Leaving the Light: a world building exercise

Glossary;1

This isn't part of the world building option I chose but they use a lot of Latin so I'll put the definitions here making it easier (hopefully) for you to read the following.2

Gens = family or clan3

Subortus = literally; came into being. They use this word to talk about the transition of becoming a vampire.4

Chronista = chronicler5

Servi = slaves6

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Leaving the Light: History of the Gens10

I knocked on Urquhart's door nervously. I was always nervous around him, and I'm not too sure why.11

He didn't need to say a word for me to know I could enter; I read it in his mind. The door only opened wide enough to admit me, as it butted up against the piles of books he normally had filling his room. Usually I could at least open the door, so I figured he'd been on a reading binge lately.12

"Can I ask you a question?"13

"You just did," he said without looking up. His raggedy hair obscured his face.14

"You know my situation, with everything that's happening, I need to understand you guys better. I need to know what's happened in the past leading up to this point, how you guys got here.15

He laughed, "That's millennia worth of information. Rereading all these books would take less time."16

"Yeah, I know, so just give me the short version."17

"We're born, a vampire drinks our blood, gives us his, we die." His voice was serious and he went back to his book as if his job was done.18

"Come on, please Urquhart. I need to understand more. You don't want an uneducated Queen now do you?"19

He sighed and placed his book down. "No, Your Majesty." I wasn't queen yet, but since he liked to poke fun at me one day reaching that goal, I might as well use it to my advantage.20

"It's just in all my reading and all my questions to Bram and the other vampires no one's ever given me the full picture of their history and where they came from. Best I can figure out is it started as a mutated disease sometime back in early history before the Egyptians built the pyramids. Well... At least it is a fact that Netikerty was born in ancient Egypt, right? Did she bring the virus to the gens? Or did they bring it to her?"21

"There's no way to know, she's dead and no one else is that old." He shrugged as if that was the end of the story.22

"But she was a chronista, surely she would have-"23

"If she left any records, I would have found them."24

"Yeah... Like my family tree." I mumbled under my breath. Of course he heard me but he ignored it.25

So I took a different tact. "Okay then, what is known?" That was like asking him to open the flood gates.26

He started in his best monotonous teacher's voice, "It is not even known if it is indeed a virus, though we're working on that assumption. This gens has been traveling the world for over three millennia. They've had bases in four of the seven continents and have had over a thousand members, not all at once though. This gens began somewhere in Europe and that is where we're constantly been driven back to by one means or another."27

"If it's not a virus then what? And is there anyway to tell what created all this? Who started the gens?"28

"If you're not going to stick to the subject at hand, I will not continue."29

"Yeah, I know, sorry, there's just so many questions."30

"And I will answer what I can but no need to spit them all out. I can read your mind after all.31

"Now Netikerty did record some of the early history, however, the gens was so unstable during that period that there isn't much to tell. I don't believe she even knew who started it or how they came together. There is a hint that rather than fight over food they felt it more beneficial to share it. They were more of a wild pack than a gens. Only three or four members at a time roamed from town to town acting more like what the stories speak of; ripping people apart, etc. It wasn't until they came upon Greece that they began to become more civilized. And yes, I know what you're thinking, but I'm not so bold to believe they became civilized only after I joined. No, they were organized and had over two hundred members during my subortus."32

"We're only 72 strong now," I interrupted again, "I was under the impression much more would cause problems."33

He shook his head and wagged a finger at me. "Do not get ahead of me if you wish me to continue."34

So I kept my mouth shut as he drawled on. "At that time a council of elders ruled. The five eldest vampires made decisions for the gens, though they weren't as restrictive as our current King.35

"Members came and went as they pleased. Even suboriri was unregulated. We occupied an island off Italy at the time; currently it's called Poveglia. They had slaves, not as we do now. Everyone had slaves back then. They fed off these slaves from time to time, but mostly they fed off the plague victims brought to the island and villagers on the other islands in the lagoon. The limited range within our ability to travel did cause some problems and that's one reason they began bringing scholars into the gens. I studied under Theophrastus (successor to Aristotle) and was well on my way to becoming one of the worlds best known philosophers along with Plato and Aristotle. What the vampires offered was far more impressive; immortality and infinite knowledge. I studied with three others like myself and the four of us brought an early industrial revolution to the vampires. 36

"What the Greeks and Romans had, we had long before them. Our island was renowned for our baths and stone bridges. Emmaus even came up with a way to have a steam powered engine, but we didn't have the means to build it. 37

