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23rd of August, 1971 – Celestis City, Illos

Gaius POV

"Good Afternoon.

This is the midday IBC One World Service News and I am Lara O'Hara.

The finalising of the Western Pact between France, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux countries at the Paris Conference yesterday was well received by members of the Grand Alliance.

Minister Prince of Avalon called it 'A welcome and much needed treaty that would go a long way in securing global world peace'.

A statement echoed by officials from Aziza and Illos.

The Pact – an historic alliance with a mandate to share economic, intelligence and defensive resources in unbound scope and detail – was signed in Paris yesterday after a week of late round negotiations that many had feared would result in breakdown of talks.

A French official named Oliver Chiraq had commented to the press that 'The Pact was a necessity as fundamental as food' and that he was relieved that it was signed.

However, critics claim that the Pact was signed far too late. The former Mugwump for Portugal, De Souza claimed that it would take years until the new organisations that would spring from the Pact were anywhere near ready…"

Gaius heard the door to the house open, breaking him from watching and listening to the news, the sounds of running water once more filling his ears.

He closed the running water and waved his finger at the wet basil leaves instantly vanishing the water before he sent a pulse of magic to see who exactly it was.

He recognised his mother's magical signature and turned towards the kitchen stand where there was an assortment of cut vegetables and a bowl of spices and oils marinating several cuts of salmon.

"Ah!" His mother exclaimed somewhat surprised "You've started without me." She remarked as she made beeline towards the sink.

"Figured you might be running late." Gaius remarked as his mother made her way to the kitchen stand. He eyed her "Was it Zacharias again?"

His mother's smile was brittle as she took hold of one of the knives and started cutting. With all of her children adults and moved out, she'd taken cookery as a hobby to pass the time, specifically cooking without using magic.

She'd been inspired to do so by the hit show Cookery's Coven – apparently many in her friend circle had taken to it as well – and she loved it.

"Yes." She sighed. "I worry for that boy. He's very emotional and doesn't seem to be able to take to Occlumency at all." She said as she placed the cut slices into a large bowl.

"His foster parents don't know how to reach him and he doesn't open up to me – besides shouting at me – so I'm really at an impasse." She said with disappointment.

Gaius placed his hand on his mother's shoulder with tenderness before he squeezed gently. "You're doing what you can, mother." He said gently "And the only thing you can do is be there for him if he ever decides to open up." He knew his mother wouldn't give it up until she was made to.

He was tempted to pull a few strings but he respected his mother too much to interfere in her work like that. She smiled at him gratefully before she straightened up a little. "Enough about work!" she said cheerfully before she peered at the onions he'd cut.

She tutted "That's too coarse." She flicked a finger and the onions reformed. "It needs to be finer" she said. She took an onion and started cutting "Like this."

It was a thin membrane of onion and Gaius looked at her with a wry smile on his face "I'm not going to be able to do that without magic."

"Nonsense!" his mother huffed. She checked the time on the magi-com on her wrist "We've got plenty of time for you to learn." She said with a beaming smile.

Gaius smiled weakly at his mother "Alright." He said mentally consigning himself to it. About an hour later, after they'd cooked lunch and were finishing up lunch, the news cycled back to the Western Alliance which they'd let play in the background.

"I'm glad they finally agreed to it." His mother said happily as the Holo Screen that was on low volume continued to speak in the background.

The news had moved away from the Western Alliance topic, briefly covering the return mission to Atlantis – the news of the King leaving for more than year hadn't quite made it out to the public yet – before once more returning to the topic of the Pact as 'analysts' discussed what it would mean for the magical world.

His mother's pleased expression turned into a frown "Though it would have not been needed if they just set aside their pride and joined us in our own alliance." She shook her head "But you know how the French are." She said flippantly before she continued to stab at her baked aubergines.

"The French have their reasons." Gaius commented absentmindedly, his gaze set on the Holo Screen. It was showing a highlight reel of French and Dutch reports about the crimes committed by the Ravenites in Northern Europe.

Crimes that in no certain terms captured the full scale of the evil that the Ravenites were committing. He had top level security clearance and he was allowed access to some information so he knew some of the evil the Ravenites were committing.

Mass executions were common place and blood and nobility protected no one. Children were kidnapped and indoctrinated. Thousands of wizards were being trained for war with activities around the Ottoman, Persian and Chinese borders at an all-time high. And that wasn't the worst of it either. Several high profile opponents in Italy, Switzerland, China and the Netherlands were assassinated.

They were gearing up for war and bringing an end to this façade of a peace.

The Dutch were the main drivers in getting the Western Alliance over the line, forcing the French to get over their apprehension of this Pact lest they go to the Grand Alliance and request protection like the Slovenians and the Croatians had done.

The ICW unsurprisingly supported the Western Alliance according to Parkinson even if it was through unofficial channels. Diplomatic ties were still strained with most nations.

The ICW, however inconsequential it was now when it came to fostering and enforcing international cooperation, especially after nearly every powerful nation had withdrawn from the organisation save for the Chinese and Italians, was still a powerful player with thousands of battlemages drawn from the ICW Protectorate states and other dependant Ministries like those in Northern Africa.

Such a large army, an army led by Commander General Li Lei, the Chinese Archmage, was not to be taken lightly, even if they were substantially weaker than they were years ago.

A power that even the Ravenites were careful not to provoke into war before they were ready even if they held enormous sway of the Swiss Ministry and the remaining Swiss nationals, people who were not sensible enough to leave when the others did.

The ICW base there, once meant to be another supposed bastion of international magical cooperation, was heavily defended. A foothold for when the war started.

For there was little doubt…it was coming. Perhaps within the year.

Once lunch was over, Gaius went to the groceries to replenish his mother's stores of vegetables and fruits. He'd be running late but only slightly.

He disapparated with a quiet pop at the dis/apparation point and Gaius strolled quietly through the Augury borough, one of the more bustling second ring boroughs that neighboured the physical bridge connecting it to the inner city.

The Augury borough was one of the few boroughs that didn't have a hard light skylane to connect to so travel was mostly done through the Gate network or via apparation points which were on every city block.

It supposedly gave the borough a 'cool air' according to his sister and caused it to be a popular place for a certain demographic. It was known as a hub for artists and many of the buildings distinctly reflected that, like the house in front of him. It resembled much like a Hexagonal prism in shape with windows that were of the same theme.

Years ago, before he left, the Council of Representatives approved a bill that relaxed building codes with some parts of Celestis City more or less granting major creative freedom to do what people wanted. Like this outlandish home though it was extreme even if there were a number of other homes around these parts that caught the eye.

Fortunately, most of Illos were moderate in their choice of building and home styles, electing on variations of a theme more alike to the oldest homes and apartments in the city. Of course that was only on the outside.

Inside…well…he'd been to enough of his childhood friends' homes to know that some people really could take it a little too far.

Still, he mused as he looked around the buildings and towards the busy market teeming with people as he neared his destination. Fascinating works of paintings and moving sculptures that could interact with people lined the market.

Clothing, enchanted jewellery and other such artisan products were also sold here. Some native, most inspired by magical cultures of all around the world. People all over Illos, even people from Aziza, Ame-No-Ukihashi and Avalon, came here according to his sister and he could that rang true.

It all was quite something.

To see and note all of the changes that has happened in only the six and some years that he'd left Illos. Not just the buildings or the cultural diffusion either.

Over the past three months, he had seen how much the city had grown over the six years, even surpassing the growth rate it enjoyed in his youth and early adulthood.

Refugee communities and migrants that had come from the wider magical world had brought many new ideas, styles and food – the delicious Mahi-Mahi dish from the Polynesian restaurant Gaius took him to came to mind – all of which had brought about a kind of renaissance of Illosian magical culture, a renaissance he now realised he saw beginning to stir before he left and taken off like an enchanted frictionless spaceship since. And it wasn't just magical culture that was racing away.

And all of it showed little sign that it was ever going to slow down.

He walked into The Noble Clarke, a bar named after a war hero, and searched for his siblings. The place was busy for a Tuesday afternoon. He found his siblings when Magnus shouted out for him from the second floor and he made his way to them.

"The prodigal son has finally arrived!" Magnus said in a pompous – and loud – voice. It drew a few looks from the people inside the bar but other than a lingering look, they didn't really pay much attention to Gaius. Gaius gave Magnus a look which only amused his brother even further and he could exactly see what Magnus was thinking.

Magnus was one of only three in their family to really know what he was doing for the past six years. Magnus delighted in that fact and he also found it highly amusing that their return from the 'Atlantis' mission was practically forgotten by the media and people within a month of his return.

He rarely got stopped in the street now three months later.

"Took you long enough" Livia said in tongue-in-cheek as she handed over a pint of lager to him after he sat down. He tasted and let off a pleased sigh. It was his favourite brand. He wouldn't forget to bring a case or four with him this time.

"Had a few errands to run for mother." Gaius explained after taking a sip of his lager.

Livia groaned "Did she ask you to go to the groceries?" she asked knowingly. "She just refuses to get a shopping dial!" she said with a weary sigh.

Gaius shrugged and gave his sister a half smile.

"She did but it was fine. It was nice speaking with Mrs Merrystone anyway." She was the hedge-witch that ran the local grocery shop in their neighbourhood. She often gave them sweets whenever they came by to do the shopping with or for mother when they'd been younger.

