Star Child- Awakening

by Petra Landon

  Ventini Corporation

  The richest conglomerate in the Inner Worlds and popularly known as Venn Corp. Founded twenty years ago by Zufon Ventini, it is primarily a star travel syndicate with a side interest in archaeological expeditions. They own the Star Portal Labyrinth and are headquartered at Venn City. Their private military force is the Ventini Guards.

  Ventini Guards

  The private army of Ventini Corporation. Their soldiers wear a snazzy orange & gold livery with the emblem of a lightning bolt to represent the alphabet Z for Zufon Ventini.

  Renegades

  A ragtag collection of RimWorlders come together to defend their worlds against a Guild invasion. Led by Ryfkin Soren, they disbanded after the peace treaty signed with the Guild Coalition. Their mascot was known to be the yedigrul, a snarling beast found deep in the dense rainforests on the Rim Worlds.

  Synths

  Hunted all over the Inner Worlds by the Guild Coalition who believe that they are a threat to the InnerWorlders.

  INNER WORLDS GEOGRAPHY

  PLANETS

  Idriko : Novi’s world. A mining outpost with the high security Guild-administered Kuzhampa Prison and the Idriko Mine.

  Merinyiko : The world Novi was heading to when she boarded Ilar’s Justice.

  Zubiko Ethera : Rustic agrarian world in the Panthera sector, administered by Deziti Corporation.

  Fumiko Terra : Sacred Realm 3.

  Dirko Zau : Self-governed planet in the Jaraso sector, bordering the Ring.

  SECTORS

  All of the Inner Worlds is divided into eight equal-sized pie-shaped sectors. The sectors are all named after systems located within their territory.

  Panthera Sector : Sector on the other side of the Ring from Idriko. It borders Azunti.

  Azunti Sector : A sector between Panthera & Jaraso. Synths have made the Badlands that encircle this sector their hideout.

  Jaraso Sector : Borders Azunti and is the sector where a majority of the self-governed settlements have cropped up.

  Taribi Sector : The Badlands bordering it offers a unique narrow passage through the Ring, clear of large asteroids.

  MISCELLANEOUS

  Star Portal Labyrinth (SPL) : Connected in a mesh, the portals use wormhole technology to tunnel starships through space at a fraction of the time it would take them to travel the distance. The Venn Corp owned Labyrinth has four Star Portals operating in the Inner Worlds.

  Shuttle Vestibule : An area on a planet that offers shuttles to Star Porticos.

  Star Portico : Space stations that offers docking services to starships.

  The Five Year War : The war between the Guild Coalition and the Renegades, precipitated by the Coalition’s invasion of the Rim Worlds.

  Edhoran Accord : Peace accord to end the Five Year War.

  Sacred Realm (Realm) : Planets where the Benevolent Ones are believed to have stepped foot.

  Heavenly Abode (Abode) : Believed to be the final resting place of YanTeo.

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  Novia ‘Novi’ Dozanti : A young Idrikon woman with secrets.

  Ryfkin ‘Ryf’ Soren : RimWorlder hero of the Five Year War, leader of the Renegades and Captain of Ilar’s Justice.

  Ilar’s Justice : A Star Cruiser with a mostly Renegade crew on a mysterious mission in the Inner Worlds.

  Zinera ‘Zin’ Jeryn : An ex-Renegade, Commander Jeryn is Ryfkin Soren’s deputy on Ilar’s Justice.

  Zufon Ventini : Founder of Ventini Corporation (Venn Corp). Archaeologist and explorer who shot to fame on the Inner Worlds when a StarVision camera crew following the Guild-funded adventurer on an expedition broadcast the venture live.

  Zedak Ventini : Son of Zufon Ventini and heir to Venn Corp.

  Mandolyn “Wy” Wyrento : The InnerWorlder owner of The Watering Hole, a popular tavern on Idriko. He’s Novi’s employer and a paternal figure for her.

  Serak Vedino : The InnerWorlder believed to be a Synth leader.

  Kural Divi : The only Synth to have escaped Guild custody.

