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The Earth Wears A Halo: A Scifi/fantasy Series - Literature - Nairaland

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The Earth Wears A Halo: A Scifi/fantasy Series by ohleave(f): 6:58pm On Sep 02, 2017
A U T H O R ' S N O T E O N T.E.W.A.H:
…The Earth Wears a Halo…
This series has been a long time in the making (and it is still in the making). If you take time out to search this site for a SciFi story titled: The Lord of All Things Broken, you would find the early version of the book you are about to begin. (Yes, I shut down my previous account and ran away—I am a paranoid person. Putting my work online scares Jesus out of me.)
In all truth, this series has been my demon for over four years. I have tried (and failed) to scrap the story, to move on, to drop it in my abundant ‘unfinished novels’ folder and call it a life, but I cannot. I cannot leave this story. I always find myself coming back to it. If you look at The Lord of All Things Broken unfinished first draft, you will most definitely see the great improvement and complete plot remake that this new series has become. I like to think that yes, it still has its core story: gods and the mystery of their existence, but the characters and settings have changed drastically.
As with all evolving stories, the main characters have completely morphed into the opposites of what I originally intended. The story has a lot of arcs and story curves and I get overwhelmed sometimes when I find myself opening up other character arcs that I hadn't planned for. This series is a universe yet unexplored to me, and as such it is, at the same time, intriguing and intimidating. I'm thinking, will I ever finish this? Jesus, there's just a lot of storytelling to do. The new title is not even settled yet!
But I have decided to come back here, to the biggest indigenous site for Nigerians in Nigeria, of course, and make this journey one that you all can undertake with me. To share this burden and baby with you. I'm hoping this series will be something that interests you immensely because if it does not, I will probably die from the eventual knife of failure and inferiority. I'm already laying my soul bare by wanting to share this with you. I'm honestly hoping that I will find a family, like minds, and lovers here who will support me and this series for as long as it will plague my mental health.



The Earth Wears a Halo. Copyright © 2017 by oh_leave. All rights reserved.

To connect with the author, you can follow her on Instagram: @oh_leave, where she posts pretty pictures and micro poetry.
Re: The Earth Wears A Halo: A Scifi/fantasy Series by ohleave(f): 7:08pm On Sep 02, 2017
1.
"They emerged from the depths of the Earth, in uncountable numbers of thousands upon thousands. They arose with brutal force and the speed of wind, and broke the Earth to its very foundations. And then they sought to break us..."
Preface: Is The Earth Truly Ours?; An excerpt from Eogan Garlen's documentary; The Emergence: When The Gods Awoke, published in the year 2081.


