> “One thing to keep in mind is that evil can be very sneaky. Our Forefather’s didn’t realize the significance of their first contact with the evil’s minions – how could they when they didn’t know that the evil existed? It didn’t help that the Evil’s first attempt to hinder their progress had been blocked by the World System before it even began. The second contact, however, was much more obvious and was the first true victory of the light, even if it would be generations before the enormity of our victory became clear.”

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> Excerpt from The Birth of Our World, 1006 A.B.

Christopher Leroy Knightsen

Once we had gotten packed up and moving the next morning, it was a matter of minutes to cross the remaining distance to the edge of the forest around the crystal mountain. From this close, without the woods in the way, the view was breathtaking – especially when the sun finally cleared the horizon far enough to start lighting up the mountain, which lit up the world around it in an ever-shifting rainbow of colors.

I may have been relatively new to the whole magic thing, but even I could tell that there was a great deal of power flowing through the mountain, even if it was chaotic and uncontrolled.

There was a part of me that wanted nothing to do with this, but it was drowned out by the little kid in me that saw an opportunity for adventure. An opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.

Apparently, neither could Pamela as we both started running up the mountain. Naturally, as soon as we both realized the other person had the same idea, it became a race.

A race against what, I’m wasn’t sure at first, but it certainly wasn’t against each other. We were having too much fun making the climb together for it to be a competition between us. As the race progressed, I began to feel our opponent looming malevolently behind us somewhere, trying to turn us against each other.

Up until now, I had thought that my faith was all but dead, that the death of my parents and grandparents had shredded it into oblivion. In that moment, however, my heart told me that we could not let the darkness win. Sure, there was a small part of me that wanted to give in to the darkness, to forego the responsibility in front of me, and in other circumstances, I probably would have. I never wanted to be responsible for anyone but me.

But my faith wasn’t the only thing telling me not to let the darkness win. Despite my fear of responsibility, time, and time again, I kept ending up in charge of one group or another. When I saw people who needed help, I just couldn’t sit there and watch them continue to fall apart. I had to go help them. Eventually, I had helped so many people around me that they would all come to me for help, and I would give it to them, or if I couldn’t help, I’d send them on to someone who could.

My heart was simply too big to do otherwise. In this case, it wanted me to fight the darkness with everything that I had – except I knew that it would not be enough. Not when every instinct I had was telling me that even with our newfound magic, our strength would not be enough.

I was reminded once again of the old proverb that “Death is as light as a feather and duty is as heavy as a mountain, yet every day we choose to shoulder our mountains and keep going.” What that saying doesn’t tell you is that sometimes duty itself is the only thing keeping you going.

When you are set up to become the progenitor of an entire race, your duty isn’t just the people around you, but also to those who will come later. It is the most onerous burden I’d ever carried, but for the first time in my life, my sense of duty was working with my fear of failure.

I knew I could not succeed – but I also knew of someone who cannot fail. Someone whose strength and wisdom are unparalleled. Someone who cares far more than I ever have or ever will. I don’t understand why he let so much of my family die, but this fight is not just about me, it’s about the future of this world.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

For the first time in decades, my heart, mind, and soul cried out to God for help, and He answered.

I don’t know what He did, but somehow Pamela and I managed to get to the top first, placing our hands on the very peak of the mountain simultaneously.

Location claimed for residence.

Warning: someone is attempting to steal your residence!

Theft denied due to the Progenitor’s Prerogative. Activating Defensive Measures.

Then a tidal wave of white burst out of the mountain and swept me away into darkness.

*****

Pamela Josephine Daniels

When we started racing up the crystal-mountain-thing together, I was somewhat surprised at how well we were able to predict the other person’s reactions to the obstacles we faced. But my surprise took a backseat to enjoying the time together. After all, some things in life are meant to be enjoyed, and this is one of them.

That changed once the darkness stopped hiding and started trying to trip us up, and I was reminded once again that different people struggle with different things. Through our Lifebond, I could tell that Chris was struggling with his own issues as we raced the darkness to the top. It wasn’t exactly easy for me either. Still, I was only dealing with the fear and other emotions actively being projected at us by the darkness, mainly because I’d resolved my crisis of faith years ago.

Even so, I was under no illusions about our ability to defeat the darkness on our own. There is already too much darkness living in our hearts for us to maintain the purity of soul necessary to defeat the darkness. Sure, it might be possible to remove some of the darkness from our hearts over time, but the darkness is too ingrained in who we are for us to ever completely get rid of it on our own power. That requires help from someone who is the very definition and source of all that is pure, and right, and true.

So I turned my heart towards heaven and prayed to God for whatever He thought we’d need to succeed in our endeavors, then focused on the climb in front of me. Sure, I could have kept praying, but the very foundation of faith is trust in the unseen. So I trusted that He heard me the first time, believed that He knew I’d keep praying if I could, and focused entirely on the task at hand, trusting that He would come through.

It’s a good thing that I did too as Chris was so lost in his internal struggles that he wasn’t paying attention to the mountain in front of him the way that he should, which made it my job to guide his steps as well as my own as we raced upwards. Fortunately, there weren’t any cliffs in our way, just a bunch of upward sloping, uneven terrain, so all I had to do was help him keep his balance and guide him through the smoother sections. Every now and then, I had to help him over a particularly rough patch when there was no smooth path, but mostly it was smooth-ish sailing. It galled me that there were a few instances where he helped me more than I helped him, which I chalked up to divine providence just as much as Chris.

To make matters worse, the darkness started throwing some sort of shadow spears at us, which we then had to dodge as we made our way to the top. The good news is they weren’t very accurate, nor did they move particularly quickly. Chris even managed to dodge several of them without looking at them, which is an impressive feat considering how distracted he was.

The bad news is the number and accuracy of the spears increased as we climbed, making it even harder to make it to the top before the darkness did. When the darkness added some shadow boulders and then lightning to the mix, I had to focus so hard on keeping the two of us alive that I lost all track of time, so I was just as surprised as Chris when we finally made it.

As we reached for the very peak of the crystal-mountain-thing, I wondered why it was so important. What is so special about this location that the shadow is desperate to claim it first?

Then our hands made contact simultaneously, and we somehow claimed the area for ourselves.

Location claimed for residence.

Warning: someone is attempting to steal your residence!

Theft denied due to the Progenitor’s Prerogative. Activating Defensive Measures.

Everything went white, and I knew nothing more.