Chapter 1 - The Serpent King

The land of Eden, despite it’s ideals of peace and its god blessed fertile lands, rich and wide forests and beautiful mountains, was rarely not involved in some war or conflict. That was not to say that because of this Eden was ruined. Infact, in almost 400 years of near constant war, not one enemy soldier had set foot on Eden soil, it was more often then not Eden was the aggressor in conflicts, and very quickly their superior military and knowledge of science would allow them conquer all with relative ease.

However there was one country they never could quite hold down for any length or period. They were the Sardisians. They stood quite similar to Eden on many of their policies, but unlike Eden, which kept them refined to paper, the people of Sardis had never played the aggressor in a single conflict, they were more scientists then warriors. Their superior knowledge of Science and technology made them one of the few people who had both power and me to out do the great military of Eden, and twice had Eden failed to cause more then a single hit on Sardisian soil before their great gates and military defences thwarted all attempts to invade. This was a thing I learned on my first day under protection of King Proatheris I in the Great City of Genesai.


My story begins in them most uneventful of ways, a sad way to start such a grand series I know, but it was not of my choosing, nor that of any who would of called for great parades to show of this abomination of science, this fruitation of decades of experiments that had led to a freak such as I being formed. Maybe it was better to start this way, for if I had been hailed as some genius, near perfect being in my early days out of the facility where I’d been tortured, beaten into submission, into agreement, loyalty, to be a slave for the rest of my unnaturally long life.
We had been hailed in the early days of testing as being a step forward, that every family could volunteer their next child up for the Project before conception, and that 13 years later, we would return, perfect, masterfully taught and perfectly loyal children, who had no thoughts of deviancy or rebellion.
However, in the first tests, more of the focus had been on the beating, the submission, forcing down loyalty then education. That was not to say by ourselves we did not learn. In fact, it was quite the opposite, our added intellect, when we gathered together; let us sort many of the problems it had taken early humans to take years to solve. Problems that took genius’ lifetimes to work came from us in years, and at the realisation of this, those at the facility routinely gave us puzzles, equations, things we’d never been taught, and within weeks we’d completed almost 20 years worth of education with almost a hundred percent of our answers correct.
Another thing we learned was to communicate by actions, subtle movements of which would for a long time escape the notice of the men who watched us. Eventually they did catch on, and one night while we slept, those they observed communicating that day disappeared at night, fearing they plotted some secret rebellion, which of course made them imperfect.
We never saw them again.
Now I admit, at the time, unlike now, I was not as I am now. If I wrote my perspective as it was then, I would write the way my stomach churned over and over, in fear I would not be perfect enough for my King, would not meet the expectations of the people, and in a way, even now I feel in those early days my fear was justified. Though I cannot escape my feelings of events now, I feel it unfair to tell you my tale this way.
So as I have told you, I arrived in Genesai in the most unspectacular of ways. Brought in a simple farming cart, two of the kings private guard opposite me, watching after me, there was still a threat that although my entrance to the city had not been announced, someone may of caught whisper of it, been against the Harlequin Project, and would try and end it in the one way they could, by disposing of me.
However, my entrance was without any serious event, apart from wandering, hard stares of many of the people I passed, mix of awe and shock, many regarded me with fear, others thought me as a god among men, and the difference was easy to spot with little more then a single look. Luckily for me, as I’ve mentioned, the entrance went without serious event, a single person at one point tried to charge, hand grasping at something in one of his robe pockets, but a friend kept him back, lucky for the man. I didn’t want to see my existence causing people harm, or even worse death.
The city of Genesai, from my understanding, is quite a mix of the two opposites present in the whole of Eden, that odd mix of old beauty and ways, markets of wood and cloth, the houses in the first circle of the city simple, bare and old, from the original city. Though many an outsider looked at this as a great flaw to the city, it was by the citizens demand it stayed this was. The second circle, the inner part of the city, raised just above the roofline of the first circle couldn’t be more different, built in almost total metal and white stone, white and shining; here you would find the bulk of the rich folk, life in the second circle was among the most expensive in the entire planet, and housed everyone from trained doctors, scientists, nobles when they were in the city and merchants who’d made their fortune in technology and weaponry.
Above this, was the third circle, off limits to most, unless summoned by order of the king. This was the royal circle; it was only accessible by a road that winded around the entire of raised tier the palace was built on. This was perhaps the most recognised place in the whole of Eden, and one of the most protected.
It was here which it was said the entire of Eden was founded, at the bottom of a great fruit tree, when the First King of Eden, King Matthias I struck down the tyrannous master who’d ruled the country with violence and power, driving his broadsword through the chest of tyrant, straight into the tree. When the sword was removed, the tree’s sap poured out gold. Believing this to be of some Godly significance, Matthias quickly emptied his flask and filled it with as much of the sap as he could, which would later be placed in a great vial of gemstone, and would become one of the most famous Royal Treasures.
As we wound round the long road at the base of the Royal Circle’s raised tier, one of the guards finally spoke to me, as the road was usually fairly empty, and it would be away from prying ears. “So, Harlequin, you know why you have been brought to the seat of your Royal Master, King Proatheris, correct.” Said the guard, his voice with the taint of a tone you would speak to a child with. “As much as I’ve been told, yes sir, I do, I am to be put under of the protection of his Majesty to protect me from those who would wish to end the project, or take me and misuse me for their own purposes, is that right sir?” I asked, with as much eloquence as I could find within myself, to assert to this man I was not just some simple child without knowledge.
