The Science Of Magic

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" 

- Arthur C. Clarke

"It's time,"announced Ezekiel. 

Earth had been devastated thirty years ago after a massive war among the mages and stellar spirits. The ground had split in two, allowing the the land to be submerged with the raging lava and molten rock. The Stellars had won. At least that's what they chose to believe. They had fulfilled their one true objective: Wipe humanity off this universe. Well, it would have been successful if it wasn't for one powerful mage. 

"Yes. I believe it is,"responded Medea, refusing to look at anything but the purple sky. 

Medea was the empress of the Kingdom of Lost Souls. Although a dramatic name, it was a place of serenity and reverence. She ruled wisely, though not a mage. Her subjects adored her.

It was the day before the war, when Medea received a message. Her husband, Lord Kingsley, had been brutally murdered by a Stellar mage. She shed not one tear, although her heart cried out for him. There was nothing she could do to prevent the war. It would be too late to make preparations. 

Medea remembered Kingsley's words.

'Hiding, my love, is too often than not confused with running. They are entirely different. Running is the flaw of the coward. Hiding is the opportunity of the dignified.'

Hide. That's what she had to do. She rushed out of the palace to meet her trusted minister, Ezekiel. The fate of the planet had been decided, but the fate of her people could still be changed. Ezekiel had sensed the incoming danger, as the queen rushed to his side. The two had looked at each other with a deep fear, but at the same time, a quiet confidence. They had made a plan. A plan that would ensure the subjects of The Kingdom of Lost Souls would thrive, even as the grass withered away under them. 

"Where's Nathaniel?"asked Medea, as she reminisced in nostalgia. 

"He is to arrive soon, my lady,"replied Ezekiel, checking his pocket watch. 

Ezekiel was a Timekeeper. Timekeepers were powerful beings who could manipulate the ends of time as they wished. But of course there were limitations to this. Time travelling in the range of a week was at most they could perform with ease. Now, if years were to be considered, they'd have a problem. Ezekiel was a Master Timekeeper. He could summon wormholes within an hour and travel back and forth in time, in a range of about fifty years. Without Ezekiel's powers, The Kingdom would have been nothing more than barren ash.  He had successfully shifted the time of the region so as to preserve its allure even in the unprecedented dystopia that had yet to arrive.

"It seems the young master has arrived,"said Ezekiel, putting away the watch in his cloak, which seemed to be changing colours. 

"I'm back, mother,"announced Nathaniel, as he approached them.

Nathaniel was a Shapeshifter. It was his tactfulness that helped fool the Stellars into believing the Kingdom was dead, razed to the ground.

"You took quite the sweet time. Please tell me you brought Jadis along,"said Medea, with a certain motherly tenderness to it. 

Now, Jadis. Jadis had the power to grow. Yes, she could grow all sorts of things - plants, trees, animals, birds. She had built the safe haven to transport the Kingdom to. A whole new planet. A small one that was, at the present, crumbling away. She could also summon spirits of different realms.

"Your highness,"said Jadis, bowing before Medea. 

Medea responded with a curt nod. The tension of the situation was getting to her. The planet that Jadis had built in the shadow of the Sun, so as to prevent the Stellars from learning their existence, was coming to an end. But it bought them time, enough time to prepare.