[Author's Notes: Hello, whoever reads this. To celebrate TEC's tenth anniversary, I have launched a story bigger than any fic I've written before. I wanted make this an epic, and I do hope I succeeded.

Most of the characters in this story are not owned by me. Future chapters will have more detailed disclaimers (oh, goody!)

As a warning, this story will incorporate other TEC stories on the site, not just the TV show. I will do my best to make sure everything is nice and clear by itself in this story, and keep it unnecessary to read the others in order to enjoy it, but just heads-up. My previous TEC story "Amabassadoring 101" will be particularly drawn upon, so you may want to go read that to appreciate certain parts of this one (it's short, don't worry).

Happy reading, friends]

-Prologue-

Here, dear readers, are your five words.

The "Media" is communication between everyone, in a city, state, country, planet, galaxy, or universe.

"Censorship" is when someone stops someone else from saying something, particularly in the media.

"Control" is when you have the ability to make someone or something else, from a single person to a whole planet, do whatever you want. Some people enjoy control. Some people enjoy control too much. Censorship is one form of control.

The "Past" is everything that happened before right now. You can't control the past, because it's already happened.

The "Future" is everything that hasn't happened yet, but will. The future, oftentimes, can be controlled.

Those are your five words, dear readers. Watch out for them in the tale you are about to read.

The pair of hands opened the book. The book's pages were well-worn, as if read multiple times. The hands were pale, inhumanly so.

The hands turned the pages until they found the particular page they were looking for, and the owner of the hands began to read.

"Out of all the prevailing mysteries of our world," the book said, "few are as compelling and as widely studied as the Power, and the fascinating individuals who wield it. As far back as humanity remembers, there have been those who have used mysterious influence over symbols and ideas to shape the society around them, usually by altruistic helping, but occasionally by acts of mere selfishness and petty greed.

Certain cave paintings depict handprints with multiple, smaller symbols inside of them. Archaeologist theorize that these may be evidence of the first ever Power-users, their hands being able to create symbols in the air instead of on cave walls.

The evidence is a little less ambiguous by the time of ancient Egypt, as there are several paintings and scrolls describing "The Children of Thoth" who used magic to make hieroglyphs move through the air. They were said to have gotten their power from Thoth himself, the god of writing and magic, and were respected by all, even the pharaoh.

Wherever there was language and the written word, every country and every time period, there were Power-users. In most places they were accepted as a helpful part of their specific societies, although not always. In Medieval Europe, for example, many were accused of being witches and in league with the Devil. Historians have speculated that there may have been a correlation between the Power-user persecution of this time and the fact that most of the population could not read. Attitudes toward them began to soften, however, when they proved to be helpful during the Black Plague, and saved many lives.

While most people are already familiar with Power-users' abilities to conjure words and manipulate language, and that there are harmful users as well as helpful ones, (a rather infamous fact, despite the rarity of such individuals), there are other important elements to the phenomenon.

In most reported cases, groups of Power-users will often have what experts on the subject refer to as "Stewards". Stewards are individuals who, despite have no apparent Skills, are often instrumental in helping the group behind the scenes. It's a fair comparison between a Steward and a manager for a modern rock band. Stewards will typically be connected with an establishment that the entire group shares, such as a meeting place, and will often be a source of information. The Stewards are one of the least-studied features of the Power, and further investigation of them may yield much information.

Another, even lesser-known feature of the Power is the "Source Theory". According to ancient teachings about the Power, there are deposits of pure, raw Power scattered all over the world. Although they are hidden, the theory says that these Sources give the Skills to people who live near where the Source is hidden, and that teams of Power-users will form around the hidden location as a result. While no Source has ever been scientifically recorded, there have been plenty of eyewitness accounts and supporting evidence. There is a rumor that the Rosetta Stone was inadvertently rediscovered during a Source search, but no strong evidence supporting this claim has come to light as of this writing.

There are many known groups of Power-users in the modern world, including the River Runners of Paris, France, the Electric Company of New York City, USA, and the Tower Sentinels of Hong Kong, China. There are possibly even more groups that are undocumented and undiscovered, out there in the world, doing their part to keep the vibrant pulse of language alive, and we can only hope that they continue to do so as our world hurls more and more into the great unknown that is the future of the human race."

The pale fingers absentmindedly traced along the passage about Sources, over and over again, as if invisibly underlining them. Eventually, the hands closed the book and held it up, until it was on the same level as the cold, cold smile of the holder.