“Do you think you can get away with that you’ve done?” Fiel demanded.
“If I didn’t think so then I wouldn’t have done what I did.”
“You would rather throw away years of partnership, just to run a fool’s errand? Just to create life!”
“Our experiments have advanced us thousands of years in understanding the intelligence of a living psyche. Jahum is gone, and with him his rules.”
“They were implemented for a reason, because he was right, he created us and the council. He saved us from war and destruction and you spit in his face!”
“There is no more Jahum, he is gone and so is his rule.”
“I rule the council, I enforce the rules.”
“With Jahum gone, the council is over, you can’t rule. You couldn’t even see into our plans, you couldn’t predict our mutiny. What kind of leader is that short sighted, that blind?”
“You know what this means. War. Against the nations of the Citadel. War we tried to avoid.”
“Without the power to understand, without Jahum, your reach is weak.” The connection ended.
Fiel’s mind stirred. War. It’d been thousands of years since the last war, a war that tore apart the galaxies and the lives of trillions.
He could stop it. Stop the war. Stop the destruction. He could prevent everything as the omnipotent being he was. He could stop the Avalour before they took action. He could make sure they never take action again.
He could show them why he was the ruler of the council, he could show them how powerful he truly was. He stood.
“I’m going to Avalour space.”
Keti gasped, “Wait, we have to hold an action meeting with the council members!” In a flash, Fiel was gone.
…
Bedivere leaned on his balcony. He was at his white lake house overlooking a beautiful body of water. All around the lake were similar but less impressive houses. The planet’s giant moon was in clear view on that beautiful day. Thirty pillars of serpents floated close above them.
Surrounding Councilman Bedivere were the five leaders of the five Avalour-ruled galaxies and the head of the Avalour church of understanding. The church head spoke, “We predict that the Citadel’s forces are already on the move toward the Enar galaxy.”
Bedivere was the leader of his entire race. Most council members on the Citadel council were leaders of their races, not just the spokespeople. It involved a lot of delegating.
Bedivere turned to the leaders. “This is a war of attrition, move your forces into defensive measures and only engage if they pass our planet’s defensive line.”
The leaders glanced at the sky.
“What?” Bedivere looked in front of him. Fiel floated in front of them, his gold wings shining bright, spreading like a fire in a hell storm. They all stared in terror, having angered one of the strongest being in the universe.
“If you can’t follow the rules of the maker of the stars, then I will take away the one thing that the maker has given you. The stars.”
“How did you pass the pillars?” Bedivere yelled.
“Did you think your feeble creations could stop me?”
“Wait, Fiel!”
Fiel looked up at their sun. “Sixty seconds. Your sun was so close.”
The Avalour were too afraid to attack, too afraid of the implications of what he had just said.
“You were fools to think I wouldn’t show you my true power. Make a wish, as this will be the last star you’ll see.”
He could have used the weapons of the Citadel, but this was the only way to make sure it would never happen again.
“Fiel, wait!”
“No.” In a flash, he was gone.
Only seconds later darkness hit, screams echoed over the entire planet until the very distant stars appeared. The sight of dead stars, as he took every star an Avalour planet orbited. Five galaxies’ worth.
The missing stars weren’t enough to light their everlasting nights.
The planet split in half and crumbled.
They might have had a chance, if Fiel hadn’t reversed their planets rotation.
…
Fiel arrived back in his throne room. The only one there was Keti.
“Fiel! The Jour have left! They left the council!”
“What?”
A display appeared above them. It was Raisa.
“Hello, Fiel.”
“Raisa, what is the meaning of this!?”
“The death of trillions is the meaning. You acted rashly, destroying an entire race without consulting the council. That was very short sighted of you and is something I would expected from Leif. I won’t keep my people there with a constant threat of extinction looming over our heads with a leader who doesn’t listen.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Not yet.”
“I wouldn’t destroy an innocent race!”
“Who are you to claim who is innocent or guilty against trillions, Fiel? You broke your own rule. Without Jahum, the guidance of the council is not needed for my people.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that we will help you in the search for the Starkiller and provide our pillars for defense but further unlimited uses of our resources, intel, and partnerships are finished.”
Fiel looked down. He destroyed thousands of years of cooperation just because he wanted to show his power. He was a fool.
“I hope that the next time we speak it will be on better terms.”
The display cut out and disappeared. Fiel walked to his crystal throne, so fragile. He simply sat in it without a word. Keti placed a hand on his shoulder.
Above the throne, above the entrance, floated a plaque with a single sentence and law.
“As gods, as guardians, as keepers, as the watchers, and as the creators. We don’t have a right to life.”
Fiel sighed and closed his eyes.
Final – Trust of false idols, the product of the old gods
A blink and a breath, Raisa’s mind wavered as she spoke to Fiel, telling him of their race’s separation. She clicked off the display with an assuring smile.
