Shifted

The friends looked on in awe. What you would see with just your eyes wasn't to extraordinary, although it was beautiful. Tall full trees, of all kinds, made a thick forest. Most were extremely tall, a hundred to two hundred feet tall. There were all kinds, and they all looked strong and healthy. All around them animals passed by, enjoying the natural order. Through the trees they saw a wolf pack chasing a buck, and they heard a chorus of birds, as a cloud of them passed over their heads. But it was what they could not see, but feel, that left the five in awe. They felt welcomed. As the woman led them on, smiling, creatures of all shapes and sizes came up to them, and nuzzled up to them. Whilst the animals could not talk, they could communicate, and the five friends could feel the bubbly feeling of excited glee, as the creatures welcomed the new visitors. It was a whole different level of experience, even to Keon. On Earth you couldn't get such an experience, no matter how close to nature you got, because the natural order down there was to bent out of shape and whack. He found himself slightly envious of those who were already here.

They were led on, and Mother started explaining it to them. "This is one of the outer sections of the Isle, home of Dulra. The natural balance is always maintained here, and it is here that souls like yourself generally find themselves Keon." She said, looking at him. "For here, they may live as any animal they can think of, and live out the natural order of things from that animal's perspective. Once that animal is caught by a predator, or reaches the end of what would be its natural life, it dies. Then, after a little bit of time, the soul may take on the life of another creature.

Keon felt at peace as he thought about that idea. "That would be wonderful." he whispered. Mother looked at him, expectantly, and he chuckled at her look. "Of course, not for a good long time yet. I've so much more I wish to see, so many more lives I wish to have."

Mother smiled and nodded. "I thought as much. I suspect all of you feel relatively the same way, since all of your are rather young souls. Keon's soul is the youngest out of all of you, only just reaching its first century of living in a body. Even you Theodore," she said, looking at Ted, "Have only lived about two hundred years total. That's no time to us, for we are eternal, or at least almost."

She motioned to them to come closer, as they came into a small clearing. They did so, and she looked at them all. "It's time for you to meet the rest, but first we must get to the Hall." She started changing suddenly, and the five friends backed up for a moment, confused and a little afraid. As the light faded, where once a beautiful woman had been standing, now a massive and gorgeous golden eagle stood, its dark gold brown plumage seeming to shine. Its wingspan from tip to tip was probably close to sixty feet. It was almost fifty feet tall. The eagle bowed its head down, and the five friends heard a familiarly beautiful female voice in their heads. "Get on, my children, and let's be off. Your adventure awaits."

Keon didn't even hesitate, climbing on, getting a tight grip. Katie immediately followed suit, trusting her lover. Ben just shrugged and climbed on, motioning to Ted. Ted looked at Melissa, and motioned, speaking, "Ladies first, my dear."

Melissa took a deep breath, and nodded. She got on, and Ted followed her. In their heads, the five friends heard the female voice again. "Now children, hold on tight, and prepare yourself for a true experience. For we fly to the Hall of Eternity, and there you shall truly come to understanding your universe in ways you never would have thought possible. But first the journey through all seven planes. You'll see all of Avalon's glory below you, but You'll also see the true beauty of the seven planes, the seven pure energies, as we pass through them. So prepare your minds, and your eyes."

The five friends all took a deep breath, and as they all nodded to each other, Keon spoke. "We're ready, Mother, so let's be off."

The female voice spoke in their minds again, as the eagle let out a joyous and excited cry that shook the very ground under them. "Good, then let us take flight!" With one hop and flap of her massive wings, they were off, and rising quickly. She called out, and a responding chorus came back, as she rose. The five friends first watched below them, and as they rose, the rest of Avalon came into view. The other five sections seemed to meld seamlessly with the one they'd been in. The forest they left below, to the north it came to a sea. To the east, slowly the trees disappeared, until it became a barren desert. To the south, the trees slowly disappeared to make way for mountains. To the west, the daylight disappeared, until darkness took over the woods. It was all so beautiful. Around them of course, the air became full of currents, and they watched and waited in awe.

Suddenly, it happened, and they could feel the change. The isle below them disappeared, and suddenly, everything around them was the power of the wind, of Aeir. Cross currents, headwinds, and Keon could feel the presence of elementals. He could see them too, amongst the swirling currents, playing and frolicking in their home. The winds around them seemed alive, and Ben seemed entranced. He spoke to Keon, smiling. "Keon, this place, it's perfect. Look at them all, completely carefree, not a care or worry, simply drifting with the breeze, and letting it take them as it will. No worries, no concerns."

Keon chuckled at his good friend's fascination, for to a point he shared it. "Yes Ben, it truly is a sight, isn't it." He watched, as they seemed to drift through the plane, almost lazily. Many minutes passed, and it could have been hours for all the friends knew, so entranced were they. Suddenly, Mother's voice sounded in their heads again. "Prepare yourselves, I need to change form again."

