by B A Vonsik
“The world is afire. Anza suffering a destruction of the ages. Legends of old seek powers to subjugate us, and the ancient gods threaten return, fulfilling the prophecies ending us all.” Trundiir spoke loudly in his deep voice as he made a sweeping wave of arm at the desolated Anza, then patted Rogaan’s shoulder. “And you, my Tellen friend, have woman troubles.”
Daluu and Pax grinned, then started snickering. So did Esizila and Aren. Suhd and Dajil just glared at them over their shoulders. Rogaan uttered a grunt of what he wanted to be words, then gave up.
“You will never win where the wind is wrong.” Trundiir winked at him as Rogaan realized his mistake. Dajil now stood downwind of him. Rogaan saw her deliberate act moving to keep her sway from influencing him. She knew and took that influence away. Looking at her, she glanced back and nodded, then returned to her staring at Anza. Trundiir then purposely changed subjects. “At least you still have your Light . . . as do we all.”
“We be free of dem?” Pax asked. “Have der Lights been taken?”
“The Shunned of legend, a dragon crafted to destroy the gods, and an Ancient . . . a god?” Daluu asked his own question to Pax and the group.
“Who is this Ancient you speak of?” Dajil asked without taking her eyes from Anza.
“Enshag . . . is an Ancient, a serpent Dingiir of the warrior spirit, knowledge, and Protector of the Ancients. He’s the creator god of the Sentii,” Daluu answered, almost reciting from memory. After a long moment of silence, Daluu looked about at everyone and found them staring at him with slack jaws in disbelief. He swallowed, then offered further explanation. “Histories of the Ancients are taught to all Kabiri of the Ebon Circle.”
“You knew who he was and didn’t speak of it to us?” accused Aren.
“No. Only after I heard the Shunned speak his name did I come to know who we did battle with,” explained Daluu.
“He calls himself the Vassal,” Rogaan added to the conversation.
“Vassal . . .” mumbled Daluu. The Kabiri appeared to be trying to remember something but what it eluded him.
“How we be gettin’ across da river and back ta Anza?” asked Pax.
“No crossing those swift waters or the snapjaws,” Trundiir stated with firm confidence in his knowledge.
“He speaks true,” Daluu confirmed. “Some have attempted. None have succeeded. All lightless. No getting across the river unless you can travel.”
“Travel?” Pax asked.
“Using the Powers of Agni to move from one place to another without walking,” answered the Kabiri. “Just as Enshag . . . the Vassal appeared on the bridge in front of us.”
“The Vassal can . . . travel?” asked Rogaan. Alarmed at first, Daluu thought the Vassal was likely not lightless, then revealing him as being the Ancient Enshag, and that Enshag has the power to travel. And . . . Enshag has plans for me. Rogaan exhaled loudly trying to control his growing fear that this was not over. Not close to being over.
“What do we do?” asked Aren before making his thoughts known. “We can’t stay here. Even if we found a way back to Anza, they’d be hunting and jailing us.”
“Be der another bridge crossin’ da river?” Pax asked with a hopeful tone.
“My remembrance of this place is . . . no,” Trundiir answered.
“None to my knowledge,” added Daluu. He looked to his Ebon Circle guardsman who shook his head as well.
“As I remember, there is a mine some marches into the mountains . . .” Trundiir started to offer a plan to survive the wilds.
“No!” Suhd protested in a hushed scream. “No one can be goin’ into dese mountains. It be forbidden.”
“We have little choice, young one,” Trundiir replied.
“You can no take us der . . .” Tears were freely flowing from Suhd’s eyes. “We be losin’ our Lights ta da mountains . . . or worse.”
“Da Ancients,” Pax added.
“The mine offers protection from the wilds,” Trundiir explained. “These mountains are no place to be out in the open by day and certainly not by—”
“The nights are certain death without a large guard,” Dajil joined the discussion. She winched as she moved yet made no complaint. “It’s why we were to have so many on our journey to Vaikuntaars.”
“Will the Dark Robe come for you?” Rogaan asked of the Kabiri with a mix of hope and trepidation. Everyone looked at Rogaan wondering if he were talking to them.
