The Crux
Mankind’s greatest fears will become its only hope!
A novel by
Ronald J Rossmann Jr
Prologue
It is where the crossroads of magic,
science, time, and space meet that the Crux exists and the greatest fears of
men reside.
Put simply, the Crux is the nerve center of the
infinitesimal dimensions the vast and immeasurable cosmos houses. It is the only dimension that parallels the
Fleshworld, known throughout the cosmos as the one true residence of humanity. The Crux has no birth date, its legacy
defies the finite understanding we possess regarding the concepts of time and
legacy. It was formed by entities
known only as Elders and monitored by the Controller. He is a being who appears to have neither
beginning nor end bound by Fate and her undeniable, unavoidable, and
irreversible dominion. For reasons
shrouded in deep mystery, he dogmatically obeys her predominance without
reservation or hesitation.
The residents of the Crux called Citizens are
created from the most powerful emotions humanity emanates, those that drive its
race to both the brinks of self-discovery and ultimate destruction. They are emotions, defined only by the
language and ideology of their mortal hosts as; fear, hate, rage, and love,
with love being the weakest of all the architects.
The Construct is the life force that shapes and
supports every inhabitant, without it the very fabric of the Crux would tear
under the stress and burden of even the slightest anomaly. It binds their existence together,
connecting them for all eternity in a majestic web of life and pain, joy and
hopelessness, strength and weakness, and all manner in between.
The Crux is the place where all that man fears
fellowships and travels together, where fantasy and fact mix together so
effortless, fluidly, that their borders are deeply blurred. When science is left unexplained, it is
called magic and here that magic is as sincere as the most reliable empirical
evidence. It is the guardian of Time,
holding all accountable to it, but itself.
The never-ending corridor of history, constantly reinventing events and
results as the fickle temperament of Fate so decides. It exists in a state impossible to define by
any lesser than the Controller and his allegedly infinite mind.
Without the Fleshworld, the Crux would dissolve
like tissue in water. Likewise, without
the Crux the Fleshworld would be left completely vulnerable, naked and
defenseless against the whims of the myriad of celestial neighbors seeking to
persecute, dominate, and obliterate its naïve and hapless denizens. But there is a cost to this shared
existence. As emotional of a species as
humans are, every excess ounce of negative energy, relentlessly expelled on a moment
by moment basis, is cast into the Construct becoming a permanent part of its
matrix. Thereby, spawning more Citizens
each one more violent, frightening, and lost as the next. They are tortured souls hungry to quench
their newly conceived insatiable guile, starving to find purpose as the
nightmares and agonies of the Fleshworld mold their personas. It is up to the Navigator and her Marshalls
to ensure these dark and tormented creatures find usefulness, captivity, or
expiration for there are no other options.
Since the Crux’s cryptic conception, there has
been Navigators, each one hand-selected by the terrifyingly mysterious but
ultimately benevolent Controller. Each
Navigator controls the Repository, a behemoth sized data bank containing every
moment in history able to reference an infinitesimal horde of lifetimes and
memories. This system contains every
path taken and untaken, cause and effect, action and reaction played out to
their infinite plausibility. Every
entity of every species, breed, and creed categorized and organized in pure,
logistical perfection. Running eternally,
it is continually expanding, with fantastically complex and unimaginable
algorithms flowing effortlessly through its data stream. Used also to monitor and manipulate the
Construct, but only under the strict and unceasing eye of the Controller. No decision or action can be taken or occur
without his final approval, any attempt would result in instantaneous
rectification.
The Navigators choose their Marshalls whose
primary purpose is to enforce the laws and parameters of the Crux. There is always one lead Marshall, aptly
named the Enforcer. The Enforcer can
then recommend recruits of a certain caliber to join him or her as
Marshalls. There has never been a limit
on the number of Marshalls; however, it has never been a highly desired
position among the Citizens. Most
consider Marshalls with the same high regard as snitches and traitors. Marshalls carry weapons that can dispose and
dispatch of both mortal and Citizen entities.
However, only the Controller can give permission to use any Crux craft
against a Fleshworld inhabitant, and that has not happened in several
millennia.
Once an Enforcer is chosen, he cannot resign his
post unless he is deemed unfit, which results in a most undesirable end. Most Marshalls once existed in the Fleshworld
and, through their own mortal deaths, are brought to the Crux and Remade. To be Remade is to transcend the physical and
supernatural, existing on a plane that is inconceivable to mortals. Most Citizens are born from the Construct
while a rare few are Remade. Citizens
are forever confined to the Crux, but there are a select group that have the
power to travel, unassisted between their dimension and the Fleshworld.
Those select few are referred to as Level 5
Citizens, the most dangerous residents of the Crux. These Level 5 Citizens possess extraordinary
amounts of psychic and metaphysical energies.
