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Azalea Verde Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:46 pm
Washington D.C., The United Canadian and American States
After generations of war and political turmoil, the United States of America has split. To the south, the CAS has sparked a racially driven revolution. To the west and north, the NAN has claimed the majority of North America back as their own. Despite this, the Federal government has yet to collapse. After a treaty between Canada and the remainder of the U.S., they have merged into the United Canadian and American States, or UCAS. Washington D.C. remains as a political and economical center throughout the world, and maintains a firm control over it's lingering government. Tall ivory-colored contructions and spires pierce the sky, and the bustling city is tightly controlled by martial law.
Though the majority of Washington's population is human, the constitutional ammendment dictates that Metahumans be treated on equal grounds. Thus, Washington D.C. is another city in which equality has overthrown racist ideals, and people can live in relative peace. As the center of UCAS government and trade, Washington is a beautiful city in which players will be immersed in a clean, well kept environment. It is usually reserved to upperclass lifestyles, with expensive dining and strict martial law. Military personel patrol every corner, insuring minimal crime. However, there is said to be a mediocre gang presence in Washington...
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:05 pm
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 11:36 am
I slept little the next night, and even less through the week. I have never needed to sleep much, the fire which I bring forth from outstretched fingertips is only a shadow of the flames within, and it is enough to sustain. Weariness is easily replaced by a new task, a new fuel to strengthen my spirit.
Reports from my spy have been coming in daily now. It appears there are new arrivals to the island continent all the time as its fame spreads in the world. Yet...I have also learned from other contacts that there is a growing force in Germany, equal in fervor and stronger in hate. The two seem destined to an inevitable clash, their worldviews so different that coexistence in this one seems impossible. However, I have been proved wrong more than once in these last years...we all have.
The spy assures that things seem to be going well in Atlantis, and despite a few minor incidents the current leader, Atticus Royale, is proving quite efficient. Still, the world is waiting to see the power of this young nation which has declared itself a peacekeeper. As the world waits, so shall I, although the urge to visit does get stronger.
It is imperative however that I not reveal myself yet. I have kept the secret of my abilities, of this library, for long years, even when it seemed foolish. Keeping your potential enemies in the dark is a practice any successful businessman would know, and I could do worse than to apply my business principles to the current world. For I am still here am I not? How many were crushed when the economic crisis swept through the globe? How many demobilized with fear, unwilling to risk a single penny? The fools. I used their paranoia as an excuse to climb over their corpses. I left more broken firms along the road than there are street signs. So many of the great corporations have fallen, and yet the Firebrand burns on! And I burn on, laughing in silence at the bitterness of those who once dared to call me their peer. Who is the equal now, oh world? As your lives crumble I am gorged on your sorrow. I am the phoenix reborn from your ashes, and I will rival the sun for glory...
All this I thought as I stood once more in the library of my office, the spy's freshest report held clenched in my trembling hand, several of the ancient books spread out on the desk before me. A small not at the very bottom of the report caught my eye. As I scanned the lines my face contorted first in anger and then in a smile, great booming laughter issuing from my moth. Between laughs I addressed the empty air that hung in the room as if it were a good friend. The small missive which caused this read only a single sentence.
Complete use of nonverbal magic
"Nonverbal? Nonverbal? Ha! Have they learned nothing!?" I shouted at the books, my eyes glinting with mirth and a touch of madness. Here in ruins lies the world they built, the world of science and knowledge, and explanation of anything and nothing, all words with the meaning of a zero. Not fifty years ago were all of their cherished theories and posturing put to the sword, destroyed by a human born with pointed ears, and yet they have learned nothing! The answers lay here!" I screamed, pointing wildly at the shelves lined with volume by volume.
"The secrets were given them, and they scorned it, called it fiction and vain fantasy, for no greater use than a child's amusement. Here it stands, proving them the fool with every word, every heroic gesture and fiend, yet they refuse to accept it! Instead they have profaned it, labeled it only another category of their beloved science, a cliff note upon the history of their monument which is nothing but a corpse! Rotting from within and yet bedecked in finery like a whore whose skin is become old and grey."
I leapt onto the desk, my eyes ablaze with hatred as I mocked them. Spinning around I stretched forth my hand and pointed to the chair, shouting, "Concremo!"
Flame erupted from my hand, burning through the air as it descended upon the wood. Fire tore at the frame, tiny mouths licking at the polish, destroying and rending and living, yes living on the screams of torture that echoed soundlessly from the conflagration. Within seconds it had been consumed entirely, only smoke rising from what little ashes remains.
I paused, breathing heavily. Stepping down from the desk I circled the remains, a look of hatred still on my face, and yet mingled with sadness. Once more I spoke into the still air, which had crackled only moments before with impossible heat. "I am no idiot. I know how this is possible, how a tiny piece of my brain commands power no mans should hold. I am not ignorant. I can see very clearly the combination of fuel, heat and oxygen which produced this wonder. The autoignition temperature of hydrogen is neither foreign nor strange to me; it is one thousand and sixty degrees Fahrenheit. And I am familiar with both the activation energy required and the combustion stages. The tongue of science is no stranger to me, and it is with full comprehension that this is accomplished."
I looked at my hands, the smoldering ruins beneath the only evidence of their great power. "And yet, how much easier is it to say merely Concremo or Absumo, and wait for the blessed heat to burst forth? How much easier it is to trust the magic, the power of which no feat of science may stand against? In their silent performance of such arts the world has stopped them being so. Something was lost when the first man to create fire in an eon did so with his textbook replacing the sacred words, his pristine lab erasing all memory of an ancient spellbook, the smell of incense and black candles, the soft touch of light robes under the pale moon. His study has stripped the awe, the worship, and placed it under a microscope. What little he discovers is worth nothing compared to what he has killed."
I looked once more to the books, some dating back to the prior Awakening. "The men of the past knew. They worshipped and they feared. Caught in the magic they were its lovers and its servants. In this way I am their last pupil, the last one to whom all their love is given. I, Henry Durant, am the last wizard on the face of this earth. Neither the last of the old nor the first of the new, for such titles suggest rebirth. I am only the last, and when my fire is truly dead, the magic in this world will have passed."
Quietly I approached the desk once more, picking up the phone and dialing the secretary. A single tear slipped from my face and onto the floor where it quickly faded.
"Yes. Cancel my appointments for the next few hours. Oh, and have another chair brought up..."
And in the silence that followed.
"For this, I will kill them all."
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