Human Again

By Tyler Edwards

Though humanity hails her as a hero, Leha is haunted by the ghosts of those who died because of her recklessness. The weight of her mistakes crushes down on her.

Things are about to get much worse. A great force is sweeping through the spectrum of worlds, blurring entire realities together, and it will send Leha face to face with the proof of her failures: a universe of worlds ruined by her gambles.

But the greatest torment will come not from the countless worlds where everything went wrong, but the one world where everything went right.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tyler Edwards
• Release date: Dec 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310377341

Tyler Edwards

A freelance writer by trade, Tyler Edwards has been creating worlds for as long as he can remember. He grew up in the country outside of Ottawa, Canada, and amidst the pristine woods and fields, it was easy to imagine Elves and Demons around every bend. After that, making the jump to fiction writing seemed natural. He will not consider himself a true success until people are writing nonsensical slash fics about his characters.

Book preview

Human Again

By Tyler F.M. Edwards

Copyright 2013 Tyler F.M. Edwards

Cover art by Tyler F.M. Edwards, with special thanks to Nathalie Kraemer

Smashwords Edition

License notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of contents:

Acknowledgements

About the author

Prologue: Atonement

Chapter one: Beyond Tyzu

Chapter two: Beyond Belief

Chapter three: Beyond Reason

Chapter four: Living Ghost

Chapter five: Family

Chapter six: The Reborn

Chapter seven: The Rulers of Pira

Chapter eight: The Last of the First

Chapter nine: Return to the Plain

Chapter ten: A Second Chance

Chapter eleven: The World Tree Burns

Epilogue: The Spectrum

Acknowledgements:

Once again, I’d like to thank my biggest fan, my Father, for his endless encouragement. I’d also like to extend thanks to Angela for her commentary, and to you, the reader, for supporting me along the difficult road of indie authorship.

About the author:

A freelance writer by trade, Tyler Edwards has been creating worlds for as long as he can remember. He grew up in the country outside of Ottawa, Canada, and amidst the pristine woods and fields, it was easy to imagine Elves and Demons around every bend. After that, making the jump to fiction writing seemed natural. He has spent the entire World Spectrum trilogy waiting for an opportunity to mention that the chief physical resemblance between Drogin and Leha is that they both have their father’s incredibly straight nose, but alas, the opportunity never appeared.

Visit Tyler’s blog at http://superiorrealities.wordpress.com/ for updates on the World Spectrum and his other projects and interests, and for an archive of World Spectrum bonus material – including cast photos, short stories, and more – visit http://worldspectrum.net/

Prologue: Atonement

On an alien world, atop a mechanical tree, a plan was coming to fruition.

It had been eons in the making. Hard, lonely, agonizing millennia for the one being who had made this scheme their sole remaining purpose. The first steps toward this goal had been taken long before the rise of humanity or the other petty races scattered across the endless spectrum of worlds. But now, at long last, things would be made right.

It was not justice. It was not even vengeance. It was merely an attempt to right an ancient wrong, to atone for the failures of the past. The spectrum would be wiped clean, and then the being would finally be able to rest.

The entity had made ready as best it could, and after so long, all was prepared on its end. But there had been a recent addition to the plan, something that the being had quickly come to view as essential to preventing the plan from going awry, and it was not yet within reach.

But soon, she would be.

Part one: Chaos

Five years after the rebirth of humanity,

Pira…

Chapter one: Beyond Tyzu

The regent-lady of Pira was a dour woman. She smiled to her servants, and no one could say she was ever anything but polite and friendly, but any warmth she displayed was only skin-deep.

What she did not show to her people, what she tried to keep hidden, was the cold, empty void that had existed in her heart since the end of the last war. She told no one of the nightmares that plagued her, of her midnight visits to the tomb of her predecessor, the martyred Prince Tyrom.

Her servants found out anyway, and though they loved her with all their hearts, she knew they feared for her mental state. Married to a dead man, they muttered when they thought she couldn’t hear.

She had long since given up on herself. She had suffered too much and lost too many people – it had a left a piece of her missing, a piece she did not think she would ever get back. She now lived only for Pira, for the noble people who had suffered so much without letting it break their pride, and who so reminded her of Tyrom. She loved them, and she would do anything to give them the life they deserved, but for herself, she felt only emptiness and sorrow.

But today was different. Today, Leha smiled.

Her round face, still looking so much younger than her thirty-five years of age, was radiant as she looked up into that rarest of treasures, a clear Piran sky, and considered the journey that lay ahead.

Once again, she was about to embark on a childhood dream: exploring a world that no living human had set foot on. But whereas her journeys to Sy’om and Tyzu had been panicked affairs amidst the genocide of her nation, now she was motivated by curiosity, by the joy of learning for learning’s sake.

