Prologue

  The Soulcrist fell through the sky ablaze with a blue luminescence. It hurtled through the stratosphere at light speed and cast a fierce glow upon the world as it rocketed through the sky. A Strange omen, descending to Eden, it was a harbinger of the end of time. Like the second coming of an ancient god.

  Thel had awaited this day for decades. He alone. Privy to the Soulcrist, privy to the artifact of legend. He had searched long and hard for the geode that had gifted him this heart. It spoke to him in his dreams. Hidden from the world for eons it slumbered in an abandoned palace in the sky, rejected by any deity who desired such a relic. Rejected by the Al’il.

  He watched the two moons float above the silent and forgotten prison world of Eden as he sat high upon a cold ridge in the mountains of Alecto. In a reality soon to be shattered. The castle had crumbled, it had fallen, and nobody cared and they had misplaced him. The Old Gods shoved him aside like a pariah. Knowing that one man could not possibly change the world. Not on his own. He alone had a link beyond reckoning to the geode.

  Those spurned lovers held vigil over their creation, imprisoned in the spheres hovering on high around the sullen planet. They had meted out their judgment on the old creators long before and trapped them somewhere within the dreaming. Between layers and layers of other worlds and locking the door behind them. It caused a push and pull in the fabric of space and once separated after the war they too were imprisoned.

  The ancient ones supposedly waged battle at the start of existence, the old versus the new. Resulting in the imprisonment of the two first born gods. Despite this, they forged their own realm within the fabric of their prisons, secluded from their captors. A hidden force awaited inside the Soulcrist, unseen and untouched by anyone. It was known as the Dreaming.

  Thel’s thoughts were a miasma of doom and fear. Clarity eluded him this day. Long ago he received the heart as a gift from the Soulcrist and when it awakened, he sought answers from the divine entity. It had told him everything. The artifact resonated a sentience that only one with a connection could use. Thel was that one person.

  He mobilized what he could of his army and in a moment’s haste had fled Far Water and headed for Alecto, one of the furies, a large mountain range that towered above the continent of Thalas’ka.

  The moons shone a beautiful pastel green and a pale sickly blue and sat high in the firmament. They never moved and stolidly watched over their world. Immobilized in the clouds. He surveyed them with weary eyes.

  Not a fortnight past, he had listened to the crist and brought it down with a strange power. Magic, it was called. It graced whoever used it with whatever they desired. Not such a bad omen.

  “What is this?” He implored God. Sen.

  “What is this alien ardor that radiates from within the heart?” he pressed his hand to his chest where the brand of one could be felt. He did not remember that day. The day of the soul brand. All he could remember was fire. Cold as ice. His very existence had been burned by it.

  What is this vessel that held the wonder he had known all his life? The one that had branded him an outcast and pariah. Why was he alone in this world? Why was he given a heart when nobody else was? So many questions. Unlike most, Thel had a different life journey. The first life journey. He wanted the populace to feel. As he did.

  His army camped on Alecto’s ridges each night. A chill wind blew through the crags. To the west, Far Water was visible in the distance. You could see it, sitting, waiting for their return in quiet solitude. Scarcity was beginning to cause starvation and all of those who died during the trek returned to the tree and the crystal. Many lost to the climate. Some falling down the steep crevices and cracks in Alecto. The shattered remains of the palace riddled the landscape. It was a catastrophe. One that could only have been wrought by Thel.

  “We make haste for the top! We’re almost there… I can sense it.” he cried. Back to the troops of men shivering in the cold winds. Their hands were to the fire clamoring for the last bit of warmth from the slowly dying embers.

  “We’ll make our way back to Far Water, just as soon as we seize the geode. You’ll be celebrating with the best ale Gaius has to offer… in another fortnight maybe less… if the Soulcrist so wills.” he said with a gleam in his eyes. “It’s time…” he whispered to the howling winds.

