The Lost Tales

by Laurel A. Rockefeller

As the sun rose blue-white in an unusually clear sky, Cara and Liam took an early mid-day meal at a quiet café specializing in food from the city of Belarn in nearby Dong-Nan Fang. Placing their orders for Belarian cocoa and kara berry slatkos at the front counter, they chose a small secluded table where they could talk privately. “Do you think there is any chance at all Lady Rachel will take up our offer to pay for the safety upgrades?” asked Liam, sipping on his Belarian cocoa.

  Lady Cara sprinkled some powdered sugar onto her plate of three slatkos from a shaker on the table, “That depends on exactly why Lady Engineer Rachel and the other leaders of house Ana are refusing to make conditions as safe as possible for the miners – and for residents of the entire Xi-Nan Fang continent. We saw at the mobile healing center just how many ordinary folks in Nan-li are sickened by the mine – without working anywhere near it. The genetic breakdown and cellular mutations caused by the argun ore dust released by the mine affect every living being. Lady Rachel herself is sickened with numerous cancers – but she denies the connection between how she feels physically and her job.” Cara picked up a slatko and took a bite, “I have never understood how or why this is so. Perhaps I should take some classes with some of the mind healers.”

  Lord Healer Liam took a bite of one his slatkos as well, “I know some of the mind healers; amazing women and men.” Liam picked up a linen napkin to wipe off a tiny line of berry juice that burst out of the slatko during his bite, “But even they, I think, would be hard pressed to fully explain to either of us why some people would rather die in denial than do anything to preserve their own lives. Even if Lady Rachel were to admit she’s dying, there would be nothing any healer could do to help her without changes in her lifestyle and environment. This poisoned ground is killing her – and everyone else. I –“

  A tone from Liam’s computer barred out suddenly. Liam touched the screen to stop the noise. A holographic projection of Liam’s brother, Lord Healer Ailín beamed out of the device, “Liam, are you with Lady Abbess Cara by chance?”

  “Yes,” answered Liam, his voice trailing off defensively.

  “I just received an urgent message from palace in Hejing.”

  Liam pointed his computer at Cara, enabling Ailín to speak to her. “What is the message?” asked Cara warily.

  “King Gareth is greatly vexed at your,” Ailín paused to find a more diplomatic word for the king’s fury, “disobedience to his will.”

  “I am abbess of Ten-Ar, healer in chief and a member of the Great Council. My loyalty is first and foremost to my house and to the liberties our people hold most precious,” affirmed Cara.

  “I know that, Your Excellency! There is not one healer from any house who will disagree with you. Your vows to heal and help outweigh the whims of a king abusing his power and operating well outside his constitutional limits. The people stand with you,” agreed Ailín.

  “But?”

  “But the king has made it quite clear what will happen if he does not see you in his private apartment within the beinor.”

  Cara met Liam’s eyes resolutely, an anger welling deep inside her, “I know what he will do; no doubt the messenger did everything to bully you into communicating now with me.”

  “Yes,” confessed Ailín indirectly.

  Liam looked at her protectively, “What will you do?”

  “Ailín, I want you to ignore the message. Tell the healing center that absolutely no one is to communicate with the palace until or unless I authorize it in person and only in person. If he sends an in person messenger, you will tell the palace you had technical difficulties. We are house Ten-Ar, not slaves to a tyrant. It is time we all stopped quivering and asserted ourselves as such. For what is a king or queen of Beinan except an elected ruler of the Great Council. As house Ten-Ar we shall use our power as one of the oldest houses to unite our people and end his reign of terror!” commanded Lady Abbess Cara resolutely.

  “What if we cannot get the other houses to impeach him?” asked Ailín fearfully.

  “Then we get what we deserve. All tyrants fall when the people unite. If we fail to unite, then we become conspirators with the tyrant. No bully can withstand a united opposition. We will stand together or we will perish separately.”

  “So be it,” agreed Ailín, disconnecting the transmission on his end.

  Liam put away his computer, “Now what do you want to do?”

  Cara entwined the fingers of her left hand playfully in his right hand, “Rebel!”

  The next morning Cara woke up in Liam’s strong, powerful arms in his bed, smiling for the first time in a very long time. Liam kissed her forehead, “You know this is treason, Your Highness.”

  Cara turned and faced him, “You were the one who taught me that rape is rape; that force or blackmail of sort – political, emotional, physical – is still force. I never consented to him. Last night was my first real time.”

  “And what do you think of your decision?”

  “I could not be happier in my life. Except for the legal part I would –“

  “Say no more, Cara. I do not care at all about that. Politics are irrelevant to me. I am just a simple healer who has learned how to protect himself – and those he cares about.”

  “You are not worried about complications to family life my legal status creates?”

  “I am much more concerned about the danger you are still in and how we can best get you to total and complete safety.”

  “We are on the other side of the planet; I feel pretty safe here, especially in this chamber!”

  “I am glad. You deserve whatever happens life can bring you. If I may play a small role in helping you find that for yourself – I am forever at your service!”

  “Thank you!” Suddenly a fierce stabbing pain filled her. Instinctively she cried out.

  Liam jumped out of bed and reached for a medical scanner, “Oh no! No!”

  “What’s happening to me?”

  Liam handed the scanner to her, allowing her to see the data for herself, “We have to get you to surgery!”

  “Cannot we handle this here? If we head down to the emergency ward, the palace is certain to find out!”

  “I will not risk your health or your life over what King Gareth may or may not do!” cried Liam, dressing himself quickly and handing Cara her kirtle.

  “I suppose you consider yourself healer in chief in this room?”

  “The patient does not get a vote; let’s go!”

  Fifteen xiao-shirs later and fully sterilized, Lord Healer Liam finished his treatment of Lady Abbess Cara from a medical bed in the surgical ward, “Computer. Let the record show that the pregnancy of Lady Abbess Cara of house Ten-Ar has self-terminated. Analysis shows miscarriage caused by a combination of primary and secondary bilast toxicity.” Liam tried to control his mixture of tenderness with his professional frustration, “Why did you consume wine and mead after you knew you were pregnant? I have absolutely no doubt you knew what would happen if you did that!”

  Cara averted his eyes, “Of course I did. The bilast in wine, meads, ales, and so forth is deadly to us – but rarely consumed to toxic levels. The drugging effect – different story.”

  “No unborn child can survive bilast toxicity, especially in the first half of the pregnancy. You knew that before you took that first drink!” scolded Liam gently.

  “You said so yourself; I never consented to be with him. What is the value of a life conceived out of rape?”

  “Many people are born out of sadness and pain.”

  “But is it fair to anyone to be born at all when the making is filled with violence or fear? Every child must be born of love. Every child must be wanted upon birth. There is no way I can want a child of his Liam – especially now I know what –“ Cara wept, shaking at the memory of her time with Gareth. Shame crept inside her – and confusion. She knew now she was worth far more than Gareth said. She now wanted far more than what Gareth offered her.
And she knew as a healer than intentionally exposing her child to secondary bilast toxins was against everything she believed in and was raised to believe in. Did she will her child to die – or was the miscarriage the goddesses’ way of freeing her from more slavery and cruelty from Gareth?

  Sensing the battle waging inside Cara, Liam softened towards her, taking her hand and caressing it tenderly. “I am sorry I was so,” meeting her eyes, “insensitive towards you just now. I am both healer and your protector. Sometimes the Ten-Arian code of honor interferes with my better instincts as a man – a man who cares deeply for you.”

  “Do not apologize for being a model Ten-Arian, Liam. In your place I might have said the same thing to such a patient.”

  “But I am not just a healer helping out; when I made love to you last night, I meant every bit of it.”

  “As did I.”

  Liam knelt before her, still holding her hand, “Well then there is a question I must ask you. Do you choose me with your heart? Will you be with me?”

  “Mind, body, and soul!” smiled Cara. “Let our fates forever be entwined. You, my perfect knight and I, your princess!”

  “Princess you are; there is a royalty to your soul, my dear! May I always honor you, all that you are!”