"We spent several centuries there before many grew restless and even with all our inventions we had nothing to expand our reach. It was believed the council was holding us back. They were several, old men set in their ways. So one man, Archelaus, began a revolt; he along with two others killed the council and declared himself king with the other two being his advisors. He was well liked and so no one objected to this governmental coup especially when he declared we were moving on.38

"We'd heard tales of the Egyptians and some of their technology, and so we went there next. We journeyed through many towns and left many men behind to explore these new places. Some returned to us eventually, some did not. Some started their own gens, while others still roam the earth alone. You met Dr. Pompi, he was one of the four original scholars. During our travels it was not feasible to keep the slaves either and eventually they too were lost.39

"Africa, we found to be an interesting place with few places to hide from the sun. We lost many people due to weakness from exposure and subsequently lost their head. This caused unrest among the people and one of King Archelaus's advisors, Joseph, beheaded him. Joseph believed he brought us there to die. King Joseph took us towards the Nile and we found refuge in the well-built housings there. He was wise and watched the people, he understood how to get what we needed from them and we lived happily for some time.40

"The Romans however weren't far behind us. Even as I studied my books I studied them marching through towns. The Egyptians didn't seem to mind the Romans; they even lived peacefully with us. The Romans however did not like us. They knew about vampires and already had a legion of men trained to kill us. How they came to that knowledge I do not know. Nor do I know how they knew we were vampires and not a random group of foreigners as we were not the only foreigners in that town. Yet this legion found our homes and killed several of us before we could escape. This caused the King to create special positions within the gens, such as an assassin who would scout ahead and kill some of these legionnaires before they could find us.41

"We became somewhat nomadic during this time and Joseph led us into towns at night where we fed then hid during the day until our assassin warned us of the incoming legion. Most times we met with little to no resistance, though your genitor gave us a bit of a headache when we first met him."42

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" I broke my silence for the first time.43

"Strangely he was a part of a Roman troupe residing in Heliopolis. Apparently, no one in that town knew what he was. Somehow, he got word of our impending arrival and had their entire town standing ready for battle. I urged King Joseph to move on to the next town, but he knew Keir would be a valuable addition to the gens and so we attacked. Over a week's time we massacred those people. In the end, Keir had no choice but to join us. Besides he had fallen in love with Sophia, our assassin, so all was well. We fed on the people of the town for quite a while until the Romans came and pushed us forward again. 44

"We traveled Egypt for some time gaining what knowledge we could, but found the Romans too aggressive there, as they were far from their homeland. We decided to take our knowledge and return to Europe, but this time farther north out of the Roman's reach. Unfortunately, we found their arms to be long, stretching even into England. We went to the cold wastelands of Russia for a time to escape them. While we enjoyed the long nights during half of the year, we had trouble the rest of the time with the long days. Some would rather march the Sahara again than remain in the cold any longer. So we worked our way back to England where we found the Romans beginning to fall apart. 45

"We took advantage of their loose form and killed all the hunting legionnaires we found. That little bit of redemption might have kept our gens from completely falling apart as we were down to about a dozen members. As more found reasons to leave, the King needed to find something to unify them.46

"As you already know, your own family tree plays a large part in our history. The fact that it was hid from most only verifies how important it is. The prophecy, based off your own family's actions, would eventually be used to solidify the gens but not by that king.47

"During the raid of a small English town King Joseph met his death at the hands of a human. This shocked the gens into near paralysis until Keir stepped forward proclaiming himself king and calling for the head of that human.48

"The man who'd been Joseph second advisor and became a respected member of the inner circle during Joseph's reign believed he had the right to the crown more than Keir even though Keir was stronger. However, our way is for the smartest and strongest of mind, not just body, and so as they prepared to fight for the crown he found a way to poison Keir temporarily. The duel was short as Keir could hardly hold a sword, though he was allowed to live as we needed him."49

"I would have loved to see that." I couldn't help myself after all I had yet to best him with one.50

"Yes, well, even today Keir would not be able to best him as he is stronger than Keir in many ways."51

"Then how am I supposed-"52

"Do you wish to know the rest of the history or plan for your own coup?"53

I crossed my arms and slunk into the chair waiting for him to continue.54

"The new King decided it was time to avenge Joseph's death. They battled the humans and neither side won. Both retreated and the King planned his further revenge. We were decimated down to seven: the King, Lawrence, Keir, Bram, Netikerty, Mina, and myself. We moved to France to watch, wait and plan."55

