The Six Who Would Open the Door
The four figures left Tintagel before the sea had finished swallowing the morning mist.
They did not board an aircraft.
They did not activate a machine.
They simply stepped from the cliff.
And fell.
For less than a second.
Then Celeritas awakened.
The air detonated beneath them.
Merlin rose first.
Arthur followed like a projectile launched from the earth itself.
Lancelot accelerated with almost unnecessary violence, leaving a white pressure wake across the clouds.
Morgana merely looked at him as he passed.
“You are showing off.”
Lancelot’s voice reached the others through Silentium.
I have been accused of that before.
Arthur accelerated.
You were guilty before.
Then all four vanished across the sky.
To a human observer, they would not have looked like people flying.
They would have looked like four brief distortions in the atmosphere.
Four impossible objects crossing kilometres in seconds.
The old Kwasars had no wings.
They did not require them.
Celeritas did not make them birds.
It made gravity negotiable.
Far ahead, the ocean changed.
The horizon filled with geometry.
Artificial islands.
Suspended roads.
Vertical cities rising directly from the sea.
Transport lanes moving between towers like rivers of light.
Solar arrays followed the sun across entire platforms.
Agricultural structures occupied floating terraces.
Drones crossed between sectors in mathematically ordered streams.
At the centre of it all stood:
ARKADIA.
Humanity had changed.
Arthur slowed.
For once, even he seemed impressed.
“This did not exist when we were here.”
“Neither did indoor sanitation of acceptable quality,” Lancelot replied.
Morgana looked at him.
“You survived.”
“Barely.”
Merlin ignored them.
His attention moved beyond the architecture.
Towards the eastern sectors.
Towards District 199.
He could feel them.
Not clearly.
Not individually.
But the resonance Goddark had shown him was there.
Six points.
Close together.
Alive.
Merlin slowed until the others aligned beside him.
“We descend outside the central surveillance grid.”
Arthur looked towards Arkadia.
“We could simply enter.”
“We could.”
“They could not stop us.”
“No.”
Arthur understood the answer before Merlin gave it.
“That is not the point.”
Merlin nodded.
“We are not invading Earth.”
They descended towards an unoccupied maintenance platform beyond the populated heart of District 199.
Their feet touched the ground without sound.
Four beings capable of crossing worlds stood between service conduits and vertical gardens while automated cleaning systems moved past them without recognising what had just arrived.
Lancelot looked down at his white-and-gold Sublime Skin.
“I assume this is considered conspicuous.”
“Only slightly,” Morgana said.
Merlin spoke one word.
“Adagio.”
The transformation began.
The golden architecture of Arkana dimmed.
Pearlescent living material withdrew beneath the apparent surface of their bodies.
The Sublime Skin did not disappear.
It folded inward.
Hidden.
Waiting.
Clothing formed over them according to patterns Merlin had extracted from contemporary Earth databases.
Dark trousers.
Jackets.
Boots.
Simple fabrics.
Nothing ceremonial.
Nothing obviously extraterrestrial.
Arthur looked down at himself.
His broad frame remained impossible to disguise completely.
Morgana studied him.
“You look like private security.”
“I look normal.”
“No.”
Lancelot adjusted his jacket.
“I look excellent.”
“You look pleased with yourself.”
“That is because this civilization has finally invented clothing worth returning for.”
Merlin looked towards the district.
“Enough.”
His eyes hardened.
“We find Fernand Claes.”
THE HUMAN MAGISTER
Fernand Claes was reviewing neurological evaluations when the message appeared on his private terminal.
FOUR VISITORS REQUEST DIRECT ACCESS.
He frowned.
No identification.
No department.
No Supra clearance.
No biometric history.
That alone should have been impossible.
Fernand touched the screen.
“Source?”
The system processed.
Then stopped.
SOURCE UNAVAILABLE.
A second message appeared.
THEY ASK FOR YOU BY NAME.
Fernand stared at it.
Ten minutes later, he entered one of the private consultation rooms beneath the educational wing of District 199.
Four people were waiting.
The older white-haired man stood near the window.
Another, black-haired and heavily built, remained beside the door.
A blond man sat casually in a chair as though he had been invited hours ago.
The woman stood slightly apart.
White hair.
Unsettlingly calm eyes.
Fernand stopped.
“You bypassed Arkadia security.”
Merlin turned.
“Yes.”
“That was not a compliment.”
“I know.”
“Who are you?”
Merlin looked towards the others.