“No,” the Kabiri soberly answered. “He will come for you and your Evendiir friend.”
“Why them?” Dajil winched out her words.
“They hold the keys to Vaikuntaars . . . I think,” answered the Kabiri.
“Some things make sense now,” Dajil mumbled, just loud enough for the others to hear. Then, she offered. “Ah . . . Anza’s Tusaa’Ner put supplies at the mine for our journey.”
“When were ya goin’ ta tell us of dat?” Pax asked with an accusatory tone.
Dajil gave Pax an unhappy slit-eye stare at his question and tone. She looked to Daluu and Trundiir, then spoke. “I suppose you two are leading us there?”
A caw rang out from the brown and white featherwing, startling everyone. It took off, climbing then circling them twice before heading off into the mountains.
“I think he is leading the way,” the Kabiri spoke as he followed the featherwing with his gaze. Daluu’s eyes suddenly went wide as he stared off into the distance. “Ah! I remember the song . . .”
Ancients sent to heavens high,
Watch their creations live and die,
Never to touch thy earthly ground,
While thy accord remains sound,
A lost son finds his way,
Opens thy forbidden on thy day,
Son of Sons Seven calls the Fathers,
Returning Powers to thy temples,
Where thy Vassal Awaits.
Epilogue
Coils Old and New
Viscous fluids flowing from her mouth and nose alarmed Nikki as she started to feel and hear again. She hoped it was drool but feared she bled from the intense tasering she recalled suffering. Voices vague at first sounded as if in an argument. Opening her eyes, she found a blur of darkness with shadows moving above her . . . I think. No longer did she feel pressure on her chest from the armored boot. Where am I? she asked herself, feeling disconnected from the voices and her surroundings except for the stone or concrete she lay upon.
“You are lax in respect and becoming a . . . bother!” That familiar voice filled Nikki with dread.
In the voice . . . no, she felt it deeper, conflict, within him, as Nikki quickly started regaining her vision. She now made out Agent 19, still standing above in her gray suit and what appeared still to be the patio area with Tyr super soldiers filling the rest of her vision. Agent 19 never took her eyes from something or someone else while addressing the cloaked shadow. She addressed the shadow in a low but forceful tone that was almost delicately done.
“I am fulfilling my duty,” Nikki heard Agent 19’s voice, filled with defiance as her words trembled. “She is mine . . . as are they . . . to be used for Him.”
Several of the Tyr turned their heads at Agent 19’s utterance of “Him.” The blond agent seemed to feel uncomfortable at their gaze and in what appeared a familiar situation. She then added as if pressured to do so, “Insh’Allah.”
“I will consent you them when I am finished,” the cloaked figure told the gray-suited agent. “If you are able to . . . succeed. They are more lax in respect than you and frightfully more dangerous.”
“I can manage with my Tyr,” Agent 19 quietly boasted. The cloaked one simply gave out a dissatisfied grunt.
Something felt strange about Nikki’s throat. Reaching up, she felt a metallic collar ring solidly locked around her neck. A flash of panic rippled through her as dread filled Nikki that she was somehow made a prisoner . . . and still in the hands of Agent 19 . . . and Him.
“What is this?” Nikki croaked out with
a quivering voice. How much quivering came from fear or her trembling muscles she didn’t know.
“I wouldn’t play with that,” Agent 19 warned Nikki while keeping her eyes on Rogaan and Aren . . . and occasional glancing at her cloaked companion. “Trigger it, and you’re dead in a couple of seconds. It’s called a Kill Collar.”
“Why?” Confusion filled Nikki, her voice still with a tremble. “You’re the law enforcement for the U.N., aren’t you? The law doesn’t do things like this. I’m no danger.”
Irritation washed through Nikki. Not her emotions . . . His. She decided to lie quietly for a moment hoping the sensation would pass. As the seconds ticked off in her head, Nikki continued sensing His irritation . . . atop determination and hidden desperation. Agent 19 now seemed to be ignoring her while not about to provide answers to her questions. Instead, her attention was back on Rogaan and Aren, who appeared to be positioning themselves for a fight to come. Nikki felt them too. Aren with guarded confidence and Rogaan with his headstrong determination that meant he would see whatever was to come to the very end.