"Okay, where does my family tree come into all of this? Obviously Bram's there but-"56

"That I can not tell you, I've already told you more than the King likes. He's already warned me about giving too many details." *57

"Come on, at least tell me which life it was. It's not like I don't know I fought you guys in past lives."58

"I can not. However, you are correct not long after there was a battle in France in which you were involved. During this time the King had his vision of you killing him. You began hunting us in more than one life and we hunted you at the same time. We leapfrogged each other through most of Europe and even through parts of Asia. In this time you killed only a few vampires but no matter how many times we killed you, you were reborn to chase us again. Some believed you were after Bram, others believed it was because of the prophecy. Either way the ending was the same.59

"The world advanced around us and for a time we forgot about advancing ourselves. We traveled looking for you and trying to rebuild the gens. Over time some of us began missing the slaves as having someone else do all the work freed us to study. Once Mistress Kama joined our gens we were inspired by her situation to begin taking on servants. Mostly they were there to do menial tasks such as clean our clothes. They were indentured at the time and free to live as they willed. We began feeding off them almost exclusively though as it also freed us from having to hunt for our own food. It was a good relationship as they were paid well. At least, until one sent a hunter after us. From that time on, we have kept our servi, save the trusted ones, in tight seclusion.60

"When we had word of someone spotting you in the new world, we knew there was only one path for us.61

"We packed everything and moved to the new world. The new steam ships were not fast enough for many of us and we already began planning new technologies, we begged the King to make a base here in which we could study. We missed the opportunity to capture you during that life, so we kept moving searching for the ideal place in which to station ourselves. We found such a place past the human's new frontier in what's now called Arizona, in fact where we are right now. Though there was no town here, no roads, nothing but a cavern, we thought it the perfect out of the way spot. We did have some trouble with some Indians as this is Apache land, but that was quickly resolved. We offered land above ground to some slaves so long as they remained loyal and they built up the town as a front to bring us our needed supplies. Meanwhile, we dug and cemented walls, built technologies to sustain us and by the turn of the 20th century had outpaced the humans once again. 62

"Bram found your great aunt not long after as you know and found you weren't quite ready yet. Determined not to allow you to have the upper hand yet again, the King insisted you would be brought in as a slave in your next life. And well... You know the rest."63

Yes, I did, but I fear I still didn't know enough. "Why did my ancestors start hunting you?" I felt the pain start in the back of my head. I knew the King was there and he was trying to get me to stop from asking too many questions. "If I was chasing you before he knew of the prophecy, what reason would I have to hunt you?" The pain grew stronger and I fought it. Urquhart watched passively as I gripped my head bracing my mental walls and doing what I could to push the pain out. Without realizing it the pain was lessening and when I did realize it was almost gone, I pushed the King fully from my mind.64

"That is why," Urquhart said with what almost seemed to be sadness. "It won't be long now before he can no longer touch you. It always has been your destiny to be Queen."65

I could only blink at him, speechless. I'd never pushed the King from my mind before. I never wished to be Queen but now I see he and the prophecy may be right.66

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Leaving the Light: Rules of "magic"70

I laid my swords down on their velvet sheets wrapping them lovingly like children after a bath. I yawned and felt it was time to pamper myself as well. I sank into the downy pillows on my soft cotton bed. I'd call Bram to me but I knew he was busy. I could call anyone to me, but somehow I felt I'd be better off alone. Maybe it's because I felt someone's presence already. I opened my eyes and knew what I'd find.71

Velren looked down on me with disgust. Not something I was unused to. Of course I hadn't seen him in years so it played on my nerves. He popped in and out whenever it pleased him. Luckily, so far not at an awkward time. 72

"Don't you think it's a little childish popping in unannounced. Oh, I forgot, you're getting younger so I should expect you to become more childish. Don't tell me you this is another lame attempt to kill me." As he lives backwards I had the advantage of knowing a little more about him than he would like, of course that dark alley went both ways.73

"So you think because you're Queen now you are superior? That you can't die." His long locks were less gray than I remember as they fell into his face. He seemed to have lost weight too, or is that he hasn't gained the weight yet? His time traveling confused me sometimes. I couldn't show him that though.74

"You won't kill me. You can't."75

"Ha! I can manipulate atoms, what makes you think I couldn't just rearrange yours and twist your body inside out."76

"Because you can't. If you could, you would have done it years ago, or should I say years from now."77