  Cara and Liam defied King Gareth, staying in Nan-li and continuing to work at the healing center. Together they invented the eye drops and contact lenses used for generations after to prevent brown eye syndrome. Their inventions protected their eyes and prevented them from losing their sight to brown eye syndrome – in themselves and in their daughter Gwawr born on BE 5547, beinor 124. Though the king continued his cruel ways, the love between Cara and Liam offered the abbess the strength to endure and continue her work. In the yen-ars that followed, “Cara” became the most popular name given by Ten-Arian healers to their daughters in memory of her extraordinary life. Other abbesses of Ten-Ar would bear the name “Cara.” But few would ever achieve so much under such tribulations as she who dared defy the tyrant king.

  Original published version of A Legal Problem for Princess Anlei (The Great Succession Crisis)

  In August, 2012 I launched “The Great Succession Crisis” in its original edition on SmashWords. After receiving several critical reviews I re-wrote about 25% of the first three chapters of the book, dramatically changing its tone, especially early on, though not its core plot. This is the original version appearing in the first edition. Though not the first draft of this chapter (see “Prince of Elenim” commentary), what follows is the first published form that appears in the sixty or seventy printed first edition copies of “The Great Succession Crisis” from 2012. Note the editorial differences and changes in terms (like “space craft” which is now “star craft”) between this version and the version appearing in print today.

  “Your highness? Your highness? Please, milady! You must get up! Your mother has summoned you to court!” squealed RK6, the crown princess’s asynchronous droid as she floated and paced nervously around the young princess’s curtained bed.

  Princess Anlei was forty five Yen-ars old, hardly a child, but not quite of age yet! She still had five yen-ars to go before anyone at court would acknowledge her fully grown! With the looks of an Earthling 13 year old and fair, porcelain skin, she was about 52.8 cun 寸 when she held proper posture and finely boned with delicate fingers. Her fine, dark brown hair waved ever so gently down to her small, developing breasts as she opened the bed curtains and stuck her head out, slowly crawling out of bed and navigating her long, full, green night gown. “Court? At this Shir-Or? What does mother want NOW?”

  “With all due respect, milady, you want to question a direct order from the sovereign of all of Beinan? A summons from her Most Royal of Majesties, Daughter of High Priestess Wehe and King Ejen? You know who your grandparents are!” reminded RK6, raising her soft angle head and changing hue from pale blue to deep lavender.

  “Yes, yes, yes! And grandmother is supposed to do some silly ritual over me when I come of age in a few yen-ars! Who believes this stuff? It’s just some superstitious nonsense!” scoffed Princess Anlei as she reluctantly grabbed a blue-lavender kirtle from her closet and moved behind a dressing screen to put on the dress.

  “You had better not let your family hear you say that, Your Highness!” warned RK6. “Princess or no princess, I think your mother would do something dreadful to you if she heard that! Your younger brother is only seven yen-ars younger than you, remember?”

  “You mean ‘Anwell Unready’?” laughed Anlei, as she finished what she could with her dress. Moving in front of the screen she turned her open back to RK6 for her to fasten the kirtle. RK6 extended her robot arms and dexterously secured the dress in a few xiao-shirs.

  “Anwell is NOT unready. He just lacks interest in academic subjects, that’s all!”

  “Meaning, he would rather race his space crafts and do his sports than do anything that would seriously prepare him to assume the throne like a responsible prince!” Anlei rolled her eyes and shivered at the thought of her brother holding any real power, then looked in the mirror. Putting a brush to her hair, she quickly tried to get her fine hair presentable. “Okay…Mother will not wait for me to do this properly! So this will have to do! Throne room, then?”

  The throne room of the great palace in the Beinarian capital of Hejing glittered in silver, gold, and white. Elaborate knot works of inlaid jewels adorned its many columns and its many alcoves. The head of the hall where dais upon which the royal thrones were situated featured a set of massive stained glass windows in sparkling pastel colors and featuring elaborate geometric shapes reflecting a highly advanced scientific society that enjoys the aesthetics of mathematics in motion. Each window pane reflected an advanced knowledge of geometry and calculus that would baffle the most brilliant theorist. The windows seemed to come alive with color and geometric splendor! So many beautiful angles to calculate and play with…so little time! The light display as the sun rose from behind the thrones as projected onto the floor was dazzling!

  On the right hand throne (left from the vantage of court) sat Queen Isabelle, her father, King Ejen, and her mother, Dowager Queen Wehe, High Priestess of the temple of the triple goddesses of Banumu Hehe, Abka Biya, and Abka Gahun. The dark-haired and grey-eyed queen was arrayed in a soft white, gossamer gown with large bell sleeves that hugged her willow-like body and flowed into a very full skirt. Her consort, Lord Prince Bevin, was not beside her, but both her parents, the tall and red-haired King Ejen, and the willow-like, dark-haired Dowager Queen Wehe, sat near her on smaller chairs on the floor off the dais. Heavily cloaked guards darted back and forth from behind the columns, some with laser spears and others with even more deadly weapons. Other, more elite protective forces protected the throne room unseen from various alcoves. This was a safe place for the royals, no matter how crowded.

  With the early morning summons—the blue-white star that Beinan orbited had not yet emerged from the eastern horizon nor would it for another Shir-Or—the throne room still lacked the normal number of nobles, politicians, and other interested folk that normally concealed the massive size of that massive hall, making it feel empty even though, in fact, about thirty Beinarians rummaged around with excitement.

  Princess Anlei, followed by RK6, barely noticed these normal folks in their bright court tunics and embroidery as she expertly navigated the hall at the sort of quick pace that only one who grew up in such a palace could create. As a princess, she minded no protocol nor especially worried about it, turning those at court quite pale as she treated this room, of all rooms, as if it were no different than the private family chambers she was accustomed to. Who was this girl who saw that imposing woman in white as merely a woman and not the sovereign of an entire world?

  When she reached hearing distance of the dais, some 1.44 zhang 张, without a bowed head or knee, Princess Anlei looked her mother straight in the eye, “Well, mother? What in all of
Beinan do you want at this unseemly Shir-Or? And why here of all places? If you needed to speak to me, you know exactly where to find me!” Noticing her grandparents she turned and offered a respectful curtsy and bow of her head, “Good to see both of you again, grandmother, grandfather!”

  Queen Wehe rose from her seat and walked up to her granddaughter, her crimson gossamer gown flowing as she moved, its huge bell sleeves expanding by more than 19 cun 寸 when she raised her arms just a little. Smiling sweetly and preening Anlei’s hair like a doting grandmother, she looked into her grey eyes and with a soft voice few could hear reminded, “Anlei, you are in open court here, not private chambers! This is not a family meeting you are asked to and none of us are merely your family! You know this! You have been taught how to behave! You are no toddler who needs to be reminded or given some harsh punishment for breaking protocol. You are heiress to all that is around you and to a great heritage that has been part of our family for five thousand yen-ars, since the Council asked our lineage, our noble house to rule after the last great civil war! Would you throw this all aside with your rude behavior and require a new special session to be called? They can always put a different house in charge of the monarchy! You know that! You have been taught! Or…would you prefer another Civil War?”

  “No, Your Highness, I would not!” she replied, bowing to her grandmother, the dowager queen. Taking several cautious steps backward in practiced protocol form and with a bowed head, one hand carefully manipulating the back of her blue-lavender kirtle so she would not fall upon it, Anlei counted and put herself back into proper position. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, ONE! In position, she took a step forward, then bowed as a proper heiress to the reigning sovereign. Two steps, another such bow. Three more, a third and final bow, “Your Majesty! I have come to answer your summons to court! What service may I offer you this morning?” In her heart, Anlei despised the ritual. But her grandmother was merely trying to help. If chaos, anarchy, revolution, or worse was the alternative to lip service to her mother…then for her people’s sake she would just have to endure saying words she absolutely did not mean!

  Queen Isabelle smiled, recognizing her daughter’s strong will in her own self, “Well done are you, Princess Anlei, to retract your comments of before…in the interests of peace and prosperity for our people! Come, my child…and sit in your father’s chair that I may speak with you! I request it!”