Keon was about to ask why, but he looked ahead of them, and saw the wall of what looked to be dirt and stone. He chuckled, waiting. Suddenly the light started, as they got really close to the wall. As they arrived, the light faded, and they were no longer on the back of a massive eagle, but were now on the back of a massive fuzzy badger. The badger's claws gouged into the dirt, and quickly enough they were deep within the strange wall of soil.

Soon enough, they broke out into tunnels of stone and earth. Keon could feel the pulsing of Domhan energy, the energy of Earth itself all around them. In every direction, the friends could see large elementals made of stone as they moved and interacted, building and shaping things all around them. Ted now watched in utter fascination, for they seemed at peace with their building and shaping, at peace creating things. He felt a tug to this place, for it spoke to him. The strength, the stone strength around them was beautiful, and more importantly, everlasting.

As they passed through the plane, suddenly things got very dark, and around them the stone started to disappear. After many moments, they passed into complete darkness. Katie's hand gripped Keon's and he could tell she was uncomfortable here. However Keon felt right at home, as his eyes adjusted quickly. Mother, still in badger form, loped through the darkness as if she could see. Keon watched at the dark beauty of the dancing shadows, their darkness much like his own. He felt a kinship, a welcoming. They were welcoming him, calling him brother. The plane of Scath, of Shadow, this was where darkness was embraced, where the calm and peacefulness of a moonless night was eternal. It felt perfect, for Keon was a lover of the night. After many moments, however, it started to change again.

Katie's fearful grip on his hand relaxed, as quickly they found themselves now loping through a plan of light and bubbly happiness. All around them the energy and lights of a bright sunny day came out, and Keon had to shield his eyes a bit. He could feel Katie's and Melissa's preference for this plane, the plane of Meanma, of Spirit. The light and sunny energy of the gallivanting elementals all around them actually annoyed Keon to a point. He was thankful as they soon enough left that behind. Once again the female voice spoke in their heads. "I need to change shape again, and do not be alarmed by this one."

Suddenly, Katie pointed ahead of them. A literal wall of water was in front of them, and even Keon's jaw dropped. He trusted Mother, and didn't panic, but it was a sight, for you could see the shapes of the elementals and creatures of the plane inside it. Massive creatures, of all shapes and sizes, and water elementals swirling amongst them. He watched Melissa, to see her completely fearless. "It's so beautiful" she whispered, and he nodded his agreement.

The light around them glowed again, as they hit the water. When it dimmed, they saw that they were now on the back of a massive great white shark, swimming powerfully through the currents of Uisce, the plane of Water. They felt the healing and loving energies of the water all around them, and all of them, even Keon, felt the welcoming embrace. They relaxed, and simply enjoyed the ride, taking in the amazing creatures all around them. Strange octopus like creatures, powerful large flippered fish of all shapes and sizes. Whales and dolphins too, despite no place to surface for air, they were everywhere.

After a time, Mother's voice came to them again. "I've got to change once more, children, and again, don't panic."

As she said that, Keon looked forward, to see a wall of what looked like volcanic rock and magma. As they swam closer, she changed again, and this time they were all riding on the back of a creature they didn't know. It had strange iron skin, with an ice cold feel to it. Katie was about to object, but as they broke through the crust of the volcanic rock, and landed in a pool of magma, she swallowed her objections, and got closer to Keon, again seeming a bit frightened.

Keon however, again felt truly welcome. He loved the feeling of the heat, and this was hot as a furnace, even with the chill coming off Mother. Tendrils of flame rose from the magma, and within them and in the sky above, fire elementals danced and played, enjoying themselves with a pace and passion that matched a true firestorm. As Mother paddled through the magma, two large elementals came splashing down to their left, much to Keon's amusement. They had been sparring, and one had basically pulled the other down. He felt the calls of brotherhood again, and smiled, taking it in, letting it all soak over him.

After a few blissful minutes, the scene started to change, and slowly, the magma and fire disappeared, until they were on a single river of it, surrounded by stone and wood. They came to stop beside a small path of vines and wood, and in their minds they heard Mother's voice. "Alright children, here we are."

Keon hopped off and the others followed suit. The large creature changed form, and floated down beside them as the beautiful woman again. Keon embraced her as she landed, and smiled. "Thank you, Mother" he whispered.

She hugged him back, and kissed the top of his head, smiling. "You are most welcome Scath-Doitean," she said, using his soul name. She pulled back from the hug, and motioned to the path. "But we still have a bit of a walk, and then you and your friends can truly see each other essences, each other's true beings, and can also finally make this all make sense. But first," she motioned again to the path, and the building at the far end of it, "We must get to the hall. So come, let us walk." Keon nodded, and he led his friends up the path, following Mother. He itched to see what else was in store for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the friends approached the building, Katie, who was beside Keon, turned and looked at him lovingly. But that loving look suddenly turned to confusion, as he turned to look at her. She watched in confusion and a bit of fear, as he changed. His facial features and body shape didn't change, but everything else did. Instead of being her lover, although glowing slightly, he was now crackling energy. His left half seemed made of swirling fire, oranges and reds of the strongest blazes. His right side was pure darkness, the swirling energy of the night and shadows. It had its own strange attraction, but she also felt confusion, as she whispered, "Keon?"

