An Untold Past

"...and that's how I got here," Elsteba concluded. Emerging of of her memory, she had the satisfaction of seeing the awe on Jacob's face. Amorak, however, though unmistakeably listening intently, looked as if he could care less.

"Wow. Amazing," Jacob finally managed to get out, "Your world must be quite the spectacle for everything to shine like the great Yellow Sun."

"It looks kind of cool, I guess," Elsteba said, "Though it gets very boring. There's nothing like this...nature." She gestured to the grass they were sitting on - which was not grass that Amorak harvested - and then to the cliff they were sitting on which overlooked the gigantic lake, as well as Amorak's late shack.

"Really?" Athelia asked, astonished, "How do you get your exercise - or air for that matter."

"The machines take care of everything." Silence filled the group for a few minutes. "So anyway, what about you, Jacob?"

Athelia and Gammon shied sideways glances at each other while Jacob's demeanor immediately fell into melancholy. For a moment, Elsteba regretted asking the question.

"You told me your story...I suppose it's only fair I tell you mine."

Ignoring Elsteba's protests of how he didn't have to share if he didn't want to, he stood up, pressed a few buttons on the watch-machine he was wearing, and before they could think twice, they were thrust into a holographic world - one that seemed a little too real for Elsteba's taste.

They were standing in the middle of a vast city. Apart from the many colors and lack of a metallic biodome, it wasn't that different from Elsteba's home city. There were many hovercrafts soaring through the air in every direction, none going in exactly the same route, but none interfering with the flights of the others. It was perfect symphony of cooperation.

But Elsteba's attention was not on the city. She was too focused on the sky, where two great suns resided. the brighter of the suns was a great vivid yellow, and the other, oddly enough, was a deep reddish purple. The combined lights made the world look almost bruised.

"Here is my legacy."

Elsteba looked at Jacob and was very surprised when he saw the discomfort and pain etched in every pore on his face. He made a few adjustments on his wristwatch, and soon they were flying through the city, weaving in and out of skyscrapers, until they came to a tall box-like building with a giant circular piece of glass fixed to the roof. Elsteba could discern mo purpose for this building.

Until Jacob showed what happened next. He pressed another button, and the glass raised out of the building, revealing itself to be an odd looking lens. One side of the underside had a shallow droop, and the other was an elongated pyramid shape, ending in a fine point.

"This is the greatest invention of the solsages, the priests who lead us in our worship of the two great suns, Yellow and Blood. This is a diverser. It collects the light given by the suns and splits them according to the origin. The result is two separate collections of pure solar energy, or Solacaden. This Solacaden had many uses due to its powerful nature, but one corrupt solsage had different intents for it."

They closed in on a relatively calm looking man wearing a bright yellow robe that was embellished with red-purple lining. He held in one hand a vial of swirling yellow liquid-like substance, and in the other a vial of deep purple contents.

As if in slow motion, the man opened the vials and poured the liquid into his open mouth. Or at least, he tried to. His mouth was open and his hands were nearly to his face when a loud flash of light appeared, accompanied with a sound similar to a thunderclap a meter away. The substances flew out of their vials and engulfed the man, the lens-topped building, and most of the surrounding area. A bright swirl of color flashed through their eyes, and, as sudden as it had come, the light disappeared along with another thunderclap. When it was gone, it left destruction and ruin in its wake. Everywhere the light had touched, it looked like the city had been in a state of decay for a hundred years.

"You would imagine that this kind of power would be realized and quickly put down and discouraged, but other solsages started to get the same idea. It wasn't long before they implemented their idea across the world, destroying every other city that dared stand up to them. It wasn't long before every city looked like this.

"The energy started to spread from ruin to ruin, corrupting minds and mutating bodies wherever it went. One particular fierce mutation was-"

An enormous shadow passed overhead in the shape of a large tattered crow.

"-the Thunderbirds."

The shadow burst into shape and color, and Elsteba could see it for what it was - a giant bird colored the deepest purple, with a single jagged line of yellow crawling its way down the birds back.

"Not only were these creatures mean and powerful; they were also intelligent. Evil and twisted, but very smart. My people had no choice but to wage war on them. And we were losing.

"My father was an ingenious scientist, and invented a massive shield that would keep out the destructive energies, as well as those altered by it. However, a side effect of this was whenever the shield was up, it blocked the powerful energies from the suns, and we could not get power. This wasn't a problem most of the time, but when we needed to refill our energy stocks, it meant shutting the shields down.

"My job, therefore, was to patrol around the surrounding area and scout for any approaching creatures. That's what was happening on my last day there."

The hologram flickered, then centered on a second Jacob, speeding along on his hoversail across the now wasted ruins of the city. A shadow approached him, and Elsteba recognized the shadow as a Thunderbird. They followed Jacob's progress back to the hanger, through his home, and into the room where he was transported into another dimension.

A few more buttons, and they were back on the grassy cliff overlooking the lake.

"...Woah..." Elsteba managed to get out. And I thought I had it rough...

Whether there was an unspoken signal not to discuss this voyage through Jacob's history or they were to winded to be able to, they instead looked expectantly at Amorak.

"My story is my own," he said, and promptly stood up, dove off the cliff into the water, swam to his island, and began to repair his shack.

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Woah, now I'm a little winded after writing this post...