notes:
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Name: Caiver (pronounced Saver (say-ver)
Age: 15 at the present (16 soon)
Hair: black
Eyes: dark, dark brown, almost black.
Occupation: Apprentice Glassblower(--look up info!--), his father is his teacher.
Siblings: none
--

the numbers (1) represent my count of them, they are not in any particular order (yet).

the stars are souls, when someone dies (if they were good in life. people pray to the stars that they will become one in death, because if your soul does not become one after death, you have no chance at living again), their soul goes and joins the night sky. a few have talent enough for Astral Projection, and using such can communicate w/ the souls. the stars give wisdom if earned, but usually it is very cryptic.
anyone who can do Astral Projection is hunted down by the Priests and Priestesses, who take them and make them become one of them. he can, and the Priests and Priestesses set out for him, one imparticular, a young Priestess, who is determined to hunt him down. in the end she dies for him and becomes a bead. (1)
a wave of darkness is engulfing the stars, killing them forever. with each soul taken, the darkness grows more powerful, and strange things begin to happen...
he has good night vision
15 small glass beads w/ him, one for each day of birth, from his father. he carries these in a small leather bag, with him always. as he travels, 15 companions are with him... and sacrifice themselves to save him. to keep their souls from joining the stars and risking being engulfed by the darkness, he uses each glass bead to capture and keep safe the souls. the beads swirl with colors, and if one breaks, which one does (which is yet to be decided), it is let loose into the night sky, where it may be engulfed. he wears the soulbeads in his hair.
he slowly comes to realize that they are destined to sacrifice themselves for him, and so becomes numb at their deaths, knowing they are safe.
a girl from another world comes, (name - Sendri, hair - light light blue, eyes - dark blue, age - 15) her emotions locked tightly behind a mask, she barely speaks, partially in shock. they slowly learn each others languages, she not showing it, but at times will suddenly begin to speak, full sentences, no faltering, then will fall silent, staring down at the ground. if she gets adgitated, she will begin to repeatedly tap her right hand fingers against its palm, a pattern (Red Alert, see the bottom clip), over and over again, sometimes even in sleep if she is troubled enough. Caiver talks with her, digging into her past, her memories, and brings up emotions too powerful to hold in... and she breaks down. she begins to speak in her own language, at moments screaming out parts, at others, barely whispering. she is babbling, crazed, unreachable. she speaks, screams, cries until she is hoarse, and Caiver barely understands it. finally she passes out, and there is a scene with her lying on a cot in the back of a cave, dead of winter, and Caiver walks to her and stands over her, replacing a cold pad on her forehead. he begins to talk to her, saying nothing in so many words, and falls asleep on a stool, hunched over. when he awakes, she is gone, all of his supplies gone, save only the few coins in his coinpouch tied around his neck, and the clothes he is wearing. in a corner is a stack of her paintings, hidden, under a torn blanket, which he pulls off to use, uncovering them. Sendri is an artist, but in this realm, what she draws becomes a vision of sorts. he looks through a stack of her paintings after she dissapears, small visions happen (decide what), then the last, hidden at the back, a white wolf stares out from a painting. as he watches, it becomes her, in wolf form. she turns, running north, ever north, paws pounding the snow packed ground in even rhythm. she looks back once, and her dark blue eyes are filled with tears. then, before the wolf is a large cavern, pitch black, darkness. he comes out of the trance knowing that is where she is. she runs, dissapearing, north, and he follows, in shock himself... he broke her farther than she had been. the question hangs.. can she be saved?
in the north is a legend of a cavern, so dark no light enters, where the nightmares live, where the souls not stars reside... a place of horrors, and of death. so cold it numbs anything living, killing its soul (which joins those trapped in the cavern), leaving an empty shell, blank eyes, no mind. traders will travel by ship to capture these shells, bringing them south again, where they are sold to the rich. to own one of these is considered a sign of wealth, though in many countries, it is illegal, and for good reason.
he takes passage on one of the trading ships, and after some difficulties, finally reaches the north. while on the ship, his 16th birthday comes and goes, and word of it gets out to the crew. they celebrate by getting him drunk. he starts babbling to the crew, about his feelings, everything... and they find it.. disturbing, and deside to do away with him. one of his 15 helpers is an old Sailor, who helps him. (2) there is a huge fight on board, most of the crew is killed or thrown overboard, where they will surely die, but the Sailor is fatally injured. he tells him to take his map, hidden in his chest in his room, and to take one of the remaining lifeboats and dies. he puts his soul into a bead, and braids it into his hair, in the same style all sailor and crewmates wore a braid, behind the left ear. he lands in the north, and follows the map.
he chases her into the cavern, they barely escape w/ their souls, she's back in shock, drained of almost all of her soul. what happens in the Core saps the rest of her strength from her, and she dies.... and he is out of beads. as she dies, she calls him 'Caiver.... Saver.... Saver of the Stars'. he is out of beads, and pleads with her to let him release a soul from a bead, though he does not wish to, so he can save her. but she answers 'Aykei...' no..., and tells him she will not let him, and so he nods agreement, arguing with himself. something happens to release a power, and Caiver gives part of his soul away, weakening himself, and creates a sixteenth bead, an unbreakable one, which he uses for her. this is what bleaches his hair white, the power of doing that.