  It truly was. Getting on that time. Time to climb the last steep ascent. To face that which he had brought upon this world. He brought a piece of stale bread to his lips, bit into it, tore the rest away, and munched. “Almost there…” he whispered.

  Thel’s gray beard was closely knit to his square face and tightly shaved to his contours. He surveyed the mountainside, and snow fell and accumulated on the fine hairs. The cold bit at his nose and stung his lungs like a thousand tiny needles. He sat pensively on a ridge overlooking a placid field of green grass that stretched as far as the eye could see, far below. It was clear, too clear up here in these mountains besides the cumulative snow that fell. He shivered.

  The blue and orange robes that adorned him swayed in the icy wind as he stood and walked back to the camp. The clank of metal armor echoed throughout the myriads of tents, a plethora of shoddy woolen blankets draped about some wooden poles, surrounding a blazing campfire.

  They were mobilizing once again. Getting ready to make the climb. People and soldiers running here and there, hollering incoherencies into the forlorn air. The wind howled in the crags.

  “Pull up the posts, collapse the tents!” hollered a soldier.

  Thel looked around in a daze at the amalgamation, perplexed at how they had ever made it this far.

  “What now? Thel?” a soldier asked, walking over to him. He received some glances from the men gathering the tents as if to say there was no time for pleasantries.

  Their faces all asked the same question. Thel was king; of course he would have the answers. Three men stood, attentively gazing at the old man while the others rushed about.

  Thel was no stranger to adventure. Throughout his misbegotten life, he traveled Thalas’ka extensively, yet no adventure could ever compare to this! This? This was an explanation. A beginning as fragile as all the rest. You had to nurture them, build upon them as carefully as you could. For this crystal? It was too soon. This beginning was too fragile. It was unnerving to Thel to say the least and they could all sense it. Thel could not mask his fear, but the soldiers, soulless as they were, remained stalwart companions, having never felt the emotion in their lives. They stood awaiting his reply.

  “Damn my eyes if that isn’t a question for the ages. We’ve traveled fourteen days and nights without want but cease… The world awaits our return and doesn’t even know it.” He said with reserved glee and satisfaction.

  “We’re almost there sir.” the soldier said to him. “How will we get this thing out of that hole?”

  “We follow our hearts…” Thel yelled against the wind with a wink to his soldiers. “We follow the Soulcrist.” cryptic even for Thel.

  “They’re going to love you, Thel. What you’ve done for this world is beyond the measure of any King.’ One woman soldier said to him. She was shivering and her teeth were clacking in her mouth as she spoke.

  “Oh, to be king…” muttered Thel. Patting the woman on the shoulder. He left his hand there for what seemed like minutes and said it once again. “Oh, to be King…”

  He sometimes despised the very thought of his monarchy and held himself and many others in quiet disdain. If you desire power, it is likely best not to possess it. Thel knew he exemplified such ideology; he shunned the fact and although he was a king, he never worked without a team. Always considered others did Thel, no matter what. This time though, this time things would be different. This time, he had the crystal.

  Thel could not bear to sit idly by as the world moved on, clamoring in circles, biting at its own heels.

  “Humble servants, sycophantic politicians, clamoring for the last piece of your attention,” he muttered. “Oh, to be King…” The world kept moving, the show never stopped for any man. So instead, Thel followed this heart. He was no King.

  Alas, Thel’s adventures had not been the grandiose tale one would expect to hear. Thel’s life was fraught with turmoil and sadness, of running and seeking asylum from a tumultuous existence. From himself. All because of Sen.

  He looked up to the highest peak of the mountain in something akin to abject terror. The soldiers watched as Thel did so. He glanced at his men and gave a quick nod. Gleeful though Thel was, he was afraid. So very, very afraid.

  Shortly after, they prepared themselves and the group of soldiers marched up the mountainside of Alecto to bear witness to what it was that lay before them. The Soulcrist. The Great Sapphire itself.

  Thel was ill equipped to confront his long-awaited desire and the calling of their plan to bring magic to the world. To give humanity back her soul. But it was time. Time to face their collective reality.

