People mumbled. People wept. People stood up and walked, they had nowhere to go. But they just walked.

Confusion was the theme now. But unmistakably, they all knew one thing for sure: They were somewhere else. For what was left of their city, was in the middle of a great island stretching as far as the eye can see. The mountains that surrounded the Atlantean Capital were now no more, and the ocean near the citadel welcomed them into this eery new plane, for the odd-colored waters shimmered as ten strange dolphin-like creatures leaped out of the water into the air, chirped and fell back in.

These are the Water Sprites, for a million years they've lived alone in this realm. Now they had company. And they celebrated.

Aleskander walked towards Catopsilia. "I heard what you said." He smiled.
She raised one eyebrow at him, as if saying: "I told you so."
Aleskander: "I'm sorry for what I said to you, I shouldn't have treated you that way. Yet my pride took the best of me. But now I'm happy that I've decided to take this path with you... After all, better to have loved than not to have loved at all, believe thy not?"
She laughed.

"So how did it feel like? To wield all that power?" Elonas asked as he approached the two youth.
"I felt like a...." Catopsilia spoke.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"...Woman in total control." She smiled.
"And so you shall need a man to stand by you and share that control." Elonas said and smiled at Aleskander.
"You've passed the test, my young one." Elonas smiled at her then walked past the crowd.

There was a fierce wind in the air. And as if called from a long long sleep a shimmering red object flew across the air, darted towards Elonas then came to a full abrupt stop above his outstretched palm.

The object was a shimmering red symbol, the bottom half was pointy and the upper half had two humps. The people looked on at this strange object. "This is the Key of the realm of Water. For years uncountable it waited for a master to keep it. That is now you. This symbol will now forever represent the bond of people, unity and love. The hearts of people uniting into One." Elonas preached.

Elonas took out a blue gemstone from his belt sack and clasped his other hand with it. The Symbol of Hearts disappeared into the gemstone. He also took out a small tiara and latched the gemstone into its center. He gave it to Catopsilia and she wore it.

Elonas elevated into the air. "Now hear me all!"
"From today forth, you shall be ruled by a Queen and a King." Elonas explained.
The people muttered.
"No, you shall not be lead to ruin. As you all know, an army of Sheep led by a Lion is stronger than an army of Lions led by a Sheep."
The people agreed: "Yea! You want a woman and a page to rule us?"
"Baseless argument. For men and women are not young or old by age, but by wisdom. And this woman and page are wiser than all of you combined."

Everyone was quiet.

Elonas continued: "You see, just as the generation of Queen and King is passed by the laws of Monarchy. So are they themselves ruled by the Voice of every man and woman in Atlantis. The voices are casts of Vote for any decision the Royals make. This is the Perfect system of Law and Order where none shall be wronged, and everyone's concern shall be heard."

The people mumbled. They nodded and seemed to agree.

"Now each and every one of you shall swear an oath of allegiance to your leaders, the Queen and King who shall never claim Godhood or Superiority over any one of you."
The crowd started walking towards the soon to be King and Queen. They needed leaders, and they've found them.

It was night time before every single adult man and woman had sworn allegiance. Catopsilia walked into what's left of the throne room. Elonas sat on it. He raised his eyes at her and realized that she seemed to have a hard time letting go of the scepter.

"You can put it down you know. None may wield it except you. You see, I've been testing you as you grew up. You may be young, but you've passed the twenty two levels of ascension that even the greatest of kings have had a hard time doing. Now that Token is locked with you. And may only be challenged by another who has ascended. But with the Key of Hearts safely locking the Gates between the other three Realms, you will be safe."

Catopsilia sat next to him. "Elonas. You've never told me. What are you? I never knew you had powers, all those years I've known you. Where'd you come from?"

Elonas stood. "That is not for you to know. Maybe someday you will, my little one. But not soon. "
She frowned but nodded. "I understand, master."
Elonas laughed. "No titles, that's when superiority starts."
Catopsilia clasped her mouth with her hand. "Oops.."
He stared walking away. "I've already taken liberty in assigning court occupations for people. You now have teachers to teach, librarians to scour the knowledge that the kings have had stored in their Chamber of Secrets, engineers and architects to build your new city and law makers to propose laws for you to pass.
Catopsilia smiled. "Thank you, Elonas. How can I ever repay you for all that you've done to our world?"

Elonas paused. He looked down to the ground. Then turned towards Catopsilia.
He seemed to have lost himself. "I... I've never had anyone appreciate my... work... That. Is enough payment."
He walked away. "Goodbye, Queen of Hearts."

She stood up "Wait! Elonas! Will you ever return??"
Elonas looked up at the large crack in the ceiling that peered into the sky.
"When the water-bearer makes a full circle around the cosmos and returns to that point in the sky. So I shall return... But that will be the end of the Age of Enlightment." He said sadly.
He walked away.
Catopsilia stared.

"A conscience. That's what you're missing." A female voice said behind him.

Elonas was quiet.

"Not having much of my powers, I had to take a ship across the Atlantic and halfway across the world to come here. I asked for directions and they took me where it was supposed to be and guess what. It's no more. Everyone on earth apparently felt the earthquakes and thunder and the purple sky and all. Seemed really interesting. Everybody was talking about the tidal wave that hit the city and sank it into the ocean. However, right before that I saw a whirlpool symbol in the sky. That's funny. Last I heard, that was the Word in our Devic language that opens Gates across realms. You took your fellow Atlanteans for a cross-dimensional trip? So much for not interfering with man's business?"

Elonas stood up and turned towards the woman. She stood tall and beautiful, she had puffy black hair and pitch black eyes. It would've been hard to convince people they were brother and sister.

He sighed. "My dear, your trip was a waste."

