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[Therin]

Artificial sunlight through the windows wakes me, glaring from all directions at once. I get up and my pallet recedes into the floor with a soft swoosh, to be replaced by my breakfast table, complete with food tablet and recycled coffee packet. With a yawn, I down my ration-istic food portion, designed and tested by food clinics worldwide to guarantee complete nutrition. What the nutritionists don't tell you about is that nutrition and taste are practically antonyms. Ever since the invention of the first nanoprobe, the government has kept the air totally free of dirt, but I take a blast-shower anyways because, with all the probes flying around these days, you never know what might be on your skin. I walk out my door, past all the other regulation size one-rooms, down the lift tube, and out into the open air, underneath the vast glassteel Dome. The miracle that saved mankind after the ryftwars began; the Dome creates an artificial time-well so that planeswalkers couldn't enter the city except through the five gates. One in each cardinal direction, North, South, East, West and Up, the gates represent the culmination of the research that led to the Dome, utilizing a Temporal Flux Generator to duplicate the effect of the Dome in a localized area, easily and quickly activated and deactivated in case of an emergency, thereby denying entrance without permission, planeswalker or no. Not that there aren't any spies to open the gates for an enemy, undoubtedly there are, but the KommStat, the internal police, keep a terminally high level of paranoia. In their eyes, anyone could be a spy, and with any evidence not provably false, anyone is a spy. So I must always try not to catch the attention of the KommStat, with their bugs and unusual punishments. Be completely normal, just like everyone else. Individuality is a thing of the past. I take the tube, just like every other mid-level employee, to the massive tower in the center of the Dome: CypherCorp. Norman Cypher claims just to be a businessman, but he has a monopoly on nearly every common product. He also happens to be the most powerful man alive, with most of the Politikal Kommissarie in his pocket. The tube stops. Speakers in the sides open up and begin blasting killsound and the world goes black.
Light. White walls, floor and ceiling. I'm lying in a pallet near the center of the room and my mind is still muzzy from the killsound. A door opens in the wall and in walks a man in a KommStat, I don't know what rank, followed by six light enforcement troopers. Then it hits me: I'm lying in a KommStat interrogation room. The man of unknown rank must be an interrogator. He reaches down under my pallet, where I can't see and does something with his hand. The ceiling folds up and out and an impressive array of needles descends over my body, unseen parts whirring and buzzing as the thing goes through a self-check. A pinprick in my arm as another needle, wielded by the interrogator, briefly enters my arm. The room gets fuzzy; I begin to fade from consciousness as whatever drugs the man administered begin to take effect.
I wake up again in presumably the same room, groggy and aching all over and miserable, surrounded by KommStat uniforms.
"You have been convicted of crimes against the state."
Huh? What did I ever do against the state? I did my best to be like everyone else.
"You have been sentenced to banishment from the Dome."
Uh oh. That can't be good. I wonder what's out there? …The pallet suddenly flips over, dumping me…through the floor, into midair. Oh. That's what's out there. However, as I fall, I notice a strange swirling haze forming in front of - below me. Suddenly the haze bursts and there, below me, is a natural planeportal. Seeing as there's no way to prevent it, I fall through the portal and into darkness.
The air feels different here, fresh, and there is a slight breeze against my skin as I peer around at my unseen surroundings. I choose a direction at random and start walking with my hands stretched out in front of me. Promptly I trip over something on the ground and fall on my face with a small "ouff." The room is flooded with light, but emanating from a single source, unlike the artificial, directionless sunlight of the Dome, a light recessed in the ceiling, bathing a waist-high pedestal in light. I slowly get up and look on top of the pedestal. There sits a large, dust-covered book, more of a tome, really, with yellowed pages and cracked binding. The cover reads my name, "Jondyn Al' Carr." Astonished, I slowly, carefully open the cover. There are only four pages, an explanation of how the planeportals were brought into existence along with a first-hand account from the one who managed it:

"Ha ha ha, and you thought you could stop me," he said, scorn dripping from his melodious voice as he turned and walked slowly back to the altar. Lauren was still laying on it, eyes closed, face expressionless, as if in a deep, dreamless sleep, but her face, in fact all of her body had a gray pallor to it as though she was slowly fading from existence...except her hair. Even from my boneless, drained, and unmoving sprawl on the floor I could still see her beautiful dark red hair, cascading like dried blood off the altar and towards the floor. She wasn't dead, not quite, that I knew, for if she had died, I would have been in a far deeper state of despair than I already was. But she was teetering on the edge, like some deranged balancing act.
Rayne spoke again, over his shoulder, dragging my mind back to cold, hard reality, "you could have been great, you know." He turned back to me, a look of regret on his face as he talked, "You still can, sort of. You'll only be a minor underling, but when I own the world even my underlings will have a lot of power."
I just managed to whisper, "Never..."
He heard me and sighed, "What a waste...oh well, if that's your choice..." a knife appeared in his hand from somewhere in his many-pocketed robes as he turned back to the altar.
"No...." I moaned, closing my eyes in despair.
"I wish this spell called for something a little bit more fun...best get it over with, though," he said, looking down at Lauren with an expression of boredom on his disturbingly perfect face. Then, quickly and precisely, he slit her wrists.
Pain exploded in me, pain such as I had never felt before, but it was nothing compared to the pain of losing Lauren, the one person that I loved above all else, literally the other half of my soul.
I managed to stifle sobs, managed not to cry out, refused to give Lord Rayne the satisfaction, but I could not stop tears running down the sides of my face.
Rayne sighed, "A kill totally deprived of pleasure, but I guess it's pay back for your mother."
That penetrated my thoughts, and a memory flashed across my eyes, long forgotten until now; A man with slitted eyes and retractable claws like those of a cat, obviously a much younger Rayne, pulling those wicked claws out of my mother's motionless but still living form.
"You! It was you! You killed my entire family!" Anger like nothing I had ever known before blasted through me, white-hot fury that incinerated all other emotions but one: vengeance. Something snapped, a barrier so old that I could almost physically feel it when it fell, and power flooded through me like a lake through a burst dam, a raging flood of raw energy. I siphoned enough of it directly into my arms and legs so that I could stand up. Doing so required enough power to send a normal mage reeling into unconsciousness for months on end, but it barely made a dent in the power that was raging through me, demanding release.
Rayne, sensing the power within me, turned in surprise as I thrust my hands out in a pushing motion and released it. All of it. A shockwave of pure, chaotic, formless energy rippled out from my extended hands and the world turned white as the very fabric of time was stretched and twisted like a rubber band by the amount of energy I loosed, then black as I fainted from power drainage.
When I awoke, I was here, in this cave. Swirling next to me was the first of what you call the planeportals. What I found on the other side was another world, like my own, but different in many ways. For example, Rayne had never existed and never would. The time period in that world was also many millennia after that of mine. You see, planeportals do not just enable transdimensional travel; they also enable limited and uncontrollable time travel.

I don't know what to think. This man who used my name obviously lived and died long before the Dome was constructed, because not once in any history book I've read has there ever been mention of a time in which planeportals didn't exist. Also, he was apparently wrong on one point. Obviously we found a way to control the time travel element along with controlling dimensional travel, because otherwise, the planeportal technology would have been too dangerous to use and the Ryftwars would never have come about. I turn and begin walking the other way, but the only thing there is a sheer drop into an unknown fate. As I peer into the darkness below me, I wonder what I should do next, but that is decided for me as the shelf I'm standing on suddenly collapses, sending me reeling down into the abyss. Another portal forms below me, but it seems to ripple and twist, as thought it's in pain. When I fall through it's like I'm being ripped from my body, pain coursing through every vein and cell, beating and throbbing and twisting as though to tear me limb from limb and then keep tearing until only tiny shreds are left.
When I wake, I feel strange, as though my body has shifted to a different shape. I get up, look in the mirror, Mirror? How did I know that? I see that my body indeed seems to have changed shape. As I shave, what the? I ponder about what I'm going to do today, but all I can think about is Lauren, who's Lauren? beautiful red hair flying about her head, running with me through the Field of Morrellan, huh?, laughing and smiling as we searched out the cave I had found the other day. We spent most of the night there, in joy and pleasure. Now I can hear her beautiful voice calling,
"Jondyn! Come on, we'll be late!"
What's happening to me?
"Jondyn!"
"Coming! I'm coming…" I grumble good-naturedly as I saunter out the door. There she is. Beauty incarnate. And practically hopping to get going to the Mayfair, Huh…I could get to like this.
The Mayfair is an annual festival of happiness. No one remembers why it's called the Mayfair, but everyone comes, just the same. As we walk along the path from my house to the village, Lauren begins to hum a happy tune under her breath.
Flash
A vision blocks out my view of my surroundings and I stumble to a halt. A man, but different than a man, tufted ears rising above his head, fur covering his body, retractable claws extending out of his fingertips instead of fingernails.
Rayne
"What is it, love?"
I shake my head to clear it, "Nothing…" but I am no longer blissfully happy the way I was when we left, I am instead wary of I know not what.
The village is gone.
Burned to the ground, no one left alive. In the middle of the carnage stands a man. Rayne.
"Rayne." I say, quietly.
He turns, "Oh, look! Late comers!"
"Rayne." I say, louder this time.
"Oh, and you know who I am, too, how delightful!"
"You destroyed my village, but that's ok, villages can be rebuilt," I say in a deathly calm voice, "you burned all our food, but that's ok, we could have survived a winter without," anger forces it's way into my voice, rising and heating, "But you killed my people, Rayne! My people! Everyone that means anything to me is dead now!" with a scream of rage I launch a ball of white-hot energy at Rayne and come flying behind it, sword drawn, ready for the kill, but suddenly, there in front of me and my energy ball stands Lauren, magically bound. Quickly I dismiss the energy ball and dive to the side because there isn't time to stop before hitting her. When I pick myself up, Rayne and Lauren are gone. There is a single piece of paper on the ground, with a note:

You are more powerful than I thought. If you
want her back, follow my energy signature.

Well, how am I supposed to do that? I think despairingly. Then, as I see a faint glowing rune in the air, I realize that my body already knows how. So I open a gate and follow the rune.
I emerge in a large room, stone room, filled with tapestries. There she is. Lying on an altar at the far end of the room, asleep, Lauren looks as beautiful as ever. I start to go to her, but I am blocked by something unseen but extremely solid.
"Ah, there you are"
I whirl, rage flooding through me, "Rayne! Let her go!"
"Oh, but I can't do that. It would completely defeat the purpose of luring you here."
"Let her go, Rayne! She has no part in this!"
"Oh, but she does. You see, I intend to fight you. If you win, she's free, no questions asked. If I win, she dies as a part of my power spell. What do you say? Leave her here or fight me?"
Crap…I guess I have to fight…"Bring it on…"
"Die, worm!"
He lunges at me, sword suddenly in hand and I parry without thinking, parry parry parry parry, too many to count, but then I find a break in his attack and launch into my own, cut cut cut cut cut cut cut, and we are locked in combat, trading blows and parries and counterblows and dodges, but Rayne is beginning to slow and I've only gotten started, so it looks like I'll have it easy. Then he stops. Just like that. I swing and miss, and swing and miss again, he seems to be standing completely still, but I can't hit him no matter how hard I try. He begins to laugh. So I try another tack. I throw my hand out towards him and out of my fingers fly thousands upon thousands of teensy red lines of fire. The wall behind him is riddled with holes. He is gone.
"Ha ha ha…you'll need to be better than that, boy!"
I spin around on the balls of my feet to see him leaning on Lauren's altar, smirking at me. I dash toward him and run into the barrier that I had forgotten about. The air in front of my face ripples and twists, reacting to the impact. I notice a slight fault in the magical structure of the barrier and exploit it, demolishing the thing in seconds and leaving me free to attack Rayne again. A dark malevolent ball of energy blazes towards him, loaded with hate, but he steps to the side. Under my direction, the sphere alters course to match, slamming into him with the force of a tidal wave. He is launched over the altar and into the wall, but bounces back at me like he's made of rubber. Then I realize he hasn't moved his body since that step to the side. He must have created a shield to withstand my energy sphere, and now, as he relaxes and reforms his stance, he is flying through the air at me at high speed. I duck, but not fast enough, and receive a gash on my shoulder, my sword arm, for my troubles. Since I can't use swordsmanship anymore, I turn to sorcery, blasting the stone floor between Rayne and I with compressed ball of air, rippling light with its passing density. He steps to the side and unleashes a bolt of dark, dead lightning that I barely manage to block with a hastily erected shield, but he gives me no time, with fireballs and sharp edges of air and flying stones from the ceiling, pummeling my shield so that it's all I can do to hold it, much less retaliate. I weaken, struggling to hold my shield. My knees buckle, dropping me to the floor, and my energy runs out. The shield disperses and a fireball stops inches from my face, scalding me with its heat.
"Ha ha ha, and you thought you could stop me," he says, scorn dripping from his voice as he turns and walks slowly back to the altar. Lauren is still laying on it, eyes closed as if in a deep, dreamless sleep, but her face, in fact all of her body has a gray pallor to it as though she's slowly fading from existence...except her hair. Even from my boneless, drained, and unmoving sprawl on the floor I can still see her beautiful dark red hair, cascading off the altar and towards the floor. She's not dead, not quite, only seemingly asleep. But she's teetering on the edge of death. Only the slightest push will send her falling into oblivion.
