James Portia Alexander XV

  2510.06.06

  Sola 0

  Portosia, Estancia

  Western Wing of the Alexander Palace

  Weeks passed, and still no one had been able to find the Isle of Gods, let alone the City of Miracles. Not a shred of evidence submitted by the people of the lands held any bearing on where their journey would end. But for one boy, who could see all in his vicinity, one who was awake day and night, who knew he could put it altogether.

  James had been sifting through information for weeks. He had looked through historical records and searched through the archives of the mansion. He pushed the limits of what his perception could reach. After considerable effort, he had finally been able to see into the library of the main palace. However, even with all that information at his fingertips, he could not piece together the location of the Isle of the Gods.

  He watched as scout after scout returned, shaking their head. Some brought back with them religious texts from the various stringent religions throughout the lands and the world. And so with keen interest, an idea popped into his mind. This whole time, he had been searching geographical and historical sections for any mention of the Isle of the Gods. He never considered looking in the religious texts.

  His family, being the second house of the kingdom, did not hold ties to any religion. They, like all other nobles, abstained from the world of the gods. That was for the lower class. Those who did not have anything. The gods did not favor those with wealth; if one were to worship a God and have such wealth, they would soon find it all gone.

  And so he began to read. He started with the religion from Tyrenia, a land far, far to the east. It covered several islands off the coast of Lorentz, the main continent of Estancia. Those of Tyren Faith believed in the gods of order: Balance, Dignity, Discipline, and Unity. The four gods were the cornerstone of their faith.

  Each one stood as a corner of the world and supported this world in safety and in perfect order. They believe that at each of these corners of Estancia stands a massive pillar that descends into the depths of Tartarus. These pillars hold up the land, which is kept safe from the fires from the heat of the damned. For one must hold balance, dignity, discipline, and unity in oneself to be saved from the fall into the pits flame.

  Next, there was the religion of Xarbanzia. The Xarxarbinians were a strange people to James, ones who did not follow the ways of the Lorentz. They resided on the northern continent, Poinclare. However to their culture, it is known as Xarconu, the nest beside the gods. They believe that they are the children of the gods; the gods being the very first to walk this world of Estancia.

  They believe that the gods were too numerous to count, varying in all faiths and styles; all separately holding truth. Though they followed only four gods who were the edges of Zarco: Zear, the god of war and famine, Arnoli, the goddess of wealth and ruin, Argoin, the goddess of fear and pain, and finally, Hesla, the goddess of warmth and all things good. These four gods represent both the virtue and the sin of mankind.

  Each of the four represented an edge of the world, the flat plane of estancia. Each god holds a cardinal direction as they police the world; anybody who falls off an edge and into their domain will reap the consequences. The Xarxarbinians believe that one must walk a narrow path between each of the gods to understand and to survive in this world.

  The last religion James looked over was the main religion of the continent that his kingdom resided in. Lorentz had one religion across its entire massive surface, the religion of Mobium. They worship only one singular god that is a massive serpent that circles the world. It is its end and beginning, an eternal, infinite cycle of life and death, pain and joy, happiness and strife, wealth and poverty. The giant serpent Suibom, who eats its own tail in an ouroboros. The Giants serpent is known as Suibom.

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  It is believed that if one falls too close to one side of the cycle, they will be brought into the other. If one is to live too much in exercising their emotions, their energy, and be selfish, they will fall to their death. If one is to be too joyous or too happy or to push themselves upon others, they will fall into the depths of pain and suffering. If one is to be too wealthy or too bold in their financial decisions, they will become impoverished. The inverse of each statement was widely held as true.

  With reflection, these three main religions hold some truth about the world. It is believed that the sun, Sola, rises and falls to the sides of this grand serpent of Suibom. The sun rises to his left and falls to his right. This endless cycle is but a piece of the truth. He is responsible for the air they breathe, for the land they walk on, and for the minds they inherit. They are all but pieces of him, small portions of his entire presence. And like him, part of an internal cycle of life, death, and rebirth. At his head is life, and at his tail is death.

  As he was someone who had been forced into a state of eternal thought and introspection, James spent many years contemplating the reality in which he lived. He had never thought of religion or a higher power. He had not dwelled on anything besides what was around him. It was only recently that he saw past the walls and wards of the palace. To know what the sun, on that day, a new line of introspection had awakened within him.

  There on the northern and southern horizons, existed two giant pillars of light. They are pencil-thin; in the daytime, they are practically invisible. Throughout the night, they glitter between shades of blue and green. They are commonly referred to as the pillars of the great serpent, coming into view at night and going away in the day.

  When he first saw these in the sky, James had no idea what to make of them. Up until that point, he had never considered what reality was. He only thought of his existence in his mind. And so he had come to his own conclusion, they were just a normal feature of their world. But now, maybe they truly were a great serpent, maybe the people of this continent were right.

  And yet he had lived a life full of strife, one full of confinement and solitude. And given as off balance his life had been, not once was he shown the other side of the wheel. He had not lived as did those of Xarxarbinia. He had not lived a life walking the thin line between the edges of the world, like the Tyren Faith, and yet he was still here, unaffected. Aside from the not at the base of his neck, something which none spoke of in these texts, everything was normal.

  With deep introspection and a truly objective view, he noticed there was a pattern between these three religions. The four Tyranian gods were the corners of the world. The four of Xarxarbinia were the edges of the world. So what did that make the god of Suibom? No matter how hard he thought, James could not piece together this clue.

  There was another angle of thought that saved him. The Xarxarbinians called the continent of Poinclare the nest next to the gods. What lay north of the continent had not been mapped. There was no record of any land outside of the two continents and those minute archipelagos surrounded them. To the south, it was assumed there was an endless ocean.

  To the north, it was assumed the same. However, to the east and west, there existed actual edges. Those who came back having survived, albeit a few, seemed to be scared and traumatized by their experiences. They described the edge of the world as a great fall into a black void. No ship to have crossed that horizon had ever returned.

  So that ruled out East and West. The entire continent of Lawrence, having been searched and claimed over millennia, held not a single place or island within its vicinity unscathed by mankind. Ponteclare was more mysterious. Perhaps the Isle of Gods lay somewhere in that continent.

  Rumor between the servants who took care of him believed this to be the truth. James still wondered, if that was the case, why would they call themselves the nest beside the gods if it was where the gods were?

  For nights, James had dwelled on this. The island could not be to the east or west. The island could not be central to the world, within either of the continents. So it must be to the north or the south of the world.

  Portasia had long ago sent ships south in order to explore and find new territories to claim, but every single ship had been met by tumultuous storms or creatures and crashed. They had only found wreckage on the most southern islands. Recent reports noted that to the north, Xarxarbinians and the Tyreans had both sent fleets northward with mixed results. Some had returned, but mostly it was the same as what happened when you went south.

  With this evidence, he came to a simple conclusion. The Isle of Gods was located at the towers that met each horizon, Suibom. What some refer to as the Tower of the Gods. More specifically, he decided it must be the northern tower. They would have to cross the entire world, almost 20,000 miles. It would be a journey not even traders have taken. He had no choice. If he wanted to live, his family must journey there.