This process seemed to go on for days, years, decades. Arden couldn’t tell.
Then a spot of light shone in the darkness and he felt his course slowly curving around until the white was in front of him. It drew closer and he watched the tiny speck of light grow until it had driven the blackness away.
As he drew closer he made out a figure standing within the light. No, not a figure... a tree, like the ones in the capital in Stelemia. He flew right at the tree and its branches moved to catch him.
With a sickening impact he struck a branch and came to a sudden stop. Pain radiated throughout his body, and it felt like every bone had been broken.
But then the pain was gone, and he felt himself be gently lowered to the ground. A small branch reached down to brush his face. My love, you are with me at last. I have saved you from the clutches of the wild ones and now you must remain here with me.
It was some time before Arden could speak. “Who are you?”
I am the heart of this place.
Arden peered down at himself. He looked normal. There were no wounds, no blood, no sword sticking out of his stomach. “Where am I?” He glanced around, and found himself in a garden in a large, concrete room. “Where are Liana and Semira?”
They are gone. You are with me now.
A door opened and a small child skipped in. He saw Arden and froze. They stared at one another, the boy seemingly as bewildered as Arden.
Then the boy ran screaming from the room. “Mother, Mother, come quickly.”
Fear not. They will watch over you.
Arden turned back to the tree. “Why am I here? Where am I?”
You are part of me now, as are the child and his mother. Here is where you were always meant to be. The branches pulled him against the tree, hugging him in a wooden embrace.
THE END
THE STORY OF WRYNRIC, SEMIRA AND THE ARTIFACT CONTINUE IN
HEIR TO A LOST SUN
ARDEN RETURNS IN BOOK 2 OF THE LOST SUN MAIN SERIES,
DAWN OF A LOST SUN
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OTHER BOOKS BY RILEY
THE CAVERNS OF STELEMIA
Fall of a Lost Sun (The prequel)
Heir to a Lost Sun
Dawn of a Lost Sun
The Lost Sun Universe Box Set
(Contains all the Lost Sun books released so far)
VISARIA ONLINE
The litRPG sister series to the Lost Sun world
Visaria Online: Exile
Visaria Online: Void
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Here is a partial list of terms mentioned in this book. At some point in the future, I intend to add the entire glossary of the Lost Sun universe that I have written to my website.
STELEMIA: Is an underground kingdom and the last known bastion of humanity. It is made up of two main caverns, and a few smaller ones. Stelemia is a place where sword and shield meet ancient high technology, some of whose purpose is as mysterious as the murky human past. It is ruled by a Priest King, the head religious figure in the worship of the Four Divines.
Stelemia is a place steeped in history, medieval values and ideas, and yet some of the technologies of the ancient world, like electricity and computers, still exist within it. To the Stelemian people, the surface world is completely forgotten. All they know is the darkness of the underground world, and a medieval system of governance. Stelemia is said to have been founded by a man known as Radashan the Founder.
In recent times, educated Stelemians might be overheard speaking about how stagnant Stelemian society has become and that few things of great worth are created anymore. People seem content to live on the glories of the past, and not think of creating a brighter future. The population level has stopped growing, as has the economy. Most of the noble families focus solely on their own interests, often at the expense of the rest of society.
THE FOUR DIVINES: These are the gods of Stelemia who replaced the ancient One God, who disappeared before the War in Heaven. The Four Divines: Lydan, Roryur, Ibilirith and Dwaycar were once mortals who climbed the waterfall in the River of the Gods and ascended to heaven to fight the Ancient Enemy who had invaded the blessed realm and had driven out the One God.
Once there, the four became gods themselves, and Lydan, Roryur and Ibililirith now watch over Stelemia and protect its people. Dwaycar is worshiped in secret, as he rebelled against Ibilirith’s technologies long ago and was cast out by the other Divines.
The Order of Inquisitors, a group who ensures strict obedience to the tenants of the Divines, exiles or executes many Stelemians for daring to speak ill of one of any the Divines except Dwaycar.