He smiled, and pointed at her. "It's me love, the real me. My essence. Just as that is you, but the essence of you. Our rawest forms, our essences revealed, as she said. Look at Melissa, at Ted, at Ben. We are just being revealed for who we are to each other, I would suspect for a purpose." He opened his arms, and embraced her. "There is no need to be afraid of it, my love. I am still me, I promise you, and would never hurt you."

As he said it, he looked at her. She looked much like he did, but where he had the darkness of shadows, she had the lights and gold of Meanma, of spirit. But like him, she also had a half that was Doitean, created of Fire. It was beautiful, and Keon knew right away that on Earth in his current life wasn't the first time he'd fallen for this soul, and also knew that it would be far from the last. He looked into her eyes, and kissed her. As their lips met, they felt a burning energy within themselves, as their opposite halves connected, and started creating a friction, but a kind of passionate friction. The kiss was the best he'd had in a long time, and as they stopped, he looked at her in the eyes, and spoke in a tongue not even he fully knew or understood. It was ancient Gaulish, yet somehow it seemed she understood this particular line. "Deo agus i gcónaí tá mé leatsa, mo bhean". She smiled and nodded, and in his head he heard what he'd said. 'Forever and always I am yours, my lady.'

He smiled, and turned to look at his other three companions, and found himself in awe of them as well. Firstly was Ted. The man looked even stronger and more dependable, if that was possible, for he seemed made of stone. Domhan literally coursed through all of him, and along it swirled both shadow and spirit, in equal amounts. True balance, Ted looked strong and powerful, and Keon nodded respectfully to him.

Beside him was Ben. Ben now seemed half made of flitting shadows, and his other half seemed nothing more than a strange image in swirling air currents. He smiled that cocky smile of his, and Keon remembered why things around Ben could always prove to be interesting.

Finally he looked over to his cousin Melissa. She was beautiful, half of her seeming made of the beauty of pure water, and the other half the light and gold of spirit. She smiled softly, and even that smile seemed refreshing, healing even. He smiled back and nodded.

Keon turned to Mother who looked at them all. "I wanted to show you each other this way now, for that is how you'll find each other in Tariek. When you meet each other, you'll know, because you'll get a glimpse of each other's true essence. Although I suspect you'll all take to your new personas and identities anyway, and use them. But it will help you remember each other to a degree, and that way you can skip the annoying process of forming a trust, for that trust will already be there, for you will know each other. It will seem normal to trust any of these other four, even though on the outside they will be 'complete' strangers. Because on the inside, you will know them very well. That way, you can go right from the introductions, to trusted companions, and get on with learning about each other's skills and knowledge, and get on with the 'adventure' part of it all. For that is what you are here for, after all." she finished, eyes twinkling. With that, she opened the door of the seemingly plain wooden cabin. Inside was rather empty as well, save seven rather intricate chairs, around a large floating image. The image was black, with many different colored dots on it.

Each chair was very different. The empty one was green, and had vines creeping around the legs and back. Mother led the five friends in and sat down in that chair, looking at the other six occupants of the room. Keon led his friends in, and as they entered, the door shut behind them. Mother motioned for them to come and stand beside her. "Come in, children, and allow me to introduce you to these six, and explain all this to you properly," she said, smiling.

The friends moved to stand beside her and listened intently as she spoke. She pointed to the chair beside her, to a man sitting on a chair that seemed made of pure dark swirling shadows. He was pale, tall and had long dark hair. Leaned against the chair was a black ashwood staff, with skulls carved in it. He leaned over, and kissed Mother deeply on the lips. Keon smiled as they stopped, and she introduced him. "This is the one Keon knows as Father, which the rest of you would call Death, or the Grim Reaper." she said smiling, and added, "My husband, and lover."

Keon looked at the man, and he turned and looked at him with his pale, dead eyes. He smiled at Keon, and nodded, indicating the young soul could ask the question on his mind. Keon spoke up respectfully. "Hello, Father, uh I was wondering if you perhaps knew of a soul in your service? His name on Earth would have been Scott Wiseman, and I wondered if you perhaps knew..?" The man held up his hand and nodded.

"Indeed, I would have arranged for him to be here, but he insisted on carrying out three collections." the man said, his voice rather surprisingly full and alive for one who dealt with death. "I believe one of them was because it was a friend of his, another was a family member. He refused to leave them with a soul they wouldn't recognize as their guide. So I obliged him, since it was their time to pass on. He is doing well, and although he wishes you nothing but a long and happy life on Earth, he does anxiously await the chance to be reunited properly with you, so the pair of you can choose where you will go next."

