Chapter Text
Somewhere in the Shining City
The Shining City
Bright Moon
A Few Days Before the Event
New RuneVid channels popped up all the time. Thousands of new channels were created every day and hundreds posted new videos. As a service, RuneVid had been around for a while, but it was the most enduring of Etheria's social media platforms. It had even managed to get across oceans to places like Halfmoon and Eternia.
Not many people looked for new creators. Not many people watched single videos from single creators.
It took a long time for creators to get traction. To learn the tools of the trade and find ways to make their videos as close to professional as they could. To earn followers and subscribers and to get their names known. Few creators, even on RuneVid, were universally known.
But it was a valid career path if you managed to get the viewers. It was a valid career path if you could put in the work. There were creators who made real money from niche hobbies and special interests.
Her video wasn't about a hobby. Or about media. Or about current events. It wasn't about relationships and it wasn't about information or conspiracies. It wasn't researched. It looked more like a hoax or someone trying to play with 'found footage.'
But it felt real. And desperate, even if she sounded crazy.
The girl was somewhere. Probably in a park, sitting on a park bench. There were trees all around her and the moons were high behind her, casting her face in dim, colored light, washing out her already pale skin. Turning her gray-blue eyes to silver and azure. The halo of light around her had to come from the faint streetlights behind her. It had to!
No one made videos about magic. Not unless they were crackpot theorists.
Her face was partially hidden by an over-sized red hoodie - the hood was pulled up. But what of her pale face they could see was bruised. She had an incipient black eye and dried blood on the corner of her mouth where her lip was swollen.
It was apparent the girl barely knew what she was doing with her phone camera. It moved around as her arm moved and the angle was terrible. The lighting was worse. But it was also apparent it was what she thought she had to say that was important.
It was desperation. Who would believe her, even on RuneVid? She had to try, though.
She forced a smile, but it wasn't really a smile. It was an expression meant to be a smile, but it just showed blood-stained teeth. She wasn't quite whispering, but she wasn't speaking very loudly. "Hi. Hey. Ummm…I'm Adora. I don't know if anyone is ever going to see this. I don't know if anyone is going to believe this, but I don't know what else to do but tell the entire world."
She drew in a deep breath through her nose. "It's cold out here." She shivered, hugging herself. "You'd think, if I were going to run from them, I'd have chosen summer. Or at least spring! But I didn't. I chose winter. I have no idea when or how they'll catch up to me. But they will. Especially after they see this video. If they see this video. For all I know, no one will see this video. They catch everyone who runs and they'll want me back more than most."
She shook her head. "Wow. That's sounded - arrogant. Stupid. Maybe she was right about me all those years ago? Maybe they were all right about me and I'm - I'm betraying my destiny or whatever. I don't believe in destiny, though. I don't know how to, because if this - if what I've been through is my destiny, then fate should be written off as a bad idea. A really bad idea."
She breathed hard again, laughing. "This is the dumbest idea I've ever had and that is saying something. My best friend…I mean, my former best friend, could tell you some stories of us as kids at the orphanage. I named this channel for her, kinda. Anyway."
She sat up straighter, holding her phone up. A deep breath took the tremble from her arm.
"My name is Adora. If I ever had a last name of my own, I never knew it. I'm not Etherian. I am a First One - but I am not the only one. There are more of us than you think, but not a lot. We still exist on Etheria. On Eternia. We still walk the world and we still try to shape it. Well, they do. I don't. I don't want to shape the world or do magic or rule or - any of it. I just want to be Adora, whoever Adora actually is."
She sniffled a little, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I know no one will believe me. I've spent the last few days since running away trying to get to someone. Trying to get someone to believe me. I'm tired. I'm hurting. I'm cold. I haven't eaten anything in days and I haven't had water in almost that long. Being a runaway means I'm homeless and apparently in the Shining City, that doesn't give you much credibility."
She shrugged. "It shouldn't matter, but it does, because everything I'm about to tell you is true. And scary. It should scare you, because it could be catastrophic if no one listens. If the right people don't listen. I've told the Bright Moon Guard. I've told the local law enforcement. They don't believe me and sent me away. They weren't very nice about it."
She forced herself to smile again. "It shouldn't matter, but it does, because I didn't lie. I'm not delusional. This is real. Until a few days ago, I was held by a religious group known as the Children of the First Ones. They worship the First Ones as being the messengers and agents of the gods. They treated me as a holy figure and I was kept in the Cathedral - the large 'ruins' outside the northern edge of the Shining City. There are several thousand of them there - the cult, I mean. They believe magic is the heritage of Etheria. They believe by turning away from magic, the night sky will remain dark until we return magic to its 'former glory' - what they feel is its proper place in our lives - and that wielders of magic and creatures of magic are held above those without. I don't agree with this. I can't. It's not right."