as i stare up at the stars around me, i think back to my earliest memory... of walking the docks between the rice fields with my mother, myself as a young boy... details are faint, but still, i remember the touch of the open sky. night had just fallen...

the small child lifted his head to the darkening sky, his steps slowing as he tugged his mothers hand back. with a wordless cry, silent almost, an intake of breath portraying his thoughts, he pointed upward with his free hand, fingers spread, towards the night sky. his breath comes quick as he stares upward, head tilted all the way back, stumbling along after his mother who hushes him and tells him to hurry. his eyes lighten as the stars do as well, his hand grasping for the sky, his small fist opening and closing in the cool evening air. his tattered clothes hung around him, blown by the evening breeze over the ricefields. dirt scuffed over his face, both cheeks streaked with the deep red mud of the empty fields, where he and the other boys spent hours playing, sneaking away from the strict rules of the outer villages. the young boy stared upward, unconciously wiping his cheek with his shoulder, smearing the mud on his whispy shirt. his mother glanced down at this but said nothing, walking on, pulling him forward with his hand clasped in her own, almost dragging him away from the empty ricefields. the boy did not understand what was wrong, but said nothing, knowing he would only get in more trouble. as he stared up, his thoughts drifted from the afternoon of playing, to the vast sky spread above him. his eyes widened, awed at the amount of stars above him, painting the sky with their light. as he stared, one blinked out, and the young boy stopped walking, to peer upward into the night sky, searching for the lost star. but only the familiar starstreaked sky answered his questing eyes. his mother sighed, and said something sharply to the boy. he payed no mind to her, staring up, confused, knowing she would never understand. finally she yanked on his hand, and he stumbled forward, head dropping, eyes staring down. he found himself shying away, staring down, unable to look up, then finally stepped forward once. and his mother nodded sharply, then began to walk forward along the docks, and the small boy ran along side, staring at his feet, stumbling on the worn road. and the wind washed over them both, a cool chill in the night.

-----

he reached down slowly for the tiny crystal marble that rolled to a stop at his feet and smiled, his eyes, almost black in the night, reflecting the moonlight, before handing it to the small girl staring up at him, chewing on a strand of firey red hair. she opened her mouth as if to say something, but instead snatched the marble off his palm, her own hand so tiny in comparision, and ran back to her group of friends, giggling. the small group of children stared wideeyed at him, the fire-headed girl peeking out at him from behind another red haired child, most likely her brother. he looked maybe a year older or so, and he had a thoughtful look on his young face, but as the girl whispered to him, the boy couldnt help but grin.
a halfsmile touched his face slightly, then dissapeared, as he turned back into the shadows, head low, and walked down the empty alleys.

