"Are you ready to go?"

I stared up at the moon, if my companion is right, for the last time. I had already delayed the decent by 15 days so I could marvel at the moon at its brightest one last time. It is a blessedly clear night, and the ocean was as still as it ever would be, reflecting the moon.

It wasn't enough.

It would never be enough.

"Yeah," I sighed, stealing one last look as I put on my helmet. "We have a long way to go before the dawn."

"Remember, you will feel a lot of pressure, your body will adjust. Just say the word and we will stop. And don't take off your suit! Water is corrosive over time, especially salt water. Once we are in the habitat, you can take everything off and move freely." Her voice was tinny through the speakers of the suit. Lucy Or maybe Lacey? I am so bad with names, she said it once and now I'm going to spend then next few weeks pretending I heard her say her name.

One last look at the moon, and we begin to walk. The water is cool against the suit, it will get colder as we go deeper. Even underwater, I don't take my eyes off the moon. It is the last time I'm ever going to see it, the last time any of my kind will see the moon, and it's all my fault.

I remember when the pyramids were built. Back then, we all lived together. Humans and vampires. They treated us like gods, and we helped them. The magical creatures of the world and humans lived in balance. The fey and dryads helped insure the harvest, wind and sun spirits provided mild weather, and we served as intermediaries between all the races, and they gave us blood willingly. We never needed much, just one cup once every couple of months. If archeologists understood that was the purpose of human sacrifice, and that it almost never resulted in death, I think they might shit themselves.

But the human population grew out of control. They got greedy and decided they didn't need us. They wanted our power for themselves. The power to feed their people, to weather the storms. They hunted us for our power.

We hid. It was all we could do.

The years passed. Then centuries. Millennia.

With the advent of CCTV, it was only a matter of time before they found us.

One by one, the beings of magic fled to places the humans would not—could not go.

We all understood leaving the planet would kill it and the dead planet would upset the balance of the universe. So we all found places on the earth to stay.

Developing synthetic blood and moving our entire population to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was my idea. After all, we don't need air, and the pressure of the water will only make us stronger.

I am the last to join my brethren in New Eden. I escorted each of the covens into the sea, made sure there were no stragglers, and then it was my turn. And not a moment too soon, as the humans discovered werewolves. Last week, they began searches for the other "mythological" races. They won't find them. I am the last to go into hiding.

I will miss the sky.

The dawn is upon us, but we are deep enough now for it to be only the smallest change in the light. Were my eyes not so sensitive, I would not have noticed.

"We have been walking a long time. I'm still good to keep walking, but if you need a rest, there is a nice rock formation just ahead. Do you need a rest?" Lucy or Lacey… maybe Laigh? Says. It startles me. We have been so quiet for so long, I honestly forgot she was there.

A tourist boat passes overhead. The engine feels deafening from the barren sea floor.

"I can keep going. I hear good things about New Eden. What is it like?"

"It is amazing. If you don't mind me saying so, we should have done this years ago! We can all be out in the open, and we use our powers to help each other. There is an abundance of synthetic blood and other resources. No need for money either. In the 15 years since I've been turned, I've never been able to live without fear. And that is what New Eden is: a place without fear." Lakshmi said... It was L-something, right?

"So, you are a newborn then."

"Not really. I probably look really young to you, but there are several that were turned in the last year. We aren't really considered newborns after the five year mark." It's sweet that she thinks she's not a baby.

"Why did they send someone so young to escourt me down? Shouldn't you still be hidden away by your coven?"

"Oh no, Ma'am. I volunteered! Before I was turned, I was a history major, an Egyptologist with minor in mythology. When they said your name, I desperately wanted to be the one to escort you. I know you probably get this a lot, but are you the Isis?" Lara? said.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Actually, I never get asked that at all. The elders all know the answer, and the younglings all think I was named after the Isis. You are the first to correctly guess that I am Isis, goddess of fertility and the moon, in at least a millinea. Well done, child."

"So, then, are the other egyptian gods from the myths real?"

"Egyptian, Norse, Roman and Greek. We were all real. Many of us were hunted to death, but some still remain. May I ask how you figured it out?"

"Most of the elders don't use their gifts, so when they do, it is noteworthy. I noticed that every time a pureblooded vampire is born, you visit the mother about a week before. I figured you were using your powers to help the women of our kind conceive, which is in line with what I would think the goddess of fertility is capable of."

We walk in silence for a while. This one is perceptive, I wonder what she would do if she knew our true history. Would she catalogue it for posterity, or understand the reasons we have hidden it for so long. Children this young are increasingly difficult for me to predict. They always do what I would least expect.

