Prologue- A Walk to Bed

Citadel Familia Quarters, 14^th day of Haven’s Month the 1032 GR (Early Afternoon)

Nath’aniel-

The young man suddenly dropped his quill and started flexing his hand as the pain in his wrist and arm flared. After a few minutes the colors around his vision relaxed and so too did the pain, but he continued to flex his hand anyway.

“Another attack?” a calm voice asked startling him.

Nath’aniel looked towards the speaker. When he saw his father Path’aniel, standing just inside the room. He hid his arm under the desk, before muttering. "It's nothing." He then glared passed the man as he spotted yellow and green auras as his door silently slid closed. A time spell? He thought to himself. Ah, so the grease on the track would be fresh.

His father squinted at him, before sighing. "Son, we've been over this. We've tried what we can with our own methods. This is the only way…"

Nath'aniel leaped to his feet interrupting his father. "A deal with him?!... That murder!” The colors in his vision doubled and his arm started twitching despite the previous attempts to subdue the condition.

His father stood impassive at the outburst. The two men stood there and stared at each other for a time, till finally, Nath'aniel looked away. Embarrassed as he knew he was acting childish.

"Son, look at me." Nath'aniel looked into his father's glowing ruby and emerald eyes. He could make out his own reflection in them as his father spoke. "You are young, not even through your first century, so you do not understand, yet. But we are men, and we fix the problems before us. And sometimes that fix may come from a dark or bad place. However, as you are my son, a part of my family. Know that I would do anything to protect you… En Sabah will get what is coming to him someday, so yes I made a deal with a devil. But we have both seen, sometimes even demons can do good works.”

Nath’aniel’s arm stopped hurting and convulsing as his father finished speaking, almost as if his body agreed with the man. He then looked down at his desk at the norn-slates and scrolls scattered about it. His theory was complete, but he felt his paper to prove that the Inheritor’s were enhancing their inner micro tribes was not yet complete. But Nath'aniel knew with the current ongoing conflict there was no way that he would find the proof to finish it. However, he also knew that this current project was only one of many that he took up to distract himself from his condition.

“How long will I sleep?” He asked quietly, already knowing his father’s response.

He didn’t see his father wave his hand compelling the door to open, but the reduction of red aura in his vision told him that he had triggered a spell. When he looked up his father had taken a step back and was standing inside the open doorway, with his hand held out to him.

“As long as it takes to cure you Nath’aniel.” His father answered.

Nath'aniel first left his quill on the desk, before moving to join his father. Once out in the hallway they moved to the other end, where the closest relocator was waiting for them.

They were most of the way there when the young man felt that he must break the silence if nothing else delay what was coming. So he asked. "How goes the war?"

He expected a reaction, but his father actually stopped at the question. His father ran a hand through his long hair before answering. A sign to Nath’aniel, that his dad wasn’t comfortable with this topic.

“Well enough.” He answered before continuing his pace. “Your mother reports that the men of the Tribes of the North and Central realms have joined with the Sea Tribesmen. But that isn’t that big of a concern, since they are half as capable as those sea dog traitors.”

Nath'aniel rushed ahead to block his father, before exclaiming. "But they already outnumbered us!"

Path’aniel lifted his eyebrow at the simplicity of that statement.

“And we’ve already proved that we can best five of theirs with only one of ours.” The younger man said for his father.

“Quite.” The older man muttered as he walked around his son and triggered the door to the relocator. Once he followed inside his father continued. “Our magic grants us increased range over their slings and spears. And the alterations the Sky Tribe did to our anatomy grants us greater stamina, while requiring less food and sleep, that those of our enemies.”

As his father spoke he reached for the rune panel that controlled the room. Nath’aniel’s arm shuddered at the sudden shifting of blue and purple auras as the room swapped with the room his father had selected.

Once through the doorway, his father spoke. "Besides it is not like we are without allies of our own. They may be silent now, but I'm sure they will come to our aid if things become too dire."

‘Or ignore us because of deals you make.’ Nath’aniel thought to himself.

They passed two doors before reaching the medical bay, where his father had erected the device he had traded for. Passing several regular beds was a large metal thing. Although shaped like a bed, it was raised much higher, requiring the use of some float stone steps to climb upon it. The whole thing radiated magical energy and the young man was sure it was made from gold and silver instead of just trimmed in it. There were altars or podiums at both the head and foot of the thing, with a vast crystal formation at the head powering the device, and a control slate of norn-runes at the foot.

While Nath’aniel appraised the device his father moved towards the foot of the thing. Before the man could touch any of the runes the bed projected a glowing screen. While he could make out the symbols from where he stood, what little he could make out he could tell the script was still in Sky Tribe. His father not taking the time to apply a translation spell frame to the device.

His father looked back, and for less than a second seemed surprised that Nath’aniel hadn’t followed him to the metal bed. ‘His greatest weakness, thinking everyone will do what he thinks is right.’ He thought to himself as he approached the gaudy thing, each step seeming to take a little longer than the last.

“Explain it to me again.” He requested from his father.

Path’aniel’s hands animated followed his explanation. “You will lay in the chamber, and it will fill with the bonding agent. Once your body is saturated the medical sarcophagus will analyze your body down to the base materials. Once done it will work on you to fix everything wrong.”

“It won’t hurt?” He interrupted the man.

The older man shook his head. "No there is a sedative mixed in, so to you, it will just feel like you're taking a long nap…which is of course the downside. While for you it will seem like just a short time is spent inside the device. In truth years, decades a century even could pass before you are fixed. Luckily none of our kind has ever died of old age so if nothing else you will go down in the history books for that." Path’aniel finished with a small smile at his own joke.

