the hivemind. Because the hivemind consisted of a multitude of single minds, it was able to adapt easily, and it could easily separate truth from lie, so it could tell if either the single mind or the majority of minds were correct. Diana thought she'd be able to trick larger amounts of people with more power, but she had very little Mana to work with. Because the Vnamens of Samallia had such a high population, the Order had given them limits on their allowed Mana usage so they wouldn't put all seven worlds into unbalance. Every nation was allowed plenty of Mana for everybody, but because Elekitel used so much Mana for growing its specialized crops with little nutrients, plus the immense amount of Mana needed to produce preformed creatures on large scales (producing a single one took up enough Mana to blow up a house) Vnamens had little Mana individually with the exception of the Mana that is broadcasted throughout the caves, using a special arcane process of focusing and distributing, that was essential for supporting their Telepathy (and they didn't need much).

Diana was spacing out, thinking about how she could improve on her magic, but then came back to her senses. She felt as if she'd been dropping for a while, but the Pit Guard's hadn't notified her to ease up yet. In fact, they weren't telling her anything. Were they not on duty? The world was moving too fast for her to catch any sort of glimpse at their bright red and blue clothing. She couldn't even hear the previous Pit Guards in her head. She couldn't hear the thoughts of anything, as if she were completely alone. For one of the few times in her life, Diana felt truly alone, not to mention plummeting to what could have been her death. Diana looked around in helplessness, when the one hand that was holding on slipped from her sweat. Adrenaline shot through Diana as she used her legs, of which were curled around the pole, to pull herself back toward the pole and began to embrace it with her entire body as tightly as possible. The friction burned against her thighs, her chest, her fingers and her cheek, but her speed was slowing very quickly, until she practically stopped. Diana continued to hang on, panicked thoughts playing out in her head, calling out to whomever in her emotion-based mental cry, but there was no response. Her eyes were closed as she held on for dear life, and although the sweat held her up, Diana was gradually continually to slip down slowly. Although, one thing she began to realize was there was actually a very loud thought in her head that she hardly recognized, but she was too panicked to realize it was her own.

Calm yourself, a voice in her head spoke. It was more than a voice, it was a fully developed thought, as the Vnamens would communicate with, but this concept, this thought seemed as if it was thought by not just an entire collective of a nation, but a collective of collectives, an absolutely vast and overpowering conscience of absolutely great insight. Perhaps the former collective of Samallia sounded something like it, but Diana would have had no way of knowing. However, Diana couldn't help but submit to the greater conscience, as was her instinct, and her thoughts became calm. Nonetheless, she still held onto the pole for her dear life, her eyes shut tightly, oblivious to the world.

Diana, you have a duty you must uphold. Diana didn't have time to comprehend the concept before her mind was flooded with ideas and concepts. The presence was that of Idros, and as a mere mortal, Diana found herself completely unable to begin to decipher the workings of such a great mind. Telepathy may have been the connection of minds, but Diana's mind was merely too simple to handle that of Idros. Idros did flood her mind with ideas, however. Concepts of the Archites and the Order flooded her mind. Diana's recruitment into the Order was a memory that appeared in her head, but so was the vision of seven great silhouettes, the most prominent being that of a woman whom wielded a bow whom couldn't have been anything but a Vnamen. Diana had no idea exactly how she looked, but she just merely knew she was Vnamen. A very brief concept appeared in her mind of the idea of conflict and a very dark presence allied with lesser, yet still great presences. The concept of danger, however, was very present, and somehow Diana just knew it was of a large scale, involving things beyond her current understanding. Vnamens communicated in their thoughts less through words and more through concepts and emotions of which were indescribable through words. Yet, Diana understood exactly what Idros was telling her. She was chosen as one of the Archites and it was her duty, not to her nation, not to her species, not even to herself, but to the creator and all of creation to protect it from impending danger. Conscription? That idea was a fact of Diana's life, so it probably easier for her to accept a duty forced upon her, but the fact that it was upon solely her and a few? As opposed to the collective effort of a mass? Diana had hardly enough time to truly process what that would implicate.

You may have faced many hardships up until now, visions of fire and war came to mind, But I, the creator, have made my choice, and it is you, a single, unique, existence, that shall defend all of creation from those whom seek to destroy and imitate. The dangerous presence came to mind, but frighteningly, it wasn't the only thing, It is not only out of my will, but I see that your actions shall be for the good of your own kind as well. The concept of the great collective came to mind and so did the memory of Diana's childhood on the surface.

Diana was about to consider all the ideas and ask questions, but the great conscience Idros paused her with his overwhelming will. Calm yourself, and open your eyes. Everything went quiet for a second, but Diana could feel the great existence leave her. Diana slowly became aware of the pole again, but also became away of the weight on her feet and her bottom. She had reached the bottom. slowly, the non-stop thoughts flowed back into her head as she reconnected with the great collective. When she opened her eyes, she saw the great brightly lit terminal, consisting of many lines of tracks of which ended at the cargo elevator at her right. There were about hundreds of Vnamens walking up and down and standing along the sides of the tracks, waiting for the trains to transport them to various part of the lower complex.

Diana began to replay everything that happened in her mind and contemplated everything Idros had put in her head. Suddenly, the terminal grew silent as the crowd of white, red and blue all stopped what they were doing to look at her. Diana wasn't used to being in the center of attention, no Vnamen could possibly have been. But Diana's thoughts weren't her own anymore. They all simply understood what Diana had experienced, as if the memories were their own. The gradually, the collective turned its attention toward Diana. Diana's name was suddenly on nearly everybody's mind.

Suddenly, Elekitel understood everything.

