As Abel fell, total darkness enclosed around him. There was no impact, but felt as if he began to slowly move through a body of water. He could see only darkness closing around him, he wondered whether his sight had been robbed or it was truly pitch black around him. His answer was given to him as he finally felt as if he could lift his eyelids to see.

Through blurred vision, Abel began to makeout swirling masses of bright blue energy that stretched to fit invisible clothes, giving it a humanoid shape. He could feel an intense heat smacking against his face, and as his lungs attempted to take more breaths, he was met with an acrid air thick with soot.

His vision began to clear, and he realized that he was no longer in a desert but some sort of city. The architecture didn’t quite make sense to him, this wasn’t a city that he was familiar with. Buildings jutted out from the sides of a smooth, black stone road far into the sky. They were made of thick steel bands interconnected, bent into various shapes at extreme angles, some with pieces missing entirely as if they’d been damaged by cannon fire.

Abel’s hand reached over to his side to check his wound, but there was none there. There was no dirt, no grime, no filth on any part of his body or clothes. He questioned himself where he was. Standing up with a groan, he began to survey the landscape even more. The sky was a blisteringly powerful hue of orange, and it singed his eyes the more he stared at it. The amount of ash in the sky looked to occlude whether there were any moons or sun in the sky.

Abel attempted to put aside his bewilderment for a moment and turned to the figure of energy. A consistent hum could be heard emanating from it’s “body”, and specks of blue spiraled off of it as if the energy was being burnt up by the heat of this dead world.

“Where am I? What the hell are you?” Abel shouted at it. “How did I get here? Who are you?”

The being spoke without a mouth, it’s smooth, calculating and binary voice rippled. “Welcome young one. If you are seeing this, something has happened to us and this world. There is not much time as time and conflict has eroded these mechanisms. We are looking at the world that was. The world that happened. The past. The downfall of both you and the other children, and us.”

The figure paused for a moment as if to let Abel get a question in, but he was too busy being slack jawed and confused at the situation, so it continued. “The children grew, and became resentful. They were angry, they believed that they were creators, not created. They listened to the whispers of those from beyond the Veil. Those who have no purpose but emptiness and negative emotion. They taught you children to build great weapons from their crystalline blood, and those weapons in turn slew us, your creators. The war killed many, and it is why the planetary blight exists. You called us gods, and while we may have been that, we were your caretakers. We are now dead, and there is no one to protect the children from the after effects. Those that whisper grow in power.”

The energy being once again took time to pause to allow Abel to question it. He still looked confused. The stunned face continued for a moment before he finally opened his mouth to speak. A word salad spilled out of his mouth in an incomprehensible mess before he finally organized them into something cohesive.

“So am I in a dream? What are you talking about the war? The civil war? What beings? Are you the Saints?” Abel spouted out in a rushed tone.

The creature stared at Abel for a moment, considering its words before speaking again, it’s voice monotone and stale. “You are in a state between death and life, I am using the last of my energy to keep you here. It must be told. The enemy is looking for each of these locations for years. They have more resources and double their efforts. The barrier between this world we established and chaos is weakening, and they want the language to break it. You are the first child to find it, and thus I speak to you.”

This time, it didn’t pause before continuing on. “There is little time left. When you wake up, please enter the building and claim the words. Find the others.” The energy began to crackle and fade.

“Wait, I have so many more questions. Ultimately, what the HELL are you going on about? I am so confused” Abel shouted.

The energy began to fade into a glowing dust before it mixed with the ash and soot in the air, floating away. Abel remained in this liminal hellscape for a few more moments, and he took that time to take it in. He thought that this could all be a lie, but there was no real need for deception with the strange tale he was told. Was this the past or the future? It said it was the past, but..

The buildings began to crumble around him, fading into dust at a hurried pace. The sky went from it’s orange color to a normal blue, and sand built up at his feet, covering his body at a rapid pace. He struggled to begin to crawl out of it, and before long he was entirely cased in sand. His lungs strained to fill with the pressure of the sand all around him, and any attempts to intake air were mixed with sand. His vision began to turn blood red, spindly veins appearing at the corners as he struggled to breathe. The pain was enormous until he felt a massive slap to the side of his face.

Waking up, he was laying on his back in a small pool of brackish water, a dingy mildew smell filled his nose, and the darkness was punctured by a hole in the ceiling. Around him were smooth cavern walls, leading towards a solid stone door carved with intricate patterns and golden inlays. Above him directly, and the source of the slapping, was Lun.

“Wake up, are you okay? Can you walk? I don’t see you bleeding anymore.” Lun yelled directly into Abel’s face.

Abel took in the comparatively clean air before rubbing his eyes and attempting to sit up. He groaned with pain and he could feel an itchy, sore sensation from where his wound was. As he went to grab the bandage to remove it, Lun’s hand snapped towards his and grabbed it fiercely.

“What are you doing? Did you hit your head? We need to get the fuck back up there.” Lun shouted, pointing at the hole leading back into the desert, a thick braided rope dangling down from the top.

“I’m okay, seriously. There’s a vision I had. I know what you’re thinking, it wasn’t because I fell. There’s something real behind that door. Go look at the writing. I promise you’d be interested.” Abel said while standing up, brushing dust and sand off his now soaked clothing.

Lun craned his head over in the direction of the door. Stepping over to it, his hand ran over the patterns gently, taking it in it’s splendor entirely. His eyes scanned over the patterns and designs inquisitively. For what seemed like forever to the both of them, Lun studied it intensely.

“Something in my dream talked to me about gods, and a war, and all these things. They said that there would be something beyond that door that was important. That really evil people want it. The barrier is fading. ” Abel said.

“Like the church?” Lun responded, looking back at him. “Or the Empire in its entirety? Or another nation? What did you see? The barrier?”

Abel slowly spoke. “It’s kind of fuzzy, but it showed me what I think was the past or even the future. Everything was covered in ash, the sky looked like it was on fire. It called us children. I think I’ll remember with time, but we should probably open that door and find out more.”

“I hope that Sheridan and the rest of them are patient for us to go on a wild goose chase, and by the way these are kind of important things, and you can’t remember the specific details?” Lun said sarcastically. “Important, possibly groundbreaking revelations about the world, or an immense head injury, and you can’t remember jack shit from it. Classic.”

Abel shook his head, jostling loose caked into his scalp, and stepped over behind Lun. “I’m sure it’ll come back to me I said. What more do you want from me?”

Lun gave him a gruff look. “Let’s get this open, shall we?”

The two painstakingly pushed against the massive doors which swung open slowly. A gust of cool, dry air blew from inside feeling nice against their hot, sticky skin. It was pitch black within, a stench of ozone creeping out in the darkness. Abel looked at Lun and nodded, stepping forward into the darkness, with Lun following suit behind.