PROLOGUE
"It's like this." Hikari said, taking the computer mouse and dragging a red line across the screen. "Imagine this is the digital world and this line is the real world." She made a yellow line underneath, soon joined by a blue one. "The dark ocean is another world too."
"That's not all," Takeru interrupted, taking the mouse from Hikari, brushing her hand with his as she slowly pulled away. "I'd be willing to bet there's a bunch of other worlds out there as well." He drew more lines of other colours and the five digidestined looked at the screen, some in understanding, others in curiosity. "But look what happens if the balance is destroyed."
Daisuke, Hikari, Iori and Miyako all watched as the computer began to distort the lines that Takeru and Hikari had created, each line spiralling into the next. Daisuke looked at Hikari's sullen face, "It looks like it's going down the drain!" He remarked, trying in vain to get a smile to creep onto the girls lips.
"Black." Hikari said eerily.
Daisuke looked up at the screen that so entranced the petite brunette and sure enough, where there had earlier been, like Miyako had declared, a rainbow, was now a black screen.
"And in the end," Gatomon spoke up, bringing the attention of the five children away from the screen to Hikari's cat-like companion. "Every world might be covered in darkness."
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Water stretched out for miles. It was not dark and no lighthouse circled a shadowy light through the grey mist; and there was no trace of it ever being so. It was quite the opposite in fact, the sun shone brightly, reflecting off the turquoise waves that stretched for as far as one could see. The sand that edged the water was white-gold and closer to walking on silk sheets than tiny rocks. There were no buildings to block the brilliant sapphire sky, no litter to taint the grassland and even cars rushing through the streets were unheard of. In their place were villages, people dawdling down the cobblestone streets; their laughter and the sound of horse hooves clacking could be heard everywhere. Carriages pulled by the most glorious looking stallions led through the streets up to a castle, brilliant white with pillars and arches; one reminiscent of the most magnificent fairy tales. The windows, covered in brilliant stained glass looked out at the water where ships dotted the ocean.
The world seemed to elude any force of time. No one had heard of Europe or America, no history books or school lesson you or I have known would speak of the green fields that haloed the oceans that drifted on forever. The people called their land Orenda, which encompassed the miles of ocean and every piece of land surrounding it. They were not religious but they believed in The Six Powers, a legend that could be told by anyone on the streets like a nursery rhyme.
The Six Powers were the guardians of Orenda, each protecting an area of their land marked by an ancient statue believed to be what stapled that area of their land to the universe. As not everyone was presented with the opportunity to see every statue, six grand tapestries were woven to hang in the main hall of the castle. Each huge tapestry corresponded to a statue, each with great meaning to every citizen of Orenda.
The first tapestry, Earth, pictured the statue that sat on the edge of the largest Orendian forest. If one was to travel there, they would find that the statue looked out at the northern-most part of the great ocean where the second statue stood tall on a small island shown in the Water tapestry. Beside that was a woven interpretation of the Ice statue, sitting on a snow-capped peak in the mountains, looking down to the Orendian plains where the Wind statue was encircled by fields of grain. The fifth tapestry showed the center square of the workers village, where the statue stood in a modest fountain. Town was believed to bring inspiration and prosperity to the tradesmen, and being the least remote statue, was often seen amongst the villagers. The final monument, sitting just below the tapestry that corresponded with it, was Sun. The largest tapestry was woven with spun gold and reflected the sunlight from the windows to all corners of the room.
Each statue was built of marble and each held a complementary jewel that was inlaid into the different designs. The most well-known difference was between Sun and the other statues. Aside from being built inside the castle and it's noticeably bigger stature, the pedestal was ornamented with carved symbols, ornamented with many smaller jewels of varying colors. The colours corresponded to Sun and the other five statues. Although people assumed the green jewels meant Earth and orange Sun, no one could decipher the language or meaning of any symbol. Different Orendian towns had separate variations of The Six Powers legend, some had conflicting stories of who built them, the meaning of the symbols or any supernatural ties the statues held to the tapestries. All stories agreed, however, that if even one link was broken or one Power destroyed, all of Orenda would fall into an indissoluble darkness.
It was not until the heirless king passed, that the six symbols on the Sun statue began to glow. The greatest scholars, the town elders and even school teachers familiar with the varying town legends were called in and nothing was concluded. It was not reflecting light or a deception of their eyes. The light emanating from the six symbols was deemed harmless, until coincidences became too strong.
The forests were deteriorating by what experts declared "beasts", however none were ever spotted. The tides were ebbing dangerously and then flooding unprepared villages. The mountains of ice and snow were beginning to melt, fields were being assailed by tornadoes, destroying crops and even in towns the people were less friendly and stores began to shut down. The sun would burn blazing hot one say, and then not come up the next. All scholars and experts could determine was it was all too big of a coincidence.
The disasters were attributed to the glowing symbols, but no matter if that were true or not, no one could decipher the ancient symbols. Books were read a hundred times over, no one learning more than war heroes that painted the symbols in their breastplates or that children born in the vicinity of a certain statue were blessed with an affinity to the land that Power guarded. But no one could find their meanings. No one could find who designed them and no one knew that the symbols were in fact crests- crests that belonged to six unknowing individuals who held these designs, branded on their hearts and souls. Although they knew not of the Orendian elements they protected or the turmoil they were causing, they knew the crests of Sincerity, Reliability, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, and Courage. And although they knew more than any Orendian expert could ever fathom with a lifetime of research, the six owners of the crests lived out of reach, not just miles, but worlds away.
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