"so just tell me what happened then." She said the words looking flatly at the three others in the room. A gruff man in his 70s it appeared came forward a look of repulsion on his face. A woman in her late twenties siting beyond casually, disinterested replied. "You know what? Why not? It's not like you could do anything with the story anyway. Assuming you'd even believe it." she looked at the menacing man who turned to look at her when she began her reply. He turned to look at the other, a man slumped forward, and seeing the other turn to him, straightened slightly and gestured for him to go along with it. "fine" the older man spat turning again to face the one. "where to start then..." he mused. you've heard of Kehtoh haven't you? "I've seen it mentioned in some of the archives I've dug up, but there's very little mentioned about it. There was some war or something? The planet blew up? " she didn't know if she actually believed that such a place existed, or what it could have to do with anything. "So, at least that much has been passed along. not that it matters. Yes, it blew up. But there's a lot more to a history of a planet than it's end, as I'm sure you could guess." "Obviously" said the woman in the back, annoyed. "Jaele Nistra was born on that world, she was what they called 'a gifted'. There were many who had 'gifts' but unlike others her gifts were thought to be unbounded. Some believed it to be some kind of prophecy being fulfilled others a natural consequence of evolution, breeding, still others the result of her intense training and exposure to the effects of very powerful gifted around whom she was raised. The reason doesn't matter. The results were that she single handedly was able to tear down the stability the world had single handedly, made herself known to all, announced herself a god, and created a new order in the world subject to her." "Careful, you are treading close to blasphemy" the man behind said. "Do you want to tell it then?" he shook his head "We weren't there during her rise, and don't know the situation before, except as stories within stories, perhaps propaganda, perhaps not. It would be juvenile to accept them as fact. The results however were a near utopia. There were no hungry, no poor, at least as far as the concerns of the flesh were concerned. But the spirit of the people needed purpose and that she sought to fill with herself, and the people, many of them, were found wanting. There grew discontent, which threatened stability. People ending themselves after drowning themselves in hedonism. There were crimes committed just to fill some quota of novelty. People killed just to feel something. and tho she was indeed seemingly all powerful, fast enough to travel anywhere instantly, she couldn't be in more places than one, she could could stop a murder but not solve the problem of the soul or heart or mind which drove the person to commit the crime in the first place. Despite her power over the forces of nature, she lacked a fundamental misunderstanding of people, and could not change a persons will." She sat for a moment as the man collected his thoughts. "Eventually she decided she had enough of her play at godhood and left without explanation. The world fell into to chaos. Gradually it began, like a person dipping a toe to test the water's temperature, then suddenly, all at once and everywhere. There were several factions. His " he gestured at the man behind " believed that this abandonment was some kind of test. Others believed she found us unworthy, not even worth her time to destroy. Since we all knew she had such power if she wanted. There were many factions and beliefs. Amid the struggle grew a group who saw this opportunity to become strong enough to rival her power in the case she returned. Eventually they harnessed some ancient technology from before her time to create a seal. The technology also allowed them to assert dominance over the masses. Those loyal to what she represented, be that god or like myself and her who saw that what she did was good if not perfect, united to stand against the new force but things seemed grim. Eventually it was discovered that Jaele had sealed herself on one of Kehtoh's moons. And they turned their sealing technology on the entirety of the moon. We went to stop them and to attempt to use the weapon the made instead to call her back. We were somewhat successful although it's hard to consider it any kind of success considering the outcome. " the woman in the back got up from her postilion and walked out of the room slamming the door behind her. "we were able to use a device they had to call Jaele out and she came. But they turned that moment and used it to seal all of us. We became frozen in temporal amber and could watch as they used another device to attempt to cast Jaele out of reality. Since she like us was frozen she would be completely cut off from light, from sound, from all experience. Forever. Well that was their intention. When the device was activated the energies involved destabilized the planet's core and we watched helpless as the entire planet burst apart and we were flung off into the far reaches of space. From my vantage I couldn't tell if she was still with us or not, tho Scaela could tell that she was not. " "So... you flew through space for eons trapped in some kind of solid time until eventually you crashed on earth and what? thawed? " "There was no meaning in even attempting to free ourselves while drifting. many of those who were with us lost all will during the void, and others in desperation did attempt it, to succeed and be met with the cold dark nothing waiting for them. The few of us who held onto to the certainty that given enough time we would eventually find ourselves, somewhere made it through the void to be greeted by the light of a new galaxy, which grew brighter by the year, then stars in that galaxy, and yes we landed here on earth. A chance so small as to be impossible, if you work backwards from the conclusion. But if not this galaxy and this planet, then perhaps a star for a few millennia and then some other galaxy. It didn't matter how long it would take, we would have found ourselves somewhere suitable at some point." "I'm not sure I buy it, but assuming I did. What's that got to do with me?" .