Right now, right here, at this moment...

Anno 6648 - 6665 A.B.C.

This is... the Herstories of The Two, of Mic Lepantra Wamba and L'or Leypa Aug.

The Two are born and raised on either side of the Earth. Neither knowing of the other's existence. Neither knowing their common purpose.

The Two are cousins by Nature—but more so, sisters. Their acquaintance with each other occurs once only at their Medolescenthood ceremony.

...

I am reminded, you are not of our Earth. I speak of their 144th month of life. Or, for clarity, it is their twelfth yearday.

...

They are summoned.

It is the first time The Two learn of the call for which they are destined, long before conception in their incuchambers: Who... is to be the successor to The Queen?

The Two are once more distanced from each other back to either region for five years of specialized training... and testing. I... closely monitor their progress on behalf of my Queen and King. But neither know of my existence.

...

Understand: I am the only one other than my Queen and King to know of the comparative results.

...

Three months later, it is time for the final test—The Two shall orbit Earth in complete isolation, side by side, for sixty nights and one-and-twenty days. That is, sixty never-ending nights of meditation, and one-and-twenty equally never-ending days solving case problems.

...

Not possible, you say.

It is. Solar geosynchrony will allow this.

...

They must do this arduous test before returning to Earth for The Choosing... And The Chosen One shall remain in final training before she becomes the Seventh Queen of the United Lands.

Sixty nights pass, and only six days...

What happens is unimaginable. I am with my Queen when—

...

There is no warning. No prediction. No simulation that has prepared us...

Geya within Earth reclaims Earth unto Herself... From the depths of the Sandreas Fault to the Belts of Fire, and into the Great Pacific, She consumes all... unto Herself. Explosions and convulsions collapse the industrial Mid-Lands, onward onto all northern Habitats, nothing stops Her... All attempts fail.

Time is too short for the populace to escape... Our end is inevitable...

...

My Queen has but one thought: Save The Daughters!

I must obey—for only I can go... my true form needs no carrier.

I enter the vessel of One Daughter—I make myself known to The Two... I issue my burden as given, my order:
Mic Wamba, L'or Aug... Flee to Maar! Look not back!

But our concern for our People makes us hesitate... And we glimpse the last of New Stocolmo—the floating city of our Queen and King's Regal Dome—before it, too, is smothered by Geya's fury...

We think we can flee... We are mistaken. Geya leaves no one behind.

We are drawn, locked at high speed...

There is no memory of what happens next. I can only deduce. We should not be alive...

We are wrenched into Geya's vortex... We are shot across nillions of light-years... in no time at all.

We are hurled out of another vortex... in another sea... 

And we end up here—on a younger Earth:

One, a satellite to your Moon...

One, a slipping stone in your Lake.

We – are – stranded... The sole survivors... of Terrus, an entire Earth... which is now – beyond – our – reach.

...

Here ends the Herstories, the Story before this Story. I have filled the void... and answered your question.

I leave your head now.

— ∞ —

©2017 by kemorgan65

A/N: Dear Reviewer,
I am contemplating the placement of these Interludes and I would love to get your thoughts. Originally, the Interludes were the Prelude, but with many readers' tendency to skip preludes, I wanted to ensure it get read. At one stage, I had the interludes broken into smaller pieces and placed them as "quoted" text at the top of each chapter until I completed that narrative. Now I have the interludes as 'day breakers' before the start of a new day in the main narrative.
Some readers comment that this placement breaks the flow of the narrative for them.

What do you think? Do you have another suggestion of how I can incorporate 'The Voice's' narrative more effectively?
-- Annika

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Note: The name Geya is in reference to Gaia, in our Greek mythology:

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_(mythology):
In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.

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Credits:
*Banner image: Wormhole by Mehau Kulyk/Science Photo Library from https://theboldcorsicanflame.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/wormhole2.jpg

*Bermuda Triangle image by NOAA's National Ocean Service from https://www.flickr.com/photos/usoceangov/ https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7093/13545166394_1b72ae9587_z.jpg