The New Era Chapter 15

IN THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NEW ERA
"Hans, come in."
"Thank you." Hans stepped inside Kyoko's home.
"What can I do for you?"
"Well, I don't know if words can express my gratitude, but I'm going to try anyway. Right now I should be dead. You risked your own life to save me. I never got a chance to thank you yesterday so-"
Hans was cut off as Kyoko leaned over and kissed him. For a moment, Hans forget who he was or what he was doing, all he could think about was Kyoko.
When it was over, Hans had to take a minute to recollect his thoughts. "What was that for?" he asked.
"Hans, you were the hero yesterday. You risked your life to save the Nathorites."
"I couldn't have done it alone." Hans smiled, "I guess we make a pretty good team."
"We sure do."
Hans looked straight into Kyoko's face. It was such a lovely face, he thought. It was also the last thing he remembered seeing when he came to.
Has opened his eyes to find himself in a room he had never been in before in his life. The room was unlike any he had previously seen, yet something about it was familiar, something he couldn't quite put his finger on, and yet it was there.
Hans noticed he was lying on a steel bed. A couple meters away, Kyoko was sleeping on another steel bed. Hans went over and gently tapped her on the shoulder. Slowly, she woke up.
"Hans? What happened?"
"I wish I knew."
Kyoko sat up and looked around her. "Where are we? One minute we were talking, the next minute I wake up here."
"I'm as confused as you are."
"Excellent, you're both up." Hans and Kyoko both turned to see who had spoken the words. It was the Nathorite, the original one who had addressed the city square.
"Where are we?" asked Hans.
"I do apologize for the inconvenience. All will be revealed to you shortly. By the way, on behalf of myself and my four comrades, thank you very much for saving our lives."
"You're welcome," Kyoko replied. "Please, what's going on?"
"Follow me, all will be revealed." The Nathorite left the room, and Hans and Kyoko followed him. Soon, they entered another room. The Nathorite left, and Hans and Kyoko were alone.
Hans shook his head in frustration. "What is going on? Why are we here?"
Kyoko shrugged. "They don't seem to have any ill intentions. If they wanted to harm us, they've had more then enough opportunity."
"Indeed, we have no intention of harming you at all." Hans and Kyoko turned to see a man enter the room. "Please have a seat."
"You're human!" Hans was amazed. "I thought all you people were Nathorites."
The man laughed. "Really Hans, are you fooled that easily? Just because all our ambassadors were Nathorites, you thought we all were? No, no nothing could be farther from the truth we are a very diverse group of species. Please, be seated."
Hans and Kyoko sat down on one side of the table, the man went to the other. As soon as he sat down, his attitude became incredibly somber. "Alright, heres the way it goes. We seem to have a little bit of trouble convincing The Watchers of our good will. They don't trust us, and yesterday they attacked our ambassadors. If it wasn't for you two, our ambassadors would have been killed. Therefore, and I must emphasize that this is not the way I wanted things to happen, I am left no choice but to tell The Watchers everything. Since you two have demonstrated your good-will, we will relate everything to you, and you in turn can relate it to the rest of The Watchers."
"You're going to tell us everything?" inquired Kyoko.
"Everything, however I can not tell you enough how much better it would have been for The Watchers if they simply followed our instructions and asked no questions. This information may very well destroy them. I'll give you one last chance, are you sure you want to hear this?"
Hans and Kyoko both said yes at the same time.
The man took a deep breath. "Alright then. I understand the teacher has a vast amount of information in it. With it, you can observe any event in history, is that correct?"
Hans nodded, "that is."
"Any event, are you sure?"
"Well back to a certain point of course."
"And what is this point?"
"Oh, shortly after the founding of Calet if I remember right."
"And you have no idea of what happened before that time?"
"Well, some I guess, not much."
The man leaned forward. "My friend, you have no idea what happened before that time."
"What do you mean?" asked Kyoko.
The man leaned back. "I suppose I better start at the beginning. A long time ago, a very long time ago there was a time when Fabulae didn't exist. Then, the force of gravity joined together different rocks, that eventually became the planet Fabulae. For over a hundred thousand years, Fabulae was simply a barren planet with a vicious atmosphere, hostile to all life. Then, things changed.
"The details are still unknown, so don't ask me to elaborate on this, but have you ever heard of a quasi-lifeform?"
Hans and Kyoko looked at each other confused. "A quasi-lifeform?" Kyoko asked.