Diana sat upon the cold iron table which reflected the bright light of the Glowworms in the small room. The bright yet soft bio-luminescent light that came off of them was soothing as it brightly illuminated her bare body, whereas the cold iron table was not. Around her, she was surrounded by tools of all kinds either brightly glistening and hanging on walls or crawling around in jars on the shelves without making a sound. There were about seven Vnamen, including herself, in the room, continuing their examination of her.

For the past ten minutes, Diana had been through an intense physical examination, of which she herself was heading. They examined absolutely every single inch of her body, taking all kinds of measurements, taking samples from her, preforming sensory and motor tests. Not an inch of her skin wasn't examined as she had it pinched all over as part of an examination. It had been a much more advanced health examination, as the examination was not just to determine her general health, but to also determine anything special about her.

Well, other than she looked like she came from the grave. Her face may have looked untouched, but her arms and fingers were covered in scabs, her legs were covered in scars and her feet were covered in sores, but those were a given when it came to working like a Vnamen. Yet, all over her back all the way down to the waist, from the left shoulder to the back of her right elbow and right up her neck, the her skin was pinkish-colored and consisted of a variety of textures, from wrinkly to bumpy to shiny. The pain had left Diana a long time ago, but the memories were still there. Memories of a burning that caused her (and those in the room with her) to flinch in pain.

Besides her scars, however, Diana and the others were unable to decide on what physical trait would cause Idros to speak to her and chose her. After all, her physical classification was only in the B-600s, which was nothing special except for the fact that she wasn't very strong, and had moderate athleticism, yet she was old and experienced. Her rank was also viable for conscription at advanced ages. Most Vnamens become soldiers at young ages, but depending on age and physical rank, they could be assigned to other duties , and because Diana was so old, she was assigned to the workforce while still being viable as a soldier in times of urgency (about half of all members had a similar rank with different age requirements). In fact, she was halfway through her expected lifespan already, and only 15% of the Vnamens of Elekitel made it to that age, and almost half had been around since the pre-expansion times. She was by no means the oldest, of course, and there were only a few about her age. Diana was the only surface-worker left, however. Despite the title, however, only one of her duties allowed her on the surface; star-mapping.

Diana sat staring into space while the others doing the medical examination on her stood around the table, staring at her. All of they're minds were nearly identical as they all contemplated what their next course of action would entail. Other than the irregularities of her skin, she close to being identical to any other Vnamen. All the females in the room looked extremely similar with the exception of the length of their hair and that Diana's was untied for the duration of the examination. All of her systems seemed to be working fine; sensory, motor, circulatory, digestive and even her reproductive system checked out alright. Still, Diana was still decided unfit for producing offspring due to unusual circumstances. Yet they couldn't decide exactly what trait could possibly make Diana, a single existence, or rather, a tiny part of a greater existence, viable for conscription to fate. Perhaps they were all worried about the same thing; she's not good enough. Diana thought this too. After all, Vnamens only believed in power in the collective effort or the rationality in the insight of many. A single person seemed too incomplete. To the Vnamens, Idros himself wasn't a single entity, but a collective of infinite rational minds in a single being. Ancient Vnamen artwork illustrated him being a man with many faces and many limbs, as if he had the intelligence and ability of more than a single being. Diana even felt that his presence was not of one entity, but of a collective so vast it was uncomprehensible for her. So, for him to entrust seven single beings with the duty to protect all of creation seemed unbelievable, especially because six of them came from other races of which consisted of much lesser and more primitive beings of whose minds were not developed enough to connect to others and by a result, they all lived with different opinions and inevitably got into conflicts with each other, even within kin, coworkers and family and clearly out of their independence, they had much less insight and less ability to work together to accomplish great feats like the Vnamen did.

A thought appeared among them that perhaps that was why Idros had chosen seven Archites as seven may have been enough to invoke a cooperative effort effective enough to accomplish things. After all, Vnamens worked in groups with no less than seven people, there were even seven people working on Diana's examination, including Diana herself. Of course, for the Archites to have accomplished the feats they were fabled to have accomplished, they'd still had to have been extraordinary beings, and a single being couldn't possibly have been anything beyond ordinary. A consideration appeared among them that the library should have been consulted and a Psycho-Fly should be sent to the Librarian on duty. Diana stood to be clothed as a few of the others at the exact same moment went to fetch her new clothing. However, Diana heard a familiar buzzing.

A tiny bug, hardly noticeable, buzzed around hesitantly. It may have appeared to be a mosquito at first, but in truth, it was a Psycho-Fly. They had the ability to carry very important messages throughout the caves, but only had one use each. Diana stood still as the mosquito-esque buzzed around the room, looking for a specific pheromone, that of Diana's blood. It buzzed around her head a few times, the annoying high-pitched buzz growing louder for brief moments as it passed by her ears, until it landed on her neck. It was barely noticeable when it bit into her, but slowly, her mind was flooded over by foreign thoughts.

Apparently, a foreign Vnamen had arrived on the territory of Elekitel whom apparently had been sent by the Order and was sent to find a Vnamen of Elekitel named Diana. He was not a part of the Order, nor was he part of any nation. He was exiled by an enemy nation out of independent thoughts of which conflicted the ideals of the nation, unpatriotism. It was considered one of the absolute worst crimes among the Vnamen, far worse than murder or disruption. Some nations charge exile, but others like Elekitel charged execution. In most nations, however, it was excusable for children. Which was more merciful was up for debate. This particular Vnamen, however, managed to live in the Nether-Zone, about 2 square Yojana in area where the Spirit Boundary is located (thought it's exact location isn't recorded). It was the Order that decided that this area was to be neutral territory for all Vnamen as refugees often came to this area in search of refuge from genocide and were desperate enough to travel to one of the more primitive worlds. Also, it was a place where creatures from other worlds would arrive in and be relatively safe from warfare, as opposed to possibly being killed as soon as they came through the portal. Elekitel usually ignored other species, but some nations didn't discriminate. Every nation did seek out to dominate every single inch of Samallia, but most had no particular interest in this single area of land until every other corner had been conquered. Vnamens had no interest in any world but their own anyway.

