A Long Time from Home Ch. 36

Epilogue: The Vanishing

Unlike what was told later, the island nation of Baylon did not sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Nor were there any vengeful gods creating storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, huge waves, or impressive arrays of lightning. In reality, it was a fairly non-dramatic event.

The air shimmered with power as if the Northern Lights had suddenly moved to the equator, as the huge island slowly, but surely, faded out of existence, showing ocean, where there had been land before.

There was a flash of light running from horizon to horizon, for a brief moment bathing the ocean in the colours of the rainbow, before disappearing again, along with the island.

While the event itself was undramatic, the consequences for the rest of the world were not, ultimately resulting in what was later known as 'the Late Bronze Age collapse.'

With the loss of the great island in the middle of the Atlantic, weather patterns changed, causing draughts where none had been before, creating strife and unrest, as the weather in the Mediterranean turned drier, causing crops to fail and forests to disappear.

The human population of Baylon, mostly former slaves, had been transported off the island before it disappeared, either by boat or magical gates, and the influx of these refugees to already settled land forced others to move. Often towards other already settled areas, creating wars over land, food and other resources.

That was made worse by the cursed swords of the Pulcher family, that the Securitas Eterna had been unable to locate. Wielded by petty kings with Baylon blood, the curse caused thousands of people to rally to the new rulers, as they took their people to war, promising new land and riches.

As planned by the Pulcher family, their timing was perfect.

With the disappearance of the largest node of magical energy on the planet, human magic had stopped working, and empires and nations depending on their priests, magicians, and sorceresses to protect them were suddenly woundable. Especially the coastal nations, whose shores wasn't easily defended, struggled as warlords, old enemies, raiders and migrating tribes, fell over them like predators on a weakened and bleeding prey.

Within half a century, the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Kassites in Babylonia, the Hittite Empire, the Ugarit, and the Amorite states in the Levant had disappeared, as almost every major city in the eastern Mediterranean world were violently destroyed, including Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit. Some were rebuilt in the following centuries, while other were abandoned forever.

Only Egypt, Assyria and Elam successfully resisted the attacks, and all were seriously weakened.

With most of the old empires gone or weakened, trade stopped and with it, access to the tin required to make bronze. Instead, people started to use iron, which was harder to work, but could be mined locally.

The Age of Bronze was over, throwing the world into a dark age, lasting centuries.

-----------------

Baylon became myth, slowly fading away into obscurity, as the island was renamed to Atlantis, when Solon the Greek mistook the islands' location for its name when translating an Egyptian scroll. A mistake that was replicated when Plato used the name for the island in later works.

The Baylons themselves also faded into myth, as the race of tall people more powerful than any humans, became the Giants, Titans, Nephilim, Xian and Asuras of other people's mythology, while the few magical items that had reached the human world slowly disappeared over the centuries, as the magic inside consumed them.

Still, the Baylon blood existed in their offspring, mingling with human blood throughout the centuries. What started out as a one-in-ten chance to get a child with Baylon powers, became one-in-hundred, then one-in-a thousand, lessening with each generation.

Nevertheless, the Baylon descendants were there, their Baylon blood giving them powers beyond those of normal humans, enabling them to become epic kings, queens, and heroes. The tales of their adventures surviving through the ages, being told countless times, growing larger with each recount of the story, before they were finally written down. Fading from living memory to become fictional characters in stories.

Centuries came and went, then millennia, and the memory of powers continued to linger in the collective memory of humans like smoke in a room. Rarely obvious, but often sensed. However, as the power nodes regenerated and their influence spread, the memories of ancient powers started to surface again, growing slightly stronger each decade, igniting the creativity in writers and taletellers across the world.

New stories emerged, telling epic tales about new heroes and where Gilgamesh, Achilles, Odysseus and Tomyris were once well-known names, it was now Spiderman, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Like the tales of old, the powers of these heroes were extravagated into the extreme, hiding any kernel of truth that might be found within them. A kernel of truth, that could be a sign of things to come.

However, as all signs of things to come, only time will tell.

------------------- End of Part One -------------------

Postscript

This is the end of the first part of the story. I am working on a part two, but as I'm 'only' some four hundred pages into it, the second part will take a bit of time until it's finished. Mostly because writing sex scenes is slow work for me. I know exactly what I want to describe in those scenes, but not being a native speaker of English, it takes much longer than I would like.

Another reason for the time, is that I tend to write on more than one story. Of cause with this part of the story being finished, I have one less story to write on, speeding up part two, as well as the Star Wars: Old Republic story I'm working on (250 pages so far).

So, if there're any writers reading this, who would like to co-write a story, I could really use someone who can write kick-ass sex scenes :)

Now for something else: I need to thank you lot, the readers of the story, for your patience and willingness to ignore (or at least live with) the grammar and spelling errors I've made along the way. Your comments and mostly kind words inspired me to write more and faster than I normally would.

Athlantian