-----

north, they'd said.... into that bleak white frontier, an endlessly snowfilled daze, where every danger was hidden from sight, striking without warning. you had to be on your guard in the north, they said. those words were about to be magnified in meaning.
the darkness spread before him, no light penatrating its depth.
closing her eyes, blocking the light, letting darkness engulf her entire being, running through each thought, darkening

(get from North.)

-----

CCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sendri started into awareness as the Hologram Projector in front of her turned into a static line, jumping around and sending sparks of light around her. She tugged the electrodes from her temple, sitting upright. Sendri winced, the customary headache that always accompanied these things hit her full force, and idly brushed back a few wisps of her light blue hair, escaped from her ponytail. She had had it colored to be that almost white, blue tinted shade even before she had come to the Resort, when she was young, about five. She doubted she could remember ever having it otherwise. Most her age had hair considered wild even by herself, a rainbow mix, army patterened, all the styles, each different. And most had chosen it themselves, too, even though they'd all been young. Another wisp of light blue floated down in front of her dark blue eyes, but she didnt even bother to brush it away this time, turning her attention to the static line.

Fully exasperated now, she cursed fluently at the Projecter, then fell silent, glaring at it. Why had the Resort required all the students to watch this thing? Everyone here had learned this when they were young, maybe seven, younger even. That was eight years ago. She was into metaphysics now, and past. The only reason the Resort was even making them watch this was because they had recovered it from an old Earth-ship. This was the only thing they had recovered, and were now forcing the entire staff of students to watch it.

Sendri muttered at the static line, the disc hadn’t even been any of their lower technology that the Resort used. They had had to log a viewing chamber with the information so that it could process the disc, and only one student at a time could view the disc. Sighing, she twisted in the Hologram Projector chamber, switching off the link from disc to image. The screen went blank suddenly as the switch clicked, and she suffered a slight flash of light in front of her eyes. At least the static was gone.

She sighed again, now turning to the pondering of exactly why the static had appeared in the middle of the disc. She had been the first of the students to view it, a priviledge, the Resort said, but she didnt think it to be. What did she care that her code number was one of the earliest? It was just like her parents to have given her that at her birth, they never had a sortage of money. Sendri sighed again, she knew that fact all too well, as did every other student at the Resort.
Suddenly Sendri paused, interrupting her thoughts, staring straight up. Each of the light spheres flickered and died, seemingly random, throughout the room. She glanced around, the only light coming from her shoulder patch, the badge each student wore to prove their status. It lit automatically, if a blackout happened, and unless turned off it would stay lit for hours. She sat still, waiting for someone to notice the power out in this section on the main computer, but when her shoulder badge went off as well, Sendri slowly stood, letting her eyes adjust.

Sendri lifted her hand to her shoulder pad, activating the intercom hooked up to each students’ uniform. Nothing answered her call, not even the static that was always present. She blinked, but wasn’t nervous, and calmly made a loose fist with her right hand. A white glove was strapped to it, small pads on each finger tip. A code of tapping fingers meant different things, and she quickly pressed her fingers onto her palm in the coordinates for ‘red alert.’ Red Alert sent a signal through the air until it reached another glove fitted for recieving such messages. Then it would be transferred to the director of the Resort, and help would arrive. Moments passed, and nothing happened. She blinked, pausing for a moment, wondering if she had sent it wrong. When still nothing happened, Sendri quickly keyed in the coordinates once more, but her glove was cold. Sparks flew from the protective covering on the fingertips, causing her to shake her hand wildly in front of her. Sendri then held her hand out, examining it, curious, but the sparks had stopped, and the diagram on her palm was quickly fading away to be just that, a diagram, no longer a working unit.