Keon nodded, and smiled, a tear glistening under his eye of darkness. "Thank you, sir" He turned to Mother and nodded at her, letting her know he'd keep quiet for the rest.

Mother saw the gesture, and continued on. She pointed to the man on a chair that seemed made of white light and purity. She smiled and spoke. "Meet the Gatekeeper, although your people call him many things. Those on Earth know him as Jesus, or Christ, or the Holy Saviour. In truth his name is Mattias. He was indeed born of a woman named Mary, who's husband was named Joseph. The Christian story is close to right, although thinking I impregnated Mary is not quite right. She was far from a virgin, in fact her and Joseph made love on a regular basis. But they weren't supposed to until they were married. They always were careful, and Joseph always pulled out. But one day they got careless, and well, he forgot to. Back then, for some reason the code the people on Earth followed was sex before marriage was a sin, and punishable by rather painful means. Thankfully, Mary already was known to be apparently 'talking to God'. In truth, she suffered from minor psychosis episodes where she would see someone. It might indeed have been one of the other twenty or deities that can influence Earth, but it wasn't me or any of the other six of us here.

Joseph was well aware of this, and loved her anyway, and when they figured out she was pregnant, well Joseph reacted in her best interests. He claimed that she had been impregnated by God. Because of the history, and the fact that the people wanted to believe in a savior, the story was easily sold. Also, Joseph and Mary actually lived a rather decent life after his birth, although unfortunately his birth was extremely difficult and left her infertile. But they didn't care, and loved him."

Ted chuckled at that introduction, and nodded to the man. Mother looked at all five of them, expecting some questions, but the five friends were quite willing to move on, so she smiled and continued. She motioned to the next chair, one that seemed pure flames. On it was a man wearing a suit and with a fine walking stick. He winked at all of them, and Mother smiled. "This is Lucien, he's an odd one. You lot on Earth, many of your major religions paint him in an absurd light, just because he's literally the lord of flames. The one you may be most familiar with is Lucifer, or Satan, or the Devil, the purest incarnation of evil. Yeah, somehow thats what they get out of a fire lord, no idea how. What's funny is Mattias here called and still does call Lucien his brother." she said, as she turned to the next chair. Keon and his friends as they smiled at Lucien, who winked at them all.

Mother seemed about to continue, but Lucien held up his hand to her, and motioned to Ben. She turned and saw that Ben seemed to be a little confused. "Do you have a question Benjamin?" she asked.

Ben nodded, and looked at Mattias, and then Lucien. "Well, if my friends don't mind waiting for the answer, since I'm assuming its a bit of a story, why do you two call each other brothers, and what exactly actually happened to Mattias here when he was 'crucified'?" Ben's friends all looked at him, and nodded, agreeing with his curiosity.

Mattias smiled, and looked at Lucien, who nodded. Mattias started speaking first. "I guess I'll start out the story then. We were childhood friends, and as some of you might know from history classes in what you call school, we lived under the dominion of the Roman Empire. Well, Lucien here joined the legionairre military school in my hometown at a young age. I took to preaching, and trying to raise the people, because I realized the corruption within the empire. So did Lucien, and I never doubted him. He only joined because he agreed to be my dark guardian, my shield. He knew I couldn't stand to fight, to hurt others. So he subjected himself to it for me, and learned from the legion. Then, he layed out an elaborate hoax, getting himself and about twenty other like minded friends he'd rounded up in the service 'killed in action'. In truth, they simply had deserted."

Mattias paused, and looked at all of them with a serious look on his face. "Now what's important to remember is that magic used to exist on Earth, and still does to a point. But we've taken it from you, as you've developed further and further into technology. This is to maintain a balance within your world. Well back then, magic was strong, and common, although not in mass power within individuals. Lucien, however, was a moderately powerful fire mage, whilst I had some skill in clerical healing, granted to me by our lovely Mother Goddess here."

At this point, he nodded to her, and she seemed to blush a little. Mattias continued. "Not even the twelve preachers who called themselves my 'disciples' knew of Lucien or his nineteen warriors. Well nineteen to start. He kept recruiting, and by the time I was thirty, me nor any of my disciples were ever without a shadow of five men, ready to fight, kill and die to defend us."

Here Mattias turned to Lucien, who took over the story a bit. "The reason for this was simple. We believed in what Mattias was doing. I honestly didn't think we'd win with just peaceful protest and raising the masses. But his speeches led to me finding those who would also fight for their freedom, and recruit them. Even Mattias wasn't aware, but by the time he was thirty, his hidden guard was more then a guard. At least six thousand strong, and if I had more then a week to prepare, I could raise that number to ten thousand."

Mattias looked shocked, and humbled. He looked at Lucien. "Brother, you never told me I'd made that kind of impact on the people." he whispered.

