February 16, 1640

The White House

A lone figure hunched over the central desk in the Oval Office, laying his head down on his shoulder. A steaming cup of coffee emitted faint steam beside Lee while he procrastinated, staring at the pile of reports from the corner of his eye. After a minute of lazy rest, he resolved himself to complete his work and grabbed the coffee. All it took was once sip from the magically-enhanced Qua Toynian coffee to rejuvenate him. His eyes widened in alertness and he immediately dove into the pile, analyzing the title of the first report.

“Proposal for the Sale of Inventory to Mu and the Holy Mirishial Empire,” he said aloud. “Hmph.” Despite the beginning of their friendly relations only dating back to several months ago, the qualities of these friendships were exceptional. “I guess it was only a matter of time…” he muttered before reading through the document.

The proposal, authored by several economists in the Department of Commerce, suggested a sale of old military equipment in order to raise funds to further aid in economic recovery and facilitate the replacement of aging equipment such as humvees. Structured into dozens of segments, the economists argued that selling old aircraft, ships, and vehicles — stripped of any computers and other valuable technologies beforehand — would be much more profitable than current plans to demolish these items for scrap metal. Despite having convincing arguments, Lee still felt concerned with regards to power dynamics.

Money is something that isn’t much of an issue now that trade relations and exchange rates have been established with most civilized countries. While making a few extra bucks from this proposal did sound nice, Lee couldn’t help but wonder how the influx of new advanced technologies would affect the Muans, Mirishials, and their neighbors. How might this affect the Gra Valkas Empire? Would they see this as a threat to their dominance, or an incentive for forming better relations with the United States?

The authors addressed these considerations in thorough detail, with experts from various universities and esteemed analysts pointing to the same conclusion. If the United States provided a taste of her wealth, global politics would eventually — perhaps even overwhelmingly — fall under the influence of the Americans. Historical analogs to Western influences on Japan and modern day China’s initiatives with underdeveloped nations represented their primary examples. Due to the Elysian status quo of ‘might makes right’, the United States could easily dethrone the Holy Mirishial Empire in terms of influence. Already, the effects of American programs had carved the entire Third Civilized Region from the Mirishials’ and Parpaldians’ spheres, leaving their constituent nations dependent on American goods and services.

Lee felt himself swayed by the analyses posed by the proposal’s authors. However, a part of him remained reluctant; he felt guilt over the wild ambitions suggested to him. He felt that the blatant imperialism in the proposed strategies were not reflective of the American way. Still, such power grabs were necessary and would undeniably improve the lives of the American people. If the threat of the Ravernals turns out to be true, then American leadership and protection of the world would be paramount.

His guilty feelings were alleviated by this line of reasoning, leaving only the concern of the Gra Valkans. He continued to read on, finding that the current proposal document had referenced a newer report — one that he had not read yet. Desiring context, he looked through the pile, hoping to find it there. After a quick moment of sifting, he found it and extracted it, setting the proposal aside as he skimmed through the short report.

Apparently, informants situated in Mu discovered a tightening bond between Mu’s southern neighbor, the Magikareich Community, and the Gra Valkas Empire. Recognizing cultural similarities, the two nations quickly grew close to one another. Within the span of a couple months, the Magikareich government terminated its agreements with Mu in favor of more promising agreements with the Gra Valkans. This included technology and the establishment of bases — one of which served as the staging point for the Gra Valkan incursion into the Conshal Islands.

With this context in mind, Lee returned to the proposal. The Gra Valkas Empire was already in the works of establishing itself as the primary Western power. With Leifor and her subjects under its thumb — along with the recently conquered Conshals and the newly seduced Magikareichs — the Gra Valkas Empire was already more than halfway through with dominating the Second Civilized Region. Selling equipment to the Muans could serve to not only impede the Gra Valkan advance, but also bring them closer to America’s arms. The paper dismissed fears of angering the Gra Valkans, asserting that there is no possible way the Gra Valkans would be stupid, ignorant, or suicidal enough to challenge superior American technology. It was much more likely, they reasoned, that the Gra Valkans would be enticed to join hands with the Americans after seeing Mu receiving all the benefits of American friendship.

Having made up his mind, Lee nabbed a pen from a drawer and scribbled a single word on the title page of the report: ‘Approved’.

The next set of reports were minor, discussing new developments throughout the world and updates on upcoming missions such as the planned exploration of the Grameus continent. Lee sifted through the short documents quickly, skimming through titles and concluding statements. He dismissed most of them, but spared a few minutes to dote on the few items that did interest him.

All around Elysia, American ports were nearing completion. The port in Esthirant, thanks to Parpaldia’s relatively developed infrastructure, was completed early. The crews in the Topa Kingdom were finalizing their projects, keeping up with the scheduled arrival of American forces. Construction in the Vestal continent was similarly wrapping up, with bases springing up on the east and west coasts of the large island.

Ruins strewn about the southern portion of the Vestal continent along with local fears stirred up much curiosity. Archaeology teams, deployed to investigate the discoveries unearthed by the initial survey teams, had just begun their excavations. Already, they’ve detected traces of high-powered magical energies, reflective of the weapons used to create these ruins. This data brought up concerns — worries that the Annonrials could have been involved.