She quickly looked around for the source of the mishaps once more. Nothing but the dead machinery answered her gaze, glowing faintly from the light of her shoulder badge. Then she remembered, and stared at the dark badge on her shoulder, it had gone out hours ago. She took an involuntary step back, right into the Projector. She let out a small yelp, silently berated herself, and turned. As she turned, she took another step back, her eyes widening. That was where the light was from. Colors danced across the empty screen. She faltered, looking lost, glancing around in confusion. She had disconnected the Hologram disc herself; where was the power coming from? Entranced, Sendri stared back up at the Projector unable to tear her eyes from the dancing colors for long. Finally they seemed to orient themselves, forming ancient runes that flashed into her mind.

With a faint smile, Sendri concentrated on each before it would dissapear to make way for the next. Languages had always been her good point, and Sendri was able to easily sypher them. Or... not. A jumble of words answered her reading, and she went over it again and again, nothing new emerging. Just the same runes repeating endlessly.

Tommorow unlike yesterday; Mist unlike dew; Heart unlike spirit; Trust them all and trust them none; Everlasting, everending; Forgotten but hidden deep in memories; The Darkness sweeps it all away.

As the last flashed by her, she narrowed her eyes, thinking. The Darkness? But that had been defeated..... so, so many years before, so many worlds away from Earth, a little while after the Immigration, when Earth had discovered other planets...and humankind had swarmed to those from the overpopulated Earth. The Darkness had been on a small planet, she remembered, like Earth, third from that system's sun. It had mountains, valleys, oceans, almost a replica of Earth in climate and atmosphere. People had been born, lived, and died... And the StarKeepers had been formed, she remembered. The world religion, it had even reached Earth, the Mother. A soul would go to the stars at death, forming a new one. Unless sin had been in control of a life, and then, they went where none dared utter. Sendri thought that was slightly silly, they had refused to tell the class of the place, save that those evil would always go there, never to the stars. Facts ran through her head, disorienting her. She shuddered, pulling her thoughts from the Darkness, and stared ahead.

Her eyes caught by the colors, Sendri took a step forward, setting her hands against the equiment of the chamber. Her left hand fell on something, and she glanced down to see what. The door key. The code pad that stored all of the access codes deep in its microchips. She lifted her right wrist, the glove equiped with all repair supplies that would be needed during the education process, from Holograms to the few weapons they were allowed to handle. It seemed that the Resort didn’t trust its students to a large extent. Tapping the giveway switch, she carefully chose a tool for the job, a small pick, no thicker than a sliver of ice, smooth and strong. Carefully adjusting her grip on it, she lowered the pick to the code pad, touching it lightly to the lever. The top snapped off, revealing the tight wires and chips beneath. Sendri paused, then set the pick at an angle that should release the door switch, tapping a few other chips as well. Nothing happened.

She lifted her head to stare, blue eyes troubled, at the door. It remained closed, tightly shut against her, locking her in. Usually, the chamber door would be automatically released when the Hologram finished, but as it had stopped halfway through..... Sendri was stuck. The code pad didn’t open the door, and the Hologram would not finish.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Sendri collapsed back into the Projector chair, glancing back up at the runes flashing. They repeated the same things she had read before, nothing rising from their depths. Except.... Sendri leaned forward, almost falling out of the chair. Runes danced in and out, winding through the original large ones, the ones she had syphered earlier. Peering closer, they sped up, and she had to watch the same runes run by before she could actually read them.

Inside, outside, inbetween; Answers lie in what can not be seen....

Sendri paused. What couldn’t be seen? But.... Why did it give her riddles? the Darkness... ages ago, worlds away, it was gone...for good. The Invisible...the servents, their title prooving itself as they could never be found, even after the Age End, the overthrow of the Darkness. Why was it telling this all? to her? Sendri glanced around at the pitch black chamber, the only light from the runes in front of her, then reached out, the white glove on her right hand reflecting every color, the black shadows covering them, and fell through into nothingness....