THE LAST APPRENTICE

Beneath the brine of the Atlantic Ocean lie ruins of an ancient continent. It was once Atlantis; a rich land filled with prosperous kingdoms and great cities. Now it is less than a memory; it is only a legend.
According to legend, Atlantis sank beneath the waves of the sea over nine millennia before Christ. It was the very best Earth had to offer. Atlantis was blessed with a temperate climate and played host to an unbelievable variety of plants, animals, and minerals. The terrain was equally diverse and ranged from low lying marshlands and fertile plains to lofty hills and breathtaking mountains. Some resources discovered in that ancient land could not be found anywhere else on Earth. Those resources, along with many species of plants and animals, were lost with the continent.
Cities across ten kingdoms of Atlantis were also lost. The largest of these cities, Atlanta, was located on the southern coast in the kingdom of Atlas. It was the center of human activity and the very first of all human civilizations.
As the legend goes, Atlantis was destroyed about 9,400 years before Christ when it sank into the Atlantic. According to Plato (Greece, 427 - 347 B.C.), Atlantis sank "in a single day and night". Some say Atlantis is legend or myth, others swear it is history.

Until 1986, all we knew of Atlantis came from fragments of ancient writings; the most complete of which was the work of Plato. Plato recounted a dialogue between Critias and Socrates wherein Critias described a journey by Solon to Sais (a city in Egypt at the fork of the Nile).
A priest at Sais learned of Atlantis from Egyptian records, which were already 9,000 years old at that time. The priest told the story to Solon, Solon told Critias, Critias told Socrates. Plato acquired his information by eavesdropping on Critias and Socrates.
As one might guess, the story of Atlantis must have been brilliantly colored as it went through this chain of imaginative philosophers. Therefore, Plato's account of the lost continent might not exactly agree with the ancient records at Sais (which have been destroyed or lost since Plato's time).
To make things worse, Plato's account is incompletehe died before he could finish his manuscript. Since Plato's sketchy third or fourth hand account of Atlantis was our most complete fragment of the ancient writings, Atlantis fell from fact and was replaced by legend and myth.

Atlantis remained an obscure legend until a fantastic discovery during the last half of the twentieth century. In 1986, a sealed canister of solid gold was discovered while excavating a New England basement. The canister was 17 inches long, 4 inches in diameter and weighed 33 pounds, 6 ounces. The lid of the canister was sealed with molten silver. A gentle shake of the canister betrayed something hidden inside. At that time, a decision was made to conceal the find until it could be positively identified.
The ornate canister was transported to San Francisco where it was studied and finally opened in 1987. Inside, researchers found a scroll and a small quantity of preservation fluid.
The ancient script upon the scroll was interpreted and transcribed into English. The 11,400 year old document was written by Odius, sole apprentice to the last Great Marce of Atlantis. Great Marce was not a name but a position or title; the Great Marce was master of the Crystal.
The apprentice described an ancient world filled with magic, wealth, power, and corruption. He also spoke of the curse that destroyed any evidence of Atlantis or the circumstances surrounding its demise.
The curse mentioned in the scroll held firm after more than eleven millennia. The original scroll and transcripts were destroyed by a fire in the wake of a major earthquake on October 17, 1989. Three of the four researchers assigned to that project died in the mishap. Perhaps that same curse also brought Plato to his end.
The existence of the scroll was neither disclosed nor acknowledged prior to its destruction. Without proper recognition of evidence, the contents of the scroll and existence of Atlantis is again lost to the ages.
This story was written from interviews with the sole survivor of that ill-fated research team. The researcher, who wished to remain anonymous, related the contents of the scroll from memory. Every effort was made to maintain accuracy. In some instances hypnotism was used to clarify fading memories. Some actual excerpts of the scroll appear under chapter headings, while the rest of the story was assembled from information contained in the scroll. Since proof of the scroll cannot be offered, this story must take the form of a novel.
Despite the threat of that ancient curse, the story recorded by Odius must be told: he not only recorded the devastation of his ancient worldhe also left a warning to generations of the future. Apparently, the same menace that brought Atlantis to its end has vowed to return to our world of today.