INFRARED – 1 (Start)
He was a strong and capable man. He could hunt antelope on his own, and he could start a fire on his first try; he put dried grass on stone and then struck it with another rock only once to create the spark that eventually sent a fire raging. He was virile, and attractive to females of the tribe that he associated with, and he fathered many children when he was biologically capable.
His early life was good, and as his tribe existed in the vicinity of the Horn of Africa, he developed a reputation that he assumed would propel him to leadership. He even managed to scare other men away from the most beautiful of the women in their tribe. She was distant and mysterious, strong and capable, and he wanted to spend all of his time with her. He tried to romance her, but she was uninterested, and eventually he would find her out on her hunts and help her bring down big game animals. She enjoyed his teamwork, but rejected his physical advances, though the two were seen as a team by other members of their tribe who marveled at the show of their dual hunting efforts that were highly coordinated and demonstrated an understanding and cooperation between the two that was unparalleled.
Ssi assumed that the woman, who would eventually be known as Mou, simply struggled with intimacy. He never saw her be intimate with anyone else, and he would not permit it once he came to love her, so he did not pressure her; he hoped that their union was as inevitable as everyone assumed it to be.
Until he woke one day and she was no longer with the tribe. She had wandered off in the night, and Ssi was mad, but he could not go looking for her. He was important to his people then and they depended on the big game that he brought them.
Everyday of her absence, Ssi thought about the woman, and he eventually sent men in search of her; they never found her.
By the time she had returned, Ssi was directing the efforts of his tribe and he was their accepted leader. Until they all laid eyes on the woman, who returned to them as Mou with extraordinary abilities, and they all fell down in worship before her, including Ssi who was happy to be reunited and awed by her presence.
But in the presence of Mou, Ssi disappeared, and it wounded him after being elevated and celebrated by his community. The final straw was her rejection and he took it out on her son, the full grown Fomorn, who eventually fled the area forever.
When Mou demonstrated her new might in retaliation, Ssi knew that he had to find magic of his own, and he decided to take a leave from his tribe. He left and wandered alone, and every night before he slept he yelled his frustrations at the moon. And then one night after unloading all of his frustrations, Ssi saw what can only be described as a rip in space and time and he could see a chaos of red winds, and he heard a tortured wail.
“You have done it,” a voice called at him. “You have reached across common sense to rouse me, now come and I will show you what you have unknowingly done to your world.”
Ssi floated up into the rip and he was inundated by the winds, by the chaos.
PRL Serials 