Lucien smiled, and nodded. "You accomplished far more then you are aware. After your death, well, the resulting attacks upon Roman forces were not just the 'barbarion tribes' Rome claimed. Every attack, every campaign had your hand in it. Warriors who wished Rome's tyranny ended, who believed what you preached. When you died, we numbered at least forty thousand, if I could have gathered us all in one place. That was of course almost impossible, but I kept count, and had names and locations."

Mattias looked in awe of that information, and Ben had to clear his throat loudly to get him to continue. Mattias looked at them, and blushed a bit. "I apologize, just I'm so amazed, I really didn't think I'd made that much of a positive difference. Because to be clear, I really don't like what those who call themselves Christians have done with my words. They were never ever meant to be turned into any kind of binding scripture or law. And the people like those nutbars from the land you now call the United States of America on Earth, the Westboro Baptist Church I believe?" The friends nodded, and Mattias chuckled. "Just so we're clear, the only sane one is the son who walked out and basically thought they were all insane. I totally despise them, and think they are absolutely psychotic."

The friends had to laugh at that one, because the humor of what had just been said, and whom has said it, was to much. Mattias smiled, and continued. "So getting back to our story. Well unfortunately, the Romans had gotten rather fed up with my antics by the time I was about thirty. And they were far from pleasant about it. They started torching and crucifying any and all whom agreed with me, and every one I heard about came with the proclaimnation, that if I turned myself in for execution, no more would be harmed. So, despite the open objections of my disciples, and the objections from the shadows by my brother Lucien, I arranged to turn myself in. From here, I believe it is more appropriate to turn the story over to Lucien, since the next part is all a blur for me, due to the kind of treatment I recieved."

Mattias looked to Lucien, who nodded, and took over. "Well as you stated, you made a completely foolish decision, and thought to die for the 'greater good' of your followers. Stupid, normal heroic mistake. I on the other hand held no such illusions. I had lived within the laws and army of the Roman empire for almost eight years. I knew for a fact that such promises were empty, and no such friendly treatment would ever result from them finally getting Mattias. So I started wheeling and making contacts and sometimes more 'forceful' methods of information retrieval. I knew only one thing, which was that Mattias couldn't afford to die. We needed him, the people needed him. I needed him. Without him, I had no way to move and find those who would take up the fight against Rome's tyranny. Thankfully, the Romans made a brutal mistake, a miscarriage of judgement. They didn't execute him swiftly. It took them almost three weeks to go through with it. They just kept him locked up and tortured him and beat him for information. Thankfully, somehow they didn't break him, and he never gave away any peep of me or my mens' existence."

Lucien smiled and leaned back, remembering his victory with a sense of pride, as he continued. "Well it took some doing, and some doing of things I will not mention in the presence of my dear loving brother, but eventually I found out where and when he was to be crucified. And even better, I found out the names of every soldier of the thirty assigned to be the guard detail to his carriage along the road of the damned."

Here Lucien paused for effect, and looked grim. "The road of the damned was a sickening creation, passed from emperor to emperor. It was a road outside of Rome itself, a rather long and windy road. It didn't actually go anywhere, it had only one purpose. Every mile, there was a wooden crucifix on each side. The road was for executions. They would nail you up their, and leave you. No one would help you, for Rome employed powerful oracle watchdogs to keep scry on the area, and the punishment for aiding a crucified victim was crucifixction." He paused, and looked disgusted. "It could take days to die, sometimes even a week or two. It wasn't lack of oxygen that would get you, unless they had the 'mercy' to break your knees when they nailed you up their. It would be starvation, or deyhydration. If you were lucky, maybe some animal would come along and decide it wanted a snack, and rip out your throat."

The friends paled a bit at that description, and even Keon felt a little queasy. Lucien continued, "It was sickening, and it was everything I could do everyday to not just take all the men under my command and destory that road. But doing so would have not accomplished much. Rome's army would have found us eventually, and just made another road with us as the victims. But this time was different. Mattias was to important to die. So with the information I had gained, I arranged to replace the thirty men with myself and twenty-nine of my own. The switch took place the night before the prisoner's wagon that Mattias was on was to leave Rome. The next morning, the thirty Roman soldiers reported for duty, as if nothing was wrong. Meanwhile, deep in Rome's aquifer system, thirty dead men whom had the mark of the Legion upon their wrists were hidden. As we left Rome, the first and most difficult stage of the plan was a success. No one had been any wiser to the switch, and as far as I'm aware, they never found out."

Ben and Ted nodded, obviously impressed. Katie looked at Melissa, who shrugged, listening with some interest. Katie looked at Keon, who was obviously completely entranced, and sighed with slight annoyance. She too found this kind of interesting, but she wanted to get on with the adventure they were supposed to have been promised.

