The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft
MESSAGE IN A BOOK

CH MESSAGE IN A BOOK

Over twelve thousand years in the future…

The Oracle Lady Daisy of the House of Adamos held the Book of Prophecies written by her late husband’s lost mother in one hand and an ancient piece of paper in the other. The Guardian, High Lord Kaleth, last son of High Lord Adamos, had died over a century ago in the Last War against the Dark Kingdom of the Remnants of Xelusia. She had finally settled her heart and her grief enough to pack away his study and give the castle he had lovingly built for her to their eldest daughter, the Master Healer of Adamos and her husband, the last Mage Lord of the House of Odini, who were soon to be expecting their first twin children.

When she had lifted this little book that she had read so many times in the past from its place on the bookshelf, a single folded half-sheet of parchment fell out. A piece of ancient paper she had never seen before but written in a language and script she knew only too well. The last great oracle of a generation lost had sent her a message through time. It simply read;

“Little Flower of Adamos,

please save our children from the falling Shadows,

something is Changing,

we are out of Time.

Yllumina, Oracle of Yophriel and Adamos.”

Daisy gaped in surprise at the note, she had been the last person to read this book. Checking the prophesies against all she knew after the war was won. Then she had put it on the shelf and it had remained there untouched until today. She read the paper twice more trying to figure out every possible meanings. Yllumina never wrote plainly as this seemed.

Yllumina was the only other oracle who called her by the pet name Adamos the fourth, Yllumina’s husband and Kaleth’s father, had given her. When the ancient Oracles realized their world was doomed, Adamos had built an ark of sorts and it had carried 5000 to safety, mostly children. Daisy wondered if something occurred to stop them from rescuing the remnant before the War that doomed both kingdoms began.

She noticed the weird syntaxing of the second, third, and fourth lines, and cold dread crept into her mind; she imagined it said, Shadow Changing Time.

Lady Daisy took the book and paper and hurried home through a traveling portal, the combination of magic and technology that helped them win the war. The Oracle’s fusion of magic and tech had vastly improved every aspect of Aetherian life, restored the prosperity to their almost-lost kingdom, and now all of it was threatened. The enemy defeated in this future was attempting to stop their destiny by altering the past, and as the last living oracle, she had to stop it.

Unlike the oracles of old, Daisy was gifted far beyond the ability to use love and light, to have visions, and to overcome the darkness in another’s soul, she was a scientist first. Her unique mind never let go of a problem until it was solved. While she worked, nothing else mattered; not sleep, not food, nothing. It was a trait that had almost killed her more than once, but it had allowed her to create the magic-tech fusion weapons that had destroyed their enemy.

At her home on the edge of the Crown City of Azimuth, she rushed from the travel portal to the servants quarters she had converted to a home laboratory. She ran the note through a spectrum analyzer and discovered she was correct. It wasn’t just the syntax of three ominous words that were different, it was also the ink. Shadows Changing Time. there was also an invisible message in the second line, between the letter were numbers, coordinates in the ancient mapping system, a date during the pre-cataclysm calendar, and the insignia of the only other surviving of the first ten houses.

Daisy pulled a blank smart-board to the center of her work space and began writing furiously. The place these coordinates were before the War of Armageddon was now part of a preserve above the waterfalls not far from her house, but the elevation would have to be corrected for the topography change that had been wrought by the Reaping of Ancient Aetheria, the day every living thing on the surface had died and the top 30 meters of soil and rock stripped away. She would have to use the Relic, aka her time machine, to go but this time it would be a far more dangerous trip because she would have to ride the timestream through the destruction of this world.

For hours, she did the calculations until her wrist chrono beeped. Her son would be home from his lessons soon. The advantage of being the King’s only Oracle and head of scientific research was that she worked from her home and no one snooped through her projects, not that there were more than a handful of living people who could even understand her work. It was a freedom that she would need to take full advantage of if she was to sneak back through time and accomplish her goal. She quickly tapped a lock code into the board with the notes on the message from Yllumina, and opened a file on the recovery updates of the worlds that had been harvested by the Devourer's Nebulae.

Closing the door, she rushed into her house and began warming dinner for her son, other royals had servants to cook and clean for them. But she didn’t. She tried to be the kind of mother she had never had herself, and even though she could barely boil water, she always warmed and served the best pre-made meals she could get for her only surviving son and youngest daughter.

Sighing as she set out two plates instead of three, she missed her youngest daughter who was doing her veterinarian internship on another world for the next five years. She knew she wouldn’t have to worry about Jenna. But Kalen was too young to be left on his own while she was gone to the distant past for who knew how long, and if things went awry as they often did in war, there was always the possibility that Daisy might not make it back to her time at all. As she stirred the food packets floating in boiling water, and sliced vegetables for salad she wondered what she could do with her youngest while she was trying to save them all... again

“Are you burning boiling water again, Mom?”

Daisy laughed, as she answered, “Maybe. Are you still sneaking out of your school lessons to go train with your uncle at the Guardsmen Headquarters?”

The golden blond boy with amber eyes grinned sheepishly, “Maybe... What did you make for tonight?” Kalen was the exact image of his late father in every way.

