On the entire planet of Dezoris only one valley was warm.

The Myst valley held a secret that only few knew about and fewer still understood. Rune Walsh spent quite a lot of time there as Algo's spiritual guardian, keeping a watchful eye on Dezoris and the people within it, whilst carefully refining his spell casting art. Rune was not too keen on going back into cryogenic hibernation like his previous four incarnations had done so before him, but the magician knew that the espers needed him badly as an ideal, a high-standing concept to put their faith and hopes into, rather than a physical being. If he stayed in the Mansion for too long the immaculate image of the Lutz would eventually crumble. He was not a perfect person, he would do more good to his people if he were hidden, absent for a long while.

Rune had never much liked the Mansion anyway. He had been brought there as a young child and raised to be a proper incarnation; for the longest time he had known nothing else. The Myst valley was so much better in the fact that it was warm and friendly, secret to the world and protected by the spirit of an old friend. Rune spent long days and nights there sleeping surrounded by the furry closeness of numerous musk cats, training his body and mind in the mornings and meditating in the afternoons, looking over the two worlds and also the terrain of his own spirit. The evenings were the times that Rune looked forward to most of all, filled with hour upon hour of enlightening conversation, for the old man of the Myst valley had over two thousand years of accumulated wit to share.

Warmth about the valley, a place to stay, a sleeping musk cat curled up in his lap (that definitely brought his memory back a few thousand years into the past), and good company. These were only a few of the thousands of things that he had fought for in the last war against the darkness, but these were the things that brought him comfort and were what he had honestly earned. It was the beginning of a new millennia, a time of great peace.

Yet peace does not fall upon a civilization overnight, it is a slow and steady process, a struggle, just as a moth struggles to free itself from a discarded cocoon. Wars were still to be fought on a much smaller scale, and although the battles were to be miniscule in comparison to the fight for Algo's future, won three years past, it made them no less deadly. Perhaps it made them deadlier, because of the false sense of security that they spun. He did not know it at the time, but Rune was slated to suffer more than he had ever suffered before, more than he could ever possibly imagine. In a time of great peace, the Lutz was fated to be brought down humbly to his knees.

It was all just a matter of time.

Time, and space.

It started with a feeling. It was nothing more than an odd nuance around about the time that he woke up in his bedroll during the break of the day, in a small chamber of the valley that he increasingly referred to as his hermitage. He had brought minimal provisions and possessions with him not because a vow of poverty would give him a greater scope of mind, but because the esper couldn't be damned carrying a hundred and one things with him when he went roving all over the planet. Rune had his stave, a couple of changes of clothing, toiletries, some curative items and food, a blanket, a few other trinkets and lastly a little something that the native Dezorians called a billy set.

In the morning Rune filled it with water as he usually did and reawakened the fire with a brief wave of his hand, the dead ashes and half-burnt wood erupting into fiery life again. As the water started to bring to the boil the esper tossed in a handful of tea leaves and yawned, waiting for the light of the Algo star to creep into the outer valley and bring with it its warmth. It had been many mornings in which he had performed this sleepy ritual, and sometimes, if not half the time, he would be unable to remember what day it was. The valley was beautiful but it had that kind of effect on people, for it was all too easy to lose track of the time.

It was the third year of the third millennium, of that Rune was quite certain. So many millennia and yet so little time, it made him feel young and tremendously old at the same time. He stood and left the safety of his cavern overlooking the outside of the valley. As soon as he did a cold and chilly wind slapped him in the face, leaving the sudden flush of rosy red in his cheeks. The wind certainly stung today, it erased all traces of sleep from his body in an instant.

A limitless mountain range stretched out high above Rune's head, not only peaked but blanketed with snow, ice clinging to the slopes like a second skin. Dezoris. His home. Rune brushed his unbound hair out of his face and smiled, turning back towards his cavern and entering it again. He had an odd buzzing feeling in the back of his head that he just barely registered, but that was nothing bad enough for him to fret over. A few minutes later he returned to his watchful post, this time with a small chipped cup of steaming tea in his hands. He was waiting for it, waiting for it all to begin.