  The army encountered a rise, then descended a steep slope. Nestled into the next hill was a giant hole in the ground sliced perfectly through the rough terrain. A blue light shone forth from the cave. As they drew nearer, they saw that it extended into a long, winding tunnel. The floor inside sloped down at a modest angle and leveled off most likely somewhere at the bottom.

  Thel quietly looked around at his soldiers and blinked once, holding his eyes shut against the illusion before him.

  “Man denied the world… will take that which rightfully belongs to him… The Soulcrist… is ours men.” he looked around at the men and women with a hesitant satisfaction.

  He shouldered his pack carefully onto the ground and stumbled closer, bidding his men to stand and wait. He opened his eyes and gazed deep into the gaping wound in Eden and the permeating, suffocating darkness stared directly back.

  “What lies beyond the gates of dreaming?” Thel whispered.

  “I want you all to wait here!” Thel yelled. “This is my lot in life…” he finished. “To have brought you all here was foolish… selfish…” He saw the looks on their faces, something was getting to them. Affecting them in some way.

  “We should bring a bigger report.” One man said.

  “It’s too late!” Thel snapped. “This journey has been long… and hard. We do this now or we do not do it at all, or some other poor fool will stake his claim to the crystal.”

  “What if something happens?”

  “We’re about to stand toe to toe with a God…” one man said.

  “The only thing that’s going to happen is what was promised to us, TO ME!” Thel snapped. Men, Thel. Speaking only out of fear.

  “This isn’t like you Thel, can you not see what this crystal is doing to you…”

  “What it’s already done!” Thel finished for him.

  “Thel…”

  “Three men will come with… no more, no less, once we reach the crist, you make damn certain you leave and leave me to it.”

  Thel was a kind man above all. It also happens that the kindest people, in the right circumstances, can become the most fearful. The most rage filled and corrupt.

  Thel looked down dejected at the exchange, regretting his words suddenly he slowly spoke again.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “I’m sorry… Men…” he surveyed the troop that stood around him. “It’s been long…” he looked around at his men. “We set up camp here.”

  Thel’s soldiers saw into his eyes with understanding.

  They once again setup camp before the bore and rested for the remainder of the day.

  Thel arranged for three soldiers to go with him. The man he had snapped at was one of them. Thel had felt badly for berating him and wished to remedy the slight. He was a pudgy man with a robust black beard.

  It was long into the night when they first breached the entrance and crept slowly though the crystalline cave. They made as quiet a transgression as possible, they saw the surrounding rock had frozen solid and could feel the bone chilling temperature that affected most of the tunnel. An icy residue coated the walls. This was a near perfect symmetrical hole sliced through Alecto like a hot knife through butter.

  “It’s like fire…” a soldier said. “Cold fire.”

  Minutes passed as they slid and tumbled down the icy and rocky slope. They came to a large aperture. It opened into a chamber with remnants of an ancient ruin. The tunnel had led into a spectacular room with fallen arches and crumbling statues. A waterfall trickled down, pooling in the center of the room before falling once again into a deep pit.

  “The soulless.” Thel said, “How appropriate.”

  The first race of man in Eden were called the primordials and evolved into what was known as the soulless when they discovered their origin. The Tree had created them all and the Soulcrist was their stolen birthright. Stolen by a jealous parent and used to create their own relic. One man’s curiosity revived long-lost stories, filling this forgotten chamber. Her knowledge remained unknown to humanity and much of what people did know was inaccurate half-truths. As it always goes with the knowledge you think you possess.

  “How we love to speak of the things we know nothing about,” said Thel.

  “What’s that sir?”

  The soldiers emerged from the tunnel into the cave and before them it stood. They all realized they stood before a sort of God. the blue opalescent crystal towered above all four men. The girth was wider than any sky whale. It was enormous and taller than any ten men combined. “It’s enormous…” another soldier said.

