Thomas Gown has become an important part of the Rossem Project and his contribution may be vital to its eventual success. However, he has also become a pawn in a desperate struggle between ancient powers who care nothing for the civilisation Thomas...
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"I'm the reincarnation of a Gem Lord," whispered Thomas to himself, hardly able to believe that what he'd long suspected had finally been confirmed. "One of the most powerful wizards who ever lived..."
"The Gem Lords?" said Lirenna doubtfully. "The same Gem Lords who created the Emerald Oracle and the Ruby Keep?"
"Well, that's still just speculation," conceded Thomas. "We just assumed that because they're named after gemstones. I have a feeling in my guts, though, that it's true. I'm certain of it in a way I can't explain. The Gem Lords..."
"But everything we know about them suggests they lived on Garon, before the discovery of Amafryka," pointed out the demi shae. "That's at least three thousand years ago, maybe longer. Maybe a lot longer."
Thomas nodded. "They lived in Tak's world. I now believe Tak went on to become one of them, and Barl Hobson another. Everything points to it. All the pieces are falling into place."
"But if they lived on Garon, an island continent hundreds of miles away across the sea, why are the Emerald Oracle and the Ruby Keep here on Amafryka? Why not on Garon? There weren't even any humans on this continent back then."
Thomas shook his head in frustration. "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe they were still around when Amafryka was colonised. A wizard I met while I was back in time in Mala thought they became raks." He paled at the thought, that he was connected in some way with the terrible undead creatures, considered abominations by all right thinking wizards.
"Not even raks hang around for two thousand years," his wife pointed out. "They evolve into new forms and eventually lose interest in worldly things. You said Tak lived three thousand years ago. How do you know that, by the way?"
"I don't know," Thomas admitted. "I just know it." He realised what he'd just said and grinned ruefully. "You know what I mean."
"All right, we'll accept that figure for the time being, which means Tak, in his rak form, lived for two thousand years at least. Even the greatest of the immortal wizards didn't live much longer than that!"
"Which is why they became such great legends," cried Thomas triumphantly. "How else would we still have legends of them after all this time? Who else from that time can you name? Kings? Wizards? Poets? Sages? Anyone?"
"All right, point taken," conceded Lirenna. "They must have been enormously powerful, enormously important, but I still find it hard to accept that they existed as long as the immortal wizards. What could have tied them to this world for so long? Think of the power they must have gained. If it was possible to suspend their evolution for that long, why didn't any other of the raks of the time? Why wasn't the world torn apart by rak wars, similar to the Mage Wars? Also, why is the Emerald Oracle off the western coast of Amafryka, about as far from Garon as it's possible to get and still be in the human world? No human even saw the Western Sea until nearly a thousand years after the first ship crossed the Great Ocean."