Then back at Fernand.
“My name is Merlin.”
Fernand remained silent.
Lancelot smiled.
“That usually goes better.”
Fernand looked at him.
“And I suppose you are Lancelot.”
“Yes.”
Fernand looked at the black-haired man.
“Arthur.”
Arthur nodded.
Then the woman.
“Morgana.”
“Yes.”
Fernand stared at all four.
Then walked towards the emergency panel.
Morgana spoke.
“You can call security.”
Fernand stopped.
“They will come.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Arthur answered.
“They will be unable to remove us.”
Fernand slowly lowered his hand.
“That sounded remarkably like a threat.”
“It was a fact,” Arthur said.
Merlin gave him a look.
Arthur added:
“We are not here to harm anyone.”
“That was better,” Lancelot said.
Arthur ignored him.
Fernand looked at Merlin.
“Explain.”
Merlin took a breath.
“There are truths about your species that your civilization has forgotten.”
Fernand’s expression hardened.
“I have spent most of my life dealing with people who arrive claiming to possess truths about humanity.”
“This one begins before Earth.”
That silenced him.
Merlin continued.
“Earth is not the centre of human existence.”
Fernand said nothing.
“Your species is known beyond this planet.”
Still nothing.
“You call yourselves Homo sapiens.”
Merlin stepped closer.
“We call you Sapiens.”
Fernand’s eyes narrowed.
“Who is we?”
Merlin answered:
“The civilization that existed before yours.”
What followed required almost two hours.
Merlin did not tell him everything.
Not Silke.
Not Eklis.
Not the full architecture of the Source.
Not the oldest secrets of the Kwasars.
But enough.
Tzion.
The Universe containing Earth.
Urkulo.
The Mother World.
Kokoon.
The Antiverse.
Goddark.
Kronos.
The existence of civilizations beyond Earth.
The Kwasars.
The reason four figures from Arthurian mythology were sitting inside a secure room in District 199.
Fernand interrupted several times.
At first with scepticism.
Then with questions.
Then increasingly with silence.
Finally Merlin reached the Oasis.
Fernand stopped him.
“No.”
Merlin waited.
Fernand stood.
“No. Go back.”
“To what?”
“The Oasis.”
Arthur looked towards Merlin.
Fernand continued.
“You are telling me they are not an unexplained mutation.”
“No.”
“Not a human experiment.”
“No.”
“Not an artificial genetic program that Supra somehow lost control of.”
“No.”
Fernand began walking.
Three hundred faces moved through his memory.
Infants beneath observation lights.
Children solving impossible problems.
Cass learning how not to break what he touched.
Tom seeing patterns before anyone else.
Max understanding expressions that adults believed they had concealed.
Fernand turned towards Merlin.
“You know what they are.”
Merlin considered the question.
“We know more than you do.”
“That is not what I asked.”
“No.”
Merlin was careful.
“We do not yet know everything they may become.”
Fernand laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
“Twenty years.”
His hands trembled.
“Twenty years asking where they came from.”
Morgana watched him.
Fernand looked at her.
“We searched genetic databases from every surviving population on Earth.”
“I know.”
“We investigated governments. Laboratories. Military programs. Private corporations.”
“I know.”
“Children grew up asking me who their parents were, and I had nothing to give them.”
Morgana’s expression softened.
“You gave them something else.”
Fernand looked at her.
“What?”
“A childhood.”
Silence.
Morgana continued.
“As much of one as this place permitted.”
Fernand looked away.
Merlin understood why Goddark had allowed this man near them.
Perhaps humans possessed no Mystica.
No Arkana.
No Nexo.
But Fernand Claes had spent decades doing something many Gods failed to do.
He had looked at extraordinary beings...
and refused to reduce them to their usefulness.
Merlin inclined his head.
“You trained them well.”
Fernand looked back.
“I educated them.”
“Yes.”
“There is a difference.”
Merlin almost smiled.
“I am beginning to understand why they trust you.”
Fernand sat again.
“You said you came for the Oasis.”
“Not exactly.”
Fernand frowned.
Merlin continued.
“There are three hundred Oasis in District 199.”
“Yes.”
“Eventually, all of them may require preparation.”
“For what?”
Merlin did not answer immediately.
Fernand noticed.
“For what, Merlin?”
“The possibility of war reaching Earth.”
The room became colder.
Fernand shook his head.
“Human war?”
“No.”
Arthur spoke now.
“A war Earth cannot presently fight.”
