Prologue

Seven of the Ones

Had lots of good fun

‘til they grew old and their minds tore asunder

Now the eighth One of all

Has broke through a wall

And strives to keep down all the others

(A Silavn Nursery Rhyme)

Prologue

(Being an excerpt from the Silavn Histories, written by Thalon)

In the beginning, there were the seven isles, and the civilizations with them. They were primitive, stone age perhaps, but this was not entirely true. The middle isle progressed beyond the intellectual capacities of the outer islands, (for there were six arranged in a ring, with the middle at its center), gaining machines that stretched imagination to its limit. With this knowledge, there came an immense generosity; the middle island, named Silavn, shared this knowledge, creating a unified archipelago. And so many years passed.

One spring day, a Silavn miner, called Ronichek, descended into a mining shaft he knew not was there. The walls opened out onto a strange, empty chamber. There, a powerful compulsion overcame Ronichek, and he collapsed into a deep sleep.

When he awoke, something about his consciousness was different, though he could fathom what at the time. Without thinking, he began picking at a seemingly unimportant section of the chamber wall. It was not long before his pickaxe hit something it could not penetrate. Picking slightly to the left, he discovered that he had hit a vein of quartz that stretched deep into the wall. Creating a large, deep hole into the wall, it was discovered that the quartz was not a vein, but rather a rough mass that Ronichek extracted. The quartz was completely transparent, and inside it Ronichek beheld seven jewels. Six of them were pyramidal in shape, one color for each of the rainbow. The seventh was barely visible; it was a diamond lens, slightly cloudier than the surrounding quartz. Ronichek’s deepest desire at that moment was to get those jewels out of the quartz.

Returning to the surface, he sought out the best blacksmith on the island. Paying an exorbitant sum, he bought out the blacksmith’s shop for a single week, enough time for him to free the gems in secret. Using the forge, he carefully melted down the quartz, enough to free the gems, but not enough to melt them. The six pyramid gems were made of six different crystals: sapphire, emerald, amethyst, orange topaz, ruby, and citrine.

Almost in a trance, Ronicheck used his knowledge of forging to mold the quartz into a perfect, triangular prism; however, its corners were not there, there were simply holes in the shapes of pyramids. Realizing what he needed to do, he placed the six gems on each of the prism’s corners. He then, without knowing why, placed the diamond lens in a small frame.

Immediately, Ronichek felt that he was not alone in the forge shop. He looked around wildly, but did not witness anyone there. Voices began talking in his head, identifying themselves as the seven gems that he had just awakened. They told him that they were the ones who directed him to do this and to awaken them; they could only speak ever so softly while they were asleep.

The Voices instructed him to build a lighthouse in the center of the island Silavn. Ronichek proclaimed his discovery to the people and entreated them to assist in the construction of the lighthouse. Even with much manpower, there was very little stone to construct it, so it took many years to acquire the stone needed to build it. When it was finally completed, Ronichek took the lens and the prism to the upper chamber which he had required to be built.

The Voices told him to shine a light through the lens and prism. Ronichek was in the act of setting the prism in the middle of the chamber and readying a lamp, but for a moment, he hesitated.

For a moment, he heard a different voice.

But then, the feeling vanished, and he lit the lamp.

The world changed.

The light split as it went through the prism, refracting, and an enormous rainbow flew off into the sky, having no end.

Then the rumbling began.

All seven isles could feel it, Ronichek the most. As he shook, he saw, like a window in the rainbow, land rising out from the Great Encompassing Sea. He was witnessing the rebirth of the two great continents, later to be called Klafon and Flakon.

Ronichek was astonished when he looked closer and saw that the rainbow was more than just light. It was crackling with power, and it seemed like colorful lightning made it up. He wondered what was doing it; he had no sooner thought this than the answer became obvious.

And so it was. The gems were creating the rainbow. He knew that sounded preposterous, but no more than the fact that stones could talk. They explained to him that the difference in the type of stone helped create this kaleidoscope. The six pyramids were made of ruby, sapphire, amethyst, citrine, orange topaz, and emerald, respectively. They commanded Ronichek to look back at the light. He did, and was astonished again to find that he could see the entire world in the light. He saw Flakon and Klafon on either side of the archipelago, connected by a thin isthmus, almost like an umbilical cord.

The window quivered, then shrank in size until it disappeared completely. A small opal fell out of the rainbow. Ronichek picked it up, and discovered that, if he concentrated, he could see anything he wished. He saw a large desert covered in sand dunes that were not rolling hills, but towers, just south of a northern peninsula on Flakon, as well as an island in the center of a lake on Klafon.

Somehow he could tell that these places would be important in the distant future.

Now, Ronichek had grown old in the many years it had taken to build the lighthouse. He knew he must soon pass into the next world, so in his final days, he took his son Afo upon his knee. Afo was the youngest and purest son of Ronichek, so he was entrusted with the care of the lighthouse and the gems. A few days later, Ronichek went to meet his goddess (Scholar’s note: the people of Silavn worshipped the goddess Iltha, who was the spirit of the earth. As such, dying and being buried is described by the euphemism “Meeting the goddess).

At Ronichek’s funeral, Afo announced that he had used the opal to see the new lands. He declared them ripe and ready to harvest, and declared that he wished to send colonists to settle the lands. The citizens of Silavn immediately began to gather wood and enlist followers from the surrounding islands. It took a full three years for the ships to be built. When at last, they were completed, Afo saw them off as they sailed to both Klafon and Flakon. He then returned to the lighthouse and constructed a living space for himself, as he was the Caretaker of the lighthouse.

One spring day, the gems once again called the Caretaker to the top chamber, which was forbidden to entry unless called. Day after day, Afo had made sure that the gems were undisturbed as they created the rainbow energy, for they had told him that they must continue to do so. They thanked him for his continued service, and gave him a gift. Afo no longer aged, nor could disease take him. But this gift came with terrible knowledge. The gems needed to create the rainbow energy because, if it ever stopped, the continents would sink into the sea a month after the energy was stopped. Afo offered to appoint guards, but the jewels refused. They would choose the protectors.

They instructed him to travel to each of the six other islands. Once there, they designated a single individual from each, whom they said was special in some way. Afo brought them to the Chamber, and each one laid a hand on a corner of the prism, on each of the gems. They were infused with power from each gem, becoming the Jeweled Guardians. They kept peace throughout the world, as the diamond lens gave its allegiance to Afo, giving him power over many things, including space. The Guardians, too, stopped aging, until they found someone worthy to be their Successor.

So it went, for many centuries.