//------------------------------//
// Questions 
// Story: Advent Redemption 
// by alamais 
//------------------------------//

	

Trixie watched the human closely, as various emotions played over his face.


Gideon sighed.  "Well I guess there's an obvious first one.  Where am I?"


Trixie nodded.  "In the far north, in ancient Canadia.  Though none have truly governed this territory for centuries now, on a map it would currently fall under the claim of the Griffon Kingdoms, because of mineral rights."


He gave her a confused look.  "I meant, what planet am I on?"


He doesn't...?  "Uh...you are on Terra."


"Thank you."  He glanced at Tev.  "How did I get here?"


The Canid responded as if it was obvious.  "You made untrained use of one of the restricted magics, and the ancient strictures responded."


Another baffled look, "...strictures?"


Tev tilted his head at the human.  "You have power within you, yes?  I could feel it, as could the pony, when she examined you last night."  He gestured at Trixie, then looked perplexed.  "Do you not know of the old laws?"


Gideon shook his head.  "My training was rather...ad hoc.  And I'm beginning to think it was woefully incomplete.  Can you tell me more?"


Who trained him, them?  Tev looked at her.  She thought, you know the lore just as well as I, old lockjaw, but she spoke.  "Ah...well, long ago, long before the departure, it was decided that certain spells were far too dangerous to be cast by any but the most trusted and well-trained masters."  She glanced upwards, trying to remember how it was said in the books.  "So that any untrusted use might be judged, your people laid down responsive spells--into the very fabric of galactic space--which would draw the caster here, to the Halls of Justice."


The human looked thoughtful for a moment, and then his eyes widened.  "Wait...my people?  You mean humans?"


Trixie looked askance at him.  "Well of course, humans."  She examined him.  "D...do you really not know?"


He just gave her a bemused stare, and raised his hands in a shrug.


"This is Terra."  She blinked, remembering.  "Or...in ancient times it was simply called...Earth?"  His eyes widened, and she nodded.  "This is the home of humanity...your people's place of origin."


Gideon looked dazed, and stared at the fire for a moment.  "I...my people had ancient myths, of Earth.  Supposedly, artifacts that didn't make sense were found on my world, Edumea, decades ago.  It was claimed that they proved we came from elsewhere, that we couldn't have started out on Edumea."  He laughed humorlessly.  "But those ideas were always dismissed as crackpot stories.  The artifacts 'mysteriously disappeared' a long time ago, which was considered more proof that they were fake to begin with."


He sighed, and looked back at the pony, an eager look on his face.  "So...does that mean there are other humans here?"


"Er...no.  Sorry.  There have not been for millennia.  The books we have here are silent as to why you departed."  She paused.  "Some believe you gave up on this world."


Alouette finally spoke up, throwing a glare Trixie's way.  "Some believe it is a test."


Tev chimed in, "Others think they were chased away.  Though I cringe to think of what might cause such a power as ancient humanity was, to flee."


Gideon stared into empty space for a while.


He looks so lost.  She noticed that the clothes he wore were rather damaged, with tears and what looked like burns in various places.  I'll have to try to patch it up at some point.  Can't have him going outside in that, even once the storm dies down.


Trixie had started to think he was done asking questions, when he shook his head.  "Anyway, I have to ask, though I fear I already know the answer..."  He glanced at their surroundings.  "Is there any way for me to get back to where I came from?  Are your people still space-capable?"


She shook her head, "No, I'm afraid not.  We never were, and the humans took that knowledge and infrastructure with them when they left.  There have been the occasional pushes in that direction.  I mean, scientifically and industrially we're nowhere near attaining that, but some have proposed that heavy magic could fill in for a lot of our lacks."  She looked apologetic.  "But any time I've heard of such a proposal, it's gone exactly as far as the rulers of my people, the Princesses.  They never explain why, but for all intents and purposes, space travel is forbidden in Equestria, and we're certainly the country who'd be most qualified to try."


Gideon glowered a bit, and muttered, "Perhaps I'll have to have a conversation with these Princesses, some day."  She felt her eyes widen, and he glanced at her, and turned a bit red.  "Uhh...I think that came out a little more aggressive-sounding than I intended.  I just..."  He sighed.  "Well I guess I can't actually say I want to go home, but...I'm worried about people I left behind."


