Fires of Shadoworld - mjbanks
A world in a handful of houses, secret orders of secret languages each, by special skills, and special weapons.
The secretive societies and varying varieties with narratives imperative and motives different and the same, here is the briefest longest saga ever written.
With cutting edge technology was great house of night.
Secret society color darkness can see all past perfect without future, in their mind can dream like waking in history.
It is here I tell you the setting is a world the size of yours, but spins so fast that days and nights are short, Shadoworld.
It began with the war for the Pasi ocean, and the nations of Prima dominated the night skies and begin to control the water, and the nations of Seco made secret ships, an orbital war fought, an act of sabotage source unknown pointed the weapon at the world and weapons impact turned a continent upside down, tossing molten lava in a place we now call the Obsidian Sea, and spinning the planet faster.
A royal man of Seco in orbit while the nations and lesser countries fight over names unawares.
A royal woman of Prima joins him, pregnant and aloof and out window looking.
They are watching the planet spin the opposite direction of their orbit and the daylight passing as if hours were minutes.
The royal man plays chess in deep orbit, the pieces of Seco and Prima, the armies of which have defenses of lesser orbit and ground weapons.
The royal man moves the pieces of his family, she moves pieces of hers, controlling the low-orbit satellites.
The magician winds his watch in the city built from the upside down ruins beneath the edge of the Obsidian Sea.
Title credits?
The magician drinks the water filtered thru the charcoal and obsidian overworld and the nutrients of the ancient once buried soil make the magician's eyes glow.
A dream he tosses and turns about the day the earth turned, all the fires and the millions of altars at the edge of a newly molten sea, of the nations born that day, of the oceans boiling away, and a finger pressing a touchscreen wearing a ring like his.
He wakes and watches a multi-channel video, switching with the keyboard from camera to camera, following a squad of assassins, switching between them and the man wearing the ring, back and closer and forth, until entering rifles aimed and autarch alone, a passage filled with fallen guards, and another.
One angle their leader seems to say 'any last words,' another angle the autarch says his final phrase, the prince replays the phrase trying to make out the words.
The magician uses his magic power to become strong and enters a cage with a once small beast, now large from science and sorcery of the day the world was changed; it can't be trained, it will not attack uniforms of one side nor other, nor can refrain from killing trainers of either cloth; especially hating the magician's internal light matching the lasers that struck the earth.
The ringed hand had hit the button, the two forces stopped firing at armies and air forces, concentrating their weapons at the city in the sky.
Societies banded together, clearing entire cities into levies to stop the lava from spreading, behind the barriers areas of land like a great dry moat, agricultural potential ignored, and defended from the great fire until meeting and dividing at the other half of the reformed steaming planet quickly becoming one jungle.
The comm notifies there is a Prima caller, underneath a city begins covering with faint lines of lights.
The comm panel notifies a second caller, now Seco, underneath the city in combat slides by view from the satellite, more times in night than day, the passing daylight seems to hide the battle, only to show it resurge in nightfall.
At the Seco base, equal shifts sleeping, and training, and eating, and learning, at all times, the leaders plan their next stratagem, their leader enters and they bow to a witch in black robes as she approaches their digital target diagram.
The image becomes real, across the Obsidian Sea, in the caves near Atlan, where the wizard asks about the tides of Paralon, the fires at Blackwater Gate, and the light of Anipri, and is told the tides are opening, the fires are broken by diamonds, and the light is washing slower by a centillion.
There the quiet places were old towers of industry and new cities of obsidian mining or colonies made of containers in marshlands once deserts.
The wizard needs passage to the Atlan reservoirs, but his patrons learn his plans and demand more of him than any worth.
As Seco chieftain waits for words, his daughter, commander of the Turquoise horde demands payment in a secret worth much more.
The wizard pulls the demon blade and kneels like servant, pushes it sliding over smooth mined floor.
Fighting heard from distant mountains and thunder, the Seco return lightning and storm, the sounds draw closer and the wizard is escorted by the command structure elite to safer confines.
I see the commander obscure a coin, and one side of the battle moves away when ammo low as both sides sleep and repair.
I woke up too late for this reality, but I can keep working until I make what I need.