"Yes, it's rather hard to explain, but I'll give it my best shot. A quasi-lifeform is somewhere between living and non-living. It is sentient, to some degree but with a much broader idea of the universe then we would normally think off. It doesn't really comprehend the concept of time or individuality, just oneness. Do you understand?" The man took one look at his audience's faces and found his question answered. "Never mind, it's not important.
"Anyway, a quasi-lifeform, this one in the form of a gas cloud, was travelling across the universe for an unknown reason, like I said the details are sketchy. This cloud decided to stop and rest at Fabulae. No sooner had it entered Fabulae's hostile atmosphere then it began to dissolve. Doubtless, once it realized what was happening to it, it tried to leave, but it was too late. The cloud dissolved into the atmosphere."
"So in other words, it died?" Hans said.
"No, remember it was a quasi-lifeform, it was never really alive in the first place. It became part of the planet's atmosphere, one with the planet so to speak. Its effect on Fabulae would be duly felt though, when one year later Conditor emerged from the result of the cloud mingling with the atmosphere."
"Conditor, who is he?" Hans inquired.
"Well, he called himself a super-god, and for lack of a better term my people refer to him as such."
Kyoko leaned forward. "He was a god?"
The man spent a couple of minutes trying to put his thoughts into words. "Sort of, sort of, it depends how you define god. By some definitions, he is indeed a god. He was a very powerful being, and he did have the power to create life. In fact, seven years after his 'birth' he became lonely, and created the first goddess, Femina."
"Now she was just a regular goddess, not a super goddess?" Kyoko questioned.
"Right, aside from Conditor there were no other super-gods or super-goddesses. Conditor called himself a super-god because he was the most powerful of the gods. Not only was he the most powerful, but he alone had the power to create other gods. He did create several other gods, and over time a race of gods was created."
"Pardon my stupidity," Hans said, "but let me make sure I've got this right. Conditor created a whole race of gods, how much is a race?"
"Thousands."
"All right, Conditor created thousands of god's, but he was the only super-god?"
"Yes, the only pure super-god. Naturally his offspring were half super-god, their offspring a quarter super-god, and so on. Anymore questions?"
Hans shook his head. "Thank you, I'm with you now."
"Alright, where was I? Oh yes, an entire race of gods were created. They lived on Fabulae for thousands of years. They didn't get along well, in fact they had several wars among themselves. Then, somehow or another they became involved in a great war, the most terrible war they had ever fought. When it was all over, over half their race had been killed. There was not a god among them who was not grieving the loss of a loved one. Very soon, the ground itself where the war had been fought became hateful to the gods. They cursed the ground to eternal ice and snow. They themselves went to live in the sky, in an invisible kingdom.
"Eventually, one of the gods had the idea of creating a lesser form of life to honor their comrades. A creature that possessed the same intelligence as gods, but not the same powers. This creature would resemble the gods somewhat but not completely. It would walk upon Fabulae, and by its existence would serve as a tribute to those killed in the war. The gods created thousands of these creatures, giving them the power to procreate, but also cursing them with a lifespan, so they might die and in so doing honor the dead gods. Today, these creatures the gods created are known as Icelers.
"For ten thousand years, the Icelers lived and died on the ground. Then, the gods totally neglected Fabulae. The North and South pole stayed frozen, as did several of the mountain tops and a few other various places. In the rest of Fabulae, nature took its course. Spring and then summer came to eventually the whole planet. The snow melted, and Icelers everywhere started to die. As the snow melted, the bodies of the slain gods were revealed. Although dead, it soon became evident their bodies still possessed great power. Any Iceler who touched a dead god was immediately transformed into a new form that could handle the new environment. What they turned into, depended on which god they touched. Touching one god would turn Icelers into a humans, another would turn them into a Gnomes. Some got turned into Nathorites, Elves, Dwarves, Lizard men mer-men, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All of the humanoid races were created during this time.
"As the dead gods where unfrozen, their bodies naturally decayed, and as they did they enriched the soil, which brought forth millions of plants, many of them good to eat. So, the humanoid population was able to eat and survive. During all this time, the gods stayed in their invisible kingdom in the sky. They did not bother looking down to see what was happening on Fabulae, and if they did, they didn't care. They were quite isolationist at this time.
"The humanoids, though all of different races, worked and lived together. Many species found that they were sexually compatible, and intermarried. For five thousand years, these races were totally intermingled. Nations formed and fought each other, conflicts arouse, but never on the basis of race." The speaker stopped to suppress a yawn. "You'll excuse me," he said, "but this is quite a long story. I think it would do us good to break for some refreshments."