The fireball vanishes as Rayne speaks again, over his shoulder, dragging my mind back to reality, "You could have been great, you know," He turned back to me, a look of regret on his face as he talked, "You still can, sort of. You'll only be a minor underling, but when I own the world even my underlings will have a lot of power."
I barely whisper, "Never..."
He hears me and sighs, "What a waste...oh well, if that's your choice..." a knife appears in his hand from somewhere in his robes as he turns back to the altar.
"No...." I moan as my eyes fall shut in despair.
"I wish this spell called for something a little bit more fun...best get it over with, though," he says, looking down at Lauren with an expression of boredom on his face. Then, quickly and precisely, he slits her wrists.
Pain explodes in me, pain such as I have never felt before, but it's nothing compared to the pain of losing Lauren, the one person that I love above all else.
I manage to stifle sobs, manage not to cry out, refuse to give Lord Rayne the satisfaction, but I cannot stop tears running down the sides of my face.
Rayne sighed, "A kill totally deprived of pleasure, but I guess it's pay back for your mother."
That penetrates my thoughts, and a memory flashes across my eyes, long forgotten until now; A man with slitted eyes and retractable claws, obviously a much younger Rayne, pulling those wicked claws out of my mother's motionless but still living form.
"You! It was you!! YOU KILLED MY ENTIRE FAMILY!!!" Anger like nothing I had ever known before blasts through me, white-hot fury that incinerates all thoughts but one: vengeance. Something snaps, a barrier so old that I can almost feel it when it falls, and power floods through me, a raging flood of energy. I siphon enough of it directly into my arms and legs to stand up. It barely makes a dent in the power that rages through me.
Rayne, sensing the power within me, turns in surprise as I thrust my hands out in a pushing motion and release it. All of it. A shockwave of pure, chaotic, formless energy ripples out from my extended hands and the world turns white as the very fabric of time is stretched and twisted like a rubber band by the amount of energy I loose, then black as I faint from power drainage.
When I wake, I am in the cave. This time the cave is empty and swirling next to me is the first of the planeportals. What I find on the other side is another world, like my own, but different in many ways. For example, Rayne never existed and never will. The time period in that world is also many millennia after that of mine. I emerge from the portal to find a young woman sitting there, staring off into the distance.
"Lauren…"
She whirls, surprise giving over to blind joy on her face as she jumps up and throws her arms around my neck with a grateful "Where have you been!?"
"It's a long story," I say with a chuckle, closing my eyes and reveling in the moment.
"Well come home and you can tell it to me."

* * * * *

Years later, in growing age, I fall asleep happily to dream the dream of eternity. I awake in the cave. I ponder for a moment, get up, go to the journal, and begin to write.
I awoke to artificial sunlight, streaming in through the windows, glaring from all directions…

[Therin]

:rolly:

...I'm really proud of this one. Seven pages on the computer!(that's a lot for me)

[Azurel]

your finally finished (after emailing me the three earlier versions)

But i must admit, this is one of ur best. Good job.

[Therin]

thanx much!

[BWS-1]

Wow, awesome, my favorite part is:

"You destroyed my village, but that's ok, villages can be rebuilt," I say in a deathly calm voice, "you burned all our food, but that's ok, we could have survived a winter without," anger forces it's way into my voice, rising and heating, "But you killed my people, Rayne! My people! Everyone that means anything to me is dead now!"

God I like it all the way! Nice one man!

[Therin]

thanx much more!!

[Sperrit]

Very cool, dude! Very cool! I like the whole random manipulation of time part, it's a great idea, and very cool. .... I think I said cool about a dozen times already so.... Awsome!

Join the Fun

[Therin]

thanx much...ummm...even more! :p

[Therin]

Ok this post is somply to put this thread back among the threads of the last 30 days because I said i would for the "best writer" thread. So please don't yell at me?

[Akira]

very nice....i thought it was cool.