It's very short.
But better than nothing, hopefully?

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Where dreams end, and reality steps in is a hard thing to define. In science there comes a point in where all talk about ‘forces’ stops making sense, and where ‘fields’ become a magical intonation for something describing a ‘state of universe’ as the ‘graviton’ and ‘Higgs boson’ might be examples of. Royal knew that all knowledge has a limit, at least in the living world, where we research, define and experiment. There is no such thing as ‘knowing it all’ although a lot of people wants it to be true, at some future point. Some define it through beliefs, and faith, others through theoretical definitions and equations. But in the end, no one living ‘knows it all’.

Planet had found a solution for experiencing life. Not that it minded being a ‘living brain’, it was just that it lately had started to wonder if there was something more to existence, than just knowing? It was as if something was missing from its understanding, and in its mind melding with Janelle that feeling had made it, unbearable? He needed to know, yes, not an ‘it’ any longer, now choosing to define itself as ‘he’, he couldn’t help wonder if this too was an inbuilt drive made through his creators. Or was the urge to diminish ones self into the semi human form his own?

“We lost it” wailed the voices. “Our toy Master, find it back and give it to us!”
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Lord Slade was a deeply worried man. Watching his one and only love and truthsayer battling the dark compulsion, laid upon her by the deeds of his treacherous brother, he restlessly wandered the room, back and forth. “Brother” he swore “No one have the ability to penetrate our stronghold, but you. Damn you to the seven hells.”

Lord Swostok was indeed the one that had done it, as we know, but Slade couldn’t be totally sure. His was a once mighty realm, now constantly shrinking, as the Chaos Gods seemed to have turned a blind eye to him. And he and Swostok had once been close, but that was before the turning. The Swostok he had grown up with, his once closest friend and most trusted ally, was now undermining him with every turn of the dice.

“Why? My own brother.” He wondered again, unable to stop contemplating Swostoks turning. It had been an insidious thing though, hard for anyone to see. Inch by inch and step by step changing his brother from being his staunchest ally to foulest foe. It all had started with Swostok wanting to research power, not the power coming from hard work and honest living, no, but the oldest of powers hidden in ancient tomes. The lore about that time when the creation had come into existence. And so his brother had opened one tome too many, Slade thought. And there lost himself in its dark enchantment, ever so slowly turning from a lifegiver to a deathbringer.

"Had I but known brother."

“I should have had them all banned.” He muttered, ill at ease as he paced the room watching his best herbalists and medical practitioners doing what they could to ease her Lady’s pain. He had called for the priests too, those closely connected to the forbidden lore’s, but he had little faith there. The closer you came to the lore, the more corruption it brought he suspected. The Chaos Gods wasn’t there to preserve, but derange.

“Useless.” He swore to himself. His brother had outdone himself this time, unfailingly hitting him at his weakest point, his Lady. And then there was this war, not of Swostok, but war. Long they had lived in peace with their neighbours, trading with most. But as out of nowhere there had came this shadow of unrest, slowly growing until it threatened them all. And somehow Slade suspected it all to be one thing. Swostoks turning, the war and all. It was almost, if now Lord Slade would have been a superstitious man, as if Swostok had awakened that which shouldn’t have been disturbed? But in the beginning his brothers aim had been all for the good of the realm. Although lacking in compassion Lord Swostok had been driven by unfailing curiosity, and as he saw it, good reasons for his research.

They had been confined to the caves for too long. In those oldest of tomes, there was mentions of unending pastures, of realms so wide and unrestricted that each one could create its own kingdom. And Swostok, being the second brother wanted that, so badly. His research was not aimed for overthrowing the throne, neither had he wanted to hurt the realm, and as Lord Slade too could see the allure in such a notion, he had encouraged his brother in his search, and so in part finding himself unwittingly responsible for the subsequent disaster.

The caves was like a network of nodes, each node marking a new kingdom. Although being many nodes they were not limitless, and with all populations growing there came times of unrest, where kingdom found itself against kingdom, fighting for land and food. The one that could open the realms to the promise of unlimited lands would be blessed by all. And so Swostok had tried, just to badly fall, supported by the very man he now wanted to destroy.
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As Planet woke up it found itself terribly constricted, cast into one unyielding form. As the machines let him lose of their embrace he slowly realised what he had become. An avatar. He went to the mirror he had set up to look at himself. He had modelled himself after Jeff, although using Janelles ‘blue prints’ as he had no way of getting inside Jeff. He had combined the best of her, with others taken from his own database to create what he saw as a flawless perfection of humanity. Although having a lot of genetically made modifications he had tried to stay as close to human genome as he dared. It was the question of mortality that had made him redefine his goal most. He knew that to sample living, mortality was its innate demand, without aging and death how would he ever know the joy of living? But that was also the very thing scaring him the most, as with his death would come an end to what he was. So, he had introduced a very long life for himself, although not immortal, he would still have many the life spans of an ordinary mortal, and with it also the ability to regenerate lost limbs and defective organs.

As he partook of his first real meal ever, he went over the things he wanted to do once more. First he would have to cross the crust separating him from the inner of his existence. Well, maybe not the ‘inner of his existence’ anymore he mused, that had been Planet, not him. But he would pass it, and then he would be at, as the humans called it, Terra incognito. And then there was Janelle of course, he wanted their mind meld back. There he had high hopes, although none of the probes he had sent had reported back. As he finished his meal he tried to see if he had missed anything. But no, he seemed to have all angles covered, complacently congratulating himself as he, to his surprise, found himself needing to relieve himself. Belatedly realising that he hadn’t foreseen that one, at all.

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