Lucien smiled, having noticed, and winked at her. In her mind, she heard his voice, "Not much longer to this tale, I promise my lady." She blushed a bit, embarrassed that he'd noticed. He chuckled and continued the story. "So the plan was simple but effective. I knew for a fact that at least three sets of oracle's eyes were on us, so simply breaking for it wasn't an option. So instead we did as the soldiers whom we replaced were going to. It didn't sit well with us to do it, since there were other prisoners to damn first. We'd been given a piece of paper, with the six names of our passengers in order. Mattias was last. We were ordered to insure that we followed the order on the paper when crucifying them. So I killed five people, all of whom were possibly innocent of any wrong doing. But I did it clean. I nailed them to the cross, but as I did so, I would slip a vial of wolfsbane extract out, and get them to down a mouthful, apologizing as I did so. It would leave them dead in minutes after we rode on. It was a small mercy, but the only one I could give them, unfortunately."

Lucien took a deep breath, and continued on. "Finally, we arrived at the point where we were supposed to crucify Mattias. Which I proceeded to do. But as I did so, I informed him that it was me, and slipped him a swig from a vial. This vial was a herbal extract as well, but one that created a look of death. Even to the point where you visibly stopped breathing. It took twenty-four hours to work, which was perfect, for me and five of my other men were also scheduled for the next day's body disposal ride. So we left him there, nailed to a cross. You have no idea how much it hurt me to do that to my brother. I had sworn to protect him, yet here I was not just allowing him to be harmed, but subjecting him to the torture myself. I was burning with rage at the Roman Empire, and it was all I could do to contain myself. But I did, for Mattias. So the next day, we came to him on the orders to 'dispose' of the dead. The poison worked so well even I wondered if he was dead when I first saw him. I almost panicked. But as I shouldered his weight, I felt a slight twitch in his chest, and knew he was alive. It was mandatory to stab the dead body before you took it down, so first I stabbed his leg with the gladius I had in my possession. He didn't react in any way, so strong was the poison. I was careful with the stab, not going deep enough to damage the insides of his knee, but deep enough to draw enough dark slow oozing blood to convince those that were watching us he was dead."

Lucien smiled, "It almost was too easy. The Romans didn't care what you did with the bodies once you left the road to go to the ravine where they were tossed or burned. They didn't even have oracles watching it. As soon as we got there, we put him in a cave near the bottom we'd found, and disposed of the other bodies, giving them proper burial rites in the process. Then we returned to Rome. That night, we disappeared, all thirty of us, as if we'd been ghosts. The soldiers now slightly decaying corpses appeared in their cots in the barracks, in full battle armor. The mission had been successful, although at tremendous cost. It took us three days to fully awake and fix Mattias here, for the dose I gave him had been very close to fatal. It had to be, or it wouldn't have been convincing. If even a drop more of that poison had entered his system, he would have died. Thankfully, after three days of intense care, all day and all night, my rather paltry abilities as a doctor somehow managed to make him coherent enough to heal himself."

Mattias now took over the story, as Lucien nodded to him. "Hence my 'raising from the dead.' I have to admit I was impressed and very thankful to Lucien. I spent the next twenty years preaching under the codename of Christ, which is where the Christians on Earth get that name. Then, unfortunately, I had a rather swift and strong heart attack. I was dead before I realized what had happened. Lucien survived well into his seventies, and took part in many campaigns, both on the history books on Earth, and in the shadows as well, against the Roman empire. He was soon being called Lucifer, because of some confusion in language, and somehow it was morphed into the mad story in the Christian Bible on Earth today."

Ben looked at Mattias, and then Lucien. "Well, that story is much more impressive, and with much more value, for it teaches of the bond of family. I thank you for sharing it."
Ted, Melissa, Keon and even Katie nodded their agreement, and Mattias and Lucien looked pleased. Mother looked at the five friends, and Ben spoke for them all. "That's all, you can continue." he said, quite pleased with his newfound knowledge.

Mother continued, gesturing now to a chair that seemed to be pillars of water rising from the floor like geysers. Atop it was a woman smiling softly. "This is Lady Lea. Your lot on Earth have kind of forgotten her, except a small few of you. She is the 'cruel taskmistress' that is the sea. Pirates used to call her Calypso, amongs other names." The friends nodded to her, and she smiled and waved at them, as Mother continued, gesturing to the next chair. Although they couldn't really see a visible chair at all. The man on top of it would have seemed to be sitting on nothing at all, if it weren't for the occasional dark grey spot underneath him, and the occasional small lightning bolt those emitted. The man was large, muscular, with a large hammer on his left side. He had black hair, and a thick beard. "This is Thundran, Skylord. He's also known on Earth as Thor, most commonly, although he has a couple other names." The man saluted them as a warrior style, pounding his fist off his chest. Keon, Ben and Ted returned the gesture, as the two girls waved, looking awkwardly about.

Mother proceeded to gesture to the last chair, this one made of pure stone. Upon it sat a horned man, who seemed to have a rather serious demeanor. "And finally this is Stonewall. He also has a different name on Earth, Cernunnos the lord of beasts, and the lord of the hunt, along with many others." Keon bowed deeply to this man, the deity of his ancestors that he felt the closest connection to. The man smiled and bowed back just as deeply, a sign of deep respect.

