Welcome visitors and friends!!!!!Bryce render some post in PS. ******Story excerpt and artwork copyright 2009 Rob Custer***** ****All characters, ideas, subjects, themes,etc. purely fictional*** *********For entertainment purposes only*********************** In Cyber World there is a city of the dead. I still don't know why they call it the City of the Dead because it's only inhabitants are in fact alive. Maybe its because its inhabitants only visit there occasionally. I overheard a conversation there about The New Wind. The New Wind was the bringer of change. No longer would the people have to fear the Overlords. There was one who would change it all. An elemental from a kind world, where violence had been left to others. They had achieved lasting peace only through many long ages of grief. But their peace depended on isolation... as no mortal beings could untangle themselves from cosmic occurrence. They maintained a fragile but overwhelmingly peaceful society. The Elementals never sent one of their own to our time, but one did come. His impact was felt only if one knew what hadn't happened instead of what had. What hadn't happened was good. Although this could not be seen as a truly "Golden" age the denizens of Cyber World were making incredible progress in understanding themselves. Progress in technology had to go hand in hand with understanding how to use these new powers. The Elemental came in search of an artifact. This artifact had been left here by The Old Ones. The Old Ones had been rumored to have survived the birth and death of many universes. Many thought The Old Ones were just a myth. The Elemental came to find the truth behind the myth. He wanted to know if his people would last or if they would be annihilated... as all but the fabled Old Ones had. His biggest fear was that he would find that there were no Old Ones, no guiding force for his people, and that they would end up like the many civilizations he visited in his travels. This legendary artifact was rumored to be in the City Of The Dead. The City Of The Dead wasn't even a real city. Nothing was real here. It depended upon the living to exist. It could change into a vast universe or a a tiny closet. Scale would change. Cityscapes and features would change depending upon who was there. The only thing that stayed the same was that it was always there, even if you couldn't find it. A great many things had to happen in just the right way for the Elemental to find this city. And today they all just fell into place. As night fell on the remote region of The Island of Memory, a strange thing happened. The night flickered, as if it was lit by some crude cathode ray tube instead of a wonderous moon and remote stars. The Elemental would have chosen to be of this world on this night if he could because only these beings could feel this thing they called emotion. The Elemental was ignorant of emotions. Emotions always broke up on the wind of his intelligence. He could never make sense of the things that ruled these beings. It did not stop him from appreciating them though. And it did not make him bad, at least not in the conventional sense of the word. No master plan, no domination, no goal at all except the advancement and protection of his people. His people would never come here... or any place for that matter, as long as the magic of their invisible fortress held. They would never come looking for him but they would always welcome him back. At least he hoped.... The night flickered again and out of the very air a ball of energy floated as if alive. It was alive with some force that changed with your thoughts. If you concentrated properly you could see it in the material of the glowing sphere. The "thing" was now growing in size. As it got larger, you could see morphing objects inside its confines. If you lost proper concentration they would disappear. If you didn't focus the power became subtractive. You could be sucked into the vacuum of endless thought....