She smiled, "Perfectly understandable.  And perhaps you should talk to the Princesses, maybe you can convince them to change their minds."  She pondered this.  "Even though they are thousands of years old, I've heard of it happening.  They've generally managed not to become too fixed in their beliefs."


He gave her a strange look, and then stared into the fire for a bit.  He then glanced at Alouette, and spoke, looking a little nervous.  "Ah, forgive me if this is rude, but, after what you just said..."  He cleared his throat.  "Well, I have to say, to my eyes, at least one of you," he glanced at the griffon again, "looks...artificial.  Like a designed, created being...?"


Alouette sat up, looking proud.  "Of course."  She gestured around the room.  "All of us, all the sentient races on Terra now, were uplifted to their current intelligence, and sculpted to their present form..." here, she peered closely at him "...by humans."  She settled her ruffled chest feathers, and lay back down.


Gideon stared at her for a while, "How?  How could they have such power?"


Tev responded, "The books say only that a combination of metal and mind was used to shape the children of humanity.  Your people have no great technology?"


"Well, we were advanced, certainly."  The human looked thoughtful.  "Especially our weapons.  But something like designing a being at the genetic level, for intelligence, or combining two species...even from an existing template, it would have been impossible."


Trixie frowned, "You used a forbidden spell, so your people must have powerful magics, yes?"


He shook his head.  "That I know of, I, and recently, a friend, are the only people from my world to have ever used...magic.  And..."  He looked almost ashamed.  "Everything I know, everything I can do, is...at best, neutral.  Mostly destructive.  Fine control like that, to shape a body-"


Tev interjected, "Not merely a body, but spirit, and soul.  You made us entirely what we are."


Gideon stared at him.  "I...I can't imagine that kind of precision, or power.  I can't even imagine the kind of control Trixie showed while making breakfast."


Drat, he's going to make me blush again.  She just smiled.


Alouette sounded reverent, "It was the power of gods, and they were and are rightfully worshiped as such."


Gideon gave her an alarmed look.  "Well I want no part of that.  I am...just a man.  I've failed so many times...so many people.  I am no god."


The griffon looked away.  Tev looked thoughtful, "Mmm..."


Trixie had a small insight, he is afraid of his power, but said nothing.  For a while, the only sound was the crackling of the fire.


***


"Well."  The human’'s interjection made all of the others jump.  Tev looked back to him as he was glancing around the fire.  "I'm tired of being the inquisitor, for now.  There's more I want to know, but perhaps it would be better later, one-on-one."  He looked around.  "But how about you guys?  Anything you want to ask me?"


Tev pondered this, while the pony, her tone somewhat accusatory, asked, "What were you doing before you came here?  Why did you cast a restricted spell?"


The human paused, looking a bit traumatized.  "I...I was fighting a very powerful enemy.  It came out of nowhere, and had power that...rivaled mine at the very least.  It injured...probably killed...a very good friend.  One of the few I had left.  I and another friend, the other human magic user, we fought it, but it was so powerful.  We were barely able to hold it off."  He rubbed his eyes with a hand.  "It was preparing to cast something huge, and...just like other times, I suddenly felt a new ability flow into me.  I didn't know what it was, but had no choice but to try to use it."  He stared into space for a moment, then his face hardened.  "I had no choice.  I had to do whatever I could."


The pony looked somewhat mollified.


Tev thought, she probably thinks his hesitation was simply due to reluctance to kill, but I do not think so.  There is something else, some other reason it was so horrible.


He decided not to press the matter, but instead had his own question formulated.  "When you speak of humans, I see a sadness in you.  You referred to your people in the past tense, you say you cannot go home, and you seemed excited when you thought there might be others of your kind here.  Why is this?"  Perhaps he is an exile?


The human stared at him, eyes empty, and Tev began to wonder just how many horrors this being had witnessed.  Then, a chuckle, "Boy, you guys really know how to pick 'em."  He put his head in his hand for a moment, then looked back to the fire.  "As I said, my people lived on a planet called Edumea.  We had been there for thousands of years.  Now I realize we must have merely been recovering from some sort of post-colonial disaster, but we thought we were alone in the universe.  I don't know how we lost so much knowledge."


