The Domains and Boundaries

Author’s Note: I suggest reading the story titled “ANANDA” prior to reading this one. Else some of the characters may not make a whole lot of sense.

In the land of Haven, a modern republic focused heavily on science and advancements, lived a king by the name of Edward. Although the monarchy remained only in the name, the king still had political power and served as more of a counselor to the president of the republic. Edward was on a state visit to the kingdom of Lancaster, a more old-school style of rule where monarchy and military power prevailed.

“Sir? The trade offer has been rewritten, would you like to review it?” Edward shook his head “I trust in the secretary of foreign affairs. If he approved the revision, there would be no need for my approval.” His assistant bowed and headed out “Yes sir, the dinner with his royal highness Charles also demands an appropriate attire, we have prepared a few options for you.” Edward nodded “I will try them on later” his assistant turned to leave, the hum of engines soothed Edward back to sleep. 

A loud ‘ding’ awoke him from his slumber, it was time for landing. As the plane made a safe landing the king was to change into royalty attire befitting the dinner with the king Charles of Lancaster. Edward was simple, he did not fancy the outfits he was often forced to wear ‘but a status needs to be represented visually’ he reminded himself of what his father always said. 

On the way to the royal palace, Edward was given a tour of Lancaster’s capitol. Massive composite material walls surrounded the capitol, despite the land being at peace. Walls towered higher than any building in the city, towers lined the walls with armaments of all kinds to repel any potential threat. 

As the cars came to a halt and the king along with his personal guards stepped out to head into the palace, Edward noticed a cat running into the bushes of the palace by the corner “hm, they have cats on a loose here? Interesting”. His assistant scanned the area around and shrugged “Mayhaps they have… army cats sir? Specially trained to assassinate mice and defend the royal grain reserves?” 

Edward smiled in a bad attempt to hold back a laughter “Now now, we’re here to speak with our soon to be friends, let us not mock their ways”. “But of course sir, I apologize for letting my tongue run loose” Once inside they were escorted to the dining hall, a massive table spanned the length of the entire room, but to their surprise, it stood against the wall on 1 side. 

Edward’s assistant inquired about that but the answer they received was rather unusual. “When invited to a dinner, it is customary to sit side by side with your comrades, not facing them as you would your enemies.” Edward pondered over the thought for a minute and then nodded, left speechless by the military oriented customs of Lancaster.

Shortly after, Charles walked in, escorted by 4 guards who marched into the room before him, stepped aside and raised their rifles up and in an arch under which he walked. “My good friend, I bid you welcome to our humble palace”. Rest of the evening was spent discussing things and enjoying delicious but somewhat wild food. 

For Edward, a finely cooked meal by the best chefs with use of modern technology was the standard. For Charles and the nobles of Lancaster, a full boar grilled and brought to the table was a feast worthy of the kings. Although the food was delicious, it was definitely more on the ‘wild’ side. Deer meat instead of steak, crawfish boiled whole and so on. 

The feast was great but as all pleasant things, the meal too had come to an end, and thus, began the negotiations. “Our trade offer is rather generous, in fact, we dare say it’s the most generous we’ve ever made. We offer our scientists, research labs, and the mag-lev technology. We will build for you a rail network consisting of those, for commerce and civilian use alike!” 

Charles nodded, looking through the offer documents while picking his teeth with a bird bone from the meal before. “Mmhhmm.. And your request is permission to mine silica? and access to ports? You desire a straight express connection to our ports. Edward nodded “Silica is the most expensive resource we currently import, your lands are rich with it”. Charles grinned “And well guarded” 

“That can not be disregarded” commended Edward as he looked out the window to see a black cat, curiously staring at them through it. “Correct.. We will not mine more than 100 000 tons a month.” Charles pondered a while. Their silica reserves were indeed grand, the most of any nation on this continent. In that moment, his attention too was captivated by the cat outside, a cat that the same instant got chased away by a gardener. 

The night ended peacefully and the two parted ways on neutral note. Edward’s stay was a week long, and Charles had a decision to make in a week’s time. The night however, had only just begun. As Edward went to sleep, he found himself having to get up again to close the window which he had thought he closed beforehand. His dreams were quite feverish.

He found himself sitting on a bench on a hot summer day. He looked up onto the sky, a beautiful aurora decorated the sky, visible even in broad daylight, he sighed. “What’s wrong pal?” he turned to face a man in a lab coat “Oh, just political concerns…” “Ah, the usual then, catch this.. They told us to finish the engines this week, but the parts are coming NEXT week!” He laughed, “Ha..that’s quite amusing.” 

