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Year 489
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The world was dark.
This is truly the only way to describe how incredibly dark it was, as any further description would be a massive understatement. While there was light enough to see by emanating from the torches dotted around the mighty old tower, and from the tiny sliver of a moon, the world still seemed draped in an inky blackness. And while the quiet sound of the waves lapping at the shores of this long-unnoticed island were present and obvious to anyone who cared to listen, one subconsciously chose to ignore it in favor of uncontested silence without fail.
To restate, the night was really quite dark.
The sky was shrouded from any additional light by heavy black clouds, pregnant with rain. A thin, pale ray of light illuminated a thin, pale section of beach, upon which trod slowly a thin, pale individual. The hood of his jet-black cloak seemed to have lost any will to put forth an effort to shroud his face, and hung behind him as depressed-ly as everything else this night. His well-kept brown hair looked as though it would have loved nothing more than to whip across his equally brown eyes, though no wind made a move to facilitate this action.
In the crook of one arm squirmed a small child.
He reached the edge of the beach, the very tips of his shoes just barely touching water when the waves climbed the sand, and man and child both gazed out at the ocean. To the child, this was surely a magical thing, as this was the first time those young eyes had ever seen the sea. But to the man, it was quite the opposite. He knew he would never again see these shores.
"You're leaving, aren't you?" a young female voice asked from behind, and the night seemed slightly annoyed that she had broken its perfect silence. She wore a cloak identical to that worn by the man, a size or two smaller yet still a size too big for her. Her hood fell, and her black-and-silver streaked hair fell past her shoulders with a definite sadness. Her piercing green eyes locked with his brown ones as he turned to face her, and the red eyes of the child drifted back and forth between the two.
"I'm sorry." The man said genuinely, the two quiet words carrying the weight of the world. He spoke with a light, soothing accent that alone gave his words an in-control quality, but he was, in reality, anything but in-control of the situation, and his low voice was already close to breaking. "You know that if there was another way, I'd take it." She looked down to her shoes resignedly. "Are you sure you don't want to come with me, Lenora?"
She shook her head before he had finished. "I can't do that. There's too much I'd be leaving behind. I believe there's hope yet in some of these hearts, and I won't abandon them."
The man smiled, an expression emanating his feelings of both fondness and sorrow. He moved over to her in three long strides and wrapped his free arm around her. "That's my girl. I want you to know... I really do love you, like my own d-daughter. I've taught you everything you need to know, and I couldn't be happier with whom you've turned out to be... You might just save this twisted organization yet."
The girl, Lenora, scarcely a day over the age of ten years, fought back the tears forming in her eyes. For the longest time neither of them made a move, just trying to make last this final moment they had together. Neither wanted to admit it, but both knew they would likely never meet again.
Finally, the pair separated and the man walked back to the water’s edge, with the girl in tow next to him. From somewhere within the deep recesses of his cloak, the man withdrew two identical discs, which gradually grew in size until they reached a meter in diameter. They both floated beside him on tiny waves of energy, displaced by a wide cone-like formation at their base. The black vinyl circles on their surfaces reflected dimly the moonlight above.
"Please be careful out there, David." Lenora said quietly. "Don't get yourself killed."
The man nearly choked from the lump in his throat at hearing his own birth name from her, but caught himself and turned it into a light chuckle: partly out of the irony of it all, partly as a cover for the profound sadness he felt. "You too... Take good care of your little brother. He's got the same kindred spirit as you, and... I know he'll do great things if given the chance."
She nodded again as he placed his free hand on the surface of one of the vinyl discs, adjusting it slightly this way and that. The movements corresponded to a bright green holographic figure sitting between the two discs, incomprehensible to anyone but the man in control of them. Satisfied with the first number, he began adjusting the other disc, which corresponded with a series of disjointed numbers underneath the first figure, still displayed in the foreign characters.
"One last thing, Lenora." He said, taking his hand off the disc. He turned to her, and a new light filled his eyes. "When the time comes that you leave this place, go to the desert. A faded memory and old friend will be there to lend a hand."
The girl memorized this quickly, but did not have time to inquire further. The man touched the green figure lightly, and with a small throb of light, man and boy were gone, leaving the girl well and truly alone.