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Prologue
Somewhere south of the
Lemurian Empire, a medium-sized metal ship moved through the icy waters of the
South. The ship was of the standard, sleek design of the Lemurian navy, painted
with a black and red crest on the prow. It was a ship specifically designed for
reconnaissance and research missions, and as such it was unarmed. Along the
starboard side were two men, conversing into the morning wind.
“I honestly don’t see the reason why we’re coming down
here,” Alex said coldly to the historian of the expedition – a Tolbi-born
man named Kraden. “I don’t like leading expeditions when there’s no
visible purpose to them. Tundaria has been dead for a couple of centuries now
– do they honestly think we’re going to find anything interesting that we
haven’t already grown sick of for decades now?”
“Patience, my young friend,” the older man said, adjusting the
glasses that were resting on the end of his nose. “There is always a wealth of
information available from ancient civilizations. . . even ones like Tundaria.
And you forget, we’re not looking for any technology – there isn’t much
that compares to the Net these days.”
The Net was a giant link between all the computer systems in the
world. It basically allowed everyone in Weyard to connect to all places in the
world, rapidly speeding up worldwide communications in a way which no-one had
ever dreamed possible. It was now an integral part of life in Weyard… but it
was also the cause of the most devastating war in the world. The Proxian War.
“We’re here,” Kraden continued, “to see if we can find any
archaeological remains and determine what wiped out the Tundarians. That’s
all. You know very well that they just disappeared in the giant blizzard more
than a century ago. Not a trace was left of them, except for the occasional
rumor of a tower appearing in clear days or some such story. So we’re going to
find that trace.”
Alex sighed and leant against the boat’s railing. He
involuntarily shivered – it had grown steadily colder as they had gone further
south. Even though his whole body was wrapped in heavy blue garments, he could
still feel the morning chill in the air. “I know that. But really, what’s
the point?”
“I personally find it fascinating,” Kraden said, looking out
over the water and straightening his gray robes. “It’s always a joy to be
learning something new.”
“This coming from the words of a bookworm who is always holed up
in the Lemurian library,” Alex commented with a sly smirk on his face.
“Constantly reading up about this artifact or that ancient culture.”
“Very funny,” Kraden replied. “But. . . to tell the truth, I
don’t know why the government is placing such high priority on this
expedition. I’m sure there’d be something more worthy of our time, and yet
this was what we were assigned to do. Tasks of no intrinsic value are not
normally given such importance.”
Alex gestured with a flick of his head to the stern of the boat.
“Would it have anything to do with him, just quietly?”
‘Him’ was a man that stood quietly at the rear of the metal
ship, watching the engines churn the water up and leave a wide wake for a long
distance. He was not one of the regular people assigned to Alex’s exploration
group, and he had only been brought along at the request of the Lemurian
Senators. His long blue hair - the trait of all Lemurians - was mostly covered
by a cloak that was fastened to a headband – a very unusual item of clothing.
Standard Lemurian garb in shades of blue clothed his muscular form.
He hadn’t explained himself, nor had he spoken too often to the
other members of the expedition. But they knew that his name was Piers.
“I don’t know,” Kraden replied to his comrade in a low voice.
“I haven’t been able to glean much from him. Don’t get me wrong – he’s
a friendly person when he chooses to speak. But he refuses to say anything about
why the Senators demanded his presence. According to him, he’s just a
mercenary.
Alex snorted. “Mercenary, my foot. If that was true, then I
really doubt the Senators would order us to take him so forcefully, especially
on a mission of this nature.”
“Chief!” a voice said from above them. Alex turned and glanced
towards the centre of the boat. Another man – this one from Madra – was
waving to him.
“What is it?” Alex called.
“We can see something on the other side of the boat. It’s a
little too foggy to make out any details, but we think its Tundaria.”
“Or it’s a glacier,” Kraden muttered under his breath.
Alex chuckled slightly at the historian’s comment. “I hear
that.” He cleared his throat and replied in a louder voice. “Understood –
I’ll be around in a moment.” The other man nodded and spun on his heel,
heading into the deck again. Alex sighed. He hoped it was actually something
worthwhile this time – the last two sightings had merely been ice and rock
formations in the middle of the ocean. He glanced towards the stern again, where
Piers continued to watch, oblivious to the comments that had just been passed.
“Hey you!” Alex called out. “Piers!” The ‘mercenary’
turned around and looked questioningly at the expedition leader. “We just had
another sighting, so you might want to come along. Just in case it’s for real
this time.”
Piers nodded. “I understand.” He stretched momentarily before
casually walking around the stern to the port side of the boat. Alex beckoned
for Kraden to follow before moving off. The older man trailed behind at a
distance.