Fernand stared at him.
“An invasion?”
“Potentially.”
“From whom?”
Merlin answered carefully.
“Something that does not belong to Tzion.”
Fernand thought about that sentence.
Then:
“How long?”
“We don't know.”
“Years?”
“Possibly.”
“Months?”
“Possibly.”
“Tomorrow?”
Merlin remained silent.
Fernand's face changed.
“My God.”
“No,” Morgana said quietly.
“Not yours.”
Fernand looked at her.
She did not elaborate.
WHY SIX?
Fernand eventually asked the obvious question.
“If there are three hundred Oasis, why have you come to me?”
Merlin answered:
“Because Goddark identified six young people.”
Fernand froze.
“Six?”
“Yes.”
“Which six?”
Merlin spoke their names.
“Tom.”
Fernand's expression changed.
“Cass.”
Another reaction.
“Max.”
Fernand leaned backwards.
Then:
“Vega.”
He frowned.
“Cala.”
Now genuine confusion.
“Kira.”
Fernand stared at him.
“Three of those are not Oasis.”
“We know.”
“They are ordinary Sapiens.”
“We know.”
“Then why them?”
Merlin's answer came immediately.
“Because whatever Goddark perceived did not distinguish between them.”
Fernand said nothing.
“The six form a single resonance.”
Morgana continued.
“Separate them, and you are no longer observing the same phenomenon.”
Fernand looked between them.
Then suddenly laughed.
Very quietly.
Merlin raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
Fernand shook his head.
“Of course.”
“What?”
“I spent years trying to understand why those six worked.”
He stood again.
“The Oasis boys should have formed their closest bonds with other Oasis.”
He began pacing.
“Statistically, socially, developmentally, everything suggested it.”
He looked at Merlin.
“But Vega, Cala and Kira entered the group and the boys became more stable.”
“Concordia,” Morgana said.
“Yes.”
“Not merely the program.”
Fernand stopped.
“No.”
His eyes widened as decades of observations rearranged themselves.
“They regulate one another.”
Merlin listened.
“Tom gives the group structure. Cass gives it force. Max creates social movement between them. Vega prevents the others from accepting structures they know are wrong. Cala stabilizes conflict before it fractures the group. Kira restores emotional momentum after failure.”
Lancelot smiled faintly.
“You have been studying them.”
“I raised half of them.”
Fernand looked at Merlin.
“And you are telling me some God noticed the same thing from another realm.”
“Architect,” Arthur corrected.
Fernand stared at him.
“I am not yet ready for the taxonomy.”
“That is reasonable,” Merlin said.
Merlin then explained the next concept.
Not Kwasar ascension.
Not yet.
First came training.
Discipline.
Preparation.
And the old relationship between:
MAGISTER AND PRENOVA.
A Prenova was not simply a student.
The word described someone accepted into a path of advanced formation beneath a Magister.
Someone not yet what they might become.
Potential under discipline.
Across Kwasar history, when a large population required instruction, the Magisters rarely attempted to train thousands simultaneously.
They began with a small first cadre.
The most promising.
The most balanced.
The ones capable not only of learning...
but later of teaching.
Among the Kwasars, those exceptional first Prenovas carried an old tactical title borrowed from one of the symbolic games used across Sapiens civilizations.
PRENOVA BISHOPS.
Not because they were priests.
Because of the chess piece.
The bishop moved differently from most pieces.
Across angles others ignored.
It was not the king.
Not the queen.
Not the largest force upon the board.
But properly positioned, it altered everything around it.
A Prenova Bishop was therefore a Magister's extended reach.
An advanced disciple.
A trusted second hand.
One of the first trained so that knowledge could later spread through an entire cohort.
Fernand immediately understood.
“You train six.”
“Yes,” Merlin said.
“And then those six help you train the others.”
“If they prove worthy.”
Fernand looked at him sharply.
“They are not tools.”
“No.”
“They are not instructors you get to manufacture.”
“No.”
“They are teenagers.”
“Yes.”
Merlin's answer was calm.
“That is why we begin with six.”
Fernand stared at him for a long time.
Then said:
“You need Antonio Reis.”
Lancelot sighed.
“Who?”
“The High Warden.”
Arthur's expression suggested he disliked the title already.
Fernand continued.
“You cannot simply remove six residents of District 199 from established educational schedules and begin secret extraterrestrial combat training.”
Lancelot glanced at Merlin.
“We could.”
Fernand pointed at him.