At least, not yet.

Diana's memories of the surface, for the most part, were much more pleasant than what she was experiencing then. First of all was the absolute relentless light than blinded her. Many days, she would look up the Pit on the rare occasion that the silo doors opened and light would flood down for many levels, and she would be blinded by the light that poured in, though she didn't dislike it. It was brighter than any gas light that hung, any Glowworm that crawled, any furnace that burned. She didn't know exactly what she felt about it, she never thought about it. Did the light represent hope? Nostalgia? Entrapment? Fear? She couldn't tell. She just felt something pleasant about the light that poured in from above, a piece of an alien environment in her home. Or maybe it was a piece of home in an alien environment.

Yet, here, she was bathed in the light, and it was more light than she could handle. Even when squinting, her eyes burned, so she kept her eyes closed and had to cover them with her arm. She could not see a thing, but nonetheless, she walked along with the formation. six escorts walked ahead of her and six were behind her, all wearing the same red and blue military uniform, all with blue berets with red crosses and together, they all walked in an H-shaped formation across the courtyard with Diana in the very center. Many of them were much shorter than her, younger too, men and women between ages of 13 and 20. It was through their eyes that Diana could see.

For example, she could see herself and the formal clothing she was granted for the occasion. Whenever she had any business that had to do with the Order, she'd wear this dress of which more clearly displaced the colors of her nation than any others. Half red and half blue with white dots connecting like constellations in the star maps Diana recorded which represented the connection between them all and a bright red cross on the blue cap which had an even older meaning. The difference in nations didn't seem to matter to creatures beyond Samallia, probably because most of them had singular empires that dominated their planets, but Elekitel wished to spread its name out anyway, to depict itself as the most favorable nation. Also, considering Elekitel, like any other nation, planned to become the dominant empire of Samallia anyway, it seemed only fitting that she, as a representative of Samallia, would be wearing the colors and symbols of Samallia.

She could also see everything around her, one of the many surface emplacements of Elekitel, this one being Section-B Main, which sat right over the Section-B Pit and was encased completely in many layers of concrete walls and watchtowers where soldiers were posted and where the Falzers nested, large falcon-esques with deadly eyesight and scarlet feathers which were as strong as iron and talons which could shred through the same material, and they flew at blindingly quick speeds. In the courtyard around them, many workers were tending to a lot of the larger beasts, the giant Elswine, big boar-esques with long tusks that pointed straight forward and the ability to smell things that are even a mile underground, and the Qirin, a cross between a horse and a dragon with red and blue scales and curled horns that was famed for its speed, strength and bravery (and terrible smelling excrement).

She didn't see any of the Great Bears though, one of the most famous combat creatures of all for their sheer size, creatures larger than dragons that were known to be the most aggressive creature in all of Samallia, possibly most aggressive of all seven realms. They come in all colors, be it white, black or brown, and all wear armor of shining iron and are able to destroy nearly anything be it forts, warships, freight trains, cities or anything Elekitel pleases. They can be deployed on both land and on some waters (wherever Krakens couldn't be deployed due to the water being too shallow) and they can smell man and machine from about a Yojana away. Nearly all cowered from the forces of the Great Bears. It was rumored that they could even kill dragons, even the winged ones that existed in worlds beyond Samallia, being able to pull it from the air. They must have been kept at larger surface emplacements like in Sections A and D, but they certainly didn't fit underground, most having lived their entire lives on the surface. Diana, like anybody else, never feared the Bears. It was only late during her time in the military that she ever got to see them in action, but she knew what they were capable of, even on their own. On their own, they could do great things because they were big and strong, unlike the Vnamens. Yet, they were still dumb animals, so they obviously couldn't accomplish things without the direction of the Vnamens, the true greater power. Though, on her own, Diana wondered if she'd still be any smarter than the Bears. Only once she'd been without them, the first time she went to the Hall of Silence, and it was only briefly, but it was a very confusing situation. Now, she was to go there again.

The formation continued through the courtyard, workers and soldiers parting to make way, yelling orders at their various fabrications. Diana's escorts were shouting too, not at the people of course, but at the animals. Diana, too, was shouting. The words were very incomprehensible, being a very simple language meant only to be yelled at fabricated creatures, whom may have not understood it all the time. The trick wasn't in what was said, but how it was said, and usually, that was by shouting. The telepathy between the Vnamens also consisted more of quality than of content, quite unlike the spoken language the primitive races used, of which was extremely complicated and left a lot of room for misunderstanding. Diana was still learning it, as she had been required to be able to communicate with other races and her telepathy was of a lower tier. Vnamens in Samallia, whom focused little on magic, rarely even had enhanced forms of telepathy. What they had was good enough for them.

Diana's group approached another which was in a line formation ahead of them, each holding a different piece of equipment. Her escorts stopped, but Diana approached them, with her eyes covered still. One by one, they handed her various forms of equipment; a pair of surface goggles, (which Diana put on immediately that allowed her to see and left her arms free,) a belt with a knife sheath, a pistol holster and a few pockets, a silver-colored pocketwatch (which had the various constellation markings that were on her clothing along with the cross) that also contained a compass within it, (which theoretically would work on other planets,) an ivory knife which fit in the belt's sheath and a crossbow of which was about as small as a pistol with a bow that could be folded up so the weapon could be holstered. She was also given about twenty of the wooden iron-tipped bolts which were small enough to fit in her ammunition pocket. Diana examined the crossbow, seeing that it was already loaded with a single bolt. She was quite confident that she'd be able to fire it accurately. She'd used a variety of different projectile weapons before and her accuracy was top notch, at least when she was around her allies. Being able to see through the eyes of her allies, she had multiple angles of view, not to mention she had the accuracy of not one person, but many whom were thinking about taking the shot, as if she were part of a greater body. It wasn't Diana who made a shot, it was her entire squadron. Diana wondered if she would still be as accurate on her own, especially considering she hadn't fired a weapon in years.