Kept hitting the snooze button and now by body is full of subspace anomalies, the thought of immortality is being blocked by psychic inter-dimensional pirates trying to control the collapse of all matter into a single point, after downloading data from proton sensors a dimension of fluid space attacked an anomalous neural network overloading the primary isotherm energy packs from an already volatile state to critical
As the research laboratory exploded I was forced to use my magic to survive, and seek answers.
While the witch ordered her warriors scavenge the site for critical resources, she looked for the wizard's body, hoping to find at least the magic and science he was making, not knowing that he shielded it from the blast himself, and gave it to the first new recruit in passing before heading toward the witch's home base.
She makes magic from the pieces she finds; at night he infiltrates the enemy base walking in shadow, with access to archives sends all the information to another code-named 'razorwolf', then is discovered, the enemy base uses weapons made of the wizard's own magic, only making him stronger, as they barricade against him firing dark pistons, he vanishes as a second wave of them bring dark rifles, wasting munitions where they only think he is.
The witch tries to divine the location of the wizard by the pieces recovered; under the heat of two suns she sends troops to each place see imagines in her magic vision, each place only traps and tricks, she smells the tatters of the wizard's robe, she falls into a diving daydream, her sentries gently approach her, whispering to wake her, the one fearfully voted to wake her is met with a wall of white light.
The wizard meets with fighters insurgent rebellious, using the information from the witch's fortress they connect to the royal satellite and download files, from both house Seco and Prima.
Each document full of caches and depots, forts and training grounds, royals and regents, targets and agendas, then among the photographs of hypocrisy with members now foes friendly, perhaps the treaties of the past or treatise planned to last, then among the technicians proof of dates and movements recent and soon, set for conflict, as the wizard sees an image of the man of Seco and the woman of Prima and their newborn.
The wizard has lured and attacked soldiers, but now has no more places to hide, one of his attacks on others heals himself, he is outnumbered and chased into public arena.
As her troops chase him, the witch arrives to the hunt, the wizard's commander orders a counter attack, and the witch's commander begins a firefight, the protectors retreat and the attackers move into an area with many innocents, the witch orders them to halt, when they refuse, she uses a magic fear to freeze them in place, as the defenders attack the frozen, the wizard electrocutes them all, healing his wounds.
A day later and the witch is at a launchpad, wearing the wizard's uniform, fighting the wizard's men, when the witch's troops come to support her, she attacks them also.
The wizard walks thru the shadows, thinking about what he knows, escapes his allies, hides in crowds thru the city, less than footsteps, quick as whispers, enters a safe-house, a weapon pointed at his back.
The witch meets him, they bond then make love, he giver her his uniform, she leaves, meets the wizard's allies, infiltrates her own base.
Attacks the wizard's comrades, attacks her own comrades, while the wizard sneaks into the launching area, breaks into the secured control room, convinces the operators to ignore him, gets caught, stops an attacker, makes an ally of a controller sick of the war, another person comes in the room, attacks the wizard, but kills the controller who just switched sides,
The wizard throws him out of a window, finally able to access and open the rocket-ship, but unable to launch the vessel, but that's what the witch does for him,
He shouts at her to run from the launch process, because he broke the control room's windows throwing that guy out, suddenly the witch is inside the rocket with the wizard, she'd put a spell on a villain to assist, who realizes his moment of clarity is just that as the rocket launches
They approach a military space station, security waiting for them, guns drawn, eyes open and serious, the doors open and a blast of air and then silence, only fog exists the doorway, nothing can be seen, as it pours out and air clears the witch lies on the floor, they approach and a flash blinds them, by the time they can see the wizard yells threats, the security shouts a final warning, while the witch is missing, now behind their leader, whispering a magic that orders them pause, then all of them a poison grips their stomachs, the pain puts them to sleep.
The wizard and witch take a military shuttle and approach the outer royal satellite, slowly approaching they formally request docking for repairs, the royals confirm the shuttle's authenticity, hiding their faces from the pilots, the shuttle docks, the doors open, guns are already drawn, holstered, the wizard and the prince hold forearms, matching wolf tattoo to royal symbol, witch and princess hug, matching branding and royal bracelet.