"Hey. Last I know. I was DRAGGED into this trip called EARTH because of a nagging brother who had this BRILLIANT idea of pleasing God by teaching humans the arts of MAGIC. Remember? Four thousand years ago? No. THAT trip was a waste!" She shouted.

When he didn't answer, she continued. "What was that great plan of yours? You said man will worship God MORE if they were taught how to invoke spirits and divine letters?"

Elonas was still silent. He had nothing to say.

"But WHAT happened. The exact OPPOSITE. And "I" had to be punished WITH you because I followed YOU, STUPIDLY. I followed you..." Tetra paused.

"Because I loved you, the only person who would listen to me." She finished then sighed.
Elonas smiled and put his hand on her shoulder. "All of the questions you've just asked, you've answered them all yourself."
"So you haven't had enough? How many cultures must you ruin before you realize no man can understand. Every man greeds. It's in men's hearts, it's in men's genetics. You can't change that." She lamented.

"That's where you're wrong. With this final test. I may prove it. And if I succeed, God will redeem us both. I know it." He insisted.
Tetra raised her hand towards her brother's forehead and shut her eyes.
He shut his eyes obediently and waited as Tetra played back the last 2 days in Elonas' mind.
She shook her head and smiled. "You'll never learn. Now you decided that they shouldn't believe in God to..."
"No, " he interrupted her. "I never told them not to believe in God. I told them not to believe in The Gods."
She listened on then nodded sarcastically. "And their Atheism will create a perfect society? How is God going to redeem you then?!"
He sighed. "You won't understand, Tetra. You won't understand."
She shook her head... Yet, she sighed. "Ok, whatever. At least you went alone this time because I wouldn't have helped you."
Elonas nodded. "I wouldn't have let you."

Tetra: "In any case, that's not the real reason why I was looking for you. I've seen something in the future."
He shrugged "So?"
"Just Listen. I've had a vision of a canvas of four skies. Each sky had three bright stars on top like a crown, ten less bright stars arranged like a line under the three and one last star, bright like the first three, sitting at the bottom. One sky was in the whiteness of the cloudy daytime, a second was in the blackness of the night, a third was in the blueness of the clear daytime and a fourth was in the red of the sunset. The twelve crown stars then changed into the signs of the zodiac. Which as you know, are derived from the twenty two letters that make up the Name of God."

Elonas looked at her with one eyebrow raised: "Are you forgetting who I am? Of course I know what the letters are."

She rolled her eyes. "Work with me, what does it mean??"

Elonas thought. "That doesn't make sense. The four colors do not represent the four planes of proximate existence. Red and Black do, however, represent the Reality and Dream states. White - Black - Blue - Red.. Hmm.. Air, Earth, Water, Fire, perhaps."
She nodded. "There must be a reason why it was arranged this way. But I have interpreted it so: The three stars in each sky represent three royals in each kingdom. King, Queen and Jack."
He thought.
She continued. "Now. Twelve can also mean twelve artifacts. Twelve tokens. Each of these tokens has some kind of connection with the Divine, represented by the endlessness of space and the Zodiac. "

"I see what you're getting at. We need to account for all of the divine tokens. If your prophecy is true, there will be twelve. Most probably sixteen, with the other four being the Ace - or Knight - of each Kingdom; a member of the royal court, but not really a part of it. He or she will be on the other side of the kingdom, at the head of the Army."

She shut her eyes: "Ten."

"Ten...?" He asked.

Tetra shut her eyes as she became arcanely inspired: "Ten elemental army chiefs. The Archchiefs. Ten from each kingdom that will lead the army against the other kingdoms... The ultimate war."

Elonas thought again then nodded as he realized the graveness of their dialogue. "As for the tokens. The Queen of Hearts Token is safe with Catopsilia. The King and Queen of Spades... Well, we know all about that. The Jack of Spades token is in Asgard, which is next on my list of duties. Others I don't know of but we'll need to keep track of them with time and as new ones become introduced into the world and make sure they fall in safe hands, or no hands at all. "

A shiver ran down Tetra's spine: "Why do I feel that... These Tokens..."
Elonas turned around: "These tokens WHAT?"
Tetra looked up at Elonas with fear in her eyes: "...Will end the world?"
Elonas turned back and sighed: "The divine is powerful. I can see the humans racing to collect them in order to rule the world, even the Universe."

He started to walk away.

"So you part from me again?" She asked.

"I've dragged you into one mess. I promised never to drag you to another ever again. But I have some work to do... I'm done with cultures, but now I have to clean up what I started in the land of the Norse."
"Why even bother? Let it go. Forget helping the damn humans and let them help themselves as they're supposed to."
"I have decided my course in life, so should you." He pointed a finger at her.

"Why do the Midgardians call you Rune?" She suddenly asked.
He put his hand down and turned his eyes away. "Odin the King of the Norse called me The Whisperer, in their language, it's Rune."
He looked at her then started walking away.
"What happened?" Tetra asked. He was afraid she'll ask.

He didn't reply. She tried to walk up to him to force the story out of his head, but he stopped her with one firm hand raised towards her. "Let's just say that I've done something that I need to fix, and quickly. I didn't know how much power and greed could drive people mad."

"Good job; oh fearless anarchist gambler poet brother." Tetra thought aloud. For a moment SHE seemed to be the older sibling.

She continued: "Well the next time you want to inspire a culture, maybe instead of making letters, you should make pictures. Each letter after all, tells a story." She said, matter-of-factly.

He continued walking. "Maybe next time we meet you would show me how that can be. I'm not an artist after all, just a curator."

"Goodbye Raziel." She said. He blinked; having heard a name that he had almost forgotten. Then left.

She stood there all alone and turned at the spot that he was staring at.

"Next time? Something tells me, that'll be a long time waiting..."

[THE END]