She bowed her head and then looked back up and her eyes were blazing blue with magic. "I am a First One and I have magic. In some ways, I am magic. I know the history of my people because the Children taught me. I can wield magic, because they forced me to become - something of their forging and not of my own choice. They believe my - arrival in Etheria - heralded the beginning of a change in the world. They intend to initialize this change by activating a powerful series of EMP devices hidden through the Shining City to destroy the power grid and destroy as much electronic and mechanical equipment as they can. They will present themselves as saviors in the wake of the disaster, using magic to save as many as they can and to prove that technology is less powerful and less effective than magic. It doesn't matter that they probably won't succeed at the latter - as of right now, because no one will listen - they will succeed with the bombs. No one is willing to stop them. No one is willing to take a chance I'm right and just - go look at one of the places I know the EMPs are."
She stood up and started moving. She turned the camera around and panned it around the nighttime skyline of the Shining City. "There are dozens, maybe hundreds of EMPs hidden in your city. They've been planning this for almost ten years - since they bought me from the woman who ran the orphanage I grew up in. She made sure my best friend, the only person in this world I have ever trusted, was taken away from me. Once I was alone, she made sure I was scared. She made sure I was broken when the people she sold me to came to get me. And they kept me. I don't know how long. I know I was almost sixteen when they took me, but I don't know how long I was there. Time was different there, because I never saw a clock. I didn't see a clock until I got out. I don't tell you this so you feel sorry for me. I want you to know what kind of people they are. The kind of people who will buy a girl and use her as an unwilling symbol for gods only knows how long. They are capable of doing what they plan."
She kept walking. Even though she was walking, somehow, the phone was held steady. Her gait was smooth and controlled and her arm unmoving in a display of physical control.
"A few days ago, I escaped the Cathedral. I stole money from them and I ran. Getting out was hard. Violent. They were willing to beat me to keep me there, but they taught me better than they knew, I think. The High Priestess, Light Hope, will not let me go until she has what she wants. And she is willing to make a deal with anyone to do that. The authorities didn't listen, so I bought this phone and I decided to try this. One of the women in the Children, someone who's no longer with us, slipped me an old tablet and I watched a lot of RuneVid. It's - the first part of my plan. Ugh. I'm all over the place, aren't I? I tend to prepare - over prepare? For things and I'm winging this, so - sorry for that?"
She seemed to find where she wanted to be and she zoomed is best she could on a water tower. It was an amazingly tall structure - hundreds of feet, but it looked smaller because the massive tank was proportional to the complex series of girders and steel bars holding it aloft.
"I don't know if that's the main water tank for the Central District or not, but I'll use it as my visual, because - well, it's what I've got. Light Hope is willing to do anything to win. Anything to prove her point. She's had a deal with an organization called The Horde - my guess is some kind of crime organization? They don't seem like law abiding citizens. I don't know what she's done for them, but they are going to poison your water supply for her with a toxin created from magical plants. A toxin with an alchemical remedy. Really, the only thing that will cure it. And some of the Horde's people will be the only ones with it. As long as they sell it as an alchemical potion, Light Hope doesn't care how much they charge or who they choose not to give it to. The Children have trained some of the Horde's cooks in alchemy."
The girl laughed softly. "I have no idea why a criminal organization has cooks, but they do. Maybe they cater or something. Anyway."
She flipped the camera again and blue light flickered in her eyes. She was still haloed by gold light, but this time - there were no streetlights.
"This is my last chance to get someone to hear me. I don't trust anyone, but I will make myself trust someone who reaches out and trusts me. I don't know how you can get in contact with me other than comments here. If you believe me - really believe me, just leave a comment starting with 'hey Adora' - in honor of the one person I've ever been sure I could trust. If you troll me or play me or mock me, you could kill a lot of people. I'll give it a day or so. I'll check the comments and all that."
Her smile was wan, but genuine. Strained and tired, but the magic flared in her eyes at the same time determination did.
"Either way, after that, I'm going to do what I have to. My last idea, my last hope, and the worst plan. But I've got a day to prepare, I guess. After that, I'm going to try to stop them myself. I don't know what else to do."
The golden light around her flared brighter. "My name is Adora. This is likely the only time you will hear from me. I am a First One. I am an orphan no one wanted. I was sold to religious fanatics who forced me into a role they created so they can try to take over your city. In a day, I will try to stop them all from killing and hurting people who don't deserve it and don't know there is a secret war. It's very likely they will either find me and take me back or I'll fail to stop them. If you see this video and I don't come back from this, it's okay. I have no one left to remember me or mourn me. Nothing will be lost if I don't come back from this. But no matter what, I won't let them succeed. Maybe…just maybe, if I do everything right for the first time in my life, I will show that magic can save you as easily as it can doom you."
The video ended. The usual recommendations for 'next up' were fantasy stories, analysis of fantasy stories, and conspiracy theories about magic and the legends about the First Ones.