The weapon was only for self-defense anyway, in case they were attacked on the way to the Spirit Barrier, but she was unlikely to be attacked once she was at the Hall of Silence. Only, Diana wasn't sure how long she'd be there for. It all depended on what the Headmaster Erobus wanted of her.

Once Diana was prepared, the group whom supplied her stepped aside and her escorts returned to either side of her. They moved toward one of the enormous gates of the innermost wall which was opened for them already. The formation continued through the various sections, going through the minor barriers of each square-section and through the major walls of which encased around the whole emplacement, where the Pit was located. Eventually, they arrived at one of the outermost sections, where other young soldiers were waiting, armed with rifles, along with a much older Vnamen, older than Diana even, whom wore grey robes. White hair covered his head, just as it did any other Vnamen. One of the soldiers was dealing with some sort of long-eared creature, of which Diana didn't recognize as a fabrication, meaning it was a natural creature. A mule perhaps.

Behind them was some sort of bronze archway, simply standing on its own, with many strange characters engraved on it. Attached to its sides were cylindrical crystals of some kind. On her own, Diana could tell it was some sort of Mana-powered device. Though, she was already receiving the thoughts of all the others. The older man was the hermit whom was sent by the Order, and he had the ability to open portals using magic, only it required quite a bit of Mana. The crystals were heavily enriched with Mana and could be found underground. Other worlds may have made use of these for a lot of their magical technologies, but Elekitel used them for much more important purposes, mostly for growing their food with very few nutrients available (which only the parasite implanted in their stomachs could turn into something usable for their bodies). The matter, however, seemed very urgent, as she could tell from the hermit's thoughts.

The hermit was clearly much different than the rest of them. His thought were the most identifiable among the group because he was the most different, a minor, yet differing opinion, and instinctually, thought they didn't show it, they all either despised him or feared him. Even Diana saw him as somewhat of a threat, yet a minor one because there were obviously more people on her side of the opinion. It wasn't any less difficult to tell what he was thinking. He was rethinking the memory of being contacted by the Order to find Diana and even about some of the ride there. He thought about when they were setting up the portal and how inefficient magically they were, but his thoughts were tense as he was thinking about death for some reason.

Wordless exchanges took place between the whole group and the hermit and the soldiers dispersed with the exception of two whom stayed on either side of the hermit and together, the three turned around. Diana's escorts stood in a horizontal line in front of her. Everybody, including Diana but with the exception of the hermit, stood still like statues. The hermit was whispering something, incantations of some sort which Diana could barely hear. Those who spoke verbally needed strong ears to listen, but Vnamens did not, yet they were not completely deaf. The hermit waved his hands as light in the archway began to bend, shifting into what appeared to be a light blue fluid-like surface of which emanated light phosphorescently. With a few slightly more audible incantations, the color solidified as an ocean blue.

As soon as he was finished, however, the thought of death entered his head again. Diana wondered about that, yet her wondering didn't go unnoticed. The hermit thought about what being shot by the soldiers would be like. One of the soldiers told her that the hermit would be executed as an enemy on their land, despite being neutral. Diana understood completely, however. Nations didn't truly matter to the Vnamens, only thoughts mattered. If ones thoughts did not match your own and those of everybody else, they hindered the great collective and even had the capability to infect more with their ideas, even if you were unwilling to be. This hermit may have done nothing but good, assisting refugees and doing tasks for the Order, yet once he was out of the protected land, anyone opinion could do what they saw fit.

Diana then wondered exactly why he decided to do it anyway. It would have been easy for him to refuse the Order, they could have sent one of their own people, probably not a Vnamen, to find her if it would have cost him his safety. The hermits thoughts went back to receiving the request, when he learned of the Archites, and they even went back to his own former nation, the terrible memories of war, being exiled of deviant thought, meeting other Vnamens whom sought neutrality or safety and his decision to stay in Samallia to help them. What exactly he was trying to say, Diana couldn't tell, but somehow, he just knew that he'd be doing the right thing. He also knew that the portal wouldn't stay open for long. He was grabbed by the two soldiers and moved out of the way (though, he moved willingly as there was no way the young soldiers could overpower the 30+ man) and Diana's escorts dispersed to either side. Diana hesitated. Thoughts were put into her mind about how to get to the Spiritual Barrier from the other end of the portal and how to activate the portal when she returned. Thoughts of urgency and duty were thought all around and the hermit even stopped thinking about death, but he did think about peace.

Diana took a deep breath. Often, Diana did so to be able to tell who she was as her thoughts often got mixed in with others, which was part of being part of the collective. It was like she was trying to mentally prepare herself for jumping into cold water, so instead of taking it slowly, she dived right in, running straight through.

The envoy the Order had sent annoyed Auroriianos, even the messenger’s voice irritated him. The pent up frustration he had towards his father was only beginning to cause dangerous thoughts. It was dangerous for any Archonian to withhold emotions. It would only lead to an explosive outburst that could harm those around, but Auroriianos held so much in and sometimes he felt as if he would explode, in a literal sense of the word. Nonetheless, Auroriianos stood there as the messenger scurried off to deliver the message Auro had given. Erobus knew they would come, he also knew they would help find the other “chosen ones” as Auro was definitely sure that Idros didn’t just visit him or Azael, there just had to be others, and the legend of the Archites burned fresh in his mind. He had been deep in thought when he realized that Azael was talking to him. The male had clearly lost whatever fabric of mental stability he had left by jumping over the edge of the bridge, but with a flap of his wings he was now hovering. Archonians could fly naturally, but Auro always admired Azael’s wings. They were beautiful appendages to which Azael utilized masterfully.