Mother continued talking, gesturing to the herself and her six companions. "Us seven are the most, how to put this...." she thought about it, gesturing with her hands, "uh...got it. We are the most oft mentioned of the massive and greatly varied multi-verse pantheon of deities. No matter which world in the massiveness of the multi-verse," at which point she gestured to the giant floating dark mass with all the colored dots in it. There were hundreds of them on it. "and trust me there are thousands. Each of those dots represents a universe, and in some cases a reality, of its own. Within any of them there can be anything from only two or three living planets separated by so much distance the inhabitants of all three of them will never interact. Or they can have dozens of inhabited planets, which makes it slightly more possible for planet to planet interaction. Or there are even a couple that have rather large numbers of inhabited planets, due to technologically superior races colonizing what you know on Earth as 'Space'. The universe you are currently living in falls into the first category, so no matter how hard your governments look, they will never find any other intelligent life, although there is one other planet that is in fact inhabited. But it's not even in the same solar system."

Keon held up his hand for a moment, and she nodded and waited respectfully, as he processed this information. He rose and moved to the giant map, and stared at it. "So you're telling me that each of these dots isn't just a world?" he whispered, "But actually means there are at least two or three, and maybe up to dozens or hundreds?"

Mother smiled, and nodded, impressed. "You've got it, very good Scath-Doitean. That is exactly it."

Keon nodded and thought about that. His dream to truly experience all he could was a lot bigger then he realized. He couldn't recall much from his other life, except that it had been on some planet named Xeran, and as he thought about it, he remembered that it was the other inhabited planet in Earth's universe. He remembered being a warrior there, in a large clan of strange human like beings. They were a lot like the humans on Earth, but had four eyes, two on the front of their heads, but also one on each side as well. They also could hear ultra high and low frequencies. He nodded, and turned to Mother, looking at her. "Well to truly realize my dream, I have a lot more to explore and a lot more travelling to do then."

Mother chuckled, and nodded. "Well said, Scath-Doitean. Spoken like a true son of mine!" She turned to the rest of Keon's companions, and spoke to them. "Anything from any of you, or may I continue."

They nodded, and Melissa chimed in, "This is Keon's thing, we just all thought it would be fun and an adventure, so please continue and let's get on with it."

Mother smiled, and nodded. She thought for a moment, and continued, "So given that, every now and again, we like to reward those particularly drawn up with the idea, and Keon here started to permeate the fabric between these realities whilst he slept, in his dreams. I sensed this, and yes I actually did, that's how rare that is, and realized it for what it was. So I nurtured it, allowing him slowly deeper into this world he thought he created, a place called Tariek, in a universe much like your own. I figured it was time to allow another small group of friends to go on a true adventure. So we searched his mind and chose from there. It took almost a year to set this up how we wanted to." She smiled at them all, and turned to the large dark mass with the colored dots on it. "But now you are all here, so about time I should introduce you to where you are going."

She touched a gold dot in the upper part of the black mass, and the image changed, and suddenly there was a more reasonable star map, with many silver stars. About sixteen planets in the large map were shown, in different colors. She touched one of them, and the view changed again, and now they were looking at a full globe view of a planet. It was large, and seemed to have to many large land masses. Mother smiled and motioned. "This is Tariek, the magical world that you see Keon. Its real, and this is your chance. I'm not going to get to much into the actual planet very much, because it will not make sense to your logical friend there. But here's the basic story of how it came to exist."

Mother turned to look at them all, and after a deep breath, proceeded to tell the story. "So a long while ago, several thousand years ago actually, we were experimenting a bit, trying to create a new world. But something went terribly wrong, and instead we got this." The image changed, and now it was a sphere of magma, with tendrils of fire, almost like rivers, leading to a small core of pure deep red fire. Keon's jaw dropped a bit, and he looked at her. She nodded. "We'd managed to tear a rift into the plane of fire. Whilst not an issue really, since nothing bad would really come of it, but it was still a little annoying. But it led to a thought. An endeavor, and idea that Earth was supposed to be. Your world was supposed to be about three times it's size, and yet still have the same length of day and night." She smiled as she gestured, and the five friends saw that the magma sphere actually had a rather decently paced current. Mother continued and the image changed. "The rotation necessary for Earth to do that if we'd created it that big would have been impossible. But here, well here was a possibility. For this world could rotate on its axis, if they provided some proper powerful magic, but could also have the solid earth part of it rotating faster than the center, simply by having the planet rotating the same direction of the magma's current. So that's what we did."