Besides, he was pretty sure the reason why she refuses to get a shopping dial was because it gave her the excuse – not that she needed it – to see people she'd known for decades. The shopping dial did remove much of that interaction with people.

"Anyway" Gaius said with a dismissive wave of the hand "Let's talk about something else." He said before leaning forward, a childlike conspiratorial look on his face "I read a post on Questing Direct about a sequel to a certain game. A sequel to game we painstakingly but enjoyably spent many hours to overcome."

"Oh?" Livia mused in a quizzical way but she couldn't hide the teasing smile on her face. Livia was a senior technical developer at Disguised Reality, one of the foremost game publishers in the magical world – and was the publisher of Missions for Tara.

"No…" Magnus said trailed off excitably as an equally childlike glee took hold of him. "Oh Liv, you've got to spill the magic beans!"

"I have no idea what you mean." Livia said with an infuriating smile that made Gaius chuckle and Magnus to groan.

"Oh come on, Liv. You owe me for that favour I did for you with the apartment." Magnus pressed "You don't have to say it out loud, just a wink will do if it's true!"

Livia reared back as if she was struck "favour?" she parroted almost offended before she squinted her eyes "What favour?" she asked suspiciously.

"Are you talking about that time you helped me install the holo-screen replacement? A replacement for the screen you broke?" Livia asked with a disbelieving note in her voice.

"I wondered when you replaced your old screen. You were proud to buy it with your first pay check." Gaius commented. Livia hardly ever really replaced anything. She was quite utilitarian when it came to her stuff. She even still owned their old gaming console.

"I wouldn't have if I didn't have to." Livia said sourly before she turned that sour look to Magnus "This clumsy flobberworm somehow spilled magical wine onto the screen!" she exclaimed. "And it was four feet off the ground!"

"I did not break that screen." Magnus said defensively "That was entirely Agustin's fault." Livia laughed as Magnus threw their brother under the bus.

From the way Livia turned to look at Magnus with a 'pull the other one' look, it was clear that Livia held Magnus entirely responsible. It was probable that it was entirely Magnus' fault. Magnus might be a whiz when it came to anything magi-tech but he had two left feet and could crash into anything.

Mother had once said that it was Lady Magic's way of balancing things – giving him hands that could create the most awe-inspiring things but in return he had to live with feet and balance that were hopeless. Funnily enough, mother may have said it teasingly but Gaius knew that there was probably an element of truth there.

"Anyway" Magnus said in a hasty tone, his finger waggling at Livia "I know what you're doing with your changing of the subject!"

Livia laughed "You're the one who forced the subject change!" Livia said with a devilish smile and before they knew it, the conversation flowed for hours after that and well into the evening. Livia left around eight leaving him and Magnus behind.

He and Magnus left the bar an hour or so after Livia left and it was about the right time too as the bar began to feel crowded, a feeling that he was still not used to even after being back for months now.

"So" Magnus began as they walked towards the Gate station, his eyes studiously washing over Gaius "Less than a few weeks now before you leave again."

Gaius nodded with an apologetic smile. "Yes. We leave on the 13th of September."

Their mother wasn't exactly ecstatic about that and even more so as the time drew nearer. Especially since two of her children were now going away for years at a time. It was why he stayed at their childhood home instead of staying with one of his siblings. Although he wasn't sure if it helped or if it made it worse for her.

Magnus only hummed as they walked in silence, the noise of the bustling street a welcome distraction. His siblings weren't happy about it either though they were mostly fine in truth. They had their own lives and careers and some of them had their own little families now.

Eusebius, Augustin, Titus, Adriana and Clara were all married now with children, his little nephews and nieces he had the pleasure of finally meeting, whilst their other siblings were in long term relationships that would probably see them married in the coming years.

Even Livia and Magnus were in relationships that looked to be a good match for them, their significant others working in the same industry as they did. Gaius gave of a mental sigh. He'd missed much of his family's lives in the years away.

He hadn't really let it be known but at times…at times he felt like a stranger looking in. Of course it never lasted long. His siblings still knew him well enough to know his moods – Marissa especially – and made sure to make time for him. But the cloud of his coming departure hung like a grey cloud over them. It was unavoidable.

"What's it like?" Magnus finally asked after a few minutes.

"What's what like?" Gaius asked after being welcomingly broken from his thoughts.

"There." Magnus said meaningfully as he looked around, his voice a slight hush as they walked by a group of people. There were secrecy oaths that made it impossible for people to divulge state secrets – Celestis most certainly was a state secret – but there were a few ways around it. Speaking without context was one of them.

"You still want to go there despite knowing that it might be another six years until you return" Magnus continued. Gaius looked at his brother surprised which prompted Magnus to continue again. "You know what I mean. It's just…even Fisbilillah decided to stay rather than opt to go again."

Gaius grimaced at the mention of his somewhat of a friend.

Fisbilillah's decision to request from the High Council a reassignment to Illos was not one that was well received from what he'd heard from the man himself.

It was a decision that Tirtayasa took with a heavy decision. His children barely recognised him and his marriage had suffered from his absence too.

It was also a decision that opened the floodgates in truth as well. More than a few of the crew of the Gradus had put in a request to transfer to something closer to home.

Requests, every request, that his mentor had made the High Council agree with and it would be an offer to be given to those who'd remained in the Celestis system too.

Gaius understood. He did. He truly did but he also felt like Tirtayasa was being derelict in his duty. And he felt slightly betrayed by his decision. They were the pioneers, the ones who would pave the road for their people to safely walk to, the ones who would build homes for their people!

Tirtayasa's words during the journey back, words that he thought were said by a kindred spirit, were meaningless now.

"It's…" Gaius began, forcefully removing his mind from what he'd never spoken to anyone about, and took a few seconds to figure out a way to articulate to his brother why he hadn't opted to remain either.

"Do you remember that spot by the creek an hour or so away from mother's?" Gaius asked Magnus who was surprised by the question but nodded anyway.

Their summer holidays were often spent by the creek with their siblings and the other children in their neighbourhood. They'd swim and they'd use their magic in games they'd invented including float-fishing after fish were introduced.

They always looked forward to going there. It was idyllic and it was without worry.

"It's like that only…only there is also a sense of purpose in what I am doing." Gaius said with another apologetic smile.

He continued "Every day, I see the work that we're doing, the collaborative effort we're all putting in – like that boat out of stone we made when we were nine" Gaius said with laughing eyes, an expression that Magnus matched with one of his own.

"And time just seems to pass me by in peace with the full knowledge that what I'm doing is for a greater purpose, greater than myself." Gaius paused for a moment before he looked away from Magnus' look and it was a half a minute later as they walked that he spoke again. "It's something that I cannot walk away from."

'Not even for family' he left unsaid. He knew that going away again was going to add to the distance that existed between himself and his family.

A distance no one wanted but was there anyway. He wouldn't be there when his nieces and his nephews would go to the Pandrosion, he wouldn't be there at the weddings of his siblings – having already missed five – and he wouldn't be there for the births of other nieces and nephews who would only know him through stories and pictures.

Magnus sighed before he smiled weakly at Gaius. "You were always the dreamer out of all of us." Magnus paused for a moment before his smile widened slightly.

"You and Fortie." Magnus said with a knowing smile.

"In a way, it's kind of fitting really. You and Fortie always did have a closer bond of brotherhood than you guys did with the rest of us. Both of you going on an adventure together as you guys were so oft to do in childhood is fitting"

Gaius looked at Magnus a little surprised "What? Magnus, w-" Magnus interrupted him with a noise that escaped his throat before he continued with a dismissive wave.

"Don't deny it." Magnus said with a softer, kinder smile.

"I used to be jealous and upset that you guys would so often leave me behind." Magnus shook his head as Gaius remained silent as troubling doubt filtered in.

Had he really been so neglectful as a brother? Looking back, he could see why Magnus would think that Gaius and Fortie would scamper off to do their own thing but he never thought he was abandoning his siblings?

Did the others think that as well?

"I can see what you're thinking." Magnus' voice drew him out of his troubled thoughts and Magnus placed his hand on his shoulder. "You weren't a bad brother Gaius. Not even close." Magnus assured him but he still felt that knot of doubt deep within his mind.

Magnus looked at Gaius with a penetrating look "It's just that you and Fortie are two peas in a pod – in your own ways. You guys fed off of each other when we were children. Fortie with his bravery and confidence that you lacked when we were younger and you with your ingenuity and will that Fortie depended on."

Magnus removed his hand from Gaius' shoulder but not without tapping his shoulder. "I understood long ago that there wasn't any malice or neglect in your actions, it is simply who you guys were." Magnus looked away from Gaius as they approached the station. "Adventurers destined to win the game."

Gaius wasn't sure what to say. "Anyway" Magnus stretched out with a long strung out exhale as he shook his head and turned to Gaius, a teasing smile on his face now.

"So, I hear you went to go see Clarissa the other day?" Magnus asked, exaggeratingly wriggling his eyebrows in the process.

"Eusebius has a big mouth." Gaius muttered though it was with a smile.

He did go see Clarissa, his old girlfriend, a few days ago. She'd been part of the group of students that the King took off world and they'd gotten a lot closer after that and dated for seven years.

