“So Sarac, how did you spend this cycle?”

  “It was enjoyable mother. Uvi and I walked through the yelm grove. It is lovely this age!”

  Velnor hardly listened as his sister talked on and on about the yelm plants. He had seen them before, and even with all of their beauty, they were nothing compared to the orbs in the nether. When he had returned, Velnor had wanted to ask Pryarch Necor about the orbs and the small light, but he feared what would happen if someone found out that he had been to the nether.

  “How about you Velnor? You were not on the ranch at all this cycle?”

  His father’s words broke Velnor out of his thoughts. “I was with Jeonob, helping his father with their work.” Velnor said, quickly thinking up the lie.

  “Really, Velnor? That’s not what Jeonob said when Uvi and I saw him at the yelm grove.” His sister smiled a small evil grin as she spoke. “He said that you were going to the nether.”

  For a moment silence, and then his father began yelling. “The nether! What were you doing out there? Are you trying to lose your soul? No son of mine is going to spend eternity away from the all being. Tomorrow, and for the rest of the age, you’re going straight to Pryarch Necor to have sense put into your mind. Now though, I’m going to put some into you the old fashioned way.”

  As his father led him out of the house, Velnor passed his sister. Sarac smiled again and whispered, “You’ll thank me later brother, when you’re safe and warm with the All-Being.”

  His father brought him to the edge of the ranch, to the tool shed. He walked inside, and after a moment returned with a shock cable, used to control the unruly Crayla beasts. His father raised the shock cable and said, with a voice as hard as stone, “This will be nothing compared to eternity without the All-Being.”

  The shock, when it came, left Velnor laying on the ground for an hour before he could move again.

#

            For the next set of cycles, Velnor spent his mornings with Pryarch Necor, studying the Mi’Bruck. He read again about how Mir was formed, how the All-Being drifted for countless ages through the cold void of the nether, until one day he had had enough of the cold. He built Mir around himself to keep the cold emptiness at bay, and his warm fires close. Velnor read how the All-Being created the life of Mir, to give him joy and company in his new home. He also read how those who displeased and saddened the All-being would be sent back to the nether, to be forever removed from his fires.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  They were long, repetitive cycles, going over the same readings he had learned as a child. At first, when his outraged father had brought him before the Pryarch, Velnor had thought that he would want to know about the nether. Instead, the Pryarch had commanded him to forget everything he saw up there for the protection of his soul.

  His evenings were something different entirely. Every cycle, after the family meal, Velnor would head back up the tunnels to the nether. He would stand out there, as long as he could in the cold, and watch as the light that shot from the blue orb moved slowly through the nether. After twelve cycles, he could tell that it had gotten larger. After thirty he saw that it was not an orb at all, but something that looked like a sea-car. After fifty cycles he knew that it was coming to Mir. And it was after ninety two cycles that it arrived.

  Velnor spent nearly an entire cycle watching it as it began its decent. He was wrong in his idea that it looked like a sea-car. Instead of the smooth graceful curves of any sea-car, this, thing had edges and lines. It was big too. Its white shape spanned nearly the length of a large yelm plant, and it was as wide as his family’s home. It had fins coming off it, like a rayton, which Velnor supposed it used to swim through the nether.

  It landed only a short hike from the tunnel exit giving Velnor a great view of it with the farseerer. He stared at the strange vessel for a long time. A million thoughts raced through his mind at the site of it. Where did it come from? How did it survive in the nether? And most importantly, what was it?

  For a long time nothing happened. The vessel sat on Mir as Velnor got colder and colder. He was about to give up and head back down when a portal opened on the vessel. Suddenly forgetting the cold, Velnor brought back his farseerer and watched in awe as three figures left the nether ship.

  They looked like people, as far as Velnor could tell, for their suits hid everything about them save for their outline. The three nether men had an odd bouncy walk as they moved around their ship. Each one would hop a little ways and then stop, standing still for several seconds before repeating. They moved in circles around the ship that gradually got wider and wider.

  At first, fear had gripped Velnor’s heart when he saw the nether men. His mind ran back to the lessons learned with Pryarch Necor. Were these demons that the All-Being created Mir to escape from? Or had they sensed his presence after that first climb and had now come to steal his soul? After a few minutes of watching them bounce their way around the ship, Velnor discarded these thoughts. These men weren’t demons. Why would demons need suits to exist in the nether, let alone a ship. Besides, who had ever heard of demons bouncing?

  The idea came to him suddenly, like rain in the middle of the cycle. He should talk to the nether men. It was such an absurd idea that Velnor nearly laughed, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked it. Maybe the nether men had come to help them. Maybe the All-Being had summoned them from the blue orb. There was only one way to find out. Slowly, so as not to startle them, Velnor rose from his hiding spot and walked towards the nether men.