Are you afraid of the dark? You should be. And I don't mean afraid of what lurks in the dark or the unseen dangers that may befall you in its depths, no. I mean the dark itself, the primordial element 'darkness' one of the oldest of all primordial entities. Said to be older than the Trinity but that could be blasphemy, or it could be a truth far beyond mere mortal minds to ponder.

Darkness is alive, and the coming of deities enabled it to form itself into something more cohesive. The element has always been capricious and unknowable, moody and unreliable. A sentient element like most primordial entities, one of the founding pillars of the universe. Almost omnipresent, for darkness can be found in most places, or kept at bay by a small spark it has patience enough to out-wait. For all lights eventually dim in the face of the every watchful vast void that is darkness.

Darkness took form when the spirits introduced themselves as deities to the mortal realm, and not in form in any way that we with bodies could understand but form in that it became 'present' within itself.

When the deity of darkness was introduced to the mortals as Celphata, the goddess of darkness and Erebus, the lord of the dark. The primordial elemental darkness took notice and gained more of a presence in the mortal realm the more of a following the spirit gained. For through Celphata/Erebus, the primordial gained more influence in the realm.

For though they thought they were worshipping Celphata/Erebus, the god of darkness. In reality they worship darkness itself, giving it a voice, a foothold in the mortal realm. And the darkness is old and it is everywhere, and it has no concept of good or evil, like all children it drowns a few hundred thousand ants to see what happens. And so on the dark world of Saanjh, an entire continent spanning 30 million square km is depopulated of all life.

Just so the darkness can experiment with the concept of death, trying to understand the fear of it that drives the mortals so. The Universe and the Trinity quickly curtailed the darkness from acting directly after that though, for an entity that primal-with-power cannot be allowed to roam free in the mortal realm without a physical body to limit it.

And so a body is fashioned for the darkness from the remains of a fallen spiritual body the mortals call celestial ore. The body's blood made from the rich oils that are the lifeblood of Gaia, it's saliva the river that binds all who fall into it and separates realms like a membrane, the Styx. A black river that spans the entirety of the seven worlds and served as a boundary between the surface world and the Underworld on Gaia.

It's heart fashioned from the core of Lucifer herself, the brightest and most beautiful of the seven planets. Furthest from the sun because it serves as a miniature sun itself with hundreds of satellite planets that are the transcended daemons and some other creatures that took that path to a higher state of being, becoming living planets.

And the mind of this body fashioned from the diminished first thoughts to take root in the universe. Its physical spirit mode from the remains of combined ghost spirits. Spirit that descended from the spiritual realm to become a deity in the mortal realm, only to lose its worshipers and it's accumulated power and became a ghost of its former glory. Glory those in the mortal realm are yet to even understand is possible.

Narrated by: Zaraya Zarachi

Recorded by: Philip Read

*

Sarah

"So, what do you think about what she's said so far?" Milachi asks no one in particular as we all lounge about in our base on Enclave, our world.

"I mean from the stories she tells its obvious that everyone there is at least as strong as our first level of Awakened from as young as 16 years of age, and any that pursue strength are at least at the Tier 2 level of power," Aaka says thoughtfully.

"At the very minimum," Suzuki adds playing with the wand Zaraya gave us after a demonstration. "And these wands allow practically anyone to learn to use wizardry if even moderately with much less mental strain."

"So at the very best the foot soldiers of that world are Tier 2 Awakened Lords if they are lazy, the captains and the Sergeants are something like our Tier 4 Impriums and Archmages, the strongest people we ever produce on Gaia."

"And the people that run the show there are three or four times stronger than Imperiums because they could have Awakened any number of times and achieve levels of power we don't even have names for yet," Sisi says in a low voice, her serious face making an appearance for a change.

''We're outpowered is the general sentiment. Once the gates open the population of Gaia will because subservient to the whims of the aliens,'' let me just point it out plainly.

"I especially like when Zaraya spoke of beings that have power in ways that are currently unquantifiable even there." Arnold says, "gave me the shivers that."

Cyrus nodding also seemingly deep in thought. "That story about primordial darkness, I will have to do some research into that..." his passive compulsion ability permanently active making his voice sound sinister but having long since lost its ability on any of us here today.

"What do you think father?" Questico asks and we all turn to look at the old man in our presence for the first time in years after a long trip of trying to find all his lost descendants.

"I think that we have maybe twenty more years to work our prospects and ourselves to the bone before the Seals that separate us from Omega come down. And right now we all need to keep a keen eye for any young recruits that pass through Monika's Divine Eye ability and become full members of the Conclave." The Ancient One says as he sits at the head of the round table with a sigh.

"The Archaeans will only temper 12 that are not yet Awakened but have strong souls, the water dragons will take 2 girls of pure heart whatever that means, the sky dragons will bring me a champion that will fight in their stead unless other creatures of power comparable to theirs join from Omega. The Sidhe will protect Gaia if she herself is threatened or if their groves and claimed lands are threatened but will defend no one else directly. The Elder Men-"

"Father, surely you didn't go to them?" Malachi asks as surprised as we are but the Ancient just carries on as though he hasn't heard.

