Daybreak:Alpha Chapter

Chapter 1 - Playing with Fire

"You've been to Earth?"

Kaede's eyes were wide as saucers, as she stared unblinking at the Worldwalker amidst the barren, wintry forest.

"Third orbital of Sol? Indeed," Gwendolyn nodded. "The first realm I visited after I began traveling the worlds."

A nostalgic grin spread across her lips as she leaned back against an oak tree:

"I was rather depressed and wanted to leave everything behind. So I found this beautiful, forested island that rained aplenty to relax in. But it seems that once you're a queen, you stand out no matter where you go. I came to the attention of a local King and became his guest for around a decade. Had to leave before they grew suspicious though."

"Do you remember which Kingdom it was?" Kaede mused as she sat and munched on a bowl of lamb stew in hand, hoping she might pinpoint a link to Earth history.

"Cornwall, if I remember right."

"Cornwall!?"

If her memory served, Cornwall was the birthplace of the mythical King Arthur, and had been absorbed to form the throne of England centuries before the Norman Invasion. That made Gwendolyn's arrival on Earth well over a thousand years ago.

"That can't be right," Kaede stood up from her rocky seat and began to pace about. "You said you've only been 'Worldwalking' for a few centuries. Cornwall hasn't been a Kingdom on Earth for much longer than that!"

"Time, is a fickle spirit when you journey between worlds..."

Gwendolyn rubbed the familiar's head as the much-younger girl stopped within reach to pause and think.

"--I wouldn't overthink it, dear," she added with a peaceful smile. "After all, the universe must keep some secrets to itself."

The astrophysicists on Earth might scream heresy at that, Kaede thought.

"Then..." the familiar girl gulped down a breath of courage. "Would it be possible for you to take me back?"

"No."

Kaede felt like Gwendolyn had just punched her hopeful, not-maiden heart, proverbially speaking of course.

Shot down, so easily! Not even the slightest room for negotiation!

The Samaran familiar wasn't sure if and how she would say goodbye to the still-unconscious Pascal. But it was always better to know her options ahead of time.

"That really hurts, Grandma."

"Grandma? Now whose the hurtful one!?" Gwen was still smiling as she feigned outrage.

"You're over several centuries old!"

"--And my heart is still romantic and young!"

"...Plus you have great-great-great-grandchildren!"

The Worldwalker's meadow gaze did darken this time, sending a chill up Kaede's spine in an instant.

"Don't remind me, after how idiotic one of them turned out to be," Gwendolyn answered, her intoned pressure immediately put an end to the conversation.

A true queen would always remain a queen, no matter how many centuries passed by.

"But why can't you send me back to Earth?" Kaede returned to the original subject. "Is it because of the timeline fluctuation?"

Male body or not, if Kaede's only choice was an Earth in a different time period -- when her family and friends did not exist -- then Kaede would rather not return at all.

"The time issue isn't insurmountable, just... complicated," Gwendolyn brushed aside the topic as though it were an obnoxious book of legal code. "But the simple answer is that it's against the rules."

"The treatise between the Worldwalkers that you spoke of?"

"Yes," the elderly lady nodded. "Just like intervention in mortal affairs, cross pollination of individuals between worlds is strictly forbidden. We're allowed to spread ideas ourselves, but it stops at that -- an equal footing between us all."

"Then how do you explain my presence here?" Kaede spread her arms, one hand still holding onto her bowl. "Captain Markov -- he's a Samaran skywhale merchant -- once surmised that the immortals must have played a joke on me, since it's abnormal for a Samaran to be 'born' in a fully-grown body, luggage and all."

Gwendolyn brows furrowed:

"Well, I admit. Your case is... peculiar."

"Does that mean you also admit that a Worldwalker likely had a hand in me being here?" Kaede crossed her arms in challenge.

The former queen pursed her lips:

"There is a chance, yes. Perhaps even a strong likelihood..."

The Samaran girl was in awe. She had gambled on her previous statement without truly believing in it, using it mostly as bait. But now? The catch was so overwhelming that it pulled her back into the sea... or in this case, to sit back down on the large boulder and reorganize her explosion of thoughts.