The two higher-ranking members of the expedition followed Piers’
path and pressed up against the port-side railing. Two other crew members were
there, peering into the foggy morning air with telescopes.
“Ah, Alex,” one of them said, taking his eye from the telescope
rim. “About 300 degrees from the prow of the boat, you can see some darker
coloration in the air. It’s bigger than the last sightings – we think it
might be Tundaria.”
“Keep looking then,” Alex ordered. “We shouldn’t be too far
away – if that isn’t it, we’ll probably see it in the distance anyway when
the fog dissipates.”
“Yes sir,” the man replied before returning his attention to
the instrument in his hand.
“I hope this is it,” Kraden said with a shiver. “I’m
getting old – I won’t be able to take these deep-sea expeditions for too
much longer.”
Alex smiled and placed a hand on his companion’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry – I’m sure you have plenty of years ahead of you yet, my
friend.”
Minutes passed, but no more details presented themselves. Piers
continued to watch silently, almost unmoving. Alex was almost tempted to poke
his arm and see if he reacted somehow – he barely seemed alive. Kraden yawned.
Then the Lemurian mercenary gripped the rail tightly and leaned
forward. His eyes narrowed.
“I see land!” he declared. “Look at the sea and slowly raise
your eyes. You’ll see something solid just below the level of fog – looks
like a beachhead of some form.”
Alex was of a mind not to pay attention to this extra baggage –
he had been annoyed ever since the Senate had commanded the man’s presence.
But he decided to humor him and followed his instructions. A moment later, his
eyes locked onto a sandy white shore, almost iced over.
“He’s right!” Alex declared. “I see it too!” He yanked a
telescope from the grasp of another crew member and trained it carefully on the
spot. “It’s definitely a beach. I think we can bring the ship close enough
to land there.” Immediately he turned and walked into the depths of the ship.
“Helmsman! Turn 60 degrees to port and decrease speed to two-thirds! We’ve
seen land, and I don’t want to run into it, understood?”
“Yes sir!” the helmsman replied. With deft movements he rotated
the tiller and pointed the ship in the right direction.
“Let’s hope it’s what we were looking for,” Alex said. “I
don’t want to land on the wrong island.”
“There aren’t many other islands of reasonable size around
here,” said Piers, who had followed him inside the ship. “Tundaria is the
only one.”
Alex kept his gaze on the man for a few moments, taking him in as
if only having seen him for the first time. “And how would you know that?”
The mercenary shrugged. “I keep myself in the know.”
“Sure you do,” Alex muttered under his breath. “All crew
members are to prepare for the landing. We have a job to do, remember? Get
moving!”
---
Nearly an hour later, a dozen men of the expedition had gone ashore
and prepared the necessary supplies. Kraden had identified it as Tundaria once
they had gotten close enough to clear the fog. For some reason, this made Alex
skeptical of the ‘mercenary’ Piers. . . he was very curious suddenly as to
why he acted completely different from other sell-swords that he had met.
But for now it didn’t matter. What did matter was finding a relic
or something to keep Kraden happy on the way home. At least, that was how Alex
saw it. In all honesty, he was beginning to consider the expedition a joke.
Seriously, what was the point of it? Who cared if the Tundarians had disappeared
– it might have been worthwhile once, but now technology had advanced beyond
the point of what the Southern Empire had attained. Was it really necessary?
Pulling himself from these thoughts, Alex ordered the group to
start moving. With any luck, it wouldn’t take them more than a day or so.
Especially considering that there had been rumours of a ‘Tundaria Tower’
that appeared on clear days – if it really did exist, then it would speed up
this expedition tenfold.
“I really am too old for this,” Kraden said after about fifteen
minutes of walking.
“Maybe you’re due for retirement,” Alex suggested. “After
all, you’ve been working for Tolbi and then Lemuria for pretty much your whole
life. Maybe it’s about time you took a break.”
“I don’t know Alex, I really don’t,” the old man replied.
“There’s so much more to learn. . . I don’t know if I’d be content being
bundled up in some small estate in the heart of Lemuria.”
“Suit yourself,” Alex answered.
The march across the cold tundra continued for the next few hours.
It was already beginning to grow dark – daylight didn’t last long this far
south. Alex wanted to be under cover and prepared when the night set in – even
a small-sized blizzard under the cover of darkness would be enough to freeze
them all to death.
Just when Alex was preparing to stop the group for a short break,
Piers tapped his shoulder and pointed to the northwest. Alex followed his finger
and gasped in surprise.
“So the rumors were true then…” he murmured.
Piers nodded. “That’s the famous Tundaria Tower we’ve been
hearing about. That’s probably the best place to start.”