“That attitude is precisely why you need Antonio Reis.”
Morgana smiled.
“I like him.”
THE HIGH WARDEN
Antonio Reis did not believe Fernand's message.
Then he saw the security footage.
Four unidentified people appearing inside District 199 without entry records.
No aircraft.
No gate access.
No facial matches.
Nothing.
That made him angry.
The second thing made him dangerous.
He ordered the room sealed.
When Merlin, Arthur, Morgana and Lancelot entered the private chamber beneath the Axis Tower, twelve security systems activated simultaneously.
Automated weapons remained concealed behind the walls.
Suppression fields armed.
Exit locks engaged.
Antonio Reis sat behind his desk.
Fernand stood nearby.
Reis looked at the four strangers.
“You entered my city without permission.”
Merlin answered:
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because asking for permission before establishing whether your security structure could be trusted would have endangered the people we came to protect.”
Reis stared.
“You expect me to accept that?”
“No.”
Arthur looked almost approving.
Reis noticed.
“You find this amusing?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Antonio Reis leaned forward.
“Now tell me why I should not have all four of you detained.”
Lancelot looked around the room.
Arthur spoke before he could.
“Because you cannot.”
Reis's eyes moved towards him.
Arthur continued.
“And because we have come to help.”
Fernand closed his eyes briefly.
“Arthur.”
“What?”
“Perhaps let Merlin do this.”
Merlin told Antonio Reis less than he had told Fernand.
But he showed him more.
Reis needed proof.
So Merlin gave him some.
He extended one hand.
A tiny Portalia aperture opened above his palm.
Not large enough to walk through.
Only large enough to see.
On the other side...
stars.
Not Earth's stars.
A luminous sky above the mountains of Urkulo.
Antonio Reis stopped breathing.
The aperture closed.
Merlin then lifted himself twenty centimetres from the floor.
No machinery.
No visible force.
Celeritas.
He descended.
Arthur placed two fingers beneath the edge of the massive composite conference table and lifted the entire structure as though testing its weight.
Fernand looked at him.
“That was unnecessary.”
Arthur lowered it.
“He required evidence.”
Lancelot smiled.
“I could have done something more elegant.”
“No,” everyone said.
Morgana almost smiled.
Antonio Reis did not.
But his world had just ended.
Or expanded.
He was not sure which.
“What do you want?” he finally asked.
“Cooperation,” Merlin said.
“For what?”
“To prepare Earth.”
“For invasion?”
“For survival.”
Reis looked towards Fernand.
“The children.”
Fernand nodded.
“The Oasis.”
“Yes.”
Reis turned back.
“And why should your first move involve them?”
“Because they may survive training ordinary Sapiens presently cannot.”
Reis's face hardened.
Fernand spoke immediately.
“And because that does not give anyone ownership over them.”
Merlin nodded.
“Agreed.”
Antonio noticed that.
“You defer to him?”
“I respect him.”
“He is human.”
Merlin's eyes sharpened.
“So are the six.”
Reis said nothing.
That answer mattered.
Merlin explained the existence of the six-person resonance.
The Entourage.
The proposed Prenova training.
The intention to begin with them before any wider program involving the Oasis population.
Antonio listened without interruption.
Then asked:
“And Supra?”
“No.”
Merlin's answer was immediate.
Antonio narrowed his eyes.
“You expect me to conceal extraterrestrial contact from the Supranational Union.”
“Yes.”
“I answer to Supra.”
“Yes.”
“My authority exists because Supra delegated it.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to violate that authority.”
Merlin leaned forward.
“No.”
“I want you to use it.”
Silence.
Antonio stared at him.
Merlin continued.
“If this information enters Supra's general command structure, how many people receive it?”
Reis did not answer.
“How many military divisions?”
Still nothing.
“How many intelligence departments?”
Fernand watched him.
“How many governments retain influence through Supra?”
Antonio's jaw tightened.
Merlin finished:
“How long before six teenagers become strategic assets?”
Fernand looked at Reis.
That one landed.
Antonio sat back.
Morgana spoke for the first time.
“The enemy we are preparing them to face learns.”
Antonio looked at her.
“It steals information.”
She continued.
“It observes civilizations.”
“It studies structures.”
“It exploits whatever those civilizations value.”
“And you want to place knowledge of these six inside the largest bureaucracy on Earth?”
No one spoke.
Morgana tilted her head.
“I would not.”
Antonio Reis looked through the windows towards Arkadia.
