Chapter 12 - Anemos
Author's Note - It is not often that I plan an entire chapter and then postpone it for a later publishing date, but this is one of those times. A time when an idea hits me upside the head and I have to scurry to write it before it is lost.
And besides, this chapter explains a lot of what is to come...
That, and it serves as a filler before the Fluff.
Side note: One reviewer has noted that I may have not played Tales of Symphonia. To all reading, I have played it, beaten it, and gotten multiple endings. I had not intended for some simmilarities to that title, as I have not played it in a bit. Just covering my bases.
Disclaimer: If you are still asking, go read chapter 11. No, I mean 2. Heck, just read 10, they all say the same thing.
Within the small cave that served as her quarters for so long, she stared at the wall at the foot of her bed. For years she sought to make a picture or post a map, to give her something to do when she seemed to sleep. When she had first resumed command of the Ascendents, she had forgotten how mortal shells could overreact to something out of the ordinary; the idea of someone who did not sleep was alien, and she could not afford her own pawns murmoring about her. No, not when she was so close to opening the gates to the Heart.
And when she had the door open, Anemos would return.
The thought of returning that which was cast out shortly after her creation to the world was a joyous one, one that almost overtook her physical form, almost reverting to her energy phase. So many years had passed, so many times opportunity shined and dimmed. For eons she sought to revive the world, and for eons the damnded mortal defenses against her efforts to return her home were thwarted at every turn. Her earliest attempts ended with the destruction of so many mortal shells and the fall of their so-called civilizations and empires, eventually draining most of the powerful Adepts and ruining almost all empires.
Then there were four that found a way to eliminate her with their power. Horrified upon learning this, she made plans to stop them, but ended up with a realization: if she could seal THEM up and use them to her uses... It was nothing for her to wait a few dozen generations more; she had waited this long, a few generations would not hurt.
The battle was fought over what had once been the capital of the Anemos, and she managed to seal three of the fools, with one fleeing. Just as well; she could not have fought much longer, having most of her being drained from the seal. Using what little psynergy she dared spare, she gave the massive trap the name of "Wise One," and sent it to guard the Elemental Stars, knowing that the intellgience she planted on the rock would eventually cultivate the need to protect the stones, and eventually someone would seek to steal them.
As for the final fool, she never found him, never sure where he ended up. Not that she cared; unlike her, he was mortal, and would eventually die.
Eons passed as her wounds began to heal, her strength taking longer to replenish than anticipated. It had been so long since she had been in combat; it had been so long since any Anemian had seen battle in such a way.
Sensing that no one was at the door, she rose from her bed, walking over to the entrance to her chambers. At times she would use psynergy to seal the room, making it both inacessable and sound-proof. This provided useful when she needed her presence elsewhere, or when she was seducing a would-be ally to do her bidding, using her abilities to make them hers to control. Pity that damned Yul never accepted her offer for a meeting; had he done so, her plans would be moving faster.
Her being shuddered, shaking the idea out as she shifted from physical to her psynergetic being. Rising through the physical world, she rose, rose higher than any physical being had ever been, rising to Anemos itself.
What was left of it, anyway.
Forming a physical shell, she tried to imagine what the Anemian creators thought when they first laid their pathetic visual organs upon the glorious city. Massive spires, towers, colloms, and structures clawed at the sky, their normal dark blue surfaces dimmed by lack of light and lack of use. Many of the tall structures served as telepathic links for the whole society; others served as data storage; billions of psynergetic crystal shards made up thousands of spires and buildings, each small crystal holding more knowlege than the entire world, both Weyard and Earth.
Walking through the ancient pathways beneath the mesh of pipes, towers, and other random outcroppings, she thought back to the old days, to the battles of old. Having access to the ancient knowlege banks, it was as if she was there herself.
Before Anemos, heck, before the Lighthouses, human society had nearly exterminated itself countless times through open conflict, through destruction of their own enviornment, through lack of resources. The Tousui then arrived when their last members crashed on Earth, the world torn apart by battle.