  Thel stumbled into the cavern, tripping over loose, ice-coated dirt and rocks. A landslide sent him tumbling, almost plunging into a bottomless pit before the soldiers caught his robes and pulled him back. Staring into the deep crevasse, he briefly wished it had claimed him. Shaken but upright, he and the soldiers steadied themselves after the harrowing fall.

  “We’re not here for close calls…,” said Thel.

  Once ready, he leisurely strolled to the Soulcrist, briefly pausing before proceeding any further captivated by its enormity. He brought his hands up to the icy glass and placed them on the exterior. Thel closed his eyes, silently smiled and marveled in the bliss of finality.

  “Here you are!”

  A barrier of cerulean power surrounded the Soulcrist and yet it was clearer than his dreams. He pressed his face against the chilly exterior. Tears fell and nearly froze on its surface. He pulled back and wiped them away with his arm. Gods, he was blubbering like a little baby, happier than a child discovering its first toy.

  “I’ve found you… at last, I’ve found you.” Thel whispered. “Every night I have dreamed of you for the past fifty years. You’re as beautiful as you were in my dreams.” he smiled through tears.

  This moment belonged only to a man who wished to fulfill the dreams of others. Everyone could live far, far from the binding structures. This prison planet they endured, far from the dreaming world, awaiting that very world. It called out to them. A promised land taken from its origins, pried from the very roots of the world to which it belonged. The Soulcrist. The Dreaming.

  Water cascaded onto the crystal and down onto Thel’s feet, soaking his boots and robes. Too delirious and lost in enamored apathy, Thel did not care.

  In Thel’s haste he had brought nothing to light their way but there was enough moonlight poking through the hole that it illuminated part of the cavern.

  He looked around at the old gray stone archways circling the cave, half buried in dirt. Something was off. Dust still lingered in the air from the fall. Time seemed to stand still.

  Suddenly a torch appeared in Thel’s right hand and flared, emanating what little light that was now available, besides the moonlight trickling through the tunnel.

  “A torch?” Thel asked.

  He was careful not to let the water near it. “A trick of the Soulcrist.” He had no torch a moment before. “A miniscule favor, it seems.”

  Suddenly, the torch flickered out and the crystal glowed, giving off its own kind of light. The light of creation. That light danced like icy fire in Thel’s eyes. It showed him its potential and said I can do so much more.

  He watched the sheen of his reflection as he spoke.

  “Maybe we need to reach for the things we do not understand,” he said.

  “What now, King Thel?” asked one soldier

  “Isn’t that the eternal question?” Thel ran his finger along a crease in the geode.

  “Perfectly flawed.” He whispered.

  He dropped his hands to his side, turned, walked over to a nearby rock and sat. He wiped his face on his robes and reached into his pocket and procured a dagger. “If you could only see what I’ve become, master Dal’pen. If only you could see that our dreams were never out of reach.”

  He held in his hand a dagger given to him by his old tutor. Made of the strongest iron from Maegera. Recently, Lazarus, a master illusionist, had returned to the tree. To his origins. When Thel spoke of the knowledge of the crystal not one person believed him but Lazarus? Lazarus had.

  “The Soulcrist… It’s here.” Thel said to himself and maybe hoping in a way that his master could hear. Turning the dagger over in his hands, he stared into the gleaming metal. He looked up at the soldiers, shining stars in his eyes.

  “What does anyone do?”

  A soldier. The one with the black fluffy beard walked over and sat beside Thel on the rock. It was big enough for perhaps another. The remaining two men prepared to leave.

  The man turned to Thel and said, “Well… I know that if Lazarus were here… He would tell you that life without trying new things and experiencing failure is devoid of true living and learning.” Thel looked in solidarity at the soldier and put his arm around the man’s shoulder, bringing the burly face close to his.

  “Then I think it’s time we start failing…” Thel said with a wink.

  “What’s your name, son?” Thel continued, relaxing his hold but keeping his hand firmly planted on the man.