  Rolit Miveki : Leader of a self-governed settlement near the Ring in Jaraso sector.

  SAGA OF THE CHOSEN

  BOOK ONE

  Chapter 1

  Tasia lives dangerously

  Tasia sighed wearily as she maneuvered her borrowed ramshackle Civic carefully into the parking space beside the imposing Hummer. It had been a long day. Rather, it had been a long week. Nope, scratch that, it had been a long three months! Choosing San Francisco to lie low in had been an easy decision for Tasia. Her childhood years had been spent up north, hankering for the sunny climes of California when harsh winters rendered everything a frozen wasteland around her. She had rightly guessed that the anonymity of a big metropolis would help shield her from drawing unwelcome attention. So when such an exigency had arisen, Tasia had only considered two viable alternatives. In the end, the city by the bay had won out over Los Angeles.

  Tasia had realized early on that her inexperience had led her to make a rookie mistake. While a metro cloaked her in its vast and impersonal anonymity, it also demanded an expensive standard of living. The obvious way to earn a livelihood was to utilize her considerable abilities. Since that was not an option for Tasia, she’d had to work two jobs just to make ends meet. Home was a two room apartment in a seedy part of the city the locals colorfully referred to as The Tenderloin. Her current abode, a dingy studio in a neighborhood populated by junkies and a motley crew of homeless people, had been brightened up with flowers and colorful knickknacks to make it feel like home. She had registered herself as a Level Two at the local Wizard Registry since the Registry rarely scrutinized credentials for Magic Levels Three and lower. That had resulted in a few jobs like the one here tonight. As well as some very welcome extra cash.

  Unfortunately for Tasia, L2 wizards had barely any magic in them. Commercial demand for L2 magic was limited to Mfector work. Mfector was short for Magick Disinfector. Mfectors cleansed sites where the blood of a Magick, a creature with magic, had been spilled. Humans had very strong intuitions, even though most were unaware of how to interpret these feelings of presentiment. They’d been known to see ghosts and feel dark forebodings when encountering a site where a Magick’s spilt blood had not been cleansed by a qualified wizard. Chosen rarely agreed with one another. Yet Chosen of all stripes were in absolute agreement over one thing - that humans be kept in ignorance of their existence. This was the Supreme Edict for all Chosen. Every Magick adhered to this edict, one strictly enforced under threat of death or worse. Fortunately for Tasia, since most Chosen were aggressive if not outright violent, a lot of Magick blood tended to be spilt. This provided steady albeit dull employment for a wizard whose only qualification was to work as an Mfector.

  Tasia cast a wary glance around the dilapidated neighborhood as she walked up the pathway towards the dimly lit house. It was typical of the usual accommodations preferred by Chosen, as the Magicks referred to themselves. Magicks believed that they had been chosen by a higher power to be bestowed the gift of magic that flowed through their veins, thus making them superior to the puny and powerless humans that lived unaware amongst them. Chosen tended to isolate themselves from humans and amongst their own kind by hiding out in the open. Those with means congregated in lavish estates that allowed them the luxury of distance from their human neighbors. The others picked accommodations with few neighbors and in dubious parts of town where an attack, injury or even death could be explained away among the many unexplained statistics every year.

  The man at the door was quite possibly one of largest men Tasia had ever seen. And definitely the hairiest! The t-shirt he wore revealed the hair on his arms and even the back of his palms. She knew he was Chosen but Tasia could not sense his particular brand of magic.

  “I’m the Mfector” she announced.

  “You the witch?” he grunted in surprise, his deep voice spitting the words out in a surly growl.

  At his response, Tasia ruthlessly stomped down an
insane desire to laugh. She wanted to ask him who else he’d been expecting. But it had been a long day and her feet were killing her. Plus, the big dude before her didn’t seem the kind to appreciate a sense of humor. So she nodded silently and at his gesture, followed him into the house.