IBILIRITH: The divine of sacred lights and the creator of the other ancient machines in Stelemia. She and Dwaycar are twins, and with Roryur and Lydan, climbed the waterfall at the River of the Gods and entered heaven to drive out the Ancient Enemy and bring back the One God. When she went to heaven, she was a mere mortal, but once there, she became a divine, and is often portrayed as a beautiful, golden-haired woman, with a metallic bird perched on her shoulder. The bird is said to be her beloved pet, that never left her side.
In later years, it is said that mortal Ibilirith died, though Divine Ibilirith still watches down on humanity from heaven. Her remains can be found under the Temple of Sacred Lights, the heart of her faith.
DWAYCAR: Sometimes known as Dwaycar the Betrayer, or simply the Betrayer, he is the twin brother of Ibilirith and entered heaven with her and Roryur and Lydan, and became one of the divines. His godly domain is said to be that of treachery and deceit, so he is often blamed for the negative things in people’s lives.
At some point in the distant past, long after the War in Heaven, he rejected the technologies of Ibilirith, and his followers tried to destroy the Serdtse Power Station. This event was called the Blackout War, or the Zetemneniye Voyna, as spoken in the Ancient Language of Ibilirith.
Many Knives of Dwaycar (the warriors of his order) were killed, though some were driven out into the Great Dark. No one from Stelemia has heard from them for many years, though as Kara and Aemon in Heir to a Lost Sun find out, the Knives of Dwaycar are far from extinct.
Dwaycar is shown dressed head-to-toe in black leather armor, with only the top half of his face, and his implacable eyes visible. The Knives of Dwaycar dress this way in honor of him.
THE ANCIENT ENEMY: It is unknown what exactly the Ancient Enemy is, but it is known that they were the ones who seized heaven from the One God, and were later driven out by the Four Divines during the War in Heaven. Their dead were numberless, and to dispose of them, the Four Divines dumped them into the bottomless Rift, at the northern end of Radashan Crevice. Even today, the Rift is a haunted place, and there are reports of voices drifting up from the darkness.
The Ancient Enemy plays a big part in the legends of the Covenant of the Lost Sun, which say the Ancient Enemy will return, and that after the Final Battle is fought against them and they are driven back, humanity will be able to return to the Light of the Lost Sun.
THE ORDER OF IBILIRITH: Often shortened simply to the Order, this is the primary religious institution in Stelemia, and is the group responsible for maintaining the advanced technologies of Ibilirith (computers, the power grid, the sacred lights). It also has access to many of the old files on its computers, written in the ancient languages of the old world, much of which can no longer be translated.
The Order, like Stelemia, was founded by a man known as Radashan the Founder, who was its first Patriarch. The Order is centered in two main areas. The Temple of Sacred Lights and the Obelisk of Light, where many of their records are kept.
In recent years, the Order has grown stagnate, and is showing signs of decline. Another symptom of the wider stagnation of the caverns. At current, the group is led b
y Patriarch Lucien, a man said to be a direct descendent of Radashan the Founder. Though, of course, all patriarchs have claimed this.
Another sacred task of the Order, is the protection of mortal Ibilirith’s remains that are interred under their temple. They keep them well-preserved, so that when Divine Ibilirith returns to the mortal realm to bless her loyal followers and grant them immortality, she will see how well her servants have treated her holy remains.
As to their own remains, the Order deals with its dead with little fanfare. If a monk dies, their body is taken down into the catacombs and left to rot. It is their belief that the human body is nothing but an engine for Ibilirith and when it dies, it is of no use to her anymore, and can be discarded like a broken hammer. When she returns, she will raise the Order’s dead, and they will once again serve her as immortals.
The Machine Chapel is the main place of worship to Divine Ibilirith at the temple, but once a day, a group of monks, led by the reigning Patriarch, stands outside her tomb and sings,
Oh, Mother Ibilirith, power us, fuel us, set us upon our sacred tasks. Let us be spinning cogs in your great machines. Bless us for our faithfulness, our diligence to our humble duties and our eternal war against the darkness, for we live out our lives under the pure radiance of your sacred lights.
