by Yronwode
“That used to been their prayer tower, over there. They went up there and prayed.”
“This is the place of my Dreams of Blood,” K-Rock proclaimed. With a kind of howl, he plungered his battlestaff into the ground.
K-Rock turned to his men, “I call to the dragons, and soon, we will receive dragonsign.”
Rockslab and the other men muttered among themselves, before Rockslab had the courage to ask, “Dragonsign? What in the name of Elfen Magic are you talking about?”
K-Rock scowled at him. “You know, dragonsign. The sign of a Dragon. You’ll know it when you see it.”
Rockslab grunted, “Whatever you say.”
K-Rock closed his eyes, and began his meditation.
Rockslab drew a large dagger from his belt. He drew it with great care, and completely silently, but K-Rock knew. Somehow, he knew. K-Rock said, “You have no need for your weapons with me, Punch Rockslab. I can kill you with a word, or technically, with Mr. Smashy. You don’t want to make Mr. Smashy angry, do you?” Rockslab sheathed his knife. K-Rock continued, “For seventy generations, the Xirong have awaited a living, breathing weapon, a weapon that would enable you to overthrow the Midians and the Starcrossers. Indeed. This weapon, I am. I am K-Rock, I play the hits.” He paused, “Rockslab, do we have Dragonsign?” Rockslab was about to say no, when suddenly shadows filled the sky. He looked toward the west and saw a massive sky-herd dragons wheeling in the slowly waning light, roaring and soaring and beating their wings.
“Do we have Dragonsign?” K-Rock repeated.
“We got Dragonsign the likes of which the Godless Void has never seen,” Rockslab stammered.
K-Rock opened his eyes and beheld the dragons. They had come, exactly as his dream had foretold.
K-Rock stood and ran to the cliff’s edge, past where Hardmeat and the other lieutenants were throwing up in sheer terror.
Dragons were flying toward them. A hundred or more, their black wings beating on the air. Collectively, the beating of their wings was raising a windstorm on the ground. The largest broke from the rest and began flying right down toward the edge of the cliff where K-Rock was standing.
K-Rock grabbed his battlestaff, and raised it. A blinding light issued from the tip, and seemed to catch the dragon’s full-on in the eyes.
“I am K-Rock!” he yelled.
The dragon answered with a spew of flame. The flame curled around him.
“I am K-Rock,” he yelled again and the dragon answered him with more fire, which curled around the shield created by his battlestaff and left him untouched. The beast seemed to give up after this, and flew down below the level of the cliffs.
K-Rock yelled one last time, “I am K-Rock!” and threw himself over the edge.
To the stunned amazement of all on the ground, the dragon soared over the cliff-top a second later with K-Rock clinging to its neck. The beast then beat its mighty wings, lifted off and flew high into the sky.
It returned, flying low in a long curve, straight on toward the ancient Mission.
When it closed on the prayer tower, it fired a blast of burning hot plasma at it, incinerating it to dust.
“I am K-Rock!” he yelled. “Who will doubt my power now. My dragon forces with burn the cities of Midian, lay west to them. Who would not follow me now?” He looked down and realized he had accidentally incinerated his henchmen.
K-Rock turned back to the dragon, “Oh, well, they were a bunch of distrustful death vipers anyway. Hi-Ho, Hazuzu. Tomorrow, we ride for Nimali. And the day after that, Xenthe and Xiyyon will burn.”
He rode his dragon across the sky. High above him, the sky burst again with a lightning-like show of raw energy.
CHAPTER: 14
Yronwode – Xiyyon – Emissarial Complex of the Starcross On Yronwode, one hot dusty day segues into the next, with no variance for season or weather. It was easy to lose track of time. Perhaps that was one of the conditions of punishment.
On the day before his formal installation as Pontifex, Eddie Roebuck again called Trajan Lear into his chambers.
There had been changes in Eddie, changes even Trajan Lear could not overlook. The last time Lear had seen him, Eddie had been agitated to the point of near-panic, he now seemed calm. His robes no longer seemed like costume-party affectations, but now seemed completely appropriate to the man who wore them.
Also, his eyes glowed. This was pretty creepy, as they had never done that previously.
“Hello, Eddie,” Trajan Lear began.