"What?"78

"Oh, yes, I know about that." I stood up now and for the first time in this life came face to face with him; he was taller than I thought. I didn't care. I still stood confidently before him. "I know you are just as much of a fraud as Merlin was, and more so than King Hillary was."79

"Merlin? I..."80

"You sir, are just as manipulative as all the rest of them. Sure you can do little magic tricks." Faster than the eye could see I whipped out the dagger he'd produced on several occasions. I've kept it hidden on my body hoping for such an occasion, to show him I know his parlor tricks. "You can even age backwards, though I'm still not convinced you live inversely through time as you understand every word I say."81

"You are the one traveling backwards in my eyes, reversing yourself is a trick I'd admire. There is no trick, nor any magic here. 82

"Take you for instance. You vampires aren't magical in the current sense of the word, though centuries ago you were considered so, that's where you achieved your reputation as demons. Being near immortal can do that I guess. Besides your near immortality, the only other thing that makes you different from the typical human is your ability to use telepathy."83

"It's not that a normal human can't," I scoffed, "I could while I was a human, it's just they don't know how. The vampires train for such things and so are able to use their mind more."84

"Exactly, and don't you think this is the case with me? Nothing I do is magic, it's as natural as telepathy is to you. Yet, not everyone can do it, nor can you read my mind, can you?"85

I squeaked my teeth together and grudgingly admitted, "No."86

"Well then, don't you think you are like this dagger?" Suddenly my hand felt light and I saw the dagger in his hand. He winked at me. "Magic."87

"Velren if you wish to start riddles again, you can just leave."88

"I can leave or appear anytime I wish, as you well know."89

"Yes, have you ever made a mistake and appeared with your molecules messed up?"90

"I am far more skilled than that." 91

"Oh yeah? And others?"92

"Easily."93

"Yeah, then prove it."94

"Why are you attempting to provoke me?"95

"Because the last time I provoked you, you went away for years. I'm hoping for a repeat performance. So why don't you fail at your attempt to kill me again and go on your way."96

"I do believe you have it all backwards."97

"Whatever," I brushed him off as I would a fly. "You wouldn't kill me anyway. Admit it, your magic has limitations. You know if you just open up we'd get along much better, like you did with Arthur."98

"Arthur?"99

I rolled my eyes forgetting once again he didn't know his own future. "Roy Mitchell in this life."100

"Ah, the president."101

"President? Roy? You've got to be..." Then it hit me, knowing his heritage, of course he could be someone important. "How much did you help him become president?"102

"Quite a lot actually."103

"And his reign will be a long peaceful one?"104

"Yes, until the end-"105

"Don't tell me, magic screwed it all up, his illegitimate son came to kill him."106

"No, now who is talking in riddles? He's assassinated." He changed the subject before I could ask anymore. "Now, to the reason I came," he said with a grin and waved his hand slightly.107

Suddenly, I felt the tingle of little feet crawling all over my body. I tried to look to see what was there but my vision blurred.108

"You really are trying to kill me!" I screamed as I tried to wipe away whatever was attacking me.109

"Nonsense. This is my favorite 'trick.' You'll thank me before long."110

"I'll kill you!" I shouted as the invisible spiders ran all over the inside of my guts weaving webs and plucking them like harp strings. 111

Slowly though, the tingling subsided and I blinked my eyes realizing I was lying comfortably on my bed. I put my hand before me to lift myself back up and screamed again. I glanced in the mirror and nearly fainted.112

"Keir?!" I shook in fear and anger. He turned me into Keir? "Why?" I furrowed my brow at how weird it was having his voice coming from my mouth. He'd been dead for years. Why would Velren want me to look like him? 113

"You will find it useful shortly."114

"How? How'd you do this without killing me? Why didn't you kill me?"115

"Because you're right, I'm incapable of it. I know you won't die in this timeline."116

"Yes, but you could change it somehow so that I'll die in another timeline where one of your counterparts lives."117

"Who told you that?"118

"You did." I shrugged and it felt a little weird with all these muscles rubbing against each other.119

"Hmmm... Don't know why I would, but yes, I suppose I could do that. What purpose would that serve me?"120

"I don't know, what purpose does this serve you?"121

"Oh, you will see," he said with a wry grin. "What exactly did I tell you?"122

As my memory is photographic I replayed the memory in my mind and spoke his exact words; "It is only one possible future, the path on which I have lived. Others of my kind live on the other paths. If you change this path now, I will continue as if nothing has happened. For nothing will have changed for me. I have already lived through this branch of your decision. You, however, will see a new life sprout before you, one with all new possibilities."123

