Time Lapse

Chapter 1 ~ Always Something Greater ~

Caryopsis; a large desert region in the continent named Gestalt. This region housed kingdoms on the verge of slitting each other's throats while tensions continued to grow. In the close-center point of the desert lay a market city acting as an oasis: Tsa. The town is designed rectangularly, with entrances in the east and northwest.

The L-shaped path guided visitors to the center plaza, where Tsa held the center market. Corners of the city meant shadier professions took place while the guards kept busy drinking and engaging with the women who only worked at night. Tsa's nefarious market made easy access for its governing kingdom to deal in drugs, prostitution, weapon deals, and insider information about the other two kingdoms.

Hugging the west wall of the city lodged the miscreant side of the market where many shady characters lived. Thugs, thieves, murderers, fraudsters, the list went on. And in the darkest corner of the west side, under a staircase, was a weak child hidden away from certain sight. This stairwell was the boy's particular spot, hidden from the world.

Outside his spot, the boy believed there was no other place for him; his parents clarified this. If there was any notion of warmth from his parents, it was gone when the town cleric announced Atlas's birth under an unlucky star.

Long before the parents conceived Atlas, his parents committed sidestreet robberies and swindled nobles. Therefore deeming them criminals when caught under their native Kingdom of Histolytica. Becoming a criminal of any degree declared the lawbreaker a "curse-bearer," somebody branded once caught and convicted. These curses would be a constant reminder of their sins.

Histolytica banished the parents to a distant market town full of the hustle and bustle of various trades, the curse never permitting their exit. Their only chance left to be saved would involve being bought. This proved impossible for curse-bearers unless sent as slaves in wars between the three kingdoms, lords and nobles-unless used as 'personal assistants.' A third option for the parents to save themselves from the painful realities outside their prison would be giving birth. Upon this revelation, the parents conceived Atlas.

It could have been the work of a higher being or some kind of divine comedy. Under rare circumstances, Atlas inherited his parents' maledictions, resulting in the birth of a cursed child. Residents of Gestalt named them fey.

If matters weren't worse for the parents-no, Atlas-he was born under Separi's constellation. Cursed by the All-Mother, born as a fey, the boy had little chance of staying alive past his first birthday.

Being a fey, as well as a star-crossed child, meant doom for the parents and Atlas. Born frail, his state only worsened the older he got. Atlas was a failure to the parents since birth, a prison sentence he lived under, a constant reminder, and a twelve-year punishment about to be over. Under the rules of Histolytica, parents are restricted from giving birth to more than one child, one of the many effects of being curse-bearers. Moreover, parents are restricted from their child dying before the age of twelve.

Around the turn of Atlas's eleventh birthday, his parents began searching for an orphan. The thought had occurred to Atlas before, but reality had never settled with him how soon this day would come. Histolytica wouldn't take any more stray dogs between the growing list of convicts and slaves. Those enslaved were imported and exported to Histolytica daily, as were the two other kingdoms. But how could the parents find a child without alerting their curses?

Atlas had never left his stairwell; he had just observed from the darkness, like a shadow of the market's city, never to be found. Even the darkest underbelly of the city would never know such a child existed. Atlas himself wondered how he had lived for as long as he had. Malnourished, tired, sick, most likely carrying disease as well. These traits weren't uncommon in a sleazy city like this, but to be a fey added another layer. Knowing the state of the people and the city, Atlas had never once observed. He'd watched, listened, and read constantly for years to understand the world around him. If he wasn't going to be a part of this world, he might as well sit back and watch. It was the most he could do.