Algo rose over the crest of the mountain ranges. It was already bright morning upon some of the flatter areas of Dezoris, but the Myst valley had to wait in order to receive its token sunrise. It was worth the wait. A bright aura of golden light touched upon the outline of the mountain and grew, swelling up to a glistening halo, the ice on the mountainsides reflecting the light from the sun. The sky above it was lightening and turned into a wide smear or orange-reds and pinks. The clouds were soaking full of that faded colour.

Rune became mindful of an old saying he had heard years ago, when he had been younger and exploring Motavia with an inexperienced Alys Bragwin by his side. They must have been in an old stock town back then, probably at some place near Nalya where the land had once been fertile. The sheep shepherds had a saying, an old wives tale that had kept them righteous when the superstition came true. Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.

He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, taking a sip of his scalding hot tea. It was nonsense, of course, and only the shepherds had believed such silly tales. But was Rune not a shepherd of his own variety, except that his flock was that of the esper people, no, maybe all the people of Algo? Rune smiled guiltily around the rim of his teacup, if he started thinking like that he would turn into one of the boring old dullards that he so despised. If he began to believe in old wives tales he might as well move onto tea leaf reading as well. He looked down into the bottom of his cup. All he saw were clumps of green mush. Good.

He flung those dregs over the edge of the balcony with the quick flick of a wrist, resolving to get properly changed and begin his physical training within the hour, intent to get his body all warmed up before the harsher cold set in. Rune straightened up from leaning against the cave mouth and heard an angry yowl emanate from beyond the lower ridge, a hissing and spitting sound following afterwards.

An orange musk cat leapt over the small edge of the balcony after paddling up from the concealed path that stretched down into the interior of the valley. It had left a trial of tiny paw prints behind it as it walked. The cat's usually proud long ears were flattened and drooping against its skull, clumps of strained tea leaves clinging to its fur. It looked at Rune reproachfully as it reached the safety of the cave's mouth, settling down onto its haunches. It seemed to be none too impressed.

Rune rarely saw the musk cats leave the safety of their warm valley. He didn't usually get visitors, if he wanted to talk to any of the cats he had to go and see them himself. This cat meowed in annoyance and began to groom itself, trying to wash out the tea leaves and the warm water that would soon turn cold. "That's a fine way to say good morning." It said in a huff, licking one of its forepaws and cleaning behind its ears.

"I didn't see you there." Rune answered in his usual tone; cold, aloof and slightly sarcastic. Even living the life of a hermit wouldn't be enough to drain that particular brand of haughtiness from his veins. It was the truth however, he hadn't known the cat was there until he had heard the yowling. Being the Lutz made him a perceptive person, but not so early in the mornings. He squatted a bit, lessening the height between them. "What're you doing up here so early? Did you come to see the sunrise?"

The cat opened its eyes and blinked at him. The thin slits of its eyes dilated a little in the darker shadow of the cave. There was a fire inside but it didn't banish the low darkness, rather, it caused the flickering shadows to dance. "No, I was sent here by the old man as a messenger. I came all the way up from his chamber myself. He wants to see you right away. It's supposed to be terribly urgent."

Urgent enough to break Rune's deep-rooted schedule? He always met with his old friend in the evenings and not in the mornings. Whatever it was, it was important enough to send this cat out of the inner Myst valley, important enough not to be able to wait until nightfall. The esper considered carefully, reaching out and pulling away a soft string of tea leaf that was dangling from the tip of the musk cat's right ear. "Did he say what it was about?" He asked, curious.

"All he said was that you would already know about it by the time that I reached you." The cat meowed, rising to all four legs once it was clean and fresh again. It wasn't snowing, but the musk cat seemed to be none too pleased about the layer of cold snow that was already blanketing the ground. It numbed its sensitive little paws. Rune wore a guarded expression, unable to confirm what the cat had said. He did have a very odd feeling this morning, but that was all it was - a feeling. "Are you coming?" The messenger pressed.