“Indeed,” Auro replied as he too jumped over the edge before shooting like a bullet through the cascading water. When he emerged on the other side, he saw Azael and shook his head. “You’re getting slow old man,” he mocked as he landed beside the male. Their walk was a quiet one, and Auro could tell that Azael did not like the dark, though it was perfectly normal for Auro. He used his senses to feel around the darkness and pinpoint certain things, yet even still there would be an occasional pebble or something that would try to trip him up. Upon reaching the swirling vortex of power, Auro watched Azael with intrigued eyes. This was the link between the worlds. This was how the Order and those who knew of it, transitioned from world to world. Of course there were other ways of traveling to distant worlds. Technology had advanced on other worlds and as such those worlds had shared their technology. Even still, magic was there to assist in providing a bridge to travel amongst one another. There was absolutely no reason for anyone to ever not visit one of the seven worlds within the Finite Realm.

Azael stepped in first, and Auro smiled. The power that resonated from the vortex was amazing. It beckoned to him to walk in and he gave into its will. Before he realized what was happening, he was in the Hall of Silence. He was standing but a few inches away from Azael and he had made it in time to hear the messenger tell Azael that Arteimos wanted to speak with them both. It was also at this time that another entered the Hall.

“Messenger, do make sure that they go before the Elders please,” Auroriianos stated as he pointed to the clearly fear filled Wrenn that was crouched a distance away with its weapon drawn, “I trust the others will be arriving soon if you’ve done your job right.” He was right, as he sensed more arriving in the hall. He smiled slightly at the idea of meeting new creatures, new warriors of the light, Archites of the Order.

The Hall of Silence wasn't named such without a reason. There may have been places that were even more silent, yet this was one place that Diana wasn't ever used to. The Order's domain. Diana remembered her first time coming here, how absolutely confused she was. There were no thoughts to guide her except her own. She would watch what seemed like intelligent people, yet being unable to tell what they were thinking, they were much too unpredictable and Diana couldn't keep in sync. Diana payed more attention to the relative silence in her head than that of her other senses.

Diana wasn't sure how long it took her to go through the portal to the other side, and had not realized when she had become aware of herself or her surroundings, not unlike dreaming, when you cannot tell when you become aware of yourself or not. Diana merely stood in place, as still as a statue as she listened to that one loud thought in the emptiness of her head, that of her own. It was peculiar, her own little thought wandering in all kinds of directions and very freely. When she was part of the collective, her thoughts were much more focused as most of her thoughts weren't even hers, they were everybody's. When everybody shared a thought, they could focus. Yet, when all alone, Diana's thoughts seemed to be wandering quickly, from the Order, to Idros, to Elekitel, to the Hermit, to the war, to the refugees, to other planets, to other species and to herself. It certainly wasn't what she was used to, but she was somewhat prepared for it this time.

Though, as she stood completely still and silently, she was aware of other presences in the room. She hadn't noticed them at first for she could not hear them thinking, but they were in plain view in front of her and were making quite a bit of noise as well. It took Diana a while to recognize them, but she could certainly tell that none of them were Vnamens.

The most apparent one had to have been the Empyrean, at least from behind, the wings being obvious. Very peculiar that they were the only race of which Idros gifted with the power of flight, something of which the Vnamens couldn't accomplish themselves. Falzers were the largest creatures that Elekitel has fabricated and they still were smaller than Vnamens. It was merely impossible to get anything heavier than a Falzer into the air, of which had almost entirely hallow bodies. Of course, Elekitel never did dare mess with the base form of a Vnamen, for something that isn't quite Vnamen would be different in mind and may not have thought the same way as Elekitel, if tampering hadn't destroyed it's telepathic or other magical capabilities. Perhaps Idros had not gifted the Vnamens with wings for such mass would inhibit their vast mental capabilities and more energy would be donated to the wings than the mind and the their minds were one of Idros's greatest gifts to the Vnamen. Though if Vnamens could fly, Diana figured, maybe they wouldn't have to live in caves.

The second most apparent creature had to have been the Wrenn, which Diana had mistaken for a fabricated creature of a sort. Being unable to detect their thoughts, Diana had a little bit of trouble believing each of the creatures were intelligent, merely speaking with each other and moving with the unconscious spontaneity of an insect. The Wrenn seemed the most animalistic, however. Diana only knew of them as savage and highly primitive creatures of which banded together in rather small colonies merely to survive. However, primitive they may have been, they had some rather good physical qualities of which Vnamens could only accomplish in their fabrications. Diana wondered if a Wrenn would make a good replacement for a fabricated creature in combat, assuming they were the least bit intelligent than one. What Idros hoped to capture in their design, Diana didn't know, but the Creator's ways were mysterious.

Although, there was another creature that looked like some sort of fabrication between a person and a mammal of some sort. The bright orange hair was very unusual, as it was on the Empyrean. Diana used to not believe that pigment could be stored within hair. This pseudo-person, however, had many traits of which seemed to fit some sort of mammal of which Diana wouldn't have been able to identify on her own. She must have been a Mounirian, of which were a cross between a man and a fox. Diana hadn't really seen a fox before, but she didn't have a hard time believing that this creature looked like one. Diana didn't see her as any less of an animal than the Wrenn, however. Foxes were supposedly clever, yet she couldn't tell if this one really was or not. The Creator seemed to have a tendency to create intelligent creatures of which shared traits with natural ones, or perhaps the latter was created in the image of the former. If such was the case, Diana wondered exactly what creature Vnamens shared traits with. She assumed it had to have been Bees, creatures of which worked diligently and acted together as a collective hivemind and had the capability to create great things. Diana had been involved with studying and fabricated the base form of these creatures and she knew that she saw some genius in the small little creatures, some of herself.

