PROLOGUE: SACRIFICE

I was never a rich or successful businessman, nor was I an enviable character, but I never wanted to be. I had a wonderful family, a wife, Kathuria, four children: three sons, Idrian (12), Ioas (10), Izacc (7) and a daughter, Iriam (8). I did work here and there; whatever paid the bills and allowed my children to want nothing. One could look at my family and easily point out that my wife was the breadwinner, and they wouldn’t be necessarily wrong. I mean, she was a doctor by profession, and she made the most out of the two of us, but my pride would never allow for her to be the sole breadwinner, so I chipped in where I could.

“Arda! Good heavens, it’s half past three, the children!”

“Shoot… I’ll go pick them up, don’t you worry, just head on to work”

“Please hurry, the weatherman said there’d be a nasty storm around this time. I’d hate for you lot to be trapped in it, AND DON’T FORGET – ah, he’s gone”

My wife was one to worry a lot, but it was her nature, and she made a great mother to the kids. I remember picking up my kids as usual and getting ready to retreat to the comfort of our home when I got a call from an unknown number.

“Is this Arda Nebula?”

“Yes, to whom am I speaking?”

“I’ve no time, just come to the hospital quickly! It’s your wife.”

I remember speeding to the hospital at breakneck speeds. I tried not to assume the worst. I hoped that it was just some prank call, a mild annoyance at best.

But nothing could prepare me for the life I was about to live.

“I got an urgent call. What happened? Where is my wife?” — I said with a sort of breathless urgency.

“Your wife was met in a terrible accident; her car lost control and flew off the road”

“MY WIFE? WHAT DO YOU MEAN!”

“Sir, calm down. We were able to stabilise her, but only temporarily. Her condition is grave, and she might not have much time left. When you can, I would implore you to bid your farewells.”

I remember the doctor said it with such coldness that I wanted to strike him right there, on the spot. Who was he to speak in such a manner about my wife? My already stricken heart could not handle such news, and I was sent into cardiac arrest.

When I woke up…

It was already too late.

My wife had passed 2 hours before they were able to stabilise her.

I remember crying like a baby.

But my first concern was my children.

“MY CHILDREN, WHERE ARE THEY!”

They were seated just outside and rushed in at the sound of my screams.

“PAPA.” They all screamed.

I remember embracing them all and telling them the news. Idrian and Ioas both understood immediately, but the little Izacc and Iriam kept asking where mommy was.

No child should ever have to suffer such a loss.

—

For a few months after that, I worked day and night at different job sites to maintain our style of living. My heart had got considerably worse, but there was no treatment for it. I couldn’t die and leave my children to be orphaned, I just couldn’t. There was no family even remotely close to where we were, and I would not want to put them through the pain of living with anyone else.

My health only got worse.

I remember looking up at the sky desperately, my hands rough, my eyes with permanent bags, my hair in a frizz and looking like a mess. I remember hearing the cries of a little girl. And then it appeared. A being clad in a gold and white robe spoke to me. It told me of how it heard the cries of a father who wanted to see his children grow up, and how it was touched. It told me that it could cure me, and it let me feel my heart return to a normal state for just a bit. Not only that, but it then told me of a space beyond my own, one that cried out to be saved, and that just like my cries, I was pure of heart enough to become their protector. I asked what would happen to my children, and was reassured that time would be frozen, something it demonstrated with ease and precision beyond question.

With no options left, I took up this otherworldly beings' request to save a dying world.

“Mortal, your righteous deed has been noted, but be wary, for the world you shall journey to will fall in a year. Fulfil your quest, and you will be granted what you desire, but fail, and your life comes to an end, do you still accept?”

After a moment of thought, I accepted

“Yes.”

And with that.

PRESENT DAY ERTON IMPERIUM SILUS SECUNDUS