A Long Time from Home Pt. 02 Ch. 00 - Prologue

Prologue: A new world with old problems

In the annals of history, change had always been a constant companion to humankind, but the disappearance of the dimensional anchors that linked the island of Baylon (later known as Atlantis) to Earth, brought changes that was by far the largest humankind had ever seen.

As the anchors vanished, the Island of Baylon was dragged back to its home dimension, cleaving through the fabric of reality. 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 or servants, were transported off the island before it disappeared, either by boat or Magical portals, and the influx of these refugees to already settled land, forced others to move. Often towards other already settled areas.

With the disappearance of the largest node of magical energy on the planet, magic stopped working, destroying many of the fantastic creatures that inhabited the world. Empires and nations depending on their priests, magicians, and sorceresses to protect them were suddenly woundable, causing old enemies, raiders and migrating tribes fell over them like predators on a weakened prey.

Only Egypt, Assyria and Elam resisted the attacks, as almost every major city in the Eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again.

Trade stopped and with it, easy access to the tin required to make bronze stopped. 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 that would persist for centuries. As the flames of literacy flickered and faded, knowledge, once cherished, began to dissipate like mist before the morning sun.

Baylon became myth, its race of tall people more powerful than most 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, consumed by the very magic that infused 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, fading with each successive 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, their deeds immortalized as tales for the ages.

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 once more, 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.

There was however one of the Baylons, that didn't make it back to his home island. Educated as an Inquisitor and a Healer, Ivah Emilian was the one that was responsible for the removal of the last anchor, thus safeguarding Earth and the very existence of Baylon from the unruly torrents of power.

Concealing his immortality, he drifted across the world in an odyssey through the ever-shifting tides of human history, a nomadic existence dictated by the ever-shifting currents of destiny. As needed, he shed one identity like a serpent's skin and donned another, masking his eternal nature while etching his footsteps upon the annals of time.

Even the most vigorous wayfarer, no matter how boundless their vitality, finds moments when the journey wears them thin and at some point, Ivan walked into a secluded cave. There, he called upon a mystical trance, that sent him into a state of suspended animation, a slumber intended to endure merely a handful of years.

Yet, as he used the power, something went wrong. A stray thought, or perhaps a momentary lapse of focus -- the catalyst mattered not, for the result was the same. The trance that should have been ephemeral, stretching but a few years, now unfurled its mystical tendrils, and in the blink of an eye, a thousand years spiralled by like wraiths in the night.

The world that greeted him upon his awakening bore little resemblance to the one he had slumbered within. It was a world filled with marvels of technology, like cell phones, guns, television, and cars, but the old evils of greed, violence and crime was still there.

Once more, Ivah (now called Ivan) found himself locked in a relentless skirmish against the forces of malevolence. This time, his adversary was a cunning human criminal mastermind, gifted with the sinister ability to control other people minds and a desire to take what was not his.

In a cunning twist of strategy, Ivah not only vanquished their formidable foe, but he unearthed a chilling revelation--a network of victims scattered across the globe, ensnared by the malefactor's treacherous grasp. Faced with this colossal dilemma, Ivah made a momentous decision: he would seize control of the very assets that had empowered the criminal mastermind, so he could save those victims.

So, he liberated the five soldiers the criminal mastermind had used as bodyguards, commandeered the luxury sailing yacht that the mastermind had intended for his escape and cruised towards the Caribbean and South America, where the mastermind had made his headquarters.

.

.

.

.

*********************************

So, here's the start of A Long Time From Home II. I admit that I feel like I'm rushing this a bit, due to a lot of people asking for it. Then again, I tend to overthink my writing and this might be for the better.

In order to get time to actually write the new chapters, I will upload chapters of Into the Chaos (my Star Wars: The Old Republic story) every other time, so you got something to read no matter what.

If you like it, please vote, comment, and add the chapter to favourites. Not only does it make me happy, but like most authors here, it's inspiring and the only reward we get for our efforts :)