Dedicated to my father whose search for the truth led to his untimely death
PROLOGUE
'Strangely my mind constantly takes me from the old house that crowds my thoughts to the worn cobblestone paths that lead from it to the harbor's edge. And in my minds eye I stand there watching the screeching seagulls gather over the trawling fishing boats, their nets alive with thrashing fish. Just as I had done in those carefree years of my childhood spent there
It is here by the waters edge that my mind becomes as one with the ghosts of the past. So much so that I can feel their breath floating on the sea breezes as they gently blow the lapping waves around my bare feet. And as I had done as a young boy...I gaze out to sea, mesmerized by the fuzzy haze dancing over the ocean as the sun warms the cool waters of the night.
This memory still plays tricks with my sensibility, and the majestic sun-bleached sails of early sailing ships far away on the horizon that I see, still seem as real as days past.
It is here in this place in my mind that I feel time stands still, allowing me to see the irony of my obsession that was once my fathers. For I have found that I am on that same journey into an incredible world of knowledge and mystery that is enthralling and frightening me all at the same time. A journey that involves the crossing over of worlds that humankind would find impossible to conceive.
I am sharing this with you my dear readers in the hope that this novel that I have written will help you understand the enormity of what I have discovered. Haplessly I've shown the relevant authorities the information that I have gathered but they refuse to believe me. So now my last hope is in publishing what I have learnt. I know of no other way to alert humankind before it is too late, and I pray that you will listen.
However I despair at finishing my novel as there has been a sinister presence hovering over me constantly as I write. I ask you to keep an open mind when you read this novel, for I hope by the end of it, you, like me, will realize that our beginnings on earth were not by chance. There had been a divine plan for our creation that is now in jeopardy. And from what I have learnt, it appears that the powers of evil are determined to rule the Earth.
However for you to understand I must start at the beginning of the days of the early settlement of Braden. For it is here I believe that this evil power joined forces with humankind.