Lambda - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 - The Divide

Location: Duskrise

Tania Dimagi was awakened by a loud explosion. When she came to her senses she was already sitting on her bed and breathing heavily. She pressed a switch on the side of the bed and, when the room was alight, she immediately checked that her son Biros was unharmed. A sigh of relief could be heard in her otherwise silent room when she found him sleeping peacefully in his crib.

Tania then neared the window, passing under the ceiling lamp which was made out of molten lava inside a magically enhanced transparent glass. These lamps had enormous lifespans, and were used commonly throughout all of the Duskrise - in the town of Stundale in particular.

The window was made with the same material than the lamp, but it had different magical properties. At first, the glass was completely black and only when Tania pressed her hand on its surface it became possible for her to see through.

With the outside gradually revealing, Tania's face became the grimace of horror. Through all the fog that was exiting the city vents, almost like it were a living breathing organism, Tania could see the fiery show of her life. And it was happening in the sky in the direction of the Stundale Magma tower. Her thoughts were completely shaken by fear:"Is this it? Is this the end of our existence?"

Her ominous thoughts were shaken by the image of a bird flying towards her window. When it was near enough, it simply flew through as if there were no obstacles in its way. This made ripples extend around the window, the same effect a stone would have when thrown into a still lake.

Tania looked at what could be seen as a creature from the distance but was, in fact, a mechanical construct. It puffed smoke out, under its wings and tail, and it made almost screeching noises when moving. The bird was of a dark-greyish color that could be easily missed in the evening fog, and its eyes were dark at first, transforming into piercing red ones when it spoke:"Tania Dimagi, you are invited to immediately join the emergency meeting of the Stundale council of 9 in response to the catastrophe of the magma tower."

With that said, the mechanical bird flew out in the same fashion it came to Tania's place.

Tania stood still for a few seconds, deciding between following orders and taking Biros some place safe:"Was this a natural disaster? Or did someone deliberately attack the tower?" There was too little information in order for her to make a proper decision. She stood silent a few minutes, pondering on what to do next. When she was completely sure that Biros would be sleeping for some time still, she kissed him lightly on the forehead and then went straight to her wooden closet, putting on the first formal wear she found.

Before dressing up, she looked almost like a spectral apparition, fragile in her night robe and messy purple hair. In her formal vest, her looks were those of a menacing authority. The perfect darkness of the dress was broken by lines of a similar color than her hair. These lines started at the collar and extended towards the arms and legs. Two on the front, two on back and two to finish off on her arms.

Tania was quite methodical and so she grabbed a quick snack, washed her face and was already on her way to the council chambers. She went up the stairs from her third floor apartment in a building whose insides had majestic ornaments all around. Houses like this one were once inhabited by the aristocracy. Due to all the smoke that was especially dense in the middle of the city, these houses were left to rot or be used as apartments by poorer people.

Upon exiting on the roof, she was immediately greeted by a hot puff of smoke making her think:"Good, at least the ventilation system is still working. The damage might not be that grave."

From the outside, the building she inhabited was falling to pieces. It has been several centuries since the center of the town was built and no adequate effort was put to protect the outsides from the constant hot streams of air that gradually destroyed the facade. In the evening light, prevailed by the exhaust fumes, it was almost impossible to distinguish the details unless you became an expert in recognizing the different shades of dark. And yet on this very night, as Tania looked towards the magma tower, she could clearly see the chaos happening in the distance: streams of lava burst high into the night and explosions from the tower itself illuminated the sky. She saw flying rectangular-like objects buzzing near the tower and even if she couldn't hear them above the explosions, reassuring thoughts flooded her head:"Those are zappers! This means our emergency team is already at the site. Nice work."

Tania then neared her own zapper, a vehicle that had wings similar to those of mosquito-like insects. It was smaller than those the emergency team used in trying to control the wild lava. Hers was simply big enough to hold two people and the engine. Like most of their technology, the zappers relied on captured sources of lava inside of a magically enhanced bubble. When the magic was inactive, the lava heated up the stored water and the pressurized vapors then exited at the wings, making them flutter wildly. The water in the tank  was supplied by condensing and recycling the exhaust fumes from the buildings, giving the zappers a potentially unlimited flight time in the city.

As Tania seated herself and closed the door, she started hearing the all-too familiar buzzing sound of the zapper. And soon she took off into the night, towards the glowing tower. She knew that halfway there lay the council's tower, which was only slightly less visible than the magma one.

A few minutes of flight later she approached the council's tower perimeters. On the ground there was an electric fence set-up all around for unwanted visitors. Even though most of the time the people who were electrocuted to death were simply lost and extended their hand a bit too far into the fog. As she flew above the fence, she could hear a metallic voice welcoming her. Truth be told, she never felt welcome hearing it.

Soon, she landed the zapper on the top of the circular platform above the tower. It had air vents on top and enough space for exactly nine zappers and all were already there. Tania exited her zapper and was soon greeted by two metallic constructs, resembling humans with an expressionless face. The two constructs wore black and red guard uniforms and their skin was of a silver color. Tania always found them too impersonal, yet she still replied a simple:"Hello."

She went to the door at the roof, which was held open by one of the two constructs and down the stairs, a floor lower, to the main chambers of the council. Before she entered the room, she was greeted by another two automatons, who then closed the heavy wooden doors after her. Arriving at the circular chamber, all of the remaining 8 councilors were already seated. She quickly nodded and greeted back, making her way to her usual place. While doing so, she realized that each of her fellow councilors with longer hair looked like a mess, leaving her perfectly in tone with them.

As soon as she got seated, Doras, a serious-looking man sitting at the opposite side of the table spoke:"With all of us present, the meeting can commence."

When he spoke, he addressed all the present and looked at each one separately:"Tania, Lars, Seraph, Kevin, Morena, Leia, Terry,  and Gilian, the magma tower of Stundale exploded." and almost instantly all heads with exception of Doras looked through the windows, towards the tower, which was still sprouting lava out uncontrollably.

Doras continued:"That's not all. I've received a message from Keo, the engineer who was in shift this night at the magma tower." Almost in unison, the 8 other members of the council started gasping and whispering to each other. Doras coughed and put a hand in the air, holding a piece of paper that did not look at all serious or official. It was as if Keo quickly wrote some notes on a page of his diary and strapped it out, sending it to the council with a bird-messenger.

The leader of the council then proceeded to read:"It all started innocently enough. I felt some tremors in the ground and proceeded with the established checks for the security and stability of the tower. I tested the intensity of the magical field from samples I extracted. Extrapolating what I've found on a larger scale, I can conclude that in 25 years the magical properties of our materials will vanish completely."

Everyone in the room now started talking loudly, some of them panicking and even screaming.

To this Doras raised his clenched fist, which was the symbol their leader could use to signal matters of uttermost importance. It had precedence over any other aspects of the session. Soon enough, the people calmed and Doras could continue:"It gets worse. I've sampled different variants of our materials and it seems that the magical properties started fluctuating wildly. So even before the time runs out and magic vanishes completely, we have no guarantee that it will work for us the way it did up until now. Dear members of the council, I have no idea what's happening, but I'm sure not sticking around to find out. Signed, Keo."

The first to comment was Lars, a scary mess with his brown curly hair all around his head. And when he spoke it was almost as if watching a scarecrow addressing the public:"What bullshit is this? It's a joke right? Or has Keo gone insane?"

"Lars, thank you for your insightful commentary, helpful as ever," the cynical response belonged to Seraph, who was a woman with neatly short cut green hair. She was usually the quiet type, speaking only on two occasions: either she had something important to say, or she wanted to point out how stupid someone else was.

Doras raised his fist again before the session turned into a dispute between the members. After he got the other's attention, Doras spoke with a deep and troubled voice:"I have no reason to believe that Keo is playing mind games on us. If he were, this would mean he sabotaged the tower and this doesn't make any sense. I don't think anyone in Stundale would profit from destroying our main source of energy. And I think we can eliminate the possibility of someone attacking us. We've been at peace for well over a century now and our spies didn't notify us of any impending gathering of forces." He paused briefly, to look at each of the members in the eyes before continuing:"I think we can assume what Keo said to be true. The question is: where do we go from here?"

Tania spoke next:"It makes sense from an architectural point of view. The tower seems to be still standing and therefore, only parts of it were destroyed. If our magically enhanced items are indeed receiving some sort of turbulence, then it's quite logical that parts of our most sophisticated building would be affected first."

Lars jumped in, trying to make a better impression this time round:"All right, for the sake of the argument, I'll believe what was just said. But if that's the case, it means that we can't trust our zappers anymore, we can't rely on our lava lamps, our ventilation systems, anything! We should start thinking of alternatives fast!"

This time Kevin spoke. He appeared deadly serious with his trimmed black beard and similarly short hair. But the tone of his voice was delicate and high, that it could almost belong to a woman:"Alternatives? We abandoned them about three hundred years ago. When our ancestors decided that it's immoral and dangerous to eat the Duskers and we should instead use the dust they dissolve to when dead. All of our technology has relied on that magical dust ever since! Are you suggesting we take s step back in our evolution?"

Lars stuttered in response:"I didn't mean tha-"

Doras quickly took the lead again:"Perhaps that's exactly what we have to do. It seems to me that relying on Duskers's dust wasn't such a great idea in the first place."

Tania almost screamed in response:"Doras! How can you judge so quickly? We don't yet fully understand what's happening. What if there are some bigger forces at work and the magical dust is simply reacting to them? It could be that we are being warned about something!"

Gilian joined in:"That's right!" When Gilian spoke, he used one of his arms as support for his chin, which he was constantly stroking as if he had a beard. The fact that he couldn't grow a half-decent one only amplified his behavior. He continued:"I've been thinking about it ever since you red Keo's letter to us. What if the key to understanding all of this lies in the 25 years? Sure, Keo put the emphasis on how our magic will be failing us. But somehow that doesn't convince me. If it has worked for hundreds of years, why would it start behaving wildly now? What has changed so much? I'm thinking more and more of an external power, perhaps yet invisible to us."  