“It’s Grexxx, now, ” Eddie corrected him, his voice had also changed, picking up a weird, echoey effect.
“Grexxx,” Trajan Lear repeated.
Archonex Meek, standing next to the Papal throne corrected, “Technically, he will not become Pontifex until he is installed by the full Parliament of Archonexes.”
“A technicality ,” Eddie/Grexxx intoned. “Pontifex Solace No. 23 has gone beyond the veil, and passed her powers onto me. ”
“That must be why your eyes are glowing,” Trajan observed.
Grexxx/Eddie laughed again, with that creepy-sounding laugh that was unlike anything those who knew him had heard before. “You sound exactly like Captain Sky-Pilot, now. Just as you always wanted to, Congratulations .”
“Flight Captain Driver remains at the Saintist Temple,” Lear reported.
“I know ,” Grexxx/Eddie floated around one of the elegantly carved tables in his chambers, which drew Trajan’s attention to the fact that his feet no long touched the ground.
Trajan squinted. “Are… are you levitating?”
Grexxx/Eddie answered. “I am indeed. Now, that the Holy Power of the Almighty flows through me, my feet may not touch …”
“You’re wearing a hover-skirt,” Trajan exclaimed.
“Za, but Anti-Gravity is a Holy Power of the Almighty .”
“It’s a Holy Power of the City of Technology Advanced Physics Laboratory on Republic.”
“Regardless ,” Grexxx/Eddie explained. “I feel her powers coursing through me, which takes some getting used to. ”
“Ummm,” said Trajan.
“Their crazy religion ,” Eddie exclaimed raising his hands to the sky, as though in triumph. “It’s real. All of it. I know now. Everything in it, is real .”
“Even the part about the Giant Space Asparagus?” Trajan Lear asked.
“Broccoli ,” Grexxx/Eddie corrected. “Giant space broccoli. And za, that happened, too. First Compendium of Ceres Beta, Chapter 22: And in the end came the giant space broccoli. And they absorbed the colonists in their sleep. The men, the women, and the children, all were absorbed by the space broccoli. And those who did not succumb on the first night were hunted by the human husks of the absorbed, which did walk among them, and upon sighting a survivor did raise their and raise a terrible wailing. And thus were all the colonists of Taramayara absorbed by the giant space broccoli. The End. ”
“How could anyone have written that verse if they were all dead?” Trajan asked.
Grexxx/Eddie smiled beatifically, which was just as creepy as hell. “No hand wrote the words of the Fifth Testament, but it came about through a miracle. A miracle about which you have certain knowledge ,” Grexxx/Eddie said. “But you don’t know it yet .”
“I am guessing you no longer wish to leave the planet then,” Trajan asked.
Grexxx/Eddie floated up next to him, and stood face to face. “Neg, this is my world now. I am its protector. ”
Trajan Lear knew of Eddie Roebuck primarily from things Matthew Driver had told him during their captivity in the Chronos universe. Lear had hoped not all of the stories were true, but even if only two-thirds of them were, he could not imagine a world looking to Eddie as their protector.
“I am the Pontifex, I am the human-Allbeing interface, I am prophet, seer, and revelator! And I am the Protector of the World! ” Eddie proclaimed. “I also know why Solace wanted me to touch her balls. ”
“What?” Trajan asked, perfectly naturally.
Grexxx/Eddie confronted him, “You doubt me, I can hear it in your thoughts .”
“Nay,” Trajan replied. “Maybe, a little. I’m really not sure what analysis to apply here.”
“What do you need to analyze?”
Trajan stepped carefully backwards. “For example, when you say Protector, I think, Protector from what? Space Broccoli?”
“Anything which threatens the Starcross Adherents, but that they can not defend themselves again, in accordance with the First Compendium of Aquila Burundi, Chapter 14… ”
“Defend the from what, specifically?” Trajan persisted.
“The Xirong are gathering in the Plain of Salvation, and in the sky, for a major attack.”
“Shouldn’t you alert Midian Security Forces.”
“They would not listen, just as they would not listen to Wise when he warned them two hundred years ago. They think they are safe because they have two spies in the ranks of the Xirong, but their spies are already dead .”