  A request…my my, what a strong word…a command certainly, but more politely issued! Once uttered by a sovereign of Beinan, it must be obeyed! Anlei had never received a “request” before in open court. Carefully and with her tutors’ lessons playing in her mind, she minded her pace, stepped up on the dais, and, as “requested” sat down in her father’s big chair. It felt strange! “Where is His Highness Lord Prince Bevin, Your Majesty?”

  “Asleep, Anlei. He was with the Council late last night working on a matter of great importance, something that concerns both you and me. He asked me to convey his negotiations to you.”

  “Negotiations? Him? I thought all diplomacy was your task, Your Majesty?”

  Queen Isabelle smiled, “Between houses, between planets, yes! I represent House Gurun and all of Beinan! But strictly speaking, my daughter, you were not born to my house, Gurun, but to your father’s. Children belong to their father’s houses, not their mother’s, even though daughters, as well as sons, are eligible to inherit the crown of Beinan!

  “As you know, it is our custom that the eldest or the best, should the eldest prove to be unfit to rule, should always ascend to the throne, male or female. And for this reason, I was crowned queen five yen-ars ago when my father knew he could no longer handle the responsibilities of ruling wisely and well. For me, this was an easy matter, for I am the royal daughter of a royal son and belong to House Gurun. But you, my child, are the royal daughter of a royal daughter and this, my daughter, puts you in a difficult predicament.

  “For you see, the laws were never amended to resolve the contradiction in these policies that may happen when the next in line to the throne is the daughter of a reigning sovereign queen. On one hand, the eldest and/or best direct heir must inherit the crown. On the other, she or he must also belong to whatever house is the ruling house. And you, my child, are not technically house Gurun, but House Ten-Ar through your father!”

  “What, are you saying my ability to ascend the throne in my own time is in doubt? Because I am the daughter of a female sovereign? Because my father is only the consort and not sovereign?” exclaimed Anlei.

  “Under the law, you are less royal for it, yes! Because you technically do not belong to House Gurun even though you have as much Gurun blood as I do, and even though you are of the direct royal lineage! And for that reason, though I am queen, I have no say regarding who you are to marry someday. Only your father has any say in this!” Suddenly Isabelle’s gold and diamond crown felt heavy. She removed it from her head and put it on her lap, examining its finely wrought heraldry of House Gurun, “This heraldry, this mark of your Gurun heritage is yours by blood and yours forever as my daughter. But the law, Anlei, the law does not see common sense! Without some sort of intervention or bargain from your father, I may not get to place this on your head someday…and if I do, you must understand that it may not be only because you are my daughter…but because of the kind of man chosen to sit beside you and lay beside you in your bed. You deserve so much more…to want the touch of that man each time he approaches you, to like the way he feels when he…requires you to be a woman first and queen second. In the end you must make a choice…to wed a man you may not want and may despise in the end so that you can truly rule…or relinquish all to Prince Anwell and let him take your place as sovereign. I will not force you to live a life I would never choose myself. This falls to you. But do know that now you are forty five…the negotiations for your hand…and your most sacred gift spiritually, have taken place. I know you have little regard for our religion, daughter, but it is in our sacred belief system to understand that there is one treasure every young woman possesses that every man covets above all else, a power that every woman can give and give only once in her life that must NEVER be taken for granted nor wasted! Never ever take your…sacred innocence for granted, my baby! Make sure he is worthy of you and your proud priestly heritage! You know of what I speak!”

  Tears fell from the eyes of the proud queen, tears of fear for her daughter as she realized fully the weight of her husband’s political wrangling for her daughter’s marriage and what, indeed, it could mean for Anlei as a girl, as a woman. She thought now of how she had fallen in love with Bevin, had loved him truly and deeply long before Lord Bevin offered her the heraldic broach of his house, the Knights of Ten-Ar.  On Beinan, heraldic jewelry taking many forms was offered by the intended groom to the intended bride as the customary method of requesting and accepting betrothal among the noble houses.

  Memories flew of her betrothal and how she and Lord Bevin consummated the betrothal—absolutely required, under Beinarian custom, before the marriage ceremony, in order to make the engagement legal and binding upon the man, and how nervous she had been in first accepting the broach and then yielding herself to him for the first time. But she at least truly loved him at the time and he loved her, making the sealing of their contract to marry a sweet and tender experience for both, not swift and forced. Unlike so many brides, she did not have to simply lay there and take it, but was only asked to accept him when she felt at ease enough to do so. Bevin started out very tender and patient, never rough with her, his touch ever soft. It was never a fearful experience being betrothed or married to him formally. She had taken her time bearing his children, enjoying the marriage and him and using science to postpone conception of their children until they felt ready to be parents, all the while enjoying that her father was king and her responsibilities to the realm were lighter than they would be later. She was
free for many yen-ars to just be a wife and be happy with her loving husband who truly satisfied her emotionally, intellectually, and physically as a woman.

  Would Anlei ever know such a happy marriage? Not likely! No, the Council had spoken regarding the legality of the succession: unless Anlei married a powerful noble who they deemed equally capable of ruling should power shift from Isabelle’s house to another’s…the only choices were to abdicate to Anwell or for the Council to choose a new dynasty to rule outright with Civil War being the only possible outcome should Anlei refuse to marry their choice or fail to bear him a son by whatever means necessary. “Whatever means necessary…” the law still did not forbid conception of such a son by rape and Queen Isabelle knew it. Even married, her daughter would not be safe should it come to a war—whatever victor in such a war would use rape and forced conception to attain legitimacy. Beinarian science certainly had the means to do it! Rape a woman, then hold her in force fields while a doctor artificially stimulated ovulation and used nanotech to bombard the ovum with specifically selected sperm to ensure conception of only a male child. Then, of course, pump the woman with hormones and growth hormones to ensure the pregnancy was accepted and well on its way, past where the mother could safely choose not to carry the child. It was a hideous corruption of what once was a useful fertility treatment for older mothers or women who could not conceive any other way! In true irony of all technologies, the best of Beinarian fertility treatments was also a favored way to impose children on unwilling wives or women that a particular man wished to create a particular social disgrace upon. All too many noble women had been targets of this dishonor, particular wives of hated rivals or maidens near to coming of age—like Anlei—whose marriage prospects would be ruined by a forced pregnancy and child birth.

  But that was a mere possibility only. As a mother perhaps it was only natural for her to worry about her daughter. It was so strange to Isabelle to find herself thinking and feeling more as mother on this than as queen, more worried about how her daughter would spend her days and nights as a woman than the safety of Beinan itself.

  “Yes, mother, I do know. Believe me, I share your concerns…but what can I do about it?” asked Anlei.

  “Perhaps not much…but perhaps…your father is a good man and a kind heart. Speak to him directly. Perhaps he would be willing to discuss with you what is happening and what he has in mind. Perhaps even some sort of test can be devised among the eligible nobles who might seek to marry you so that we can truly see not only their political value, but their true colors as men. Perhaps there is a way to satisfy both the Council and your own heart in this matter. Surely if we found, say, the three best choices that they approve of that they would let you decide which of these should be your husband! You must, after all, be willing and able to produce an heir by him. And everyone knows that only the most natural of methods will hold up in the courts! We cannot undermine our constitutional monarchy, now can we?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty! I will speak to him and we will find a legal answer to this problem!” smiled Princess Anlei. Just then, the first rays of dawn broke over the horizon. Light sparkled through the eastern stained glass window and onto Anlei’s face, casting a lavender and pink hue onto her skin. The blue-white diamonds embroidered on the front her kirtle that were part of the royal heraldry sparkled green-gold from the light.

  “Success to you, Crown Princess of Beinan!” smiled Queen Isabelle.

  “And to us all, Your Majesty” bowed Princess Anlei. She ritually made her three requisite bows to exit, then turned and strode out of the throne room with RK6 in tow.

  “She is finally learning!” remarked Dowager Queen Wehe.

  “She is royal enough to rule, a fine princess!” added King Ejen.