Without saying anything Rune turned and walked back into his hermitage at a leisurely pace. The musk cat knew better than to rush the reverent Fifth so it waited anxiously out in the snow, contenting itself at the moment by staring off into the spectacular virgin sky. It was rare that such bloody sunrises graced the planet of ice. It must be some kind of omen, the cat thought, a bad one.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting Rune emerged from the cave neatly brushed and washed, wearing a clean set of magician's clothing. His laconia stave was held proudly in his right hand. "Let's go." He said sternly, walking towards the edge of the crest that concealed the path. He waved the ball of his staff in the air slightly in order to attract the little messenger's attention. "I'm not going to keep the old man waiting."

All the cat could really do was nod silently and follow him, trailing from behind.

†††

Myau wasn't sitting down patiently and awaiting Rune's arrival as he usually did, curled up upon his pedestal with his soft yellow paws tucked under his chest. This time Rune met the elder of the musk cats as he was pacing about the room anxiously, wandering from one side to the other in deep thought and then repeating the process over and over again. The smaller, younger musk cats that he protected had gathered into one of the corners of the chamber and huddled together like they were young kittens once more, their bright eyes peeking out at their leader in worry and dismay. Myau was calmer now than he had been before; his fur no longer stood on end and he had stopped talking to himself, knowing that once Rune arrived he'd have somebody better to converse with.

He had been dusted with light snow when he had entered the inner caverns of the Myst vale, but by the time that Rune reached Myau's chamber the snow had already melted upon him refreshingly, giving him both a wet cloak and a greater sharpness of mind. He had had an hour to wonder about all the reasons for which Myau might have called him for and his head was filled with all the many possibilities, most of them bad ones. As Rune stepped into the chamber and saw his friend his fears were instantly confirmed, because nobody could look as Myau did and still be bearing good news.

Rune didn't know whether to dispense with the pleasantries or not, concerning the situation. The musk cat that had guided him here wandered from Rune's heel towards the corner of the room containing the other cats, wishing to cuddle up again its brothers and sisters and never go out into the snowfields again. The esper didn't notice his companion's departure. He clicked the end of his stave against the ground to catch everybody's attention, then smiled reassuringly. "Good morning, old friend. You wanted to speak to me? Here I am."

The ancient musk cat turned his head towards the esper almost hungrily and then seemed to relax, the tensions in his shoulders loosening. Myau smiled and then walked away from him, climbing the small steps made for the littler members of his clan. He circled the pedestal a few times and sat down carefully, silently bidding Rune to approach him. He needed to keep his composure over this, for he had already startled his innocent underlings. Once Rune knew what he knew no doubt the magician would act as Myau had, in which case the winged musk cat needed to be prepared to calm Rune down.

"Noah." He acknowledged in a deep and matured voice, one that did not quite match with his soft and fuzzy outer shell. He lowered his head a little in an impromptu version of a bow, closing his eyes for a moment. They were both very old friends, but because of their high-standing position they had to treat each other with the utmost respect. Sometimes it felt like a mighty big nuisance. "Come forward and take a seat. I am sorry if my messenger woke you up and for calling you here so early in the morning, but I think we urgently need to talk. It is very important."

That was basically what the messenger had said, but coming directly from Myau the information seemed all the more serious. He had never seen Myau pace about like that, too. It was unnerving. Rune did as was instructed and sat down before the steps that led up to Myau's altar, laying his staff down by his side. It meant he had to look up a little in order to speak to Myau eye to eye, but he was used to sitting here in the evenings and talking with him. "Please don't call me Noah." He said softly as he got settled down. "You know I hate that. My name is Rune. So what's up? You looked like somebody's walked all over your grave."

Such impertinence! Rune never changed. Well, he guessed he could tolerate it because he often slipped back into using the name of his predecessor. At least they were used to each other enough not to take offense. Myau would have raised an eyebrow at Rune if he had one. The blue-haired magician seemed to have no awareness of the situation at hand. That was really strange. Of all the people in the Algo solar system Rune should have been the first one to spot the problem, not the last. It was only early in the morning, yes, but had he become that detached after only three short years? "Something is walking over Algo's grave, something with very heavy feet. Don't you feel it in your head, in your heart, in your very bones?"