He awoke from the dream when a black cat meowed, the meow seemingly brought him out of the land of dreams, and to his surprise, it echoed through his silent room. From the dark corner of the room, another meow came. He sat up in his bed and watched the dark corner, as a shape emerged from the shadows onto the dim moonlight coming through the window. The cat jumped onto the bed, eyed him curiously, and then curled up into a ball and seemingly went to sleep.

Next morning he was greeted by a butler “Sir? How was the night?”. Edward dismissively replied “Was alright, except your cat got into my room! Make sure that doesn’t happen again.” The butler followed him despite the dismissive behavior “Will do, anything else? Was dinner to your liking? Has the king agreed to your proposal?”. As the questions kept coming, and Edward slowly began to get annoyed by them, he turned angrily towards a butler that no longer was there.

A maid came from around the corner, watched the confused, esteemed guest staring down the empty hall, then mumbled something to herself and walked off, as Edward watched her leave, he couldn’t help but wonder what she had said. “Vraxthar zynthar ochor zynthar dyvorshun. Vynthar vakar zynthar, zyngur zyngur”. She was followed by a younger maid, who caught a glimpse of the confused king, bowed to him, ran up to him, bowed again “I apologize, head maid is a little crazy in the head…” 

He nodded “What..what’d she say?” the girl turned her head to check that the head maid was gone, then whispered “She said that kings are delusional and crazy, said the crazy should be gone, be gone!” she shrugged “it’s old language, only the older generations speak it..” she bowed again, then straightened out and reached up to the shoulder of his suit, dusting it off “Ohh looks like a cat left its marking on you, a good omen” 

Days passed by but not uneventfully. As Edward’s strange encounters persisted. From talking with a kitchen aid whom he wanted to give commendation and praise, but was told no such boy worked at the palace, to strange cat appearing in his room at night. His dreams have gotten worse, he seemingly watched a snippet of a different life with every dream he had, different people, places and interactions. Some of different worlds, and some of seemingly people in the Lancaster kingdom.  

But Edward was not alone in this. Charles of Lancaster too was having such oddities. And while his doctors assured him of his well being and food was getting double checked, the 2 mentioned nothing of their strange encounters and dreams until one night, when the palace’s guard captain stormed into the room, followed by 2 guards who dragged in a man in black robes. The man was tossed onto the floor “Sir, we caught this intruder snooping in the back garden”

Edward watched Charles question the intruder with surprisingly calmness and dignity. The stranger spoke weirdly “I’m here to speak with god” but his nonsense was dismissed. “I am a preacher to the true god! The one and only! He speaks to me through dreams! Hear me your royal majesty for have you not too had dreams odd enough to question the reality?” 

The stranger was removed from the palace’s grounds with no use of force. Charles dismissed him and the guards and explained to Edward that it must have just been another lunatic of a sect that had been sparking some activity. But all and any investigation led him to firmly believe in their harmlessness. And although Edward questioned this, he had his assistant bring a book from their republic, written by a dreamy scientist of how the world had been reincarnated. 

On the last day of his stay, Charles had a meeting with Edward. “Your people live well and in peace. My people too, but with a different mindset. You believe peace can be achieved through trade and policies, we are of the opinion that respect is earned through power and might.” Edward listened attentively, with a black cat sitting on his shoulder. “WHOA!” Exclaimed Charles as he leaned back in his chair from shock, lost his balance and fell over. 

Edward was quick to jump up, round the table and help him up, looking at the room over his shoulder- “What? What is it?” Charles accepted his help, stood up, straightened his suit out and then pointed at the black cat on Edward’s shoulder – “Your pet, I hadn’t seen it before. Has it always been around?” Edward looked over at his shoulder where a cat, he could not feel, sat. The cat’s eyes focused on him as a gentle meow escaped its lips. 

Edward, frightened by this, tried to reach for the cat to throw it off his shoulder, but his hand passed right through. “What is this thing?? Get it off me!” Demanded Edward as he tried to keep his head as far away from the curious, strange cat on his shoulder.  (What shall Charles do? Suggest it’s a dream and try to wake up? Call the guards? Or something else?)

*****Audience Input*****

Atheris Hispida: If the guy can’t touch the cat, the guards won’t be able to do anything.

Rapu Riverstone: Edward takes off his jacket to detach the cat with it

Valette Emberblood: Ghost kitties! I don’t think calling guards would help much with that

Spectra Phantom: (What if all of this is happening in his head, the whole interaction and to the outside he’s just standing still staring blankly nowhere)

Leona Lucifra: It just wants some love and nibbles, just pat it a bit, it will be fine!

Valette Emberblood: He would maybe try to make sense of this? Doubt himself and think he’s gone crazy maybe?

Orlena Frex: Questioning his own judgment sounds reasonable at this point.