  “IF the old rules do not prevent it! Our ancestors never expected two sovereign queens to rule one after another! Otherwise, would they have permitted the old clan rules from the days when we were ten warring nations and not one, civilized planet still remain part of our laws? We are twenty five thousand yen-ars since those dark days when we were trying to kill each other over petty land disputes and resource allocation! Mining rights, trade rights, animal management rights! We were as savage then as some of these primitive star systems we have charted!” exclaimed Queen Isabelle.

  “Savage…perhaps. But our past informs our present, as it does for all sentient races. From our warring years on old home world came forth the Great Council of Houses, the precursor to the Great Council of Beinan. We rule in service the Great Council – never forget that daughter. If they choose, another house will rule Beinan after you instead of our descendants. Your Bevin must choose wisely!” warned Dowager Queen Wehe.

  “What is wisdom in this yen-ar, Mother? Does your priestly sight show any hope?”

  “There is always hope, Isabelle, even in this yen-ar,” smiled Wehe. “Go now, daughter. You have much to prepare. Your husband should be briefed before Anlei finds him!”

  The nodding in obedience to her mother, Queen Isabelle bowed, rose from her throne, and strode confidentially out of the throne room as the herald cried, “Make way! Make way for her royal majesty, Isabelle, Queen of Beinan!”

  Prince of Elenim (Ghosts of the Past)

  The original concept for the Anlei’s Legacy Trilogy was for a single book covering the background for and adventures of a prince exiled to D425E25 Tertius. As the story took shape across 2011, the names for the planet, units of time and distance, planetary details, and several character names changed, along with the title which ranged from “The Prince of Antars” to “Prince of Elenim” and other variations on the theme (both male and female) until a summer of 2012 decision to name the planet “Beinan,” split the story into three books, and, perhaps most dramatically, change the central characters from male to female transformed the Anlei’s Legacy Trilogy into what it is today.

  This draft excerpt was written for what became “The Ghosts of the Past” in the summer of 2012 while character names and other details remained in constant flux and is a revealing look at the writing and editorial process underscoring the entire Anlei’s Legacy Trilogy. It begins with the chapter now called “The Mystery of Keelia and Devon’s Sacrifice” and covers in scope what became the first three chapters of “Ghosts of the Past.”

  “This is…An-Men Ten-Ar. The next stop is…An-Men gate historical monument” flashed the indicator signs all over and across the light rail cars following an almost invisible monorail along the streets of the capitol city of Hejing. On the outside of the twelve light rail cars making up this particular train flashed the train line indicator, “An-Men Xi Fang.” As the light rail slowed to its stop called An-Men Ten-Ar, a well-dressed Ten-Ar professional wearing a blue outer robe over a green tunic and trousers emerged from the fourth car, along with a few dozen other commuters, the emblem of Beinarian healers embroidered on his tunic. On his outer coat was embroidered the ornate sword heraldry of House Ten-Ar. As the gentleman stepped off the light rail train car he was on, his grey eyes scanned the over 5000 yentar old streets for the familiar street markers that indicated his position. After a few seconds, the gentleman, Lord Devon of House Ten-Ar, found his bearings and began to walk 0.578 li west and 0.687 li south of the light rail station. After a few xiao-shir, he reached his destination, a tall, gleaming pale blue granite-like building complex marked “An-Men Ten-Ar Healing center.”

  Looking at his watch, Lord Devon hastened into the building and checked with the front information desk located 0.1567 li from the entrance. At the desk sat a blue and green gowned clerk, “Welcome to An-Men Ten-Ar. How may I help you, Lord Healer?”

  “Lord Healer Devon of House Ten-Ar…I’m looking for my wife, Lady Healer Keelia of House Ten-Ar…” requested Lord Devon.

  The clerk typed in the information proved quickly, “Of course! You are assigned to Central Nan-li in Nan-li Xi-Nan Fang, aren’t you?”

  “Yes…I am,” he rep
lied, distracted and worried.

  The clerk smiled, “Lady Healer Keelia is in chamber 438, second floor.”

  “Thank you,” hastened Devon, heading down the hall at a fast pace.

  “Keelia…are you okay?!” cried Devon as he rushed into chamber 438, his wife’s healing center room. Lady Keelia laid in bed, her belly swollen.

  A small crib stood a few cun from her bed. Propping herself up, she looked at her husband, then picked up the newborn in the crib. The child began to wail as she picked him up. “Hush! Hush! Don’t cry little one!” soothed Lady Keelia as she held the child to her bosom. Her delivery of the tiny infant had been eased by her waiting until the age of 120 to give birth to her son mere lentars ago, but he was starting out life as a fussy baby.

  “I left the healing center as soon as I could…” explained Devon, suddenly tongue-tied at the sight of his son.

  Keelia looked up at him, “I know…Lady Abbess Cara sent me word as soon as the healing center notified her you were on your way back to Dong Bei. I was worried you might not make it back. The news reports have indicated the situation down there is…tenuous!”

  “Very…tenuous,” he replied, his eyes mostly on his son. Smiling, Keelia passed the infant to his father. Devon held his son to his chest and bounced gently, trying to sooth him, “There, there, my little one…you’re okay! Everything is fine now!” Slowly, the baby calmed, resting his head against his father, “See, that was not so hard! You’re a perfect nobleman already!”

  “You have a way with babies, my love!” smiled Keelia.

  “As many of them as I see at Central Nan-li, you would hope I would be good with children! Oh, Darling…the suffering I saw this xentar!”

  “Where were you assigned this xentar, Devon?”

  “Emergency…for the twelfth xentar in a row! I find it hard to believe that in a society that claims to be so civilized and so superior compared to the worlds we trade with that we would still be so capable of the brutality of our ancestors! I fear things will continue to get worse unless we resolve these differences of wealth and power across the houses!” answered Devon.

  “How bad is the violence now? The news said it’s been escalating for the last twenty xentars?” asked Keelia.

  “The violence has worsened with each xentar and each yentar in the larger cities of Xi-Nan Fang, including Nan-li. If I did not know better, I would say the ancient feuds between houses were re-opened down there! I cannot believe the blood and mutilations I’m seeing as I try to help people at that healing center!” Lord Devon began to shake as memories of his last shift filled his mind.

  “Can’t the healing center give you any leave to help now that we have little Elendir? You know it could be several xentars before I’m fully recovered from the delivery!”

  Devon shook his head in frustration, “I want to, sweetheart…but I just cannot see them giving me any time off. I know I could choose to help at any healing center or clinic on Beinan, even work off world if I wanted…but Xi-Nan Fang is where the need for a skilled healer is greatest. They are really suffering down there. They are angry, frustrated, and feel abandoned by our government. Many of them are House Ana and even House Slabi. I feel their hearts…their grievances are valid! The genetic degeneration from thousands of yentars of mining orgene to create orgon has taken its toll!”

  “I’ve seen patients who worked ten, maybe thirty yentars in the mines…I cannot imagine someone working longer there. The cost to their longevity and overall health is too great!” added Keelia. “You’ve seen how long the brown eye effect lasts, how the only way for these poor people to regain most of their sight is to leave Beinan forever; the cloud barrier changes our color spectrum too much. You simply cannot see with only tri-chromatic vision!”

  “And yet we are willing as a society to tolerate such obvious dangers…in the name of ‘progress!’ Progress, they say! If we continue on this path, I fear something even more horrible than the disabling side effects of mining on the residents of Xi-Nan Fang will sweep our society!” warned Devon.

  “Let us pray to the goddesses that such terror never comes!” affirmed Lady Keelia.

  “Elendir…come here, Elendir!” called Lady Keelia as she walked into the living room of their spacious, middle-class apartment on the twenty-fifth floor of their thirty story apartment building in the Beinarian capital of Hejing, 5.3489 li west of the palace. As Elendir ambled up to his mother’s side, Keelia sat into a nearby loveseat to give Elendir a better view of the small bundle she held, wrapped in a blue-lavender blanket. Crawling onto the narrow couch, Elendir peered into the bundle to see his 3 xentar-old baby sister, Althea. As Elendir eyed the infant with both fear and curiosity, Althea yawned widely with a coo. Keelia smiled, “Elendir…this is your little sister, Althea! Isn’t she pretty?” As she smiled encouragingly at Elendir, the soreness of her delivery sent a pang of pain through her body. She tensed with pain.

