The year was 1725, a time when the world outside still clung to horse-drawn carriages and gaslit streets, yet inside a particular secluded building on the outskirts of civilization, something far older — and far more powerful — gathered in silence.
The meeting chamber was enormous, almost cathedral-like, with a ceiling that soared tens of meters above the polished floor.
At the center of this solemn, ritualistic room stood a long wooden table, ancient, carved with sigils and runes that predated most written languages. Sitting around it were five individuals of distinct looks, ages, and personalities. Their clothes were fine, their expressions dignified, and although their apparent ages varied, a shared aura of immortality and superiority radiated from them. They were not ordinary humans. They had not been for a very long time.
Each of the five exchanged careful glances, their faces tightened with varying degrees of frustration, impatience, curiosity, and wariness. Soon, inevitably, every gaze drifted toward the empty chair positioned at the head of the table — the seat reserved for the one whose presence remained uncertain. After studying that unoccupied seat for a moment, their eyes turned toward the man sitting on the opposite end of it.
"We've been waiting for at least an hour now," Emory said, breaking the strained quiet with the tone of someone who had run out of patience twenty minutes ago. The middle-aged man sat to the immediate right of the empty chair, his posture stiff and rigid. "Are you sure he's actually going to show up, huh, Simon?"
Simon, the grizzled yet distinguished older gentleman with thick silver hair of neck length, released a slow, weary groan. His posture remained composed, but there was something heavy behind his eyes. Once more, he stared at the empty seat as though it might suddenly fill itself.
"Emory is right to be annoyed, Simon," Martha interjected. She was one of the two women at the table, her aged features framed by neatly tied grey hair. Her expression was a blend of sternness and quiet anxiety. "We've all spent a great deal of time preparing for this very day. If he doesn't show up, everything we've planned — everything we've risked — will be wasted. So tell us again: what exactly did he say when you informed him of this meeting and extended the invitation?"
Annoyance thickened the air like humidity. From the looks the others gave Simon, some of that frustration had clearly been building toward him. For nearly an hour, Simon had barely uttered a word, and his silence was doing little to calm their nerves.
"He said he would think about it," Simon finally replied.
Henry — a sharp-eyed man dressed in elegant women's garb, his appearance a striking contrast of poise and volatility — immediately jolted upright.
"He said that he would think about it? And you took that as confirmation?!" Henry's voice cracked, his irritation spilling out like a dam had burst. For the past hour, he had maintained a composed façade, but that thin veneer shattered in an instant. "You're telling us we've been sitting here, waiting for someone who might not even bother showing up—?!"
"He will come," Simon interrupted. His voice was steady, cutting through Henry's rant with slicing precision. The moment the words left his mouth, the room fell into a stunned silence.
The four other individuals exchanged glances. They were known collectively as Revenants, beings who had long surpassed the limitations of age, sickness, mortal fragility and had gained powers beyond that of human comprehension.
Anna Louise was the first to return her gaze to Simon. A brunette who appeared to be in her early thirties at most, she carried an elegant yet intimidating aura. But like all Revenants, her physical appearance did nothing to reveal her true age — a truth only hinted at by the otherworldly energy that clung to her like perfume.
"How are you so sure?" she asked, a skeptical furrow forming between her brows. "You speak as if this outcome is absolute — as if you already know he'll show up. Why?"
"Because I do," Simon answered, calm and unwavering. "I know because I've seen it all."
Martha gasped. "Precognition?!" she exclaimed, and the others mirrored her shock. "Since when have you possessed such a transcendent and powerful power, Simon?"
"I can't believe any of us could be bestowed upon with such a gift, let alone you" Emory muttered, clearly unsettled.
"Only recently," Simon replied Martha's question. "And thanks to it… I know exactly how this meeting will play out."
His cold tone unsettled the room further. But being extremely observant, each of the four other Revenants sensed it — an underlying secret. The thing that Simon wasn't saying.
Emory and Henry exchanged another uneasy glance.
"A-and how exactly will it play out?" Emory asked, unable to keep the tremble out of his voice. "Do we… do we accomplish our goal today?"
Simon inhaled slowly and exhaled with the composure of someone speaking from certainty, not prediction.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, we accomplish our goal."
For a moment — a brief but precious moment — smiles stretched across the table. Pride flickered in their eyes. Relief softened their rigid shoulders.
Then Simon spoke again.
"But…"
The single word felt like a stone thrown into still water.