The fourth of the most apparent creatures did have white hair, but Diana didn't mistaken him for a Vnamen for a second. The only way he could have been a Vnamen is if he was a corpse. Diana wasn't able to identify exactly what he was, many races took on the vision of the Creator, the Vnamens probably being the most perfect example of the Creator's vision. This creature was not any of the other creatures, nor was he a Vnamen, so he had to have been a Human. She wasn't sure exactly what a Sanguel looked like, nor an Archonian. From Diana's knowledge, she knew that the Archonians were beings of pure arcana, but she wasn't entirely sure what form such a being would take on, if it took on a form at all, and if such a form really was intelligent. Humans, however, were a race that, although were lesser than Vnamens in every way, were probably much smarter and more advanced creatures than any of the others, with one exception; un-synchronicity.

Even from what little Diana could understand of what was going on, she could tell that all these different creatures were out of sync with each other, needing to create verbal noise just to understand what is happening beyond their own perception or what another is thinking. The four creatures weren't even standing in a proper formation and needed to look around or at each other to understand their situation. They were confused, they probably thought differently too. Not having the Vnamen's gift was what was sure to disrupt the societies of all other creatures. Each creature could only think independently, and their minds wandered just as Diana's was now. They end up consciously or unconsciously do things that others don't expect, potentially leading to disorder and harm. Even through learning how to speak in a spoken language, Diana could tell that the verbal language was limited and didn't allow her to transfer her thoughts correctly between herself and another person without there being corruption in the data due to misinterpretation. Plus, if every single creature thought independently and came up with their own opinion, no matter how slight the difference was, surely such would result in conflicts, and not the large ones the Vnamens ended up in, but ones that occurred between singular people, people of which have worked, or at least attempted to work together for a large portion of their lives end up being unable to cooperate at times. If two people had conflicting goals, just as nations did, they'd fight each other just as nations did, thus resulting in all kinds of disruptions all the kind of which lowered the efficiency of which they could preform tasks immensely, lacking that efficiency of which the Vnamens knew were essential. Surely, if this were to occur between the Archites, they would be unable to heed to the wishes of the Creator, whom of which would frown upon them.

Diana herself had no idea as to what was happening. Unable to hear their thoughts and unable to tell if they were hearing hers (although, she knew that they probably couldn't) she knew that she had to resort to verbal language to speak to them, the same way she would to an animal, only instead she would be using a different language, Universal Standard. With a deep inhale, such as she would when she was about to shout orders at a great big Elswine, she prepared to speak her mind.

"ATTENTION!" she shouted curtly, as if she were a drill instructor, "OUR-" she cleared her throat as she reminded herself the difference between singular and plural in relation to people, which she had difficulty with, "My label is Diana of Elekitel, the great unifier of Samallia! The Creator has connected with myself, and myself only, and has labeled me an Archite!" She paused between sentences and paced herself to make sure she had every important detail, but only important details and not speak a long string of everything on her mind, "I was summoned here by the Headmaster, whom of which is seeking the Archites! Each of you will identify yourselves and allow me in his presence!"

---

The Hall of Silence, an understatement surely as whispers began to echo from every corner of the great hall. Words could not express the grandeur of the hall itself. With its massive vaulted ceilings and illustrious gardens, dark starry skies overhead reflected off the surrounding waters that appeared to cascade off the very edge of the universe itself. There was no end to the majestic nature of the hall, nor the many mysteries that were riddled inside every wall and chamber. No expense was spared in its winding gold stairways or the art and décor that came from every walk of life across all the seven worlds.

In the annals of history, the Empyrean had been marred by a dark and troubling past, from a time when Uldrik had spread his influence across Atrulyn. At war with Vianthorus and the Wrenn who inhabited it, the Empyrean had long made their presence known amongst the primitive and indigenous species. Fortunately civil war ended up breaking out between the Empyreans, effectively ending the campaign in Vianthorus (but not the horrifying memory of the wrath they had already unleashed upon the Wrenn).

Not even the Empyrean were free from sin, or a past they had long tried to forget. The unyielding gaze from the Wrenn was an unsettling one in which Azael attempted to ignore. He was a defender of the peace, protector of the weak, and would not be intimidated in the slightest. His people had committed many mistakes, but in generations he had no control over. “Best sheath your sword, Wrenn.” Hand hesitantly hovering over the hilt of his blade, he was quickly sidetracked by the ‘unifier of Samallia.’

A unique race, one in which not even Azael completely understood. Although he’d spent some time in each of the worlds, the Vnamen came across as rather inaccessible, a technologically advanced race of humanoids whose civilization was unlike that you’d find anywhere else. Not to mention communication didn’t seem to be their strong suit. “I am Azael, an Empyrean from the planet Atrulyn, Knight of The Order, Requiem of Time…” Distractions seemed rather prevalent as Azael had already quickly come across another.

Ahulanni, who lingered close behind him… Terronia, a planet he’d spent almost more time on than his own. The dark red sash tied around her waist catching his eye, he turned, facing her as their eyes caught briefly. Did she notice him? That had been so long ago. And he had tried so hard to distance himself from the past. Was she called on to be an Archite too? So many destinies, fated to be intertwined in the battles that were sure to come. Azael had always yearned to know the truth behind his future, but he never expected this.

As the two great doors in the hall opened, High Elder Erobus crept out, his cane clanking off the floor as he stood before the gathering. “Archites, I see most of you have already arrived… but not all of you. There are dark days ahead of us, and by the grace of Idros, you have all been given great responsibility in the days to come. But please, please… I beckon you into my chambers. There is much to be discussed.” While Azael intently focused on Erobus, his mind couldn’t resist wandering. First it was the Wrenn, then the Vnamen… Ahulanni… and least he forget, Elder Arteimos who he’d still yet to see. Needless to say, he didn’t look forward to the encounter between Auro and his father.