“Forget of us?” Rogaan sardonically asked. He no longer tended to the still-unconscious Miller. Dunkle now looked after him as Anders stood near. Anders’s eyes were fixed on Nikki filled with painful worry.
Nikki felt Aren manifesting and exalting as if expecting a battle of the ages. He did it quietly and without much body movement. She also felt the cloaked one do so as well, also without making much of a show of it externally.
“I have need of the Dari you carry,” the cloaked one spoke in Antaalin to Rogaan and Aren.
“You have no such need,” Aren rebuffed, also in Antaalin. Now, loaded for ravers and more in Agni manifestations, Aren verbally engaged their longtime nemesis. “You have weaker forms for healing and restitution.”
“Another has need of stronger healing,” answered the cloaked one.
“Their bodies cannot endure it,” Aren rejected.
“We three may be the only . . . mortals able to consume food and drink made of the Dari.” Rogaan also rejected the idea of allowing these modern humans to consume the ancient foods of the gods. He then added, “And the Dingir sustenance always gives a chance to see our Lights taken from us.”
“Who are you allied with, Ezerus?” asked Aren in a tone as serious as Nikki ever heard from him. “Dari-made drink heals the body and mind. Dari-made food prolongs life and may grant use of the Agni if one keeps his Light. The gift of the Ancients comes with dangers.”
“He too wants the gift . . . again,” Ezerus replied.
“Again?” Rogaan asked.
“Provide me the Dari; you can have this one in exchange . . . without the poisonous restraint.” Ignoring Rogaan while casually sweeping his hand at Nikki, Ezerus cut to the heart of what he wanted and was willing to give up. Nikki realized she was his leverage and that he was indifferent to her living. She felt that of him. Ezerus continued speaking in Antaalin, obviously to keep everyone but him and the other two from the Bolivian cave from knowing what transpired between them. “The other whore is yours, as well. An irritation I can be without. And her . . . Super soldiers should make good play for you. They are with agendas separate from us. You should end them.”
“What of your . . . super soldiers?” Rogaan asked.
“My Cmpax Soldats?” Ezerus sounded almost playful, then turned solemn. “They are what is called Russian. Big, strong, with no happy mood. They fight because that is what they are, not because they follow king or Ancient. Some are too good at following orders.”
“More men-machines . . .” Still speaking in Antaalin, Aren carried a strong sense of disdain for the cybernetic warriors. It was so strong that Nikki easily felt it despite her present predicament.
“We have come forward in time to a wondrous new world.” Ezerus slowly swept his hand across the expanse of the resort. Rogaan and Aren flinched at his arm motions and looked ready to unleash all they had. Nikki felt both of them alarmed at Ezerus’s wave. “A new world with new friends to make and some old friends to be reacquainted.”
“Friends . . . you, Ezerus?” Rogaan mocked as he spat his words in Antaalin.
“Many merits to you making few my friends,” countered Ezerus in a disdainful tone.
“Agnis would destroy those of this world.” Aren changed the focus of their talk back to the matter at hand. “Wielding Agni powers cause want and craving to inflict upon those without the gift.”
“It will end this world as it ended ours,” Rogaan added. “These peoples are not ready for such ability.”
“They are already destroying themselves,” Ezerus stated in Antaalin as if lecturing on his observations. “Humans of this age are unkind to each other, purposely deceiving in everyday affairs, claiming injustices and slights as a tool to get at what they want, and seeking the destruction of those they find disagreement with. You must see it . . . a few days observing their news tells much.”
“Not all behave in the manner of which you speak,” Rogaan challenged.
“You have not been consuming enough of their talk and news, ol’ friend,” Aren observed of Rogaan. “We have been in shelter among good peoples of this age. My visits to their world’s . . . Web tell of great strife among the city-states, deep mistrust in the peoples, and the Game of Houses played by many in their lofty halls and in their streets.”
“I have no wish to see another troubled world end,” Rogaan growled.
