Alaia Skyhawk: I considered dwelling more on the intermediate development of the World Council, except it would have been like the science conferences all over again. I skipped it for a far more anticipated part of the plot. Enjoy :)

Oh, and I did the picture of Solaris. I've put it as my FFnet avatar, so you can see the 200x200 view of it on my profile page (Note, it may or may not have updated yet, and still show the sprite with the cookie. But it will update after a while)

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians, the Guardians of Childhood, or any related characters etc. This story is written purely for entertainment purposes.

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Chapter 112: Gleam in the Dark

Onwards it drifted through the silent void of space. Its metal pitted by the passage of the years and the stray dust it had encountered during its long journey. But still the golden cylinder gleamed in the light of the star it was approaching. On towards people who knew not that its message was soon to arrive.

~(-)~

The city was bustling as always, and its streets filled with a mix of humans and Tribe members unlike anywhere else on the planet. It's businesses, both the usual and the more unusual, flourished here in what had become the biggest international trade and transport hub in the world. Through the city's underworks flowed a steady stream of cargo and mail, every shipping container, package, and envelope 'screened' by the city spells that rendered explosives and illegal drugs, useless... Much as similar spells did at every other port and airport on Earth.

These days legitimate weapons and explosives went via the new specialist couriers, which could only be used by those with a permit. Drugs and weapon smuggling had collapsed, crime-rates had plummeted to never before seen lows and they were still dropping. Countries all across the world were now fully cooperating with each other, and by now just about everyone accounted it as being the result of one man's tireless efforts.

Tsar Solus: Chairman of the World Council and Governor of Solaris. He who had won the Nobel Peace Prize the last eight years in a row, and was expected to win it again.

Jamie headed out of the Council session, hiding his continued embarrassment at the attention he now received. . He'd been dubbed the 'pride of humanity', an example of the greatness the human race was capable of. Instead of being possibly scared of his powers, people saw them as a sign of the human race's success. That one of their own should achieve heights of ability previously only held by those from other worlds.

Yes, people had been made aware that there were other inhabited worlds out there. The result had been a massive influx of new movies about space exploration, although sparingly few of which that dealt with gruesome killer aliens. Most were flights of fantasy about exploration and wonder, with a few action/adventure ones thrown in. People were looking ever outwards now, and a planned colonisation of Mars was well under way. Everything was set, and for those who knew what was soon to come, now there was just the waiting.

Jamie stepped out into the afternoon sunshine, casting his gaze over the Assembly Gardens and Parks. Some trees still clung to the last wisps of spring blossom, while others were already boasting the lush greenery of approaching summer. Unicorns and Pegasi now roamed freely through all of the city's parks, not just the largest one. Fairies tended the plants, a few water nymphs had taken up home in the various ponds, and even a handful of dryads had come to make permanent residence here.

Solaris resounded with magic and imagination, joy and laughter. It was barely ten years now since the founding of the World Council, and the world would never again be the same as it used to be. Fear of war and strife was becoming a distant thing, something no one wanted to bring back. The only fear that remained was Natural Fear, and those subtle survival instincts blended into daily life so as to be barely noticed.

It was the year 2042, the deadline for being ready in case the Silver Allegiance made contact, and in that task they had succeeded. The Bennetts and the Immortals, both. Everything was ready.

Jamie stepped onto a moving walkway, allowing it to take him in the direction of his latest project. The Solaris School for Belief Magic had been going for three years, was so oversubscribed and had such a waiting list, that it was becoming a serious consideration to set up additional schools elsewhere. Trouble was picking which countries would get one first... Or maybe set up and teach some special classes himself? Ask the World Council to select a person for each nation, who could then be trained as a teacher? It was something to consider. Then again if he waited for the Silver Allegiance to make contact, it might be possible to import teachers from there.

Jamie was inwardly pleased at that thought while he toured the school for his weekly visit. The thirty-seven-year-old's smile bright on his twenty-four-year-old face. That was something he'd had to get used to, looking younger than his actual age. Not such a big deal for an immortal, but for him it increasingly made him stand out among everyone. And being in the public eye as much as he was, didn't help.

It wasn't long before it was time to head back to the Grand Assembly and his apartment there. He arrived back in his quarters with a sigh, a small part of him wistfully thinking of Burgess. But the Bennett House had now been given to his great-uncle, Ian, and his descents would continue the main line there from now on. Inheriting it wasn't an option for Jamie, not now, and Sophie couldn't inherit it either. At least this way there would always be Bennetts living in the town.

"Food's almost ready, if you want to get changed out of that robe."

Allienne peered around the door that led into the apartment's tiny kitchen, her face also showing the same disparity between her physical and actual age.

Jamie returned her smile, slipping out of his ornate over-robe and draping it over the back of a nearby chair.

"Food would be wonderful. Council sessions might be really tame compared to how they started out, but sitting there for six hours definitely gives you an appetite."

Before long the pair were sat down for their meal, chattering about the magic school, unaware of what was going on so very very far away.

~(-)~

It was just another day aboard the cruiser, part of just another patrol around the rim of the Lumeris System. A patrol which in itself was just another part of the six-month tour in this part of the Lunanoff Territory. Every day was spent with the ship's weapons ready to arm at a moment's notice, just as it was for every ship in Constellation Fleet Lunanoff. All the other Fleets had been rebuilt as well since the Fall of the Golden Age. And while the visible scars of that terrible war had long-since faded, the mental ones remained.

Even after over fifteen thousand years, the paranoia remained strong, and the fear of Pitch Black continued to haunt the hearts and minds of every person in the Allegiance.

And so they waited, prepared for a return and yet utterly terrified it would happen. They patrolled the length and breadth of the Allegiance, ever watchful at the borders but never passing beyond them. Careful never to risk drawing that threat back from whatever place it had gone to.

There was only one Ensign at the sensor station that 'evening' of the ship-day, and he was near enough to the end of his shift to yawn every so often in boredom. The Lumeris System patrol-route was one of the easiest, and considered to be the 'recovery' assignment where those who had just finished a tour at the Allegiance Border could have it easier for a while after the stress of that posting. The ship still had a full crew, just in case, but there wasn't much to do. And certainly nothing was expected to show up outside of the normal traffic lanes into and out of the solar system.

Which was why the tiny blip on the sensor screens didn't immediately register with the Ensign sat in front of them.

He yawned again, checking the clock on the wall for how long was left of his shift. His eyes then drifted back to his empty screens, stared at them blankly for a moment, and then he blinked in surprise when he spotted the tiny object that was being flagged up by the computer.

'Metallic; shape indicative of man-made construction. Probability of being a natural formation: Two percent.'

The Ensign began to type, focusing the sensors on the object, but he wasn't concerned. Occasional space debris from ships destroyed in the Fall, still drifted back into inhabited areas now and then. A grim reminder of the past, and possible hazard to in-system travel. He'd need to log the object and its trajectory, so it could be added to the charts for all currently known stray objects in the area.

He was just about to finish the log, when the object passed within range of one of the System Rim Buoys, that directed incoming traffic towards the inbound lanes. The signal from the buoy, triggering the object to send out an alert of its own. One that made the Ensign gasp and leap from his console, charging off to wake up the Captain.

'Important Message: Retrieve Immediately.'

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Alaia Skyhawk: Yeah, kinda evil to end it there, but I'm in the swing of things at the moment. It won't be long before I post the next chapter :)