The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light

Chapter Nine - History

The four of them had left hurriedly. Alex didn't like the thought of putting his Mother's life in someone else's hands, but he had to agree that they were clearly more capable than his own. Nonetheless, he hated the feeling of doing nothing.
He paced throughout the bunker, which was even bigger than he had first assumed. Just as well, he wanted the others to keep out of his way.
Towards the end of the long corridor through the bunker, he found himself in a small library with several bookcases of literature with titles he found little sense in. Alex browsed, attempting to find something to take his mind off his mother. He also wondered if anything here may shed some light on all of this. His attention was especially drawn by several texts called, 'The Rays' Ambrosia and Enchantments', 'The Seven Sources of Power', and 'Aura Spheres: For Dummies'.
"Hey," came Lucy's voice at the door, "What 'cha doing?"
"Minding my own business," he replied harshly.
"Why?" She asked, ignoring his tone, "In my experience it's so much more fun to mind everybody else's"
Alex shot her a quick glare before attempting to ignore her.
"Well?" She pressed.
Alex glared again, frustrated that his right to solitude was being infringed upon, "Well what?"
She frowned, "What are you doing?"
"Looking for answers," he said reading the blurbs of his chosen three books.
"Here?" She asked.
Alex looked at her quizzically, "Well it is a Library, where would you go for information?"
"I dunno," she shrugged making herself comfortable in an old armchair, "Google? Or I don't know, maybe I could ask Jeeves? Does anyone even still ask Jeeves?"
"Well, go find somewhere with a signal and find out," he suggested harshly.
"Ouch," she said holding her chest comically where her heart would be, "Am I really that bad company?"
"I don't want company," Alex replied, "I just want answers."
"Well," Tom's voice spoke as he turned in to the room followed by Laura, "I think we can help with that."
"Kurt said we were supposed to wait for them to talk to him!" Lucy protested.
"Ugh," Laura rolled her eyes, "You are such a daddy's girl. Besides, our wards aren't exactly being forthcoming with him, are they?"
Lucy folded her arms sulking, "He's not my dad."
"We can tell you what we know," Tom said, "but there's a decent chance you're going to think we're mental."
Alex shrugged, "You won't be the only ones. A mental explanation beats no explanation"
"Well," said Laura, "Where should we start?"
"The beginning," said Tom, "the very beginning."
"I doubt he wants to be bored with a bunch of religious nonsense," disagreed Laura.
"It's not nonsense," Tom insisted, "Go on."
"But it's sooo long!" she protested.
"That's probably because it was long ago.." said Lucy before Laura shot her a glare which made her trail off.
Laura snapped, "I know."
Tom gestured for everybody to take a seat, "You're gonna want to get comfortable, this could take a while."

