SkyEarth (Reborn) Book 1: Stratos Rising

Chapter 1: The Storm

CRACK!

Thunder rumbled after white tendrils of lightning flashed against the metallic grey clouds. It's one of the harshest storms Granoden has faced this year. Torrential rain and tumultuous wind buffeted the boroughs and neighborhoods, causing widespread floods in low-lying areas. Most of the population stayed indoors, but a few others, more so in the poverty-stricken Outer Ring, struggled in the wet and cold, vulnerable to the full force of the storm. Some of those people would die, either from drowning in floods or of sickness from the cold winds or contaminated floodwaters, but one boy had other problems.

Fortunately he's in the higher-ground boroughs of the Outer Ring, unaffected by floods, but it was also one of the more dangerous ones where rival gangs would often clash. The boy needn't worry about gang wars, not with all this rain. His steps were careful and agile over the slippery cobblestone streets like he'd been treading over wet stone floors for most of his life. But as he took a left turn to the alley his foot slipped. He almost fell but managed to recover at the cost of having his right hand cut by a tiny pointed edge of stone. He would treat it immediately as soon as he arrived at his destination.

The boy came across a dead-end of a dirty alley. Actually, dirty didn't even begin to cover it. The place was a mess of filth and garbage and grime, with overflowing dumpsters, animal fecal matter, and some discarded strips of cloth, most likely loose bandages of some poor leper. Even the pounding torrent could not mask the sickly sweet, pungent stench of filth. The boy ignored the scent and approached an alley corner.

To the naked eye, it's just a brick corner where two walls of buildings meet. But to the trained eye of the boy, looking down he could see where the cobblestone curved to form one quadrant of a circle. Enough to fit at least two or three people cuddled together tightly, the rubbish and grime helped conceal it so no one would check it. The corner was one of many doorways to Granoden's oldest and most mysterious secret, and only the boy knew how to open it.

The boy stepped onto the quadrant space. Around his neck hung a chain and a skeleton key hung from it. He fished out the key, inserted it in the tiny keyhole in the space where the two walls meet, and turned. The boy could feel the tumblers and mechanisms unlocking from within. The walls began to move, and so did the quadrant space he occupied. The people living comfortably inside the buildings were unaware of a secret door being opened at this very moment; strange forces being played into the buildings' occupants' minds to ignore any unusual thing happening around the area. The whole thing turned, taking the boy inside a dark and damp tunnel. Sconces on the walls suddenly lit aflame with strange-colored fire. Below him a set of steps spiraled down almost endlessly. Somehow the rainwater managed to seep through the walls and made the stairs slippery. Bad enough that the stairs were at uneven height. One slip up might break his neck. Carefully he descended the wet uneven stairs, the light from the sconces showing the way. So far, he hadn't slipped and fallen, and if it came to that, he will quickly grab hold on one of the sconces to stop the fall. Five minutes later, he reached the end of the stairs and into a dark brick corridor.

The corridor, dimly lit by sconces, went two ways: left and right. The boy, who'd been living underground for most of his life, had no problem where he needed to go. He basically had a map of the whole underground tunnel system inside his mind, years of memorization and practice paid off. Following his mental map, he turned to the left. Straight ahead a crossroad going forward, left, and right. The boy took the right corridor, stopped at the fifth sconce of the left wall, pulled it with all his might and the wall where the sconce slid down, revealing another dark stairway tunnel down. After climbing down the stairs, the boy walked through the dark corridor until he came across a wide circular chamber with four large sturdy doors. The boy went to the space between the second and third, tapped four bricks to a specific sequence, and stepped back as the wall spun open, a secret door to a secret room. He entered and the wall closed behind him.

The secret room looked more like a cell for the hopelessly schizophrenic who was given rolls of paper, jars of ink, newspapers, and leather-bound books every single day of his life. Incoherent drawings and writings covered all four walls, leaving no spaces. Piles and stacks of leather-bound books littered three of four corners of the room, with a small homeless person den made of cardboard, newspapers, and scraps of cloth at the farther right corner. At the center of the room, a bronze statue of a tree stood on a dais.

The bronze tree had a pair of beauteous wings, one on each side of the trunk. The roots snaked around the dais as if it had been planted there years ago. At the front of the trunk, a bronze shield gleamed between two scrolls. The top scroll's motto, written in Voynich, said, "Harmony and Balance", and the bottom scroll, "The Skies are Endless" As for the shield, it was divided into two sky blue and white squares in a checkerboard pattern. Letters S and E emblazoned on the white squares; an olive branch and a set of scales on the sky blue squares. Together they formed the SkyEarth coat of arms, and the tree the mythical Yggdrasil, birthplace of the region's seven major deities.

The boy stepped on the dais, stood on his tiptoes to reach the branches, and he began to feel on the holes and bumps carved on the branches. Closing his eyes, the boy moved his bony fingers on the branches, reading the Braille engraved on their surfaces. His right hand was covered in multiple skin lesions, stiff and numb. Soon he would lose one hand but a prosthetic had already been made to replace it when that time comes. He searched for the word 'switch' among the bumps and holes, and after few minutes of touching and feeling he felt the Braille letters S, W, I, T, C, and H in a row and pulled the branch.

Clicking sounds could be heard from the inside of the bronze tree statue, and then a loud snap. The shield snapped open, revealing a roomy secret compartment inside the trunk. A piece of chain hung from a hook, and on the chain an iridescent silver coin, Yggdrasil tree and the SkyEarth coat of arms emblazoned on either side. The boy took the amulet from its hook and took a good look at it. Engraved on the side were Voynich letters. It said "Follow the Prongs and Wings. Awaken the Lost One" The boy examined the coin with grim determination.

"Oh Granos...." muttered the boy. "I hope I'm ready for this...." He slipped the chain around hisneck, the coin safely inside his shirt. He closed the compartment door of the hollow bronze tree and went to the wall where he first came in. He pushed the bricks the same way he did on the other side. The wall opened and the boy left the room. The door automatically closed behind him. Now to tend to his cut, infected and beginning to fester. He would consider it a small sacrifice to protect the whole of SkyEarth from certain calamity; a price for the good of many.