X001.odt

Prelude: Nilfeheim October 5347



I stood at the south most tip of Tusen Kipa Beach and looked over the churning waves of the Ocean. It was the 7th of October 5347, Eric's birthday. I realized it was my birthday, the birthday of Eric Olafson. Humans had this tradition to celebrate the day they were born. Neo Vikings however celebrated naming day, and I had been named Eric. The name itself had been used many times in both of the Ragnarsson and the Olafson family lines, yet in my case it was an oddly fitting name. The given name Eric is derived from the Old Norse name Eiríkr. The first element, ei- is meaning "one" or "alone" or aiwa meaning "ever" or "eternal".The second element -ríkr derives either from *rík(a)z meaning "ruler" or "prince".The name is thus usually taken to mean "one ruler", "autocrat", "eternal ruler" or "ever powerful”.



My old mentor Skallagrímsson explained that very meaning to my mother and at least in human terms this name, I had to agree, if a name was needed was quite fitting to what I had become.



It was here, Uncle Hogun had taken me in the year 5014 to show me how to shoot a blaster.



The big boulder I had split with my first shots was still there.



I reached out with my mind gathered a fraction of my will and released it gently and made the boulder whole again. It was just a boulder yes, but destruction came so easy to me and wisdom so late.



Back then it was an empty beach, but now and just a little to the east, stood a new burg. It was called Hogun's Rock and it had been built mostly by the strong arms of my beloved uncle Hogun. Even now as the last vestiges of what it mean to be human faded, a warm feeling reached the very core of my being as I remembered this titan of a man, who had the strength of four man. Yet I did not remember him because if his strength but of his gentle heart.



But no matter how strong he was, he was human and he too had met the one stronger than all. Uncle Hogun had died 222 years ago at the age of 112. He had not been buried at sea but under a stone plate in the yard of his own burg. In his dying wish he declared he would arm wrestle Thor and the day he won he would return from Valhalla and lift the plate of his own grave. He died with a bellowed laugh and for the first time anyone could remember a tankard of ale dropped out of his fist.



<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Elena was gone, and so was Exa. Even Eric Narth Olafson, the god-child of the Narth representative was now and old man. He understood much about the Narth, as much as a human possibly could, but he could not share the Hugavh. He would eventually perish as well.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I did not even know who it was that occupied Hogun's Horst. I did not really know the name of the ones now carrying the name Olafson on our own rock,or who it was that claimed the position of Clan Chief. All I had to do was to expand my mind and names and answers came to me, yet those things faded to be important.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Yes it was good I came here one more time, but I was ready to go now and once I left I would not return to Nilfeheim, yet I was certain a fraction of me would always call this little planet home.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I glanced once more over the vast oceans and caught myself wishing to see once more the white magnificent form of Tyr breaching the waves and silently thanked him for showing me that there was indeed a third way.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I took an instant step and moved from the beach right back into to my old room in the tall tower overlooking our Burg. Circumventing the space between two points in space was easy for me now.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I no longer feared or disliked Psionics and if I wanted I could have adjust Nilfeheim's orbit around its sun and eliminate Longnight altogether but that would destroy a delicate balance and destroy Nilfeheim as surely as the planetary incendiary bomb we stopped so long ago would have done.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Most things in the Universe did not need to be changed and Nilfeheim was just fine as it was.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">I smiled underneath my own hood at my memories remembering the days I hated, disliked and always somewhat feared Psionics; and now I found Psionics primitive and inadequate.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">My eyes fell on an old leather bound book lying on my desk. It was a molecule by molecule copy of the original log book of the Tigershark, the original of course was kept in that musky, hallowed archive on Annapolis Planet where all Logbooks were kept. This copy was a gift of McElligott; the former Admiral of the Fleet.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Ah yes I wanted to finish telling my story. My fingers brushed over the paper and I noticed the date of a particular log book entry and next to the book my old PDD where I promised to write down my story. I better sit down and continue.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">There is no real appointment I have to keep. I could sit here and write a thousand years, but the urge to leave this part of my existence behind grew. For all I was and for all I became I was also still Eric, a Neo Viking and we kept our word.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">Ah yes, I had stopped just before we reached Brhama Port. Oh that was still early in my life, and there is actually still quite a bit to tell.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">So if you like follow me and read how it all happened.

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<p lang="en-US" style="margin-bottom:0cm">The Dark One