Middengeard
an excerpt

‘Lo, beware the land of middle earth,
There lurkth cre’tures pow’r untold.
Twined within thy mortle souls,
Battles fought will there unfold.

~ from an old Auradi prophecy foretelling the place of the final battle for the web.

Chapter One: Heart of Sorrow

Earth. It didn’t have any real distinguishing characteristics from any other world upon which life dwelt and the Web had its roots. Most worlds all looked the same in nature, though the rates of advancement were different for everyone. Earth was neither the most advanced nor the least advanced. Its only real defining merit was that it was on its way to becoming one of four worlds with a centralized global wide government-- which, really, was barely a merit as there were so many problems inherit in trying to have one leader over a whole planet. However, beyond its politics, nothing could possibly have drawn the attention of those who wandered the web.

Perhaps that was why they had picked it. Perhaps that was why so many important battles had already been fought, between those who guarded the Web and those who sought its destruction, there. Perhaps, in its anonymity, Earth had become the perfect refuge and the perfect battle field.

However, on Earth there was a town called Dalara, which lay near one of the portals of the Web, where the war taking place did not have a hand in anything. It was home mainly to off worlders and their families, who for one reason or another had chosen to leave their homes in search of a new, nondescript place to live. Dalara was just such a place.

As spring began to pass into summer, and the only school in Dalara was preparing for summer break, Nayre Dumont awoke early one Sunday to the sound of hushed conversation in the dining room below. Without waking her cousin, who snored away in the bed beside hers, Nayre rose and placed a thick robe over her pajamas, still wary of the morning cold, before sneaking across the creaky floorboards of her room towards her door. Knowing that her aunt, uncle, and older brother all thought eavesdropping was incredibly rude, but being the busybody she was, Nayre was careful to only open the door a crack and keep really silent. For some reason her brother was really good at knowing when she was listening in on his conversations.

“… near the forest.” She heard her aunt say lowly, obviously finishing a sentence as Nayre arrived. She could picture her aunt as she spoke- she would be standing with her hands wrung through her apron, nervously twisting the blue cloth between her short, plump fingers. Her face was no doubt as twisted as the apron with worry (it seemed to be her usual look for the last couple of days) and her normally bright eyes wouldn’t be visible.

“That bodes ill in favor for us.” Her uncle replied, his voice deeper and huskier than her brother’s. Nayre knew him as a tall, broad man with big muscles and a bushy brown beard. His eyes were always filled with mirth in regards to most everything. Now, though he sounded serious and condescending.

Jayeth must have said something following that, for Nayre heard his voice but could not make out his words, so softly did he speak. The man never spoke very often or very loudly, his entire demeanor was withdrawn and introverted. Her uncle said to his unheard statement, “We can never know what lies in the woods, whether they be friends or foes. It could be a trick.”

Her brother spoke again, equally soft, and Nayre longed to make her way downstairs to hear him. Whatever he said must have ended the conversation, for next she heard the sound of feet on stairs and knew that her brother was returning to his room, perhaps to get dressed for work that day. Decidedly, she threw open the door and greeted Jayeth at the foot of the stairs with a wide smile, watching as he recoiled in shock from her sudden entrance.

“N-n-nayre..” He stuttered out, throwing one hand conspicuously behind his body. “I didn’t expect you to wake up so early.”

Nayre grinned even wider at him. “Even though it’s not a school day, I can still get up early, can’t I? Besides, I wanted to see my favorite brother!” She stood on the balls of her feet and tried to peer around him, “What’s that you have in your hands?” She asked innocently.

“N-n-nothing…” Jayeth lied. She could always tell when he was lying. His blue eyes went all wide and his stutter was more pronounced (he didn’t usually stutter, only when startled or nervous).

The teenage girl, barely past fourteen, pouted. Her brother was well known for being easy to wear down and especially doting towards her, so she knew it was only a matter of time before she found out. However, being such a gossip as she was, the curiosities of the morning were killing her; she wanted to know why the elder members of her family had been in a thither that morning. “Ahh…, Pretty please will you tell me what your hiding?” She tried to look as cute and pathetic as possible.

It worked like it always did. Nayre sometimes felt guilty for using her brother’s affections like that, but he was far to easy to manipulate for his own good. “Ah. It’s a… letter, actually. A friend of mine brought it.”

“Really?! Who brought it? Tell me, tell me.”

“You wouldn’t know her.” Jayeth said, trying to make Nayre drop the subject.

“A lady friend! Wow! Jay, is she your girlfriend?”