  The giant lumbered into the house, his gait sure with a curious rolling motion. Beast man, she realized in a flash. He was a Shifter! The first one she’d encountered in her life. It could’ve been worse, she told herself philosophically. He might have been a Blutsauger even though they rarely called in the wizard cavalry for assistance of any sort. The vampires had their own people to do their cleansing. That was what had convinced Tasia to put her name down at Wizard Registry for the occasional Mfector side-gig. No way would she risk proximity to any of the vampire clan voluntarily. They’d rip her heart out alive if they even got a whiff of what she was!

  Not that a beast man as client was not strange. She had assumed that a Pack as wealthy as the one that controlled this city would have its own wizards on call for such work. Yet this Shifter had randomly picked her name off the Mfector list that the Wizard Registry made available. Oh well, at least it would bring in some welcome cash, she reminded herself.

  The man led her towards the back of the house through the kitchen and into a narrow alley that divided the house from a row of what looked like abandoned warehouses with their windows boarded up. The alley was barely lit and Tasia cursed inwardly as she checked instinctively for the little locket she wore around her neck. The nasal voice of the Wizard Registry’s administrative assistant echoed in her head. She’d had to go in last week to renew her license and had received a warning lecture from the motherly assistant to the Registrar. There had been reports of female wizards being mugged in the city, some while out on jobs. The Registry was handing out warnings to all the lower level wizards. The unspoken undertone being that no wizard with sufficient magic would ever allow himself to be mugged.

  The man leading her stopped so abruptly that Tasia almost smacked into him. He opened a door to lead her into a large room before switching on the light. The insufficiently lit interior had what looked like rusty car parts stacked by the walls while crushed coke cans and empty water bottles lay strewn around on the floor.

  “How much time to cleanse this room?” the man grunted in his peculiar growly voice.

  “What happened here?” she asked.

  “A fight” he replied laconically.

  Wonderful. Great. Uh huh, I gathered as much.

  “Where exactly?” she asked patiently.

  He shrugged disinterestedly. “We need the entire room done.”

  Absolutely wonderful. Save me from paranoid Shifters. Now I’ll need to map out every inch of this room.

  “I’ll need forty-five minutes.”

  She could do it in half that time but she was pretending to be an L2 and that meant taking her time. It wouldn’t do to raise the suspicions of this Shifter.

  “I’ll be smoking outside. Holler when you’re done.”

  He walked out through the door, closing it shut behind him.

  Tasia glanced around with a sigh. This would be a simple task if she could use her true abilities but it was dull, dreary and time-consuming work for an L2. She called forth the barest minimum of her magic. And remembered to chant under her breath in the old language for the benefit of any interested spectators. It never hurt to be careful with the small details. L2s were not expected to mind chant.

  She began by mapping out the room before starting to cleanse at the edges, moving gradually towards the center. Ten minutes later, Tasia knew that she had a problem on her hands. This room had witnessed far more than a simple fight. Judging by the amount of blood spilt here, a Chosen had died and another had been injured very badly. The injured one was very special, even for a Chosen. The room fairly throbbed with the magic of his spilt blood. This was definitely not your run-of-the-mill simple cleanse job. And she had a bad feeling about this. Very few wizards, even one exponentially more powerful than an L2, possessed the ability to detect what she had gleaned by simply being at the scene in the warehouse. That is what the Shifter had counted on, she realized. But Tasia was no ordinary wizard.

  A sense of urgency unraveled in her. It was imperative that she cleanse this room and get the hell away from whatever was brewing here. No way could she afford to get mixed up in any of this. Tasia forced herself to wait out the full forty-five minutes, chanting under her breath the whole time, before she knocked on the door. The Shifter lumbered in immediately to glance around the room.

  “You all done?” he growled.

  She nodded silently. He switched off the light to usher her out. They made their silent way back the way they’d come. A second man awaited them in the foyer this time. This one was leaner and not as big but something about the way he moved screamed Shifter to Tasia. The two Shifters conferred with each other in a low voice before the leaner one came forward to hand Tasia an envelope.

  “There’s a little extra for coming out so late.”

  “Thanks.”

  Tasia hurried out of the house as fast as she could without making it obvious that she was making a run for it.