Emory's premature smile froze on his lips.
"But what?" he asked cautiously.
"Yes, Simon," Henry added. "But what?"
Simon was silent, causing the tension to rise and then he replied "It's already too late. He's here"
BOOM!!!
The door behind Simon exploded inwardly, violently shattering into countless splintered fragments that tore through the air like arrows.
Anna Louise lifted her hand in the direction of the incoming shards and immediately every piece of wood froze mid-air — suspended impossibly, motionless, as though the pieces had obeyed her order to stop.
"Oh man…" a voice coughed from beyond the swirling dust cloud where the door once stood.
Footsteps echoed, casual and unhurried.
"I guess I don't know my own strength sometimes. I'm terribly sorry for the mess," the dusty figure said as he entered, brushing debris from his clothes. "I tried knocking a few times — even yelled for someone to open the door — but no one answered. So I decided to let myself in. I hope that's okay"
As the dust lowered, the figure became clear but from the voice everyone already knew who it was.
Simon spoke first, calling out the name "Orion." As the young man stood beside him.
Orion's grin contrasted sharply with the stern, tense expressions around him.
"Though I had second thoughts about this, here I am, like you asked," he said. "So, Simon… what's this all about?"
"Why don't you take a seat first and I'll—" Simon began gesturing to the empty chair, but Anna Louise cut him off.
"What do you mean you knocked and yelled and no one answered?" she snapped. Her eyes narrowed into daggers as she stared him down. "This entire building — this room, this space — is under my control and nothing touches these walls without my awareness."
Orion blinked innocently.
"Are you talking to me?" he asked, pointing to his own chest, then looking behind him as if expecting someone else and that resulted in the woman becoming more enraged.
"Did anyone else utter those words?" she shot back.
Annoyance and suspicion thickened the room.
"Oho… are you calling me a liar, Revenant Anna Louise?"
Orion smirk widened, behaving like someone who had absolute belief in his own strength even in a room full of powerful Revenants.
The suspended wooden shards twitched, then drifted toward him, their sharp ends angled like threats.
"Well, now. This wasn't the welcome I expected." Orion's fists clenched, his way of saying that he was ready to retaliate in kind if Anna Louise tried anything.
The tension rose like a noose tightening.
"Miss Louise."
Simon's voice sliced through the air — cold, stern, controlling.
Anna Louise exhaled through her nose, visibly restraining herself.
"How clumsy of me?" she muttered before forcing an insincere smile Orion's way. "I must have been distracted and lost control of the shards for a second. I'm not used to getting distracted often so this is a first for me But, where are my manners? Please, go ahead and take your seat. I'll repair the door you accidentally destroyed."
Orion groaned.
The wooden shards distanced themselves from Orion's body, rotated, then lined up and drifted toward the ruined doorway. Like puzzle pieces, they formed the correct shape of a door — albeit having gaps between the pieces.
A soft glow radiated from Anna Louise's eyes and the dust receded from the room, swept back to the doorway as if inhaled by invisible lungs. Then the door pieces fused, cracks glowing, until the door was whole once more.
A scene like that would have impressed and awed just about anyone else but not these individuals who could perform their own miraculous feats.
"Please, Orion" Simon said, gesturing to the head seat. "Take your seat."
Anna Louise snapped a finger and the chair slid back on its own.
Orion arched a brow but approached.
He sat — and the chair immediately slid forward, startling Orion who was just about to adjust it closer to the table himself.
Anna Louise giggled smugly.
"Now that we're all properly seated," Simon said, "let us begin."
"Finally." Orion folded his arms. "Alright, Simon. Tell me why I'm here. Considering that for the past three years you Revenants have shown me nothing but hostility — because you couldn't stand someone like me who came out of nowhere and being just as powerful, or even more powerful, than the five of you — I'm dying to know what changed."
Simon leaned forward.
"All five of us have discussed it and we have decided to unite our forces under one umbrella — an organization and its name will be IMPACT."
Orion blinked, honestly impressed by the statement
"Okay… good for you. But what does that have to do with me? Why invite me for a meeting that you five should be having by yourselves"
Simon's answer was a hammer dropped on glass.
"Well, Orion, You are here because we want you to lead it. We want you to become the leader of IMPACT — and as an extension, the head of all five of us — as we usher in a new age. So, Orion, what do you say? Are you ready to be one of us? A revenant?"
Orion's eyes widened.