The next to join in was Leia:"Nonsense! What kind of power are you talking about? I've always said that we knew too little about the magical properties of the Duskers. Perhaps only now they show us their true face. Something that remained hidden under our noses for so long! Gilian and Tania, stop defending the magic just because of our past!"

Morena replied before Gilian had time to. They've been married for five years now and nobody was particularly surprised to hear Morena defending Gilian: "Do you even listen to what you're saying Leia? Are you acting stupid on purpose? Blaming magic might be the most idiotic thing we can do, since perhaps there's something else at work here! We can't decide our future in a single meeting! What if there truly is something beyond magic that's hidden from view? If that's the case, then we should prepare for what's coming in 25 years."

Lars:"From my point of view, 25 years is quite some time, while on the other hand the magma tower is failing us as we speak."

Seraph and Terry were twin brother and sister with the most bizarre dresses of all present in the room. Instead of drawn lines, their robes had red dots of different sizes splattered all over. The pair functioned almost as a single being, either speaking simultaneously or finishing each other's words. This time they both spoke:"Time is treacherous. 25 years might seem like a long time for a mortal, but it's only a blink of an eye for our planet, Duskrise. If we'll keep chasing demons and false ideas, you can be sure it will run out."

That sentence produced an uncontrollable arguing between the councilors. Each of them turned to his or her neighbor arguing about what should be done next. So much were they invested in their discussions that when Doras raised his fist for the third time nobody would notice it.

Suddenly a roaring scream was heard in the room, as darkness descended and all turned to Doras. To their horror and surprise they saw Doras standing, with a trembling left arm and only scorched meat where his right arm used to be. "My arm! How could this happen? No, I'm dreaming! This is not possible!" Doras was flailing his left arm around incredulously, while trying to move the other hand which was not there anymore. It all happened within seconds: the lamp on the ceiling dissolved and the lava fell down burning Doras's arm. Together with his arm, the light in the room retreated. The lava was slowly eating at the floor and didn't shed as much light as before when suspended to the ceiling.

He looked at the present with malicious intent, speaking really loudly:"Is this what we are waiting for?" he gestured at his scorched right shoulder:"Are we waiting for our technology to kill us off one by one? There has been enough chit chat already, we need to act. We must start experimenting on the Duskers again!"

Most were still in shock, each of them thinking that it could have been them who were left single-handed or worse. Tania tried to talk reason to Doras:"Let's call a medic to see to your wound, we can discu-"

"SHUT UP!" Doras was now screaming angrily. "Shut the fuck up, all of you! We're going to put it to a vote as we always do in such situations. All of you in favor of approving Duskers experimentation raise your hands now."

Lars nervously raised his hand seconds after Doras and was soon followed by Leia and lastly by a somehow reluctant Kevin.

Doras waited with anticipation, but received only concerned and dubious glances from the remaining five councilors  that kept their hands to themselves.

Terry and Seraph spoke again:"Now it's not the right time to make any discussions. We should start dispensing emergency teams throughout the city, warning civilians and assessing the conditions of our magical equipment. We need to make sure everyone's all right before planning our next actions. Including you Doras, you should get healed. And then we should take a rest before deciding on an issue as important as Duskers experimentation."

"Oh, so now you two are leading our council?" Doras was furious like Tania never saw him before. His eyes seemed to radiate hate all around, and it got worse by the second.

Gilian spoke next:"They are making a whole lot more of sense than you currently are Doras. Get some rest and a proper treatment and then we can-"

"Treatment? I can only get a miserable mechanical arm as a replacement! If we acted quickly and disbanded this session, the lava would have found only an empty room to fall to!" Doras was so mad now that he started spitting out as he spoke:"I'm giving you one last chance to raise up your hands in favor of Duskers experimentation. If you won't do it, then I'll have to assume you're against me and this city."

"Are you threatening us?" Terry and Seraph asked in unison, without so much as a blink of an eye. They remained calmly seated at their place.

"You're the one threatening the prosperity of Stundale and potentially even Duskrise!" Doras retorted.

Morena:"Doras, stop it. It was an unfortunate accident we all wish didn't happen. But your right arm is not worth the undoing of the work of our ancestors. You're thinking too selfishly! Please, go get healed and the rest of us will disperse the news and try to contain the situation in our city."

To her surprise, Doras suddenly calmed down and continued with a reassuring voice:"An unfortunate accident you say? Yes, this is exactly what the people will think when you'll be gone missing." He slid two fingers across the side of one of the lines on his robe and the doors of the chamber burst open. Six automatons quickly entered and approached the table when Doras issued an order:"Dispose of Tania, Morena, Gilian, Terry and Seraph."

The eyes of the automatons started shining a red color and their hands retracted to give space to two half-meter long blades. In the dim light that was now in the room, they looked genuinely scary and Morena was the first to scream in panic.

As everyone in the room started realizing what was happening, Tania had only one thing, or rather, one person on her mind:"I must get to Biros and get him some place safe!"

Morena and Gilian were too slow and two of the automatons were already at their place, slashing their heads off. Clean cut and quick death. Tania was in luck to be seated more away from the exit so that she pushed herself off the table and when the chair fell backwards to the ground, she immediately put her hands behind her head and made a back roll away from the table. She was just in time, as the blades cut the air where she sat a moment ago.

Lars, Kevin and Leia had their eyes open in shock, unable or unwilling to say anything, knowing they'd share the same fate if they opposed Doras.

Terry and Seraph spoke in unison again:"We can't decide what is more pathetic: you or your actions." And then the automatons slashed them. To everyone's surprise, the pair of twins simply dissolved in air.

"Decoy detected" said one of the two automatons standing in their place.

"You don't say?? Well then, hurry, find them!" Doras was sounding hysterical again.

"Impossible. They could be meters away or kilometers. The range of this decoying illusions cannot be determined with precision and therefore we are unable to find them in such short numbers."

Meanwhile, Tania was on her feet, running to one of the windows. And right behind her, two automatons sprinted, catching up even in such a small space. Before she could think any longer, she brushed two fingers on her robe and jumped elbows first towards the surface of the window. As at her home, she simply went through, making ripples appear on the surface of the window. She felt a searing pain in her leg as a blade pierced her skin - and then it was over.

She was looking at the precipice below her, high from atop the council tower. Her vest inflated, making her able to glide through the air. All the while her mind was repeating:"Please magic, don't fail me now!" She was gliding through the night sky mixed with the dense fog, but could still see the fence below her as she passed on.

And then a terrifying thought crossed her mind:"Biros! Damn it, Doras will indubitably be sending henchmen to my home and taking him hostage in return for me, or worse, kill him straight away!" She felt a grim sensation in her mouth and gritted her teeth to forget about the pain in her leg or the fact that the automatons will reach her home way faster than she ever could. But she could try at least. She glided into a small narrow street and upon landing her leg immediately reminded her of the injury.

Tania closed her eyes and imagined the pain to go away.

"You did the right thing," she heard a familiar voice that still made her shudder. She opened her eyes and saw - Terry! And he was holding Biros in his hands. She started sobbing, both due to the injury and the fact that her son was besides her again:"What are you doing with him?"

"We've taken the liberty of removing him from your home, before Doras's minions could reach him," Terry looked down and then took a few steps towards Tania, handling the baby to her:"He's beautiful. Take good care of him."

"Thank you," she whispered, while trying to control her weeping and holding Biros to her body. Somehow he was still asleep, breathing peacefully as if nothing changed.

"There are troubling times ahead of us. Duskers experimentation seems all but imminent and besides me and Seraph you were the only one that opposed - and survived. We'll have to wait and see which cities join this crazy path and which refuse." Only now did Tania realize how weird it was to hear one of the twins alone. Still, she listened to what he had to tell:"Get away from here. Tend to your baby and then if you wish to set things right, return to Stundale. Though I cannot promise you it will be a walk in the park. The next time we see each other, it might well be in a full-blown war to recapture the council."

Tania wanted to open her mouth, but Terry silenced her:"Listen Tania, go now. Escape the city and to go your relatives or friends, lay low for a while. Rest. We'll keep in touch."

"How will you know where I'll be?"

"We have our ways," Terry winked in response and extended a hand to greet her. Tania instead pushed Biros on one side and with the free arm flung herself at Terry, hugging him:"Thank you. Thank you for saving my son. You don't know how much this means to me." Terry hugged her back and then slowly pushed her away:"Tania, now you really must go, the automatons might already be scouting for survivors."

Tania uttered another:"Thank you," before looking a last time at Terry who simply nodded and watched her leave. The pain in her leg would make for a painful journey, but she knew all the small passageways between the streets and tubes and even in her injured state, her determination lead her on, towards the outskirts of Stundale.

Lambda - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - The Banishment of Gods

Location: Auroria

"You're a liar Krielis!" cried Aurelia Powerglade, standing alone in the middle of a great hall that had no details or ornaments whatsoever. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of polished black stones that would allow for an impermeable darkness. The room had no windows, and at first sight neither doors. The light was supplied by a floating glowing white ball, a perfect sphere that pulsated with a regular rhythm. At the beginning of each pulse, the middle of the ball stopped emitting light and it spread outwards, until the whole light was gone. And the next moment, the ball was there again, shining and binding the all-present darkness. This was the god Krielis.

Aurelia's high pitched scream echoed the long corridors of the fortress. It was a surreal scream gushing through the long halls and if someone stood there, it could hear the voice coming like a distant echo and if quick enough, cover its ears. No ordinary person would be heard outside the room Aurelia was in. Yet she was one of a kind, quite literally. In fact, Aurelia was the only female descendant in the matriarch Queendom called Telaria. When she was born, she had seven older brothers alongside. Five grew to love and protect her, while the two who opposed disappeared in mysterious circumstances. Her influence spread all over the civilized parts of Auroria and its inhabitants mockingly called her the princess of Auroria.