He'd loved her. He still did but they were both wedded to their jobs at the times. They both still were. Maybe afterwards…

Magnus laughed before he spoke up "Don't worry, he only told me. The others wouldn't have been discreet." That…that was true. Their sisters would tease him ceaselessly in the hopes of getting information out of him.

Their brothers in all honesty would the same…only cruder.

The conversation flowed a little easier after Magnus' confessions about their childhood but it was still a little stiff. Thankfully, it wasn't long before they parted and said goodbye knowing that they'd see each other again at Emilia's, their sister, party which was tomorrow.

Neither of them mentioned that evening' s conversation again at Emilia's party or in the week afterwards. All that was said, was said.

A week later – Moeniae Assembly Complex

Gaius raised his hand towards the Scanner as he reached the last set of door.

A green vertical beam of light scanned every surface of his hand – and every cell underneath his skin. The green beam of light blinked away and a dark screen appeared from the screen. "Please Alight Your Hand to one Lux" the monotone voice of the Complex's security system requested.

He channelled his magic to his hand and his hand began to light up to the requested intensity. The Guardian Array did not extend this far down below the surface of Illos and the King and Queen decided against extending downwards and instead opting for creating a new security and low-level intelligent system that was magi-technological in nature instead of purely magical.

The system was based on smart programs brought to function through the Illosian computer language that was based on symbols from a number of ancient magical scripts practically butchered and spliced together into forming a coherent language.

There was an idea of using runes to create a computer language, like the Illosian Runes but so far it seemed a little too dangerous. Whilst the Illosian Runes were the most expansive runic language in existence, it was still subject to the will and desires of the magical and coding needed to be run on logic first and foremost.

…the last thing anyone wanted was for a code to behave contrary to its function.

"Gaius Volusenus Hardy confirmed." The monotone voice acknowledged and the doors opened. He felt a low thrum as he walked out into the Complex until he stood at the edges of the entrance platform, a low thrum that vibrated in the air as mechanical arms bearing entire sections of decks, some moving towards the half finished ship, the others stationary and waiting until their time was due.

The Assembly Complex was not as huge as Docking Complex was – after all, the Docking Complex was intended to hold five to ten ships in time – but it was as equally as impressive as the Docking Complex, if not more so.

At the centre of the Complex stood a half finished ship held in the air by connecting arms that ascended from the bed of the chasm. Small drone vessels manned by Seelie raced around the half finished ship connecting the sections of decks to one another through long but nimble enchanted arms that fused the matter of the sections without seams.

At the far side of the chasm, sections of decks were arranged like towels racks within a closet and where he knew dozens, likely hundreds, of Seelies were working with the thousands of mages.

Gaius tapped on his wristband before he gestured towards the chasm before him. A Hard Light Bridge materialised before him and he walked across it towards the platform beside the half finished ship.

Below, at the base of the Assembly Complex, was the automated manufacturing hub that took nearly all of the ten square kilometre foundation of the chasm.

It housed, amongst other things, the Runic Matter Re-Assembler Array, an array that permanently transfigured Nickel into Adamantite and other elements like Ilmendus which was needed to house the crystals that mitigated reconciliation effects, the Materials and Treatment Centres which produced the A-N-C alloy amongst others, and the Fabrication Hub which permanently transfigured materials into shape.

Gaius eyed the engines of the half finished ship. The impulse drive and thrusters were built by the Institute of Energy and Propulsion, a subdivision within the Office of Technology and Magic located at the edge of Celestis City with massive spatially expanded complexes dedicated to research, testing and production.

The impulse engine system was a more advanced form of plasma thrusters though the difference was that the plasma created was through fusion reaction which was then guided through a vectored thrust nozzle.

A huge improvement from the ion thrusters that the Gradus had boasted and just as the ion thrusters were an Illosian technology, so was the impulse engine system.

Mostly out of necessity given that they still didn't understand the 'dark matter' propulsion system of the scout-ship.

Gaius turned his gaze towards the stacks of decks at the far side.

Once the frame of the sections made of hundreds if not thousands of components and assemblies, they were fitted with crystalline computer systems and superconductive crystals, crystals that channelled power through the internal structure, it was at that point the sections would be layered with enchantments and runes before full integration of magi-tech and technology happened.

At present, there were about three thousand people who worked within the Complex – Magnus and Eusebius both worked in this department early in their careers – and the majority of them enchant, en-rune or integrate systems.

Matter assemblers were only really at a relatively rudimentary stage, at the stage of converting one form of element to another, and it was unlikely full automation of magical processes would be achieved until they were able to figure out a way generate magic like power stations.

He arrived at the end of the Hard Light Bridge and stepped onto the platform that it was connected to and made his way towards his mentor who'd been unmoved from his place throughout his entire walk on the Bridge.

Simply…gazing at the work being conducted on the ship with his arms behind his back. Waiting and watching. Always knowing what would happen. Gaius turned his gaze towards the ship as he continued his way to his mentor.

The ship that was being built would be the fourth ship that was Slipspace capable and it was the first ship of its class, the Gallimimus class.

It would boast the most advanced cloaking system they were capable of. Energy suppression field and a black hull mesh that absorbed 99.99998% of light along with zero electromagnetic radiation leakage made it a near impossible to detect.

At three hundred and fifty metres long, it was also the smallest class of ships but size was never its purpose. No, size didn't matter for the mission the Gallimimus had.

"Gaius." Atticus acknowledged with a faint smile, his gaze never leaving the construction arm that was placing a section of one of the lower decks onto the growing main body.

"Sir." Gaius said with a bow of the head. His mentor long dissuaded him from calling him anything other than 'Atticus' or 'sir' in his presence.

Gaius eyed his mentor curiously. There was an intensity in his emerald green and violet eyes that he recognised very well. It was the look of impatient excitement.

When Gaius was told of his command, Atticus had told him that he was envious of the opportunity he was afforded but at the time he'd thought Atticus had said it to flatter him.

Now, he knew better.

There was hardly a time he didn't see Atticus heavily involved in the mission to Celestis. From joining the Hecate to Alpha Centauri to test its engines and slipspace drive that it hadn't used in over a year, to the selection of individuals that would join the mission.

He wasn't sure how the man found the time, especially Gaius knew that the King was actively involved in almost every facet of Illos, but it did give the men and women who were joining the mission a lift in morale with how much the King was involved.

And when Gallimimus was complete and successfully completed its cruise shakedown, that was when they would leave for the Celestis system.

All four of interstellar capable ships.

"I half expected Fortie to be here as well." Gaius remarked before he returned his gaze to the ship. He hadn't seen Fortie for the past three days.

This wasn't the first time that Fortie wasn't found for days at a time.

"He was here. You actually just missed him. I sent him home." Atticus told him and Gaius could hear the smile in Atticus' voice.

"It's as if he thinks his presence will speed things along quicker. But, then, I can't really blame his eagerness or impatience."

Fortie had always been like that.

He operated at a hundred miles an hour every day, every hour. It was what made him so successful as a Guard – becoming the youngest to graduate the academy – and what drove him to succeed at the Naval Academy to the point that he was going to be captaining the first exploration ship on the first exploration mission.

Gaius glanced at his mentor. "He is a lot like you in that regard. Sir."

The corners of Atticus' lips stretched upwards and he turned to Gaius. "And he shares that with you as well, Gaius. You just hide it better."

Gaius smiled before he bowed his head slowly to his King and mentor. "There is truth in that statement." He said with a light-hearted tone.

Atticus' gaze bored into him for a long moment before he looked away. "You don't have to be concerned about him, Gaius. He is ready."

Before Gaius could respond Atticus added "He's not the recklessly bold boy he used to be. He'll do all of Illos proud." Gaius stared at his mentor.

"You've seen this?" Gaius questioned. It was a redundant question. He knew that his mentor had seen this probably years ago. His Sight was that powerful. He knew from first-hand experience of that simple fact.

But…

He worried.

Fortie was a natural leader and had honed that side of him even more so after he'd spent half a decade in the Guards. He was a commanding man that had a natural sense of charisma and authority. He was bold and unfearful and determined, a combination that made for a great commander but Fortie also had fierce pride and dangerous stubbornness that made him unyielding even if it might be better to yield.

It was what got them both into a lot of trouble when they were younger.

He didn't want Fortie to find himself in a situation where he would jeopardise, not only himself and his crew but also the rest of Celestis.

"Yes. I once told your brother that I expected many great things from him." Atticus glanced at Gaius, a knowing smile on his face. Gaius' eyes widened at that comment.

He remembered Fortie boasting about that for a very, very long time. It was also part of what drove Fortie to learn as much magic as he could.

Not even learning that Gaius was a potential Archmage had fazed him and after Gaius had become an apprentice to the King, Fortie had only stepped up his own education to the point that he graduated in the top five in their year group, a year group that had the majority of its members contributing heavily in Illos' interstellar ventures.

"That was a truth then and even more so now. He will leave a legacy of his own."

"I see." Gaius said slowly before he nodding firmly, the last of his doubts leaving him. He felt slight guilt at doubting Fortie but he knew that sentimentality and feelings had little place when it came to the success of their mission.

Atticus smiled at Gaius with a slight incline of the head before a hint of curiosity leaked out of him. "What is it that you need, Gaius? You didn't come to seek me out to speak of your brother. Speak freely." There was an intensity mixed with the curiosity as he spoke. It was as if he was looking into Gaius' very being.

