Eternity became a second, and a second became eternity - nothingness
dragged into somethingness, and everything paused. Unable to move, the
Basin of Life watched on as something that many had believed never
would, or could, occur, occured - the shield separating Hallifax from
existence cracked. It flaked, and then it broke. Time rushed in to fill
the displaced space, all mortals who were caught in its throws thrown to
the ground in a violent, soundless explosion. And so Saaga, Dean of
Twilight, had freed Hallifax from its imprisonment, and returned it to
its normal time stream. For the first time in over six hundred years,
the winds of the First World blew through the crystal spires of the City
of Crystal and Clouds.

The inhabitants of the Basin of Life flooded into the crystalline city
in shock, unable to control themselves as they sought to explore the
lost city. The first thing that struck many people, however, was not the
beauty of the city, but the state of inhabitants - frozen in glass, many
with looks of resigned serenity or open defiance, forever trapped in
their last moment before the nightmare had struck, one that had lasted
more than six hundred years - or perhaps was it only a second? Still,
some rushed to hug these poor inhabitants of the city, while others need
only walk by them - and so they burst into glass, lost forever to the
winds of the now returned

Lehki of the Serenwilde was the first to find the famed Matrix, the
Nexus of Power of the lost city. There, before his eyes and those that
gathered, the Matrix chimed out a sequence of numbers, and the statue
before it responded in time. Unlike its former citymates, this one began
to move - and so Cririk Adom, Executive Chair of the Board of Directors
of Hallifax, has returned to life, 712 years after his birth, more than
six hundred years after the lost breath he took. And to Senator Adom,
the Taint Wars were still being fought.

Bombarded with questions, Cririk Adom could only be upset by what he
knew to be a terrible breach in protocol. He stood upon the platform
before the Matrix, exactly as he had a moment ago. The only difference
was, now, his companions were gone, and he was surrounded by barbarians
and strange aberrations believed to be under the unfortunate affliction
caused by the Taint. There was not time, however - they had just began
Operation Crucible, and those of Gaudiguch had launched some counter
measure. The Matrix was, oddly, stabilized. Too many people were
shouting, and not the people he wished to hear - Force Commander Pavok
would not answer his calls over the aethers. Professor Eepex was not
responding to attempts to communication to recall his expedition from
the Skarch. The guards normally charged with keeping the plebians away
from the Matrix - at least, those without proper permissions and
permits.

Unable to make contact with his army, Cririk began to finally listen to
the shouting, squabbling plebians about him. Six hundred years, they
said. More? Locked outside of time, and only now return? Hallifax's
citizenry, dead? Impossible. Incalculable. Cririk Adom was a man of
science, of fact, of order - he would see things with his own eyes. It
took him some time and through strange terrain - what had become of the
Crystal Sea that Cririk Adom had once gazed upon? The River Shallach?
The beautiful shores of Celest, the Beacon of the Light, the Holy
Capitol of the Celestine Empire? As the lucidian stood within the
Emperor's Chambers, amongst the rubble of the Star Palace, he suddenly
felt very, very old.


Penned by My hand on the 14th of Kiani, in the year 253 CE.