Kaianan

  “We can’t have that, now can we?” His voice was gentle, assessing the messy wound. “I’m Boku Jove,” he admitted, crouching down. Young Prince Addi glanced to the man’s palm sparking white light, waving over his bloodied leg and after a few seconds was pulled away. Wound healed.

  “You have that within you, young man, the power to heal,” Boku Jove placed his hand across Addi’s cheek, “your compassion lives in you,” his forefinger pressed the boy’s heart, and then Boku Jove was gone.

  As a powerful foreseer Boku Jove knew the young Prince could change this world, could decide differently, could chose a better future than the one Sile pushed him to want for Rivalex. He spent countless hours with the boy honing his healing skills, all in the desire to repair the damage he had caused many years ago.

  “I have failed you,” the present Julius, in full Necromancer form stated hollowly, then looked away from Boku Jove to the dark stained bookshelves of the Heir Library.

  “No, my student, you have done very well.” Boku Jove reached his arm out to comfort the young man. “However, you have developed feelings for the girl I did not foresee. And that may not be something in her destiny.”

  Julius unhanded Boku Jove’s fingers from his shoulder and slumped his own in defeat.

  The Foreseer tried to read the boy. “I need you to be mindful of your attachment; the Necromancer in you can become possessive. You need to help her and assist her.”

  “I can’t do that when she is back with Xandou and I am about to be tortured.” Julius snapped. “How long do I have to remain here? They want me to wed Kydra.”

  Boku Jove paused, again scrutinising the angst pouring out of the young Drake. “She wants to leave Rivalex in search of her sister, but I have to show her the options before her. Now I must go quickly before she enters the Euclidean Vector.”

  Julius was glass-eyed, frozen.

  “Addi, remember you chose to be who you are,” Boku Jove said trying to gage the boy in some type of response other than one of misery. “You chose to stay here first. You chose your Necromancer roots. You can leave at any time.”

  Julius breathed out in a deep, dark tone of malice, “but this is my home.”

  And in that instant Boku Jove knew—the times of learning together, discreetly studying the many volumes of the history of politics and the good of the Silkri, and redistributing the anger he once had to fight for a freer society in Sile, had all but gone. Reluctantly, the foreseer nodded and a tear dropped down his bearded face as he proceeded to ‘port—all his work to keep Julius level-headed about the choices he could make had disappeared right before him. “I know it is.”

  Alongside the Valley Woods, Kaianan made her way through the grasslands north to the watchtower. She stared at the grass crunching under her feet. Something felt out of place. She felt strange. When she looked down at her hands, all of a sudden, they had become covered in blood.

  She lurched backward in disbelief, trying not to trip in the dirt. Then the hallucination presented a body in front of her—even though the person was laying on the grass face down, she sensed it was her deceased mother. Immediately she dropped to her knees, turned her head, and was nauseated.

  She wiped her lips. The body disappeared and her hands were no longer stained with blood.

  Kaianan sat up and she started sobbing. She wished Julius—Addi—was here with her, she sickened herself at the thought of longing for him, but she did. So much of her wanted to just see him again, to speak to him about what he was thinking, about why he led her to believe he felt something for her. But as she sat there going through the whys and what ifs, time was ticking away and Chituma was still abducted—still held bound against her will.

  Get up Kaianan, she told herself. And she did.

  “Kaianan,” Jahzara said softly, assessing the young Queen standing gauchely in her watchtower.

  “Jahzara, I need …”

  “I know.” Jahzara looked weary as she spoke. “That is what I am afraid of.”

  “Jahzara, would you ever defy the Felrin and open or close a Euclidean Vector against an order?”

  The Conductor was taken aback but tried not to betray it. “You’re asking if I have a conscience … well then, yes I do. I do what’s right.”

  “What about Rashid? If you knew the Felrin wanted to destroy Rivalex, what would you be capable of doing?”

  “I would not know; that is something that the Felrin would never do. This is a planet, a part of the Universal Order, Kaianan.”

  “The Necromancers don’t follow it.”

  “Why are you asking such questions, Kaianan?” Jahzara’s surprised face held Kaianan in contempt.

  Kaianan remained silent watching the Conductor move uneasily in her chair.

  “Kaianan, do you know what you are getting yourself into? You know the Felrin are on your tail.”

  “What for?”