Perhaps they were, the next report suggested. The final document in the now-empty stack was hefty, titled ‘Analysis of the Calamique Artifact’. Lee set the other papers aside, pushing them away slowly as he gently placed the final report down in front of him. He exhaled as he looked through the introduction, clenching his teeth in a sense of foreboding.

The recovered artifact — thought to be some sort of transponder due to the pattern of the signals it emitted — was verified as such. It was a beacon, calling out in an extremely high frequency, suggesting long distance communication with satellites. Indeed, these beacons somehow had the capability to track and consistently send messages to a massive satellite network, doing so over the past thousands of years.

“How the hell did this thing never run out of battery?” Lee asked himself, his voice somewhat shaky from a feeling of trepidation. “Just who the hell are we dealing with?” An extreme sense of worry washed over him as his mind gravitated toward thoughts of sci-fi. A civilization that could produce devices like this beacon could very well be decades, if not centuries ahead of them. If this beacon was produced by the greatest fear of the Elysians — the Ravernal Empire — then there existed the possibility that even the United States was technologically inferior. Lee released a sigh, composing himself and deposing his nightmares before continuing with the report.

The signals emitted by the beacons were heavily encrypted, leaving researchers stumped. The manner of encryption even suggested another terrifying theory: the machine used quantum encryption. More and more evidence, as explained by the report, pointed to this theory being true. Unfortunately, the overall consensus of the team working on the device’s signal analysis was that continued work was a dead end. Quantum encryption was generally theorized to be unbreakable, and the fact that quantum technology was still in its infancy diminishes the researchers’ hopes of cracking the code.

The team moved on from this, instead analyzing what they could understand. Some of the datastreams contained unencrypted information, which the team was able to isolate and define as a series of updates. These updates were then given to the archaeological department, whose findings were listed in the second half of the report. Curious, Lee almost skipped ahead, but instead decided to finish the first half.

From what the researchers could determine, the device used a magic gem as its power source. Readings from Mirishial detectors were off the charts, showing the gem to be at least fifty times more powerful than a Mirishial counterpart of the same size. For the beacon to persist through eons of erosion and sustained use — despite being made of typical alloys — was also no easy feat. These were startling revelations: whoever made the device knew how to seamlessly combine magic with technology to produce impossible wonders.

Without permission to dissect the device and analyze its individual components, the team couldn’t do much more. They then handed the device off to the archaeological team, who had been studying a 3D scan in the meantime.

The analysts within the archaeological team consisted of renowned linguists, historians, and even some foreign nationals. An elf named Moah from the Topa Kingdom, along with some interested professors from the Holy Mirishial Empire, were flown in to make sense of the peculiar device. In a heartbeat, these Elysians were able to translate the lone inscription on the beacon.

Lee brought the paper close to his face as he read the translation. He performed a double take, reacting with denial at the words he had just read. Unfortunately, the translation was unmistakable, proven by extensive cross-referencing. “Property of the Ravernal Empire,” he said aloud, reading straight from the report with wide eyes. He hoped it wasn’t the case. He hoped that the Ravernal Empire wasn’t the creator of this advanced technology. He hoped that the words on the page were a mistake, an accident, or anything else at the very least. Lowering his arms, he returned the papers to his desk and leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

For the first time since their initial arrival on Elysia, he felt dreadful uncertainty. Thoughts ran wildly in his mind as he considered future possibilities — actions he could do to protect his people and the people of the world; actions he could do to eliminate the Ravernal threat; actions he could do to delay their supposed return. As much as he didn’t want to believe it, the proof was there, and he had to act upon it. The discovery of this beacon represented the first solid piece of evidence that the Ravernal Empire existed. No such evidence existed for the claim that they would return, however. Despite this, Lee was inclined to believe the Mirishials’ word.

Regaining his composure, he sat up straight and returned to his reading. It turned out that evidence for the Ravernal Empire’s return did in fact exist, if the next set of translations are accurate. Lee rubbed his eyes, pouring himself a drink as he read on.

The team of translators determined that the unencrypted signals discovered earlier were in fact spatio-temporal coordinates. The coordinates consisted of an alphanumeric code split into two segments. The first segment was longer, and was still being deciphered. The research team was able to make sense of at least some of the data, though, figuring out that one of the numbers represented degrees and another represented velocity components of Elysia’s planetary movement. The second segment was relatively simple and easy to decipher: it represented time. Translated values matched up with the oscillations of a mercury ion.

Lee didn’t understand most of the technical details, but he understood that there was only one reason why the Ravernals would need such accurate coordinates. Fully convinced that the Ravernals are a future, incoming threat, he resolved to prepare for war against them. He looked back to the report, seeing that there was still a small segment left.

Hoping to find more such devices, the Magical Research Department sent data to the Department of Defense and NASA. They were able to find hundreds of other signals that matched the readings exhibited by the Calamique Beacon, scattered throughout the world. Some regions had larger concentrations of beacons than others, with dozens of beacons located in the Annonrial mainland and dozens more located in their vicinity. Some were located nearby, as close as Quila and Gahara.

“Shit…” Lee muttered. Thinking back to the theories on the ancestors of the winged people, he exclaimed, “The Mirishials were right all along! I need to inform Heiden before his mission…”