Alex took in the sight for a few moments. It was peculiarly pretty
– the tower was a dark brown-red colour that for some reason reminded him of
dawn. Set on a good-sized incline above the sea and portrayed against the slowly
darkening blue sky, it created a quiet and peaceful scene.
Then he pulled himself out of the trance and addressed the
expedition members, pointing out the sight to them before spurring them on,
urging them to reach it before the sun went down.
“Interesting architecture…” Kraden murmured as they began the
approach towards it. “It shows a few similarities to places on the Indra and
Osenia continents, and yet there’s an element in it which I cannot say I’ve
seen before. . .”
“You can study it better once we get there,” Alex suggested.
“Right now, I’m more worried about being caught by a storm in the dark.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Kraden said reluctantly.
It took them nearly two hours to climb the slope up to the tower,
and the daylight slowly dwindled down to nothing. During that time, the tower
slowly grew in their vision until it was reaching high into the sky. It was
bigger than Alex had anticipated – he counted at least fifteen levels, and
there were probably more. The colour was a richer red and brown than it had
seemed in the distance. A wide, door-less entryway faced out onto the hill which
they had just climbed, almost as if greeting the newcomers into its halls.
The expedition moved inside the tower and slumped against the
walls. Alex let them have their rest – they had been moving more or less
consistently for the whole day, and they were all beginning to tire. Instead of
joining them, he remained by the entrance and looked outside in time to see the
sun creep behind the horizon. Darkness engulfed the Tower, and lanterns were
lit.
Kraden was already hard at work, analyzing everything he could, be
it the composition of the pillars, the size and shape of the rooms, or the
markings on the walls. It brought a slight smile to Alex’s face – the older
man was supposed to be a historian and not an investigator, but he was probably
more inquisitive and knowledgeable than the rest of the group combined.
Then he stopped smiling. Something was wrong. . .
“Where’s Piers?” Alex demanded suddenly, glancing around.
No-one answered him. The mercenary was nowhere to be found. “Kraden, where is
Piers?”
The historian stopped and looked up at the blue-haired man. “I
haven’t seen him for a while, actually. I think he was looking around over
there.” He gestured absently at a pathway that seemed to lead further into the
tower.
Alex cursed. “I didn’t trust that man from the beginning, and I
trust him even less now. . . stay here – I’m going to look for him.” With
that, the leader turned and moved into the Tower.
---
Piers crouched down in front of the large apparatus in front of
him. It was made of a coppery substance, and was about his size. It was also
buried into the floor, and no effort of his could move it. Instead, he was
searching the rest of the room, trying to find what he had been sent here for.
There was a table covered with various mechanical parts scattered
across its surface. Beneath the mismatched metal objects were several scattered
sheets of paper. Piers gently picked up the metal items and moved them aside,
retrieving as much paper as he could. Then he flicked through them quickly. He
wasn’t too sure just how relevant they were – the script was faded and very
hard to make out. But he imagined that they were important – according to
common knowledge, the Tundarians didn’t write much down, except their plans
and their scientific records.
The Lemurian mercenary had to get them out of here before ‘he’
came. If he found them, then they’d all be in trouble. The Senators may not
have known much about his real purpose, but King Hydros most certainly did. And
so Piers had been dispatched to stop him.
He searched the room for more papers, but found none. Instead of
continuing his search, Piers stuffed the bundle of documents that he’d already
found into a carefully prepared pocket in his garments, then made one last check
to make sure he found everything.
That was his mistake.
Silently, the other man crept into the room and gripped a copper
item tightly. He moved up beside Piers and slammed the object into the base of
his skull.
Piers cried out and fell forward onto the cold stone floor. Pain
filled his head, and he gasped for breath. He could taste blood - the blow had
been incredible. Before he could get up or scurry away, the newcomer’s booted
foot slammed into his ribs, knocking the air from his lungs. The pain was almost
agonizing – Piers felt that at least one rib had snapped. The boot then placed
itself on his back.
Alex shook his head and sighed. “Why Piers, what brings you here?
You know how I don’t like people in my office without permission.”
Piers struggled to form words, but he was too winded to speak.
Finally, they slipped out. “Traitor. . . giving information. . . Prox. . .”
Alex scowled. “I should have guessed as much. You’re not a
common mercenary – you’re working for King Hydros himself, aren’t you?”
He hissed. “No matter. You may try to stop me, or hide things from me, but you
won’t be able to. Nor will you be able to stop the Proxians. Never think that
you can for a moment, because I know too well that we will get away with it.”
He stepped down harder, eliciting a cry from Piers.
“I won’t. . . let you. . .”
“Too late,” Alex muttered before he brought his foot back and
slammed it forward. The toes connected with Piers’ temple, and everything went
dark.
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