  “Does it matter?” the soldier asked.

  Thel smiled and shook the man in jest. “No, no, in fact, I imagine it is quite the opposite. I imagine I’m about to awaken from this dream, safe and warm in my bed in Far Water.”

  Thel stood up and pulled the soldier to his feet alongside. Removing the dust from the man’s coat, he led him back towards the tunnel. The other soldiers were ascending and holding steadfast to their promise. They had seen all that they needed to ensure the safety of their King. acquiescing to his request that they leave him when they knew that everything would be okay.

  He caressed the man's shoulder, guiding him away from the Soulcrist. “Tell the others we’ll leave shortly, Allow this old decrepit man a moment…”

  After the soldiers left he walked to the Soulcrist holding the dagger. He stood gazing at the waterfall cascading onto the divine structure. Water ran down the smooth surface.

  “I claim you for this world. Our real birthright. Damn the gods that took you away from us, damn them to the aether…” he fumed.

  He touched the crystal again and a barrier pushed his hand away violently. In his haste he had forgotten about the shining aura binding the crystal.

  “After all this time, you play hard to get, eh?” he said.

  His voice was kind. Fatherly even, but there was a borderline obsession to his words. Thel was just that, however. A kind individual with the best of intentions. Despite the pain he had suffered at the behest of the heart and the wanton fear that permeated his uncertain existence. A man, kind and traveled, paving his pathway to hell. Thel knew not what he would awaken.

  He attempted again with the knife. He tried to dig into the shell. It flew from his hands. The knife clanked hard onto the rocky ground. Feet from the pit. Anger arose within Thel. He slammed his hands against the crystal wall. A sharp geode sticking out from the rock sliced down his hand. It left a long slender laceration on his palm. He squeezed his fist and breathed. What was getting into him? This was not like him at all. Thel opened his hand. He watched as blood trickled down his arm. He cried out in frustration.

  “Damn you!” he hollered. And as he did so the laceration in his hand began to close as though it were never there.

  The soldiers halfway up the tunnel heard the commotion from deep beneath the earth, stopped climbing and turned. There was a latent feeling within them. Spurring them on, telling them something was amiss. They prepared their spears, anticipating anything that could emerge from the cavern below. What was happening? What was this feeling?

  Preparing for the inevitable, if it could be done so, was a part of their everyday training. Uncertainty was absent in their minds and yet a form of fear trickled into their being. They waited. Nothing.

  “Master Thel?” one of them hollered. “Master Thel are you alright?”

  Thel heard the echo from above and chuckled. He hung his head and let out an exasperated sigh of ecstasy mingled with frustration. “I’m fine…” he whispered, lifting his head to gaze into the reflection of his face upon the surface of the blue shell. “Just… fine…” The reflection winked. Hesitating to turn from the structure he called back. “We’ll be out of here soon. Inform the men that there is nothing to worry about!” He never took his eyes off the geode. “As soon as I determine what to do with you.”

  This crystal. A terrible prospect. The soldiers thought.

  They were always attentive to Thel’s wellbeing. Overbearing tendencies inappropriate for their cause. He was always under their watchful eyes and this time was no different. If he didn’t hurry they’d come down that hole faster than you could blink. It was a miracle he had convinced them to leave altogether, he was sure that they were considering returning.

  Thel shrugged it off and continued with the task at hand. Still. So, Still, Thel stood.

  What was this life? Some vast illusion?

  With a pensive expression he stood for a moment, his gaze fixed on the dagger's fallen position. He carefully contemplated the situation and eventually made his way towards it to retrieve the heirloom. Slowly, he thumbed the sharp edge. He knelt slowly but for a moment on his knees questioning this life. This illusion. He owned this moment completely. It belonged to him, but this was most surely some vapid nightmare. A fleeting state, this dream he occupied.

  The dagger in his hand began to vibrate and a faint resonant hum in his head grew to a piercing howl. Thel fell to the ground, screaming and holding his ears, writhing.

