Pleiades

Chapter 1

You're a failure, Alex. Your life has no meaning.

The wind whistled around his ears as he plummeted into the abyss. His body was shattered from the Wise One's powerful Psynergy, and his mind was in shock. His tormented subconscious insisted on recalling his last moments in the waking world.

This cannot be! Who is responsible for this treachery? Who has robbed me of my dream?

On a lower level, his brain registered the total darkness around him, as well as the arid dryness of a cavern that had not seen air in three thousand years. The smell of it was musty, and the air was thick. It was nigh impossible to breath, and Alex's struggling mind wondered how long the air would last in this abysmal cave.

Rise, storms! Rise up and unleash your might upon Vale and the foothills of Mt. Aleph!

The walls were an ephemeral violet, a faint glow like a dying candle that might sputter and extinguish at any moment. All over his unconscious form, the light enshrined him, giving the ethereal glow of an angel, or perhaps a devil.

The Golden Sun... The very quintessence of Alchemy's power! It's beginning!

He had felt it. That all consuming power that legends call the Golden Sun, the Stone of Sages, and the most ancient scrolls Sol Aurarius. For just the barest second, his being was flooded with power, and every nerve and cell tingled. He knew, knew, he could shape the world.

How? What's going on? I should be all-powerful! How can you defeat me?

And then it was gone. Drained away, and he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Wise One.

You are not all-powerful, Alex. Your power has its limits, as does your life.

It was then he felt the first bitter taste of despair. All his machinations, all his plotting, his betrayals, brought to nothing in an instant. He had nothing more to live for.

I, the Wise One, imbued the Mars Star with some of the power of the forming Golden Sun. It rests even now in the hands of young Isaac.

He remembered Mia. Her kind words, her beautiful face… and then the pain her saw, marring that angel's face, when she learned of his betrayal. Oh, if she had known he only meant for her to rule by his side, as his queen! She could have had everything, if only his plan had worked… but it hadn't.

Wh-Who are you?

Now he had only one goal.

I am called the Wise One...

Vengeance…

The shaft suddenly branched out into a massive chasm, thousands of feet below the earth. Blue-flamed torches lighted the walls, which were horribly twisted and mangled. It was so mammoth every city on Weyard could be lost in there, with room to spare. The farthest reaches were barely visible, only a tiny pinprick that marked the light of a torch. There was a name for this place: Morxez.

Alex hurtled to the floor, an insignificant speck in the darkness. He crashed, and the sound from the impact resounded through the cavern, shaking motes of dust from the ceiling and rocks from the walls.

He landed on the back of his head, shattering his skull instantly. The rest of his body impacted, and his spine was pulverized in several places. His body bounced and twisted, and he came down again, breaking his left side completely, and his ribs splintered, driving shards into his internal organs. His arm suffered something far worse than a greenstick fracture, it was more or less torn off by a jagged stone. He rolled, dead to the world, and came to a stop against a sculpture in the shape of a grinning skull.

It was many stories high, at least, towering over three hundred feet into the darkness. Its eyes were black hollows, and the carved teeth in its mouth looked like they were splashed with blood. It was leaning to the rear, the back of its stony mass fused with the ground in a veritable maw of stalagmites.

If you survive, perhaps we shall meet again someday…

There was silence in the chamber. The dust had just begun to settle from Alex's fall, yet it had attracted the attention of the denizens of this cave. Creatures who had lived forever, who were banished to the heart of the earth and doomed never to see the sun again. They were ages old, they dug the caves, and they shaped the mountains. They served countless men and women who sold their souls for power, wealth, and fame. And now, like moths to a flame, they drew near to this new thing. But the mightiest of them all took a special interest in this new arrival.

"Halt!" A voice cried, dark and twisted with malice. Every being, no matter how great or small, from spectre to abomination, froze.

If you survive…

With purpose in every stride, a long figure clattered its way towards the skull, and the body that lay beneath. With each footstep, there was a sound like pigs' knuckles grinding together, and something being dragged in the dust. It was only a mere outline in the shadows, vaguely humanoid, but it outstretched an arm and was revealed in all its hideous glory. The eye sockets blazed to life in massive balls of blue fire, casting an icy light on the figure.

It was a grinning skeleton, with bones not the pearly white of the newly dead, but the brazen bronze of the centuries old. Its grinning teeth chattered like castanets as it walked, and its eyes were orbs of red fire. It wore a hooded black cloak that clung to its ribs and drew inward at its waist, where there was nothing but a spine. Joints were bent and twisted by non-existent muscles, and its long pointed fingers were each tipped by a hooked claw. By both the tone of his voice, the broadness of the skeleton, and the power in his body, one might say it was a male skeleton.

He stopped over the body of Alex, and gave a quiet snort with long-decayed vocal cords. "Poor fool. To think he could best that miserable guardian, with just a shred of Sol Aurarius' power. And yet, that shred could be of use…" His clawed hand reached out to the fallen Imilian's shattered skull, and then paused in midair. "Yet… yet…" He whispered softly, and the other shades listened in respectful silence. "You may be of use to us." The skeletal hand closed softly around his head, and the orbs of fire dimmed as the skeleton entered his mind.