  “Momma?” asked Elendir.

  “I’m okay, Elendir! Don’t worry! Just a little sore right now. Everything is okay! Don’t worry, my little Elendir! Daddy will be home from the healing center soon!”

  Exhausted from her delivery of little Althea, Keelia put down both Elendir and Althea into their respective beds for a nap, then laid down herself for some badly needed recovery sleep for a lentar. At lentar 9.50, her planetary broadcasting receiver turned on as programmed, “And now breaking news from the city of Nan-li in Xi-Nan Fang. There has been an explosion at Central Nan-li healing center, the charity healing center founded by a co-operation between Houses Ana and Miyoo. Repeat, there has been an explosion at Central Nan-li healing center in Nan-li Xi-Nan Fang. House Ana security is not releasing exact numbers of dead or injured, but we have been told that there were two bombs detonated, one in the emergency ward and the other in the surgical recovery wing of the healing center. As we receive more information, we will release it to you, live, here on the Beinarian Central Broadcasting Network!” As the journalist reported the disaster, both her face and voice conveyed her utter shock at the bombing.

  Keelia, however, exhausted by child birth just xentars before, did not stir during the broadcast. She slept another half lentar before waking and hearing the news broadcast, “And now, more information on the continuing tragedy in Nan-li in Xi-Nan Fang. Authorities are reporting over 700 healers and patients dead at the healing center, including healer in chief of the emergency ward, Lord Devon of the Healers of Ten-Ar, reportedly a resident of Hejing. Surviving healers with the healing center report that Lord Devon is survived by his wife and two very young children.” As the journalist reported about Devon, a holo-image of the healer flashed on the screen next to the journalist. Keelia’s face turned white as she realized the journalist was talking about none other than HER Devon, HER husband—not someone else. As she began to process the news, tears flooded her face.

  Elendir, a mere three yentars old, managed to over-ride the protective wall on his bed in the children’s room and ran up to his mother. Keelia scolded her son gently, “Elendir! How did you get out of there!”

  “Mamma, make daddy come home!”

  Keelia’s eyes widened as she realized that Elendir had heard and understood the planet-wide news broadcast about the bombing, “Momma wants to Elendir! Momma wants daddy home too!”

  “Where’s daddy, Momma?”

  “He’s now on a long journey to a new family in a new place, little one!’ answered Keelia, her tears uncontrollable despite her best efforts to look strong for her son.

  Despite her best efforts, Lady Keelia struggled as a widow and mother. Eight xentars after the blasts that killed her husband, she journeyed with her children to the Ten-Ar monastery and headquarters to all House Ten-Ar located several lentars away from Hejing. Upon arrival, she headed to the main audience hall, carrying Althea and holding little Elendir’s hand as they walked together. Upon entering the massive, stain-glassed chamber they found Lady
Cara, a matrilineal descendant of the same Lady Cara who had treated Lord Prince Corann in the palace medical center. There was more than four hundred yentars between her foremother and herself, yet she looked remarkably similar to the portraits of her foremother kept by each successive generation of her family. She was as fair and as beautiful as the Lady Cara Lord Prince Corann had known. As Keelia reached the front of the hall, she knelt respectively to her mentor, “Good health and prosperity to you, Abbess of Ten-Ar!”

  “Good health and prosperity to you, Lady Keelia, Healer of Ten-Ar!” answered Lady Cara, motioning Lady Keelia to rise. “We have been worried about you, fearing you were among the un-named lost in Nan-li! I am relieved to see you still of this realm of existence, Lady Keelia…but I grieve for your loss and for the burden placed upon by it. How old is your baby now?”

  “Eleven xentars, my lady.”

  “And your son?”

  “Three yentars, fifty xentars. He seems to be ahead of the developmental curve a bit, if you do not mind my medical opinion.”

  “Medical opinions are exactly what we are trained to provide, Lady Keelia…why would I mind it now?” queried Lady Cara.

  “I find myself unable to think most of the time, if I may be so honest. Althea needs so much and so does Elendir…I find myself at a loss to care properly for both of them without my husband. I am…not handling the loss as well as I have seen others do,” disclosed Keelia.

  “The loss of so many of our numbers is more than I think anyone can cope with effectively. If I did not know better, I would think that they were killed in some…act of terrorism against our house in particular. Whoever it was KNEW that House Ten-Ar sent half of our house’s healers to Central Nan-li healing center to serve—which is why only healers from House Ten-Ar perished in the blasts. The patients were from houses Cashmarie, Ana, Slabi, even a few from House Miyoo. But our house was the most devastated in the blasts. More than half of the House Ten-Ar healers at the healing center were killed…thirty percent of all Ten-Ar healers according to the data we’ve received,” updated Lady Cara.

  “But WHY? Why would our house be targeted? Why kill Beinan’s best healers?” trembled Lady Keelia.

  “If I had to offer a guess, Lady Keelia, I would estimate that we healers are far more vulnerable to such terrorism than our knightly brothers and sisters. Our Knights are great and powerful defenders of justice…more than capable of not only handling such an emergency, but swiftly neutralizing those behind it. We healers have no such defenses. We go and serve, helping whoever needs our knowledge. We are the other side to House Ten-Ar which gives it strength and balance.”

  “Yes…of course. But why target House Ten-Ar at all? To my knowledge we have not done anything to any of the other houses since the old feuds on original world. The creation of the Great Council put an end to those…so why?” worried Lady Keelia.

  “It is possible we…offended another house without knowing it…but in those cases, tradition dictates that any grievances between houses be brought to the Council for arbitration. If this is about houses and political, then whoever it is works outside of our traditional system or is working, somehow, to undermine that system by ignoring it.”

  Keelia shook her head in disbelief, “Never in two hundred yentars would I believe I would somehow be caught up in this, affected by the events of a distant continent, a distant people’s problem—unless I volunteered to go to the front lines of those problems. But the problem has come home…my husband is dead and I do not have the means to take care of my children!”

  “You did well to bring them here, Lady Keelia. We, as a house, are prepared to nurture them, educate them, help them grow in whatever paths they choose. I will give you the choice right now whether to have the healers nurture your son…or the knights. He will learn self-defense if he were to begin his education even at this early yentar!”

  Keelia looked at Elendir and straightened his tunic. The boy was mentally gifted and strong in health—just like his father. Yet even for a Beinarian, Elendir was proving to be unusually bright and innovative, perhaps some sort of prodigy even, “If I give him to the knights now, will I still have my parental rights to him? Will he know me as his mother?”

  Lady Cara smiled gently, “We would not have it any other way. You ARE his mother, Keelia. The Knights are merely educators and extended family to him. When he reaches the age of decision, he may elect to stay with the knights and become a squire…or choose a different life for himself. We are all family here and as a family, we will stay together—no matter what the politics of our world says!”

  “Then let him be fostered by the knights! Let them encourage his talents and help him in ways neither of us can foresee right now. Let him grow strong in mind, soul, and body! Let him choose the path that he desires…unhindered by the choices of others!” evoked Lady Keelia.

  “So mote it be, Lady Keelia. Now go, rest. I will contact the healing center in Hejing where you work and inform them of your temporary leave of absence while we get you settled…and while you decide what is best for your daughter as well!”

  “Blessed be, Lady Cara…and thank you!” bowed Lady Keelia.

  “Elendir, son of Devon and Keelia of the Healers of Ten-Ar, for many yentars have you studied and suffered, enduring the trials set before you of mind, body, heart, and spirit. Now the journey’s end has come and a choice lies before you. Do you choose to join the brotherhood of Knights of Ten-Ar…or leave for another path?”