Knowing him, it was likely actually happening. Plus, it was a certainty anyway given the King knew exactly what he was going to say, exactly why he was saying it and how he would say it.

Gaius hesitated for a moment but steeled himself. "Sir…you shouldn't go" he said staring directly at his mentor's eyes.

"The magical world is on a knife's edge and once the Ravenites note your absence, it would throw the magical world into chaos." Gaius said with as much respect as he could muster before he released the tension of air that he'd held in and his expression turned imploring.

"You're needed here. Whatever you'll do there can wait until after the war is done."

A large part of him was horrified that he was speaking in this manner with his mentor, his KING. But…at any time, the Ravenites could launch their ideological war against the magical world and he feared for when it became known that the King was absent.

A possibility many had long seen coming well over a decade ago. But no one had the appetite for war back then so as long as the Ravenites adhered to the Statute of Secrecy. Not after the stand-off the ICW had with the Illos.

Not when there had been an absence of international leadership after the subsequent erosion of the ICW's power and authority as nation after nation broke away once it was determined the ICW didn't have the will to force membership or place sanctions as long as the Statute of Secrecy was adhered to.

And Illos was more than happy to simply ignore those parts of the magical world in favour of building its own coalition.

A mistake that would come to haunt them devastatingly. Gaius stared at his mentor, a complex and troubled feeling swimming in his stomach.

Gaius hadn't confronted him about it at all, hoping that his mentor would act. Like he did when war with the ICW seemed inevitable. It would make the King's absence far less important. But he hadn't, at least as far as he knew, and their time of departure was fast approaching.

There was no chance his mentor hadn't Seen what was happening.

What would happen.

"You believe we'll be at war soon?" Atticus questioned with a raised eyebrow and a considering look, ignoring Gaius' plea for him to remain behind.

"You don't have to be a Seer to know where the winds were blowing." Gaius answered with a meaningful look. He'd only been back for three months and he'd been able to tell that motions of events were going to spiral into another magical war very soon in his first few weeks back! The reports he'd read since and the latest events only accelerated his belief what timescale they were working on.

The ICW's closer relationship with China, the various Middle Eastern magical communities and its fortress territory in Switzerland and the guarantees it was giving to the remaining free western magical nations – albeit unofficially – in the face of reports about the brutality of the Ravenites made it clear that they also readying themselves for war.

Atticus nodded slightly, his considering look fading away and grimness set in. "You don't. Once again…a major war is set to ravage the magical world." Atticus turned his gaze back at the half built ship "Only months after we leave."

"And Illos?" Gaius asked, only just about managing to keep his tone from seeming pressing. "Will we be dragged into it?" Gaius had noticed the differences in his sister Marisa when he returned.

All of his siblings had changed, had grown but Marisa…she was quiet and morose, as if she was weighed down by a chain that hung from her ankles, dragging her down into the crushing depths of the oceans. It could only have something do to with her Sight which she likely used daily as part of the Office of Far-Sight.

She never told him what her problem was – his siblings didn't know either though Livia did tell him that Marisa's Sight was levels above what it used to be, so much so that Marisa had warned Livia about something almost a year before it happened.

Would his family be dragged into war? His home?

Atticus turned to Gaius, his gaze piercing. "If we were, what would you do? Ask for yourself to stay, to defend Illos? Abandon our mission?"

"Yes!" Gaius said strongly. He took a step forward to the King "Isn't it our duty to protect our home? Especially us, those who are Archmages and have greater duty?"

Atticus' eyes softened before he nodded slightly. "We do have a duty to our people, to our home. Our families." Atticus said with a faint smile before his very presence shifted when he dropped his smile and his expression hardened.

His presence seemed to grow to be as tall as Celestis Mount despite there not being even slightest perturbation in his magic. "Illos and the Grand Alliance will not join in the war to come. Not while I am away. Not when I'm back either. In that, you can be rest assured."

Gaius startled at that declaration. "We won't join the war?"

He'd always just assumed that they'd fight with the rest of the magical world like they did with Grindelwald.

The mountainous presence that Atticus bore relented though it was still heavy after he'd looked away from Gaius and towards the half built ship. There was a lull, a bleak silence that made Gaius' breathing somewhat stilted.

"Do you remember what I asked you right before you left? That Sunday morning?"

The question took Gaius off guard before as he frowned and dove into his bank of memories, and he remembered. Gaius remained silent for a few moments after playing the memory a few times in his mind.

Finally, after a minute or so he answered "You asked me if it is enough to survive. If all that we do to ensure we survive is enough."

Atticus had asked him this question right before telling him that he wasn't looking for answer, only for him to think on it. And Gaius had.

He knew moments after Atticus had asked what the answer was. At least, he thought so at the time. Now…he believed he was mistaken. It wasn't as simple as yes or no.

Instead, he'd asked himself many questions.

Atticus hummed, his head raising slightly as one of the upper most decks was being moved into position. "And?"

"It's not enough to survive" Gaius said after a moment, as everything began to click in his mind, and it felt like a noxious and putrid odour invaded through his nose and scrambled his mind into ugly but profound clarity.

The words that escaped his mouth tasted like ash.

"One has to be worthy of surviving."

Gaius closed his eyes as he realised why his mentor hadn't acted. Why he'd let the Raven and his sycophants run roughshod over Europe when it was clear that no one would oppose him and Illos if they decided to utterly destroy the nascent Dark Lord.

Large parts of the magical world as it had been for centuries didn't deserve to survive.

It was mired with the same, repeating problems it had for centuries, the same kind of people who supported or joined variations of the same theme of Dark Lords. Supporting and enforcing bigotry and hate and naked self interest which repeatedly destroyed people and families and communities ran roughshod of everything that Illos valued. Gaius reopened his eyes and saw Atticus looking at him with a sympathetic but firm expression.

Not all magical communities or nations were like this, of course not, but many of the powerful Ministries of the magical world not affiliated with Illos were and that was always the problem.

Even now, there were still many things that Gaius didn't like to see. Even amongst those who were friendly with Illos.

He'd travelled through South America, Europe and Asia for months at a time, years before he left. He'd seen communities so in tune with magic and nature only for him to merely apparate a few hundred miles away and come across societies with institutionalised abhorrent treatment of people, magical beings and creatures.

It was maddening to see such stark contrast and even more maddening to see and hear the 'It's not of our business' attitude of those same otherwise praiseworthy communities. The tribal fragmentation of the magical world was a problem.

It was the same attitude that led the magical world to where it was now.

"Change, the kind they need, cannot come from the outside." Atticus said quietly, the emerald flecks in his eyes as bright as the stars he'd seen above Celestis.

"It needs to come from within for it last. And it needs to come before we leave."

'Lest we inherit the same kind of problems fifty thousand light years away?'

Gaius broke eye contact and turned to the half built ship.

In cold, hard logic, he saw the value and even the necessity of it. After the war with Grindelwald, the goodwill and the gratitude, the debt the King was owed, evaporated away like it never existed when he'd started to preach for basic rights and equality.

The same would happen and everything might just repeat once more.

"It's callous." Gaius said quietly. But he understood. When Exposure happened, whenever it happened, Exodus to Celestis needed to be a fresh start for their world.

"Is it really callous?" Atticus mused aloud and Gaius turned to him. Atticus' expression was weary.

"Can we really hold ourselves responsible for the actions of others?"

"If we can do something about it…" Gaius trailed off uncertainly. Atticus turned to him with a sympathetic look on his face.

"It is a slippery slope, that line of thinking. It leads to tyranny. People must be free to make their choices. Even if they come to regret it. Even if ends up killing them."

"And only when they've come to the realisation of how much their ways is destroying them, only when they've made the first genuine step in changing their ways, can we be truly assured that our efforts wouldn't be wasted. After they ask and express their willingness to change. Then, and only then will we intervene."

"And if the Ravenites don't allow us to sit back long enough for that to happen?" Gaius posed to the King. Croatia and Slovenia and even the Western Alliance could be attacked when the Ravenites made their play to spread their evil.

Atticus' expression turned cold and Gaius felt a shiver run down his spine. He'd seen that look before when an Illosian family on holiday in Greece disappeared.

It was a look of brutal consequences.

Gaius only grimly nodded in understanding and the Atticus' cold expression melted away and a gentler expression made its way onto his face with such smoothness that one could doubt the terrifying look had ever been there at all.

"When will the public know of your departure?" Gaius asked with grim acceptance.

"A few weeks before we leave." Atticus answered, the gentle expression leaving his face. Gaius took in his expression. It was slightly weary with hints of a grimace.

No doubt Atticus considered not informing the public at all but that would be impossible. He was the King. Their symbol. More than Queen Emily was…likely would be. There would be questions asked within days about his absence and it would cause riotous havoc if the public didn't get their answers.

It would not have surprised Gaius if that is what Atticus saw.

Gaius only hoped the King knew what he was doing.

"Enough of all this" Atticus said in a dismissive tone and instead bore an excited face.

His arms fell by his sides before they appeared in front of him and he placed his hands together. He rubbed them together in an anticipatory way.

"Tell me more about Dexirus. Seraya is looking forward to hunting in the vast grass plains there." Atticus shook his head exasperated "She wants me to tell her every little detail when I go to pick her up."