[Why are you screaming? You know it doesn't affect me. Still, you've grown quite insubordinate.]
the voice of Krielis didn't seem to have a precise origin in the room, it could be heard all around. And the sound of its voice was devoid of emotions, sounding almost artificial.

There was nobody else in the room, and when Krielis faded out, the room seemed infinite. Only when there was at least a glimpse of light emanating from the god, a person standing in the room could get a feeling of space and geometry.

"I refuse to believe that in 25 years Auroria will be gone!" she cried at the top of her lungs, without caring if she could be heard or not. Aurelia was usually a very pale girl to such extent that many of her servants would compare her to the likes of the moon. The emotions that could bring some color to her face were hate, shame, joy and happiness, and she rarely had any use for the latter two. And when the light was present, she looked even more pale than in the outside world. She wore a white dress, elegant, though adding very little towards her already bright appearance.  Her hair were of a fiery red tone, elegant and long. She wore them around her head, falling on the back of her neck, leaving her bright face and strikingly deep blue eyes in full view.

[I won't be discussing with you on such terms. Why are you still screaming?]

Aurelia tried to calm herself, shaking visibly when there was enough light to reach her. She took a deep breath and responded with a voice cold enough, to match the coldness in her eyes:"Emotions. I'm suffering and I enjoy knowing my servants throughout my fortress share the same fate. I feel powerless and they should too."

[Your mother's fortress. Princess. Tell your people what I prophesized instead.]

The god made sure to emphasize her place in the succession of power. On the planet Auroria, all the organization of the thinking creatures, mostly people, obeyed a simple unspoken and unwritten law. Food chain. Whoever's on top is the most powerful and dangerous, for reasons perhaps better let unknown.

With her seventeen years she was hardly in a position to oppose. And yet, she stood there and didn't as much as blink when she faced the supreme being in the middle of the room:"Before my family came to power, with my grandmother the first of the line of Powerglade to conquer the throne, you prophesized a thousand years of flourishing empire - perhaps one day to conquer the whole word, depending on the leadership." Aurelia gritted her teeth and continued with a very sharp tone:"You prophesized a thousand years and that's what I'm going to tell my people."

[You humans are annoying at certain stages of your lives. You're not even a grown up yet, so remember your place and obey.]

"You were never wrong with your prophecies. Never. Thousand years." Aurelia was shaking her head in denial.

[I'm going to punish you for your insolence.]

"Punish me? Why don't you tell me instead, what kind of a god delivers a false prophecy? Isn't it only human to make mistakes?"

[The future is complicated and can contain variables outside my reach and jurisdiction. If this were of any meaning to your ignorant species, I would say there's a margin for error from randomly induced causes.]

"Wait. Let me get this straight. You are telling me that you're useless." At the sound of her words, the sphere began pulsating faster, like a beating heart pumping blood through a human body during physical exercise. Aurelia suddenly felt weak and dizzy. She fell to her knees and barely managed to put her hands on the ground, to prevent her upper body to share the same fate as her legs. Krielis started to intimidate her by using its powers against her.

[Remember who you are Aurelia, soon to be queen of Telaria. You're nothing more than an ordinary human, same as every inhabitant of Telaria. I am your leader, you are merely pawns under my control.]

"I know! The pact! You gave our family magical powers and in turn we serve you."

[Will you?]

The increased feeling of pain, as if a heavier gravity pulled her towards the ground  reminded her she was literally under Krielis's control. And yet current words were meaningless to Aurelia. She could only remember what it previously said:"Auroria will fall and every inhabitant is doomed." She remembered asking it if there was a plan in motion, something to prevent or avoid the catastrophe. And the response she received from Krielis stuck to her like glue:"There is nothing you, nor anyone else on this planet can do. Not even myself or other gods. Nobody wields a power that could change the course of events."

She shook her head trying to clear it, but the words just kept returning to her. And in a moment of madness, she forgot about her trembling body and stood up, defying the god before her, drawing on the magical powers she wielded. Krielis started pulsating even faster, and Aurelia was on her hands and knees again.

[Why are you so stubborn? I like you for your cruelty, but you are truly nothing more than an asset for me. There will be others. Stay on your knees and ask me for forgiveness.]

Aurelia resisted the tears coming up to her eyes. In her mind, a battle was taking place, between her aggressive impulses and logical reasoning.  Her impulsive brain was saying:"What are gods truly made of? This is your chance, Krielis has shown a weakness!" And her logical part was quick to respond and keep her immobilized:"Krielis Is a god and therefore has powers beyond human imagination. Using your magic powers against the god who granted them in the first place, what do you think the outcome will be?"

[Ten.]

Aurelia responded with a confused:"What?"

[Nine seconds left until you do as I bid you and ask for forgiveness, or I will get rid of you. Four now.]

With an idea only half formed by her impulsive-self, she mustered all her strength and stood up. She felt an even greater surge of pain through her body, together with a

[Three]

Aurelia resisted the pull this time with powers of her own.

[Two] and the pain intensified even further.

She gritted her teeth some more, and all the pain was suddenly transformed into hatred, mixed together with an illusion of hope - or was it more than that? She dashed forward, jumped in the air and extended an open hand to Krielis, in an attempt to grab it.

[Zero]

The god skipped two beats and stopped pulsating. Soon after, black liquid-like blob formed inside Krielis, dancing wildly.

[B-]

Krielis didn't have the time to finish another word. Aurelia was too fast and resisted its deadly attack, while her hand disappeared in the glowing ball. Aurelia's hand went cold in an instant. An outside spectator could see her hand inside the glowing sphere, as if it was a shadow play.

And when the impulse from the jump made her stretch her hand enough to reach the inner part where the dark blob was, she gripped her fingers together in a fist and pulled outwards.

When Aurelia landed on her feet, she immediately opened her fist and realized there was nothing there:"I failed!" was her first thought, and she mentally surrendered to dying.

And then nothing happened.

Not only that. Aurelia didn't feel any pain whatsoever, nor hear the voice of Krielis ever again. She looked up to see the glowing ball that seemed perfectly intact. And yet there was something peculiar about it. It didn't pulsate anymore and the darkness in the middle was not shifting around, only standing there like a fluid in a bowl, completely still. After a few seconds the fluid started to shift to the borders of the sphere. Aurelia took a few careful steps backwards, ready to leave the room at any instant.

What happened next surprised her beyond her wildest dreams and hopes. A blood-like liquid started pouring out of the sphere. At first only a small stream which in time evolved in a full torrent. When Aurelia saw it falling on the floor and spreading all around, she gasped: "You bleed like a human too?"

Upon receiving no response, she started laughing. This was not a forced laugh however, it was a wholehearted joyful laugh. The end.

The blood continued to flow from the dead god more and more, filling the floor of the room. The sphere deflated a little and fell to the ground with a loud splash, smearing blood in all directions.

Aurelia started walking towards it, while hearing the sound of her shoes muffled in the liquid underneath. She approached the dead god and without any hesitation grabbed it. Now, Krielis was more like a dried out fruit, and Aurelia's fingers were wrapped around the wrinkly exterior. She held it at her eye's sight to examine it properly. She curiously flipped it around and all the while, the blood-like liquid was still pouring out, yet less intensely than before. "Krielis, where did you store all of this liquid, hm?" she thought.

Aurelia knew what should be done next and yet at this very moment, she was lost in amazement and perhaps awe:"Is this the accumulated blood of all the killing on Krielis's behalf? And what do we ultimately know about our leaders, about our gods? Mordagon told me once that not only positive effects link humans and their gods, but negative ones as well."

Dread started slowly creeping over her body as her thoughts progressed:"Until today this was a ridiculous thought! Gods don't have weaknesses! If Mordagon is to be believed, then how much blood will I spill, perhaps on a single scratch, since my magic knowledge derives from Krielis's powers? I could drown in my own blood whenever I'm harmed in a room too small to be fit for a princess! I don't even remember the last time I got hurt!"

She quickly brushed it off as paranoia and changed her attitude completely.  She also didn't want to remember how many lives she's destroyed, and didn't want to acknowledge a question forming somewhere in her subconscious: If the powers that Krielis gave to her had the downside of somehow storing the blood of all the victims, does this negative effect extend to the blood of Krielis itself? Will all of the blood she was standing in somehow become part of her?

She was already nearing the exit of the chamber before she realized that above the door there was another source of white light. Small, yet spreading enough light on the wall behind. There, written in blood letters was, undoubtedly  the last message from Krielis:

Bad move.

"We'll see," she said, and with new determination she pressed her hand to the wall, which slid away, allowing for a passage in a corridor lit by white circular stones. The floor, ceiling and walls were made of the same black stones than the room Aurelia just left. She continued walking and casually glancing at the sphere which was drying out yet still inesorably leaving a trace behind. She stopped in her tracks when a towering figure came to her sight. Aurelia blinked several times, as the light and shadow play of the room she barely left still messed with her eyesight.

As soon as she saw the majestic crimson-red cape trailing behind the person, she had no doubt it was none other than Mordagon Vonneghaut Junior, the leader of the neighboring realm of Demearia. "Why did you want to alert everyone in this fortress by screaming so loudly?" he asked in his deep and calm voice.

Aurelia smiled and readjusted her pose, trying to emphasize her  breasts knowing full well Mordagon would notice. She looked up to face him:"Perhaps I wanted to attract your attention?"

"Aurelia, you have no power over my charm," he winked at her, and then continued with a casual tone:"You're holding Krielis in your hand. Why?"

Aurelia started talking, wanting to explain it all. She was quite proud of her achievement:"Oh, well, I realized that I could perhaps defea-"

"Shush. I asked you why, not how or when or whatever. Why are you holding something that's spilling blood around?"

"I have a plan," Aurelia was surprised by the sudden question. She expected at least some kind of awe or amazement, yet Mordagon remained still, standing ready as a soldier prepared for war. She quickly added:"Why, does it bother you?"

"Me?" Mordagon laughed and his whole body resounded with laughter: "No, but you're going to leave a trail through the whole fortress. You are making a terrible mess out of this place."