Huh, a grave. That was pretty much what Algo was these days, two dying planets orbiting an apathetic star. It wasn't much, but it was theirs. The solemnity of Myau's words made it sound like Algo's termination was drawing near. That was silly, though. This was the new millennium, a period of growth. The notion that he seemed to be ignorant didn't please him much, either. People usually didn't get away with suggesting something like that to him. Rune shook his head and in doing so was reminded of the faint alien buzzing in the back of his skull. "I don't feel much of anything terrible that you seem to be sensing. All I have is this really strange feeling, sort of like déjà vu but just not quite."

Myau laughed. It was not quite the right time or place for laughter but if it didn't lighten the mood at least it offered the elder some relief. He watched one of the smaller and younger musk cats from the colony leave its safe corner where all the others were hiding and approached Rune quietly, trying not to make a sound. It probably wanted some attention from the familiar esper, and it was too much of a kitten to know that he was receiving special counsel. "Déjà vu is probably the best term that I can think of right now. Déjà vu and possibly precognition. Have you seen the vast sea of Algo, Rune? The reservoir beyond this physical world wherein each individual is only a single drop of water?"

Rune nodded without hesitation. "Of course I have. It's my job to make sure that reservoir doesn't run dry or taint. The bad weather and the black energy wave kept it pitifully low, but in a few decades things will slowly begin to improve again, once the new generations are born." He wasn't quite speaking as a metaphor. In his meditations he had indeed seen that sea somewhere within the collective unconsciousness of life, had tasted it, had been immersed in it. He himself was part of it, just a tiny water droplet, but so were they all.

The musk kitten was sniffing Rune's cloak curiously. Without thinking much on what he was doing he picked it up gently and plopped the affectionate creature into his lap. The kitten squeaked as it was handled but calmed itself quickly when it realised that it wasn't in any form of danger. On the contrary, it started to purr contentedly as Rune began to stroke its orange fur. "And when was the last time you looked deeply into that sea? Was it during your last meditation session? Did you have that strange feeling back then?" Myau asked.

That had been early yesterday afternoon, and no, he had felt perfectly fine. All had been well. Rune narrowed his eyes a little, focussing. There had been nothing then, just calmness and a great peace. The waters had been cool and still. Besides, had there been the slightest disruption of that stillness Rune knew that he would have felt it, right in his gut. He was extremely sensitive to that sort of thing. It was what he had been bred for, after all. "I didn't feel a thing then and I don't think that would be the problem now. I can sense turbulence in the reservoir weeks before it actually happens. If that was the case I would have been informed ages ago."

"You wear your pride like a blindfold sometimes." Was Myau's answer and it got under Rune's skin a little more deeply than it should have. The winged musk cat shifted forward a bit, planting his paws on the first step of the altar. "Now is one of those times. I didn't suggest at all that there was any kind of turbulence in Algo's life stream, I was merely referencing it in general. But there is something horribly, terribly wrong with it. Perhaps you should go into your meditation now and see. I could explain it to you, but it's really something that you need to see for yourself."

The kitten lifted its head up from Rune's knee and mewed softly, wondering why the magician had stopped petting it. "A blindfold, hm?" He said in an unreadable tone, having clearly taken offense but not sure what to do from there. Myau was staggeringly old and in ways was far more perceptive than Rune could ever be in his lifetime, but that didn't make him nothing either. He had five generations of information stored in his memory and that made him pretty perceptive, too. "I can't be completely blind if I have this feeling that I have. Let me look into this. Give me perfect silence, please."

The old man of the Myst valley gave a firm glance at the cats huddled in the corner and the kitten in Rune's lap, a look that clearly said that if they interrupted the Lutz's meditation they would have to answer directly to him. The musk cats knew better, anyway. Even the kitten buried itself deeper into Rune's lap and mewed no more. Myau didn't know how long it would take for Rune to see the truth, but once he did he was certain that they would all know straight away.

Rune closed his eyes and let out a breath, relaxing. Meditation was both a very simple and complex procedure, something that varies from person to person. Many neophyte espers first learnt when they began their training was not to focus hard but to remain passive, not to seek but to be the one that is sought. Rune was a thoroughly impatient man, but for this he had to take his time. It was good for the mind, anyway. He slowed down his breathing as far and as deep as it could go without him having to audibly gasp for breath. Slow and silent, patient and relaxed. The thoughts of Myau and the other musk cats gradually left his mind.