Gaius smiled a little weakly at the drastic change in the King.

It wasn't just people and sentient races that were going to the Celestis System, no, it was also the first major migration of magical – and mundane herbivores – creatures.

Dragons, magical serpents, krakens, griffins, unicorns, any and all kinds of magical creatures were being transported to Dexirus and to Celestis itself.

Though for now, the transportation was largely centred on magical creatures that were under heavy regulations with limited freedom of movement.

Gaius began his vivid explanation of everything he could recall and only when he was midway through his descriptions did he realised that the King had requested this of him to set him at ease.

-Break-

29th of August, 1971 – Illos

Atticus listened as Zoran Buća, the Director of the Treasury, started off the High Council meeting with the status of the economy.

The economy was doing exceptionally well and they were the largest economy in the magical world by a country mile. They were the largest exporters of potions ingredients, alchemic metals, artisan enchanted products and the hub of nearly all magical advancements. Including of course magi-tech.

Seven out of the nine – with one of the two non-Illosian companies belonging to his sister – of the largest magi-tech companies were started in Illos with significant backing from the Councils, Illosian investors and from himself.

Utopian Dynamics, started by Mischa Lensherr – who'd attended Atticus' Hogsmeade meeting in 1940 – dominated the magical world market in a range of magi-tech products but most notably they dominated magical communication and computers. Lensherr had been granted a load of licences to use his original work like other entrepreneurs had but he'd made a product that was as simple to use as a smartphone was in his old life.

As the High Council meeting went on Atticus listened with half an ear, enough to show that he was paying attention to what his Councillors were talking about and discussing, interjecting once or twice to ask or to decide when Emily did not.

It was more akin to acting than it was a genuine response. He had worn masks before, for years, but now…he was an actor that who knew his words, the words of others and the exact timing of when to say it or make a gesture.

He knew it all like the back of his hands.

Was it any wonder why he was losing much of the need – and want – to give anything or most anyone his full attention even if it was not on purpose?

Only a few people mustered full attention out of him, those few who he avoided in his observations of timelines and his experiences in those timelines. An avoidance that was becoming more difficult than he expected.

He glanced at Miles Garrick, the Director of State, the tight control over his magic slackening by less than a percent. Where before there was a solid man, now his form was not that of a single man, no, it was a form that consisted of a hundred shades of mists that occupied the same space, ghosts of timelines that could made to take solid shape if he spoke a certain sentence, did a certain thing.

In his conscious state, anything less than perfect control would open him up to the immediate future and hundreds of its possibilities.

For now, it wasn't an issue, this deepening of his ability since his control never waded. But fifty years from now? A hundred? A thousand?

Would he lose touch with the physical world by that time as a consequence of his growing magic and his understanding of Consciousness and Living Time?

He considered addressing at least one part – the only part since he needed every advantage against the Shapeless Ones – of that possible problem…limiting the growth of his magic.

Of course, the yearly growth was a pittance compared to his final magical maturity at twenty-one. As it should be. As people aged, their magical growth past the age of twenty-one was near zero but not zero. The Flamels were a lot more powerful now than they were when they were twenty-one thanks to the many centuries they'd lived.

But it shouldn't be growing as much as it was still growing now. The Flamels agreed that he was showing a kind of growth a decade that they'd seen only after centuries.

The only conclusion they'd reached that made sense was it was a consequence being in such a magically rich environment like Illos. Atticus realised that when he found out he wasn't the only one who was growing magically. The rich magical environment was facilitating his magical growth and that of his people.

Emily too had shown this growth. Hypatia, Fortencho, and the other people who spent their twenties and/or formative years in Illos showed the similar high growth.

The only way to limit his growth would be to extract himself away from magically rich environments like Illos and the Celestis system. A choice he couldn't make.

None of his future-selves seemed to have a solution to this problem either. He'd peered down many timelines to see if he could address the issue.

So for now, the best he could do, he mused to himself as he re-established full control over his magic, was to exercise complete control over his magic.

The meeting continued for another hour or so as they moved passed legislation and political agendas that Chief Representative Doyle briefed the High Council on and towards the sciences and magicks.

William Bell began first and reported on his Office's projects and their statuses.

When he indicated limited progress in the research of scientifically halting cell death despite the mountain of data they collected and have on animals like phoenixes or Turritopsis Dohrnii – an immortal jellyfish, Atticus commented and suggested something that would lead Bell onto a fruitful path.

A path where, in eight years, Bell would find a way to reduce the shortening of telomeres each time cells divided.

It would lead to an estimated increase of the average lifespans of average wizards and witches from one hundred eighty to three hundred fifty. In time, that lifespan would be increased even further, there was little doubt about that as people moved away from rituals and black magic to increase their lifespans.

Atticus did a similar thing for Walter Bishop whose research projects in Legillimency and magical frequencies would spawn new development in neuro-magical interfaces that would make technology as tied to people's magic as perfectly matched wands were.

It was only when Parelius spoke of the one mission that the High Council was fully aware off that he paid full attention again. Parelius informed them of the situation in Europe hampering the success of the mission and that they were getting to the point that they were extracting less and less people from Europe as the weeks rolled by.

Last week they only got out a single family. Four months ago they were able to get on average six families a week. It wasn't the only problem either.

"Our agents are finding it difficult to move deeper into the interior of Europe." Parelius stated emotionlessly to them all. "As you know, the magical net the Ravenites have deployed across their territory is difficult to circumvent."

The Ravenites managed to tie all of their territory into one huge one with a single magical net encapsulated it all. But that wasn't them most impressive and troubling feat.

The additional ward scheme the Ravenites invented and added to magical net was ingenious. For a long time now, the Ravenites went out of their way to record every citizen's magical signature and the places they had right to be in.

Signatures they'd used to compile practically the magical equivalent of a database that let them know exactly who is who.

With the new ward scheme that worked similarly to accidental magic monitoring ward schemes, they could pinpoint the general area of where someone was and with the historical data that they had on the people, anyone not even close to where they meant to be was to be questioned.

IO agents were not completely constrained by this ward scheme but it made cooperation and trust with the native populations difficult.

Not only did it isolate communities from each other and inclining them to reject any kind of risk including escaping if it meant they'd be hunted as soon as they were a few miles from their homes and communities, it also heightened the fear people had with regards to rebelling.

Magical signatures could be scrubbed but that took time, skill and knowledge. And that knowledge was not something the vast majority of people had.

In Greece and in other places like Romania or Russia where rebellion previously was burbling under the surface, was now lukewarm after the nobility purges and the news of the ward scheme reached far and wide.

"Wasn't the magical suppression bands meant to assist in that regard?" Walter Bishop questioned with a concerned note.

"They help." Parelius confirmed "And it is used judiciously when they're undercover. However, there is a lethargy in their magic when they switch it off. It takes at least a few minutes for them to be able to use their magic effectively."

Parelius took a moment as he glanced around the table before meeting Bishop's gaze again. "I do not have to explain why that is not…desirable in risky environments when we have reasonable doubt in the trustworthiness of many rebel cells."

Murmurs rang around the Council table and Atticus could see a few of them resisting the urge to send him nervous glances. The knock on effect of having a well-connected magical civilisation was that news travelled very fast.

The news of his departure was released only two days ago and the reaction from his people in Illos alone was…intense, he thought with a weary thought.

He'd manage to move along a timeline where the public's unhappiness about his departure for over a year was limited but it was still there and there was a tension that was tangible.

In the rest of the magical world, the news was surprising – to all interested parties. Other than the great interest that enemies and allies – who weren't in the know – had in their supposed finding of Atlantis, his departure affected global geopolitics like a stone would affect the surface in a still pond. Ripples were being made.

Even the ICW – who'd deigned to communicate with Illos only twice in fourteen years – reached out to them 'requesting' a meeting to discuss Atlantis. There was a kernel of truth in their interest in Atlantis but they were far more interested in dissuading him from leaving for so long.

There was an irony in the symbolism that he was perceived to be. As if he were Atlas, the only person who was preventing the world from crashing down. An irony that was quite true given that Illos was the linchpin that would decide everything.

Should the war begin in his absence, they would be right to think that Illos would not join and it would allow the Ravenites the breathing room to focus on the ICW and its allies.

"Inform our people to pull back." Emily said after a little while as she shared a glance with him. He sent her a feeling of agreement through their bond and she turned her gaze to Parelius who waited on her to continue.

"We will assist the Grecians and the other rebels from our base in the Ionian Islands but we won't risk our people's capture." Emily's lips pursed. "At this point escorting families to safety is no longer viable without…greater intervention."

Parelius bowed his head "As you will it, Your Grace."

The meeting after that was more or less wrapped up and he was left alone with Emily and Parelius in their apartment home in the Main Tower.

"Parelius." Atticus intoned as he looked at the man.

"Your grace." Parelius said understandingly as bowed his head.

He tapped on his arm as he spoke "Operation Wear and Tear is on schedule. We have our agents in place lying in wait." Parelius informed them as his arm brace began to emit a two dimensional holograph.

A map of Italy appeared on the Holo with red dots demarcating the areas of interest. Most of them centred around the regions of Rome.