Aurelia didn't understand what Mordagon was getting at, so she skipped straight to the point:"Krielis told me that this planet, Auroria, has 25 years left, and I'm not wasting any minute of it."

"When will you depart?"

"How did you know, are you psychic?"

Mordagon had a know-it-all smile accompanying his words:"It was actually a lucky guess based on what I just heard from you and well, knowing you in and out. It would seem all of the gods of the seven civilized realms of Auroria are sensing an impending doom. Krielis, the god of Telaria is," he looked down at what Aurelia was holding in her hands and corrected himself: "Perhaps I should say that Krielis WAS the only fortune teller in this world. I was planning to see it today to understand if at least your god had an answer. Since that doesn't seem to be the case, I think we both know what's the only region of this planet where we could hope to gain some valuable knowledge. When?"

"In four days time, early morning. Meeting place the port called Strentos, at the western end of Telaria. I'll have three ships waiting for us. See you soon," this time Aurelia winked and blew him a kiss, before striding right past him. Her spirits were higher than ever - with this powerful new ally, she could hope to survive the journey.

Mordagon brought his hand up to his chin, where he had a fully grown and neatly trimmed black beard. He inadvertently started stroking his beard whenever he was in deep thoughts:"Aurelia just started a course of events that cannot be changed. I wonder if perhaps she spent too much time with me. I didn't expect her to be acting of her own impulse this soon." Mordagon stopped his thoughts before he would be carried too far away with guesses as to what the princess might do next:" At any rate, there are more important matters to attend to, and only three full days to do it." With that thought, he began walking the fortress corridors towards the teleporter room, that would bring him to his land, Demearia, which was Telaria's only neighboring realm, further up North. Demearia and Telaria formed a continent that was surrounded by treacherous seas and oceans, that would have to be tamed in order to reach their destination.

Aurelia was nearing a hollow tower, that was without any stairs or other means for humans to travel on. She knew that the walls of the tower were impregnated with a magic field that contrasted gravity and powerful sorceress could harness this power in order to levitate up or down, reaching different levels of the fortress. While levitating upwards, she thought:"What a lucky coincidence to have stumbled upon Mordagon. That saved me the time of having to search for him and arrange a private meeting. That could have been troublesome. Or did luck have nothing to do with it, and he anticipated all of this?"

She arrived on an open triangular space on the top of the fortress. The dying afternoon light was fading out, yet it was still enough to see the fortress in its full glory, with a perfect symmetrical shape, the form of a 20-sided dice. She walked to the middle of the topmost surface, where there was seemingly nothing at all. Arriving at her destination, Aurelia stood upright, cleared her voice and began talking. As soon as she opened her mouth, a holographic image appeared several meters above her head, a perfect copy - except it was four times bigger - of herself holding Krielis, that could be seen for kilometers around. The whole fortress started to vibrate and amplify her voice to be heard throughout whole of Telaria.

"My people," she began saying and then raised Krielis above her head, just a little on the side to avoid getting her hair soaked in the blood. The image above her instantly repeated her movements:"Krielis died by my hand today. It promised us a thousand years of prosperity and that's a promise I intend to keep. As you can see, gods are not some supreme beings like we were led to believe." She shook her hand a little, shaking the ever-shrinking Krielis, which in turn made the blood fall down in erratic patterns:"I hereby declare that every god entering our queendom of Telaria must be immediately captured for interrogation. As of today, the era of gods has ended, and Telaria is governed solely by our line of the Powerglade."

She opened her fingers, and Krielis fell to the ground with a loud crashing noise. Suddenly, the liquid that was pouring out of Krielis changed its color to white, and started slowly advancing to the three corners of the surface. The hologram then changed to show the liquid spreading, and Aurelia was already on her way. She knew that her mother would be furious - she did just defy what her mother held as most sacred. And for that reason alone she didn't want to see her come home.

Now only the preparations for the journey remained. She already knew who to contact to arrange for the needed equipment, food and a small army for escort. And yet, with every step she made towards her chambers, which were two floors beneath Krielis's ex room, she felt more and more insecure. There were two thoughts in particular that scared her beyond reason.

The first fear was that Krielis was likely still bleeding, and should the same thing happen to her, she didn't have any means of stopping it.

And the second thought, that was even more worrying, was that the only place where she could hope to get some answers and perhaps even a solution for her beloved planet (she was constantly reminding herself that one day it will be hers completely), was a continent at the south-east of Telaria, separated by dangerous waters. And that continent was the realm of chaos and disorder. Raw magic that produced incredibly powerful creatures, at the cost of their minds and bodies. Uncontrolled gods were ravaging those lands and any attempt so far at conquering those lands resulted in complete and utter extermination of the conqueror's army.

What gave Aurelia some hope at least was that she didn't intend to capture those lands (not yet at least). Instead, she saw her role more as one of an ambassador. She planned to make as many deals as needed in order to see her plan succeed. She levitated downwards in the tower she had used before, yet this time she descended two levels lower, towards her chambers. All the architecture of the fortress was the same, so for a newly arrived person it would be easy to get lost. And in fact, that was probably the reason Aurelia didn't encounter anyone else until she arrived at her room.  She waved her hand and the door, which opened to reveal a magnificent room, with a triumphant double-bed in the middle. The room was, similarly to the outside corridors, in black marble, with white lights. The bed in the middle was of a white color so clean it almost seemed as a castle made out of clouds.

Apart from the bed, there was only a single object in the room: a mirror on the wall, with sharp white borders to counter the blackness of the surroundings. Aurelia went straight to the mirror, seeing her body all tainted with blood. This made her smile and grab her hair with a hand, to clear them at least a little. And then reality hit her.

The color of her hair changed several shades from her past fiery red one. Her hair was tainted with blood, and yet she could clearly see that even the untouched hair became dark-brown, with just a hint of red. She immediately understood that all of her fears were there for a reason. And her hair were very likely an indication of how much blood she already had on her hands. "What will happen to me the day my hair turn completely black? Like the inner parts of Krielis?"

Aurelia went to her bed and let her body fall on it. She pretended to be interested in the curtains above the bed, and yet in reality she only wanted to calm down. She wanted to have a second chance to think things through. Perhaps killing Krielis was a mistake, a bad move, as the last message she received from it said. She felt warm tears starting to form at the edge of her eyes and a great sadness overwhelmed her. She never felt more insecure in her life.

There was only one certainty on her mind: this will be the last time she spent in her room for quite some time.

Lambda - Prologue & Chapter 1

Prologue

"Don't worry. *inhales deeply* All these words will eventually make sense to you."

-  Mirana Augusta, Patient Zero of Earth 2.2

"I didn't care. I saw what our machines were doing to Duskrise and I just wouldn't try to think in a different direction. Now I realize where I and others could have gone if we pursued studying physics instead of that stupid magic. What a waste of time!"

- Biros Dimagi, Ultimate of Duskrise

"It's like one of those masquerade balls I love so much. Everyone puts on a different mask and goes on dancing and having fun. Our masquerade partners are kids with their grown up masks hiding the immaturity. And if their way of having fun means massacres happening every day, then the ball must come to an end."

- Patricia Mirage, Victus Morti of Duskrise

"These notes represent me and start with mi, and the true meaning of Requiem they shall be."

- Anton Nerath, Death Bringer of Earth 2.2

"How do you know sex with another man is horrible if you haven't tried it?"

- Mordagon Vonneghaut Junior, Nightstrider of Auroria

"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

- The NOISE of Duskrise

"How could I possibly imagine three different histories happening at the same time? GET AWAY FROM ME!"

- Jade Quinn, Phoenix of Earth 2.2

"I know how to end the pain and start immense pleasure. Remember? Now think of the pain you're currently in. What do you think will come next to you, after what you've done?"

- Irene Strange, Lauriel of Auroria

"Would you get a grip of yourselves? We have the privilege to meet aliens. No. To meet people, other human beings just like us, from another world. If you keep behaving like that, you are all going to reinforce the idea that our world, our marvelous Auroria, was truly inhabited by nothing else than a group of peasants waiting to be ruled over!"

- Aurelia Powerglade, Tink of Auroria

"Even the seas have changed. All of our water creatures face extinction. Only some species of jellyfish manage to thrive in this new environment. Those goddamn brainless creatures."

- Garry Ulbert, Too Stronk of Earth 2.2

"With their technology, the possibilities are endless."

- Claire Benton, Madness of Duskrise

"Listen to me carefully now. This is the fourth time I ever needed to repeat myself, and I'm doing it only because some people are going insane in the new world circumstances. I can get you anything. Anything you'd ever need."

- Mordrang Thrall, Silence Gatherer of Auroria

Chapter 1 - The Last Experiment

Location: Earth 2.2

Scientist 02 was feeling dizzy again. He knew that once the setup of the experiment was over, he'd reacquire his name and the related memories. Nevertheless, his mind resisted the idea that he was "just a number". Even though it was the second best number - right after 01, the leader of the experiment. And despite being the second most important person in the facility, he still felt empty.

Sitting at his desk in the office 02 he thought:"How stupid it is to share the name of an office space. Like I'm nothing more than a piece of furniture, or a door, or, perhaps," he then looked around for possible comparisons and poured himself another cup of coffee "Or another mug, just like the the other 95 people of this team. We are all just cups of coffee".

He tasted the energizing taste of the brown liquid and thought: "The fuel of every hard worker that frequently works long nights". This always helped him focus, and his mood shifted towards a more optimistic one and related to the task at hand: "The Greek letter lambda symbolizes a decay constant of a radioactive element, inversely proportional to the half-life. It can also symbolize the wavelength of a wave. Lambda can also be used to indicate eigenvalues of matrices in Mathematics. It is one of those Greek letters that are in use across a wide spectrum of fields."

He sat for a while, rearranging the words and ideas in his head. While deeply in thought, he started frowning and in all his years it started to show on his forehead. Even more so, because there were hardly any hair left on the top of his head. He promised himself several times to go to surgery and have his hair re-grow. And in the meantime, the hair on his side, that were still resisting the baldness, grew almost to his shoulders. This particular look of his cost him many frowning glances, but he didn't particularly care.

