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Wide hoofed feet ground on up the slope, thin gritty mud played over deeper clay, purposeful footsteps converted to a chaotic scrabbling and a prolonged effort to make progress up the hill. The four adult Mawa-rei climbed continuously, the plumes of frosted breath nearly all but concealed them as they wore on upwards.

Occasionally a vegetated section of ground would aid the progress, however the soil was so loose that the plants were ripped free from the loam as they were sacrificed to aid forward motion.

Again the track double backed on its self, another hairpin bend amongst the spires of rock veiled in thin grey mists. The little group moved only to the sound of their own frantic footsteps, no speech or melody to detach them from their struggle.

A few tight bends later, and with sufficient altitude to clear the mists that hung in the cold crowded valleys below, the group made faster and more dignified progress up to the flat of the hill, only now the group had spare time to communicate no longer having to think where every foot had to fall, or where to get a handhold if one was to slip.

“A little better with practice I think, come the summer when the ground has set I see no reason why we could not compete” the foremost figure announced

“Of course by then we will not be running as a team but as individuals, and I do not fancy my own odds, such are the handicaps of age” said the figure directly behind the foremost.

“Nonsense you can run as well as any of us, and what you have in years is offset by your knowledge of the land”

“Still I rather have your younger legs”

The little party were slowing now, there breaths less hurried as they recovered from their recent exertions, ahead of them, amongst the mounds of scattered vegetation stood a tall stone pinnacle, and around it, though the foliage did not allow an unobstructed line of site, artifacts of all types all cut into the same stone. Soon the group was walking slowly, exhausted, along an avenue of short stone pillars, the surfaces deeply cut with symbols, the finer detail nearly lost due to the abrasion of the elements.

“Back to business I think” the foremost again, though for the moment he was engaged in removing a thick cloak from his backpack, the cold cutting in without the heat of exertion to stave off its ingress, the others had likewise added hats, scarves, overcoats and shawls, also feeling the cold through there stocky frames.

“Construction has never been a focus of our civilization until the more recent years, I’m sure our old friend here can tell us of the quiet days he spent in an office with no real worries apart from when his next meal would arrive”

“Steady on, I admit though that my post was never anywhere near as active as it is now, not since we started getting big demands from the church, and I will also admit that the greed in my food in those early years has not gone unpunished, I thought the first time I took on the slope that the only way I would come back down again was to be put upon my funeral pyre.”

The little group talked a little more in this light hearted fashion, their walk now following the edge of a crescent shaped pond, the sharp grey stone ending abruptly with a small drop into equally grey and turbid waters, from the center of the pond a steam cloud slowly drifted up, the sulfurous smell indicating the origin of the heat. The conversation turned serious again as they set them selves a long stone bench, which faced towards the chaotic waters. Beyond the gurgling of the thermal waters traces of conversation could be picked up, the sound attenuating as it broadcast out from the hilltop.

“We have production facilities not only in our own solar system now but confirmed reports in four others, and pending a response from three others, imagine the machinery that we see in our dark skies every night, pulling apart asteroids in another system, light years away, and putting together craft for our fleet.”

“The technology we have access to now is truly remarkable, the finest of gifts, never has a people been so richly rewarded by the secrets gained from Mawa-secresa, God has indeed blessed us. It was not but a few years ago that we considered the speed of light an ultimate limit to our expansion between the stars, now we have had that barrier removed.”

            “This petty group of stars has become ours for the taking, the resources we glean here will help us in establishing a foothold. Every passing day new shiploads of, materials are freighted into our system. Faster than light craft relayed here under automatic pilot from production systems orbiting distant stars, dozens every day, but as they arrive, escorted pulled apart, to design newer superior craft.”

            “As soon as we become capable of communicating beyond the restriction of light speed, we will know at any given time what our influence is, indeed program those distant manufactories to churn off state of the art machines.”

            “The teams assigned on Mawa-Secrasa have made this a priority, soon it will be the time in transit that will make our craft obsolete. But craft our not the only consideration, they will of course be the vehicles of our action but they are not our only tool, many of the Arrays constructed in deep space will soon be finished, especially of note the omniscient cluster, the designs of which were found in the cores only very recently, but with its modular design, construction has really only been limited by the rate at which units can be sent there.”

            “That design is strangely anomalous to the other designs in the archives, much older, and written differently, in a language much purer more scientific, it is a strange thing to note the archives of one people to be written in two different forms”

            “Of course the reason is apparent, the church knew that he would leave his sign on the archives, all of the technologies uncovered in this language are of great importance, and only a being as great as God could create something so purely written, so powerful, that is why the style is different, it is completely different to the technology that our cursed neighbours had.”

            The figures continued on around the pool, the banked stone behind them shielding the wind, the heat from the water felt on their faces as they gazed into its depths, columns and pinnacles all around them detailed the spiritual nature of the site, how in such cold and frigid conditions that there is such warmth and water, the work of an overseeing benefactor.

            Then when an apparent conclusion was reached, and silence prevailed again, they let slip their cloaks, and robes, and eased there bodies into the warm mineral embrace of the waters.