  Moonlight streamed into the room to cast its glow on the man who slept with unfettered abandon on the enormous bed. He lay sleeping with his face turned towards the moonlight and the covers kicked off him, his even breaths the only sound in the otherwise silent room. Until abruptly interrupted by the strident ringing of the phone. The man opened his eyes with a suddenness that would be very suspicious if he were human. He glanced at the clock by the bed - a little after two. Next, he glanced at the caller id on the instrument as the phone continued its appeal for attention.

  “This better be f--king good” he barked into the phone, pissed at having his sleep interrupted.

  “Hawk is missing” the voice on the other end informed him precisely in an upper crust English accent.

  “Talk to me.”

  “Sara came to me. He hasn’t been home and is not answering his cell. He also has voicemail indicating that he never made his dinner date this evening. She says that she’s had a bad feeling about him since this afternoon.”

  “Where’s Sara now?”

  “She’s at the Lair with me.”

  “Who else knows about this?”

  “Just us. The wolves don’t know yet.”

  “I see” he said evenly.

  They both knew what Duncan had left unsaid. Once the wolves found out, they would need the Alpha Protector to control them.

  “Sit tight. I’m headed your way.”

  In a different and not-so-nice part of town, Tasia lay sleepless, wracked by indecision. Her mind kept flashing back to the scene in the warehouse. The smell of death and blood magic had been too powerful not to have happened in the last day. A Chosen had died there recently and another had been badly wounded. She could sense that the wounded creature was very special. Perhaps even like her! Tasia had discovered her unique ability to sense the blood magic inherent in other creatures very early on. In the history of their people, there had been the occasional Chosen born with the ability to gauge magic in the air or even in people when their magic was active. Tasia’s ability was different – she could sense the latent magic in creatures. Sometimes even when the creature itself was unaware of it. Most Chosen were powered by the magic that flowed through their blood and this is what she had the ability to sense. Her father had helped her hone this talent, warning her to hide it from other Chosen. It had been added to her ever-growing kitty of secrets to keep hidden from the world of Magicks.

  Tasia found herself conflicted, lying sleepless in bed for hours while she pondered her options. One option was to leave an anonymous message at the Wizard Registry but Tasia doubted any action would be taken since she had no factual information to provide, not even a name for the injured Chosen. Therein also lay the risk of exposure for her by inviting uncomfortable questions if the Registry did manage to trace the call
. Finally, at about three in the morning, Tasia gave up any further attempts to sleep, determined to be a bystander no more. She had fled here to a strange city to protect herself. The cloak of anonymity it provided her while she assumed the façade of an unremarkable wizard with little magic had worked well so far. But she’d be damned if she would abandon another to be slaughtered simply because she was too afraid to blow her cover. She could always move on to another city tomorrow and start over again if she aroused any suspicions. It’s not like she’d amassed anything of value in the three months she had spent here. Well, she amended, except for one good friend and a decent employer that she’d definitely miss. Mind finally made up, she dressed quickly in dark clothes to trudge the short distance to the car that she’d left parked on the street. People in the city tended to use public transportation since owning a car in San Francisco was an expensive proposition. Unfortunately, Tasia needed a car to get to her wizard gigs. They were always at ungodly hours and usually on the outskirts of the city or in shady neighborhoods where waiting for public transportation was fraught with its own problems. She was lucky that her neighbor allowed her to borrow his ancient car on the nights she needed it in exchange for gas money plus a little extra.

  It took her thirty minutes this late in the night to find the place and park a few streets over from it. All seemed quiet on the street and within the house. The lights were off with no outward signs of life in the house although the Hummer still sat parked out in the front. She called forth her special magic to test gingerly for the presence of any Magicks in the house. One - a tad faint as if injured. No one else. The house was empty except for the injured Chosen. Thank God for that piece of luck. She had been concerned about the two Shifters. It would’ve taken some powerful magic to walk in there without alerting them. Shifters had phenomenal hearing – it came from the beast part of them. And she wasn’t sure that she could handle two Shifters while attempting to check on an injured Chosen.