“Chicken and broccoli with rice,” she answered, pushing away her sadness. She would have love again someday. She had been promised that it would come from a place she never expected.

“Can I have extra cheese?”

“Of course, gotta grow them bones if you are going to be as big as your father and uncles and brother, you’re barely taller than me.” She teased him, but truthfully he was many inches taller. At 115, Kalen was already the size of most 160-year-olds at almost two stones (meters), and bulkier too. He was born to be guardian, a warrior of the highest rank. His magic meant he would be stronger, faster, and a natural leader with an ingrained compassion and concern for their people. His grandfather had prophesied that Kalen would become a peacekeeper.

As Daisy cut open the bags and poured them onto plates, she asked him, “What would you like to do this summer?”

“Dunno, go to Arborea or maybe Oceania.” Kalen shrugged as he snatched a steaming piece of broccoli and popped it into his mouth , breathing strangely as he tried to cool it enough to eat it.

“That’s hot, you silly goose.” She scolded playfully. “So, it’s trees or seas. You have two weeks to decide before school is out. And dunno is not a word, no matter how much your Aunt Meara uses it.”

“Why can’t I stay home with you?” He asked carrying the plates to the small kitchen table.

“I am going to be starting a very complicated new project. Mathematical extrapolations of the pre-nebula topography. I am still trying to figure out how much mass the planets lost during the cataclysm. If you want to stay home and help your old mom with the calculations...” She teased.

“Hmmm, hunting with Uncle Yuri, sailing with Vole and Aunt Meara, or math....” Kalen tapped his cheek staring at the ceiling the way his eldest half-brother did when he was pretending to consider one of her projects. “Uhhh. Not. Math.” He said emphatically.

“Those both require math,” Daisy chided.

“What requires math?” A deep voice interrupted them.

“Uncle Yuri!” Kalen jumped up from the table and rushed to hug his uncle as Daisy stood and followed.

After Kalen finished, Daisy hugged him and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I didn’t make any extra, do you want me to heat some more?”

Yuri looked at her oddly, “Are we not playing Tiles on the fourteenth anymore?”

“I forgot,” she confessed as she started warming another meal packet. “I was packing Kaleth’s library and decided to revisit a project I had forgotten about after the war.”

“She wants to spend the summer doing math. Please Uncle Yuri, you can’t leave me here with her.” Kalen begged. “Mathematical extrapolations blah-blah-blah topography, it sounds awful..”

Yuri laughed. His nephew was destined to be a great warrior, Kalen understood the need for education but like his father, he found himself overwhelmed by his mother’s mind for science and numbers. “It sounds fascinating. Thank you for dinner, my lady. Kalen, I am running a full summer semester, if you are interested... in something less taxing”

Daisy sat down his plate, listening as Yuri and Kalen talked about the summer curriculum at his school for huntsmen and foresters (huntsmen with less magic or without magic). Yuri was dressed in casual clothes rather than his usual huntsman’s uniform. The blue tunic gave him a boyish appearance and deepened his stormy gray eyes. His silver blonde hair was cut short but still trying to curl. It was easy to understand why the king’s uncle was number one on the most wanted bachelor list, and that was the reason he practically hid at his school deep in the forest of Arborea.

Daisy couldn’t deny she found him appealing and, even though Daisy was over a decade past her century of mourning, she doubted Yuri would ever be more than her friend and her son’s mentor in Kaleth’s place. Yuri loved his nephew like his own son, but he would never see her as more than his brother’s widow. All they had endured and shared during the war after Kaleth’s death had created a strangely co-dependent relationship between them. A connection that was almost destroyed by their grief and the guilt of a single night shared. She cleared the table and sent Kalen to do his homework. While she washed the dishes, Yuri dried them, watching her with his keen hunter’s eyes.

“You’re not yourself tonight.”

“It... It feels strange to be packing his library. I put aside a box of books I thought you might like; they were your father’s.” She responded softly. Kaleth had loved books, if he hadn’t been born a guardian, he would have made an excellent scholar and historian. Yuri was the same about biological studies and ecology. He was currently creating an encyclopedia of animal and plant life on Arborea.

“Since we aren’t going to play Tiles, we could get them tonight and I could help you finish packing the library. I still have a few things in my room there, including a pair of swim trunks, and I am sure Kalen wouldn’t mind drowning himself in the evening tide.” Yuri offered. He had that 'worried about Daisy' look he had frequently worn since his brother’s death.

“I’m fine, Yuri,” Daisy laughed. “And Kalen will love you even more for getting him out of his studies. If he wasn’t born to be guardian, I honestly believe he’d be a fish.”

“His father and brother love the sea, as did my father.” Yuri pointed out with a chuckle. “They should have been Mariners.”

“I’ll get my suit and son.” She started up the stairs.

His eyes narrowed as he watched her leave. Slipping out the kitchen door, he went to her workshop. A quick glance at her project boards didn’t show anything unusual. Shaking his head in disappointment, he went back to the kitchen and was leaning on the counter as if he hadn’t moved when they came down.

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