He stretched his legs out towards the fire.  "We'd recently been through a...what I guess in context I would now call a civil war.  Two factions of the same people, fighting and killing over ideas.  I was on the winning side, but the damage done to the other side was not so great, at least compared to some other wars.  We were...I'd like to think we were healing.  Perhaps becoming better than we were before--cooperating, moving out into space, hell, I worked side-by-side with ex-enemies."


He speaks as if at a memorial, trying to assure that the deceased was a worthy person.  Tev began to feel even more nervous about how this tale would end.


"I'd like to think war with ourselves was a thing of the past."  He looked up at the ceiling, but did not see it.  "Then, one day, about...well about six months ago, now--we had visitors.  Alien visitors.  People from another planet.  Aurelians, they call themselves.  It was so exciting, and terrifying...and then just terrifying."  He closed his eyes.  "They told us they knew of humans.  Had been seeking my people since they took to the stars.  But now that they had found them, they were betrayed from within.  One of their own sent a message to a different race, the En'Kull."


He suddenly opened his eyes, and stood up, pacing around the room, slowly.  "For a while, I blamed the Aurelians.  If they'd not been looking for us, we would have been left alone, right?"  He clenched his fists, but then relaxed.  "...but, having seen the resources of the En'Kull, or the Seekers, as they are also called, I doubt we had much more time either way.  My people were foolishly broadcasting into space.  Actively seeking other life.  We were...optimistic."  He sighed.  "At least with the Aurelians there, we weren't fighting completely alone."


He stopped, staring at the door to the outside, and crossed his arms.  "The...the Seekers.  Their fleet arrived shortly after our first contact with the Aurelians.  They attacked without hesitation, destroying the Aurelians' ship and our only major space station within the first two hours.  They captured my brother there...I still don't know what it was they were looking for, but there was an entire caste of Seekers who were...examining humans.  They would take the ones who met their criteria, and kill the rest.  As the station went down, I made it to the ground in an escape pod, and continued to fight there."


"I...I suppose I should be proud of my people."  He swallowed.  "We put up a pretty good fight, in space and on the ground, considering.  But the Seeker forces were...overwhelming.  Their technology was far in advance of ours."  He stared, appearing to be reliving the horror.  "They obliterated us.  Destroying our military, our defenses.  Then showering our world with small asteroids, destroying cities and any ships that tried to escape.  And finally, they hit Edumea with a small moon they'd towed in from the outer system.  It shattered the planet.  Nothing on the surface could have survived."


He glanced back at the people around the fire, and retook his seat on the floor.  "Seven hundred million people lived on Edumea.  The small ship I found my way to--small enough to evade the asteroids and be missed by the Seeker sweeps--held the only three survivors I know of.  Myself, my fiance, and...the pilot...a friend."  He wrapped his arms around himself, and fell silent.


Tev found he could not speak.  He could not even conceive of death, of murder, on such a scale.  It was the griffon who spoke up first.  "Why?"  She sounded hoarse, and physically pained as she spoke.  "Why would...how could anybody do something like that?"


The human furrowed his brow.  "I guess the best answer would be that they are an entire race of religious fanatics.  As far as I can tell, they are all raised on tales that humans are some sort of usurpers of galactic power.  And that our crimes warrant our annihilation."  He looked at the griffon.  "Fanatical devotion to any belief can be quite dangerous.  To the Seekers, murdering innocent humans is not only right, but obligatory.  We are vermin."


The room fell silent once again, until the pony spoke.  "So...there are but three humans left?"


"No."  He sighed.  "My fiance died in a crash landing a few weeks later.  The friend, Marin...she was left behind when I came here.  In a building full of Seekers.  She had her own powers, so...I can hope she managed to escape."  He hugged his arms around himself.  "But it's entirely feasible that I'm the last Edumean human alive.  Of course, there may be other colonies out there, that the Seekers haven't found yet."


Tev watched him hunch over, and decided that was enough for now.  "You may be alone, human, but we are with you, and we will do what we can to help you.  What do you wish to do now?"


The human was silent for a while, and then looked at him.  "I...I don't know.  I guess I would like to see these books you speak of, if that's okay.  I'd like to know more about the history of my people."


He nodded, "The libraries are above.  I will show you."