Re: Chapter 2: Portal
Yes some people call me that. By your amazing leap of intuition I can only guess that you must be Tobias, and the brooding man beside you must be Frank? Mr. Monday speaks with a slight southern drawl, and his speech seethes with sarcasm.
But I'm afraid I have you at a disadvantage; whereas I've known of y’all since before your pa was a gleam in his pa's eye, you likely do not know as much of me. My true name is meaningless in your fledgling language, so you may continue to call me Mr. Monday. I assume by now you've figured out that there are many versions of t’universe; the one where I reside is not very much unlike your own. In fact, a thousand years ago the two would be almost indistinguishable, except for a few small details. One day, as often happens in affairs of men, war broke out. But unlike any war before, this one used terrible and devastating weapons; by the end, most of the world was a wasteland.
But humanity prevails. By five-hundred years after the end of the great war, a makeshift medieval society had rebuilt itself among the ruins of the ancient cities. Eschewing the old technology, blaming it for causing mankind's blood lust, this newer society flourished under a rule of well-respected kings and a lineage of honorable knights. The knights, however, weren’t strong enough to prevent society's second downfall.
A revolution, led by a man named John Farson, was started in the name of democracy , though its purpose was actually more sinister than that. Farson resurrected the old technologies and used them to obliterate the king and his knights. He set up a false presidency and ruled New Gilead, as he called it, with an iron fist. Farson never fully formed a working society, but no one else ever successfully overthrew him, either. Society slowly dissolved and devolved into the state you see it today, ruled by bandits and warlords, with no larger structure to speak of.
We are in what's left of the former capital of New Gilead, and I've been running to run this little portion of it. Any semblance of government has been absent for generations, so I figured that the Black House would be a nice enough place to stay while I'm stuck here.
I'm sure you're wondering what I wanted with the children, right? While Farson may long be gone from this world, his true purpose, that which was given him as leader of the Cult of the Red, is to destroy the confines of the Crimson King, held captive by magics so ancient even the scholars of the Old Ones had long forgotten them, thus releasing him to his proper place as ruler of all worlds.
The key is, though, that his confines cannot be destroyed by ancient technology or more ancient magics. Even though his bonds crumble, they must be broken by the primordial energies that created them, and in fact, created the universe as well. Only certain people have access to these powers, which manifest during childhood. But if these powers are not developed, they are lost forever by adolescence. My task is to gather up these children from all the worlds, and train them to be the very destructive force they were destined to be. And this is the task which you have interrupted.