His Arkadia.
The city he had spent years keeping alive.
He had made terrible compromises.
Some necessary.
Some perhaps not.
He knew what Supra would do if given proof that the Oasis were linked to a civilization beyond Earth.
Committees first.
Security second.
Military access third.
Then language would change.
Children would become assets.
Potential would become capability.
Protection would become containment.
He had used those words himself.
Antonio closed his eyes.
Fernand watched him.
When Reis turned back, something had changed.
“If I agree, nobody outside this room knows.”
Merlin nodded.
“No Supra executive council.”
“Yes.”
“No military command.”
“Yes.”
“No Directorate.”
“Yes.”
“No scientific board.”
“Yes.”
Antonio looked towards Fernand.
“You.”
Fernand nodded.
“Me.”
Then back to Merlin.
“And me.”
“Yes.”
Antonio leaned forward.
“If I discover you are using them—”
Arthur spoke.
“You will oppose us.”
Antonio looked at him.
“With everything I have.”
Arthur nodded.
“Good.”
Antonio seemed surprised.
Arthur continued.
“That is what you should do.”
For the first time, Antonio Reis looked at Arthur without hostility.
Perhaps he understood something then.
These beings were terrifying.
But they respected resistance.
That mattered.
Antonio slowly stood.
“Then District 199 is available to you.”
Fernand exhaled.
Antonio continued.
“Privately.”
“Restricted schedules.”
“No documentation outside local systems.”
“I choose which personnel are informed.”
Merlin nodded.
“Agreed.”
“And if Earth is truly in danger—”
“It is.”
Antonio's expression hardened.
“Then we save it.”
Not Arkadia.
Not District 199.
Not Supra.
EARTH.
Fernand looked at the man he had spent years arguing with.
Antonio Reis had often been controlling.
Cold.
Calculating.
Sometimes infuriating.
But Fernand realized something important.
The High Warden had never built Arkadia because he loved power.
He loved survival.
Sometimes too much.
But genuinely.
Antonio looked towards the door.
“Take me to the six.”
SIX TEENAGERS AND THE END OF THE WORLD
None of The Entourage knew any of this.
They were in one of the common rooms inside the Tower.
Shoes on furniture.
Training clothes everywhere.
Half-empty drinks.
A guitar leaning against the wall.
Cass lay across a sofa with one arm hanging towards the floor.
Max sat backwards on a chair.
Tom had a tablet in his hands but had stopped reading twenty minutes earlier.
Vega occupied the window ledge with her headphones around her neck.
Cala sat cross-legged on the floor.
Kira had somehow managed to take over most of the blanket despite not appearing cold.
For once, nobody was training.
Nobody was studying.
Nobody was being scored.
Cass stared at the ceiling.
“Do you ever think we are wasting our lives?”
Max looked at him.
“That escalated quickly.”
“I am serious.”
“That is why it escalated.”
Cass threw a cushion at him.
Max caught it.
Tom continued staring at the tablet.
Vega looked over.
“He means it.”
Cass nodded.
“Look around.”
He sat up.
“This place.”
“Arkadia.”
“The program.”
“District 199.”
“District 200.”
“Altus idiots telling everyone they are the next stage of humanity.”
Vega smiled without humour.
“Jason would prefer ‘inevitable apex of civilization.’”
Cass pointed towards her.
“Exactly.”
Kira tucked her legs beneath herself.
“What are you actually asking?”
Cass struggled to answer.
Tom did it for him.
“What are we for?”
Silence.
Max stopped smiling.
Tom placed the tablet aside.
“The Oasis exist.”
“Three hundred of us.”
“No parents.”
“No real origin.”
“Capabilities nobody can explain.”
“Tests nobody else takes.”
He looked towards Cass and Max.
“And every adult tells us to be patient.”
Cass laughed bitterly.
“I hate that word.”
Cala looked at Vega.
“What about us?”
Vega frowned.
“You three were brought into this because of Concordia.”
Max corrected her.
“You stayed because we are charming.”
“You stayed because Cala is patient and Kira is incapable of abandoning people.”
Kira smiled.
“And you?”
Vega looked out at Arkadia.
“I have poor judgement.”
Cass laughed.
Then the humour faded.
Vega continued.
“Sometimes I think Jason is wrong about almost everything.”
A pause.
“But not everything.”
Tom looked at her.
“What part?”
“He says the world will leave ordinary people behind.”
Kira's smile disappeared.