A crowd filled the gardens of the palace in Pallenia, cheering and waving the black and silver banners of Pira. Porters loaded the last of the supplies into the great dark bulk of the Crawler, the machine that would take her beyond Tyzu to a world no human being had ever returned from. The gardens were bathed in the warmth of an early autumn sun that struggled valiantly to dry the dampness from the air, and the atmosphere buzzed with excitement.

Leha turned to the Crawler, where Drogin and Breena were overseeing the final checks of its mechanisms.

The Crawler – Drogin had given it some complex technical name, and the Pirans had wanted to name it after some grandiose figure from their past, but someone had started calling it a Crawler, and the name had stuck – was not just a machine that would take them beyond Tyzu. It was a symbol of a new age: the Technomantic Revolution.

Following the discovery of technomancy during the Redemption, the Arcanid war, the field had exploded, generating countless new technologies that were even now continuing to reshape the lives of humans on Barria and Tyzu alike. Married shortly after the war, Drogin and Breena had been at the head of this new field of discovery, Drogin’s technical knowledge and Breena’s talent at thinking outside the box proving the perfect combination. The Crawler was just the latest of their inventions.

At first glance, the Crawler seemed to share much with the Automatons that had killed so many, particularly the four-legged Quadramatons, but while it did borrow many technologies from the hated machines, there were also many differences. While armored to protect itself from whatever an alien world might throw at it, it was not an engine of war. This was evidenced by the broad windows around its cockpit. Its four feet were dexterous and ended in multiple digits, as opposed to massive and designed for crushing soldiers beneath them.

The main inspiration for its design was the Stassai, the double-jointed arboreal predators that often plagued the Lost Ones. Like a Stassa, its four nimble legs extended outward from its bulkier central body, and each of their three joints could bend in any direction. Its feet could sit flat or grasp like a human hand. It was designed to cope with any kind of terrain imaginable.

The air still shivered with the cheering of the Piran crowd, and Leha turned to wave a clawed hand, smiling warmly. As she did, her gaze fell upon the fourth member of her party.

The captain of the Regental Guard had wanted to send an entire battalion with her, but this was as much about spending time with her brother and his wife as it was about exploration, and a crowd of guards would have only gotten in the way. And so only one member of her bodyguard would accompany her.

Though he was one of the newest members of the Regental Guard, she felt more comfortable with Alistos than any of the others. He was a quiet, subtle man with eyes that missed nothing. She felt he understood her more than the other guards, though she wasn’t sure why. He had brown hair that was lighter than her own, and he was classically handsome in the way most young Piran men were.

As she watched, he bid farewell to his sweetheart, Nahsreen. Nahsreen was Reborn, a former slave of the Arcanids granted a second chance by the Engine of Life. She was beautiful, with glossy black hair and an open face. Only her violet eyes and a slight gray pallor hinted at her former life as a Grayskin, a barely human creature bred only to kill.

Leha did not know Nahsreen well, but she knew her to possess a kindness and a love for life that none outside the Reborn could equal, and judging by his expression of adoration, Alistos loved her deeply.

Leha reflected that she had caused this. She had given the Reborn their freedom, granting humanity a second chance to live in peace and allowing the birth of relationships like the one between Alistos and Nahsreen.

She tried to take some pleasure in her accomplishment, but all she felt was the same cold void that had been within her since the day Tyrom had died.

Her smile faltered.

We’re ready, her brother called from behind her.

Leha forced down her dark thoughts as Alistos gave Nahsreen one final kiss and prepared to board the Crawler.

Leha modified her voice to carry and addressed the crowd. Now, we will travel beyond the known worlds to a place no human has lived to see. We will learn all we can of this new world, and we will bring back that knowledge so that it can be used to the betterment of all humanity, as were the powers of Sy’om and Tyzu during the great wars.

The crowd’s cheering swelled, and Leha let their adoration wash over her like a wave. It didn’t exactly make her happy, but for a moment, she felt a bit less empty.

She turned away from the crowd and joined Alistos, Drogin, and Breena in climbing the ramp into the Crawler’s hold.

While its exterior bore a vague resemblance to an Automaton, the Crawler’s interior couldn’t be more different from the cold, ugly innards of the old war machines. With polished wooden floors and curving metal walls, it more closely resembled the gleaming First One outpost beneath Mount Yeldar whose crystals had given rise to the Technomantic Revolution. This would be the maiden voyage, and the air inside still smelled faintly of varnish and sawdust.

Leha and her companions moved through a large hold filled with more supplies than they were likely to need and climbed a metal stairway to the cockpit, a large and open room occupying the top and front of the great machine. Broad windows surrounded it on three sides, and the cheers of the Piran crowd could be distantly heard.

Normally, it was rare to see the Pirans display such joy, and rarer to see them take an interest in modern events like this. They only cared now because they knew what this journey meant to Leha.

She sighed, once again giving silent thanks for the Piran people.

The front of the cockpit was dominated by a large console studded with arcane levers and dials. A slot in its center held a flickering First One crystal. Drogin and Breena sat down in upholstered chairs behind the console; from there, they would pilot the machine.

