Pilgrimage

When the boundaries of space and time were first opened up, the old world believers were the first to go. Into their vast ships they packed their entombed saints, encased in stone, their treasures and scrolls and relics of the past. The body, the people... the very life-blood of the church, flowed out and into these steel vessels by the thousands.

They called it a pilgrimage. The great migration. They had no destination. The voyage was to be led by faith through the valley, until fate landed the holy caravan on their new earth upon some far shore. Each new days' coordinates were delegated by the interpretation of dreams by their holiest men.

Of all bodies of faith in all the earth, this was the longest standing and largest in number, but long had it been since they had any investment in it. For generations they lived without any thought of this world. Their hearts and minds dwelt only on some other life. They claimed this world was meant to die. That there was no saving it. That it was not worth the mourning.

And so their day had finally come, after a century of planning the exodus was set. With a final call for the unsaved peoples of earth to repent to a god they had long forgotten, the towering arks vanished one after another after another.

And the lost peoples of earth were left to bring into salvation the broken pieces of their dying planet as best they could.

Aeron Chases the Sun

Aeron was born into a very old tribe. Long ago, his ancestors constructed great towers like cliffs to live within, where they were protected from the elements and able to live in comfort and leisure. Over time they became used to the darkness of their caves, and favored it. Even the beams of the sun could not penetrate the towers' shadows. Each morning before sun-up they slept, and for many hours. They did not wake until the sun had dipped beneath the horizon once again. At night they moved about by dim, fabricated light, and dreamt in the half-light that they would live forever.

Now Aeron was no longer a boy, and not yet a man, when there arose a restlessness within him that kept him from sleep. He left his cave, looked up and saw the tips of the towers bathed in early morning light. Determined to look upon its source, Aeron ran to meet the Sun outside the city where it rose. From up on a ridge he saw the world bathed in gold for the first time. He stood before the brilliance of the Sun, and it was painful to him. The rays of light pierced him like a thousand arrows and he had no choice but to retreat down into the valley of his people.

Aeron hid amongst the silent towers, nursing his wounds and thinking only of what he had seen. While the city slept, the Sun crept overhead, its power increasing throughout the day. Only with nightfall fast approaching was his courage regained. Again he ventured forth silently, as a hunter tracks his prey. This time he found the half-sun sinking, it's light quickly fading from the sky. As he stared he saw himself in the Sun, and felt that he too, was slowly sinking beneath the earth. With this feeling came such sorrow that he could not bear to watch any longer. Aeron turned, and in turning, saw for the first time his Spirit, spread out on the ground before him. He ran and his spirit ran ahead, with a stride that always reached just farther than his own. It led him back to the city that evening, and from then on he felt it, even at night, stretched out in front of him, leading him on, yearning for the life which comes with every passing moment.

But from the moment the light pierced him, Aeron was forever changed, for the setting Sun had displayed to him his fate. He remained in the town the rest of his days, telling all who would listen of the Sun and its arrows, of the Spirit that it awakens and the death that it brings.