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Laura cleared her throat, "Once, there was nothing. No life, no light, no air, no time. Only nothing. Chaos."
Alex listened intently as he traced his fingers around the cover of 'The Seven Sources of Power'. The illustration was a detailed messianic depiction of Angels floating above clouds, and horned demonic creatures living in fire, separated by a calm green meadow. The spine of the book had been designed to resemble a ladder.
"Eventually," she continued, "there came in to existence, four beings. We call them the Primordials. These beings each had great power. The first was the being of time, Kronos. With Kronos, began the concept of time. Everything that happens around you, every day, happens because Kronos made it possible through its existence."
"Is this a religion?" Interrupted Alex.
"If you like," said Tom, "I suppose in a way it's all of them. The influence of the Supremes is all around you."
"Anyway..." said Laura impatiently, "Time marched forward towards nothing, there was nothing around to affect. Nothing but chaos and time for an eternity. Until, the next Primordials appeared, we call them the Early Creators. The Creators crawled out of the chaos and brought about reality."
"You're right," Alex said, "This is mental."
"More 'mental' than this?" Tom asked as he opened his hand and he formed a small ball of flame on the end of his fingertip.
"Point taken," conceded Alex.
"Like I said there were two. They were opposites. Day and night, light and dark, yin and yang, order and anarchy. These were the two who possessed the power to make everything, including life. The first created light and order to provide existence away from the chaos. The second created darkness and sought to control the chaos instead, some say it was the embodiment of the chaos itself, but the elementals always believed that it's likely just a title the creature desired. They possessed powers to create life and became known by what they created, The Light and The Dark. However, since they were natural enemies, so were their creations. Each destroying the other's creations, deeming them impure and wrong. They began to create life to help fight the other's attempts to destroy. The being of the Light created The Ray's."
"These guys?" Alex asked pointing at the illustrations of the Angels on 'The Seven Sources of Power'.
"More or less," said Lucy, "Kurt always said it's all mostly myth. No one has ever seen a Ray. They haven't contacted anyone for millennia, but it's thought that they were the inspiration for Angels and other holy beings throughout history."
Alex absorbed the information and pointed at the demons below, "Which makes these guys...?"
"Shades," answered Tom, "The Light made The Rays. The Dark dude, he made his own. The Shades."
"They look like Demons," remarked Alex.
"They are. More or less," agreed Tom, "Are you starting to get it now? This is the fact behind the fiction. The truth behind the myth."
"Can I continue?" Laura asked frustratedly.
"Yes. Sorry. This is a lot of information to absorb," said Alex.
She continued, "After several eras of failed creations, they began to create multiple different creations at once. These sorts of buffers are called the realms, they provided whole worlds of existence to blockade between the creators, helping safeguard their works. You can only access the Ray's realms through Ethereum, for instance. The dark's realms have a similar gateway."
Tom interrupted, "You can think of the realms as the multiverse. The being of the light created the upper realms and the being of the dark created the lower realms."
Alex traced his hand along the laddered spine of the book. Tom continued, "Their creations fought each other whilst they created their own visions for what they wanted life and reality to be."
Tom gestured for Laura to take over. She paused in thought before saying, "It is said the light perfected its vision in a realm known as 'Beyond'. A place of pure untouched order. But the Dark did the same in a realm we call 'Below'. No one has ever been to either. Anyone who has ever even gotten close has ended up being killed, driven insane or are lost forever."
"But where do we come in?" asked Alex.
"The Light created followers known as the Ethereals to protect its creations of flourishing life, peace and order. The Ethereals were not made to see Beyond, but it was their sworn duty to protect the upper realms in a realm called Ethereum, where we are, right now." "You said this was my home," Alex remarked.
Tom nodded, "It is mate. It's all of our homes'. You- we- are Ethereals. That's why you have powers you can't explain and that's why they want us dead."
"Well it's not the only reason," Lucy interrupted.
Tom nodded, "But it's enough of a reason for them regardless. Laura?"
She went on, "For the first time, the fight between the two beings was brought to a halt. The Ethereals were truly powerful, The Dark and its forces were held back. The enraged Dark threw everything at the Ethereals and they and the Shades waged war for millennia. Until finally, another Primordial emerged with the power to end the fighting. A being known as Medial attempted to bring an end to the senseless war that had plagued since the beginning of time. It created a realm between the pre-existing realms that acted as a wall for both beings and their creatures. Both the Light and the Dark's creations could go there, but they could never go further. This is the world in which we grew up."
Laura cleared her throat suddenly feeling a little awkward, "Urm, class dismissed."
"Any questions?" Tom asked.
Alex tried to absorb the information, "Yeah... Why's it empty? If Ethereum is such a powerful place, where is everybody?"
"That's the new part of the story," explained Lucy.
"Ethereum was over-ran by ghouls and Shades, about sixteen years ago," Tom added.
"But you said they couldn't come here?" Said Alex quizzically.
"Well they can't," said Laura, "Not on their own any ways. The Shades gained the ability to take control of people's minds. "
"Like my teacher," said Alex.
"But it got worse," Tom explained, "Eventually, they became powerful enough to control some Ethereals and used them as vessels to gain entrance to this realm. It's thought that the Rays sealed us off. The Shades new acolytes were the new enemies of Ethereals. People couldn't trust each other any more and decades of betrayals followed, the war was being lost. About sixteen years ago, they finally did it. The sheer number of acolytes meant they can transport over more and more of the Dark's forces. It was over-ran. It wasn't war then, it was massacre. The war was lost, and they all died. All except for us."
"So how are we here, if the place was over-ran?" Alex asked.
Tom grinned at Alex, "That mate, is the first good part. Come on, let me show you something."