Categories > Books > Wheel of Time > The Neverending War

Prologue

by Minodrin 0 reviews

A story set in our age, the first age, in an alternate near-future where the USSR still stands, where the Dark One has just awoken and the one power has just been released, the first war of power i...

Category: Wheel of Time - Rating: PG-13 - Genres: Sci-fi - Characters: Other - Warnings: [?] [V] - Published: 2005-06-27 - Updated: 2005-06-27 - 1281 words

0Unrated
Disclaimer:
The phrases "The Wheel of Time" and "The Dragon Reborn" and the snake symbol are copyrighter to Robert Jordan. As this story is set two ages before the events in the books (as the original prologue is in the second age, my prologue is set in the seventh), and no characters from this story (except the Dark One) are in any way connected to the characters in the books, save trough rebirth.
Please write some reviews to give me more reasons to keep writing.

Prologue

It was the end of the age. For years there had been fought the ultimate war. Might channelers had leveled mountains, raised continents and burned planets. The space fleets had sent moons crashing down on the planets they circled. Planet by planet had fallen to the shadow, sometimes by destruction, sometimes by war, but very often by surrender or defection. Might battles had been fought here and there, but the main battleground had always been the homeworld, center of operations for both the Light and Shadow. But right now the capital city of Daarm had fallen, the last major stronghold of the light on the planet.

Xiwan Narthin stood in the great dome at the lunar facility, looking down at the planet below. The prophecy said that he would have to bleed at the cliff of death for the world to survive, but during the ten years of war with the shadow, he had never managed to draw strength to face the dark one himself.

Right then, a booming voice called out to him "Dragon, I win again. As you are looking down at your planet from safety, my chosen have already taken over it fully. The fight for your cause is lost, but you may still live. Bow to me, and live forever, or die death eternal. Dragon, I win again." The voice called out. Everyone else in the facility also seemed to have heard, and started looking at Xiwan.

Xiwan noticed the hopeful looks of the several people in the dome. His eyes moved between them and the planet above. The planet was the same as ever, but it seemed as a dark shadow, not made by nature, had been cast over it. His eyes also went to the small statue, ancient and with it's name long forgotten in the mists of time. There was an identical copy of it down at planet too, a huge sa-angreal. Both were made in an age long past, for a reason forgotten ages ago. There was a female statue too, but its smaller copy had been lost and forgotten.

Xiwan's wife put her hand on his shoulder from behind, and as he turned around, she said out "We cannot win anymore, now we must reconcile with the dark. Make peace." she said in her calm voice. She was always calm, even when the screens at the lunar facility showed the city of Daarm burning in flames, with the dead filling the streets, blocking any way for the survivors to run from the flames. Always calm.

His eyes moved between the small statue and his wife, he could not choose. It might have taken hours or minutes, he did not know, but finally his eyes settled on the statue. It had never been used during the war; it was too powerful for anyone to use, yet too weak to fight the dark one.

Xiwan shouted out "Shai'tan! I swore when we first fought, and have always sworn, that I will destroy the world before I let you have it. I am sure of it". Where had that memory come from? Did it matter? There was only one way out anymore.

As he started moving towards the statue, terrified faces came from the crowd that had gathered around in the dome. Some tried to stop him, and were fought back by Xiwan and the power. Others wept in despair, but most of them just looked, thinking that it could not be true.

It only took a few seconds to walk to the statue, yet it felt as the longest walk in his life. His last too, Xiwan though dryly. But there was no choice for him. There never was, he thought. But still, as soon as he reached the statue, he took all the might if Saidin that he could.

Those of the crowd that were male and could channel were almost blinded by the brightness. The women didn't feel anything of course, but they knew, and they were terrified. Down at the planet too, the forsaken, dreadlords and the male channelers saw the light of Saidin from the moon.

Xiwan of course knew none of this. He fought Saidin, and fought himself. He made a hole in the pattern, something he didn't know how to do, yet from somewhere came the knowledge to do so. In all his life he had learned some things that no one had known, lost talents, lost languages, and pain. It had helped him become the foremost channeler in the world. He had leaded the fight against the shadow, never losing a battle. Yet even he could not turn the tide of war alone.

All the power he got he moved into the center of the universe. There was a huge hole there. It could not be seen of course, the gravity of it was too powerful for even light to flee. And he gave it strength, all the strength that he could manage, and more. It shouldn't be possible to overchannel by using an angreal or sa-angreal, yet that was what he did. And then it snapped.

He did not pass out however. He had overchanneled, he knew that. In a myth it had been possible to heal someone who was cut out from the one power. Of course, that myth had been a myth already in the what was know now as the age of legends, the sixth age, now it with was forgotten for all, all but him. But it did not really matter anymore.

Xiwan looked up to see his wife crying on the floor. He was about to say how sorry he was, when suddenly he saw something terrible. The gravity-systems of the station seemed to be failing, or not. The entire crowd had fallen on one of the walls as the pull to that direction got stronger and stronger, as the black hole got stronger and stronger. Only he had managed to grab hold on one of the chairs on the floor. Even though he didn't give power to it anymore, it was already sucking on the one power to grow stronger on itself. It's increased gravitational pull, aided by the one-power, was felt almost instantly across the universe. In only 20 seconds or so the bolts holding the chair up could not hold the strain anymore, and before he died as the chair he was holding on too smashed into the wall he screamed out in his mind at the Dark One "Dark One, I win again". And as such, the planet below, all the planets, all the suns, the moons and everything in this and every alternate weave had been destroyed in less than a minute.

And so the last age, the seventh age ended, with everything the wheel had weaved gone, and the force forming a great prison to keep the dark one locked away forever. But the wheel still existed, and the second everything had vanished, it had already begun to weave a new age. The dark hole didn't last long, and blew up to free all the matter and energy stored in it, building blocks for the new age, the first age.
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