"And you believe that drivel?" I watched his expression; I couldn't tell if he was lying. I hate not being able to read his mind. "As to how... How is your immortality possible? If I did it to a normal human they'd die. Your blood is useful like that. Yes, there are limits to everything. I still can do things beyond your imagination, but still there are always limits to those too. I can't fly for example, nor can I make flame or ice shoot from my hands. I don't make things out of thin air, but I can take them from one place and put them in another."124

Without even blinking I found I was no longer in my room. I didn't even feel the ground move under my feet. It was more like the room itself changed into the open rolling field. There was a house on the next hill. I felt as if I should know where I was. It was hard to make anything else out as the moon was only a sliver and even my keen eyes couldn't cut the darkness.125

As if we hadn't gone anywhere Velren kept talking, "I must abide by what you call the laws of inertia and conservation. I can not affect energy as it is not a physical element, I can however affect objects that exert energy. I can not imbalance the amount of matter in the universe, only move it around. 126

"To put it in a way you might understand. Out of the law of relativity variables, I am only able to affect mass, not energy nor the speed of light. I can't simply make something heavier, but I can add mass to it. I can not fly but by concentrating air molecules under and around an object," he stopped for a second and pointed at dead log lying nearby. I watched as small pebbles collected beneath it and slowly began pushing it up. "I can give it the appearance of levitating." Then it began floating without any pebbles beneath it but I think I began to understand that like the pebbles he collected enough dense molecules underneath it to hold it up. As I watched, he walked over to it and with a match he produced, rubbed the match against the log then left it on the log allowing the small flame to sit there trying to catch. "I can not create fire, but I can manipulate things within a fire such as water molecules, carbon, etc. I can make it grow hotter by feeding it more fuel, but I can not move the flames." The small fire took over a good chunk of the log. "Though I can lead them in certain directions with the fuel." A line of the fire spread out as if following a path of gasoline. Soon it was eating the whole floating log. "The same with ice. I can not make the water molecules in the air cold, but I can bring ice here from say Antarctica." To no surprise a chunk of ice appeared in his hand. "By manipulating the air molecules around it move it where I wish even change its shape." The hunk moved from his hand over to the log forming a sheet that hovered over the flames. "Ice is more difficult I can keep it from melting, however I have no way to add to it."127

"Can't you compress the water molecules in the air until they form a solid?"128

"I'd have more luck pulling the water from your body, otherwise it would take so much oxygen from the air I would suffocate you." The sheet of ice suddenly melted splashing water all over the log dousing the fire. The log fell half burnt to the ground.129

"Oh."130

"This is not quite telekinesis as you believe you know it. There are physical forces at work that you wouldn't understand. I don't do this all with my mind. I've been trained over centuries to maneuver the smallest particles with an extension of myself. Our physical nature isn't how you perceive it. Life, isn't how you perceive it. The easiest I could describe it to you is there are thin tendrils that extend from our bodies able to move anything of any size one atom at a time.131

"And the vision of the future that you showed me once?"132

"I did? Ah... In my future I will... Well, time is also under our control; movement of an object over time is much like moving it over space."133

"So in essence you can control the speed of light?"134

"Yes, I you wish to contort the definition of speed. There is still so much we do not understand.135

"Your telepathy has more to do with manipulating energy; a trait I am still learning. To me it's somewhat magical and wondrous, after all, physically not having to do anything is amazing."136

"Not really, it's just another form of energy. You say you don't manipulate energy to do what you do, but energy is used when you move objects. Energy is used when you receive words through your ears just as much as through your mind. It's simply a different form."137

"Ah, so you do understand more than I gave you credit for. There is hope for you. You may be able to one day perceive the real physical nature of the universe."138

"So is this real? This isn't my imagination?" I ran my hand over the smooth, bald palette that felt a lot like Keir's head, yet it was my own. The sensations were legitimate at least. I knew if Bram saw me like this he'd finally have to believe me about Velren. He always thought Velren was all part of my mind playing tricks on me. After all, I wasn't exactly mentally stable.139

"If it was all in your head, you'd be in great trouble. They're expecting Keir." 140

"Who?" I asked trepidly.141

"The ones I signaled with the fire," he said with a smirk. With that he popped out of existence and I was left standing alone in the countryside facing the small ranch style home. 142