Atticus' hand rose in the air and a holographic globe appeared from the centre of the room. It blew up the southern region of Europe and centred on Italy. Certain areas on the map began to flash whilst arrows showed where the troop movements would be.

Atticus tapped on his arm brace and moved Parelius' Holo onto the map, overlaying the red dots with troop movements and Ravenite assassinations.

"Good." Emily said as she glided over towards the map at the centre of the room, her eyes deathly fixed on the arrows that moved towards Rome.

"Are the numbers still the same?" Emily asked, knowing that every time he or the Far-Seers made a change to the timeline, however distant or immediate it may be, would result in having a knock on effect in the present in some small way.

"Yes." Atticus confirmed. "Over eight hundred mages led by Cullaica will attack the Italians on the 20th of October." He said to her and she took her eyes off of the map and met his gaze. "A tenth of their active forces."

The Ravenites had a deep pool of wizards and witches to call upon. There were still hundreds of thousands of magicals in their territories and many of them were being convinced of the Ravenite ideology.

"The ICW will come to their defences on the 23rd of October." Parelius mused aloud.

"Led by Li Lei." Atticus said with an incline of the head.

"Twelve hundred Ravenites will attack the Chinese on the 27th of October" Emily continued, her hand sweeping across the globe towards the Suguniang Mountains.

The Chinese had twice that number in Aurors and other combat trained mages but they would be caught unaware. Belief in the impenetrability in their fortress towns amongst the mountains would cost them dearly. Far too dearly.

"Friction within the ICW as they refuse Li Lei to relieve the Chinese." Parelius added as he stared at the map as he returned it towards the Western European view.

Both Parelius and Emily knew all what he knew about the upcoming war and the ways it could go…and the subterfuge the Ravenites would play with the Vampires that would begin to plague the Western Alliance…and Croatia and Slovenia.

Hypatia will aid Emily should things spiral out of the likely timeline.

Emily turned towards him. "Quite the effect you'll have, dear husband." Emily said with a humorous tone but they both knew that she was anything but pleased with it all. Of course, this war was inevitable, whether or not it was him or her that left.

They were only speaking in terms of months, in truth. The Raven seemed to consider just one of them being present as an opening to exploit.

"Jealously doesn't become, wife." Atticus said with a curling smile and Emily rolled her eyes. Atticus dropped his smile and turned to Parelius with a long stare on his face.

"Our agents, our people, Parelius…prioritise them over the missions." Atticus said in a hard voice. Parelius met his gaze with a silent and blank expression.

"We can always retrieve the artefacts and texts at a later date or at worst destroy them if we have to. Our people however…"

Atticus trusted Parelius with his life but he did think that Parelius was a little loose with lives. Atticus couldn't claim to be better but when it came to their people, he'd rather not see a single one die to save a hundred others, let alone for some trinket that they didn't want the Ravenites to have.

After this conversation, Parelius would not even think to consider it.

Parelius bowed his head. "You have my word."

Soon enough it was just him and Emily.

"Was it necessary?" Emily questioned with a raised eyebrow as she undressed from her Rosi and into her silk nightgown.

"Yes." Atticus said flatly. "I saw an incident that caused him to sacrifice eight of our men for the Olyndicus' Lance." Atticus looked at her. "It seems like he didn't know that the matter was already in hand." Atticus had transmitted as much as he could of the year he'd be away to her mind.

Emily frowned "He acted without my knowledge." She stated displeased.

"Not to excuse him but he was acting on critical information that needed to be dealt with within hours. You were in Morfay." Atticus told her and it placated her a little.

"I will sit down with him." Emily said with a sigh and Atticus smiled gratefully at her. "It is a powerful weapon to let fall into our enemies hands." She conceded.

"I know." Atticus grimaced. Thankfully it wasn't even close of a possibility.

The lance had been crafted, supposedly, by the mage that went by the name Hephaestus for the warmage Olyndicus around the fifth century BC. The lance had the capability to 'drink' the blood of sacrifices and absorb a good fraction of their magic into itself before triggered into one single but awesomely devastating burst of magic.

According to the myths, the weapon had been responsible for separating Sicily from the rest of Italy after it was fired during a battle with Carthaginian invaders.

A battle that killed everyone. Well…obviously not everyone otherwise the weapon would have been lost and the story left untold.

"Anyway" Atticus said with a shake of the head as he approached his wife who looked as beautiful as ever. She smiled wryly at his look and soon enough, they'd forgotten whatever it was that they were discussing as they fell into each other's embrace.

5th of September, 1971 – Slitharsa, India

Seraya purred as he scratched away at a scale that looked like it was in need of some medical attention `You have some scale rot, Seraya' Atticus said a little concerned as he looked over the rest of the underside of her belly.

It looked like there were a few other such scales that definitely needed a course of healing elixirs. He'd have some choice words with the caretakers.

Seraya hissed `I will heal. It happens when I have been active for too long. It goes away when I sleep`. Basilisks had a strong healing factor especially after they entered a hibernation state turning their huge reservoirs of magic inward onto their bodies. That, along with the properties of their blood, was part of why they were so long living, why they were effectively ageless.

`I will have it treated today` Atticus promised her whilst he caressed her belly.

She gave off another purr `I will not object' she said with a pleased note in her hissing before she brought down the bulk of her body down and Atticus stepped aside whilst she laid down. She brought her huge serpentine face to him and her forked tongue licked at his face `I will be strong for our journey. Will I be awake? `

Atticus smiled at her as turned his face slightly so that the tongue licked at the side of his face `If you wish to be. The younglings will be asleep for the journey so you will only have myself and the other Speakers for company'

`You'll stay with me?`

Atticus smiled at her longing question. Despite not being his familiar, Seraya held an affection for him that was almost as strong as the affection Fila had for him.

An affection he returned even if he was more absent than he should be. He caressed her scales underneath her lips, not that far above the small notch from which her tongue is stuck through.

`Yes. We can even sleep in the same nest on our journey` he suggested to her. It didn't matter to him where he'd stay on the ship.

Seraya's temporary habitat was as good a place as any.

`I want to be awake` Seraya hissed happily. `You'll be all I need, master` Seraya hissed as she set down her head and closed her eyes as she angled her head towards the direction of the hot Indian sun. Before long she drifted off to sleep.

She was tiring far too easily even with a magical battery in her gut, he thought to himself with a sense of sadness as he listened to her restful magic and her heartbeat. She had grown since he first met her all those years ago by ten to fifteen percent.

When basilisks were in their hibernating state, all of their magic was focused to maintaining their bodies. They stayed the same and never hungered, theirs and ambient magic being enough to sustain them.

They could sleep for ten thousand years without ever dying once they were old enough. There was a reason why basilisks held a similar status as phoenixes did.

Beings of magic unlike most others.

Unfortunately, it also meant that it had its own issues. Whilst basilisks in theory were ageless thanks to their regenerative blood and their magic, in practice, they were not.

For a basilisk the age of Seraya, to stay awake required immense magical energy requirements. Part of the reason of the immense energy requirements was because basilisks had an unfixable condition that caused them to grow without limits. In theory, a basilisk could grow long enough to wraps itself across the entire surface of the Earth. Of course, they'd long die of unable to sustain the energy requirements they need to live.

As it was, there were only a few places with enough ambient magic to make sure she wouldn't fall into another cycle of hibernation and even it wouldn't be enough to make sure she was comfortable in staying awake for longer periods time. Even Illos' ridiculous magical density didn't seem like it was enough for her.

Which was why he gifted her a dense but compact magical battery that would feed her with twice the magical energy she'd get from Illos' environment. It would last for decades. Somehow though, it didn't look like it was enough.

Atticus turned to the old man beside him who held a shepherd's crook with both hands. His wrinkled skin was leathery brown and his hair more white than grey though the brown eyes he bore were youthful and sharper than his age suggested.

`She's been up for longer than usual` the elderly man noted after he closed the gap, a kindly smile on his face. `She rarely rouses from her slumber for the others in the Village`

`She's in the final decades of her life. It is expected` And her death…her death was coming sooner than he liked. He'd Seen that on Dexirus she'd live a lot longer than if she stayed behind. The Moon's intense magical saturation rivalled that of Illos as well. He hoped the new environment where she'd be free to roam with plenty of prey available would prove to be enough to lessen the toll she'd taken for being as awake as she'd been over of the decades.

With caretakers coming to take care of her and the other serpents, she'd live long enough to see the magical world move into the Celestis system.

The elderly man scrutinised him before he placed a hand on Atticus' shoulder `Time will come for us all` the old man paused for a second, a mischievous and knowing smile on his face as he inspected Atticus' face. `For some… it will come later than others' Atticus turned to Adarsh, a faint and slightly amused smile on his face.

Adarsh' expression grew a little sombre when he glanced at the sleeping serpent.

`She will be happy to spend it with the one she cherishes the most'

Atticus and Adarsh walked out of Seraya's den after Atticus had some words with the caretakers about her scales and let them know that he'd already sent an order to his people to deliver a vat of healing elixir best suited for injuries like this.

They walked onto the path that would take them out of the small valley ravine where Seraya and other serpents like her were cared for. For the past eight years, she'd lived here after it was clear that she was lonely. He could only spare her so much time and neither Sophia or Marie were interested in caring for Seraya long term.

