Over the next couple of days Kohn spoke with the other people from Earth. He explained how he had come up with a way to imagine the shared mana in his body and then imagined or willed the image to change as he wanted.

He wasn’t perfect at it yet, but everyone around him made ooh sounds.

After that, every day dozens of people became able to control the mana shared with them. Now they were being given proper lessons.

Each day they would take the shared mana and follow along with the Mages, replicating everything they did.

Mostly they practiced how to feel the mana in others and how to manipulate the mana that was around them.

Some spells were taught, but so far the Earth Humans couldn’t grasp too many of them. Things to do with Air and Fire were quickly picked up but they were not allowed to practice them on the ship.

After they ran out of mana, the lessons would shift to what was essentially a series of dos and don’ts for magic while on any ship. For Kohn, he went a little pale when he was told that using magic to create fire on a Dark Vessel would trigger the automatic fire suppression magic. Basically a series of barriers would block off an area around the fire and then the atmosphere would be sucked out of the barriers, instantly creating an uninhabitable cold void of space in moments.

When the Mages hit some timer in their own head, the magic lessons would be over and they would teach them about the history of the Kingdom.

***

Created by the High King, the kingdom came out of a time of war amongst the people on his home planet Celic, which translated roughly to mean fantasy in English. This war was filled with brutal tactics and one day a Stone spell hit the home of who would become High King.

The Stone spell was simply a petrification.

As the future High King watched his family turn to stone he alone was able to resist the spell, but it turned the skin on his throat, his lips and teeth to stone. His visage gruesome, and his hate unstoppable, he raised an army and obliterated all other factions on the planet Celic, quickly becoming King of the world.

The King brought order to the entire planet and forced the sharing of all advancements to every person in the world. It didn’t matter what you did, if there was something you created you had to appear before the Council of Existence and share it. While it was unpopular at first, the entire planet began to prosper.

The Council, at the demand of the King, gave all necessary resources to anyone who tried to create their own advancements. Anyone who tried to take advantage of the system without providing anything that benefited others would be harshly punished as a warning.

After the formation of the Council, the King implanted a new system where everyone worked towards a common goal.

From then on the Kingdom worked to enter the Deep Dark and cross over to their sister planet Horic that sat high in their sky every day and night.

Researchers made dozens of spells that helped farmers to grow and recycle old matter for compost. From this the first ideas of recycling appeared on Celic and almost accidentally led researchers towards ideas that made it possible to travel to other planets.

Sealed containers and air treatment.

After a few years the first primitive spaceships or vessels were launched and they were able to set foot on another planet. The world travels were happy that the wood and stone structure imbued with magic was able to make the journey, but it proved to be a consumable design as it fell apart after setting down.

But the people on Horic were very friendly and met with Celics King. After talking about the future of the two worlds they agreed to join Celics King and work together.

From then on the two planets became the first in the Kingdom. However, Celics King became too busy and he was forced to put another King into power in order to focus on systems, goals and the advancement of both Celic and Horic.

When a king was named for each planet, the previous King became the High King and he took the name StoneTooth. He took the name as a testament to his strength, but also as a reminder to never forget the situation that caused him to lose his family. On the day of his coronation in the Deep Dark he swore to never allow a situation where the Kingdom would be torn apart by such a devastating war again.

After some more time, the Kingdom of planets developed more advanced vessels and other planets in the same solar system joined the Kingdom.

Eventually they developed the current Dark Vessels that were designed for long journeys through the Deep Dark. This allowed them to travel to other solar systems and interact with other planets. Not every planet they came across wanted to join the Kingdom, but as long as they abided by the laws they would enter into trade agreements that benefited both parties.

Sometimes they came across planets that were not friendly and the Kingdom was tested with its first war.

In response the High King created the Three Armies, made up by the Winged Order, the Order of the Falling Fist and the Order of Whispers. Though they didn’t want to kill and die, people believed in the Kingdom and wanted to protect it. The ranks of the Three Armies swelled.

The Kingdom’s forces fought off all attackers and went on to conquer any aggressor, forcibly bringing making them a part of the Kingdom. At such times the High King himself would go to these planets and overhaul every system that existed, quickly bringing stability to these planets while also advancing the standard of living. Rebellions disappeared or were quashed before they even began by their own people.

One such conquered planet, far away from the Kingdom proper, was showing promising signs of becoming a full participating member planet of the Kingdom, but for some reason had suddenly gone silent.

An investigation force was sent, but was never heard from again.

So the Kingdom sent in their full fleet and they came into direct contact with the Jzanna. A race of beings that were so constantly hungry that their ships were even designed to eat entire planets. Living matter would be eaten while the inorganic matter was turned into other ships to move their growing numbers from planet to planet, spreading like a wave of destruction.

Realizing the danger, High King StoneTooth ordered the search of every planet and shared with any sentient beings the information about the Jzanna. Nearly every planet that they came across was suffering from their own circumstances, but realizing the benefits and safety of the Kingdom they willingly joined.

With more resources, the Kingdom was able to slow the advancing Jzanna, but without more planets joining the Kingdom wouldn’t have the resources or numbers to destroy this terrible species.

***

There was too little information about either the Kingdom or the Jzanna for Kohn to fully appreciate his current situation, but he was curious about one thing that was in the history lesson.

“You mentioned the orders of the Three Armies, but what makes them different?”

“The Order of the Falling Fist are the warriors that fight directly with the enemy. They are trained in the usage of a number of weapons, fighting tactics and most importantly of all they are trained in rapidly confronting the enemy.”

Fairly easy to understand. They are frontline fighters of the Three Armies. Trained in formations in order to efficiently overpower any enemy and trained to use any weapon that they may need depending on the situation. “What does it mean to ‘rapidly confront the enemy’?”

“The Falling Fist was given the part ‘falling’ because they are trained in jumping from vessels to attack the enemy. Either to get in between of an advancing army and allies, or to break off the retreat of the enemy forces or to simply land in the midst of enemy forces to create as much chaos and damage as possible.”

The teacher was describing quick response units and shock troops.

“Okay, what about the Winged Order?”

“The Winged Order is simply the forces trained to control their mana enough to operate the Dark Vessels or control other mobile weapons either in the Dark Deep or in the barrier of the planet.”

“On Earth we could call them pilots or drivers depending on the vehicle. And when you say the barrier of the planet do you mean the atmosphere? The invisible force that separates space or the Deep Dark and everything on the planet?”

“If the translation spell is working properly then yes. The Winged Order are pilots that fly the Dark Vessels and the barrier of the planet is the atmosphere.”

People from the Kingdom didn’t seem to create words specifically for something. They seemed to prefer just to use descriptive words.

“I cannot tell you about what makes the Order of Whispers different from the other two orders because all members of the Whispers are sworn to silence amongst any non-Whispers. However, I can tell you that just from what I’ve seen they are trained in the ways of silence. You’ll never know if one is walking next to you unless you actually see them. Their weapons are also mysterious and very dangerous.”

The live streams of the day the nukes were launched confirmed that they were dangerous. That one person killed so many men instantly with a bow that had hung wrapped on his hip.

All of the people from Earth were getting excited that the orders were just like the stories of advanced warriors, mages and rogues. But the teacher’s next sentence froze the blood in their veins.

“The training you receive now will determine which of these Orders you will belong to and how you will fight the coming forces of the Jzanna.”