  Now sixty yentars old, Elendir was crimson robed in the ceremonial robes that had become customary over the last four hundred yentars. Sumptuary laws regarding what was appropriate to wear at one’s elevation to knighthood had changed over the past four hundred yentars since Squire Corann’s elevation to the knighthood in EE 6326. Now the crimson tunic was considered insufficient in favor of a crimson or white tunic and white trousers overlain with a heavy crimson robe made of a deep piled, lustrous fabric embroidered with the Ten-Ar sword at the center back. From his neck, Elendir suspended a pendant…a small remembrance of his mother and her great love in sending him to the Knights for training when perhaps ego would have mandated he apprentice with the healers.

  As Elendir knelt, his mentor, Lord Knight Malvyn, placed his strong hands on Elendir’s crown. But instead of focusing on the ceremony in progress, Elendir thought about his mother, Lady Keelia, with both sadness and thankfulness. He was barely ten yentars when Lord Knight Malvyn quietly informed him of his mother’s death, the victim of another healing center bombing, this one in the coastal city of Bira Hecen in Dong-Bei, 10,000 li from Hejing. As with the bombing that killed his father when he was three yentars old, no one had taken responsibility for this act of terrorism. The bombing that took the life of his father killed a far larger number of Healers of Ten-Ar without injury to healers from other houses. This bombing was different—or appeared to be different. This bombing killed fifteen Healers of Ten-Ar, twenty Healers of Gurun, and ten Advocates of Slabi—not nearly the precisely-driven attack on House Ten-Ar that cost his father his life.

  Still, right now, Elendir wished with all his heart that his parents could witness this elevation. Instead, the only close family left to him was his younger sister, Althea, who was, wisely, brought into the Healers of Ten-Ar when she was five yentars old. Lady Keelia had originally stayed at the monastery to teach medicine and to raise Althea. Ironically enough, it took more riots against the monarchy to draw Keelia out into the world again…and straight to her death.

  As much as Elendir sorrowed now for his parents, he was comforted by his sister, standing a few cun 寸 away from him. Smiling at Lady Althea, Elendir grasped Lord Knight Malvyn’s wrists ceremoniously, “Master, hear me now before these witnesses! I choose as I have always chosen all my life: to dedicate my mind, body, heart, and soul to this house and this place! If the brotherhood will have me, I vow myself to be, now and for forevermore, sword brother and peer, a
lord knight of Ten-Ar.”

  Lord Malvyn removed his hands from Elendir’s head and anointed the center of his brow with fragrant sacred oil, “Then in the name of the Knights of Ten-Ar and as your master, I confer on you the rank of Knight and Lord of Ten-Ar!” With a nod, one of the squires knelt nearby, bearing the Ten-Ar great sword in a gold and silver scabbard on a strong leather belt in a bright green used for knighthood elevation. Kneeling, Lord Malvyn girt it about Lord Elendir’s waist. Taking his sister’s hand, Lord Knight Elendir rose, his elevation complete. He hugged his lavender-clad sister before offering Lord Knight Malvyn his hands in a gesture of respect.

  As he rose, a knight at last, he looked at his sister. Lady Althea had grown up…at forty-two yentars, she was a vision of beauty. Her gossamer gown hugged her graceful, petite frame. Long blond hair flowed in waves down to her mid back. Silver eyes sparkled from her fair complexion. Blond hair was rare among Beinarians, but it suited Lady Althea well. Like most Beinarian women, her breasts were high on her body and small, well-balanced on her fine-boned frame. Her blue-lavender gown framed her breasts and thin, lightly curved gown. Flowing bell sleeves glided across her arms. Her long, A-line gown was soft, yet substantial enough for the skirt to not cling to her body as she moved. Instead, it flowed in an elegant semi-circle from her hips as she walked.

  Elendir could barely believe this vision of Beinarian beauty was his own sister. As the customary reception commenced, he surveyed the other women in the room. His gaze immediately fell on Princess Cathryn, daughter of Queen Darla and Prince Consort Torr. She was 55.3 cun寸 tall, unusual for an Beinarian woman, with blue-grey eyes, very dark brown hair that appeared black to races with tri-chromatic and tetra-chromatic eyes, and well balanced in her frame. Princess Cathryn approached him, two finely wrought chalices in her hands, “All hail Lord Knight Elendir! Congratulations, my lord!”

  Elendir bowed his head respectfully, taking the chalice of fragrant wine offered to him by the princess, “Great is House Gurun for sending here such a gracious and beautiful heiress to the throne!”

  “I share that honor with brother Kendric, Lord Knight Elendir! But I have no doubt you were long aware of that!” flirted Princess Cathryn.

  Elendir smiled, noticing the way Cathryn used her gown and her body beneath it, to subtly seduce, “I know many things, Your Highness…in particular how you, like our foremother, Queen Wehe, are particularly good at using your beauty for political purposes. The question now, it would seem, is why you would care to attempt to seduce me, even a little, right now….”

  Princess Cathryn took a sip from her glass, “You are even more astute than your reputation at court, Lord Knight!”

  Elendir flirted back at her with his eyes, “I have a reputation at court?”

  “Do you seriously think that none of us in House Gurun would have monitored your progress over these yentars since first your father, then your mother were murdered in the service of our people? Few healers possessed greater skill or compassion for those who need help more than either of your parents. They were role models for our people, even if they never knew it themselves. You know of the strong tie our Houses have, both in blood and on the Council, how few healers across houses have greater camaraderie than between House Ten-Ar and House Gurun. We are more one house than two! It would, of course, be logical for my parents to choose a noble, strong, and handsome knight like yourself to be my…consort!” As Cathryn uttered the last sentence she found her breath taken away by Elendir whose strong, well-muscled frame suited her to a degree she had not noticed in her previous political flirtations. Here was a man she would truly not mind being matched to, who would no doubt suit her as a lover and companion. Suddenly, the princess realized she desired him very much.

  Elendir met her eyes, “You want me to come to your bed…don’t you?”

  “Yes, Elendir…I do!”

  “How many others have there been, Your Highness? Do you take all your political interests to your chamber?”

  “I have been…far too politically astute to take a man to my chamber. But you…Elendir, I think I would like to! If you will have me!”

  “You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen…next to my sister, of course! If you are asking me now…I shall not deny you, Your Highness,” offered Elendir, anticipation starting to fill his voice.

  Princess Cathryn whispered in his ear, “I command it!”

  In reply, Elendir raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, then, bowing to all around him as he navigated the crowd around him, lead the princess out of the reception…and to his chamber.

  “Did I please you, Your Highness?” asked Elendir, panting and tired. In the humble bed he was assigned in his dormitory, he found that both he and Cathryn could barely fit upon it together.

  Smiling, Cathryn pulled him back down to her, kissing him, “Was that your first time as well, my Elendir?”

  “Yes, Your Highness!”

  “How did it feel….”

  “Like nothing I have ever known before…I am starting to wonder why I waited so long to…bed someone!”

  “Politics controls what I may do, of course…but not right now…though I will have to ask my parents about assigning you to the palace so you can do that much more often!”

  “You tempt me, Cathryn…I do want more…after my body recovers from the last half lentar or so!”

  “Your body tempts me…I want more! Oh so much more…a lifetime of enjoying you!”

  “You would choose me as your consort?”

  “I may flirt incessantly to get what I want or Beinan needs of someone…but it is you I desire, Elendir. Be, if not my husband, then my lover…don’t stop enjoying me or letting me enjoy you…as often as possible! Now I’ve been with you…I cannot imagine being with anyone else!”

  “You and I are both past the age of consent…I realize that. But for all the pleasure I admit this has given me….” Elendir paused to consider his words. Did he enjoy bedding her…very much. Did he want more…he was a young adult with the same passionate instincts of his age, his hormones raging, the need for passionate release often distracting him from his duties. But he was also an orphan, the son of two healers both killed by terrorists. In his fatigue and euphoria, his delight of her naked body, the training he received and his nightmares about his parents still resonated. “…Cathryn…I do want you, I do want to be in your bed in the palace, to sire on you the royal children I can tell you crave of me…oh how I want what you want!” Cathryn kissed him. Instinctively he returned her kiss and caress…and found himself swept up in another way of passion. For the lentar, he surrendered to her…and let her have all she wished of him. She would need of him many times over the next seven lentars, until the light of dawn the next xentar. Whether Elendir liked it or not in his heart…his body, and the princess, won out this time. He was hers.

