Professor of History Darius Whitman bounded into his office, his gray handlebar mustache twitching and eyes twinkling with excitement. The Dark Fall Records, sealed for twenty-five years to the day, would now be unveiled. Sitting in a corner, Historian Connor Kuitu rose to meet him, clutching a sealed folder. Darius tossed his brown tweed jacket toward a coat tree in the opposite corner, missing entirely, then embraced Connor in a tight hug, forgoing the usual handshake.
"Come, Connor," Darius said, motioning toward his cluttered wooden desk. "Have a seat. Long have I waited for this moment. I don't know how you kept it secret so long."
Connor shrugged. "I was bound by the agreement. Truth often comes at a price."
The Dark Fall, as it was called, brought an end to the oppressive Sage Dynasty and reset humanity, although not without considerable upheaval. Connor had been granted an interview with the principles behind it all on the condition that the records remained sealed for twenty-five years. Now the time had come.
With a sweep of his arm, Darius cleared the desk, flinging the papers, memory sticks, and pens across the office. "I must confess, my friend, I was torn between cursing you for not sharing the secrets with me earlier or commending you for keeping them. But no matter. What have you to share?"
The Professor leaned forward and fluttered his fingers on the desktop in anticipation, for his academic reputation was at stake.
Centuries ago, Dr. Fai Hsu precipitated the fall of the World Order, a brutal collective government that ruled over what population survived the Green Wars. She devised a way to activate long dormant genetic code, giving people various levels of telekinesis and telepresence, or Talent, as was commonly known. These abilities allowed rebels to overcome vastly superior forces and form the New Republic. Later, Dr. Hsu released an engineered virus, activating Talent among the general population, an event known as the Awakening. A long period of relative peace and prosperity followed before the formation of the first of several repressive post-Awakening Dynasties.
Later in life, Dr. Hsu fell into psychosis, and her rambled writings, mostly related to the fall of mankind and the corruption of power, were largely discounted. But Professor Whitman maintained that Dr. Hsu was not so delirious, instead planting the seeds of Dark Fall.
"Oh, you will find this most interesting and enlightening," Connor said, putting on a sly grin. With a small pocketknife, he sliced through the red sealing tape and extracted a stack of papers and a memory stick. "It all started with a Blue Uprising Agent named Terra Lorr..."