“So, how are you going to defend them?” Trajan Lear challenged.
“I have powers ,” Grexxx/Eddie told him portentously. “Real powers, kick-ass powers. ”
“Like? ” Trajan asked.
Grexxx/Eddie made a gesture with his hand, like he was pushing something aside. Lear felt himself lifted up, tossed across the room and slammed hard against the far wall.
“Like that ,” Grexxx/Eddie told him.
Trajan looked up at Grexxx/Eddie, who was surrounded with a residual field of twinkling energy.
“Did I hurt you, beauty ?” Grexxx/Eddie asked.
“Aye,” Trajan Lear answered, picking himself up.
“Let me heal you, then ,” Grexxx/Eddie offered. He did not seem perturbed in the least that he might have caused injury, he was just offering to repair it.
“I’ll be all right,” Lear assured him. “I concede you have developed extraordinary powers. Do those powers extend to disabling the Containment System so the rest of us can get off this … lovely world.”
Grexxx/Eddie paused. “The answer to your question is hazy, and you must ask again later .”
“That means nay,” Lear said.
Grexxx/Eddie floated toward the large circular window at the far said of his chambers. “Pegasus is here for a reason, Trajan Lear. We are all here for a reason. You are a component of the Divine Plan, as is Pegasus, as is Commander Keeler, and as is Max Jordan .”
“Commander Keeler?” Trajan perked up. “Is he alive? Do you know where he is?”
Grexxx/Eddie paused, then answered. “I think it is better that I not tell you now. ”
“Eddie, if you know anything about the captain…” Trajan Lear began, but then Eddie gestured and a wall of air knocked Lear backward. Lear knew then that Eddie wasn’t going to tell him anything.
Eddie moved toward a round window at the back of his chamber, beyond which, a crowd of worshipers had gathered. “My people are out there, I can feel them. I borrow energy from their beliefs, but I am connected to them. I feel their wants, and their needs. There’s a pregnant woman in the back. She has miscarried before, and her prayer is for the child to be healthy. There’s another woman. Her life has been a mess up until this point. She is thinking of becoming a Devoted One, but she fears she is only doing it to escape the personal chaos she has made around herself. She prays for direction .”
“And do you answer their prayers?” Lear asked.
“As I see it, yes ,” Eddie answered. “But only in the sense that I pass their prayers onto Higher Powers .”
“The Allbeing?” Lear asked.
“My sources say no ,” Roebuck told him. “Above me is a sort of, well, there are powerful beings who are not the Allbeing .”
Abruptly, Eddie changed the subject, “Did you know I have the entire Fifth Testament in my head. ”
“All of it?” Trajan asked, shaking out his shoulder, which seemed to have taken the worst of the force of the fall.
“Every word of it … truth .”
And Grexxx/Eddie began reciting:
“Book of Ariam, first chapter: Here’s how it is: Before the beginning, when the universe was void and without substance, there was nothing but the Darkness and the Allbeing. And the Allbeing said, ‘Let there be light,’ and behold, all that is was formed from a mighty explosion of light and energy… ”
“How long is the Fifth Testament?” Trajan Lear asked.
“414,616 words,” Grexxx/Eddie told him.
Lear sighed, “I’m supposed to be back at the Security Base by 1400 hours.
Maybe you should just skip to the back and tell me how it ends.” Grexxx/Eddie admonished him, “I already told you, it ends with all the colonists on Taramayara being absorbed into the Giant Space Broccoli and being trapped it its vegetable hive consciousness. ”
“Meek, make sure this man gets a copy of the Fifth Testament before he leaves, ” Grexxx/Eddie ordered.
“I will indeed, Most Holy,” Meek bowed… um,… meekly.
“One of the nice ones ,” Grexxx/Eddie specified. “With the full-color illustrations and the sea-kraken-skin covers. ”
“Yes, Most Holy.”
“Do you want to know the meaning of life? ” Grexxx/Eddie asked Trajan Lear.
Trajan Lear paused. “It might come up as a question in the Game of Resistance, so, tell me.”