When the outside world became dim he knew then it was time to begin. Rune began his trance in his own unique way, visualizing himself in a world of pitch blackness and night, sitting down much in the same way that he was doing now. He could see himself so vividly, so clearly, as if he were a casual observer looking upon himself. Then, slowly and smoothly, he began to erase himself from his mind. He needed to lose his sense of self, his physical body for the time being, so that he could see beyond the world that was. Bodies were a hindrance, please leave them at the door, the clerk will take them off your hands, thank you very much.

He smiled a little than inwardly scolded himself for it. He'd lose his relaxation if he started thinking about jokes now. Back to the erasure. Rune watched himself disappear bit by bit and allowed himself to be hypnotized by it, by the slowness and the detachment of the feeling. His feet went first, then his legs and hips, fading out as the darkness ate his flesh and blood alive. His middle, his shoulders and arms, then finally his head. Rune Walsh was gone, and that was good, because the something that was affiliated with Rune still remained. It was part of Rune yet not Rune at the same time. He had effectively escaped from his own identity.

Experimentally he tested to see if he could feel his arms and legs. He tried to scratch his nose. He sent the same impulses through his mind as he usually did but received nothing, no effect from the cause. He couldn't feel his legs, either. It wasn't quite a numbness that he was experiencing, there was just nothing there to experience. All was blackness now, beyond his own mind.

He moved forward and ascended, away from the dark niche that he was inhabiting. There was no way to judge speed or distance when there was nothing around or within him, but soon that would change. He was a mote on the bottom of the sea bed, an air bubble racing upwards to break against the surface. How long could he exist like this? Forever, if necessary. Time was strange there, warped, or not existing at all. The only thing that was certain was the rushing light above him, a sparkle that grew and grew as he traveled through the astral plane. It was light, yes, but not in the physical sense of the word. It was the light of other consciousness, of other lives unique to his.

Suddenly it was upon him and he was there. It had the same frightening, shocking effect on him as if he had hit a brick wall racing along at a hundred miles an hour. The only difference between that and what he felt was that he had somehow survived the impact and was beyond it, on the other side of that great and shining light.

There it was. Algo's sea of souls. It was everybody who had a consciousness and a mind, grouped together to become a vast body of moving water. His friends were in there somewhere, everyone that he knew. The shock that he had felt was his own tiny drop of life separating itself from the living sea and rising above it, so that he could look down below and observe everything that he needed to see.

He saw.

He paused.

And then he understood.

From where he had been sitting in Myau's chamber Rune flinched as if struck from a physical blow and then immediately bolted to his feet. The shock of leaving his meditation in so sharp a way was the same as shaking awake a sleepwalker. His mind had trouble coping with so sudden a reentry that his body tried to compensate for that and got all tangled up in his neurological impulses. More simply put, Rune stood up as fast as he could, groaned, lost his balance and then fell over sideways. The musk kitten that had been curled up in his lap squeaked as it unexpectedly tumbled into the air. Fortunately it landed on its feet and scuttled away, agitated.

Rune's nose started to bleed. It was what sometimes happened when he was startled straight out of his trances. He took a moment for his mind to become properly acquainted with his body and identity again, then he picked himself up carefully from the floor. He wiped a few drops of blood from his nose and upper lip. Why did he have to be so stupid and react like that? He should have kept his calm, and Myau must have known that it was going to happen. Maybe that was why the old musk cat had partially left his altar and was looking over his friend with concern.

"From your reaction I trust you saw it." Said Myau gravely as he helped the shocked esper to maintain his balance by grabbing a fold of the esper's pale cloak and holding him in place. Rune sagged against Myau's orange shoulder but then found his strength again and stood under his own power. The cat had been worried about his friend because in the very deepest part of Rune's meditation the Lutz had stopped breathing. That was meant to happen, of course, but there was still always the slight chance that he might not start up again.

