A Theatre of Worlds
Chapter II
"Journal of Mysteries"
It has been three years since the final installment of the mysterious journal...
It was a day illuminated by the comforting warmth of solar light, As the gentle oceanic wind cascaded upon the stony shores of Providentia.
It's colourful architechture and red tiled roofs of her townhouses, As the sound of the cascading waves striking the stony shores mixes in with the hustle and bustle of the seaside town.
Amidst the far reaching stony shores, partly submerged in the sea and covered in algae, dotted with barnacles and in the process of rotting away a container lies, spending one full year alone floating across the abyssal depths.
It's contents unknown, tattered and worn after so long adrift.
It was at this seemingly picturesque day that at last the wishes of the mysterious sender would finally be met.
In the midst of the seemingly constant hustle and bustle of the seaside town, a younger lad with relatively long onyx hair nagivated the narrow and winding streets in search of his family owned fish market by the shore, a daily routine that he ever since he was a young child had undertaken.
He wasn't old enough to truly remember the world before the intersellar reckoning, nor to witness the 16 year spanning horror of it, but he'd come to know of the experiences his mother and grandfather had told, not very rife with detail and an incomplete picture due to his young age, but he always pondered what they truly saw and went through before his birth.
As the lad made his way towards his family's fish market, he heard a commotion. As a dense line made up of denizens of the city he called home clogged the sidewalks on either side, A Parade of Soldiers belonging to "The Lambent Front" marched along the street, No doubt as a result of their strenous excercise regiment they undergo every fortnight, Their mighty impressive displays of endurance captivating the denizens of providentia, The ladies of the city gently tucking the Men of the Front bundles of various flowers in their pockets, over their ears.
The young lad gazed on in captivation, excitement and admiration at the marching men. Pondering what they've experienced to get to this point, Guardians of the Remnants of Humanity.
Complex Weapons unlike anything the lad has ever seen, Uniforms bearing the insignia of the "Valkyrie of Hope", Able bodied, Their Eyes being a window to a spirit that has resigned itself to a lifetime of being the guardians of the remnants of humanity, It struck the lad with a sense of awe he seldom experienced.
As the March concluded, And the Men of the Front gradually shrunk as they travelled towards the Horizon, The young lad continued on his way towards his family's livelihood, It was at this moment however a shimmering object reflecting the light of the sun amidst the wet pebbles, shallow seawater and covered in algae and barnacles throughout caught the attention of his eyes.
As he carefully made his way down the steps to the stony shore, And as he inched closer, he wondered to himself what it could be. It was a locked, wooden and metallic box, his young self couldn't find the strength to open the container and investigate further.
Much to his benefit and to the great pleasure to his curious mind, He noticed a long, rusted but relatively robust chain attached to it, he pulled the firmly buried chain with all of his strength and out from the pebbles came a darkened with algae, but otherwise perfectly intact key, It perplexed the boy and drove his sense of curiosity to heights never seen before.
"Ah, there you are!" He exclaimed as he washed away years worth of algae from the key in the shallow waters.
"Huh, It's...intact?"
He analyzed the key deeply, every scratch however miniscule and intricate design of the key's blade. It's notches, ridges and teeth meticulously.
"I wonder how grandpa would know and feel about this, I can't wait to tell him what i've just discovered!"
As the train of thought concluded, he grasped the key and carefully slid it into the keyhole of the mysterious container and...
It wouldn't budge, he in fruitless desperation tried turning the key in varous directions to no avail. And as all sense of hope and wonder drained away into the void...
*click*
"What the...?!"
The young lads eyes perked up, and just as fast as the hope and wonder of the situation faded away, It made it's return and this time by a factor of ten!
"Yes, I did it! I'll it worked!"
"Come here now, just a little more..."
As the boy pushed the key inwards, he could hear the container creaking as it creeped open, the sense of captivation and wonder reached new heights never felt before by the lad, Until it cracked wide open...
The young lad sat crouched over and gazed at the contents of the mysterious container.
Layers of Documents, Personal Trinkets, Photos of various schematics for objects unknown, locations and people unknown to his young self, though one in particular stood out among the rest.
It was a photo of a well dressed man with short, slicked back hair. Standing in a meadow outside what seemed to be a city in the distance, alongside a woman and a young infant boy.
Questions flooded the lad, Who were these people, where were these locations and what in God's green earth were these objects in the photos?
"Could it be his wife and son?" He thought to himself.
What caught his attention though, was the letter the photo was the memoir it was sticking out of...
"Journal of the Archivist & Inquisitor, G-" It read on the cover, the name of the person who once upon a time owned the container and it's contents worn away, as it spent years adrift at sea.
He grasped the worn down, slightly damp and algae covered journal in his hands. It all but confirmed his theory a mere half an hour ago...
"It's...not from here, how did it..."