A world in a handful of houses, secret orders of secret languages each, by special skills, and special weapons.
The secretive societies and varying varieties with narratives imperative and motives different and the same, here is the briefest longest saga ever written.
With cutting edge technology was great house of night.
Secret society color darkness can see all past perfect without future, in their mind can dream like waking in history.
It is here I tell you the setting is a world the size of yours, but spins so fast that days and nights are short, Shadoworld.
It began with the war for the Pasi ocean, and the nations of Prima dominated the night skies and begin to control the water, and the nations of Seco made secret ships, an orbital war fought, an act of sabotage source unknown pointed the weapon at the world and weapons impact turned a continent upside down, tossing molten lava in a place we now call the Obsidian Sea, and spinning the planet faster.
A royal man of Seco in orbit while the nations and lesser countries fight over names unawares.
A royal woman of Prima joins him, pregnant and aloof and out window looking.
They are watching the planet spin the opposite direction of their orbit and the daylight passing as if hours were minutes.
The royal man plays chess in deep orbit, the pieces of Seco and Prima, the armies of which have defenses of lesser orbit and ground weapons.
The royal man moves the pieces of his family, she moves pieces of hers, controlling the low-orbit satellites.
The magician winds his watch in the city built from the upside down ruins beneath the edge of the Obsidian Sea.
Title credits?
The magician drinks the water filtered thru the charcoal and obsidian overworld and the nutrients of the ancient once buried soil make the magician's eyes glow.
A dream he tosses and turns about the day the earth turned, all the fires and the millions of altars at the edge of a newly molten sea, of the nations born that day, of the oceans boiling away, and a finger pressing a touchscreen wearing a ring like his.
He wakes and watches a multi-channel video, switching with the keyboard from camera to camera, following a squad of assassins, switching between them and the man wearing the ring, back and closer and forth, until entering rifles aimed and autarch alone, a passage filled with fallen guards, and another.
One angle their leader seems to say 'any last words,' another angle the autarch says his final phrase, the prince replays the phrase trying to make out the words.
The magician uses his magic power to become strong and enters a cage with a once small beast, now large from science and sorcery of the day the world was changed; it can't be trained, it will not attack uniforms of one side nor other, nor can refrain from killing trainers of either cloth; especially hating the magician's internal light matching the lasers that struck the earth.
The ringed hand had hit the button, the two forces stopped firing at armies and air forces, concentrating their weapons at the city in the sky.
Societies banded together, clearing entire cities into levies to stop the lava from spreading, behind the barriers areas of land like a great dry moat, agricultural potential ignored, and defended from the great fire until meeting and dividing at the other half of the reformed steaming planet quickly becoming one jungle.
The comm notifies there is a Prima caller, underneath a city begins covering with faint lines of lights.
The comm panel notifies a second caller, now Seco, underneath the city in combat slides by view from the satellite, more times in night than day, the passing daylight seems to hide the battle, only to show it resurge in nightfall.
At the Seco base, equal shifts sleeping, and training, and eating, and learning, at all times, the leaders plan their next stratagem, their leader enters and they bow to a witch in black robes as she approaches their digital target diagram.
The image becomes real, across the Obsidian Sea, in the caves near Atlan, where the wizard asks about the tides of Paralon, the fires at Blackwater Gate, and the light of Anipri, and is told the tides are opening, the fires are broken by diamonds, and the light is washing slower by a centillion.
There the quiet places were old towers of industry and new cities of obsidian mining or colonies made of containers in marshlands once deserts.
The wizard needs passage to the Atlan reservoirs, but his patrons learn his plans and demand more of him than any worth.
As Seco chieftain waits for words, his daughter, commander of the Turquoise horde demands payment in a secret worth much more.
The wizard pulls the demon blade and kneels like servant, pushes it sliding over smooth mined floor.
Fighting heard from distant mountains and thunder, the Seco return lightning and storm, the sounds draw closer and the wizard is escorted by the command structure elite to safer confines.
I see the commander obscure a coin, and one side of the battle moves away when ammo low as both sides sleep and repair.
I woke up too late for this reality, but I can keep working until I make what I need.
