Chapter 2

“People of the Kay Islands,” the woman called out in a strong voice.

The large crowd quietened and looked at the flamboyant looking, blonde-haired woman in the short, silver tunic with a snow-white toga over it. The sleeves, hem, and deep and wide square neckline of the tunic were edged in a band of royal purple silk, as was the wide sash she wore as a belt and one, long edge of the toga.

Gold, flowery embroidery traced down over her left breast to the hem of the tunic. She had bloused the top part of the tunic to allow room for her large, unfettered breasts.

Her long, wavy hair had thin, pale-blue streaks in it, and her pale pinkish skin had a bluish tinge to hit. She was roughly 155cm tall, and despite her slimness, she had an athletic build, like a gymnast.

The flashing gems on the jewellery on her fingers, wrists, ears and neck and the 50cm long crop stick that she held also demanded attention. The pieces were all set in silver and had been created by an artist who liked scrolling designs.

Boyd could only determine that the costumes these people wore had been influenced by the Greeks and Romans. At the time, he was unaware that these people had fled Earth to their new planet.

He would also learn that the city he was in was called Bolii. It was on the west coast of Tye Island and on a planet called Dara. The locals called it Gaia, but that was a local thing, not the official Keltrian name.

The ancestors of the locals’, who had been trapped on Earth after the exodus from their homeworld on the other side of the galaxy, had taken that name of their town to fit in with the neighbouring Gaul tribes in the area now known as Switzerland, who had fled Earth with them.

“First of all, for those who don’t know me, I am Mage Flavia Lucius,” she said as she waved the crop stick that she held to her side and bowed to the women and then to the humans.

Ignoring the sniggers from the crowd as most of them knew who she was, she stood up. She turned to the side to pace along the platform and in front of the women on the ground.

Flavia then stated, “The Senate had given me leave to quell some of the rumours and conduct the first auction here in Bolii. As you all know by now, our plan to revitalise our dwindling population has so far been successful.”

She had to stop as the audience cheered and clapped. Once they were quiet, she continued.

“High Wizard Catia and the High Senate have been able to extract some five thousand people from the world of humans.”

“We now know that some twenty of their centuries have passed since we came here from that world, they now call Earth. Hence, it is not as we remember it. The Roman Republic is no more.”

She had to stop again and then wave her hands down to get the gossips and cheerers to shut up. She even swiped the air with her crop stick. She did have a tough time wiping the smile from her own face.

Regaining her poise, she said, “What magic existed in that world is not as it was. The populations of that world have become immense, and they have polluted it to the extent that we couldn’t survive there.”

“So, as some of you have heard, the Senate finally agreed to bring some of those people here instead. Their biggest problem was, who to bring?”

Flavia paced as she said, “The mages who scried that world, were able to do so when they found a working transporter on an island that was on the East Coast of a small continent, they call Australia.”

“This continent is in the southern hemisphere of Earth. It is separated by vast seas from the northern continents, and it is the least populous and polluted of them. So, we were able to use our magic in that place.”

“Wizard Catia and her people were able to observe the population for over two years and learn their language and some of their customs. Even with the use of magic, it was not an easy language to learn or translate.”

“During that time, a pestilence had come to plague the earthlings. It has hit the older population of the world the hardest. Over five million of Earth’s people have died from this plague in the previous three of their years. We do not even have that many people on our islands.”

Flavia drew in a breath to quell her sadness. Her audience was now noticeably quiet as they listened to her story. Even the earthlings were enthralled. They hadn’t quite realised yet that they could understand her language.

Mind you, they were still dazed by the massive changes in their bodies.

Flavia engaged her audience again.

“For the last two years, the Senate has debated on who to take from this world that we had found, and cause the least sadness to those left behind. We wanted healthy people to breed with but to take the young from their parents is a grievous undertaking.”

“High Wizard Catia, the High Senate and the Guild of Bolii Province were able to devise a variation of a heath spell to restore the health of the aged people from Earth. To us, most of them are barely half our age, but most of them looked as if they were knocking on the door to the Void.”

“As you can see, they resemble a mixture of the old Earth races and our prehistoric people, the Keltrians, that we also know of as the Burgis, the Grandteli, the Genteli and our mother race the Pix.”

“We know from our histories that all of the Keltrian races got to Earth, and to some extent, they were able to breed with the existing races. It is only our unique genealogy that doesn’t change when we crossbreed.”

“Unfortunately, because of those very genes, we need the diversity of the other races to refresh our own. Since we have bred out those few who came with us from the Roman Republic and Gaul tribes that lived near our retreat, we have become stagnant during the last hundred years.”