Ever since Kaede heard the theory from Captain Markov, she had acknowledged celestial interference as a possibility, however remote. The arrival of Gwendolyn increased the chances as it not only proved the existence of the fabled Worldwalkers, but also showed that under the right circumstances, they did intercede upon mortal affairs.

But to consider that her arrival on Hyperion was not just Pascal's doing, but the intervention of divine forces as well. It would imply that a Worldwalker had seized Pascal's spell as an opportunity, perhaps even boosting it with the power to reach across worlds. But that would also mean that Kaede's summoning was no mere coincidence. She had been plucked by some fateful search criteria to become a pawn in the political chess between timeless beings.

"T-then...?"

"But where's the proof?" Gwendolyn stared back. "'Likely' is not sufficient cause for me to take action, certainly not in violation of a pact that maintains peace across our world."

The Samaran girl deflated at once.

If even a Worldwalker could not see any obvious evidence of misconduct, how was she -- a young girl without even any spellcasting ability of her own -- ever going to find it?

"It doesn't make any sense though," Kaede puzzled. "If the Worldwalkers banned cross-pollination of individuals and ideas, then doesn't that mean that the Samarans' very nature breaks the law?"

Gwendolyn shrugged as she made one of those 'it can't be helped' looks.

"The Samarans predate even the First Generation Worldwalkers. Obviously, since several of them are Samaran. But their circumstances... let's just say there are loopholes that even immortal archmages have trouble closing. Of course, many of us never cared, since the Samarans are also the ones least interested in pushing their ideas around."

Kaede tilted her head in curiosity, and Gwen simply added:

"It's almost a racial behavior for them. You included."

With her thoughts turned inwards, Kaede had to agree. She had introduced many ideas to Pascal as potential 'solutions' to problems he faced. But very rarely did she push any ideologies upon him, nor did she hold any great desire to. One could even argue that she had always been this way, possibly as a byproduct of her cross-cultural education and heritage.

But are Samaran mostly like this?

It only raised more questions that Kaede would like to ask Captain Markov the next time he brought King Alistair.

"But in either case, you can't send me back to where I came from?"

"No," Gwendolyn declared. "Not even when I have a pretty good idea of who might be responsible. I wasn't a Worldwalker... actually, I wasn't even alive yet when she made her famous intervention, but if you read between the lines of history, her footprint in the sands of time is clear and apparent."

Kaede blinked. She wasn't an expert on Hyperion history, yet. Though there were certainly events on Earth that simply could not be explained. Like how an uneducated, peasant girl from a backwater village could inspire an entire nation from the brink of defeat, becoming not just a charismatic messiah but -- by all records -- hold unprecedented knowledge of hostile strategic dispositions that brought one miraculous battlefield victory after another.

Rare anomalies like Jeanne d'Arc defied all rational logic, yet somehow they would appear at the precise moment to alter the course of the world.

"A name would be helpful," Kaede spoke as enthusiasm sparkled in her rose-quartz eyes.

"Sure," Gwendolyn grinned. Clearly this did not violate any code of 'immortal conduct'. "But keep in mind that names are as fickle as the wind for many of us, especially the older Worldwalkers. The one I speak of -- I call her 'Tara'. It was the identity that I first met her in, but she has at least a dozen other."

Tara? Kaede searched her mental archives and came up blank. It was far too simple and generic of a name to begin her research with.

"I recommend you start with the Great Eastern War fought between the Volgydon Federation and the Dawn Imperium, particularly its great turning point at the Battle of Samara and the man responsible for it," the older women added. "His victories and his allies' reforms are what transformed the region into the modern Grand Republic of Samara."

Kaede nodded. The Samaran Captain had given her the exact same example, which was a good sign of not only its correlation, but also the availability of its information.

"What was his name?"

Gwendolyn bit down on her lip in thought.

"It's hard to pronounce, so I may not be saying it right. But I believe his name was... Subotai."

The familiar girl's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

Kaede had never encounter a greater irony -- that the only man who managed to destroy Russia on Earth was responsible for forging it in another world.