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CHAPTER FOUR: MISSION

I do have a reason for being in Gyric. The main reason is to save my wife, Cassandra, as she is captured behind enemy lines at the moment. I was hired to learn of an alloy on the continent Xacouoth for my employers in exchange for leading an attack on the base she is being held in and rescuing her. I do not particularly enjoy working for them, but I will learn much in my search…and I will finally free Cassandra.
As I am reading, something catches my eye. “Research Conducted on Low Cost Substitutes for the Elemental Crystals: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, and Topaz.” This sounds interesting… “…and while forging simple rings and necklaces to test their ability to rust, heat up, cool down, effects of gravity, and several other properties, I used many common crystals. These were amethyst, amber, pearls (although not a crystal, I had an impulse it would yield some results that were fascinating), garnet, jade, tourmaline, and jasper. Of all these, the usefulness I found in my tests that would be worth the cost were amethyst, garnet, jade, tourmaline, and (as I thought) pearls. Garnet I found to be directly aligned with fire. Jade had an alignment closest to earth, but had noticeable amounts of water alignment as well. Amethyst seemed to be aligned with wind, and although the strength of the alignment was not very powerful. Even so, amethyst could still be used for aligning a forged object with wind for various reasons. Tourmaline was weak as well, but was aligned with both water and earth for the small amount of strength it possessed. The most interesting of these was pearl…it didn’t align with any specific element; rather, it seemed to have points of strength in between each element. With points in between the elements, it was similar to amber, which tested neutral towards the elements. But, pearl had higher spires then any of the neutral tested materials. This leads me to believe that rather than neutral, pearl has characteristics of all 4 elements. This theory is contradictory to the fact that naturally, fire opposes water and wind opposes earth, and vice versa for both the former and the latter. My final theory for pearl is that it will react to other elements it is exposed to, thus giving a chameleon-like alignment. With the right materials, I also believe that pearl can amplify the strength of certain elements as well…” I turn the page, only to find charts and descriptions and sketches on how to repeat the testing. That’s very interesting: when I return to the labs, I will have to do a little testing of my own for types of quartz, seeing how it seems to be a suitable substitute. The intercom of the library sounded: “Attention patrons of the Gyric Library. It is now 10:50 at night. All unauthorized personnel are required to finish what they are working on and leave the library by 11:00. Thank you, and have a good evening.” It shut off.

I put away the books I had been reading, amazed at how the time had passed, and headed towards the entrance of the library. As I got to the door, I nodded at the librarian again and turned to leave. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grid posted on the wall. I walked over to inspect it and learned it was a map of the world. I suppose it is good for research to have it. I traced my finger along the map. I started at the bottom left corner with the Twin Isles of Lilies. It was named so as the two islands are similar in size and shape and also have an abundant population of lilies growing there. My finger moved to the north to the Port of Haez. I looked at the large lake above it and found the town of Gyric where I am now. The capital of the continent Xacouoth, Blueka, is located within the triangle of lakes which make up a third of the land mass. The mainland Xacouoth is about 1000 kilometers by 800 kilometers. Each lake has its own port on the edge of the lake which provides the only transportation to the smaller islands within the lakes. To the southeast of the main land, there is an island about as large as the east lake, roughly 500 kilometers from north end to south end. On the northwest of the continent, there is an island about 300 kilometers from the same direction, yet only 50 kilometers in width. To the north is the continent Kashan, which is much smaller, being only 500 kilometers by 500 kilometers. The continent is named after the Imperial Family is also the homeland of the family as well. On the southeast part of the continent, there is the Four Islands of the Elements. Each island is only 50 square kilometers, but it is said that each island is strongly aligned with their respective element to the point that the royal monks of the island are rumored to have such great control over the elements that a single monk is capable of crossing the sea in any direction by using their element to evaporate or part the water to form a bridge or even fly over the sea. On the mainland, the Royal City, Zaek, rests on the edge of the Lake of Ancients.
On the southeastern edge of the map are the Trade Islands, the continent Racador. The continent itself consists of nine separate islands, each with a port city and several villages on the inner land. The whole continent is only slightly larger than Kashan. Each island is between 100 to 250 square kilometers in total area, but the channels between them, although deep, are all less than 50 kilometers in width. A few of the larger islands have noteworthy lakes, but they are not extensively large. The capital of Racador, and also the largest market in the whole world, is the town of Daliec. It is built on the north side of the center island with an island forming a barrier on the whole west side and two islands on the east. These are the 4 main islands, and there are 5 smaller islands to the south that form the barrier there. As for the main channels, one heads north from Daliec and another heads both east and west, both forking allowing for the leaving of the island chain or the access to the smaller islands and the other side of the main island. Finally, the fourth continent, Shamfa, is on the northeast edge of the map. The northern edge of the continent is 500 by 1500 kilometers and the southern edge is about 750 by 750 kilometers. The shape of the whole continent resembles something like the letter “P” backwards. Although the northern part is large, two thirds of the area is a large lake with several cities on the three islands within it. The ports that grant access into the large lake reside on the northeast corner, Hyarp, and the central southern protrusion, Sirea. The whole lake is almost in the shape of the top of the letter “T” with a small amount of the vertical line protruding from the lake, which is where Sirea resides. Only 250 kilometers to the southwest of Sirea is the capital of the entire world, Meaksa. The reason for Meaksa being the world capital is that, although it is not the native birthplace of the Royal Family, it resides on the largest, richest continent. As well as being on the ideal continent, it is also the easiest capital to reach, being that it is a port reachable without having to navigate small, complicated channels other than passing a thin but 250 kilometer long island. Even so, the Royal Family has no trouble reaching it, seeing how the elemental strength of the world is at Kashan, so travel time for them is reduced.
I sighed and looked at the six islands that exist in the center, east and west, north and south, and northwest edges of the map. The earth lands…