Vega looked towards Tom, Cass and Max.
“You three are different.”
“You don't know how.”
“Nobody does.”
“And Altus are being engineered to become different.”
Cala finished the thought.
“So where does that leave everyone else?”
Vega nodded.
“Exactly.”
Max looked at her.
“You really think we would leave you behind?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Vega's expression softened.
“I think I don't understand what any of us are walking towards.”
The room became quiet.
Tom finally said:
“Neither do I.”
Cass looked around at all of them.
“So we are agreed.”
“About what?” Kira asked.
Cass spread his arms.
“We have absolutely no idea what the hell we are doing on this planet.”
Max nodded solemnly.
“Finally. A successful Concordia exercise.”
Vega threw a cushion at him.
Then—
KNOCK. KNOCK.
All six stopped.
Cass frowned.
“Were we expecting anyone?”
“No,” Tom said.
Another knock.
Kira stood.
The door opened before she reached it.
Fernand Claes appeared.
That alone was not unusual.
The man standing behind him was.
Antonio Reis.
Cass immediately sat properly.
Max lowered his feet from the chair.
Vega removed her headphones.
Tom stood.
Kira whispered:
“Oh.”
Cala looked at her.
“What?”
“The High Warden.”
“I can see that.”
Behind them stood four strangers.
An older man with white hair and beard.
A huge black-haired man whose presence made the doorway seem smaller.
A blond man who looked slightly too amused by the situation.
And a white-haired woman who said nothing...
but somehow seemed to notice every person in the room at once.
The six stared.
The four stared back.
For one strange moment...
nobody spoke.
Then Lancelot looked towards Merlin.
“These are them?”
Merlin did not take his eyes from the six.
“Yes.”
Cass whispered to Max:
“Who the hell are these people?”
Morgana heard him.
Of course she did.
A tiny smile appeared.
Antonio Reis spoke.
“All six of you. My office.”
Max looked at Cass.
Cass looked at Tom.
Tom looked at Fernand.
Fernand gave them the expression he usually reserved for:
Please do not make this more difficult than it already is.
Vega stood.
“Are we in trouble?”
Antonio considered it.
“No.”
That was somehow worse.
Kira whispered:
“We are definitely in trouble.”
THE MEETING
The six sat together on one side of the private chamber inside the Axis Tower.
Fernand stood nearby.
Antonio Reis remained at the head of the table.
The four strangers stood opposite them.
They had been offered chairs.
Arthur had declined.
Morgana had not reacted.
Lancelot had sat for twenty seconds and then stood again.
Merlin remained completely still.
Cass leaned towards Max.
“They are weird.”
Max whispered:
“The woman can hear you.”
Morgana looked directly at him.
Max stopped.
Vega noticed.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Antonio Reis began.
“What is discussed in this room does not leave this room.”
Cass raised a hand.
Antonio stared at it.
Cass slowly lowered it.
“Sorry.”
Fernand almost smiled.
Antonio continued.
“You have been selected to participate in a new training program.”
Tom immediately asked:
“Under which division?”
“None.”
“Mentis?”
“No.”
“Corpus?”
“No.”
“Concordia?”
“No.”
Tom frowned.
“Then whose program?”
Antonio looked towards Merlin.
“His.”
The six turned.
Merlin finally stepped forward.
“My name is Merlin.”
Silence.
Max blinked.
Cass looked at Tom.
Tom looked at Fernand.
Vega said:
“No.”
Lancelot lowered his head to hide a smile.
Merlin remained serious.
Vega pointed.
“Merlin.”
“Yes.”
“As in Merlin.”
“Yes.”
“The wizard.”
“No.”
“The Round Table.”
“Approximately.”
Arthur's eyes closed.
Lancelot lost the battle and laughed.
Kira looked at the huge black-haired man.
Then at Merlin.
“No.”
Arthur opened his eyes.
Kira pointed at him.
“Oh my God.”
Arthur's expression suggested he disliked where this was going.
“You are Arthur.”
“Yes.”
Max turned to the blond man.
“And that makes you—”
“Lancelot.”
Cass looked towards Morgana.
She raised one eyebrow.
Cass said:
“You are going to tell me Morgana.”
“Morgana.”
Vega stood.
“This is ridiculous.”
Merlin watched her.
“Sit down.”
The words were not loud.
But something in his voice made the room change.
Vega remained standing for one second.
Then sat.
Not because she felt forced.
Because for the first time she sensed what all six had been noticing without understanding.
