Quick Recap of Episode 1: The Journey

Giels Deo, 18, the presumptive heir to the Deo Tribe’s crucial Lead Storyteller role, lives in the Deo forest in the mortal realm. He’s trained hard to become the next Lead Storyteller but faces a dilemma when his assumed betrothed, Cleo, pressures him to go on their friend Erikal’s adventure with Meritus and Alana just before the crucial tribal demonstration of his talents.

Despite risking his future role, he joins them so Cleo won’t have time alone with the handsome Erikal. During their journey, they arrive at the sacred Wind Cave, the mouth of the god Salihandron, which is believed to be the entrance to the Underworld.

Giels’s friends plan to toss a voice recorder, a creation of Erikal’s and a gift to Giels, into the cave. A message on the machine made them believe this is what Salihandron wants, but the wind from the cave is too strong to throw it in.

Ignoring warnings, Erikal flies them into the cave, where they discover a massive industrialized realm of machines and a demon called the Guardian. They flee after an alien flying craft fires at the creature.

Fearing madness from witnessing the Guardian, who seemed to make him hear voices in his head, Giels resumes his studies at home, even though he’s already tossed away his bid at becoming the Lead Storyteller.

Meanwhile, a goddess of the Underworld must find a way to bring the youths back to her realm for reasons that are yet unknown.    

Background

Giels Deo, 18, the son of his tribe’s Lead Storyteller (mother) and Lead Shaman (father), is heir to a bloodline from the founding members of the Deo Tribe, which is named after their family. The tribe resides in the Deo forest, within the mortal realm—the world between the earth and sky.

Before the story begins, Giels spends months studying oral tradition to become the tribe’s next Lead Storyteller.

Most people spend their lives socializing and sustaining themselves by gardening, hunting, and creating tools and other necessities with the help of specialized computers inhabited by the computer spirit. Few honored tribal roles, such as Lead Storyteller, with their accompanying benefits, are available, making it an attractive option for Giels.

Recap

Giels leaves his studies and finds Cleo, his assumed betrothed. But to Giels’s chagrin, he learns she’s been spending much of her time with their mutual friend Erikal while Giels has been working hard.

Overwhelmed by seeing Cleo after months of being apart, Giels leans in to kiss her for the first time. But Erikal shows up, interrupting and surprising Giels by gifting him a never-before-seen item of a legend he’d designed on his computer: a voice recorder. Erikal also invites Giels to join him, Cleo, and their friends Meritus and Alana on an adventure in his new floating vehicle.

But going on the journey would mean Giels would miss demonstrating his skills before the Council of Seven Elders, risking his Lead Storyteller role. This puts Giels in a quandary: Should he prove his talents to the tribe and allow Erikal more time alone with Cleo—this time in romantic, distant lands?

Cleo learns that Giels’s recorder has a cryptic message asking that the device be brought to some unknown location. She believes Erikal has figured out where and plans to go there on his adventure. Despite believing the recorder’s message is a prank by Erikal and Meritus, Giels refuses to be left behind while Cleo goes off. He caves to her pressure to join them.

At the journey’s onset, Giels learns that his friends believe the message is a directive to return a ghost within the recorder to the sacred Wind Cave, where lost souls exit the mortal world. Giels, more familiar with lore than his friends, knows that gods and spirits would not do this. So, he demands they turn around immediately, allowing him to prove his storytelling prowess to the council at the rehearsal.

But it’s too late. They cannot return up the steep gorges and its massive waterfalls in the storm that rages.

Giels begins to accept that joining his friends will ruin his chance at the important tribal Lead Storyteller role. The weather improves, however, giving him renewed hope, but it’s just as they arrive at the sacred cave.

The wind coming from the cave is too strong to toss Giels’s recorder into it as a way to do Salihandron’s bidding, as his friends suggested. So, to Giels’s relief, they prepare to return home.

He still has a chance to return in time to save his future if they’re fast.

But it’s not to be. Erikal decides to test his miraculous vehicle by flying into the sacred cavern, despite it being the passage to the Underworld, the land of the dead, and supposedly impossible to enter.

They push through the wind to Giels’s terror, ending up in a giant metal tunnel that seems to draw Erikal’s vehicle ever deeper.

Shocked by the realm not matching what Giels imagined from the ancient stories, he implores Erikal to go back. But when they find a door out of the tunnel, Giels discovers his bravery and encourages his friends to explore.

Opening the door, they find vast open space defined only by mechwork: pipes, latticework, and machinery—like the bowels of a great machine.

Giels realizes the Underworld doesn’t match their mythology. Yet, he believes they’d found the Maze of Azer, where, according to lore, a devil—the Guardian—dwells. The beast’s only purpose is to prevent mortals from entering the land of the dead. At worst, it will destroy a person’s soul. At best, it will turn a person mad.

It is then that the great, threatening winged beast appears. It attacks, but an alien flying craft fires at the creature, and the devil retreats. As Giels flees, a godlike voice in his head tells him he’s needed in the Underworld. It feels like insanity.

He and his friends escape to the world between the earth and sky and race home.

Terrified the Guardian cursed him with madness, Giels grows angry at Erikal for bringing them into the cave. But Cleo seems invigorated.

Clamoring for normalcy, Giels returns home in the dark of night and immediately resumes his studies, despite missing the rehearsal and messing up his future as the Lead Storyteller.

Epilogue

The main story is followed by a short chapter titled “Other Voices,” which is repeated in full here:

Far, very far, below the Maze of Azer, in an empty, desolate place, a young, immortal woman sat cross-legged. She listened to the thoughts of an ancient one who occupied a space much farther below than she. The contents of the man’s mind flew to her faster than time.

“You cannot allow him to stay home. But understand that he will soon become important to his tribe, making your job more difficult.”