Five hundred years ago, when the Fall began and our way of life changed forever, I wasn’t even alive.  Everything in this volume comes from my interviews with the survivors and from historical records I’ve collected from the Elemental archives.  Since I take my role as impartial reporter of facts very seriously, rest assured this text is a completely objective and accurate account of the plague and all that followed.  Give or take…

Daphne, of the Time House- “After the Fall: A History of the Dark War”

Job lived alone.

He’d lived alone for centuries, so he should have been used to the quiet solitude of an empty house.  Constructed along the lines of a Renaissance castle, the Earth Fortress stood in a neat clearing of trees, along a small river.  With its curving edges, arched doorways, and symmetrical design, Job’s home wasn’t the worst place to be on an autumn night.  He had a fire blazing in his study and a stack of reports to wade through, so there was no need for him to feel so… lonely.

Job knew Cross and Nia would be happy together.  He’d worked hard to ensure that they found one another because he’d sensed that they were a Match.  Since Job loved them both, their happiness made him happy, too.

It truly did.

But, it also made him feel the weight of his thousand years of quiet solitude.  A thousand years of living alone.  Elementals could survive for millennia longer than Job.  A thousand years wasn’t the end of his life.

Except, in a way, it was.

The Fall had killed something inside of him. Job knew that he’d never find his Match.  It was too late for him, now.  Having met nearly Phase in the universe, Job knew that his Match wasn’t among them.  And he had very little hope that his Match was one of the humans that everyone was now so intent on finding.

It amazed Job that humans and Elementals could interbreed.  It took a lot to amaze someone who’d seen eleven centuries, but he still could barely believe it.  It went against all the biological knowledge of their species.  Still, not even Job could argue with the proof when she grinned at him, shook his hand, and said, “Hey, I’m Melanie.  Wow, you sure don’t look like you’re a million years old.”

Uriel presented his Match to the Council with all the modesty of someone who’d discovered a lost continent.  And why shouldn’t he be proud?  He’s just become the most famous Elemental in the universe.  The Phase who went to the human realm and brought back hope for everyone.  There’d been a few muttered complaints about diluting the Elemental bloodline with human DNA.  But, most Phases instantly supported any chance to have a Match, even a part human one.  It was a sobering indication of how concerned the Council was about the future of the Elementals that not a single person voted to banish Uriel.

Instead, he got a medal.

Melanie O’Shea was mostly human, but in the eyes of the Council, she was also a Wood Phase.  Her grandfather, Parson, had been a great man.  Job had known him.  Parson was not a Phase to break rules or shrink from his duties, so Job remained curious about what Parson had been doing in the human realm.

Just looking at Melanie, though, Job knew that she shared Parson’s DNA, even with the mystery attached.  Her smile was identical to Parson’s.

Her cousin, the cop who was apparently insisting that Ty, Uriel, and Thar show up for some ludicrous court date, must have Elemental DNA, too.  Someone was going to have to talk to him and Job had a feeling it wasn’t going to be the Wood House.  Melanie seemed certain that Sullivan enjoyed his “humans only” mindset and Uriel –besotted pushover that he was- agreed that they should leave Sullivan in his happy ignorance, for now.

Job disagreed.

He wasn’t about to let some idiotic human prejudices doom the universe.  They needed more Phases, or the Elementals would become extinct.  Extinction meant no more world for anybody.  That trumped Sullivan’s desire to leave his head in the sand.

Sullivan could be someone’s Match.  He could help stop another apocalypse.  Melanie was now supporting some of the Wood House.  And, given the rewritten laws of interbreeding, there didn’t seem to be any reason why she and Uriel couldn’t have children.

This was the first positive news Job had heard since the Fall.  Especially, since Phase-Matches usually had closely synced lifespans.  Uriel was well past a human’s age already, so logically Melanie’s life span would stretch to correspond with his.  She was part Wood Phase, after all.  The Fall had disrupted the natural flow of life and death, but traditionally Phases were hardy creatures.

Humans could replace some of what had been lost.

Additionally, looking for more humans with Elemental DNA would occupy a lot of desperate Houses and keep them out of trouble.  Job didn’t care if the search drew Phases to the human realm and broke the Council’s oldest law.  If human Matches stopped the despair and hatred, if it slowed the number of Phases joining the Reprisal, then Job –for once- would toss out the rulebook himself.

Job was sick of the killing.

Chason and Parald’s endless battle, the growing number of Phases who just stopped trying, the innocent people caught up in cycles of death…  He’d much prefer that the Elementals turned their attention to sustaining life.

