They say The Orb was a tool of power in the early ages of humanity, that whoever was able to take control of it would be able to control the will of the people around them. As early settlers, The Orb was instrumental in establishing power to those who could control it. The early men and women who wielded The Orb were given the power to control their villages, and soon after that the power to control other villages and towns, and after that the power to control cities and countries, to control the world.
They say The Orb offered its user immortality. The opportunity to never age or grow ill, to never have their word questioned and to have unparalleled power over everyone and everything. In the early ages of humanity, whoever ruled over The Orb, ruled over everybody.
Except... they didn't rule over The Orb. As time progressed, the leaders that everyone once bowed to and worshiped were breaking from the inside. The Orb, you see, was controlling them. Its wielder was only a puppet for The Orb's true command as it could not communicate without one. It started off slow at first, leaders would hold The Orb to their ear on a regular basis as it whispered to them. In return they began to whisper back, except The Orb never stopped whispering. Soon, these once great leaders soon found themselves at the mercy of The Orb, as it whispered into their heads as they slept forcing them awake so that it could claim their weak body, making it their own.
The leaders would begin to whisper to The Orb on a daily basis, the outside world becoming an increasingly distant blur as they locked themselves away from sunlight and human interaction, forced to listen to The Orb as it gave them its commands and they whispered frantically back.
As the human body began to deteriorate, hair began to fall from the scalp completely, the skin would become wrinkled and baggy, the eyes would turn completely back, the body would lose significant weight and The Orb's puppet would soon be able to inhabit the skeleton-like body of its host as they were barely alive. From this point, The Orb would begin to build the body back up, building up the weak skin with a large growth of muscles and bringing an even more unhealthy colour to the skin. The hair would grow into a long and black mist while the facial complexion was altered to fit the wants and needs of The Orb. Once work was complete, the original host wouldn't have even be recognised. The Orb would have completely taken over their body and used it to rule the world.
This, of course is all speculation. Paintings of The Orb have been found all over prehistoric cave paintings and hieroglyphics all over the world. These paintings show the ordeal that The Orb takes on the human body and how it uses its host to rule for itself. But if this is all true, how is it that The Orb has never been heard of in modern society? The answer to that is simple: one of the cave paintings show The Orb being overthrown by humans in what appears to be a burning city. Except the figure is massive and resembles the devil or some kind of demon. The figure is also being shown burning to the ground. The next painting shows a crude drawing of what appears to be The Orb being thrown into the water and destroyed. This, I believe, is where The Orb continues to lie to this day. And I have made it my mission to find it.
That's why I'm here, in a metal suit being slowly lowered into the pitch black depths of the ocean, hoping to find the impossible, what may be humanity's most incredible piece of lost history: The Orb.
Early paintings show The Orb to be golden and emitting a light. It also shows it to have light tendrils emitting from all over its body. These rough diagrams however, show no aid so far in helping me retrieve this precious item. As the wire lowers me down, the sunlight above me faints more and more. I have no fear of the darkness, but I do fear what may be in these waters, which haven't been fully explored. I don't want to die chasing a myth. I fear what may happen, but at the same time I internally hear something calling for me from down below. It's very weak and I can't quite explain it, but as I go further down the urge to find The Orb is becoming increasingly impalpable. At this, my suspicion of this artefact being real is growing exceedingly high.
I look up and see that the sunlight has almost completely faded. I start to hear whispering, like The Orb wants me to find it and is guiding me in the right direction. Looking down, I still see nothing but darkness, but I am still convinced that I'll find something.
They all think I'm crazy for believing in something like this. And why shouldn't they? I've got no real evidence to show them, no real idea as to what it looks like and I'm not fully sure where it is. I'm sure they thought I was a dead man the moment I told them I was going here, to the coast of Alaska, to where you need a thermal suit within a thermal suit just to dip your feet in the frozen water. Being here is like hell on Earth, but I've come to far to stop now. Even if I die I'll know I tried at the very least. Never before have I been obsessed with something like this. I'm a scientist, I work in a lab and rarely go outside, but since I heard of The Orb I've never stopped trying to find it and now I'm closer than ever before to it. Once I bring it back they'll be sorry, they'll beg for my forgiveness and bow down to me, they'll worship me once they see the power that I posses!
Wait! I see light! Yes, I look down and I see a faint glimmer of light from beneath the darkness of the ocean, The Orb is calling for me, it wants me to save it! I pull on my rope, trying to get down faster when I hear a loud and short ripping sound. My eyes widen and I grab hold of the rope, only to find out that it has broken in half above me, too far for me to reach. I begin to sink, my suit is too heavy for me to swim upwards and I'll freeze to death if I take it off!
I begin to breathe quickly. Oh god, what's gonna happen? Am I gonna die? I look down at The Orb and see its light grow brighter. I suddenly become calm as I sink down to it. I carefully reach my hand out towards it as the built-in flashlight on my diving suit illuminates jagged rocks. My eyes widen again as my mind becomes aware that I have no way of stopping myself from colliding with the rocky edges of these spires. I shield my helmet with my hands as my body collides with the spire, knocking my head against it once and knocking my body against it back and forth repeatedly. I can't tell what's going on as I roll down the spire to the seabed, death seems certain as the golden glow of The Orb seems distant and far away, the air is cooler and the flashlight on my suit is damaged and malfunctions.
As my body lands with a thump at the bottom of the seabed, everything around me is pitch black, I can't see anything and I'm too afraid to move a single muscle. I stay like this for several seconds, beads of panicked sweat rolling down my face and a small sliver of water making its way into my helmet. At this point I have noticed that my collision with the jagged rock has partially ruptured the glass on the front of my helmet.
All is lost, I don't have enough strength to climb back up to the surface and I'm sure that my oxygen levels will only last an hour at most. I'll die down here. At least I have the knowledge that I at least tried to- Wait, I see it!
Yes, I see it! The golden glow appears slowly above my head, shining a bright golden light around me as it floats down onto the waiting palms of my gloved hands. My god... it's actually real!
The Orb! The Orb that I have spent the better part of a year searching for is floating just above the palms of my hands. My eyes fixate on it as its tendrils float aimlessly around. I sit there in awe for several seconds, feeling it whisper inside of my head, comforting me as one of its tendrils goes to the crack on the glass of my helmet. It holds itself there for a second before the crack vanishes!
This is extraordinary! The Orb has saved my life and I have saved it from its eternal damnation! I owe this being my life, no matter what! Once we both find a way out of these frozen waters, I will make sure that our wishes are granted.