CHAPTER FIVE: EARTH

I walked out of the library with heavy thoughts on my mind and conscience. The earth lands…my home… Unknown to most of the humans on this world, this was not the first world they inhabited. Nor was it the second or third for that matter. Originally, we were the dominant life form on a planet called “Earth.” Humans, as far as records have ever been written, lived on Earth first. It was not our will to leave though, but it was a necessity. In the year 3000, humans had reached a temporary peak in science, and managed to observe—for that matter; they destroyed a barrier they should not have—another life form living in a separate galaxy. In the process of sending the probe, they happened to anger the life form, and they immediately sent their army to destroy us. Being that their technology is much more advanced, they reached and destroyed us quickly, but we managed to bring half the population of the world far enough away from Earth and the attack fleet to keep them alive…the other half perished either while still on the world or the escape ships they happened to be on were hunted down like a disobedient child after he broke many things in the house on purpose and went and hid. With the humans that escaped, they went to two other planets. Both of which were not named in the books I read on it in my years in school, but it was told we inhabited the first planet for 500 years and the second planet for 1500 years, both finding each unsuitable in the long run or we exhausted too many resources too fast. It was only after those 2000 years that we came across this world—Ashanaz as it was called by the sophisticated, human-like natives—and landed on the small islands on the edges of the map I just read. The natives saw this and quickly discovered our positions. They decided to take a peaceful diplomatic approach, offering the islands in exchange for taxes as well as the Royal Family controlling anything we did that would affect other continents. Our ancestors accepted, and then started colonies on the small islands.
I was born in the year 5480, almost in the peak of the human development on this world. In the process of moving between planets, we lost many technologies and greatly slowed the development of others, but managed to surpass the level we were at by the year 5300. By 5495, we were at the peak of human technology, almost even with the natives, who had mastered dimension and world travel, as well as tripling the energy created by accelerating particles of simple things like a vat of boiling water with only using a third of the energy we used to boil water. By creating this energy, they could power their technology and learn even more in a faster pace then we humans could.
Saying the war is all my fault would be a lie. I did not create the concept that would create the instability that the Imperials feared could overthrow their power.
Saying my individual action of creating an unstable transfusion object in such a public manner started the war…would be absolutely true.

I chuckled at myself as I walked into an inn and left a credit on the innkeeper’s desk, picked up a key card, and walked to my room.