Job didn’t have any hope that his own Match might be out there, though.  Logically, he knew that his Match could have died in the Fall before he ever found her.  So many Phases had been lost; more than even Job could identify.

In his heart, Job doubted that his Match had ever existed, at all.  He just wasn’t meant to have one.  Most Elementals found their Matches long before they reached their thousandth birthday.  Job had scoured the universe when he was younger, and all he found was more quiet and solitude.  He’d slowly come to acknowledge that he was meant to be alone.  So, he worked hard to make a difference for Elementals and save whoever was left.  He accepted his life and the path he walked.

And, if loneliness struck him sometimes, he didn’t let it affect his duty or the obligations that he carried.

So, when Job sensed another presence in the Earth Palace, he actually ignored his instincts for a moment.  He believed in his security measures and, perhaps egotistically, he just couldn’t imagine anyone breaking into his home.  He thought the tingling at the back of his neck was a symptom of his isolation.

Until, he heard the female voice, anyway.  “So, you’re the almighty Job, huh?”

Job’s head snapped up.  He stared at the woman who’d invaded his sanctuary, trying to process her sudden appearance.

She wasn’t a Phase.

That was his first thought.  There was no streak in her hair.  It fell, thick and wavy and solid black, to her waist.  Besides which, Job absolutely would have heard about it if an Elemental who looked like this woman survived the Fall.  She wasn’t traditionally beautiful, but she had vivid lavender eyes and the rounded, curvy shape that male Phases lusted after.  If she was Elemental, she’d have a phalanx of men crowded around her, vying for attention.

In fact, the woman almost seemed… human.

Dressed in kakis with frayed hems, thick soled flip-flops, and purple, spaghetti-strapped shirt emblazoned with ‘I got wasted at Mayport Beach’s Wastin’ Away Bar and Grill’ she looked… human.  And he’d never seen a Phase carry a zebra stripped backpack slung over one shoulder.

Not even the Fire House had taste that bad.

“I’m Job.”  He confirmed, because he had no idea what else to say.  He should toss her out, obviously.  Granted, she didn’t look dangerous and, even if she was hiding a sword somewhere on her (really) lovely body, he could still flatten her in a fight.  No one had Job’s powers.  But, she shouldn’t be here.  Barging into someone’s home was a mark of poor breeding and Job refused to put up with it from anyone.  For some reason, though, he didn’t insist that the woman leave.  “May I help you?”

“You’d better.  I got a gigantic fucking problem and I’m expecting you to fix it, big shot. It’s your damn fault I’m in this mess.”  She dropped her zebra backpack onto the two hundred year old, Aubusson rug.  The soothing earth tones of the carpet clashed horribly with the shiny, patent leather stripes.

It should have offended every molecule of Job’s dignity.  Instead, staring at her tacky clothes and angry face, he actually felt that lonely feeling inside of him fade.

“I see.”  Job got to his feet, out of habit, and gestured towards a Chippendale chair.  “Please have a seat.”

She flopped down on the subtle, fretwork upholstery.  “You have no idea what you’ve done to me.”  She scraped an agitated hand through her ebony hair.  “I’m completely screwed now, all because you wouldn’t connect the dots.  Stupid, stubborn asshole.”

“I see.”  Job repeated and, since it seemed clear that she wasn’t going to volunteer her identity without prompting, he asked, “Have we been introduced?”  He knew that they hadn’t, but demanding “who the hell are you?” seemed inappropriate.

“I’m Tessie.”  She scowled at him as if he should’ve known that.  “Aren’t you supposed to be all mega-genius?  God, keep up, huh?”

“Tessie?”  That wasn’t an Elemental name.  He wasn’t even sure it was a human one, except that it made him think of baseball for some reason.  Job liked baseball.  It was game of statistics and firm rules.  “Are you sure that you’re in the right place?  Because, I…”

“Oh, I’m in the right place, alright.”  She interrupted.  “I’m declaring sanctuary and you’re gonna provide it for me.  It’s the least you can do.  Now, I have that GI Joe dipshit Chason and his Reprisal goon squad tearing up my town, looking for me with all the subtly of that bumbling Schliemann guy trying to find Troy.  There are reasons I try to keep a low profile, ya know.”

An odd thought occurred to Job.  He eyed the woman with a growing feeling of dread and wonder.  “Are you claiming that you’re the…”

“The Quintessence.  Yeah, hi, how are ya?”  She flashed an insincere smile. “Just show me where my room is.  I’m moving in here until you get your damn Elementals under control.”