He'd offered the Slitharsans to care for the ancient serpent which they were all too delighted to do. Not only because ancient serpents like Seraya were venerated but also because he was asking as an Elder of the tribe after he – and Emily – had earned that title when they gifted magic to the squibs of the village. The entire village was now capable of speaking or at least understanding parseltongue.

From there, Slitharsa had become a sanctuary for serpents that he and Emily had searched out from around the world, many of which were legendary serpents long thought to have gone extinct like the Bašhe, a python-like giant snake forty feet long whose primary prey was elephants, or the Hoyau that dwelled nearby volcanoes.

The village nestled in between forested mountains and a crystal clear river stream was picturesque as ever.

There was a peace here that was addictive, like time's touch slid off of the valley unable to ravage it like it did everything else in existence. Perhaps that was why he didn't visit the village too often. He'd always stay longer than he ought to.

After about twenty minutes walking down the sloped path, they approached the village. Docked by the river there was a large caravel being with crates large enough to fit Seraya's head. There was a reason for that. Many of those crates, if not all of them, were spatially expanded to suit the larger serpents that were within the ravine.

Within the next few days, the serpents would be put to sleep before being loaded into the crates for transport to Illos. It was slow, especially since the ship later on be transported onto Illos but the Slitharsans were adamant of not allowing strangers in the village.

As they entered the village, the changes over the past twenty years were transparent. There were more homes now and if you looked closely, you'd see the touch that Illos had on the village with plenty of magi-tech products around.

Slitharsa was a special place for him but especially for Emily. They were a connection to her ancestors and a culture that she accepted and in her own way cherished. They wanted the people close to them and to agree to move of their free will before the chaos began and so they made to entice the people slowly and gently.

A culture as old and as resistance to change as the Slitharsans couldn't be approached in any other way.

Children played football in the streets – the game was introduced a few years ago after a group of friends travelled to the muggle side of India and fell in love with the game – with serpents, most likely their familiars, lounging by the sides on cushions or baskets.

Some of the children noticed his approach and waved at him whilst one of them, a young girl with short hair he recognised sped towards them.

`Elder Atticus` the young girl hissed excitably, the dimples in her cheeks shining through as she beamed at him. The young girl, Samira, was one of the youngest children in the village at the time of his offer to turn all of the people younger than forty into magicals. Another young child, probably Raell her younger brother, came to her side looking equally excited to see him.

Both of the children had bright futures ahead of them. Samira would become a promising magi-zoologist whilst Raell would become of Bell's researchers.

`Samira. Raell. How are you? You've both grown since the last time I've seen you` he hissed with a smile. The last time he'd set foot in the village was about three years ago.

`I'm almost ten now!` `I'm eight now!` they said at the same time causing Adarsh to smile warmly whilst Atticus chuckled before smiling at them again.

`I see` he hissed out in a considering note before he glanced at Adarsh `Have they been good?' he asked in a serious tone accompanied by a serious look.

Adarsh looked at the children who had wide eyes and bursting to speak but they were well behaved. All of the children here were taught to respect their Elders and to listen. To interrupt one Elder speaking to another was considering to be a terrible thing.

`They have been good` Adarsh said with a smile and it seemed to relieve the children.

`I am glad to hear` Atticus said with a smile. They parted away from children and made it to the central building within the village where the Elders convened.

It was an hour later when the entire village gathered in front of the central building.

The Slitharsans were heavily ritualistic when it came to 'leaving ceremonies'. Ceremonies that were being held for the sixty men, women and their families that chose to come with him and the serpents to the Celestis system.

Only the Chief Elder amongst the other Elders knew where they were going whilst the others believed that he was taking them to another part of the world.

The Chief Elder gave her blessings to each and every individual, her prayers of Naga joined in parseltongue song that seemed to enrapture everyone, human and serpent alike. Atticus merely watched on in silence.

The days leading up to departure went quicker than he thought despite not sleeping once for over a week. The news of his departure dominated Illos and for the first time ever, he could feel the disappointment from his own people.

Emily had a lovely sense of schadenfreide about that.

Still, it did little to douse his excitement. He knew that in all of the timelines, Illos would remain safe under her care. Their people would be safe and that was all he needed to remain excited for the Celestis system…and his future homeworld.

The thought of finally being there after so many years knowing and seeing the world through his traversing of Time could do nothing less. Especially since he'd finally be able to visit that one spot that seemed to draw him in like honey does to a bear.

During the last few days, the final loading was completed. Habitats containing hundreds of magical creatures and thousands of mundane animals in stasis pods were moved to onto the Hecate. Tens of thousands of golems that were to shape surfaces of moons and planets for future settlements were loaded like terracotta armies in massive containers. Manufacturing equipment and other technologies were loaded in the second to last day whilst on the final day, hundreds of people of different races and species boarded the ship.

Centaurs, merpeople in specially designed suits, dwarves, goblins, all boarded the ship that would make them the first to their new home system.

A momentous day indeed.

Still…

"Emily." Atticus said softly as he caressed her cheek as he stood by the tunnel that would lead him onto the ship. He could feel her displeasure, her anxiety but also acceptance through their bond.

"I will be back sooner than you think." He said with a gentle look as he took her hand and kissed it gentle. Despite being less than a decade away from being half a century old, their need for each other did not waver.

She hummed but said nothing in response to his words. She only stared at him for a little before he could feel her relent in her displeasure and its stead, longing rose.

"Don't take too long." She said with a soft whisper before she stood on her tip toes and kissed him on the cheek with the speed of a serpentine strike and before he could say anything, he felt her squeeze his other hand before she turned and left, back into the bowels of the Docking Complex.

Atticus sighed before he smiled at the closed doors. "I promise."

-Break-

1971 – Warsaw, Poland

Jason M. Lafides POV

The Polish guard held the open passport up against his face, his eyes darting from the passport to his face. After the guard was satisfied, he shoved the passport into his chest before dismissively barking out 'next' in Polish.

Jason made his way to the booth behind the guard where another set of guards scrutinised his passport and his travelling documents before stamping away in his passport almost disgruntled, as if Jason had ruined their day by being anything other than simply a traveller instead of a 'capitalist dog'.

He made out of the Warsaw International Airport and flashed his hand up to one of the cabs that stood waiting like carrions waiting on dying animals croak and decay.

"Take me to Old Town Square." Jason said in fluent Polish and the gruff scraggly looking cabdriver told him the price which Jason agreed with before they left off.

The twenty minute journey to the city centre was quiet, neither he or the cabdriver had much to say to each other and Jason preferred to look at the city anyway.

The city still bore the scars from the decimation the Nazis had wrought against the city and its people under the Order of Warsaw, a villainous act, a vile crime that rendered the city into a desolate wasteland of rubble and ruin amidst the bodies and blood of tens of thousands of Poles.

The soviets were little better, the opportunistic devils that they were. Grey bricks that were mockeries of architecture and decent taste lined the outer parts of Warsaw.

He let off a mental sigh and let go of the intense dislike that he felt for the soviets and the Russians. He was not here on a mission against the Communists.

No, his purpose was greater than that. A mission for humanity.

His grandfather had been Polish, Krakow born and raised he'd say in his thick accent, so he'd been the best choice to come and investigate the woman's claims about them.

After paying and tipping the cabdriver he made his way towards the Grand Hotel Orbis which was about a twenty-minute walk. As much as he was here for a purpose, he did want to see the capital of his grandfather's homeland. At least the parts worth seeing anyway.

The parts that the proud people of Poland strove hard to rebuilt from the shattered remnants of the ancient city that had been broken into a billion pieces of stone and brick.

And as he looked around, he could see the 18th century style buildings that Warsaw had once been famous for, building that the Poles rebuilt brick by brick, stone by stone and these parts of the city that had in their very bones the souls of the Old city stood like a rising phoenix from the ashes it had been reduced to.

And it couldn't have happened if not for a few fortunate surviving pieces of captured history in the form of Bernado Bellotto's ultra realistic paintings of Warsaw, the salvaged photographs and the students' paintings. Otherwise the Nazis would have succeeded in their quest to wipe Warsaw of the maps.

It was a proud monument to the efforts and will of the Poles though he wished that they extended their efforts across all of Warsaw.

But it was a tall task for any nation, to rebuild eighty five percent of a city that had been reduced to rubble and dust, let alone a nation that had no support like the Germans had with the Marshall plan and instead had the Reds chaining them down.

He walked passed the worn doors of Grand Hotel Orbis and placed his luggage on the ground as he arrived at the desk where a secretary was seated.

"Good morning." Jason said with easy charm and it earned him a smile from the dotty but pretty blonde. "I have a booking under Alex Ankwicz."

"Ah!" the blonde enthused "Yes, the Canadian." She peered at him with a curious smile. "You speak very good Polish."

Jason chuckled "I should hope so. My mother would be very unhappy if I could not speak her mother tongue well."

The blonde was a little amused before she took a pair of glasses from besides her and placed it on the bridge of her nose, her pen dancing across the paper in quick fashion. She peered up from the document "You're staying for ten days?"

Jason nodded and she added a final scribble before taking a stamp and pressing it against the document. She ripped the document from the pad and handed it over.

"Your room is Room 16. It is on the first floor on your right."

Jason smiled at the woman before taking out his wallet and paid for his ten days.

