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Authors: Conlan Brown
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bad. “A classic example of history being lost to the sands of time.”
“So, the only thing you have are the ghost stories,” John offered, trying to bait him back into conversation.
Jerry shrugged. “Not only , but that’s a lot of it. Oral tradition. Something a friend passed on to a friend of a friend about something that happened to a long-lost uncle.”
“Do you think the Thresher is real?” John asked candidly.
Jerry took a long draw of Diet Coke. “Yes,” he said with some hesitation. “But we have to be careful. There have been some major Thresher scares over the last thousand years. There are some examples from the European side that I might buy, simply because the Firstborn are all but extinct over there, but here in the United States it’s open to a bit more interpretation.”
“Like?” John prodded.
“Well, in Europe there was a major scare that the Thresher had come to destroy the Firstborn during the Protestant Reformation. Of course, that was less than a century after D’Angelo died, so the Firstborn were still hiding in chapter houses across Europe at that point.”
“Chapter houses?”
“Like office branches. Firstborn monasteries in Britain and France and Italy and so on.” Jerry shrugged. “They were pretty much underground at that point. A lot of the new generation had been raised in fear because the previous generation had been hunted the same way the church hunted the Cathars.”
“Cathars?”
“A gnostic sect,” Jerry clarified, then continued. “After the English Civil War is when most of the European Firstborn ‘crossed the pond’ and came to the American colonies. That was a Thresher scare—but they survived. There were a few others. The Salem Witch Trials were a biggie; I don’t have any specific accounts of Firstborn dying in that, but they were hunted because of their gifts.” Jerry took another sip of his drink. “And I don’t have to tell you how bad things got during the American Civil War.”
John frowned. “The Firstborn fought in the Civil War?”
“Oh, yeah. It was a big deal.”
“I’ve never heard of that.”
“Probably not,” Jerry offered. “Because the Ora had all gone to California to make an instant fortune when the gold rush hit in 1848. Of course, on the East Coast the Prima condemned slavery but were in support of states rights—so they joined the Confederacy and stationed their militia out of Atlanta, Georgia.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible,” John argued. “If they didn’t support slavery, why did they join the Confederacy?”
“Many of the Confederacy’s strongest supporters, including General Robert E. Lee, were not slave owners, or were deeply opposed to the idea. Almost none of the foot soldiers owned slaves or could even afford them if they wanted to. For Prima, like much of the Confederate South, it was a war of independence. No different than the American Revolution. They had no interest in invading the North and felt that they were fighting for their personal freedom.”
“At the cost of someone else’s freedom.” John shook his head. “I guess I just don’t understand their logic.”
“Neither did the Domani,” Jerry said with a shrug, “who enthusiastically supported and took part in Sherman’s wildly destructive March to the Sea, burning a three-hundred-mile swath toward Atlanta.”
“Which was burned to the ground,” John said with a nod, remembering his high school history classes.
“Correct. And a Domani regiment personally saw to the destruction of the Prima headquarters in Atlanta. So, the embittered Prima settled in Colorado, the Ora stayed in California, and the Domani sought out positions of power in New York City. A major geographical division—but that didn’t keep them from bumping into each other. There were serious attempts to recover D’Angelo’s last prophecies in those days, and so the three orders came into a lot more contact with each other than you’d
“So, the only thing you have are the ghost stories,” John offered, trying to bait him back into conversation.
Jerry shrugged. “Not only , but that’s a lot of it. Oral tradition. Something a friend passed on to a friend of a friend about something that happened to a long-lost uncle.”
“Do you think the Thresher is real?” John asked candidly.
Jerry took a long draw of Diet Coke. “Yes,” he said with some hesitation. “But we have to be careful. There have been some major Thresher scares over the last thousand years. There are some examples from the European side that I might buy, simply because the Firstborn are all but extinct over there, but here in the United States it’s open to a bit more interpretation.”
“Like?” John prodded.
“Well, in Europe there was a major scare that the Thresher had come to destroy the Firstborn during the Protestant Reformation. Of course, that was less than a century after D’Angelo died, so the Firstborn were still hiding in chapter houses across Europe at that point.”
“Chapter houses?”
“Like office branches. Firstborn monasteries in Britain and France and Italy and so on.” Jerry shrugged. “They were pretty much underground at that point. A lot of the new generation had been raised in fear because the previous generation had been hunted the same way the church hunted the Cathars.”
“Cathars?”
“A gnostic sect,” Jerry clarified, then continued. “After the English Civil War is when most of the European Firstborn ‘crossed the pond’ and came to the American colonies. That was a Thresher scare—but they survived. There were a few others. The Salem Witch Trials were a biggie; I don’t have any specific accounts of Firstborn dying in that, but they were hunted because of their gifts.” Jerry took another sip of his drink. “And I don’t have to tell you how bad things got during the American Civil War.”
John frowned. “The Firstborn fought in the Civil War?”
“Oh, yeah. It was a big deal.”
“I’ve never heard of that.”
“Probably not,” Jerry offered. “Because the Ora had all gone to California to make an instant fortune when the gold rush hit in 1848. Of course, on the East Coast the Prima condemned slavery but were in support of states rights—so they joined the Confederacy and stationed their militia out of Atlanta, Georgia.”
“I don’t understand how that’s possible,” John argued. “If they didn’t support slavery, why did they join the Confederacy?”
“Many of the Confederacy’s strongest supporters, including General Robert E. Lee, were not slave owners, or were deeply opposed to the idea. Almost none of the foot soldiers owned slaves or could even afford them if they wanted to. For Prima, like much of the Confederate South, it was a war of independence. No different than the American Revolution. They had no interest in invading the North and felt that they were fighting for their personal freedom.”
“At the cost of someone else’s freedom.” John shook his head. “I guess I just don’t understand their logic.”
“Neither did the Domani,” Jerry said with a shrug, “who enthusiastically supported and took part in Sherman’s wildly destructive March to the Sea, burning a three-hundred-mile swath toward Atlanta.”
“Which was burned to the ground,” John said with a nod, remembering his high school history classes.
“Correct. And a Domani regiment personally saw to the destruction of the Prima headquarters in Atlanta. So, the embittered Prima settled in Colorado, the Ora stayed in California, and the Domani sought out positions of power in New York City. A major geographical division—but that didn’t keep them from bumping into each other. There were serious attempts to recover D’Angelo’s last prophecies in those days, and so the three orders came into a lot more contact with each other than you’d
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