… perhaps we shall meet again someday.

Memories flashed by. Summer in Imil as a child, the first feel of flowers, his first kiss with Mia, the majestic Mercury Lighthouse. Plots, schemes, guilt he felt early on when he used or gained someone's trust only to ultimately betray them. The shattered look on Mia's face as Alex revealed himself on Mercury Lighthouse, and the burning hate he saw in her eyes ever after. The skeleton saw all these memories and made them his own.There was a flash, and he arrived in Alex's soul.

It was an endless field of tundra, ravaged by a continual blizzard and heaped with snow four feet deep. It was flat and featureless, and seemed to stretch on forever. The skeleton wrapped his cloak tightly around him – a courtesy, since he was above feeling such sentimentalities as hot and cold - and forged into the wilderness.

"The human soul is such a marvel," he said quietly to himself as he walked. "Given the basic spark by the One God," he spat, "they are shaped and formed by a life of experiences. Memories, emotions, character… some think those are held in the brain. The brain is merely the lens through which the soul shines… emitting everything in its nature."

"Memories," he said, remembering the wealth he had uncovered as he entered.

"Hopes," he said, and the tundra faded away, replaced by a read-as-life image of Alex, perhaps year or two younger than when he died, poring over dusty scrolls with only a small candle to lit it. The scroll was old and weathered, depicting a sphere with a complicated rune at each of the cardinal points. A brilliant sun was drawn at the centre of the sphere, but the ink that had traced it had almost faded to nothingness.

A tagline near the bottom read Sol Aurarius. Amalgamation of the four elements, and key to unlocking the nature of the world. The one who controls it will be the God of Weyard, and have everything their heart desires: riches, power, and immortality…

"Fantasies," he said, and the image of the musty archive faded, replaced by that of a steaming hot spring. A seventeen-year-old Mia and a twenty-year-old Alex sat the shallows, both clad only in towels. Alex draped his arm protectively across Mia's shoulders, and Mia nuzzled her head against his chest affectionately. Their heads bowed toward each other, and an obscuring curtain of steam rose.

"Triumphs." The skeleton concluded, and the spring faded away, replaced by an image of Alex, sweaty, ragged, but with an unpleasant smile on his face as he stood on the summit of Mount Aleph. A beam of golden light lanced down from the heavens, and he raised his arms to receive it, feeling his body being filled with power unimaginable.

The skeleton released his control on the Imilian's mind, and the icy tundra returned, but this time there was a bluish haze at the end of his vision. The undead creature pondered this, and clapped his hands together. He levitated a foot off the snow, and hurtled across the tundra at lightning speed.

The blue haze gradually grew and became more defined, into suddenly it came into focus as the majestic tower of the Mercury Lighthouse. It was luminous in snow, and it seemed night was falling. The farthest reaches of the tundra grew dark and blackened, disappearing from sight. The snow appeared to haze and lose texture, before blurring back to its flaky nature. The landscape was becoming blurry, as if seen through double vision. The only part that remained unchanged was Mercury Lighthouse.

The skeleton knew the cause of this distortion. Alex of Imil, the Mercury Adept who thought he would rule the world, was dying. And the apparent invulnerability of the dream-Lighthouse was a sure indication that it was there.

He stepped almost daintily inside the imposing door to the inner sanctum. Or tried: a blue barrier flashed across the open door, and he was flung backwards. He frowned, and folded his bony arms across his skeletal chest.

He seemed to come to a decision, and raised one palm. There was a ripple in the air, he was seeing into water, and then the disturbance hit the barrier. There was a sound like glass shattering, and the blue barrier broke into shards, leaving a hole like a monstrous force had gone through.

Satisfied, the skeleton carefully stepped around the glinting shards of the barrier, and found himself suspended in a pitch-dark void. Behind him was the receding archway, where the blowing snow was becoming more and more distorted. Nothingness stretched as far as he could see in every direction, and he was propelled forward, deeper in. The door quickly receded and was gone.

There was a whirring noise, and a trio of blue shades appeared and began to circle him. The skeleton gave a disdainful sniff. "Begone," he said, and there was a metallic screech. The shadows blew away like wisps on the wind, and he proceeded forward.

Te-te-ti-te-tin-te-tah. There was a series of sharp clicks, and a web of silver energy encased him. The skeleton reached out with one hand and appeared to grab the air. Adepts would have seen an immense hand reach out and grab the threads of the web in its fingers. The skeleton drew back his hand and the psynergetic hand mimed his movement, drawing the net dangerously close to the skeleton before it snapped, and dissipated.

