Project Twilight 000

Project Twilight

Prologue
    "It will be very hard. It may not even work at all. But that isn't the real problem. What you need to understand is that the process is irreversible. Once I'm done there is no turning back. Ever." Xalia said.
    The man in front of her had not moved a muscle in his face listening to her, the only thing betraying any kind of emotion was the burning in his eyes. This was someone that had only hope left, hope and self-control. "If you do not help us Mrs. Ranva, there will be nothing left of my world."
    "Well it is not as if your planet will be cracked and dissolved into the high ocean." Xalia said, she leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose. "Your world is changing, it is becoming something else, something different. That's just the way of the universe. Things change. It can be unpleasant I understand that but..."
    "No, you don't understand." the man interrupted her some of the fire from his eyes escaping into his voice.     "This is not a natural change, this is not a natural development, no matter what the others may say. It is the death of our world... We will be 'improved', streamlined and adjusted until we are just one of many. What made our world Sralan will be gone." he paused, slowing his breathing putting the fire back to where it belonged. "Why are you so opposed to my offer. Aren't we offering you enough.", for a moment the fire was about to escape again.
    "No, that's not it. You offer" she could not stop herself from glancing at the piece of paper lying in front of her containing nothing but a preposterous number, "it's just that people usually pay me to bring things back. You on the other hand want me to make a whole planet disappear."
    "You have the authority over glories past, you can bring them back so that we in the present can see what great things came before us, all I ask you is to take the greatness of my home..." he paused looking for the right words to say, "...and enshrine it in the past."
    Xalia was desperately trying to find the right argument to convince the man in front of her that he should choose another way. She looked back down to the piece of paper who whispered to her of a future free of anxiety. She turned the paper around, hiding away the temptation.
    "If I am able to do what you ask of me, and again I have to repeat myself, I have no idea if I can actually do that, the glory of your world will be no more. It's golden age will have passed and I'm convinced, that if I do what you want me to do, there won't be a new golden age, ever again. Yes, if you do nothing, your world may fade away but it will have the chance to be reborn. Come back to me in a few centuries and I can help you find what you need and I can tell you where to find the authority over glory resurgent, an incredible arsehole but he will help you and your people to regain what they have once lost."
    The flames in the eyes of the man flickered becoming embers. "In a few centuries I will be no more than dust drifting through the high ocean. With me and all those who live today gone the memory of Sralan will be gone." he looked her in the eyes, somehow the fading glow was harder to endure than the fire, so Xalia looked away out of the window up into the ocean above, infinite and blue. "If you refuse", he continued, "my world will die and out of its corpse one day something new may emerge. But that will be another world. It's line to the past broken, the ones carrying its greatness in their hearts long gone..." just an afterglow was now left, the man had lost most of his strength and sank back down into his chair, his gaze directed at the floor, "I..." he started but could not think of anything else to say.
    They sat there in silence for a long time. "No matter what I do," Xalia said, "I am going to regret it". The man lifted his head and looked at her, his expression dead. Xalia took the piece of paper and folded it, three, four times so that the number was well hidden within. She pushed it back to the man, a gesture which took almost all of what was left of him away. "I won't do it for this. I do believe that, for you, your world is dying, so I will travel to Sralan, to have a look at your home. I will listen to you and your people, listen of Sralan's stories of greatness, I will witness them so that I can inscribe them into the fabric of the universe, so that all who come will know of its glories past."
   
    In his eyes the embers came alive again. "Thank you..." again words failed him.
   
    "Wait with that until I have finished the job." she said, "and I will need to get paid."