4338.10 · January 10, 2018 AD
First Footprints
Red dust. Absolute silence. An alien sky above an alien world. Nathan Cowdrey steps through the portal expecting—what? He doesn't know. What he finds is emptiness so complete it feels almost hostile. No life, no landmarks, no indication that anything has ever happened here. Just cliffs overlooking a grey-green sea, and a voice in his mind that knows his name. "This place is yours," it tells him. "Build wisely, Guardian." But how do you build something from nothing?
The portal deposits Nathan onto red dust beneath a sky that glows without a visible sun. The silence is so complete his own breathing sounds like intrusion. Behind him, the doorway back to Tasmania shimmers and fades. Ahead: nothing. Rock formations like broken bones. Horizons painted in ochre and rust. Not a single living thing.
He walks because standing still feels worse.
The land rises toward cliffs that drop sixty metres to a slate-grey sea. Mist clings to the water's surface. And in those depths, shapes move—dark forms drifting through the cold, evidence of life that established itself long ago and flourished without human witness.
At the cliff's edge, Nathan brushes away dust and discovers something unexpected: a smooth, glassy surface where salt and mineral have fused into something almost deliberate. Cool to the touch. Strange. Impossible to categorise.
Then the voice that isn't a voice speaks directly into his mind:
"This place is yours. Saint Phillis. Build wisely, Guardian."
The word settles into him like something he's always known. Guardian. Of what? Against what? Seth's letter mentioned choosing four others, mentioned darkness and prophecy, mentioned a man named Luke Smith who must be stopped. But here, surrounded by emptiness that pulses with potential, Nathan can only comprehend one thing:
This is real. This place exists. And somehow, it belongs to him.