Her plan worked, the Jour had separated from the council without war.
“It’s finally over,” she muttered. She sat in a transport ship, much like the one Ical had used. Plain, unassuming, it currently held four people. The pilot, copilot, and Raisa’s personal bodyguard.
Anu’s head was on her knees, her love was dead. But it was a needed death, if Jaylen had left and spilled their secrets, her plans would have been ruined. Raisa was glad she told her. Raisa looked at Anu.
Every time she looked at her she felt depressed. For Raisa to kill her own soldier, a loyal soldier, just the thought of it sickened her, but too much was at stake.
When she got a chance she would hold a hero’s funeral for him. Eventually everyone would atone for their sins, even her. For now, she had other things to worry about.
Anu would always be a reminder.
There were many things to do. Raisa needed to contact her son stationed on her home world, set up a new government system for her race and set up multiple meetings with the leaders of her people. But, she couldn’t do any of that on the ship. She needed to keep her whereabouts a secret.
They were about to go through hyperspace and once in it, she wouldn’t be able to communicate to anyone.
Raisa peered out of the windows. There was only blackness, she couldn’t see any stars or any lights. In only a few days’ time, she and her race would be free from Jahum’s reign forever.
…
Raisa dreamed a dream she had many times before. A dream of her father telling a tale he used to always tell her. The councilman before Bran. About when he first met Jahum, and when the galaxies were at war.
Before there was a council, before the six major races ruled over most of the universe. There was a starting point. A point in time when there were hundreds of trillions of races existed in the hundreds o
f millions of galaxies.
They all started at the relatively same time. A time of growth and prosperity. But then there was a pinnacle of advancements for the races amongst the galaxies.
They discovered how to use the power of the stars and expanded their civilizations out into space. As civilizations colonized planet after planet they discovered they weren’t a special, there were other civilizations like theirs, advancing just as fast.
As more and more civilizations expanded out, coming in contact with other races and discovered they were not alone in the universe, instead of building partnerships and friendships, they went to war.
It was a mad dash to colonize every inhabitable planet. In mere centuries, a race would have colonized hundreds of planets, outpacing their own growth.
For millenniums, civilizations branched out, conquering star systems, owning galaxies. There were always small skirmishes here and there but nothing was too dire in the race to own the stars.
But there was a turning point when habitable planets became scarce and civilizations moved into others’ territories. The skirmishes turned into conflicts, and those conflicts into total war.
Thousands of races went to war at once. Alliances where made and broken, entire species were wiped out from existence. There were 142,000 races at the start of the war. All with technology at similar levels, all with the power of the stars. All without Jahum to show them the way.
The war went on for nearly a million years. Hundreds of generations came and went only knowing war. By the time Jahum showed up, there were only twenty thousand races left. The others had been annihilated from the universe.
Twenty races were in the clear lead in the war, ruling supreme.
Jahum came out of nowhere, claiming he made the stars, claiming that there shouldn’t be war but peace.
None believed him until he showed his power, his guidance, his might. Most of them listened and began negotiations for peace, but the fighting never stopped until treaties were signed at a place called the Citadel. A place of peace and a creed of friendship was forged between the races.
Raisa’s father saw it built with his own eyes. Jahum simply made it from nothing. It was the greatest thing her father had ever seen.
But it was too late. Out of the twenty major races that raced to rule the galaxies, only eleven were left.
All that was left were the eleven and the races under them. It was a requirement for the smaller races to partner with the bigger ones and the right ones or face extinction.
Of the eleven, only six agreed to stop fighting, to come in agreement with each other. Jahum pleaded and asked the naysayers to stop the fighting, to help bring peace to the universe.
But they denied him. The five banded together and launched an attack on the Citadel, but with a wave of his hand, they disappeared from the universe. Nobody knew how Jahum did something as god-like as that. But it struck fear into the ones who agreed to join in his council and made all of them worship him as a god.
With his help they created the Sovereign Empire of the six, with Jahum to rule them as the supreme leader. The races bowed down to Jahum as if he was a god. As he created the stars, the very thing that gave them life, he could see into the many paths of the future. He was the creator and stopped an unstoppable war.
Raisa’s father remembered the day he lost the planet he was born on in the war. He was young and heard sirens from his room. When he ran outside, the skies and the black were lit like fire as streams of light lasered through the air, power against power, as the ascended fought in the space above. Thousands of lights radiated in the sky in death.
And then Raisa’s father remembered when they finally finalized the treaty and they bowed down to Jahum. He was named the first council member for the Jour race, the leader of his people. Jahum floated in front of him, in his blue glowing radiance, as a god, as the bringer of life.
All the other races were headed by one of the six races in the council. To be protected. They always had a say in the Citadel, but the council’s words were final.
Whenever a new race would develop enough in technology, they would get stationed to one of the six that they were closest to, for resources and protection.