"The Elder Men are content to live their disembodies existences as energy beings out there in the void of space. The 4 elemental spirits of Gaia will take 6 mortals each to specialise in fire, air, water or earth as disciplines. Most of the Ancestral beasts are willing to take in disciples to be trained in druidry and other nature arts, the Monkeys that are stranded here will fight if the continent of Terra is threatened and the Oriental elders have given us their blessing to learn and teach ninjutsu and taijutsu along with ten scrolls in each jutsu containing 10 different styles. And two of their Masters, one a ninjutsu and the other a taijutsu specialist to be used as teachers." He sighs then takes a sip of the peper-orange juice placed before him.

"But they won't get involved without being first attacked. They were hard-pressed in their battles in the Underworld through the years and have lost many warriors. But the apparent exodus of Underworlders to the surface has gained them all their territories and more, now they need to rest and replenish their numbers under the protection of the Monkeys.

"The Underworlders are slowly and carefully permeating the surface world but already a few villages have disappeared into the night and the rest of the world will soon start to notice. The deities that qualify and we deem a relationship with acceptable will anoint champions from amongst our number or have champions come to us for training. Those with avatars will only bring them into the struggle if their kin bring their own as well. We still don't know which side Lucifer will take in the conflict but my sources say the daemons are eager for conquest.

"There are three transcendent worlds that I have a good relationship with willing to provide harsh and stimulating training conditions along with access to dungeons for exclusively our people and our guests for the next 100 years. There is another dungeon being established in the Dawn Forest secretly by the Tribesmen but it will not be mature enough to provide a good enough testing ground for the power levels I need to make sure you have all reached before the calamit-"

"I think we are plenty strong as is already, most of us here could have Ascended many years ago but we've had other things to do since we acquired the power and-"

"And I told you how to stay on Gaia despite your power for a reason Quentin, yet that brat Andromeda has surpassed all of you from those I gave that secret to. Spirits beyond people, the man has a wurm dragon as a familiar and a half primordial son he's raised to be quite a nice young man I should add.

"His other children are all outstanding and many of them your equals in combat. We are very I'll prepared for the coming crisis and maybe this insurgency of Underworld fiends will be an appropriate trial by fire to give everyone under our banner much-needed battle experience and instincts." He sighs and he seems to have aged another ten years in a moment.

"I know this isn't something you want to hear but its true, and the conditions I found some of my children in..." He shakes his head then looks up at us.

"You've all been slack in your training because you thought you no longer had any equals on Gaia, I will send you two at a time to Celestia for a month of training with the emperor and his kin. I wish it was longer but I know you all have responsibilities. Let's all follow Cyrus's example and pluck some of the young from the Enclave training camps and give them personalized training, get Zaraya into that as well.

"How do you all like Zaraya by the way? She is younger than all of you here but I'm sure more competent from her time on the other side."

I smile as I think of the inquisitive but quiet young woman. "We like her well enough, she is a very interesting woman. I'm surprised she is only on your first name." I say to the Ancient.

He grunts, "I had no time to give her my second name before I had to leave for another part of the world but be assured she has earned my second. How about you Questa, how is she reacting to your power?"

Questica smiles riley tilting her head as she does when trying to find the right word. "She seems to be fighting the influence some, she seems to understand that her dislike of me is externally projected onto her so her mental shields are good, but not so good that the curse doesn't affect her."

"I hate that your curse power makes life so lonely for you Questa." The old man says pulling her into his embrace and kissing her forehead. I never get tired of seeing her this cute and pliable, and its a rare occurrence these past few hundred years.

"Its alright father, I wouldn't be the same without this power its part of me now and besides, there are plenty of men mentally strong enough to not dislike me on sight."

And most of those men she has trained in mental resistance and are automatically off her list of considerations, but I don't say that. Questica had to pay a rough price for her power, but what power it is.

We start planning seriously, outlying the construction plans, funding, recruiting and recruitment of recruiters. Then it is determining who is trustworthy and how much trust could be reasonably placed on which shoulders through which process. Manika mostly deals with that responsibility especially on anyone that would bear the title of Enclave, the people that eventually get to say they belong to the Conclave and get to live at Enclave.

A world we have been building with father's help and some of his friends along the ages, including some that are now planets themselves and contributed again after their Transcendence. The very foundation of Enclave is mostly the remains of Velvet, one of the children of the Ancient that Transcended to Word-builder/World-breaker level of power but died not having fully formed yet.

The planning takes hours but there are 23 of us in the room and we each have different strengths and know when to delegate. A sort of command structure starts to develop as well for we were initially just a group of friends with an idea about starting a club.

There end up being 20 heads of the Conclave that make up a council but one head of the Conclave Council. The head needing to be elected by popular vote and having the final say in all overall Conclave decisions unless outvoted on an issue by a13 person majority in the Council or more. The head needing to vacate their post every 7 years and not being eligible for the position until another 7 years has passed to try prevent stagnation.

We put statutes and safeguards with the realisation that one day it may not be us in power here, so we make it very difficult to be accepted as an Enclave with great responsibility over yourself but we also make the benefits worthwhile. A claimed territory on Enclave as a home and a safe haven, teachings and access to information, help in any form if ever its needed, wealth and influence if deserved. And most of all freedom, freedom to do as you please when you please in whatever way you see fit if you are allowed in the club, a great responsibility to have over yourself.

We plan out some of the curriculum and the raids we are to make on the underwolders. A truly solid foundation is build for the conclave and a sort of charter is born.