Not that Nayre expected Jay to have a girlfriend at all, he was much to shy for that, but his reaction was priceless. “W-what?” He sputtered, his tanned face turning a darker shade of red from embarrassment. “No, she and I were friends when I was your age. I haven’t talked to her in a while.”

“Oh. You don’t think she’s writing in order to get together with you, do you?” Nayre didn’t wait for an answer, “Because, you know, Adele’s already gonna marry you one day, so she can’t have you.”

“No, she’s not.” Jayeth almost sounded exasperated with his younger sister. “And who says Adele and I are getting married, we’re just friends too.”

“I say you’re going to get married. You make googlie eyes at her all the time, that’s love. Now, I’m going to go get breakfast. Enjoy the lady’s letter, lover boy!” With that the girl flounced off down the stairs, her nightgown and robe like a train behind her.

Jayeth shook his head as soon as he was left alone in the upstairs hallway, marveling at his sister’s spirit. In the six years it had been since they had come to Earth, Nayre had blossomed and created a whole new life for herself among the other teenagers in Dalara. Life, once her illness had been cured, had been good to her, even without the memories of her first eight years of life. Sometimes, she still had dreams about the past, usually of their desperate flight through the Web, but she always thought of them as just that; dreams. That was fine with Jayeth. The less Nayre knew of her past, the happier she would be in this life.

The same did not hold true for Jayeth, who stared at the remnants of his past in the simple parchment-like paper that contained a letter from a friend he hadn’t seen in six years, not since she had helped him fulfill a prophecy and take his sister to Earth. Nothing but time could ease the remembered pain of his past, despite his best efforts to forget. The habits ingrained into him when he was a child could not be changed, and thus he could not hide his past from onlookers. His only hope was to remain hidden away in his aunt and uncle’s farm.

Before reading the letter, Jayeth situated himself in the window seat of the attic bedroom he had all to himself. He pulled the blanket up over his knees and with trembling hands undid the simple wax seal of the letter. With a deep breath, he opened the parchment and began to read.

/My dearest Jayeth,

Such time has passed since you and I last spoke that it almost seems as though I am writing to a stranger. You, however, will never be a stranger to me. Perhaps you are wondering why, after six years of silence, I would chose to contact you again. Can I say that I had longed to see you and be given respite from your inquiries? But if that were all my motivations for writing, then it would be a lie. I will tell you in due course of the letter why I have written./

Jayeth paused to wonder at his friend’s motives. He knew her, a woman called Lilia, one year his senior, as a cheerful companion and a fierce warrior. She had been something of a bodyguard to him six years prior. Could her letter boast ill news? He prayed not.

/The Karandae has not changed much since you left, we continue to train and develop our skills for the day when they might be needed. It has been permitted that we assist villagers in the surrounding countryside obtain relief from their cruel overlords, when need arise, but yet still abundantly clear that we are not to participate in any sort of revolution. This seems to disappoint many of the young apprentices, who, more and more, are refugees we found and sheltered, like yourself. Kayan often tells the story of Jayeth the Gray, who fulfilled a prophecy and saved the lives of his family from cruel slavery. To those young people we teach, you are a hero, one to be admired and imitated.

Speaking of Kayan, he asks that I give you my regards. He has missed you perhaps more than I since you left us. We both rose in rank these last few years. Kayan is now Kayan the Silver and I am Lilia the Crimson. Since we’re no longer children, we’ve been taking on more responsibility within the ranks. Kayan and I have been assigned to teach herbology to all the youngsters. I means we’re outside all the time, but it is rather enjoyable for us to run around the lands surrounding the fortress. Kayan’s magic has grown to be very powerful, he can now use teleportation at will. He’s currently developing a method for humans to use magic without incantations, the way you can. His parents are very proud of his accomplishments.

There really isn’t much to say. Six years have passed but everything seems to have remained the same. I guess it’s true that the more things change, the more they stay the same. How painfully aware I am that nothing seems to change but our ages these days.

Anyway, you are no doubt wondering about my purpose for writing to you. I received a mission to one of the other planets, carrying a prophecy foretelling the birth of a Vraeda seer who, we suspect, may hold the key to completely destroying all of the web at once, rather than portal by portal. When I received this assignment, I immediately thought to write you a letter. However, there is more important news than that, my second mission is to visit you directly and relay some news of ill fortune. I cannot write of them here. I will come back in three days time to deliver my message.

I hope that this letter has found you well, and cannot wait to see you again. My dearest friend, it has been far too long. Pray we meet in kind spirits.
Your friend,
Lilia the Crimson
Warrior of the Karandae/