Nikki felt Aren’s distraught before he spoke, more to Rogaan than Ezerus. “Their archives, their . . . history, their . . . news, give vision to a world of people split between their religions and further split by their . . . they call it . . . politics.”
“I am aware of their . . . politics.” Rogaan growled in agreement with Aren’s words. “I see their . . . technologies all around, watching their peoples with what I suspect is great scorn. They are only different in the tools used from what we left burning.”
“Their archives reveal their rulers . . . their authorities . . . leaders of governments,” Aren seemed to feel a need to complete his friend’s thoughts and education in current affairs. “The authorities . . . government leaders, who believe in their governments to solve the people’s problems, have largely won out . . . tyrants using the authority of their states enslaving populations by denying them resources and services forcing compliance.”
“When were you to speak of this?” Rogaan asked in frustration of Aren.
“My apologies . . .” replied Aren with a sincere tone of regret. “I know how much you value individual freedoms—”
“The people of this world call it liberty,” Rogaan interrupted as he looked at the metal poles with cameras and other sensors hidden behind black glass. They were all about the resort. He looked west to the sea and found something new. Nikki felt him touch the presence. Concentrating on seeing vague images in Rogaan’s mind, Nikki saw the fleet of hovering black drones in the distant dark skies revealed to him by the presence. Flashes from a growing crowd of onlookers, many in their costumes and others in less, and with some at the boundary of the patio. Nikki felt Rogaan’s concern for these bystanders.
“Forget of us?” Ezerus mocked Rogaan’s earlier mocking of him.
Rogaan returned his attention on Ezerus and his Cmpax Soldats, the Tyr, and Agent 19. Nikki felt Rogaan’s resolve building. She wasn’t able to figure out to what it was building, but the half Tellen was achieving great strength in it.
“The Dari?” Ezerus ask in a tone matching his shortening patience.
“You say you have reacquainted with old friends?” Rogaan seemed to be making a point of something to Ezerus. “Who?”
“I am not to reveal him . . .” Ezerus replied in a sneer.
“That reduces much of the possibilities,” Aren commented to Ezerus’s frustrated reply revealing something he had not intended.
“One . . . actually,” Rogaan corrected his friend. Nikki felt Rogaan and Aren silently exchanging some understanding,
but what she couldn’t figure out. “Ezerus, you said this acquaintance wants the Dari for healing and to regain his body’s and mind’s bond with the Agnis?”
“That’s . . . his goal,” Ezerus flatly replied.
“I saw into the minds of the Tyr I speared with my gauntlet on the Im’Kas . . .” Nikki felt an unsettled feeling fill Rogaan. “They were devoted volunteers to their cause, their religion. They endured great pains having their Tree of Life changed, severely, and greater pain endured when their bodies were cut, and nonliving parts made whole to them. The mixing . . . their minds now tortured by technologies and control from their authorities. They are no longer their own in choice. A crescent moon atop that blue symbol on their armor . . . what does that mean?”
Rogaan stood pointing at the Tyr closest to Nikki. Still lying on the ground with the Kill Collar rubbing her skin, she couldn’t turn her head or move to see what he pointed at. Agent 19 seemed uncomfortable. To Nikki’s knowledge, she didn’t understand Antaalin or what was being spoken, but when Rogaan pointed at the Tyr near her, she visibly looked at it.
“United Nations,” is all Ezerus said.
“Makes for better understanding . . .” Aren spoke. “The Crescent Moon controls that government.”
“Not all of it . . .” Ezerus clarified with some disdain.
“You’re adversary to them?” Aren asked, though sounding more like an accusation. “Is that why your Cmpax Soldats watch the Tyr ready to attack? Why the two closest to you watch you so closely?”
Nikki became alarmed at Aren’s revealing that the super soldiers around her were at odds with each other. They had impressive arsenals and were a danger of blowing up everything. In her present predicament, she wished she had paid more attention . . . any attention to politics to understand better who was doing what to whom. Nikki then felt Rogaan interacting with the presence again. He whispered something to Aren she couldn’t make out, but the feeling she sensed from them was that of steel-clad resolve.