**********

Edward swiftly took his jacket off, but that did not help, the cat remained where it had been, its gaze however, was now focused on Charles instead of Edward. Its head slightly tilted. “I must be having 1 of those weird dreams..” “You reckon? Let’s check” Demanded Charles as he slapped Edward across the face. A loud ‘smack’ followed by a pained groan, the cat’s jaw dropped as it watched a king slap another king. 

There they stood. A king with a red hurting cheek, a confused cat, and another confused king. “Mreow?” a gentle confused meow escaped that cat’s wide open mouth. In that moment the kings thought the cat reacted to them, they soon realized that the reaction was to something else, as both their jaws dropped open just as wide when they found themselves standing in an endless, lush green field, littered with rose bushes.

Edward poked Charles and turned his face so the other cheek was facing him now “Do it again..” Charles did not hesitate to slap Edward, and then himself, in a desperate attempt to wake up. “Friend.. I think this isn’t a dream”. “I noticed…” exclaimed Edward while rubbing his other cheek now. A voice echoed from nowhere “you brought 2 too many”. “I know” replied a calming voice “I wanted to see the 2 deciding factors in prosperity of that world” 

The kings turned to see a tall man approaching them slowly. In long black robes and a hood covering his face, shrouding it in shadow and dark mist. “Ananda?” The cat leapt off Edward’s shoulder, took a few steps toward the robed man and then stopped. It spoke in a deep thunderous voice that echoed in the minds of all that could hear it “You are him?” 

The faces of the kings were nothing short of awestruck. Jaws hanging open, eyes wide as they can be. “You look unfit for a king” echoed a voice from all around them. “Straighten your posture, close your gaping mouths, act as royalty should” “Stop teasing our guests” replied the soothing voice of the black robed man as he watched the kings obey the command but remain absolutely still and speechless, he chuckled.

“I am overseer” he bobbed his head respectfully at the cat. “I am Ananda, god creator and protector of humans!” the cat stepped forth another step and put his paw down aggressively and defensively. “Overseer the watcher of the universe, what forced you to bring me here?”. Robed man smiled, or so it would seem, for his face was shrouded in darkness, but it felt like he smiled, to all who were present, and many more there were, watching them.

“Dismiss your defensiveness, god!” demanded Overseer as he knelt suddenly right in front of Ananda “I seek but the seed of your world”. Ananda took a step back, his thunderous voice, quieter now, as if distant thunderstorm. “You mean the sprout of yggdrasil? My world is..” he was interrupted by the robed man “In my domain, I simply seek to oversee it with no further intervention unless necessary.” 

Ananda glanced over at the 2 kings, who were now sitting in luxurious chairs, still just as awestruck and confused, behind them stood a goddess, beautiful goddess, with long red hair. She smiled warmly “Oh your children are adorable, mine handle seeing gods a little easier, say do they not encounter gods very often?” Ananda took yet another step back “Overseer… What is the 2nd factor in the prosperity of my world?” 

The robed man stood up and looked at the two kings “Those 2 nations will bring the world to a finer future. Combining the military expertise of Lancaster and the technological advancement of the Haven, they will conquer the stars and bring forth prosperity to their civilization. Or, they will bring imminent doom, destruction, and annihilation of the species you so desperately tried to save from an unfair destiny.” 

Ananda eyed them “The agreement…” Overseer smiled “yes, this one single agreement will determine the fate of the world, and I watched you do all in your power with limited intervention to make it happen, push it toward a better future.” The cat took a step forth now and slammed its paw onto the ground once more “My world will not see doom under my watch!” “And the verse will not see end under mine” responded the robed man. 

Ananda bowed his head “I respect thee and thine desire” with a flick of his tail, behind him appeared a potted little sprout “Sprout of Ernea.” The goddess gently ran her finger down 1 of the king’s cheeks “Mayhaps I’ll have to stop by some day”. Ananda’s rumbling voice cracked through the air like a thunder thunderstrike “DENIED”. “My what a fearsome kitty… fine fine..” she grinned slyly at him and stepped away from the kings.

In a blink of an eye they returned to where they were. Ananda was no longer around. The kings stood, dumbfounded, awestruck. “T..that’s… over I think?” “I hope so..” replied Charles hesitantly. “You sure we didn’t dream of that?” Charles raised his hand “Shall we test?” “THAT will NOT be necessary” replied Edward instantly. 

Edward requested to remain at their palace a few days longer, while they both tried to calm down from their visit. Occasionally, in their dreams they’d get visited by a long – red haired goddess, who would in turn get chased away by an all too familiar black cat. These dreams would occur for people all around the world for decades to come. But as Edward’s visit came to an end, the trade agreement was expanded into a defense alliance of the 2 mightiest nations. 

The world found peace and prosperity, and with this alliance, there was no more threats for either nation. Whilst the world remained at peace, not all people found peace within. There is much to uncover of the world of Ernea, but for the night, the story shall conclude.