Xi had not realized when Azael came over to him, not over 'The Unifier of Samallia’ roared over everyone else. From this Xi shrunk away in pain as his scales rippled with her obnoxious sounds. Unlike when he recoiled in fear, Xi was now recoiling in sensory pain. That was a flaw with hearing with your entire body, having a sensitivity to direction and volume. Wrenn were no more capable of hearing at distance than most humans, but their full body of sound sensitive scales gave them greater abilities at noting volume, pitch, tone, distance, and direction of any sound they could hear.

Knowing that he was not allowed to strike at other members of the Order, no matter how much of a threat that they presented themselves as with their voice, Xi responded with a deep call, letting it grow deeper as it bounced around in his body. Among the wrenn, a call like that was a call to tell another to quiet themselves.

Before Xi could recover the concept that the loud one was simply that, loud, the great Elder Erobus stepped out from the great doors. Even though Xi had not been facing him, the vibrations that Xi could feel through his feet told of the three legs that Erobus used to walk, something few others did. Besides, compared to the others who walked on three legs, Elder Erobus had a unique rhythm to the way he walked.

Then Elder Erobus spoke, speaking of the archites, summoning them to his chambers. Dropping from his upright stance, Xi moved with a grace that few creatures could maintain in both upright and four-legged movement. His hands and feet moved across the flat hall, carrying him at a hastened walk to the quiet of Erobus's chambers. He ignored the others for now, he would learn who they were when he was guaranteed they would not speak loud enough to cause the full body pains that yelling causes.

Upon reaching the Elder, Xi stood up and looked the aged man in the eyes. He spoke, the words taking their time to form and coming out with mild struggle, "Hello... Elder Eroobus."

Erobus.. The highest of the Elders stood confidently carrying a presence that reflected the images of sages who's vast knowledge of the universe went by unchallenged. The threads of his robe covered his body in a dark fabric that laid gently on the old man's shoulders. The designing of the robe, with it's dark tones and placements of obsidian armor made Mystra wonder if he was really a holy man, pious to the Order and upholding the balance of the universe, or a mage versed in the arts of darkness and witchery who's true choice of faction (being either good or evil) was always in question.

The latter was, most likely, false. However, there's none who can question a being, who's lived for far longer than Mystra, who's power lied in the ascertaining of knowledge in various forms of magic. His eyes mentioned to Mystra stories that went beyond those told to her from when she was younger, a timid foxling who's depth lacked any suffering and pain that others were so unfortunate to bear. On that fateful when she was younger, both suffering and pain crept up from the darkest tales she'd heard as a child and churned in to a sea of living misery who's depths repeatedly drowned her.

Quickly, Mystra tried to shake off that unpleasant nightmare. Memory, the intangible knife that crept up and poked it's sharp blade never seemed to show any mercy to Mystra. The night that tore away her childhood and together with the deafening roar of thunder and the haunting cries of her kin melded in to an unending cacophony of horrible terror. Attempting to stride pass her memories and the road of her own doubt Mystra leapt out from the well of her mind and back to the present.

The Vnamen she'd heard not too long ago was still there raising her chin proudly for everyone to see. Mystra saw how she spoke, her rowdy expressions already painting a smug image in her mind.For Mystra she thought of how true it was for the mind to form in to words one's thoughts, but to the Vnamen words appeared to be more like the rain of a monsoon, hard and non stopping.

Thankfully the Vnamen that now came to be known as Diana did in fact stop speaking, atleast long enough for Azael to greet her. In contrary to Diana's willful speech, Xi found it hard to grasp his own words in front of Erobus. Unlike his threatening size as well as troublesome odor, Mystra thought of him as modest and gentle. Perhaps it was her kind that taught her that even beasts, as mighty and fearsome as they come, all have a gentler side often hidden from the world's eye.

After Xi greeted Erobus the room became quiet, except for the soft crackings of torches.

Diana's attention turned to the Empyrean whom spoke first, although she didn't look directly at him. “I am Azael, an Empyrean from the planet Atrulyn, Knight of The Order, Requiem of Time…” Diana examined his words, picking them out from his rather different accent (which probably didn't sound as ridiculous as Diana's). His existence was Azael, which seemed to mean his name was Azael as most speakers would understand. Indeed, he was an Empyrean and it came as no surprise that he came from Atrulyn. Knight of the Order confused her a bit, but she realized that he wasn't talking about Atrulyn as a whole (like how Diana was referring to Elekitel when she titled it the 'unifier of Samallia') but about himself. Diana knew she had to get used to how self-centered creatures thought of themselves and how they spoke. Knight was a term for a servant, so he must had been referring to how he, himself, worked for the Order. Requiem of Time, however, was most confusing. She was quite unfamiliar with what a requiem was, but she was sure it had to do with some form of ceremony involving one's death. Elekitel had no such things as ceremonies and the dead were unimportant to them. The terms Requiem and Time, however, seemed of no relation to each other to the extent of Diana's knowledge of the spoken language. Perhaps she was missing something because she was unfamiliar with something in Empyrean culture that made the two words relevant or Diana was merely still a novice at speaking.

Though, as she expected questions she thought of to be answered for her, no answers came. Once again, the grim reminder came to her that she was absolutely alone. There was no great collective for her to be a part of, nothing to feed her answers, nothing to feed her own thoughts to. While she spoke so highly of Elekitel or of her own species, there was nothing she could say about herself. No Vnamen ever concerned themselves about themselves. Many Vnamens hardly even knew which body was theirs or which mind was their own, they were merely a single great mind with many bodies. Alone, however, Diana felt severely incomplete.