These four strangers looked human.
They were not.
Something existed behind their stillness.
Weight.
Age.
Power.
A pressure none of the teenagers had ever experienced before.
Cass felt the hairs rise along his arms.
Tom's mind accelerated.
Max stopped joking.
Cala watched their breathing.
Kira looked at Fernand.
Fernand nodded once.
Trust me.
Merlin placed both hands on the table.
“You have questions about yourselves.”
Tom's expression changed.
“You don't know us.”
“Yes, we do.”
“No. You have information.”
Merlin considered him.
“Good distinction.”
Tom did not know whether he had just been complimented.
Merlin continued.
“You have spent your lives asking where the Oasis came from.”
Cass leaned forward.
Merlin looked at him.
“You have spent yours wondering whether your strength means something or is simply an accident.”
Cass stopped breathing.
Merlin turned towards Max.
“You learned very young that understanding people can become a form of protection.”
Max's face changed.
Then Vega.
“You refuse categories because every category someone gives you eventually becomes a cage.”
Vega stared at him.
Cala.
“You keep groups together and then pretend that does not exhaust you.”
Cala's eyes widened.
Kira.
“You choose hope.”
Kira said nothing.
Merlin straightened.
“And all six of you have asked the same question.”
The room became completely silent.
“Why are we here?”
No one laughed now.
Merlin looked towards Antonio.
The High Warden nodded.
Permission.
Merlin returned his attention to The Entourage.
“I cannot give you every answer today.”
Cass immediately looked annoyed.
“But I can give you one.”
Merlin paused.
“You are not accidents.”
Tom stared at him.
The sentence seemed to strike all three Oasis boys at once.
Cass looked away.
Max stopped breathing.
Fernand watched them.
Merlin continued.
“And the six of you being together is not insignificant.”
Vega frowned.
“Why?”
“We don't completely know.”
“That is not reassuring.”
“No.”
Merlin appreciated that.
“But someone very powerful noticed you.”
Max asked:
“Antonio?”
Lancelot made a sound that might have been a cough.
Antonio Reis looked offended.
Merlin continued.
“Someone far beyond Earth.”
The six became still.
Tom spoke first.
“How far?”
Merlin looked at him.
“Far enough that your definition of the world is about to become inadequate.”
Arthur finally stepped forward.
“You will train with us.”
Cass looked at him.
“In what?”
Arthur's answer was simple.
“Everything.”
Cass almost smiled.
Arthur did not.
The smile disappeared.
Morgana spoke next.
“Your current training has taught you control.”
She looked towards Fernand.
“Well.”
Fernand inclined his head.
“But you have been trained according to the limits of Earth.”
Vega asked:
“And you are going to teach us what?”
Morgana's pale eyes held hers.
“What happens beyond those limits.”
Lancelot finally spoke.
“And, if Arthur has anything to do with it, how to suffer enthusiastically.”
Arthur stared at him.
“I train effectively.”
“You train vindictively.”
“I correct weakness.”
“You attempt to kill weakness.”
“Effective correction.”
Cass looked at Max.
Max whispered:
“I like the blond one.”
Merlin ignored them.
“You will become Prenovas.”
Tom frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“Students beneath a Magister.”
“So you're teachers.”
Merlin looked at Arthur, Morgana and Lancelot.
“In the simplest possible interpretation.”
“And why us?”
This time it was Cala.
Merlin answered:
“Because eventually we may need to prepare many more.”
“The Oasis?” Fernand asked.
“Yes.”
“All three hundred?”
“Potentially.”
The teenagers looked at one another.
Merlin continued.
“Kwasar tradition begins large instruction through a first trusted cadre.”
He hesitated.
Then used the old title.
“You six will train as:
PRENOVA BISHOPS.”
Cass blinked.
“Bishops?”
“Like chess,” Tom said immediately.
Merlin looked at him.
“Yes.”
Tom understood before the others.
“Advanced pieces operating through indirect lines.”
“Partly.”
“And an extension of the Magister.”
“Yes.”
Vega frowned.
“So we're being trained first so that later we help you train everyone else.”
Merlin looked at her.
“If you succeed.”
She crossed her arms.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The threat.”
Arthur almost smiled.
Merlin did not.
“It is not a threat.”
“What happens if we fail?”
Arthur answered.
“You train again.”
Lancelot added:
“And again.”
Morgana:
“And again.”
Merlin finished:
“Until failure teaches you something useful.”