The room itself wasn't the greatest. The paint was old and there was a smell of staleness and bleach that seemed to linger in the bedding. The mattress was worn and creaked but thankfully it was free of bedbugs and other insects which was enough. He opened the blinds and was at least somewhat pleased that he had sight of the street below.

Once he took his clothes out of his suitcase, he sat down in the unbalanced rickety chair at the bedside table and brought out papers that were hidden in a compartment in his suitcase and began to read it for the twentieth time.

They kept a close eye out for the unnatural, ever since the 1926 event that reinvigorated their flagging organisation, though they hadn't found much luck...until they came across Maria Bielinski who immigrated to New York in the late 1960s.

She'd been a medical examiner at a mortuary in Bialystok and in 1959, she'd come across more than a dozen corpses drained entirely of blood with jugular bite marks.

It had been a major story – or at least it would have been if there had been any free press – and the police were scouring all of Bialystok searching for what they believed was a 'deviant'.

And, from what she told Kyle, a member of their organisation she'd told the story to after a year of dating, the bodies disappeared and the police simply stopped looking, denying there ever had been such a search for the deviant.

The police hadn't been the only ones either. The funeral director, the chief examiner, all of them denied ever seeing corpses drained of blood. Maria had thought that it was the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, that shut it all down in the week she'd been visiting her mother under the threat of being sent to the gulags or worse.

Kyle knew better and informed them of this incident, their first real breadcrumb to follow since 1926. Maria didn't know anything more after that but the organisation took the crumb and followed it religiously. Through their connections in government, they got a hold of the records of immigrants and visas.

They found other Polish immigrants and questioned them. It was those from further south, from the countryside, that they found the pot of gold with similar stories as that of Maria's but…it wasn't just bloodless corpses they found rumours of.

Jason stayed in Warsaw for another two days, mostly to arrange transport once he arrived in Przemyslo, before he made his way down south to Przemyslo via the train.

There had been a young woman from a village nearby Przemyslo that offered the greatest chance of success. According to the young woman, Krzeczkowa was a village fifty miles from her hometown locally famous for 'wild animal' attacks that happened every few years. A trait that it shared with other nearby villages.

The young woman said that people believed it to be cursed and that it was a ghost town now save for a few elderly people too stubborn and old to want to move away.

Jason and his peers hoped he'd be able to finagle some information from these people about what they knew. One of the things their records showed was these creatures rarely ever bothered with the stragglers, only putting in the effort to erase their existence once it became problematic.

If they could find a way to detect the spawns of Satan…

The next day, he took a rented car to Krzeczkowa. It was a desolate farming village that felt and looked like a place haunted by ghosts…and other beings.

He spoke to a few of the locals by the local bar that functioned also as a hotel and carefully probed at what they knew. Most of them had no clue what he was talking about and laughed it off. He was a little confused and thought maybe the young woman had been wrong. Or lied to him.

That was until he was told that most of these people moved back to this village after 'bad gas' killed most of the population. Except for a few people like the old 'babcia'.

He stopped by a home with a large wooden cross that was bolted to the front of the house when he saw an elderly woman sitting at the front of her home, the woman he was searching for. He hoped that she had more for him otherwise…

"Hello!" Jason greeted in Polish. A greeting the old woman returned. Not warmly but also not coldly either. Likely curious about him. There were only thirty homes that he could see that were connected to the road on his way here. The rest of the village consisted precisely of four shops, a gas station and of course a bar.

It was unlikely this was a place that hosted strangers often. Well, strangers that weren't moved here.

He opened the latch to the garden, a garden overflowing with weeds, and made his way to the elderly woman who was in a rocking chair, studiously watching him near.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she bluntly asked him as she looked him over. He was in fairly decent clothing, clothing that he made sure would 'fit in' with the Polish. "I have nothing to sell." She eyed him closer.

"I have also nothing buy anything with if that is what you are after."

He smiled politely at the old woman before he bowed his head. "I am Alex Ankwicz. I am not here to sell or buy anything." Jason paused for a moment as he met the older woman's gaze who seemed a little perplexed. "But I am here for questions."

"Questions?"

Jason nodded slowly as he watched her carefully. "Yes…about the animal attacks."

The old woman stiffened up before she hid herself away in a cold blank mask. "Ah, the bear attacks. What is there to ask? Bear attacks are bear attacks."

Jason knew then that there was more to the story. "Bears maul, Mrs…"

"…Wojciechowski."

"Mrs Wojciechowksi." Jason added before he continued "Bears maul, they do not leave two small pin sized holes in the neck." Jason said with a look.

The old woman stood up, faster than he thought a woman her age ought to be able to move "I have nothing else to say. You are crazy. Go." She said with a wave as she moved towards her open door. "I am done with this."

Jason cursed silently. "Wait!" She didn't stop so he tried again "I can pay! A thousand American dollars!" she stopped. She turned, a look of surprise on her face.

"You pay me a thousand dollars for what?" she asked incredulously though there was a suspicion and deep apprehension in her eyes. And what he thought looked like fear too.

"For the truth." Jason said honestly. She looked even more surprised at that.

"Mr Ankwicz…"

"Please." Jason held up his hand. "Hear me out before you say no?" he said beseechingly. A war seemed to rage within her mind considering the uncertainty that displayed on her face.

Mercifully she nodded and she led him into her home. Jason let off a breath of relieve. A few minutes later she brought out a cup of tea for him and he thanked for it.

"Why does the truth matter to you?" the old woman finally asked.

Jason sighed after he placed the cup of tea down on the very old and very worn table.

Jason met her gaze. "This world…there are many dark things hidden in the shadows. Almost everyone does not know of it. The government, the church, no one really knows. Except for a few." Jason sent her a piercing gaze. "Like you." He stated.

She didn't deny it. Jason continued "Like me and my fellow peers." Jason learned forward, his gaze intense "You see…we know that there are beings around us…beings that hunt us in the dark…evil beings that eat us and steal our children." At the mention of children, the old woman's eyes widened.

"It happened in America too?" she asked surprised – and scared.

"The stealing?" she nodded hesitantly and Jason smiled grimly.

"Yes. It happens even now."

The old woman remained silent for a moment, her eyes set on her cooling tea. "There was a family, maybe forty years ago, with a strange child that could do…unnatural things." She looked up from the tea and met his gaze.

"Some of the villagers thought she was a witch but she was a sweet girl really." The old woman said defensively and Jason smiled to ease her despite thinking that it was unlikely the girl was anything sweet. They were the spawn of the devil.

In time, the little girl would have shown her true colours.

"One day, she was attacked by a few boys and something strange happened, according to the boys." Her voice was quiet now. "The boys were thrown over twenty metres away from her. Two of them broke their arms from the fall. Their parents were so mad, I thought that they were going to hurt the sweet girl." The old woman shook her head.

"But before anything could happen…" she turned slightly pale. "The family was found dead in their beds." She said in a disbelieving tone. "Still underneath their bed covers, looking they were still asleep. But they were dead. Like death simply came in the middle of the night and took their souls but left their bodies untouched."

Jason considered her words. He hadn't seen evidence of anything like this before.

He'd seen many kinds of wounds that looked to be unnatural but nothing quite like this. The old woman continued "But the child…the child was gone." She said in a whisper. "The people thought it was proof of her evilness but I think she was taken. Her bedroom was ransacked and her stuffy toys were taken."

"It is possible." Jason said with a serious nod slightly impressed by her reasoning. The spawn of the devil would want to ensure more of its kind were in their hands to teach them in their ways. "I think you're quite right." The old woman looked vindicated in her beliefs. It was a shame that she was only half right.

"And the bodies?" Jason asked as he leaned forward now that he's established a relationship with the woman.

The woman turned deathly pale, paler than before. "You do not understand."

"If you're concerned if I'm going to tell that it was you who told me, I won't."

The old woman shook her head. "You don't understand. They can affect the brain." She said whilst tapping her head. Jason's eyes widened. This was the real deal.

"What do you mean?"

"The villagers? You met them?" Jason nodded

"Most of them moved back after a large accident happened." Jason said.

The old woman smiled with a kind of brittleness. "They never left. They have always been in this village. Even during the accident."

Jason sat back in his chair and he stared at her. This…this was new. "You're saying all of their minds were affected?" He knew that the spawn had the ability to wipe memories but he hadn't heard them changing this much.

"Yes." The old woman said firmly before she sighed and shakily reached out to her tea. She seemed to find a sense of peace from drinking the cold beverage.

"You must understand…I was away that week. Visiting my sister you see." She shook her head. "When I returned, I found many of friends and their families missing and no one knew what happened. And when I questioned the people you met in town, they said they didn't even really know the people they grew up!" she said in an angry whisper before she closed her eyes, seemingly trying to steady herself.

"I saw the bodies, Mr Ankwicz. I saw what happened to them. It was vampires." She whispered in a frightened tone. "The police from the city…they don't care. Saying its bears is easy. But I know better." She declared.

Jason listened to her for a while and it was an hour later, with a wallet missing a thousand dollars, that he left to go back to the city.

Jason was convinced that the woman was telling the truth.

It would be easy to dismiss it as fanciful lies and tall tales.

But their organisation had known since the 17th century of them and their cabal of evil. Yes…he needed to relay the truth to his peers.

They had the spawn of the devil to hunt.