"I saw it." Rune rasped, his throat feeling amazingly dry. "For a second I didn’t see anything at all and I thought all was well. Everything looked calm and tranquil, but it was like looking at an optical illusion from the corner of the eye. At first you see nothing, but then something in your vision shifts and then you can see it all. Myau, holy hell, what could it all mean?" He asked, dazed and worried. The feeling he had had in his head had not just been a mere feeling, it had been an alarm bell. A siren.

Myau let go of Rune's cloak and padded forward a little, his white wings rustling as he stared absently at the entrance of the chamber. The way his long ears quivered seemed to suggest that he was thinking very deeply. This wasn't his area of expertise, but he felt very involved all the same. "I couldn't tell you." He admitted at last, sounding lost. "I can't see things as clearly as you can, Rune. The only reason I can see anything at all is because of my age. Probably many other ancient souls in Algo have woken up to feelings just like ours. They may not understand what it means, but that is not my point. I'm too old to do anything about it. I've felt that so greatly today, more than any other day in my life."

The reverent Fifth felt that he could empathize with his friend. Still, he was unable to come up with any words that would console him. Sometimes silences worked best. Rune knelt and picked up his fallen stave. He experienced a small rush of vertigo but managed to overcome it easily. His head ached slightly. "How long was I out for?" He questioned, trying to change the subject. This was a topic that could not be ignored, but he wanted to know anyway.

"Two hours."

Rune nodded appreciatively. "That sounds about right." He muttered quietly. In truth it had only felt like five or ten minutes to him, but in the outside world time would have passed a lot faster. Some espers would spend days in meditation or even longer, and come back to weak dehydrated bodies starved of food and water. He had even heard of some cases where an esper's body would die of neglect during a very long running meditation, so that when the esper returned to the physical plane there would be no temple of flesh left to house him. Not even Rune knew where their spirits went after that.

Turning around again to face him, Myau asked the most important question of the day. "What are you going to do?" He asked, making the esper stare down at the ground in thought. "What can you do, after everything has been looked into and debated? It may look very strange, but is this really a problem at all? Will people be hurt from it? Will Algo be hurt from it?"

His answer to all of Myau's questions were the same. Rune looked uncertain. "I don't know." He replied. "All I know is that there is no disruption in Algo's life stream. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, but the size of Algo's life stream has ballooned way out of proportion. In only one night! How the hell is that possible? There must be about…" he paused, calculating, "fifty thousand new souls in this star system at the very most, thirty thousand at the very least. There's no way Motavia or Dezoris could cope with that kind of population boom."

"So the questions aren't 'what is going on?', or 'what has happened?', because we already know that now. The questions are where did these new souls come from, what they are doing here, and what can be done about it." Myau concluded. "You need more information."

He was already thinking of a way to get at it. He may have been the most important protector of the two remaining worlds, but that didn't make him the only one. There were six others scattered between Motavia and Dezoris, and two in space. It was these latter two that Rune thought of most of all. It was their duty to monitor this sort of thing as well, not Rune alone. With their advanced technology maybe they had uncovered some information that his abilities had missed and vice versa. It was a long shot, but it was still worth a try. He didn't have any other ideas at the moment.

"I'm leaving." Rune announced loudly to Myau, trying to hold onto his sudden resolution. "I'm going to head down to Tyler, maybe there'll be something for me there. Staying in this little valley any longer won't accomplish anything." There was no time to go back to his hermitage and pack, he needed to leave straight away. Already a few hours of the morning had been wasted in his meditation. The sooner that he uncovered this mystery the better. He strode forward, passing Myau and making his intentions perfectly clear.

The giant musk cat watched him go. "I wish I could do more for you." He said to Rune's back. As one of the esper's oldest acquaintances Myau felt like he wasn't living up to their friendship's expectations.

Rune stopped in his tracks for a moment and then smiled. What Myau had said amused him. "Please," he said in almost a laugh, "you've already done more than enough for me. Thanks for letting me stay here for so long, and thanks for helping to take the blindfold away from my eyes. See you later, old friend."

He left Myau's chamber on those words. Although the winged musk cat did eventually see the blue-haired magician again, that was the last time that he saw Rune Walsh as a whole individual, both physically and spiritually. A lot can happen in a short amount of time.