She motioned again and chuckled. "It took some doing, but eventually plant life took hold, and so did animal and humanoid life. It helped that we also were able to provide a sun that is almost double the size of the star you lot on Earth call a sun, and a moon about double the size as well. Surprisingly, using the powerful magic, and by having the sun and moon rotate at a very predetermined pace in the opposite direction of Tariek's rotation, we actually managed to still get the day and night cycle close to Earth's. In the unit of time that you have come to know on Earth is the same as is used on Tariek, but on Tariek there are twenty six hours in a day. This is not because they have shorter weeks, or different units of time. It's simply due to the fact that their daily cycle actually just takes two more hours to complete itself." Mother chuckled, as she looked at Ted's face, and spoke, "But I think that's more than enough of that, for like I said, it seems to really be getting to your friend there."

Keon looked at Ted, as did the others as well. His facial expression was a priceless one of confusion, disbelief, and blatant denial as he just stared at it all. "That shouldn't work, at all. Basic physics of the universe dictate that should not work." he said.

Keon just laughed and looked at Mother, "Please let's get on with it, if you'd be so kind. We're all itching to go, and I really don't want Ted to be over thinking this on us."

She nodded, and reached into her robe, pulling out five rings. "Now before I send you all off, there are a few more things I should mention. You will not remember each other's names from Earth, nor will you remember anything else to do with science," she said looking at Ted, "or most other things from Earth. You'll remember what each other's souls look like, and in the case of Ted and Ben, you'll remember you're related. Keon will remember that Katie is the love of his life and vice versa. Keon and Melissa will remember that they are cousins. You will all remember you are all friends. But that's it, nothing more, not even names. Now these rings," she said, holding them up, "will actually be attached to your souls. You will be able to see each others. It is how you will identify each other." She handed each of them one, very specifically.

Ted's was a copper colored band, with a small stone, an odd one. It was half clear, like a diamond, but the other half an ebony black, like a jet. He slid it on, and felt it link to him. He showed all four of his friends, and let them commit it to memory. He also took in the rest of them, commiting them to his memory. Melissa's was a sapphire blue band, with a diamond set in it. Katie's was a ruby red band with a diamond set in it. Keon and Ben both had jet's set in theirs, but Ben's was a silver colored band, whereas Keon's was an emerald green. They all looked at each other, and Melissa looked at Keon. "You remember your promise?"

He nodded, and knowing what she wanted, spoke it again. She smiled in thanks, and hugged her cousin. Katie smiled, and put her arm around her lover. They shared one last long kiss, and then looked at their friends. Keon spoke. "Are we ready?"

Ben chuckled. "Let's get on with it already, I came here for an adventure, and an adventure I'll have." Ted and Melissa voiced their agreement, and Keon turned to the seven people in the chairs.
He looked Mother in the eyes. "We're ready."

Mother smiled, and nodded. "Prepare yourselves, for things will get a little bumpy for a few moments." The seven deities, for all five friends now understood that was exactly what they were, closed their eyes and started chanting in a tongue none of them understood.

After a few moments, they all felt a somewhat ferocious tug, and suddenly everything was spinning. They were all pulled in separate directions, and through various images and visions, of warriors slaying dragons, great thieves carrying out the most impressive of thefts, mages of power creating strange structures, and everything in between. Suddenly, for all of them, it all went black, as they suddenly slammed to a stop. They each had a part to play, and they'd all awaken at different times, for their chosen bodies were of different races, with very different life spans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Watching over it all, having it planned out properly was Mother. She already had planned out the perfect timing and perfect places for all of them to be born and raised. She calmly set about to weaving the beginnings of the longest lived one's story. She calmly weaved the strings of fate and life as if a seamstress making a sweater, creating the humble beginnings for the first of the five. All she ever did was create the beginnings, the when and where of how a new life came to be, in the massive complex webbing of strings of light and energy that represented all life on Tariek. The rest was up to the people in that reality, that life, and to the person whom she'd given life to. So she calmly selected the first strand, the soul out of the five companions whom she'd marked as the aid, the healer. Melissa, for she seemed to have the proper almost childish curiousity, mixed with the ample full life maturity of the elves of Tariek. Given that essence of her soul, Mother decided an elf's life would suit her well. She had the continent in mind, and isolated all the woven strands of fate for life there, and then from that point, isolated it down to one territory. A small territory to the north eastern end of the continent Valerik. The holding of Raechin. It was a tough frontier style territory, very much an appropriate birthplace for a grand tale of five adventurous companions.

She smiled, quite pleased with herself. With a few the events were created that would start the first of five childhoods and lives. A few simple weaves, to create the beginnings of what could very well become a complex and twisted tapestry of friendship and adventure. She smiled at the analogy, for truly it was always how such things began, wasn't it. A weave her, a weave there, and then the thread of life would take a life of its own, weaving the most complex and interesting story, as the life it was connected to matured and started carving its own choices, whatever they might be. Truly, it was a sight of true beauty, and one that even over the course of tens of thousands of years, and countless trillions and trillions of lives created, still always filled her with excitement. For you never knew what would come of it, and could only watch, in amazement, fear, love and sorrow, to see what the little spark you made would become. Truly it was the part of her duty and domain that Mother enjoyed the most.