"They don't make traps like they used to," he murmured. As punctuation to his sentence, a golden star erupted in front of him, sending millions of searing spines through his body. He screamed mutely, and sagged a bit in his flight. His robe was in tatters, but the exposed bone beneath was more or less unharmed. He muttered something under his breath, and an opaque black shell encased him. A few seconds passed, and then the shell split in half and the skeleton emerged, looking good as new. His fiery orbs lessened to slits as he made his version of a blink, and then contemplated what he saw.

Where the golden star had erupted there was a small stone, the size of a large grape. It was a white gold in colour, and shone of its own light. It was translucent, like the purest gem, and it rotated slowly. Hungrily, the skeleton reached for it, but there was an azure flash, and a spectre stood before him. Alex, unharmed and enraged.

"How dare you enter my mind? Fog and frost, is nothing sacred anymore?"

The skeleton stepped back, and contemplated this newest obstacle. "Alex…" he said as gently as he could, which was still wind rushing through a dark canyon. "What use is it to you now? You're dying. Give me the stone willing, and perhaps I will spare your soul from being devoured." His fingers flexed, and Alex felt a twist run through his essence. He crumpled over from the pain, and then straightened, a deep look of hatred marring his features.

"On one condition," he spat. "You bring me back to life. For a being such as your magnitude, it should obviously be no problem." The Imilian's words were dripping with sarcasm and thinly veiled disdain.

The skeleton looked as if he was going to blast his shade and risk harming the jewel in the process, then thought better of it. His skeletal teeth spread in a companionable grin. "Granted. Give me the stone."

Sullenly, Alex outstretched his hand, and the Stone of Sages appeared there, disappearing from its floating position behind him. He tossed the stone almost angrily to the skeleton, who caught it. With a mocking bow, the skeleton turned and vanished, leaving Alex to stew in his dying body.

Slowly, the skeleton relinquished his grip on the Imilian's head, and looked around at the monsters around him. The looked at him inquisitively, and he ducked his head, allowing his fiery eyes to glint gold for a moment.

Nodding, one by one the beings fell to their knees around him, leaving him the sole creature standing. The skeleton turned his head with measured speed and gazed down on Alex.

He outstretched his hands, and began to weave a complex pattern over the blunette's body. Whispering shadows detached themselves from the darkness and began to wreath themselves around the Imilian, cloaking him in darkness. An infernal red glow began to rise from the stones around Alex, which began to crack, allowing more hellish light to seep through. There was a rumble, and a massive clawed hand of bone erupted from the ground, lifting the limp body of Alex high into the air. His eyes afire, the skeleton raised his head and spoke his words quicker and more forcefully, his naked teeth clashing together with an inhuman sound.

Beam of unholy violet light shone down from above, bathing the body in an evil glow. The skeleton drew his hands together, and an invisible sphere drew in around the body, compacting the swirling eddies of energy. They vanished inside of Alex's body, and it twitched.

The skeleton raised his hands into the air, and a twinkling shaft of light shone down and illuminated Alex's body. His wounds knit together and his skull repaired, and the colour returned to his face from its deathly pale state. The light halted, and Alex stirred.

With a grinding sound, the skeletal hand drew into the ground, stopping with just the fingertips protruding, and Alex at ground level. There was a high-pitched screaming, and then it stopped. Alex opened his eyes.

They were the same blue they had always been, yes... But there was a ring of ebony around the edges, as a mark of where his loyalties lied, and also as a reminder of the debt he owed the necromancer who raised him.

The skeleton lowered his hands and looked levelly at the newly risen Adept. "You may stand, Alex of the Shadow."

"Yes, my lord," he replied tonelessly. He climbed to his feet and stood before the robed figure, head bowed.

"Look at me," the skeleton commanded, and the man raised his head. His blue hair was laced with streaks of greasy black, and his face had distinctive markings, similar to a Proxian's, but black. "Who is your lord? Whom do you serve?"

"The necromancer who raised me. You, my lord."

"Very good," the skeleton chuckled. "You may call me that from now on: Necromancer, or simply Necro, since we know each other on such a deep and intimate level."

"Thank you, my lord." Alex bowed his head for a moment as a token of submission.

"Alex, who shall also be called EPMTPHGADO." The last word was booming, thick with power and held an electric quality. Alex shivered as he heard it, and the word appeared in his mind's eye. The letters rippled, and transformed into another name, which he took as his own.

"Do you know what is required of you?" The skeleton said idly, tapping a foot on the dusty floor.

"The retrieval of the remaining pieces of Sol Aurarius, which have been lost throughout the ages."

"Such a loyal servant," the skeleton sighed, and turned to the monstrosities around him.

"Creatures dark and mighty, all servants of one dark lord after the other! We have assisted every tyrant to rise in one way or the other, but all have failed! Follow your commander to triumph!" He indicated the emotionless man standing beside him, and all the monsters sank to the ground in submission. The eyes of Mantrak burned in the darkness as they nodded their approval, and fouler things hissed in cheering.

The necromancer raised his hands, and instantly a silence fell over the assembled, and Morxez was as silent as death. The next words he spoke were a bare whisper, but they carried to the deepest depths of the cavern.

"Let it begin."