The Earth wears a halo.
Anika glanced through the transparent wide-screen window to the gigantic satellite orbiting around Earth, so big that even when it was so far away, its outline could still be seen: a gigantic halo crowned above the Earth, the peace symbol of the gods; testimony of the plague that raged for centuries.
After the First Wake of gods that had plowed through the Earth in the later years of the twenty first century and destroyed it down to its center, Humanity had been certain to go extinct. It was the formation of the United Humanity Front, a last stand against the brutal retribution of the gods, that preserved the continued existence of Humanity.
Her family's aid to the regrowth of Humanity went all the way back to the aftermath of the First Wake, to those years of suffering and fear and death.
Anika removed her gaze from the sky and scanned the room, taking in its sterile neatness, its elegant size, with a detachment devoutly practiced.
Whenever she read her ancestors' documentations of the Emergence, she always came away angry, awed and fearful of the ethereal beings that had destroyed the Earth and half of Humanity's populations.
Her family line was gifted with prolific writers, writers whose works led to the betterment of the Human race, to the preservation of history and the regrowth of civilization. Humanity could have done a lot worse, had the Garlens not been there to help them.
Her father, however, hadn't contributed a thing to the family archives, not a word to Humanity's Library.
No, he was never interested in writing, in documenting, the gift of prose didn't run in his blood like it did in his ancestors. He was a born warrior, a schemer, a cunning, manipulating man who used his sharp wit, his calculating coldness, to rise to the top, to be Council, to head the United Humanity Front; the very organization that managed the affairs and controlled the intentions of the gods on Earth for almost three hundred and twenty nine years. No, her father had never been one to play with words.
Even now, he didn't waste his words on her. There wasn't much to say, after all.
"I do not take to tardiness during meeting hours, Anika." Was all he greeted her with. After thirteen years without seeing her face to face.
"Well, hello to you too, father." She gave him a smile, similar to a shark showing teeth, as she sank into the leather seat kept for her in the UHF boardroom. "It is always a joy to see you."
Their relationship hadn't always been the ideal poster family relationship, seeing as they were always on opposing sides of the table. Literally.
And she was certain they'd always be on opposing sides, seeing as she was now the Talrok and Co. Corp liaison with the UHF.
Anika looked down at her hands covered by her corporate suit, and she could see the markings that had been etched into her skin by the priests of Talrok (upon whom this new Earth rested; the Foundation of the World), the god she was devoted to, through the thick material like it wasn't there at all. A cruel reminder of her father's disapproval when he learned she did not share his power hungry mindset but rather had a love for writing, of his indifference at her decision to study at the feet of a god, the very beings he did not trust with even a hair on his head.
She brushed it off instantly. Now, she was the official liaison for Talrok and Co. Corp to the UHF; she carried the blessings of Talrok himself, she was a renowned wielder of god craft and she was the go-to woman when a binding contract was to be signed. She had a lot of things to be grateful to her father for.
"We will delay this meeting no longer,” her father, Adolatin Garlen, said, bringing the meeting into session. And Anika realized that she was in a sterile, white office, seated among seven other cold and calculating statues similar in thought process to her father.
"We will begin by reviewing the contract." Adolatin, Speaker for the UHF Council and her father, turned to look at her once more, his face moulded in apathy.
Anika allowed another moment to smile at him, that shark smile that she'd perfected over the years, through all those meetings with the sharks of the human and god species alike. She knew the moment he realized she wasn't that timid little girl he'd thrown to the wolves and saw her for who she now was; a woman who had grown among the most daring of men, a woman who had survived, and one who was now a darn good legal practitioner. Not to mention, a prodigy in god craft.
She let her blood rise to fill the raw glyph carvings along the lengths of her arms, let it bloat the tattooed flesh and begin to boil, ignoring the unpleasant feeling it excited when it brushed against the restrictions of her suit sleeves. She wanted to show her father why she was known as the best practitioner in all branches of the Talrok companies, why Talrok's Temples had proclaimed her the best wielder of god craft they'd ever trained.
The glyphs, given life by her anguished life fluid, glowed with power, opening the link she'd established with the god Talrok after many years of studying his craft sequence.
God craft sequences were as unique as the gods who taught them. Only the most focused of humans could study the archaic rows of strange language forged by the gods themselves, and find meaning in it. And Anika had had no choice but to focus, had had no choice but to pour all her energy into learning at the feet of the very creatures her father did not trust with the least of his possessions.
Anika let his power flush all thought from her mind, its lines and angles sharp with diamond clarity. At once, the threads linking her to Talrok's overwhelming energy stretched and pulled taut as her consciousness teetered along the outer screens of the Talrok's realm. She almost forgot that she was working, and let herself get swept up in the torrential wave of knowledge and power. But the mark of a good god craft wielder was knowing when to keep one's head even though surrounded by such tempting rows of divine wisdom.
The boardroom vanished with a thought, and they walked along the boundaries of a vast stretch of land in continuous cycles of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The air was thick with clouds of smoke and steam.
In totality, the process took no less than thirty seconds, an impressive track record given the situation, and it was worth the blank look on her father's face.
She knew perfectly well that her father had no love for the gods, no trust, but may he be damned if he didn't show them respect. Or fake it, at least. Anika had learned to stand on neutral ground. That was what becoming a Scholar, a god craft wielder, was all about. She stood with one foot in each world.
With a spiral banded document open in her hands, she looked on the eight.
"This is a new land mass, discovered by the Geography Research and Recovery Team, nearly five years ago." With a glance down at the open document, she gestured at the vast expanse of land in continual distress. "It has been attributed to have been a part of the East African peninsula before the Emergence. The United Nigerian States have won the bid and have bought the rights to this land. The contract has been drafted, but awaits your approval."
With a small snide smile, she put the document back to the table, the land mass receding into the background again.
"May we see them?" Her father did not miss a bit, even though his expression was still too blank, like he was trying to hold back his contempt.
"You may look through them yourselves, if you wish." She pushed them towards her father. "Talrok and Co. Corp makes sure that each contract, drafted or completed, is unaltered."
Adolatin Garlen made good show of going over the documents, pawing through each paper with a too-sharp kind of concentration.
"The UNS has already Dedicated the land to the Cadre." He lifted his eyes to spear her with a sharp suspicious glare. "Without checking with us first."
Anika's gaze did not waver. "You very well know that a Dedication is necessary. Without help from the gods, there is no way that land can be completely recovered. The New Earth Constitution clearly gives sovereign States the jurisdiction to accept gods as permanent residents upon their land, Councilor," Anika spoke up, adjusting the cuffs of her suit. "Doesn't it?"
He stared her down, unwilling to concede defeat. Anika was used to this, and her stare did not waver.
"Well yes." He narrowed his eyes at her.
She brought the documents back towards herself. "Do you veto the contract, or would you like to meet the Cadre contractor first?"






The Earth Wears a Halo. Copyright © 2017 by oh_leave. All rights reserved.

To connect with the author, you can follow her on Instagram: @oh_leave, where she posts pretty pictures and micro poetry.

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