  “Because of that Mark,” she pointed to her shoulder. Kaianan lifted her hand to her Rivalex Mark.

  “This means nothing to me.”

  “Oh, but it should,” Jahzara’s eyes were flaring wide.

  “I need to go,” Kaianan said forcefully.

  “To find your sister.”

  “Yes … but where will you send me? That’s the question,” she muttered aloud.

  Jahzara was reading her. Staring. Evaluating every inch of her face. “Through this Euclidean Vector lies more than you are bargaining for. So many people want to see you fail, and you will never succeed unless you believe in yourself. Believe, and you will find out why you should never misjudge those you bargain with.”

  Kaianan had no idea what she was talking about, and she really didn’t care, she had to get moving. “If you steer me in the right direction, Jahzara, I will try my best.” It felt like several minutes of silence once Kaianan had spoken – then – surprisingly, she heard a swish of a Vector and a gush of wind swirl.

  “Then you have already failed,” Jahzara said, obligingly smiling, while manipulating the incision in the Siliou wider.

  Not sure whether to smile or frown at Jahzara, as a substitute Kaianan stepped inside the Vector without looking back—she owed the gatekeeper nothing and didn’t trust her.

  Besides, failing was her speciality. Kaianan could do it well. The Conductor’s threat was hollow.

  As the cold hit her skin and her feet were shrouded in the cloud of smoke, she unexpectedly began struggling for movement. The Vector snapped shut behind her and Kaianan fell forward.

  “What is go—” She tried to say while she was pulled to her hands and knees by an unknown force.

  “Look up, Queen.” Kaianan heard the man’s voice but found it difficult to lift her head. Something pressed against her chin and titled her head up with ease.

  “Kaianan, it is okay.” In front of her was a long white-haired and white bearded, blue-eyed Giliou. He was draped, not in azure robes, but beige ones. The wrinkles all over his face rose when he smiled. “I’m Boku Jove, a friend. You can get up now.”

  In the few seconds she had slight mobility back, Kaianan brought one knee up and leaned her elbow across it to properly assess her surroundings—the smoke in the Vector was streaming up all over her skin to her neck. This wasn’t normal for a Vector, not the ones she’d been in anyway.

  She’d heard of Boku Jove before, but only as a Felderin myth, she didn’t think he was real. The bearded man’s eyes were on her and he gave her a twisted grin.

  “I thought you were a legend,” she said.

  He laughed; a sound that filled the Vector and made her realise she needed to get moving.

  “Why are you in my Vector? I am on a mission,” she said.

  “Ah, my Queen, you are not in a very good frame of mind,” he replied, sticking his hands in his robe looking smug.

  “I am fine. How did you get into my Vector?”

  “I am a foreseer, dear Queen. It all happens as I see it. Visualisation of belief gets you halfway there, you know; your mind is
what you become.”

  She knew she had heard that before; a vague recollection came to mind.

  “Hang on,” she said, “you’re not real, are you? This is a hallucination.”

  “I’m afraid I’m very real.”

  “Then why are you here!?” his complacency had her reeling. This was not the time or place for niceties—the specks of stars were slowing down beside her. “I need to press on to Croone.” She was hoping the Vector would not drop out anytime soon and send her off to holom. The look she gave him said: ‘what would I do if I end up there?’

  “I understand,” he said, as if he had heard the voice in her head. “I am here to give you choices, Kaianan. You are privileged in this, as the Rivalex Mark. You are at a crossroads, and your success is dependent upon your next move. I will give you the opportunity to see more than one of the destinies before you.”

  “It will lead me to the same destination, will it not?”

  “Ah, Queen, you are astute. Yes, they will draw you forward to the same point. Your job lies in saving more than one life with the extra time you are given.”

  “I don’t need this; my priority is Chituma. I need to get to her.”

  “You will.” He smiled warmly. “Here we go,” he manoeuvred an opening in the Vector, “this is your first option. Vector Safely.”

  And just like that Boku Jove disappeared in an explosion of smoke and mist.

  “Where are you taking me?” she screamed in vain, clutching and trying to grip to the last part of stable Vector she could. But once the opening had been formed, there was no other way out, and in a quaking jolt underneath her, the Vector fell away. The sky and clouds of a new planet’s atmosphere materialised, engulfing Kaianan and sending her to the surface of a destination unknown.