"No, no no. It's not good. I can't start the last log entry like that. Should I tell about all the good times we had together? Should I write an explanatory log entry hoping that it won't be destroyed by something or someone? Should I give instructions? What?" He sighed out loud and stretched his hands  and legs. He then looked out of the window and saw a beautiful sun shining and bathing the office in warm light.

"Too bad it's just a hologram and an imitation of the heat radiated by the sun and not the real deal. We've been closed in here for far too long in order to guarantee a hundred percent bias-free experiment. Every parameter under control, nothing that could go wrong. And yet there's always the chance of human error. Surprisingly enough, given the right people and right circumstances, errors can turn into enormous successes. No, I won't talk about what I did. Someone might try to interfere and abort the experiment." Even though the sun was shining, outside it was still dark. And the early hours together with hard working conditions took a toll on his brain. He started having conversations with himself in order to remind him what's real and what not.

"Right. Let's do this," he heard himself say, while his fingers approached the surface of the desk. There, a keyboard appeared. As he moved his fingers in the air, tapping gently, the keys lighted-up in response and produced words on the screen. And the screen itself was placed atop two heavy books, to be at the appropriate eye-level. As he typed, the text began to show:

Log entry number 365

How does one start the final log entry for an experiment so important that because of it, we, the humanity as a whole, have decided to change the name of Earth 2.1 to Earth 2.2?

If we fail, then there was no point in renaming the Earth. Nothing new would be discovered.

If on the other hand we succeed, then calling it Earth 3.0 would be far more appropriate. The next stage in the human evolution. Will it be one or the other?

The humanity is facing an unprecedented crisis. The current leading theory supposes Earth 2.2 is being slowly drawn away to an invisible and undetectable super-massive object. It's not important which year is it, if all we've got left is 25 years before the impact. And since nothing in the current collective knowledge pool points to a possible answer, the society is falling apart.

We're decaying as an organized and intelligent race, and this is the only reason why the λ-ex, or, the lambda experiment, has been allowed to exist and is in the final moments of preparation. An experiment so unethical and of dubious nature that we'll have our recollections of it erased permanently and no credit will be given to the people who conducted it. Its existence will be kept hidden for 20 years.

Here's to hoping the second outcome will come true, and that the last 5 years on Earth 2.2 will ensure humanity lives on. On a more personal note, regarding all my colleagues in the team, here's to hoping our year worth of sleepless nights will save us.

Log entry by scientist 02.

"Heyo two, it's four in the morning and you're still up?" the scientist 02 was visibly shaken by the sudden appearance of a voice that was not in his head. While he was typing and editing the text, his younger colleague known to him only by the label scientist 57, perhaps once his student, entered the room. After receiving no immediate answer, the younger scientist moved towards the nearest chair and made himself comfortable. He was a middle-aged man, with brown hair neatly combed and always wore a shirt to look smart and classy as he'd describe it.

"Why are you so tightened up?" he asked, jokingly.

Two responded:"I've been trying to round up this whole nightmarish experience."

"Why so serious?" was the response, and soon after, the scientist 57 burst out laughing: "Come on, in two hours time it will be all over for us! We'll remember our names, our families if we had them. No, wait, you look like a real lady killer to me. Like in a parallel universe where ugly dudes are considered hot you have plenty of fangirls. Please get a haircut, will you?"

And this was the end of the scientist's 02 good mood until the dawn arose outside of the experimental complex, in the real world. Until that time however, two hours remained.

"Watch your tongue boy. Why do you take the matter of universes so lightly?" 

" 'Cause they are shit. Well, not literally. But seriously, for how long have these theories been lying about? 150 years, 200 perhaps? And even if it turns out there are actually parallel universes, what makes you even remotely think that our theories are correct? But don't change the subject. Why are you not preparing a bottle of champagne and some glasses, or partying?" The younger of the two tried to put on a serious face in an effort to have a serious conversation with a person he knew he admired immensely and yet didn't know why. He'd learn about it soon, when his memory would be regained.

"Why should I be excited? It's true, I'll regain my old memories, but I'll forget what we did here. Why on Earth would something like this make me happy? It will be like we lost a year of our lives."

The scientist 57 made a grimace before responding:"That's exactly the reason why you should be happy. You'll forget what we did here! I know for one I'll be finally able to have a good sleep, and there's nothing in the world I await more! Well, perhaps my girl or wife if I have one. I can't wait to get hold of my old memories!" Soon after he continued with a more worrying voice:"You thought this through, haven't you? There's something you're hiding from me. What is it?"

The second scientist tried his best to smile - and failed:"Don't worry, it has nothing to do with you. It's a personal problem."

"And now you said the only word that could possibly make me worry more. Personal you say? By default, this experiment was designed to be detached from personal opinions and other subjective bias, in order to guarantee a higher success probability and now you're telling me there's something personal involved? It has everything to do with me and with the whole world as well. You know full well the nature of our experiment. Tell me what you did." While saying this, 57 tried to sit straight and face his older colleague with a determination in his eyes.

The 02 mirrored the movements of 57, and tried to reinforce his authority with a firm and strong voice:"Ah, I've chosen the wrong word to describe it. At any rate, stop over-thinking it, we'll be free soon as you said. Now that I think about it, why are you not sleeping or partying like the rest of the team?"

"I wanted to see if you were awake. I think that we've had a past story before this experiment. I have a feeling of particular friendship towards you and I don't remember why. Such a funny feeling." He smiled before continuing in a more serious tone:"And yet you're trying to sidetrack me again. What is it that you're hiding?"

Two grunted in response. "Don't you think you should use some of that friendship feelings towards me and trust me?"

"Normally, I would. And I would trust you even during this experiment, for the whole year. I have trusted you and everyone else on this team based exclusively upon feelings of respect, friendship and sometimes pride. I think the whole team worked together before. Or perhaps we met during a symposium. Either way, I knew I could trust you all, as scientists and as people." The scientist 57 paused for a moment. He was hesitating to continue his speech, even though there was no more doubt about his older friend's dishonesty. He was fighting his friendship feelings of unknown origin with the evidence of what was happening. And then, as a sudden realization happened in his head, fifty-seven froze in shock.

The second scientist saw his reaction and quickly started talking:"All right, I can't hide it from you it seems. Well, you're not the first one. Here's the plan B. Try to convince you to see that I'm right, and join me in my cause."

The scientist 57 gripped the handles of his chair in order to quickly stand up. But the second scientist was, despite his age and appearance, quite fast. In a split second he was standing, with a swiss army knife ready in his hand:"Don't. This is your warning. If you'll stand up, I'll stab you. Please remember that even though I threaten you with the knife, I'm doing it only to stop you from doing something foolish.  Consider this me saving your life, because I feel like you did the same a while ago. Will you listen to me?".

Fifty-seven remained still during all of this, and observed his perhaps ex mentor, who was now completely calm and with a confidence of a winner. Still, behind that appearance, 57 spotted hint of a dubious and restless mood, which gave him food for thought:"Ok, so he's crazy, but it seems like he's regretting parts, or all of what he's done. He seems to be able to control himself easily, but deep inside, he's fighting with whatever he's done. Perhaps I can talk my way out of this and alert others."

"Ok. I'm all ears." he finally said.   

The second scientist relaxed a bit and lowered the knife, knowing full well his colleague did not have the possibility to leave unless he decided so:"Let's start at the end. Let's start with the premise that there's nothing you can do right now to change the course of events. You're bound to the chair, unless I change my mind. Keep this in mind during the remainder of our conversation, will you?" He then closed the door to prevent a quick escape and went back to his chair where he made himself comfortable before continuing. But he was struck short of words, as the scientist 57 suddenly spoke:"How did you bypass the memory wipe to carry on your plan?"

The 02 was visibly confused and answered with a cryptic:"Well, I didn't really. I had my memory erased, like we all did."

"Ah come on. You said it was personal, therefore you must have some recollection of who you were before this. And I'm scared to think that the biggest flaw of this experiment was exactly what we thought would make it work. An experiment as objective as possible. This eliminated or perhaps only reduced the possibility of any of us meddling with the parameters. But you did it anyway. Oh, the irony."

"You got it all wrong. I don't have any idea as to who I was." the older responded.

"Then how?"

"I was getting to that if you'd let me continue." He said impatiently.

"Well, please do. I'm really interested to understand how and why you intentionally destroyed what we were set to do." The 57 was boiling with anger at this point, and couldn't release it in any way other than words. He was forced to sit upon the chair and stay there. He tried to interrupt his older colleague as often as possible in order to disorient him. He didn't care at all what his colleague was about to say. Optimist to the end, he didn't want to believe it was all over. Not like this.

The second scientist cleared his thought and continued:"Right. To answer your question, I didn't bypass anything. Well, that's not entirely true." He then pulled up his shirt to show a tattoo on his chest which was hard to read. There were some letters and numbers, as well as equations and drawings of mostly geometrical shapes.

"That's a tattoo. Congratulations, are you feeling any younger because of it?"

Forcing a false smile he patiently explained:"I'm not going to tell you the details. But I'm quite proud of the idea I had. They removed all the personal memories and stored them away. My tattoo however, is a puzzle, an enigma if you will. And I knew I'd be intrigued into solving the equations and understanding the meaning. That's how I carried on with my plan, despite the memory wipe."

"They seriously allowed you in with a cryptic tattoo on your chest?"

"Oh, but I didn't have it at that time."

"Ok, now you're really messing with my head. How could you remember? Where did you get that tattoo inside here?"

"I didn't have to remember it, I reconstructed everything. I didn't have the tattoo for the first month I was here. I assume that I've used some of those coloring nano-bots. They're considered harmless and didn't show on the scan, because they need time to grow. And the growth takes about a month, depending on a person and his or hers physiology. It all adds up."