In the rare Piran sun, Breena’s red hair blazed like fire, whereas Drogin’s sandy hair seemed almost blonde. He was going bald and had adopted a sloppy comb-over to cover it up. It looked ridiculous, but Leha didn’t have the courage to tell him – and apparently, never did his wife.

A third seat stood just behind theirs, before a complex, three-dimensional lattice of pure platinum. Leha sat there. Alistos took position on one of two rows of seats lining the walls behind the side windows, his face a mask of military professionalism.

Here we go, Drogin said, moving a lever to put the Crawler in motion. His grin mirrored the tingle of anticipation Leha felt.

Officially, the reason for this journey was to expand knowledge of the spectrum of worlds for the betterment of all humanity, but in truth, they were mostly just seeking knowledge for its own sake. Leha and Drogin had spent their childhoods dreaming of exploring alien worlds, and Breena enjoyed any opportunity to expand her knowledge of magic and the spectrum.

She and Drogin were well-suited to each other, Leha reflected.

She closed her eyes and let the Crawler’s gentle rocking motion sooth her. They arrived at a jumping point square, and for a moment, blinding emptiness assaulted her senses as her limbs filled with the blazing power of Tyzu.

She opened her eyes and was greeted by the familiar chaos of the Tyzuan jungle. Without thinking, she channeled Barrian energy to keep the Crawler steady. They were now only seconds away from reaching the jumping point that would catapult them beyond the known spectrum, and she leaned forward expectantly, heart hammering. Whether the new world was a wonder or a horror, it would be unlike anything anyone had seen before.

The Crawler settled to a stop. Butterflies flitted through her stomach.

This is it, Breena said. Be ready. The Clanswoman flipped a switch on her console, and they left Tyzu, and all that was familiar, behind.

Blinding light blazed in from the windows. Leha and her companions yelped in pain. She screwed her eyes shut, but even so, the light was almost unbearably bright. She could hear her companions cursing.

At the same time, sweltering heat – like the inside of an oven – assaulted her, and she felt her entire body surge with power unlike anything she had felt before. She felt strong enough to crush a house with her bare hands, but she also felt as if her body would spontaneously combust at any moment.

Pushing past the discomfort, she groped with her hands and latched onto the platinum lattice. One discovery of the Technomantic Revolution had been that platinum focused her powers in much the same way that silver could be used to channel traditional magic, and she bent her mind to creating a protective shell around the Crawler.

She started with a layer of Tyzuan power, then one of Barrian energy, and then one slowed down to Sy’om’s level. Within that, around the Crawler itself, she created a field of Barrian energy. Immediately, the intense heat and overwhelming energy faded.

The outer shell would drive any hostile natives away – nothing from this high in the spectrum would willingly withstand the energy of Barria or Sy’om. Theoretically.

The furious energy of the world struggled to flood her shell, but with the help of the platinum, she held it off easily.

The searing light faded, and Leha dared to open her eyes. Drogin had his hand over the First One crystal, and the windows blazed with azure fire, darkening the glass as her brother changed its composition. When the light reached an acceptable level, he halted his technomancy, clearing the windows and granting them their first glimpse of the world beyond Tyzu.

Leha caught her breath.

It was overcast on this world, but the sun was still visible, its light searing through the clouds to fill half the sky and tint the entire landscape a fiery orange. Energy flickered through the sky, seeming like something between lightning and the northern lights.

Vast flocks of creatures fluttered through the chaotic skies, deftly avoiding the fiery bolts of power flickering through the clouds. They moved so fast that they seemed a blur. As she watched, one flight soared low over the Crawler. She didn’t get a good look at them, but she could tell that no two were the same.

The Crawler shuddered in vicious wind gusts that likely have blown them away without her shell, and she turned her gaze to the ground.

Rolling green hills extended as far as she could see. Dense shrubbery, similar to that covering the forest floor on Tyzu but not so thick, covered the landscape. Surprisingly, there were few trees, and they were all small. She had expected mighty forests like those of Tyzu. A herd of creatures like furry turtles thundered past the Crawler at blinding speed, avoiding Leha’s invisible bubble.

Everyone in the cockpit gaped.

Drogin muttered, "It’s…

Incredible, Breena said.

Fantastic, Alistos added a beat later.

A blinding bolt of power speared down from the sky and exploded atop a nearby hillock, incinerating the plants there and setting off a small wildfire. Within seconds, the fire burned itself out, and new plants regrew, leaving no sign that anything had happened.

That it is, Leha said in hushed tones.

Her pulse sang, and for perhaps the first time since Tyrom had died, she felt alive.

Take us forward, she said. Let’s see what else is out there.

Drogin shook himself out of his reverie, and he and Breena began guiding the Crawler across the rolling landscape. Alistos produced a sketchpad and began drawing the alien world and its inhabitants. Like all Pirans, he practiced an art, but his was drama, so his sketches were not as good as they