Originally Written 2019, Adapted 2024
Prompt: The strongest mage civilization, having conquered 90% of the galaxy decide to break the ancient law that decreed that the planet Sol-3 shall never be approached. They found out the reason behind the law the hard way.
submitted to r/WritingPrompts by u/NightBlaz
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A cube was set down onto the ruler's table.
As he placed a drop of blood upon it symbols began to glow.
Info flowed into his mind.
[Confidential: details of the investigation of sol-3, the forbidden planet]
This was the first line that appeared in his mind.
His eyes widened as he learned more and more.
When he was done, he shakily set the cube down.
he stared at the investigation head.
"Is it true?" he asked in disbelief.
"Yes" replied the head.
"No one must know, delete all other copies of the data, and wipe everyone's memory, including mine"
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The cube contained a detailed account of the investigation of sol-3, the planet whose approach is forbidden by the old laws.
The first data was a scanner reading, many things were collected, but one stood out.
The magic density was more than had ever been observed in the history of the empire, to the point where it far surpassed the machines built to experiment with high density magic.
The next oddity was that no magic was ever used by the planet's inhabitants, only primitive tech.
It did not take long to find the source of the magic.
it was a book, not just a book, but many books, they had magic that made the empires seem like child's play.
And so the research team read the books, all of them were stories, stories of gods, stories of demons, stories of magic.
Then a certain story was found.
It was a story of a man named Arther on a distant planet.
The empire already knew of this man.
He was found in the records of a dead civilization.
A book detailing his achievements sat in the empire's library.
The two were compared and the similarity was chilling.
It was not exact, no, the book from sol-3 had more detail.
This discovery led to a test.
A sol-3 inhabitant was found writing a book, he wrote of a planet in space filled with life and magic.
The empire searched the known universe and found the planet referenced in the book.
the words in the book dictated the exact happenings of the planet.
The writer was killed, and the book destroyed.
Suddenly the planet vanished.
With no indication of it ever existing except for the records they had recorded, as if plucked out of history itself.
The ruler of the empire sat in his bed, cradling his head.
He whispered "they are the writers, and we, are the stories".
Next to him lie a sheet given to him by the investigations head, right before his memory was erased.
It contained text taken from their primitive communications network, and the text was this story.
"What happens to a character and its world after their story ends?"
He did not know.