It was around this time that both races actually managed to coexist for a time, both seeking new power sources to replace the ancient fossil fuels of man and the fusion power of the Tousui. It was then that the power of the elements were first noticed, and it was then that the Tousui, with the help of the human race, built four towers to regulate the elemental powers throughout the land. These would eventually be replaced by far grander towers, eventually called the Lighthouses.
A century after the first towers were built, a small planetoid collided with the world, nearly wiping out life. It was then that beings that could tap into elemental energy within their minds began to surface, both among the humans and Tousui. Each side saught to unite to survive the collision, and it was found that the small object had been a massive sphere of purple stone, emminating a large ammout of psynergy.
For centuries, the sphere was relied on to power many machines and tools, while Adepts became more common-place, as well as a majority of the population.
It was then that overpopulation became a fear. With much of the land devestated from the impact, Project Weyard was comissioned, seeking to take a massive hulk of earth and have it hover in the air, thereby freeing up space on Earth. The plan was comissioned, and the hulk of earth used was centered around the sphere, which would be carried with Project Weyard. If all went to plan, the sphere's energy would be regulated from Weyard out to the world, where it could be used to fix up the devestation.
It took centuries, as well as the creation of artificial beings known as Rihatsu to complete it, but it was done. The sphere had been hollowed out and fitted with the most advanced technology to create four chambers to store each of the specific elements.
Weyard was launched, with a small team manning the Heart of Weyard while another team began constructing the four Lighthouses needed to channel the energy out to the world. Finally, a third team began fitting a massive communication array to communicate with Earth.
The latter team, however, was part of a group seeking to bring themselves to a higher being. Once Weyard was in the air, they would use the gathered energy, as well as the constructed comm center, to become pure psynergy, using the data banks in the complex to fuel their information storage.
The Heart teams realized this sooner than anyone, and managed to alert the Lighthouse teams before it was too late. The Elemental Stars, which were key to starting the chain reaction needed for the final phase of the psynergetic conversion, were sealed away in four seperate places while the teams fought the rogue population.
Rogue indeed, she mused. They nearly won, and almost took Weyard with them, but as their numbers dwindled, they converted what was left of their population and used their resources to create other psynergetic beings to aid them. Finally, they took the massive comm station, now called Anemos, and took to the skies, with only one attempt at returning before the present, and that effort was met with disaster.
She stopped as she neared a data bank, staring into it. The crystals were dark from lack of use, but despite their appearance, they held much information. These crystals specifically held her information on local legends, superstisions, and civilizations as she began her plan to release the elemental lighthouses, thereby allowing the soon-to-return Anemos to land and convert the rest of the life.
Yet, she mused as she gently slid her hand along the crystals, her own plan came back to haunt her. The damned Wise One, which she herself had created, struck at her, and her own carelessness had accidentally not only caused the release of the three trapped beings, but she had also caused the fourth one's desendent to be exposed to enough psynergy to transform him.
And nevermind that the other three had somehow transended as well, claiming three hosts to fuse their minds with to fight her.
Of course, that did not exactly help them, as their psynergetic forms ate away at their hosts, but merging wtih them gave them something apparently, as they were somehow determined to see her suffer until the very end. Bastards.
Pulling her hand away from the crystals, she glanced up, noting a brief whisp of psynergy passing along, clinging to a tangle of wires and pipes. The sentry had been watching her, and had apparently identified her, given that she had not been disturbed. Most of the remaining Anemians were sealed in the lower levels, their minds stored within crystals to prevent the complete extinction of their society.
And soon, they would be released. For soon, the three ancient warriors would perish, and as for that fouth one, she would find what happened to him, would find and eliminate him.
For never was there anything as irritating as an unknown factor in a grand plan of the ages.
Well, THAT should suffice for a noodle-scratcher, as well as probable bashing on my part. Alas, it sounded good at the time. I SWEAR!
And please read and review, and I'll get 13 up as soon as I can. Thanks for your time!
Mikaa