Forgmon set out on his grand adventure at the behest of members of this group. This story is related in the Lost Sun side adventure book, Ruins of a Lost Sun.
THE KNIVES OF DWAYCAR: A group of people who follow Divine Dwaycar. Once they lived within Stelemia, but after the Blackout War, the few who survived were driven out into the Great Dark and were never seen again by the Stelemians, until the events of Heir to a Lost Sun. However, their presence was well known to those living out in the Great Dark. The Covenant of the Lost Sun had regular dealings with them—until the Knives turned on them and destroyed the covenant.
The group is led by an old woman named Gwendolyn, the Shadow Trainer of Dwaycar and she can be found worshipping at his polished tourmaline statue at the center of their hometown. The Knives are dressed head to toe in black, except for the top half of their faces. All are women, except the man who leads them. The man is always a son of the current Shadow Trainer, and is deemed the strongest and most fit to lead. His role is to act as a surrogate Dwaycar, as the divine himself watches from heaven. All the other sons of the Shadow Trainer are left to the monsters of the Great Dark.
Once a female Knife has proved herself in battle, she is allowed to bear children. As there is only ever one man in their order, the female knives seek out Stelemian exiles to breed with. Any son who is born is either handed back to the exiles, or more rarely, left to die.
The bank has unknown owners, though the rumors are that a select few noble families own it. But is this just rumor? Or is there a hidden power in Stelmeia that hides in the shadows and secretly controls the caverns through control of the bank? Read Dawn of a Lost Sun to find out!
SACRED LIGHTS: Basically, electrical lights as we know them. They are sacred to the Stelemians, as they are said to have been invented by the Divine Ibilirith before she ascended to heaven. They are the primary light source in Stelemia, besides mushroom stem torches and the phosphorescent bacterial colonies that grow within some of the caverns.
THE SCIENCES OF THE OLD WORLD: The ancients, who lived in the time when the Divines still walked the caverns as mortals, possessed many great wonders of technology and science, long forgotten in Stelemia. Of note is the science of genetics. From animals, to the mushrooms the Stelemians eat, to the ones they harvest for wood, the ancients genetically modified everything. If some of the old files are to be believed, the sciences of the old world even genetically altered humans, though what was changed, has long since been lost to history.
It is said the ancients tried to shape life into their own image, but the accidental result was the monsters that now prowl the endless darkness of the Great Dark.
THE GREAT DARK: The vast world beyond the Kingdom of Stelemia. The very name instills fear into the Stelemian people, as it is place of monsters, heretics and mystery. Exiles (people who have spoken ill of the Divines) are sent down the Path of Exile and banished into the Great Dark. Few are ever seen again.
To the non-Stelemians who live in this region, such as the Covenant of the Lost Sun, the Great Dark is called the Nether.
THE STELEMIAN CAVERN: The primary, most populous cavern in all Stelemia. It contains five of the larger cities of the kingdom. Stelemia the capital, Eryport, Crystal Cove, Gravelbank Bridge and Dere-zor, along with dozens of minor settlements. Much of the food production takes place within the cavern: livestock, mushroom farms and fishing.
The southern edge of the cavern is sparsely populated and dominated by the Field of Spikes, a large, open area with thousands of stalagmites jutting up from the cavern floor.
THE CAPITAL SPIRE: The heart of the governance of the caverns, and the home of the Priest King, who lives at its very pinnacle in the Halls of the Priest King. It is a towering dormant stalagmite situated near the center of the city of Stelemia. Over forty-five thousand people, many of them nobles, make this their home.
THE CITY OF STELEMIA: The capital of the Caverns, and the city that gives the human kingdom its name. It is a large city of many tens of thousands of people. Kara comes from a suburb of this city, called Westhollow. The urban sprawl of this city takes up much of the western edge of Crystal Lake. It is also the home port of the Royal Stelemian Navy, home to its venerable banking institution (the Royal Stelemian Bank) and is the heart of commerce in the caverns.