"Are all the myths real then? Did Icarus fall from the sky? Did Appolo and Ra take turns flying the sun acrross the sky in chariots." Lyndsay chuckles.

Too perceptive. My hesitation speaks louder than any words could.

"Oh my god, they did! Wait, that makes no sense, the Earth goes around the sun…" It is only a matter of time before Lane figures it out.

There is no way around it, she is going to have to know the truth. Better to tell her, and impress the importance of secrecy on her then have her figure it out on her own. "Back when my father was young, before humans evolved into the form we know now, we lived along the ley lines of the earth. His cousins, Gia and Oden, posited that there were ley lines across the universe. Living worlds, like ours, would serve as anchor points for the ley lines. If an anchor point died, than an entire line could become imbalanced, and life across that entire line could die.

"It was a fun little mental exercise, until it wasnt. Shortly after Ra was born, magic started to become difficult. Gia looked into the problem and found our universal ley line was unbalancing. Life all across the milky way was dying, and the earth was moving toward a massive extinction event. Hephaestus built a communication array and contacted the other planets along the ley line. We found out a planet with multiple races like ours, killed off an entire sentient race. It imbalanced the local food chain and caused catastrophic environmental collapse.

"The whole planet was dying, and that one world's mistake was ready to cause an entire galaxy to be wiped out. The species that died out, was very similar to ours. They were sentient hunters that lived for millennia. We determined that that specie's food source would work for us, and set out to fix the balance by sending a number of ships to the other planet.

"My Ra led a ship, as did Sol, Helios, Arinna, Surya, Inti, Mithra, Lugh, Kinich Ahau, Huitzilopochtli, and Icarus." The current has grown stronger and visibility has worsened as a result. I can feel Layla's footsteps ahead, but can no longer see her.

"Icarus wasn't a god though, and he fell when he flew too close to the sun. What really happened?"

"We had named the ships after their captains. The Icarus had some sort of mechanical problem. It was so long ago, I can't remember what, but it blew up before it fully exited the atmosphere. No one survived." I tripped over a rock or coral, there is no way to see which. I'm glad the visibility means she didn't see my momentary lack of grace.

"Is that why all the races were opposed to just leaving the earth? Every single elder of every race immediately rejected any ideas of leaving the planet. Would our planet die if we all left?"

"That is the going theory. We cannot risk being responsible for the death of the planet and, potentially, the entire galaxy."

"So, the other planets, are they more advanced than humans?" We can see the edge of the trench now. It won't be long before we are in New Eden.

"Losing the library of Alexandria, and then the wars between our races, has set humanity about 500 years behind the other planets in the galaxy. Most of them have formed peaceful federations and cooperatives. There are interplanetary treaties we are not a part of."

"Then why haven't we fixed it? Clearly you and the other elders know the technology! why didn't you do something so we didn't have to hide?" The child is getting angry. I need to focus this anger so it maintains her silence.

"Humanity is a young race, the youngest sentient race in the galaxy. They still fear anything different from them. Every race goes through these same growing pains. You can't give a toddler everything they might want or they become spoiled and selfish. But if you let them learn and grow at their pace, you end with a well balanced adult. As a race, humanity still has to learn to share and solve disputes without punching one another. Joining the rest of the galaxy without those abilities is a recipe for war. So we, in conjunction with the rest of the galaxy, are patiently waiting for Humanity to be ready."

"I understand the sentiment, but isn't that a mistake? Humanity, if left to its own devices could cause ecological collapse right now. We need to intervene."

"That is not our place. Right now, the best thing we can do is hide. I'm going to have to order you to keep your silence on this matter. We have arrived at the trench, if you feel the need to discuss things further, you can find me in the colony later."

"Of course. They have left a cable for us. We need to hook ourselves onto the cable. Our suits will complete the circuit and turn on a light down below. They will reel us in, and then we will finally be in New Eden."

The decent was dark, heavy, and cold. Just when I thought we would never see light again, the rocky floor of the trench seemed to open, blinding us with the light of the town. It is warmer than I thought it would be, we are closer to the earth's core, so I really shouldn't have been surprised. We wait for the water to drain out of the antechamber and for the pressure to stabilize in silence. Lavender keeps glancing at me like she wants to ask something, but doesn't know how. In the end, she decides against asking anything at all.

Finally, we are able to remove our helmets. The anti-chamber opens.

"Elder Isis, Alyssa, welcome to New Eden!" Alyssa! I knew her name had an L.

"Remus! It has been too long. Thank you for your company Alyssa, please remember what I've said."

"Of course. Thank you for your wisdom Elder Isis," Alyssa gave a short bow and walked away to find her coven. Hopefully without spilling state secrets along the way. I would hate to lose such a promising young child.