Cass looked around the table.
“This is insane.”
“Yes,” Fernand said.
Everyone turned towards him.
Fernand sighed.
“I have had several hours more than you to process it.”
“Does it improve?” Max asked.
“No.”
Kira looked at Merlin.
“Why do we need this?”
That was the question Merlin had been waiting for.
He could tell them about Eklis.
The Inferno.
The Sumaya.
Rapax.
Raptax.
Putrids.
Silke's defeat.
The fear spreading among Astrals.
He could destroy their childhood in a single conversation.
He chose not to.
“Because something is coming.”
Arthur looked at him but did not interfere.
Merlin continued.
“Earth is not alone.”
The teenagers listened.
“It has never been alone.”
“And there are things beyond this world capable of reaching it.”
Cass asked:
“Aliens?”
Lancelot opened his mouth.
Morgana looked at him.
He closed it.
Merlin said:
“That word will become insufficient very quickly.”
Tom leaned forward.
“Are we in danger now?”
“Yes.”
“Immediate?”
“Not today.”
That was not a promise.
Tom knew it.
“So you want us prepared.”
“Yes.”
“To fight.”
Merlin looked at him.
“To survive first.”
Arthur added:
“Then fight.”
Antonio Reis spoke before the conversation could go further.
“No one outside this room knows.”
The six looked towards him.
“Not Supra.”
Vega's eyes widened.
“You are hiding this from Supra?”
“Yes.”
“The entire Union?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Antonio looked directly at the six.
“Because for once in your lives, I would prefer the people with power over you to know less rather than more.”
Fernand stared at him.
Antonio ignored it.
“The official schedule will describe this as an experimental interdisciplinary program approved directly by my office.”
Tom asked:
“And the monitoring?”
“Minimal.”
Cass:
“Medical?”
“Fernand only, unless essential.”
Max:
“Military?”
“None.”
That answer surprised them most.
Antonio continued.
“These four will have access to a restricted training area within District 199.”
Vega looked towards Merlin.
“And we just trust them?”
“No,” Merlin said.
The room became silent.
“Trust is not requested.”
He looked at each of them.
“It is earned.”
Morgana's gaze shifted towards him.
Fernand almost smiled.
That was the right answer.
The meeting ended without celebration.
No heroic music.
No revelation of glowing armour.
No declarations that The Entourage would save the Universe.
The six left with more questions than they had brought.
At the door, Cass looked backwards.
Arthur stood motionless beside the table.
Morgana was speaking quietly with Fernand.
Lancelot had somehow acquired one of Antonio's expensive drinks without anyone seeing him take it.
And Merlin watched them leave.
Cass whispered:
“They are terrifying.”
Max nodded.
“I think that's intentional.”
Tom said nothing.
Vega looked back once.
Merlin was still watching.
Not like a scientist.
Not like Antonio Reis.
Not even like Fernand.
Like a commander evaluating soldiers who had not yet realized they were soldiers.
Vega did not like that.
Which was perhaps why she could not stop thinking about it.
When the six disappeared down the corridor, Arthur approached Merlin.
“They are undisciplined.”
Fernand heard him.
“They are teenagers.”
Arthur looked at him.
“I know.”
“They need to remain teenagers.”
“For as long as possible,” Morgana said.
Arthur looked towards the closed door.
“And then?”
Merlin answered.
“Then we make them ready.”
Lancelot placed the stolen drink on the table.
Antonio looked at it.
“Was that mine?”
“No.”
“It was on my desk.”
“Then perhaps.”
Antonio stared.
Lancelot pushed it back towards him.
“Excellent civilization.”
Merlin walked to the window.
Far below, Arkadia glowed across the ocean.
District 199.
District 200.
Three hundred Oasis.
Altus.
Ordinary Sapiens.
Millions of lives that had no idea what existed beyond their sky.
And somewhere outside Tzion...
the Sumaya continued learning.
The Magisters had arrived.
The first six Prenovas had been selected.
The secret had begun.
And none of the teenagers walking back towards their Tower understood yet that their next training session would not be another examination.
Not boxing.
Not karate.
Not fencing.
Not Mentis.
Not Corpus.
Not Concordia.
For the first time in their lives, they were about to be taught by beings who considered the limits of human possibility...
merely the place where training began.
On the last day of Universal Year I of Tzion, six teenagers entered their rooms believing they had just met four impossible strangers.
They did not yet know the truth.
They had met their Magisters.
And before that Universal Day ended...