"Shit," scientist 57 couldn't avoid swearing, while beginning to admire more and more the person before him. He said: "That's truly something. A temporarily invisible enigma. And what was your plan?"

"That's something I think you figured out yourself, when you seemed terrorized for a second, just before I stopped pretending."

"You have a son. Or daughter. And you made him or her part of λ-ex ."

"Correct."

"You idiot! Why? What is the point of ruining perhaps the most important experiment that we as a species ever devised? Why destroy it all?" the fifty-seven almost screamed in despair.

"Now that's where you're wrong. I didn't destroy it, I merely improved upon it. And I hope at least you come to see my reasoning. I'm not a monster, I want you to understand and simply do nothing until the morning, when you'll forget everything done here. Scientists 03, 04, 10, 33 and 42 also managed to discover my plans, didn't listen and so I had to kill them. Such a shame. I am too careless it would seem and I attribute it completely to the memory wipe. There's something that's disquieting about what I don't remember. Still, I'm in luck to be the second in charge and can easily prevent and interrupt communications." 

In his mind, brief flashes of images passed by, glimpses of the events he went through. 

The first memory was of scientist 03, trying to reach 01's office after he couldn't connect to his computer, only to find 02 waiting behind an empty crate that was used to transport electronics. A quick stab and it was all over.

The 04 was more prudent. After his computer's "malfunction", he closed himself inside his office. A few minutes later, an explosion emanating from the 04's office attracted the attention of the whole team. After close inspection they concluded 04 disabled the safety mechanisms in the equipment in his office. Some of the scientists still remained suspicious, yet most were reassured that it was a simple malpractice. None of them were aware of a bug that enabled 02 to disable the security from his office. 

The three scientists that remained suspicious were starting to investigate on. Luckily for 02, being in charge for most of the manual work, he sent them to certain deaths doing checks on security circuits that he intentionally left operative. They didn't have a clue.

Returning from his memories, 02's mouth stretched into a wicked smile and he almost wanted to pat himself on the back for the good work.

"Oh, so you're not an idiot. You're rather a murderous psychopath then? I assume you are not joking and in fact, it makes sense. I haven't seen any of them at the party. What if somebody else will notice?"

"Who? The last meeting was already held and most of the people on the experiment are now either drunk or asleep. Some perhaps both. Fifty-seven, I know who trusts who in this team, little groups of friends that have formed, and most of them prefer leaving me alone. And even if somebody else notices, I have something prepared just in case." He wanted to continue talking, when he was wildly interrupted by the 57 again:"Ok, I get it. There's intelect behind all this madness. But have you ever considered that perhaps you got your tattoo-riddle all wrong?" 

"Impossible. Were you even listening? I designed the tattoo, so obviously I let only one possible answer. I had almost a year of time to think about multiple solutions and there's only one." After this nobody of the two spoke. The pair of scientists just sat and had a staring contest with each other. Finally, 02 spoke again:"So will you sit in this office for the next few hours?" Then, looking at the watch, he corrected himself:"One hour and forty-eight minutes. After that, you'll forget about it all and we can be friends again, assuming that was the case in the past."

Scientist 57 began laughing all the while trying not to move too much. He was genuinely scared 02 will take any of his sudden movements as a sign of attack, and he learned once already how agile his older colleague was: "So my choice is to either allow you to doom humanity and live another 25 years, or simply die trying to stop you? Both solutions include me dying sooner that I'd like and I'm not agreeing with either."

"Why are you so stubborn in believing that I want to destroy us all? I'm a person, just like yourself, I want to live on and enable a future for our offspring. What I did will work, there's no doubt about it." The 02 said it while sitting with his arms crossed and a stern expression that demanded obedience. 57 observed that 02 still had the knife ready in his right hand.

57 started thinking fast:"Should I trust this madman? Of course not! He killed five people in hopes of covering his tracks, and he's prepared to kill some more. If his plan made any sense whatsoever, surely some of them would listen to him. Didn't he say he tried to explain it first? Perhaps my only option is make a run for it. I'll have to distract him somehow." What he said out loud was:"What if someone else comes to this office? What then?"

The 02 smirked and turned towards his computer screen:"I have everything under control. As I told you, my position of power gives me several advantages. One of them is easy control over security cameras and one of them is just outs-" he stopped when he heard a sudden movement and immediately prepared for an attack, with his knife at the ready, arm raised. 

To his surprise, 57 sprinted to the door, and tried to open it in vain.

"Did you know that the doors can be locked from the terminal? I set up a trigger to lock them automatically each time the door closes." 02 then stood up, to face a genuinely scared 57, who was deciding if it's best to try and bring the door down, or the crazy person that was sharing the room with him. Neither seemed like a plausible course of action, but knowing the doors were made resistant in case of any danger, he opted for the second.

57 darted towards 02, who swiftly avoided the attack, bringing the blade to 57's chest, straight through his heart. The impact of 57's momentum and 02's expert timing, the younger scientist only had moments left to breathe, before his mind went blank. 02 pulled the kinfe out and let 57's body fall down on the floor, where quickly, a pool of blood was forming.

"There's no use in explaining," 02 was talking to himself now, or perhaps, the body, that might still have a glimpse of conscience in it:"in the end, nobody listens to me. There's not a single person in this experiment that would think outside the box and listen to my reasoning. They're all blindly convinced I'm the bad guy." He then proceeded in disposing the body. He took the body by the shoulders and dragged it to a ventilation shaft. There, 02 opened the grate and shove 57's body into it, letting the blood act as a lubricant, for gravity to transport the body down the shaft. Afterwards, 02 went to one of his cabinets, where he took out a cleaning chemical and removed all traces of blood that could be seen, as far into the shaft he could reach without having to crawl in.

"Voila', last mistake I've made is undone," He passed the remaining of the time in silence, pondering on tonight's events.

As the clock was approaching 6 in the morning, he started thinking forward, and a smile crossed his face: "All right, I've done everything I could. Now only ten seconds remain before my brain will regain old memories and lose ones related to this place. And then I'll be able to leave." 

The clock turned 6:00 and nothing happened.

"I don't understand. What's going on?" He was staring incredulously at the clock. 6:01. "Why do I still remember everything?" He looked around, and everything was the same. He seized the invisible keyboard and immediately saw a sign on the screen: "Self-Destruction imminent. Thank you for helping us shape the future of mankind in the λ-ex."

"Whaaat?" he screamed out loud, and started panicking and clicking on different keys. Of course nothing worked. "W--why? Who would have done something like this? Who even knew? And I thought I was the mastermind!!" with every passing thought, he panicked more and more, and the last question that remained unanswered in his head was:"So we were, after all, merely cups of coffee for the puppeteer behind this charade?"

Everything went blank for him and the whole experimental complex imploded inwards, leaving no trace of the facility on the ground. 

Lambda - Introduction

This is the title of a book I began to write. If you're eager to start, just read these three guidelines and click on the link shortly after for prologue and first chapter of the book:

3) This book will contain adult content and will be explicit at times.

2) It is an original story, meaning that it's a product of imagination of the author, Tomo Umer.

1) It's free. And always will be. I believe that knowledge and information should be shared, because sharing is caring. When it's done (and it's done when it's ready, right?), for those who enjoyed the book I'll put up a kickstarter campaign for  printed versions.

LINK - prologue and first chapter.

Introduction

I thought I'd just start off with the book, but then a friend of mine was upset as to why there's no introduction. My plan was to write it when I'll be finished with the book, but f*ck it.

I can answer one question  "Why did I decide to write this novel / book?" at least partially.

In all honesty, here are plenty of reasons and some are still emerging at the time of writing. Therefore, I'll make a complete list of my motivations / reasons for writing this book once it's finished, as well as acknowledgements and thanks.

However, there is one key experience that irreversibly changed my life. Lucca Comics and Games, 2013. The whole experience was one of the best four days in my life and it continued straight on to Pisa for professional reasons, but that's another story.

At Lucca 2013, the guest of honor was Andrzej Sapkowski. During the questions and answers session, somebody asked him why did he start to write. You see, Andrzej was an economist before starting to write at the age of 38. He said something along the lines:"I think that if you are a writer, than you feel it inside you. It's like a beast trapped inside a cage. You can suppress it, but eventually it will break free."

Thank you Andrzey, for those words made me reflect deeply on my life. That's exactly how I have felt for years, but didn't quite understand it. I've always wanted to write, but never got anything finished, because I was always discouraged. By profession, I have a Masters degree in Particle Physics and for me math is easy - something that quite some people admire, but it has got nothing to do with writing.

Following those events, an online reddit contest was opened in February 2014, to celebrate 50,000 users on the Writing Prompts subreddit. I saw my chance to get a literary work finished and so I started writing a novelette. Due to my work as a PhD student in particle physics, I didn't really have time to do it properly. Colleagues from CERN will know full well what I'm talking about. The long hours, the unpaid extra work and sometimes horrible bosses.

The deadline for the online contest was approaching and I re-wrote the first two chapters of the novelette and continued on writing, finishing it in a single day, after the daily meetings ended. It just so happened that at the time, I was at CERN for the CMS week, which is always exhausting and time consuming. I uploaded the story the following day, on the Geneva airport (free wi-fi ftw), an hour before the deadline.

With the end of June 2014 I had finally decided to quit my PhD and start writing full-time. Immediately after, in July 2014 I decided I was going to write every day a different short story and publish it online. My plans changed, however, as I realized I wanted to write something bigger. Something where I'd have all the space and the words needed to properly develop characters and story, as well as an interesting world.

And now, as of October 2014, I started writing my first book / novel. It just so happened that the past 7 days were extremely exhausting, as I volunteered for the organization of Trieste Science+Fiction festival and therefore I couldn't write much. It was an amazing experience and I've met a lot of really great and interesting people. But I'm sidetracking again. What matters is that a week went by, without me having the possibility to finish the first chapter.

And so, again purely by chance, today is the 5th of November.
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.

