Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One

Copyright 20
12
by Jason Tesar

Scripture
Q
uotations from the
Authorized King James Version
, Public Domain, 1611

Quotations from the
Book of Enoch
, Not in Copyright, Translation by R. H. Charles, 1917

Quotations from
The Prose Edda
of Snorri Sturlson, Public Domain, Translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur, 1916

Cover design and artwork by Mike Heath at
Magnus Creative

Maps and diagrams by Jason Tesar

Incarnation
is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locations is entirely coincidental.

I will always treasure the magnificent journeys we took

Venturing into other worlds through the pages of a book

Map of Human and Angeli
c
C
ivilization
s

Map of B
a
h
yith

Ma
p
o
f Pardeya

Diagram of Semjaza’s
F
o
rtress

Chap
t
e
r
1

Chapt
e
r 2

Chapte
r
3

Cha
p
ter 4

Chapt
e
r 5

Chapter
6

Ch
a
pter 7

Chapte
r
8

Chapter
9

Chapter
1
0

Chapter
11

Chapter
1
2

Cha
p
ter 13

Chapter
1
4

Chapter
1
5

Chapter
1
6

Chapter
17

Chapter
1
8

Chapt
e
r 19

Chapter
2
0

Chapter
21

Chapter 2
2

Chapter
2
3

Chapte
r
24

Chapt
e
r 25

Chapter
26

Chapter 2
7

Chap
t
er 28

Chap
t
er 29

Cha
p
ter 30

Chapter
3
1

Books by Jason Tes
a
r

About t
h
e Au
t
hor

Glossary
and Pronunci
a
tion G
u
ide

Refe
r
enc
e
s

Concept Ar
t
: Sariel in B
a
ttle-Armor

Acknow
l
edg
e
ments

Shards of light
were scattered
like wounds across a crimson sky, converging
over
the western horizon
.  The vibrant display
was
all that remained of the
Holy One
’s manifestation in this
place
along creation’s
spectrum
. 
Somewhere beyond
those
jagged peaks,
past a multitude of worlds invisible from this perspective, the ci
ty of the
Holy One
marked the end of the
E
ternal
R
ealm
where the
blazing
illumination of
His righteousness
dwelled. 
But here, on the
B
orderland
before the
T
emporal
R
ealm
,
the
nothingness
of the
Evil One
cloaked the land in darkness
.

The desolate terrain below passed by in a blur.  Ahead, the
glowing forms
of the winged
Iryllur
ym
moved silently through the mist
which
clung to the recesses of the landscape.  Their ethereal
bodies
were nearly
motionless;
gliding with a gracefulness that
defied
the blinding speed at which they
flew
.

At the rear of the formation,
Sariel
nodded t
o his own soldiers, giving the silent order to ready their weapons.  Through the eye holes of his sleek helmet, he inspected the
indistinct
structure of his gauntlets and breastplate. 
At other points along the
spectrum
, the l
uminescent
armor would have a more
substantial existence. 
The
Borderland
, however, had
long ago
become a place of loosely-contained shapes and colors.  R
eaching to the small of his back, he unsheathed a pair of
vaepkir
, the famed weapon of the
angelic soldiers of the sky.
  Each elegantly curved blade
now
ran across the outside edge of his forearms, extending beyond his clenched fists at the front and his elbows at the back.

All around him, Sariel’s soldiers
indicated their readiness, but he could feel uncertainty hanging in the air like a suffocating fog.  Their unanswered questions still rang in his ears and they were looking to him now to make sense of what they were about to do. 
One wing of
Iryllurym
, forty-nine in all, had been assigned to this joint operation.  They were to fly low and fast into enemy territory and come about to approach the demons from behind.  Meanwhile, the ground forces of the
Anduar
ym
would meet the enemy head on.  It seemed simple enough.  But Sariel
’s
seven-member special operations
team was normally assigned to
smaller,
strategic missions.  Their quick-strike capability was better suited for removing enemy sentries and laying the foundation for advancing ground troops
, not
for a standard
military action such as this
.
 
L
ike many recent orders he’d been give
n
,
he
knew it was
n’t an intelligent one.