His response was simply a small laugh, nudging his friend as if to include him in the mocking of me. I never found out if he was simply laughing at my reply, I knew he thought of me merely as a child with long words, or if it was because he knew of the kings intentions from then. Of course, thinking about it logically, I am more inclined to go with the former, for I is my belief not even the king truly knew what he was going to use me for, in those days things could have gone so many ways.
The rest of that ride was one of silence, towards me at least, the guards talked quietly between themselves, of trivial things, raised taxes, but the other laughingly joked that they rarely had to pay for anything with their job. Whether it was a joke or not, I kept quiet, simply noting down everything they said.
When we finally arrived at the entrance to the King’s audience chambers, one of about three entrances available to public, the other two being that of the great halls, used in festivals for feasting, the third the great prison, which was located inside the entire raised tier. The guards nodded to me, and as I quietly walked behind them, still taking my time to absorb in the surroundings, so I knew them well for later, for I feared in a way I’d never be let to wander far, and so knowing this place well was a good idea.
As the great doors were pulled open, a great chamber was revealed to me, barely lit beyond the carpeted walkway on which we walked on. The walkway itself was lined with guards, one at each of the pillars each at each side along the room, but something about the dark depths to each side of the room made me for a second shiver, as if something dark and cold lurked there. Shrugging it off, I continued on my way. It was at that moment I smelled it, the sweet smoky smell of incense and burning herbs, and at once I was hit with sensation of extreme light-headedness and nausea.
Noticing my distress, the guard who’d laughed at me nudged his friend again, pointing back and heartily laughing out “Look at the little bastard, can’t take his smoke, and doesn’t know why he’s here, aren’t they meant to be perfect, ha! Waste of taxes if you ask me.” The other guard, laughed, though not with as much zeal as his friend, giving me a sympathetic look a father sometimes gives his son. At this I smiled sheepishly, but it was immediately responded to with yet another wave of laughing from the first guard. Later I would learn the name of the two guards, the first was Walker, recruited from a group of prisoners of war, he was head of the defeated nations royal guard, and thus was too valuable to be killed.
The second was Lucan, not of any high birth but had risen to fame in an assault on the Cainite fort of Brakon, in which in a state of berserk rage, charged clear of his fellow men with naught more then a war axe and simple pistol and clashed with the frontline of the Cainite warriors, felling near forty as they scrambled to take aim on him with their famously deadly energy bows, decimating a good tenth of the initial defence before one of his brethren even reached him.
After a minute or two walking, we finally reached a short staircase, at which the top of was located the royal throne, and upon it was the King, Proatheris I, twisted staff across his lap, the knot of wood on the top of it a cut from The Secret tree, it’s twisted form resembling a coiled snake.
Walker ascended the stairs, and then knelt at the base of the kings throne, laying his gunsword flat in front him, bowing low he spoke with the utmost tone of respect “My king, I bring present to you the successful Harlequin Child, as you ordered” The king nodded for a second, then proceeded to look at me. At once I bowed, not sure if I was meant to not, to show my respect towards my King, my master, my owner.
I needed to say something quickly, and not thinking, still dizzy from the herbs and incense, I spoke the first thing that came to my head. “My liege, I stand before you now as your tool, the product of a great experiment at your order, my life is fully yours to command, to apply my abilities to your will would fill me with a greater pleasure then life could give me. I will be the hammer, and you the blacksmith, excuse me if I speak out of place, but what metal shall you have me meld into your will?” I look back at this moment with some regret, some pride, for it was a cunning thing to say to a King you did know, for he would at least have an indication of my intellect and ability to speak. However, shame meets me when I think of how wilfully I fell into his hands to be used. But still, these were times when anything could have come from these events, and I knew no better.
His reaction to my speech was one I doubt anyone, even he, expected. He almost immediately rose to his feet, as if to rebuke my speaking. I quickly dropped my head, as to show my shame at talking out place, but I heard footsteps towards me. Not wanting to know what approached, I kept my head down, until I felt one hand upon my shoulder, looking up I was immediately met with the face of the King. Waves of Shock at this drove me backwards, almost falling, but somehow my thin and gangly legs fell into such a way I managed to keep my balance. “Do not act so shocked, do you think I would have guards beat you for speaking so openly?” The King spoke, and for a second I almost replied to his question with yes, the memories of the facility, the beatings and torture.
But of course, I knew this would do me no good. A sign of rebellion or proof that he didn’t have my total adoring loyalty and I would never see the outside world again, he’d make sure of that. Shaking my head to his question, he laughed again, “Well then child, no need to recoil from me with fear. Come now, I wish to show you to your chambers myself, I feel the need to personally see you are well looked after, you are after all here on my command after all.” He rose to his feet, and for the first time I had a moment to admire and judge his physique, or at least, what could be judged, his thick and luxurious clothing would mask allot of his shape to me.
He was tall and muscular, a trait shared down the royal line, something known to me from my studies in the institute. His hair was thick and jet black, and his deep set piercing eyes carried the most famous character of those with royal eyes, bright purple eyes, often perceived as a sign of the gods’ blessings to many scholars. This too had been edited into the Harlequin Children. The king himself was quite a young man still, only thirty two years of age, but he had the look of a man several years older, an obvious sign that the stress of kingship had claimed much of his life, his hair was already greying in patches, and wrinkles sat under his eyes and on his brow quite distinctly.