Nath'aniel took a deep breath. Before planting his foot on the first of the two float stones, his father stopped him.

“You must disrobe.”

The son stared wide-eyed at his father. Path’aniel allowed for only a few seconds of the staring to continue, before adding. “Like it’s nothing I haven’t seen before. I can regale you with the last time we bathed together. You were thirteen winters and we were…”

“All right, all right.” The embarrassed man interrupted, before laying down his outer robes on a nearby unused bed. He then added his inner shirt and pants. Then he delayed what he was dreading by kicking off his sandals. He sighed, before adding his loin wrapping to the pile of removed clothes.

Wanting a small victory, he mustered the strength of will not to cover himself as he climbed the float stones to the bed's chamber. Standing on the last step, Nath'aniel could make out additional rune carvings throughout the main chamber of the bed. Expecting the bed to be cold, the young man reached down and was surprised to discover that the bed was both warm and soft to the touch.

Taking another deep breath to calm himself. Nath'aniel climbed into the bed and lay there. While he could not see his father press and trigger the control runes of the bed, he could make out the decreasing white and green auras as the device began to activate. A thudding sound made him look down at his feet. He could make out golden panels began to rise and encase his feet and legs in the chamber. Followed by silent panels rising to block his escape either to the right and then to the left. Then more thudding as the last panels rose and encased his entire body in the bed chamber.

The shifting of yellow aura warned him of the lights about to activate around him. On the roof of the chamber, the face of the devil stared down at him. It seemed to be smiling at the joke that was Nath’aneil’s circumstances. He spits up at the likeness of the would-be conquer.

“Something wrong?” Path’aniel’s voice sounded in the chamber.

“No, nothing.” He answered before asking. “How much longer?”

His father seemed sad when he answered. “Not that much longer my son.”

His father’s words rang true, as little more than a minute later the chamber began filling with a blue mist, first at his feet. Then near his waist and then finally up by his head. Numbness hit Nath’aniel before sleep took him, but sleep did take hold of him. The inner chamber was not quite full when darkness and sleep took him.

 

 

Path’aniel-

"[Subject: Son], is asleep. The Analysis shall begin in approximately 1 minute." A soft female voice transmitted near his ears.

"End quiet mode." The seasoned engineer said to an empty medical bay.

“Order confirmed.” The same female voice said to the room.

Path’aniel regretted keeping both the nature of his son's illness and its severity from him. It wasn't just the war that urged him to make the deal he did.

The female's voice brought him out of his mussing. "Analysis initiated. The initial estimated time required for completion is forty-three thousands eight-hundred and twenty-four hours and fifteen minutes. Shall I alert you when it is complete and treatment has begun?"

Path’aniel wiped the beginning sweet from his brow, before saying. "No need. A complete call to arms has been given. All able Magi are to answer and head to the front." 'Five years? That long to determine a cure.’ He thought to himself. “Citadel, override standard protocol and instead initiate Legacy protocol.”

The female voice didn’t immediately respond. He suspected that it was dragging up the obscure order list that he had written when he had first reached out to the Warlord in the Central Realm.

“The Legacy protocol, means I am to keep [Subject: Son] in the medical sarcophagus, even after repairs are complete. Awaiting either you or [Subject: Wife] comes back into the medical bay. Or an [All Clear] signal is transmitted with your code command…what shall this one command the medical sarcophagus do after repairs?” While the female voice spoke, Path’aniel moved to the float stones and climbed up to look down on his sleeping son’s face.

“Enhancements. I grant you full access to my Archive. Any proposal or thesis, start with the Magi/Asgardian density comparison theory my brother put forth.” The older man hugged the thrumming metal bed after speaking. “I do not want my son to awaken only to be dragged into this war. Let him sleep into an era of peace.”

Silence filled the chamber again, as the Citadel gave itself access to vast new information.

Eventually, Pat’aniel had enough of holding the lukewarm coffin and walked over to fold his son's clothes taking a moment to memorize his son's scent and aura that wafted off the items.

The female voice spoke when he had folded the last item. “New access complete. Query: the war does not bode well with the new bio-weapons the Sea Tribe has been fielding alongside the Tribesmen of the Land. Citadel requests an exception to Legacy protocol should the Citadel's structural integrity is threatened."

Path’aniel rubbed his chin in thought at the sudden request. It felt it odd that the Citadel would request anything; however, the risk and request were logical to him. So instead of pondering his answer, he instead tried to deduce the origin of the change in behavior. Was it his son's own modifying of her intelligence, or was it the extra ambient magic energy in the air that allowed it to see a flaw in his hastily drafted protocol.

“Agreed. But only so long as there is a clear threat to his life.” Path’aniel said firmly to the empty room. While muttering quietly to himself. “My son will not live in fear of enemies after all the burdens we have already laid on him.” He took a deep breath, before issuing additional orders towards the building’s lobby where his weapons and supplies waited. “Minimize power to non-essential areas while I am gone. Additionally, prioritize the Perception Filter over other defenses." Additional orders were given as he wandered the halls toward his destination. Halfway there he walked all but in the dark but his aura-laden eyes made out the chambers as he moved.

In the lobby, he readied his bag in one hand and grabbed his bladed staff in the other, and at the door outside he took one last look towards the medical bay. 'Rest well son, your father will bring you peace.’ He thought before casting a portal spell and stepping through it to land closer to the active war zone.