What better day to begin than the 5th? V for Vendetta is an exceptional graphic novel and an outstanding movie in its own merit. And while Alan Moore is a genius, and I can't wait to get my hands on his new 1,000,000 words long book, I think it's downright retarded he hates movies based on his work. It's stupid because if I hadn't watched V for Vendetta, I would have perhaps never known the author. I wouldn't have bought and read The Killing Joke, the Watchmen and other works. And it would be bad for me as well, because Alan Moore and Frank Miller are undoubtedly the two great writers that convinced me graphic novels can be just as good, deep and inspiring as books.

As for the name of the book, lambda, I promise it will have a meaning inside the story. But another reason for choosing lambda as the title is that Half-Life, one of the best computer games of all time has a lambda as a logo (all hail our lord and savior Gabe Newell). This always bothered me - why is the game called half-life, while lambda is, speaking from the physics perspective, the inverse of the half-life? So I decided I'm going to do this properly. Call my book lambda, and have the Greek letter lambda somewhere on the cover (lambda has, by the way, a plethora of uses in physics). Here's to hoping Half-Life 3 will be released eventually. It would be awesome if I could be part of that creative process. I think I could bring great and fresh ideas on the team and perhaps that's what they're missing, since the game is on a good start to become the laughing stock Duke Nukem Forever is. Knowing that Valve is the most desired company on earth to work for, chances for that are slim, but who knows?

Having said that, the book is, as I said at the beginning, an original story. That means I have been undoubtedly inspired by some games I've played, movies I've watched, as well as everything else I did in my life and everyone I've met who made a lasting impression on me. It is in a way, a weird combination of parts of my brain.

I'm really excited to get this book started. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing. One last thing. I'd like to say THANKS to each and everyone of you that has already given me some great criticism, both online and in real life. I learned from it and I'm prepared to learn some more, so comments are welcome! Enjoy!

-Tomo Umer

Of Fire and Water - PART 6

Aias and Freyja were silent on the way back once again. Her mind was still processing the passing events and as a result, she felt completely disoriented. She was glad that Aias was leading the way to where the cliff once lay and when they first clashed. Afterwards Freyja took the stride and they went along the coast, further North.

In his mind, Aias was wondering:"So I have shown you the edge of my lands. Are you trying to do the same? Is that why we're not already swimming? Aah, I wonder how it is like." Still, the silence was prevailing between them and Aias became restless. He couldn't hold on to himself anymore, so he asked Freyja:"Hey, Freyja, where are we going? I cannot  keep guessing much longer!"

Freya continued her walking and merely turned her head towards Aias. He could not help but notice a vibrant smile on her lips, as she responded:"You held your calm for so long I almost thought you are one of us, water mages, in disguise!" Of course that was completely untrue, since the two factions were clearly distinguishable by the color of their skin. It was intended to provoke Aias even more.

And that's exactly what it did. The words started pouring out of him, with no intention to stop:"I learned how to be calm. I've learned that observing before striking can make an abyssal difference. I'm not afraid to be hit first by my enemy and therefore I'm in no hurry to be the first one to cause pain. But do you have any idea what you did to me by proposing to go for a swim? I've been dreaming for years how it must be like to move freely inside the sea. For me, the sea has always been incredibly close, and yet unreachable. I could only create a fiery bubble that would protect me for some time and even then I'd feel weak and attacked. In my dreams it would be nothing like that. No pain or suffering, only freedom and peace." He paused for a second, before asking in a genuinely worried tone:"Freya, is it painful to swim?"

Freyja almost stopped in her tracks. She didn't know if Aias was just messing with her, or if he posed her a real question. Looking at him, she was surprised to find a curious look in his eyes. "So he's not acting" she thought briefly. She chuckled and answered:"No, of course not! Unless a sea creature attacks you or if you completely strain yourself."

Happy with the answer he got, Aias blurted out:"You know, this is so unfair! Why are our lives predefined by our ancestors?"

Freyja curiously joined in:"What do you mean by that? To me it seems you do pretty much what you want to."

Aias laughed wholeheartedly before continuing:"Yes and so do you. That's why we are both still alive. But I was talking about the fact that I cannot tolerate water and that I live in a scorched land nobody really likes. That's something that our ancestors forced on us, and instructed us to fight for the lands in the middle, so that we could finally live in a habitable place."

"You do have a point." Freyja said. She started walking again and spoke over her shoulder, being sure that Aias would follow: "You know, it's not that our frozen lands are that much better." There was a hint of sadness in her voice, but Aias either didn't notice, or didn't care. She cast a glance back to see him intently looking at her and still smiling. She quickly turned her head, so that the fire mage wouldn't be able to see her blush. Suddenly she hated herself for the inexplicable change of mood, and a second after shrugged it all away.

They were advancing along the coast and bypassed a forest. Freyja occasionally looked back, and always caught Aias just smiling and checking her. She wondered if Aias even saw the surroundings. Yet somehow, she was not bothered by it, not in the least. In fact, the whole way she felt his look on her body and she raveled in the feeling.

The temperature decreased and as the forest cleared from their view, they could see frozen lands up ahead. Freyja turned - to find Aias with the exact same expression - and showed her left hand to the North:"Aias, this is my home."

Aias answered with a hint of discontent, and yet somehow still managed to keep his smile: "I know, I've seen it from here already. Will you drag me to an icy cave or what?"

Freyja laughed:"No. I forgot that you have been to the middle lands a few times before. Caves are boring, let's go for a swim that I promised you instead, shall we?"

Saying that she extended a hand towards Aias. He took it gladly, and a sense of coldness wrapped his whole body. He quickly pulled his hand away from her and all of his muscles started contracting from the feeling of the unusual lower temperature.

"Sorry about that, I'm used to the cold."

To his surprise, Aias heard Freya's voice in his head. Resisting the freezing feeling that was gradually subsiding he realized that Freyja was now glowing in blue - as he was himself. He asked her:"How can I speak telepathically to you? That's just awesome!"

Again, he heard Freyja's voice in his head telling him:"Just think about it. It's really similar to talking to yourself, you just have to focus and address the thoughts to me."

"Freyja, you .are really hot." and almost instantaneously, Freyja was visibly discomforted. "So it's working." Aias commented, smiling devilishly.

"Of course it's working! Did you doubt me? And I think I'm quite the opposite of what you said." the tone of the voice that Aias heard in his head was not menacing. In fact, Freyja seemed more than willing to play his little games.

Aias thought and directed the words to Freyja:"So. Swimming. How do I do it?"

Freyja smiled, and without answering simply run to the sea, which extended endlessly to the horizon and jumped in.

"Well then. Should be easy, huh?" this time Aias thought only to himself, finding the courage. "What if this was all a trap? What if she was leading him to his death?" He then shrugged all of his doubts as a laughing voice appeared in his head:"What now, you courageous warrior? Too afraid to keep up with a girl?"

Aias ran to the sea and saw Freyja inside the water, with only her head emerging from the blue color that surrounded her. And in a moment later, Aias was already up in the air and with a big splashing sound he disappeared in the waters below.

Freyja was already all around him, swimming gracefully and quite fast, compared to how Aias could move. "Oh, I forgot to tell you something Aias." And for a moment he was distrusting of her once again. They were natural sworn enemies after all. "You can breathe normally." And indeed, he opened his mouth and inhaled, without any problems whatsoever. He felt like the most stupid person in the world for having continuous doubts.

Aias tried imitating Freyja swimming like she did, but at first he was just falling and making a fool out of himself. He knew that Freyja was secretly enjoying herself while seeing him like this, but he was too happy with the new experience to care.

After some time Aias learned how to swim properly, and he would have been screaming with joy if it wasn't for all the water that prevented him from doing so. "Freyja, this is amazing!! I can feel the water on my skin! Your powers are truly something."

"Oh, but we're only just getting started."

"What do you mean by that?" Aias had his curiosity peaked once again.

"Follow me and you'll see." A glimpse of mischief was to be heard in her voice as she swam downwards, to the bottom. Aias didn't think twice and followed in suit.

As they neared the bottom of the sea, Aias stopped motionless, with his eyes wide open, while Freyja still continued swimming. After they were several bodies distant from each other Freyja discovered that he was not following her anymore, and turned around. She saw Aias floating like a dead body, quickly swam to him and with a hint of worry Aias heard in his head:"What's wrong? Why have you stopped? I'm not done with showing you around!"

"Freyja." he responded, thinking how to approach this:" Do you have any idea what's under the bottom of the sea here?"

Freyja was startled and impatiently asked:"Well, it's the sea bottom. There's a lot of sea animals living there, and underneath there's earth. But since you asked me I'm assuming there's something more. Something dangerous?" But before Aias could answer, she did so herself and her voice changed from being concerned, to one of genuine freight:"Since you sense it and I don't." A pause followed. "It's lava down there, isn't it?"

Aias nodded:"And there's plenty. I cannot even start to explain how much." His mind started racing and he was excited to tell it all to Freyja: "Do you know what this means? I could make it erupt in the form of an undersea volcano. I could lead the lava to melt the ice cap, even further North. Perhaps then your kin could have a habitable environment." But just as fast as the idea came to him, problems came just as fast, and the shift in Aias's voice was huge: "No. I spoke too soon. What would I do with all the water that would be risen with the volcano, as well as the melting ice? It would make for a catastrophe for the rest of the land. Damn it!"

And yet, amidst his anger, he heard Freyja laughing. He turned to look at her, awaiting an explanation. She calmed and assumed a more serious expression, with barely a hint of a smile:"And who said the water will cause any problems? Not if I have a say in it." Aias was bewildered, and asked the most overused question there is:"Are you serious?"

To this, Freyja started swiftly swimming around, to show off while she explained it to him. She was quite enjoying it:"Of course! I want to help you! But why stop there? Why stop with my lands? I can easily redirect the water that will already be flowing all around, and make it pass a detour to the South of the island. Perhaps then your kin would live in harmony as well?" While asking the last question she winked at Aias, clearly making fun of him.

