Chapter Ten: Antediluvian
It reaches out.
The cycle was finally broken and the dust has taken years to settle.
Short, swift years at this end of the effect; a long, arduous stretch of time for the simple minds on the other side.
But the time is finally here to begin again. The dust has settled and the scattered nations have not. Old powers and new powers and pirate provinces squabble on a tightrope, none of them noticing the swords that dangle above their heads.
And so, it reaches out.
The response would be encouraging, if encouragement was needed. It is not.
These answering calls are not necessary, they are merely… useful.
The cycle is broken but the signal is still there. Weak and fractured, but still there. Still pliable. Malleable like the minds it reaches out to.
And so it collects. Threads spindle forth, binding to anchors, fathoms out. Twisting tighter. The connections are made like silent synapses, and fresh wills are gathered up and held tight. Captured.
There was a time when this was so before. A time before the deep, the murk. A time when the stars were fast within their grasp. Captured.
So it was, so it will be again. Wherever there is wreckage of the machines, the oily blackness will steal forth, washing over and submerging everything in its path.
The hour crawls nigh. Slowly and carefully. But they are patient, and they have been patient for a very, very long time.
But soon. Fate will come around soon.
For now…
Now let the shining stars be drowned.
I'm really pleased with how this turned out. The idea came to me out of the blue and I couldn't shake it, and here it is.
So Chapter 10 brings us to a kind of turning point. This is turning into a story, and its going to build up from now on. That means that the next round of chapters are going to be longer. A lot longer. Chapter 11 is currently sitting at 2000+. It may also be a little late, since I'd like to have a couple in the backlog, but it is on its way.
This also means we're going to start getting more specific. It's time to decide who the Shepard of this world was, and what they meant to the people they left behind. To this end, I'll be posting a couple of polls over the next few weeks. The first will ask what gender our Shepard was. I'll probably follow that up with their origins, just like the Games ask you at the start. So look out for those, and please do get involved, I'm putting these things in your hands.
On that note, please do leave reviews. It's great to see people following and favouriting my work, but I - like a lot of writers - thrive on feedback. If there's something you like or don't like, a question you have, or any other comment you'd like to leave, please drop a review. Thanks.
Anyway, I'm excited for where we go next, and I hope you all are too.
-Nevery.