CHAPTER SIX: RENDEZVOUS

I awoke and looked at the clock near the bed. It is 8:00 in the morning. I have five hours to finish my research in the library until I must rendezvous with the agent here in Gyric. I just hope no one gets on my bad side today…I may just have to restrain myself from killing someone. Now now, Raphael, be careful. You already have the mark of an outcast in your eyes…if you are caught, the punishment for outcasts is already horrible. Being that you are researching for a group of people that their acts do not only border on treason: the acts define treason. Even more importantly, if you are caught, Cassandra will never be rescued…and probably killed. I closed my eyes.
Suddenly I heard a sound from outside my door. No! I can tell, they are about to knock…if I do not cover my eyes soon, I could be caught! The man knocked at the door: “Hello sir, I understand you left a credit upon my desk last night to pay for your stay. I was only trying to remind you that you only have credit enough for until 9:00. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Goodbye.” False alarm… but it pays to react correctly in false alarms; it means that one will react well when the danger is really near. I opened my eyes. “I must ready myself…” I washed up and carefully positioned my long hair to block most of the obviousness from my bronze-red eyes. These eyes are such a curse. Had they not imprisoned me in Neiosa off the southern coast of Shamfa and genetically edited my eye color to represent my crime before the rebels rescued me…such caution would be unneeded. But since the Imperials decided to take out most of the higher end technology from all the continents but the well guarded Kashan and the area around Meaksa in Shamfa, it is impossible to change my eyes back. I walked out of my room and dropped the key card onto the desk. “Have a nice day, sir,” the innkeeper told me. “And the same wishes for you,” I replied.
I walked back towards the library. It looks so much different in daylight… I walked inside and glanced at the different librarian, assuming each had a different shift. I walked back to the “Blacksmith Techniques and Alchemic Discoveries” section of the library and pulled out several more books to read. After thirty minutes of reading, I learned that the recipe for the alloy I was searching for is not present in this library, so I decided that I would learn more of the properties of different types of quartz and made notes as to my hypothesis. “I believe that each quartz, by perhaps pure coincidence, can be observed and create correct guesses as to its alignment based on its color. For example, a red or rose quartz would be aligned with fire; a green or brown quartz would be aligned with earth; a yellow or clear quartz or a blue or purple quartz would be aligned with air and water, respectively. I also believe that certain colors have multiple alignments as well. I meditated over my work for a moment. I looked at the clock and realized I had only three and a half more hours until I met with my agent—who is posing as a city guard—to report my findings.
I returned the particular book I had been reading to the shelf, disappointed with my findings, and browsed among the titles of the other books. Oanaphien’s Compendium on the Elements, Theorem on Transfusing Elemental Essences, By Zacoth Oanaphien…Well, old Oanaphien certainly has filled the library with his works. I imagine, seeing how he is considered the most powerful elemental user, he is very trusted in his work. Hmm…Story of my Exploration of the Faseak Mines…interesting… I opened the book and read the introduction to myself. “This story, rather, journal tells of my experiences in the Faseak Mines. I believe there is a high concentration of elemental energy on this island. Even the arrangement of the land there—the ring of small islands surrounding the main island, an almost perfect “U” shape with the town Faseak and its port in the center of the shore—seems to be paranormal. The exact arrangement of how the elements affect this island is unknown to me, thus my exploration; although I know for a fact it is not like the Four Islands of the Elements in which each island is strong in a certain element. Perhaps the ring of lesser islands around the main isle has some pattern of alignment, but those are not the ones I am curious about. Rather, I have found a bulge in the strength of all elements—and several unexplained bulges—in certain areas of the island. Under further investigation, I learned most of these are either above or close to the mines of Faseak. Upon learning this, I gathered equipment for exploration and ventured into the mine with a crew of four other men…” I flipped ahead to the end of the journal, where the notes become concepts for experiments and theories. “…I had barely made it out alive from the mines. My crew had been crushed by a cave-in only a day earlier, and I made it out with a broken arm. I had seen this mysterious shadowy ore never before, and I was astonished to see how it glowed with an unparalleled intensity when it was in the dark. Sadly, I made off with only a small sample as when I removed the ore, the cave-in began. Oddly enough, although I almost expected it, when I left the cave, the ore lost its intense glow and reduced to only a reflective black rock. The only sample I had was shipped off to the research center at Hyaecsa, the most northern port on Xacouoth. I believe they intend to test it for threats, but afterwards— “I heard a booming crash from what sounded like the front entrance. I put away my books and went to go investigate when a man turned the corner. “Raphael Kenson, correct?” the man asked.
“That is I, and you are?”
“Forgive me sir, I am Private Jonathan Smith. I am here posing as a security guard, and also to be your rendezvous for your research. Unfortunately, something came up.”
“Which would be?” I asked viciously.
“The officials here in Gyric became suspicious of our activity. As I learned this, I sent for help from the Rebel Forces. A large enough troop battalion happened to be on the Twin Isles of Lilies, so they set up a movement to Gyric. Apparently it took them only two days to reach the town. I saw them and reported in at the lake, and they have intentions to take the city. From then they will remove all valuable resources in both materials and references, such as in this library, and destroy the city. I was sent to advise you to make your choices on the most important references in the library now. Currently our troops are blasting the walls and outer buildings. I expect they will breach within ten minutes. Be careful sir.” He saluted me, which I returned, and briskly walked off.
Great…I may have to engage in war battle…I especially despised war type battles; I really preferred something of the more subtle approach when it came to fighting. Perhaps I can take the mayor hostage if I have to…that would allow for some interesting events. I grabbed the book Oanaphien’s Compendium on the Elements and left the building with my knife drawn, ready to fight anyone I had to.