Not even a moment later, Aias swam towards her and in a fluid motion grabbed her by the wrist and moved her closer to his own body.  She was still smiling, yet curious as what Aias's plans were. Her thoughts:"I can defend myself here, it's my natural habitat and a great advantage. But wha-" Freyja's thoughts were interrupted with Aias's hand finding a way onto her back and pressing her firmly together in an embrace. Blood surged through Freyja's body as she realized what was about to happen. She moved her head towards Aias and their lips met.

They didn't know each other for much time, and they were supposed to be natural enemies. And yet, they both enjoyed the moment, kissing passionately and slowly spinning due to underwater currents and their own movement. Their feelings prevailed over rational thinking and they were lost in each other.

To them, no further words were necessary. They both realized perfectly well what was about to happen. They were about to bring the destruction of the current world order, and start a new one. And the shared thoughts somehow excited them even more.

Aias will raise a volcano, burning lava escaping its earthly prison, flowing upwards towards the frozen surface. The ice will explode, releasing jets of unconstrained lava, vapor and water. Freyja will then divert all the water, like ripples in a still pond, creating a massive wave that will overrun the Southern lands. Blocks of ice will be dragged by the current and into the volcano in the south, transforming the lava into solid magma, effectively extinguishing the active volcano.

Meanwhile the lava would continue to surge from the underwater volcano and out from the sea, and continue along the Northen lands, commanded by Aias's powers, passing through the lands and melting the ice that was covering those parts.

Soon a new era would begin, and the only question that remained unanswered was how will the people react. Would they listen in to Freyja and Aias, or will they put up a fight, unhappy that a choice has been made without their consent?

Still tightly together in a watery embrace that seemed to last forever for the two mages, they smiled and kissed and didn't even start discussing the consequences. What if someone would put up a fight? There are still grudges between the two kinds of mages after all. Aias and Freyja both knew, from what they learned from each other that their powers combined would withstand even the joined efforts of all the water and fire mages. Nothing and no-one would tear them apart.

And in due time, when all the land would become habitable, perhaps similar to the middle lands, the survivors would understand that the end was just a new beginning, unconstrained by the laws of old.

THE END

Word count: 2288

Behind the keyboard

Woah, this brings the total word count to 8713. I definitely didn't plan for this story to be so big and it could now actually be considered as a second Novellette (7500 - 17500 words).

Perhaps I'll take some of my time in the future to polish it, but I'm not promising, because I'm eager to get started writing a proper novel, where I'll have all the time and plenty of words to properly develop the story and characters. Stay tuned and thank you all for reading!!

p.s. the only reason this took so long to get done is because I wrote the ending in my notebook, and amidst the vacations, it took me quite some energy to copy it on the computer. I won't make the same mistake again - notebooks are great for snippets and ideas, while stories should be definitely written on a computer. I'm not an old-fashioned writer, I'm a computer geek after all.

5 Things I learned when playing Minecraft

I'm writing this, because I want to detach myself from the story Of Fire and Water and think of the ending I envisioned, scrutinize it, and make it the best I can think of. Endings are important. They can destroy all that was good in the story and sometimes we even wish we didn't read, see, or play the ending, because it left us empty. I don't want empty endings.

Currently, over 16 Million copies of Minecraft have been sold for the PC / Mac OS. And there's some more to be found for the PS3, Xbox 360, PS4 and Xbox One versions.

To give an idea of how seriously some people take this game, Denmark instructed its ministry to reconstruct the entire state in an online version, and some American hackers attacked it. It's an interesting story, read about it here.

For those unfamiliar with the game, suffice it to say it's basically LEGO in a video-game. You control a single person, born into a world of cubes. There, you have to collect the materials and build stuff. There's another mode of playing, but survival is more adrenaline-packed, because unexpected encounters might happen.

Minecraft is, in a sense, the simulation of a world, made out with computer's logic. Zeroes and ones, a switch opened or closed, and the computer's visual (graphical) representation of the circles can never be what mathematicians consider "perfect".
In other words, pixels forming a screen are square. So instead of doing an incredibly large number of calculations in order to achieve the stunning quality of some of the today's best games, Minecraft opts for a simple cube approximation.
(for those unfamiliar with games, a link to Bioshock Infinite, one of my favorite games story-wise)

If you accept that, then playing the game lets you live a simulation of the reality. And you know, we physicists nowadays learn a whole damn lot on simulations - basically, all the particle physics today would not exist without computer simulations, and when I was doing my PhD, that's exactly what I enjoyed doing most.

Without further ado, here are the 5 things I learned playing Minecraft (you might be surprised)

5. Practical skills

I learned how to orient myself better. The first tries at playing the game were horrible: me and my friends immediately lost the map we began the game with. So I and others had to explore the world and return alive. Many times that was not the case. The journey was of no return, deep down in a god forsaken cave, at the bottom of a lava river.

So it was of uttermost importance to get to know the cubic surroundings better, and be aware at the dangers around (especially some stupid holes). And there's absolutely no difference with the real world, only the graphics are better.

Another thing I learned was planning and forethought. Yes, this is something everyone will probably tell you:"Think before you act." In real world, usually our choices are complex, affecting multiple people and things that surround us. It is, therefore, very hard to predict the outcome of our actions.

Minecraft on the other hand, is simple - it is only a game after all. And investing some hours in actions that could have been avoided if I optimized my work, made me realize how to better organize myself. Both behind the screen, and in my actual plans for the future.

4. On Time

Minecraft was, the final step of a realization that was boiling under my skin for quite some time. No matter how long I'll live, I simply won't have the time needed to play all the games I would like, read all the books I'd most certainly love, watch movies, and the list could go on for ages.

What this particular game made me appreciate was the time you invest in something. It doesen't need to be a new experience each time. I realized I won't ever be happy if I endlessly pursued this path. Sure, there are some stories I'd love to get into, and some I actually will (the continuation of The Longest Journey - I hope it will be worth the 8 years wait), while others will remain unexplored.

What Minecraft says is simple:"Countless possibilities with randomly generated worlds, and the limit is your imagination." If one wanted, this could be a go-to game when some relax is needed.

3. The "Ending"

I put the ending in quotes simply because the game continues after the end. So it's only a symbolic ending of the sorts. Here's a really interesting explanation of some parts of the ending (link). But really, it's something that leaves you thinking and without doubt one of best endings I've seen in videogames.

For me, it was a confirmation of what I thought throuought the game. It explained to me that what I was thinking was not an obsession or addiction to games and I'm not going insane, or trying to understand meaning where there's none. Minecraft is a simulation of reality, giving you elements for introspection.

2. Work is as boring as you make it

This is something really interesting that I understood while playing Minecraft. Because the play itself is quite repetitive, especially when you have to collect the materials needed to build something.

Go to a cave and dig. Cut down the trees. Get some animals. Etc. etc... You have to repeat the same actions again and again, and many consider this to be boring, and the prime reason for not playing Minecraft.

I admit it. It is boring.

But to be honest, I never found that to be a problem. It was always something that was needed to be done in order to build great things. And it's exactly the same with work in real life. Sometimes you just have to be patient and do some work that is excrutiatingly boring and perhaps demanding, but there's no way around it - if, that is, you are working towards a goal.

As they say, practice makes perfect.

1. Friends and Foes

The enemies in Minecraft try to kill you and some destroy what you build. Sometimes it's really annoying when you finish building something, and then a creeper explodes nearby, possibly killing you and destroying parts of the building you just spent hours on building. But you know, life's not fair, so there's no point in arguing with a video game. It simply portrays on a smaller scale the random destructive events that can happen in your everyday life.

As for friends, this is really quite astonishing. As I mentioned briefly before, Minecraft can be used as introspection. I played it with one and up to three friends at my home, and playing the game really made me understand the people that were in the room with me. I'm not going to share any names, because this is personal, but people who were there will know.

There was one friend that could not stay in a group. He didn't care much for building, nor making plans together. All he wanted to do was find a new cave and explore it. And as soon as others wanted to join in, he lost interest. For him the most important part of Minecraft was to explore, and return victorious, with rare minerals, needed for better equipment. What happened more than once is that he died alone, and there was noone nearby to collect the equipement.

It's scary how accurate this is to the real life. He's a person that wants to succeed with his own merit - and will undoubtably do so. But along his path, he's sometimes too stubborn to see that help from others might greatly aid his endevour.

Another friend was overly fond of the animals in game. Whenever he returned to playing, and the sheep or cattle were missing, he was all like "Where are the animals?" and that would be his uttermost focus untill all was in place again. He understood most than all, that if we had a farm ingame, that would supply us with food infinitely, and we wouldn't have to worry about it ever again.

Same as in real life, he wants to obtain a basic living standard and build on that. And he's in a constant struggle because in life it's not that easy, or at least, immediate.

Another friend of mine was hard to convince into doing anything. He usually had his own vision for the world. But when we agreed on something, he was one of the most dedicated people I know. Mostly silent in real life, but we started and finished some pretty crazy stuff together.

This made me realize that despite him being a quiet type and spending most of the time in silence, he's a valuable friend that won't let me down if we start a project he's interested in.

As for myself, I realized I'm a really shitty team player. There were countless occasions when I went exploring completely alone, or started constructing stuff on my own, only later inviting people in. This I knew already. I'm competitive and sometimes want to prove myself.

But the more I played, the more I wanted all of the people that were playing with me to join efforts and build stuff together. That way, we got to know each other better, and build monuments that are great to look at.

Word count: 1500

Behind the keyboard

I'm otherwise a PC gamer (yeah, PC gaming master race and all the jokes around it), so this for me was also an interesting experience, getting to know the ps3 controller better - a different hand coordination is needed for a joy-pad compared to the keyboard & mouse. I think this will help me learn to play the violin easier.

As a final note, some will object that playing games is a waste of time and that it's just for kids. Those people have an antiquated vision of the world, as the games are gradually becoming more complex in terms of structure, narrative and message, and are effectively becoming a new form of art and education.

Like it or not, the games are here to stay. The question is: are you prepared to learn something from them?