  “What do you want?! What?! Who are you? What do you want?” he pleaded with a voice inside of his mind.

  This was it. He was waking up. All around him, he could feel the covers smothering him in his bed. It was time. Any moment. The sound faded to a dull hum.

  He shook his head. “No.” he whispered. “NO!” he cried again louder. Voice echoing through the tunnel for the soldiers to hear. He held his head and collapsed to the ground.

  The guards then heard the shout and mobilized quickly. One soldier shouted to the others at the top. One after another they hurried down at a steed’s steady stride, hasting like ghosts through the aether. Sliding and tumbling down.

  “I can’t!” Thel clutched his head, seething and tearing at his skull, trying to pry away whatever it was that was infiltrating his mind.

  “I won’t!” he shrieked.

  He heard the footsteps of the men. They were coming, and fast, rocks clattered away as their feet hit the earth.

  Upon entering the chamber, the soldiers witnessed Thel bringing the dagger up and back down forcing it into his chest. On his knees, he was stabbing himself with the iron dagger. He drove it in with a force unlike anything he himself possessed. Thel’s expression changed to one of stark terror and he fell face first onto the cold stone, still as could be.

  Horrified fascination quickly turned to stone cold resolve in the men. Thel rolled to his back and his eyes pleaded with theirs as his life faded.

  “Thel!” the pudgy man yelled. “What have you done?!” as the man ran up to him a shockwave pushed out from the soulcrist and propelled him back.

  Blood seeped from a wound on the left side where the dagger had pierced him. Breathing deeply in and out and holding his chest he reached out with his other hand.

  The soldiers approached Thel, slowly this time, they knelt and placed their hands on him. Their eyes full of questions and disbelief. Their gaze met Thel’s, one man, the man with the beard, was crying. Revealing a shade of something never seen before in Eden. Fear had never existed, preventing them from giving it a name and it showed in all of their eyes. However, this was not just any fear; it was a profound terror, a foreboding sense of things yet to unfold. A knowing.

  Thel lay on his side, glaring into the solemn abyss, a conscious nonexistence. Limbo. The rippling, inky blackness of space overtook him, and he became still. Thel was dying. Inside the cold blue fire of the crystal a heart manifested as if from nowhere and beat menacingly. The soldier at Thel’s side got up and brandished his spear. He looked inside and the heart beyond, mesmerized him to his core. He screamed. “What have you done to Thel?”

  Another soldier had since run to Thel’s side and was holding him. They all heard the thump, thud, thump, thud of the heart beating in their waking dreams.

  Something appeared inside the crystal around the beating heart as Thel whisked away, evaporating into a bluish black dust. The crystal sucked in the vapor greedily and glowed ever more fiercely. Thel materialized within and the shield that had permeated the hard shell dropped. A moment passed by, and all the soldiers could do was stare in sheer terror.

  Thel opened his eyes from within. His mouth opened up in a plea for help. Nobody could hear him. He pounded on the interior of the glass-like structure. His vision slowly returned to him after swimming in a strange contrast. A sea of light and dark.

  The soldiers stood, unsure of their next move. They held their spears at the ready in a fighting stance. Ready for anything. Then suddenly, from the crystal shot blue sparks and lightning. It streaked through the room. One man fell, a line of electric blue zipping right through his chest. Lightning violently zapped and sizzled through the room again. Another soldier fell.

  Minutes later the rest of the plethora of troops that Thel had marched through a treacherous mountainous icy hellscape with, were gone. Dead. Thel felt terror as he watched alone, witnessing the crystal strike down his troops, it happened so fast.

  A shadow appeared, rising from the dust and lingering in the air. Then a man in dark robes grew into being, smiling at Thel. He turned, strolled up and out of the dark winding cavern. That is when Thel lost consciousness.

  blackness, death, and fear followed the shadowy figure. Chaos would soon erupt as the mighty crystal would shatter the known world.