Whether it is to manipulate an opponents’ emotions, invading their
minds’ with false memories, assaulting their enemies with an assortment of
telekinetic traumas, or performing horrifyingly unimaginable miracles, it is no
surprise that this community of malevolent offenders are watched on a ceaseless
basis. If a Level 5 demonstrates even
the slightest hint that they will use their abilities for personal gain or agenda,
the Marshalls swiftly and mercilessly intervene. As I said before, they are the only ones
equipped to handle such monstrous hazards, and few survive to tell their tale.
To further befuddle any primitive minded biped,
for every Crux Citizen, there is a Didymus existing in the Fleshworld. A Fleshworld twin, wholly unlike his cosmic
counterpart and immortal, although they will never know it. For if a Didymus were to actually die, his or
her Crux counterpart would meet their demise just as promptly. Instead, Didymus live immortally through
Cycles with time and spans decided on by Fate.
A Didymus can live hundreds of these Cycles during its existence,
repeating a consistent theme as their singularity is turned out over and over
again. The Navigator tracks every Cycle
ensuring that there is no interference or intervention from its Crux
reflection. The population of the Crux
directly corresponds with the population in the Fleshworld as the Construct
cannot generate a new interdimensional life form unless it can match it up with
a flesh and blood parallel counterpart.
The Didymus has no idea that his or her mirror
likeness exists in the Crux, even if the same is not true for Citizens. Most know of their fleshly copy but are
unable to do anything about it because of the Blockade between the two
dimensions. Without that Blockade, many
Citizens would travel to the Fleshworld, dispatch of their Didymus, and take
control of their former’s life. You see,
for a good deal of Citizens, mortality isn’t a curse or limitation, but an
unattainable goal. It is more desirable
than any wealth, pleasure, or power, in this or any dimension known or
unknown. That is why the contingency was
established that the death of their Didymus would result in their own termination. So any hope or dream of freedom is quickly
crushed by this irrevocable precept.
The only reason a Cycle ends is if the mortal
occupier follows an increasing course of evil. Most times a life will exhibit some sort of
malice at some point during any given Cycle.
This legacy is usually purified when one Cycle ends and another begins,
filtering out the nefarious inclinations.
However, there are times when malevolence transcends the process and
intensifies rather than diminishes.
When a mortal exhibits a repetitive nature to commit evil, there is an
intervention. The mortal is expired,
meaning his Cycle is disbanded and soul carted off to Oblivion as a final
judgment. In that case, his or her Crux
equivalent is also terminated. Reserve
your sympathy, more often than not, their Citizen equivalent is a much greater
vulgarity.
Which brings us to this; every Citizen is forged
or born with the right to one Request and one Inquiry. Both are limited to one each and no
more. The Request is valued far more
than the Inquiry as it can include but is not limited to; supplication for
assistance, enlightenment, intervention, or, in the rarest cases, an audience
with the Controller. Whereas the
Inquiry is nothing more than a singular question of the Controller, primarily
used for those who seek personal wisdom and direction.
If you are looking for some semblance of
rationale as to this process, you have come to the wrong place. No one knows why the system is set up the way
it is, especially me. And, as far as I
know, no one has had the balls enough to ask.
Now if you think this all reads a lot like stereo instructions or a
bloated software manual, you would not be alone in that assessment. However, if you are going to even attempt
to understand anything else I am about to explain to you, these are the bare
essentials, and as such, must be imparted.
It all started with the interruption of my
morning cigar and cup of coffee. Yes, we
have those here, don’t question, just go with it. When another century turns the corner, it
immediately translates into another headache for everyone involved. You see every century, our two dimensions
pass so close to each other that they nearly touch, and if they did, let’s just
say, it would be a very bad thing. When they pass a temporary Bridge is formed,
but that is only known to the Navigator and her Marshalls. This Bridge unites the two parallels
allowing passage of any Crux Citizen, no matter what level, into the
Fleshworld.
I know, sucks right!
If that were discovered by the general populous,
we would have a mass exodus the likes that no one has or ever wanted to
see. Not even the Controller would be
able to stop it, or so I have been told.
So for the next cycle, which is two weeks in Fleshworld time, everyone
is on high alert ensuring that this little pest of a secret never spawns wings
and swarms out of control. The Marshalls
relentlessly patrol while the Navigator becomes obscenely intimate with the
Repository’s records and surveillance.
She barks out orders on a second by second basis as potential threats
arise no matter how seemingly insignificant.
In turn, the Marshalls investigate every single case with the frenzy of
rabid dogs. Well, a little more focused
and controlled than that, but you get the general gist.
I have been through this before but this one
would shape up into the most dangerous and terrifying I would ever face. One that would shake the entire universe to
its proverbial core and forever alter the paths of all those involved, some to
the worst of ends. One single event
spawning a web of chaos as it turns two already upside down worlds, inside out,
which should have caught no one by surprise.
But it is amazing what you get comfortable with and how quickly the
course of common sense is ignored.
And so our little story
begins…
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