Kept hitting the snooze button and now by body is full of subspace anomalies, the thought of immortality is being blocked by psychic inter-dimensional pirates trying to control the collapse of all matter into a single point, after downloading data from proton sensors a dimension of fluid space attacked an anomalous neural network overloading the primary isotherm energy packs from an already volatile state to critical
As the research laboratory exploded I was forced to use my magic to survive, and seek answers.
While the witch ordered her warriors scavenge the site for critical resources, she looked for the wizard's body, hoping to find at least the magic and science he was making, not knowing that he shielded it from the blast himself, and gave it to the first new recruit in passing before heading toward the witch's home base.
She makes magic from the pieces she finds; at night he infiltrates the enemy base walking in shadow, with access to archives sends all the information to another code-named 'razorwolf', then is discovered, the enemy base uses weapons made of the wizard's own magic, only making him stronger, as they barricade against him firing dark pistons, he vanishes as a second wave of them bring dark rifles, wasting munitions where they only think he is.
The witch tries to divine the location of the wizard by the pieces recovered; under the heat of two suns she sends troops to each place see imagines in her magic vision, each place only traps and tricks, she smells the tatters of the wizard's robe, she falls into a diving daydream, her sentries gently approach her, whispering to wake her, the one fearfully voted to wake her is met with a wall of white light.
The wizard meets with fighters insurgent rebellious, using the information from the witch's fortress they connect to the royal satellite and download files, from both house Seco and Prima.
Each document full of caches and depots, forts and training grounds, royals and regents, targets and agendas, then among the photographs of hypocrisy with members now foes friendly, perhaps the treaties of the past or treatise planned to last, then among the technicians proof of dates and movements recent and soon, set for conflict, as the wizard sees an image of the man of Seco and the woman of Prima and their newborn.
The wizard has lured and attacked soldiers, but now has no more places to hide, one of his attacks on others heals himself, he is outnumbered and chased into public arena.
As her troops chase him, the witch arrives to the hunt, the wizard's commander orders a counter attack, and the witch's commander begins a firefight, the protectors retreat and the attackers move into an area with many innocents, the witch orders them to halt, when they refuse, she uses a magic fear to freeze them in place, as the defenders attack the frozen, the wizard electrocutes them all, healing his wounds.
A day later and the witch is at a launchpad, wearing the wizard's uniform, fighting the wizard's men, when the witch's troops come to support her, she attacks them also.
The wizard walks thru the shadows, thinking about what he knows, escapes his allies, hides in crowds thru the city, less than footsteps, quick as whispers, enters a safe-house, a weapon pointed at his back.
The witch meets him, they bond then make love, he giver her his uniform, she leaves, meets the wizard's allies, infiltrates her own base.
Attacks the wizard's comrades, attacks her own comrades, while the wizard sneaks into the launching area, breaks into the secured control room, convinces the operators to ignore him, gets caught, stops an attacker, makes an ally of a controller sick of the war, another person comes in the room, attacks the wizard, but kills the controller who just switched sides,
The wizard throws him out of a window, finally able to access and open the rocket-ship, but unable to launch the vessel, but that's what the witch does for him,
He shouts at her to run from the launch process, because he broke the control room's windows throwing that guy out, suddenly the witch is inside the rocket with the wizard, she'd put a spell on a villain to assist, who realizes his moment of clarity is just that as the rocket launches
They approach a military space station, security waiting for them, guns drawn, eyes open and serious, the doors open and a blast of air and then silence, only fog exists the doorway, nothing can be seen, as it pours out and air clears the witch lies on the floor, they approach and a flash blinds them, by the time they can see the wizard yells threats, the security shouts a final warning, while the witch is missing, now behind their leader, whispering a magic that orders them pause, then all of them a poison grips their stomachs, the pain puts them to sleep.
The wizard and witch take a military shuttle and approach the outer royal satellite, slowly approaching they formally request docking for repairs, the royals confirm the shuttle's authenticity, hiding their faces from the pilots, the shuttle docks, the doors open, guns are already drawn, holstered, the wizard and the prince hold forearms, matching wolf tattoo to royal symbol, witch and princess hug, matching branding and royal bracelet.