Grexxx/Eddie snorted, a bit like the Old Eddie would have. Lear found this a bit of a relief. Grexxx/Eddie recited, “Book of Ariam, Chapter 3: ‘And the Allbeing needed a place for souls to reside until they were ready to dwell with him in perfection. And so he took the substance in the waters of the world and grew from it the human race. And he told the souls that they could reside in the bodies of men, where they would be tested by the desires of flesh and spirit …”
“So, in order to achieve spiritual perfection, our souls have to reside in bodies in flesh?” Trajan Lear asked. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“A caterpillar goes into a cocoon and emerges as a butterfly ,” Grexxx/Eddie told him.
Trajan Lear had never much cared for Theology or metaphors, and had come out of the Chronos universe with only a little more tolerance. That tolerance was now exhausted and he finally just asked, “Eddie, why did you send for me?” Grexxx/Eddie for once answered him directly. “A great and terrible storm is coming. You and the others will want to stand against it, but you can not. You need to stand down until the storm passes .”
“What kind of storm?” Lear asked.
“I am sorry ,” Eddie told him. “Centuries of religious custom require that I only issue prophesies Allegorically. But you, and the rest of the guys from Pegasus, just keep your heads down when stuff starts blowing up. Understand? ”
“Right,” Lear answered. He found he was beginning to develop a headache.
Grexxx/Eddie repaired to his throne, and took his seat with an elegant imperiousness none had ever witnessed in him before. “Armageddon rides upon us on dragon’s wings. The dreams of blood are upon us, and what horrid beast, its hour come ‘round at last, slouches toward Xiyyon to be born ,” he babbled.
Cardinal Ordinator Meek showed Trajan Lear out of the palace and saw that he got a nice copy of the Fifth Testament, in sea-kracken skin cover, with illustrations, compliments of the Emissarial Temple Complex Gift Shop. But when he returned to the suite, Eddie/Grexxx was no longer there.
Yronwode – Midian Security Base 1
Domonique Fair was the Warden of Peace, and the Sister of the Warden for Externalities. She was considered a potential candidate for First Minister of the High Council. Parka hated talking to her, but on this issue, he had no choice.
Her soft white face, framed by waves of blond hair that was going white, appeared on the screen in General Parka’s office. General Intrepid and David Alkema were with him. “I can only spare you a few minutes… General,” her condescending tone of voice betrayed her lack of respect for Midian Security.
Parka put his c
ase before her. “After consultation with the Warden for Security and the Warden for Intelligence, we are heightening the security alert levels. The death of the Starcross Pontifex, and the Installation of the New Pontifex will both result in major events involving large numbers of people, potential targets for violent activity.” The Warden looked irritated at the suggestion. Parka pushed on, although he seemed to sense she had made up her mind already. “Additionally, we have been monitoring certain activities among the Xirong. We have unconfirmed reports of recruitment drives in some of the major Phalanges. Sources in Nimali have spoken of large numbers of men coming into the city over the last several days.”
“Many Xirong migrate toward Nimali,” Fair protested. “They just want a chance to work. It’s the fastest growing Xirong city on the planet.”
“If our reports are correct, Migration levels in the last few days are a thousand per cent above normal,” General Intrepid put in. “And it’s not families, it’s men from the ten largest Phalanges coming alone.”
“The Ward of Peace has nothing to do with Security Alerts,” Fair snapped at them. “Why are you informing me?”
“The Ward of Peace this morning authorized a massive relief effort for the Xirong city of Fett-Al-Birt…” Parka began.
Before he went on, Fair jumped in, “The Xirong have suffered a major disaster at the Fett-Al-Birt power station. We are, of course, responding with humanitarian aid.”
“Madame Warden,” said General Parka. “We have intelligence indicating that people began evacuating the city several days before the reactor went critical, and we have a report from a field operative that the Xirong intend to smuggle arms or guerillas into Midian by hijacking one or more of the air ambulances.”
“Don’t be absurd,” Warden Fair admonished him. “No one would use an ambulance on a mercy mission as a weapon. The Xirong are not the barbarians you security types always make them out to be. What’s happening in Fett-Al-Birt is a humanitarian disaster. Would you prefer that we just let them die.” Parka kept his composure. “No one is suggesting that. We consider the timing of the incident suspicious, being coincidental with the arrival of a massive force of Xirong on our northern border.”