Bowing at my master, I followed as he led me behind the throne, to where to guards stood at the sides of a detailed banner of the royal crest. The two men bowed, before pulling the banner aside, revealing an indentation in the wall. “This is one of many passage ways hidden around the castle, maybe one day my child you shall know them all as well as I do, for they are a valuable secret if the castle was ever to be invaded.” The tone of his voice however, suggested no fear of them ever being needed to be used past convenience, and in a way he had no reason to worry. Even if the town was attacked and the defences over ran, the majority of the army lay in waiting upon the raised land of the Palace, and thanks to the great spiralling track up and around it, they would be sitting ducks as the guards shot down upon them.
Smiling, he placed the sacred knotted staffs tip into the indentation, and twisted, instantly setting ancient machinery in motion that revolved the wall to make an entrance to the hidden passage way behind it. It was dark, no torches lit the stairway, but one of the guards handed the king a lit torch from the wall beside him, bowing as he did so, and the king and I went on our way.
The journey to my room was a silent one, tense even. For a second I almost even suspected this was not a secret passage to the royal chambers, but instead to some dungeon, and for a second I feared my earlier outburst had upset my king to such a degree he was about to clean his hands of me. However, after a good few minutes of walking in the confined stairway, we arrived at a doorway, and when we stepped out, it instantly relieved me of all my fears.
Walking down the corridor, we approached an open door, in which sat a young boy, no older then I, perhaps a year or two younger. He shared the kings black mane of hair, and an almost ghostly pale skin, though it was nothing compared to my skin of course. At once I realised it was the Prince, a child who was greatly sheltered from birth, his mother dying soon after he was born from an infection left after the difficult birth, and so, as his only son, had to be closely protected. He rarely left the palace, and that was evident in his lack of skin tone.
At once, upon realising his father and I were stood outside his room, he jolted to his feet and was pacing towards us. “Father!” He exclaimed “Who is this you show…” mid sentence he stopped, and paused, finally paying me a full glance and it was obvious his first impression of me was one of horror or fear. I later discovered he reacted in such as way as he feared me to be a sorcerer or devil that was controlling the king. He jumped back in fear, grabbing to his drawer upon which a short dagger lay sheathed. Immediately the king sprung into action, saying “My son, have you lost your senses, I have told you he would be arriving, this is the Child, my little Harlequin, not some emissary of evil, do you think they could so easily conquer my mind and sneak past my guards?” he rebuked his son, who’s next reaction was shame, dipping his head and retracting his hand back to his side. The young prince turned to me, and apologised immediately “I am sorry sir” his tone indicating his shame and hurt pride at his fathers chastising.
It was at this moment I realised how the kings sheltering of the boy had left him. He was not gallant and bold as a young prince should be, but frail and cautious of new faces. I made a mental not to advise my king of this, and try my best to become companions with the young prince, for he would one day take the kingship, most likely during my life, and it would pay me good to be his close friend.
The king nodded in recognition of the young prince’s apology, then turned back to me and introduced him to me “This is my only son and heir to the kingdom, Maël, and it is he you will most likely devote most of your work to. I have come to a use for you, for recently his tutor turned ill with infection in his arm, an accidental fall down the city stairs tore it up quite badly, and it is unlikely he will survive much longer unfortunately, however, in light of this, one as intelligent as you from all I’ve heard will be perfect for this task, for the time being at least, I will have him show you the library tomorrow, for I expect the trip has greatly tired you, no?” I nodded politely, knowing myself I was not overly tired, but perhaps it would be best to leave the rest of the early evening and night for rest “Though, not too tired, I wish you to come sit with me at the feast tonight, in honor of your arrival.”
The thought of that immediately set me almost dizzy with excitement, a seat at the royal table was as honored as someone from outside the nobility could receive, those of common blood who sat there were only ever great heroes and highly respected men of science and knowledge. “My master, I would be honored to be part of your table, but I must say I see no reason to hold a feast in my honor.” I spoke, which was answered only with a chuckle. “My child,” he spoke softly and calmly “You are a great symbol to the people, many revere you as much as they do to I, some more. You are the living embodiment of the perfection the people of Eden strive for, and in the coming years that will only be furthered as you prove yourself to us all.”
With his words then, I knew instantly I would say no more. Over the entire project, he’d received much hatred, been portrayed as a villain who wished to ascend to Godhood with the Harlequin Project, the power to make, create and change life one of the few areas of science left untouched despite all the advancements made else where. But through all this, King Proatheris had stuck through it to have one such as I created. It had cost him many strong political allies, divided up allot of the land, and it had cost much blood to reunite them. And for this I could never go against his will.
After meeting Maël and bidding goodbye, the King finally led me to my chamber. In the short time we’d spent in the Prince’s room, Lucan had himself climbed up the secret stairs. I later learned that in times of peace, he was often left in charge of the Royal quarters, to be the last line of defense in an unlikely invasion. His ability to take on masses of foe as he did in the Cainite wars had proved to be a valuable asset, and with few entrances in, most of which were narrow stairways, he could easily outmatch most foes. I nodded briefly to him, and he did back to me, the first sign of a friendship that was to grow. The rest of the evening before the feast was an uneventful one, alone in my room, a small little thing, not as grand as one of royal blood, but it was more then most had. Laying my head down onto the pillow, I quickly fell into a long needed sleep, a few hours of rest was what would be needed for the night to follow.