  Dawn broke over the palace in Hejing. Elendir found himself one more waking up in Princess Cathryn’s chamber, as he had for the better part of the last twenty-nine xentars, the pale blue curtains of his bed screening out the morning light. Beside him, the naked Cathryn dosed comfortably. Somehow, after twenty-nine xentars of frequent lovemaking, he had pleased her once more. Sitting up and looking down upon her, he noticed her loveliness, the way her face seemed to caress her pillow. Elendir stroked her hair casually, glad that she could sleep past dawn.

  Elendir could not. Too many yentars of training to become a knight had disciplined mind, body, and soul only too well. Conditioned by the strict Ten-Ar training, both mind and body urged him to get out of bed in favor of the meditative form of martial arts that had become so effortless to him after all these yentars. With disciplined practice, Elendir slid out of the bed and dressed himself. Putting on the light shoes Cathryn called slippers but in fact were used by Ten-Ars for their meditative martial arts, Elendir opened the double doors dividing her chamber from her private garden and slithered into the gar
den. Walking along a smooth, stony path, he headed for a small courtyard circled with benches, a small, formal fountain resting just off the center square, gurgling with green liquid that foamed lavender. Reaching his usual spot near the fountain, Elendir set his feet parallel to his shoulders and stretched both arms into an arc above his head, slicing them downward, palms facing his feet gracefully in the Ten-Ar gesture of respect. Elendir slid his left leg downward, bending his right knee about halfway, slicing his arms through many arcs and occasionally feather-touching the ground. With rapid kicks, Elendir leapt into the air, seemingly attacking the fountain with his acrobatics. With sometimes extremely slow, then suddenly fast movements and with a persistently deep breath and calm demeanor, he worked his way through the more than fifty traditional martial arts forms he had studied since almost the yentar his mother brought him to the monastery for training, practicing the strong discipline of body and singular concentration the knights of Ten-Ar were renown for. For a full lentar he worked, sometimes feverishly, his muscles rippling under his tunic. A familiar pain of fatigue started to grip muscles in every part of his body, yet the workout continued. This pain reminded him of who he really was, a lord knight of Ten-Ar…and helped him forget what he had become since his elevation—the sexual toy of their majesties’ only daughter.

  Finally, as the Beinarian sun rose higher in the sky enough to cast a shadow over his body, Elendir was forced to stop for a rest. A full lentar and one half had passed. He had pushed his body to its full limit. It felt good, good to feel like a knight of Ten-Ar. Sweat dripped from his face. He knelt at the fountain, cupping his hands. Dipping his hands into the water-like liquid, he splashed the liquid over his head, neck, and shoulders, soaking the upper part of his tunic in the process and washing away the perspiration. Feeling a bit winded, Elendir sat down on one of the wooden benches closest to him, his hands instinctively positioning onto his knees for meditation. For the next 0.5 lentars he let his mind wander and drift, sweeping away his worries in the tranquility. A fabku chirped. After a millilentar or two, she bobbed and hopped, flying down to the bench besides Elendir, her soft chirp evolving into a sweet gurgling melody. Elendir opened his eyes, looked at the little bird, and smiled. Sweet little bird!

  Finally, Elendir rose, returning down the path he took to the courtyard. Princess Cathryn had finally risen herself. Her asynchronous droid, Zara, hovered around her, the droid’s arms extended to her gown which she was lacing expertly in back. Princess Cathryn smiled as Elendir emerged from the garden, “You got up early!”

  Elendir bowed to Cathryn slightly, “Maintaining my Ten-Ar discipline, Your Highness. Old habits die hard and these I think I rightfully should retain. I am a son of Ten-Ar, after all!”

  Cathryn adjusted her low-necklined gown around her bosom to fit more comfortably, “That you are! Lucky for me!” The flash in her eyes conveyed both her appreciation for Elendir physically…and her desire to be pleased again by him.

  Elendir caressed her waist, “I am glad you are so well pleased, Your Highness. It is my pleasure to serve you anyway that I may!”

  Cathryn kissed him, “Your service pleases me well, Elendir. In all the yentars of my life, I never believed anyone could please me so…well! Men use women of such…bloodlines as I have. It is only right that the tables should be turned!”

  “I never used you, Your Highness, only given freely to you that part of me which you clearly yearn for and desire. Why you would want me over so many better matches for you politically is actually beyond my imagination!” clarified Elendir.

  “Perhaps I want more than politics. Your…physique, the many yentars of Ten-Ar discipline has sculpted your body into something far superior to anything I have observed in anyone else! In the face of such…exquisite chiseling, who cares about politics?” flirted the princess, her hands caressing Elendir seductively.

  “Then you disagree with our mutual ancestors Anlei and Corann who put the good of Beinan above such…carnal considerations?” inquired Elendir, trying very hard to resist the temptations of her caresses.

  “They would have served Beinan far better by giving House Xing-li control, yielding in the Council! House Gurun has reigned long enough! Let others take the burden of government…and its limitations on who one may bed!” evoked Cathryn.

  “With respect, Your Highness, my life is about service to Beinan, as was the lives of both my parents. I care very much what happens on our world and across its continents. My parents both died because they felt that mercy and compassion must extend to all who live in the universe, not just to the elite! They both could have stayed safe, stayed where there was no danger to their lives, healed the rich and politically powerful…Abka Biya knows with our bloodline, that choice was offered to them…many times!” With the thought of his parents, almost against his will, Elendir’s lingering grief filled him for a millilentar, breaking through in his voice.

  “Then they did you a disservice by choosing to die. They abandoned you with their so-called service to others! Why do you cling to them?”

  Disbelief filled Elendir’s eyes, “Why do you not? They were the best of our society, the most kind, the most generous!”

  “Generosity is pointless if it kills you. What good is anyone to anyone if you put yourself where you are likely to get killed?” reasoned Princess Cathryn.

  “Our world is changing, Cathryn. I fear for you, for what I am hearing! In a changing world, no place is truly safe! All we can do with our lives is to give of ourselves with goodness, kindness, and self-sacrifice. Our personal desires, even for life, can never take priority over the good of our world!”

  “You are here because of my desires, Elendir. The comforts you enjoy, the luxuries…these are all my gifts…as are my carnal favors! You have no reason to complain!” asserted Cathryn, sliding Elendir’s hand under her gown to caress her thigh.

  Elendir felt his manhood respond to the feel of her, a touch meant to fully seduce him into enjoying her in bed as a way of ending the conversation. She knew what she was doing. Between the provocative dress and the touch, his overwhelming physical instinct was to merge with her carnally, to forget everything in the pleasure of her body.

  Elendir gave in, found himself undoing her dress and laying her on the bed. Against the will of his mind, he found himself giving her exactly what she wanted…until, in release, he collapsed once more.

  Three millilentars after he finished…his feelings about her words set in. What was he doing? Was he no more than simply a slave to her body, her carnal lusts? She provoked him, as she always did, and he kept yielding, as if he had no choice in the matter. Every single time she tried the slightest of seductions, he had given in, without any precautions against conceiving a child in the process. What did she want of him. Was it truly what it appeared to be on the surface…simple lust for him over his well-muscled physique?

  No…there had to be more to this. She was far more politically astute than she was letting on right now as she purred on the bed from the latest round of physical merging. Panting, Elendir disengaged himself from her and dressed, not bothering to look at her. Something was amiss. He was a knight of Ten-Ar…the mystery needed to be solved, if only as a means of finding a pathway back to his honor. Still ignoring Cathryn, Elendir put on his regular shoes, then searched the dresser where he kept his possessions in her chamber. In a millilentar, he found his sword belt and Ten-Ar broad sword and fastened them around his waist. A plan ensued regarding what to do next. Still tired from both his workout and the romp with the princess, he fixed his will on ending his role in whatever Princess Cathryn was really up to.