Her troubled thinking, however, was interrupted when the Headmaster entered the room. It was unmistakable. Diana had seen him before in the minds of others, plus she'd witnessed him once before. Diana couldn't tell exactly what race he was part of, he could of been Human or even Vnamen. In some ways, it would surprise her if he was a Vnamen and in some ways it wouldn't. Yet, despite him being a great man, Diana decided there was no way he was a Vnamen, simply because he was a great man.

Diana, however, respected a great man. He was one of great insight and knowledge and was head of the Order, an organization blessed by the Creator and the Vnamens were the most gracious of the Creator's gifts. After all, the Creator gave the Vnamens their ability and it was the creator that filled their world with resources, prime for use as the Creator intended. To not make use of the Creator's gifts was a sin. The Order as well was a gift of the Creator's will, even if it was men that created it. After all, the Order was created from the will of the Archites whom were chosen by the will of Idros. Of course, once again, the Archites were chosen by the will of Idros and Diana, not Elekitel, was chosen by his will. From the Headmasters words, it seemed these other creatures in her presence were chosen by the will of Idros as well.

Although, unlike them, the Headmaster's presence demanded respect. Diana went completely silent from that point on. After all, not only was she in the presence of the Headmaster, but of the Archites as well. To have spoken to them was rude on her part, yet she still had a difficult time seeing any of them as truly great, like the Headmaster was.

Irritated by the sheer stupidity of the other races gathered, Auro stood silently as he watched the foolish girl yell out. Clearly she knew not how to use her inside voice. He would’ve shunned her and chastised her for her stupidity if Master Erobus hadn’t walked into the room. There was silence when the man of authority walked in. Auro could only scan the room as he took in the features and body language of everyone within the Hall of Silence. Not every day was he like this. His relationship with his father had reached an all-time high. He hadn’t spoken to Azael about what had occurred yesterday. Auro stood there for a moment reminiscing on what had happened and how close he had come to hurting his father.

Yesterday, Early in the Morning

“I’m tired of you treating me like some child, I’m 19 years old dad, and I deserve to be treated with respect.”

“Respect is earned son, not given freely.”

“Or perhaps Respect is taken.”

“You dare challenge your father in this manner?”

“Why not, you’ve been no father to me. Azael might as well have been your son, that’s the only person you devoted 19 years to.”

“I instructed you Auror......”

“You lied to me,” Auroriianos interrupted, “all this time, you taught him the secrets. All this time you taught him advanced techniques, neglecting your own son, your own flesh and blood and for what? Am I not ideal enough for you Arteimos? Am I not a warrior? What am I to you?” Do you even see me?”

“Yes I see you Auroriianos, I see you every second of my life. I know I’ve not been what a father should, and for that I am sorry.”

“Oh the great Arteimos apologizes, that’s one for the record.”

Arteimos’s face stiffened and he turned from his son.

“I will not fight you in your state Auroriianos. You’re drunk and you’re unstable.”

“FUCK YOU!” Auroriianos yelled as his form seemed to glow slightly, “All those years, those wasted years, and I don’t even know who you are.”

“Auror....”

“GET OUT OF HERE!”

An orb of arcane energy shot forth, Arteimos just barely dodging it.

“That is an advanced technique, how did you....” Arteimos was cut off again as another orb, this one bigger, shot towards him with unbelievable speed. He dodged it and rolled to the side, looking at Auroriianos who stood as defiant as a wall to progress.

“Auroriianos, listen to me,” Arteimos beckoned, “I am your father, and I know I’ve not been there the way a father should have. I implore you to reconsider your actions.”

“Implore this....,” Auroriianos stated as electricity sparked between his finger tips and shot out in various directions. Arteimos put up a forcefield and watched as the electricity struck the barrier.

“Auroriianos, I love you, you are my son, my flesh and blood, and this is not you. I did what I did to make you stronger Auroriianos. I did what I did to show you independence. You are strong, but you lack self-control...”

“I’ve heard enough from you,” Auroriianos stated as he unleashed a barrage of hellish orbs that rocketed towards Arteimos with intent on injuring the elder. Arteimos dodged them with ease, all but one, for as Arteimos dodged them, another came from behind him and struck him in the middle of his back, sending him toppling to the ground. He quickly rolled to his feet and felt the pain seethe through his body. When he went to move, he felt another pain shift into his arm and he realized all too late what was going on.

“That is old magic, who taught you that?” Arteimos stated breaking the spell that held him in place, “who taught you this type of magic?”

Auroriianos said nothing; he simply began to hover, his hair flowing with the increase in his power. The sting of the orb that hit him reminded Arteimos that his son was not playing games.

“I WILL NOT FIGHT YOU AURORIIANOS!” Arteimos stated once more as Auroriianos hovered there for a moment before landing and turning his back on his father.

“You are dead to me...”

That was all Auroriianos said before he vanished. Arteimos watched his son with an injured heart, not physically but emotionally. His only son had turned his back on him, had attacked him and had left him. This must’ve been how Auroriianos felt in regards to his negligence. Arteimos, for the first time in a very long time, felt a tear fall from his eye and fall from his face unto the floor. He had lost his son, his own flesh and blood, there was no way to fix it, and even if there was Auroriianos wouldn’t listen to him.

Hall of Silence, Meeting with Elder Erobus

Auro walked into the room with the other gathered Archites in training. He was silent, much more than usual. Normally he was active, talking, laughing and playing jokes, but today he was silent, he looked to be going through a lot emotionally and it showed in his features. Erobus took note of this and knew of the fight between Auro and Arteimos. His heart ached for the young man, but he knew why his father had did what he had done, it was to make Auro stronger, more independent and less reliant on his father, but there were other ways to accomplish this. Arteimos would have to fight for his son now more than ever.

Auro noticed Erobus looking at him and immediately he looked away paying no attention to the others in the room.