But that could be a curse. When one of the six broke the one rule that couldn’t be broken: creating life. Jahum personally wiped out the race and all that were under them. Even when they had no hand in their overseer’s tinkering.
As the council grew, Jahum split himself into hundreds to help oversee the universe. He named his copies the Astrons. It limited his power, but they were all connected. If something happened to one, the others would know immediately.
Raisa’s father always wanted peace. He always told her about how the Council began. How Jahum was the one to save them all. But it was all a lie. Jahum was the reason that black holes were tearing through the universe at a increasing pace, why time would eventually end sooner than it should, that the power of the stars was the reason for them. He kept it all from them and now he would have to pay.
…
Raisa blinked the sleep away from her eyes. Out of the window was a small white speck against an infinite black.
“Where are we headed?” Anu appeared next to her, staring out of the same window. Raisa headed for the front and leaned forward against the pilot’s chair.
“We’re going to a place where Jahum would never find us. The center of the universe.”
Anu stepped back. “What? Nothing can exist there!”
“Maybe nothing doesn’t, but we moved a planet and a star here. It was easy, with how notorious this area is, nobody keeps an eye on it since Jahum left. It took a multitude of archangels.”
As they closed in, the light turned into a star with an aqua-colored planet orbiting it. It was where Anu and Jaylen trained to become an eyeless.
Raisa said, “It’s been awhile since I’ve been here, I hope everything is running well.”
The pilot spoke, “Better than the day you left. I’m stationed here when I’m not flying you around.”
“Good.”
A metallic object covered half of the star, hovering over it, trapping part of the sun’s light, while giving the rest of it to the planet.
Hundreds of small ships came and went from the object, coming with small rectangular containers and leaving with the same containers glowing as bright as the sun.
“What is that?” Anu asked as they passed the sun.
“A Dyson sphere, a source of near limitless energy. It hides our presence. With Jahum’s power, it was not necessary, but as separatist we’re trying to rid of everything Jahum. The stars are his, but its energy is not, we can harvest it in our own manner.”
Only a few moments later, they broke through the atmosphere and landed at the island base. It was small and modest but what was on the surface was just a meager example of what the base actually was.
Raisa and Anu stepped out of the ship. There was a welcome party waiting for Raisa. Raisa turned to Anu. “You’re dismissed until further notice or until my next journey.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Anu left. She deserved some time off.
Of the five to meet Raisa, only one spoke, Doctor Alphons, head of research and developmental technology.
“Congratulations on the successes, Councilwoman Raisa, or is it just Ms. Raisa now?”
“Thank you, Alphons, Ms. Raisa is fine for now until we change our titles from the Citadel’s.”
They walked off the landing bay, all except Alphons trailed behind Raisa. They headed towards a small building with a simple metal door.
“Our long journey is over,” Raisa said.
“Does that mean more money for my lab?” Alphons asked.
Raisa laughed as they made it to the door. Alphons swiped his hand over the door and it opened, genetic recognition. They stepping into the elevator.
“Now I know why you were so eager to meet me, Alphons. Level 5Z.” The elevator recognized her voice and descended smoothly. If it wasn’t
for the counter above the doors, she wouldn’t have known they were moving.
Raisa glanced back at Alphons. He looked down.
“No, I just wanted to congratulate you, I—“
“Don’t worry, you’ll get your funds.”
“Thank you, madam.”
“Now, any updates on your projects?”
“Yes, there is. Project Skysplitter has had some setbacks, but it’s back on track, our ability to extend the life of our creations has increased substantially. But we will need more time to complete it.”
“How long?”
“Three to five years max.”
“If you don’t finish the project within that time, then I’m cutting it. I already don’t like the grounds we’re crossing with it, morally.”
“I will expedite the project.”
The elevator doors opened into a long plain hallway. They walked down it.
“What about your research with Leif?”
“We lost contact with him after his failure to destroy Earth.”
Raisa growled.
“We’re idiots, Leif told us that he would tell Ical of our involvement from the very beginning. Because of him, a powerful ally is gone. Find Leif at once.”
“That’s not my job.”
Raisa grunted. One of the three following her spoke up, “I’ll move that up the priority list, ma’am.”
“Good.”
They approached an unassuming door at the end of the hall.
“Project Icarus better be going well.”
Alphons replied, “It’s going swimmingly.”
Raisa burst through the door and into an extremely large room with four walls, each thousands of feet apart from each other.
Raisa could barely see the other side of the compound.
“Because we moved the stars and planets, just to hide this.”
In the middle of it all was a gargantuan copper-colored hand, it was severed at the wrist. It almost touched the ceiling and the floor at the same time. They were two miles apart.
Its copper-like skin was like a smooth rock. Hundreds of scientists littered the hand. Hovering around it, scaling it, taking notes and doing various experiments.
Chaos in the Starless Nights (In A Universe Without Stars book 1.5) Page 9