The Priest King watches over the city from his towering Capital Spire.
CRYSTAL LAKE: The huge lake that dominates the primary cavern in Stelemia and the home of the Royal Stelemian Navy. Its depths are unknown, and monsters are known to lurk within its waters. The lake sees much shipping and trade, as the major cities built along its edge trade with one another.
THE PATH OF EXILE: Located in northern Stelemia, beyond the town of Sapphire Sinkhole, exiles (people who have spoken ill of the Divines) are sent down the Path of Exile and banished into the Great Dark. Few are ever seen again. A frightening place for the peasantry of Stelemia, as they are the ones who are cast out into the darkness. Rarely are the nobles or wealthy merchants exiled.
Dissident forces within Stelemia claim that the Path of Exile is nothing more than a useful tool for the Priest King and Inquisitors to remove unwanted elements in Stelemian society.
THE OLD WORLD: The time period of the ancients that existed before the founding of Stelemia. Little is known about it, but some of the ideas and personalities remain important in the myths and legends of Stelemia. Many of the monsters that plague the darkness beyond the lights of humanity are said to have been made from the sciences of the old world. It is known the ancients used something called genetics to alter life in an attempt to shape it into their own image.
THE DEAD CITY: This is the city where Arden (Kara and Semira’s father) discovered the artifact that comes to be known as the passkey. This adventure is related in the book, Fall of a Lost Sun.
The Dead City was a vast ruin made by the ancients. It is unknown what happened to its inhabitants, though it is clear a battle was fought there. As Kara discovers, the city is named Annbar, and is the place where the ghost woman in her visiondreams told her a great library can be found.
A mysterious voice can be heard beyond one of the doors of this city, and below it, lives a metal man, though it is unknown if this metal man is the famous one from the children’s tale.
SINJAR: A mysterious ancient fortress city, deep in the Great Dark. It is unknown what happened to the inhabitants of the city, as they seem to have disappeared without a trace. A strange unexplainable glow illuminated the very air of Sinjar. Deep underneath the streets is a vast manufactory and supply room. Within these rooms, the metal child, Pilly, makes his home.
To find out more about this city and the character Pilly (along with his myster
ious parents), read the book Ruins of a Lost Sun. References to this city can also be found in Dawn of a Lost Sun.
THE ANCIENT HIGHWAY: A road running from Annbar (Dead City) to Ebon Shelf in Stelemia. It is assumed the ancients made this road with technologies long lost to Stelemia.
THE METAL MAN: The name of the protagonist of the children’s tale about a lover of Ibilirith’s who stayed behind when she ascended to heaven. He waited many long years for her return, but she never came back to him. In great despair, he turned himself into metal so he would live forever and be alive when she returned, if she ever did. Then he locked himself beyond a metal door to wait. It is said his voice can still be heard calling out for her if you chance upon his door.
The story is told so children understand that love can change the nature of a man.
Kara is told by a man named Wrynric, that Arden, her father, foresaw that she would journey to the Dead City to speak to this Metal Man and that he would help her in the Final Battle to end humanity’s exile. When Kara defeats the Ancient Enemy in this battle, humanity will be able to return to the Light of the Lost Sun.
THE COVENANT OF THE LOST SUN: Possibly founded by Radashan, the same man who founded Stelemia (according to Radashan himself in a conversation in Dawn of a Lost Sun), this Covenant is located in an unknown location in the Great Dark, or as the people who were born in the Great Dark call it, the Nether. The Covenant is home to Arden, Semira, Liana, Meridia, Wrynric and Erinie.
The covenant believes humans came from somewhere high above their cave home and once lived under the Light of the Lost Sun.
Up until its almost complete destruction at the hands of the traitorous Semira, along with the Knives of Dwaycar, this covenant had survived the many years since the evacuation of Annbar, to the present time. It is a covenant of humans called scions, special people with the ability to enter visiondreams, and as Kara and Aemon discover, people created from the sciences of the old world.
Fall of a Lost Sun_The Prequel novella to the Lost Sun World Page 8