  While Princess Cathryn played, Prince Kendric worked, adorned in a white wool-like tunic and embroidered in gold with House Gurun’s diamond-like heraldry. As the only male child of Queen Darla and Prince Consort Torr, Kendric lived in the heir-apparent’s chambers, complete with its offices. Kendric studied reports that were scattered
across his desk. Not only was Beinan facing numerous issues with violence across three continents, but the reports indicated several diplomatic issues with the ambassadors from Beinan’s interstellar neighbors. Worry filled Kendric as he read…however was Beinan going to get through all these problems at once? Frustrated, Kendric paced his office. Fidgeting, he pressed three small buttons on the side of a picture frame hung on the far wall of his office. A small, narrow door running floor to ceiling appeared, opening. Prince Kendric glided through the passage, walking 0.03 li. Inside was shrine-like alcove. In the dim light, Prince Kendric saw his object of reverence: a tawny, heavily carved bow nearly eleven thousand yentars old. This was the ancestral bow carried by King Malvyn of House Balister and worn during his coronation in OW 48780. This was the bow Lord Bevin had inherited as Malvyn’s descendant. Though leadership for House Balister had passed to another line following the assassination of King Malvyn’s son, King Tristan The Just in EE 50, Tristan’s descendants, like Lord Bevin, retained right of inheritance to the bow. From Bevin to his grandson, King Yuxi, passed the Bow of Balister as it came to be known. It was one of the few relics of original world still kept by the royal family of House Gurun, but a secret relic. Bevin’s knighthood had removed his bloodline from common knowledge; as far as the public was aware, Bevin was born House Ten-Ar. Yet a few—Queen Darla and her son, Prince Kendric, included-- knew the truth. The Bow of Balister was kept as a powerful reminder of Beinarian history…way off in another galaxy, of where they came from and the power of hard work in shaping the future of generations to come.

  Prince Kendric touched the ancient wood, wood grown on another world, bowed, then headed back to his office, centered.

  The doorbell chimed. Kendric looked up towards the door, “Come!”

  The door opened. Elendir stepped in, bowing to Kendric, “Your Highness…may I speak with you?”

  Kendric rose and greeted Elendir with the Ten-Ar salute of respect, “Of course! You are my sister’s suitor, Elendir…are you not?”

  Elendir rolled his eyes at the description, however politely addressed as it was, “Suitor is probably not the most…accurate word, Your Highness. Princess Cathryn commands everything and yields…nothing.”

  Prince Kendric raised his brow, “Does she? Well…I long suspected someday it might come to that. She has used her…beauty to obtain her desires for…quite some time.”

  “Your Highness…if I may speak freely…Princess Cathryn is used to getting what she wants…even if it is often for the wrong reasons!”

  “Has she wronged you, Lord Knight?” asked Kendric soberly.

  “…in more ways than I can count. She has wronged herself, her family…and Beinan! She is not fit to rule, Your Highness! I came to tell you this!” answered Elendir, his eyes flitting to and from the prince.

  Prince Kendric rose and embraced Elendir, “Goddesses can only know what her selfish ways have put you through!”

  “She is up to something, Your Highness! I do not know what…but I think her…involvement with me has more to do with some other plan of hers than it does with me. She’s…used her physical skills to exploit a part of me that I did not know was a weakness!”

  “We all have vulnerabilities, Lord Knight…even if we pretend we do not. Sex can be a powerful tool in the hands of the politician. It is a power some would assert over others…to their detriment, as I can see in your eyes it has been used to yours,” expressed Kendric.

  “I have to leave the palace, Your Highness…this xentar! I cannot let her keep doing this to me! I suspect there will be some fallout for making this choice…but I must restore my honor!” affirmed Elendir.

  “Where will you go, my friend?”

  Elendir paused to consider, “Xi-Nan Fang, to the ruins of the healing center where my father was murdered. I know the official story is that it was a random act of terrorism…but long have I suspected there was something else behind it. I need answers, Your Highness, Prince of Beinan!”

  Kendric considered Elendir’s choice. It was logical, particularly for a knight of Ten-Ar. “Then answers you must go find! I will…deal with Cathryn on your behalf, tell her that as crown prince, I sent you on a mission to Xi-Nan Fang. The violence down there has gone on long enough. It is time someone well trained dealt with it!”

  “Then I have your blessing, Your Highness?”

  “More than that, I officially command you to go and investigate these…outbreaks of violence across our planet. Do not cease until you have solved the mystery of who, what, and why is behind all of this! My sister’s carnal interests are…irrelevant! Go now, and serve Beinan with all your wit and all your flesh!” commanded Prince Kendric with the voice of a sovereign king.

  Elendir bowed deeply, “As you wish, Sire!”

  Half a lentar passed. As soon as the princess left her chamber to dine with her family for the mid-xentar meal, Lord Knight Elendir opened the valise he had stored under the princess’s bed. Carefully folding his clothes and neatly packing them inside, the chamber doors opened unexpectedly. Startled, Elendir drew his great Ten-Ar sword a couple cun. A well-dressed fine lady with blond hair emerged, her gown billowing in the breeze that flowed from Princess Cathryn’s garden. Elendir let go of his sword hilt to greet her, “Althea!”

  “Elendir!” smiled Lady Althea, embracing her brother. “I came as soon as I heard.”

  “…As soon as you heard what?” smirked Elendir.

  “That you are leaving Hejing to go down there, to Xi Nan Fang…” answered Althea, worry on her face.

  “What makes you think I’m leaving at all?” eluded Elendir.

  “Well for one, you are packing…quickly! Grown tired of courting the princess so soon?”

  “COURTING! What makes you think any of this has in any way resembled a courtship, Althea? Cathryn has done nothing but divert me from the plans I made for myself yentars before my elevation to knighthood. She’s smarter than she seems to be, Althea, and much more willing to use her…feminine charms to get what she wants than I think anyone, especially her parents, dares to contemplate. She has absolutely no qualms about using her body for political gain…or any other sort of gain for that matter. There was no courtship, my sister…only exploitation by her for goddesses only knows what ends. Before I met her, dear dear Althea, I had my dignity, my honor. If ever I hope to regain either, I must leave this place, for the honor of Ten-Ar, if nothing else. No knight, no person for that matter, should ever be someone else’s toy….” Anger welled up in Elendir’s voice at the way Cathryn had played him. No more! Not again!

  Lady Althea put her arm around Elendir’s shoulders, “…I know. I’m here at Prince Kendric’s…command. He agrees with you on all counts…save one.”

  “The part about going to Xi Nan Fang?”

  “Yes! Why must you go there of all places in the universe? Why not return to the monastery! You could be a formidable teacher, Elendir! House Ten-Ar needs you!”

  “I will return there, I promise! But not now, not yet. Since our parents perished I have found that little to no investigation has ever been conducted regarding the terrorist attacks that killed them…either time! Our legal code requires investigation, Althea. I’ve studied the laws, done the research. No…something…odd has been happening down there, something completely out of character for our civilization. We of Beinan love to tout our successes at those from other systems we trade with…from this galaxy and beyond. But how can we call ourselves ‘civilized’ if we do not uphold the codes of law that made us what we allege to others that we are? Once, maybe, we were a society that set fair laws and enforced true justice for members of all houses…but now? Where is the justice for those murdered in these terrorist attacks? If people die and we just pretend nothing happened, how can their souls rest enough to move into the next incarnation? As long as we ignore the problem, I fear their souls will be trapped forever at the moment of their deaths. O
ur parents deserve better, Althea!” wept Elendir.

  “But Elendir…it’s dangerous! I do not want to lose you! You are all the family I have left!” bellowed Althea.

  Elendir clasped his sister in a tight embrace, “I know! But Althea…I have to try! I am a knight of Ten-Ar…among the best trained in martial arts of any in Beinan. I learned much from my mentors…now it is time I test myself, test that knowledge in real situations. I promise to use every care and skill to guard my life!”

  Althea’s own Ten-Ar discipline slowly set in, “Yes…yes…you are right, of course! We are House Ten-Ar! No matter what…we shall persevere!”

  “For the honor of Ten-Ar then, sister!”

  “For the honor of Ten-Ar!” cried Althea.