Prologue

There are those who believe that during infancy, the chance to mold the perfect race is lost. The soft handedness of the mother and the lack of rules and order leave ideals of rebellion and disorder in the child's mind, and with no fear for authority or those who rule them. There are also those who believe those who think the previous thought to be oppressive fascists.

What I believe is both.

The Harlequin Project, born from the first of the two thoughts, was the long awaited salvation for those of the first group, an experiment in genetic modification and psychological manipulation to create "the perfect being". No one quite knows where the two ideas mixed, mutant and manipulated, but somewhere, at sometime, a great mind thought of it.

And as I have stated, The Harlequin Project was the fruit of this idea.

To the people of the land of Eden, this was met with a mixture of disgust, curiosity and fear. After all, if successful, those created in the project would almost certainly gain superiority quickly above those born to the old ways. But with little say, after time passed, and nothing came from the initial tests after a series of miscarriages and birth defects that left the babies incapable of living, most no longer batted an eyelid in the direction of the scientists involved.

But over time, methods were perfected, and almost 30 years after the first failures were born and died, a whole generation of Harlequin babies were born. From birth they were mistreated, kept alive but not pampered or preened, given only enough food to keep them working but not too much as to let them grow fat and slow. From their first steps and words, they were taught with no love, no compassion. By early childhood, the children already grew cold towards everything, but feared their masters and teachers, for one false step and bones could be broken, though thanks to several genetic alterations these regenerated and fixed in a matter of weeks, sometimes even days.

But there was one thing automatically that set them apart from normal Humans. Their skin was not just pale, but almost purest ivory white, and their hair was sleek, and black. Around their eyes, after only a few weeks of life, great dark spheres of black began to appear, and their birth eye colour shifted to a light purple. Their lips grew blue, as if they were cold and dead one night, then by morning be black.

And this was the image they'd take, dressed all in black and white, like prisoners, but that was not to say the clothes were not extravagant for their puny standing in any hierarchy. The kind had ordered them the finest silks, and gave each of them masks. He hoped through this to deny them even basic identity, they were all the same, hair cut to the same length, and if they grew even a few pounds heavier or lighter they were force fed or starved till they all resembled the norm.

I was one of them.

But the beatings and genetic anomalies now and then claimed one of us, and soon their were only a few dozen. By then we were 12. Then we began to learn the basics of combat and weaponry, but again this claimed many lives, accidental injuries claimed the majority of those who remained. And after a while, I began to realise one thing. I was the last of our kind.

I quickly began to suspect what had been accidents to me only days before, were in fact tests, to see who could endure the most, who was the strongest, fittest, most resilient and best. And with that sorted, I was to become the genetic basis for the next generation, as the best specimen from me they would recreate the hundreds there had been, after which they would have the slave force and soldiers they desired.

But I was not destined for that. On the day they took their final sample from me, I was requested to the kings side, he deemed me worthy of at least a home and supply of meals.

It was also there he named me.

Adam The Harlequin Child.