Since it had been so long since people had seen one, merchant scholars had hypothesized that the creature had been a symbol for a challenge to overcome, a baptism by fire. Why else would their name translate to ‘will’s challenge?’
Talis’talklen knew otherwise.
Saffa’tauta touched his arm and asked, “Why do you say they used to exist?”
Talis’talklen unsheathed his favorite knife from his belt. It wasn’t a chromatic blade. Instead, it was a curved bone nine inches long. It was yellow with age. Its hilt was iron that had been cast around it. Talis’talklen showed it to his companions before slipping it back into its sheath. “This knife has been passed down in my family for longer than memory. It’s a fang tooth of a J’liongos that my ancestor had killed before leading the clans against the Somen.” Saffa’tauta and Kifen’alusa stared at him with wide eyes as he turned away. That battle against the other intelligent race of Tershore had happened so long ago that his ancestor was simply referred to as the Toatalklenzi. And the Somen who had tried to wipe out the brutish Telmicks had instead been wiped out.
Others had fought the J’liongos since Talis’talklen’s ancestor had. The greatest leaders of their past had always seemed to be chosen by such a battle. , and now a soothsayer claimed that there would soon be another. Great change had always occurred after such a battle. That knowledge made Talis’talklen uneasy.
Chapter 15 – First Steps
Rylynn
Prime World Prima Imperium
Imperial System
Spectral Empire
My father told me everything that had happened to the Spectral Empire after I got stabbed in the back and fell into a coma. Things did not sound good. No word had come from Race, who had been sent to the Zar’daken Empire to stir the nest enough to distract our attackers. An idea that they had gotten from me. I vaguely remembered trying to respond to the voices that had been discussing the mess we were in. I remembered thinking of the Zar’dakens as a horde of ants attacking weaker nests and wondering what that stronger nest would do if its base was attacked. Hopefully soon we would know the answer to that.
“So, what happened to you?” I asked Aunt Sylvie. “You knew something was wrong and you wouldn’t let me stay. When I came back, you and the house were gone.” It seemed to be as painful to hear as it was to ask. Back then, I had known that she hadn’t survived the wreckage of the house. That she was gone. I hadn’t thought there had been a difference between the words ‘gone’ and ‘dead.’ But know I knew there was. She hadn’t survived the wreckage because, I was starting to think, she hadn’t been there.
Aunt Sylvie looked away, into the past. “Before you came to me, I had been in hiding.”
“From your husband.” I remembered from her letter.
She nodded. “For more than thirteen cycles, the Enemy, or Betrayer, hadn’t been able to find me. But I knew that day. I don’t know why,” she said with a brief shake of her head, “I didn’t have a vision of him coming sooner than that day. I didn’t have much time and I couldn’t let him find you.” She came back to the present and met my gaze. “You were too young. If he knew who you were, he would have killed you.”
Which reminded me of what Jack Fairhand had told me. “So, I am this ‘Defender’ person people keep mentioning?” She nodded and I sighed. According to some grand plan, I was supposed to be the one to save the universe from the Betrayer. Great. And here I had been sleeping for the last three cycles. No pressure or anything …
“That was part of the plan, too,” Aunt Sylvie said, as if reading my mind. I had forgotten that she seemed to do that sometimes. Though how I managed to forget, I have no idea. I raised a brow at her and she explained, “Your greatest enemy now thinks you are dead.”
“We have the element of surprise now,” my father said. (It was still odd to think of him that way, but strangely enough, anything else seemed wrong.)
Aunt Sylvie didn’t get much farther because life interrupted. The doctor chose that moment to visit, which was turned out to be a good thing. The old woman was excited in her quiet way to see me awake and sitting up. She checked with her equipment, removed the IVs, and gave me the okay for light exercise. As in, I could now get up and walk around. But carefully. I had been in bed for three cycles and even with the muscle-working devices, my legs and body were probably still weak from doing nothing. But she gave me the okay to walk around. I liked that idea so much that once she left, I got up and took a turn about the room — with my family watching me like a hawk. Mind you, it wasn’t a long walk considering the size of the room. So I took several turns after the first.
I was a little stiff at first, but after a few moments I wasn’t worried about weak muscles. They seemed to be working just fine to me. That might have been because of my healing ability. Could it keep me in the shape I had been in before the long bed rest? That ability had always been both a gift and a curse. Every gift comes at a cost … My body collected energy from around me and used it to heal. With a Spectral, the amount of energy seemed to double. It had been a curse before when there had been no outlet for it. There were a few times there when it had almost burned me out. Which made me wonder — once my body had healed, what had the energy been doing. Obviously part of it went to keeping me fit, but what of the rest?
I knew the knife that Betrayer had used on me had twisted my gift on me so that it would burn me out sooner. It had killed M. Kit beyond repair. Before it could do the same to me, Kylesst had wrenched it back to normal. But the cost of that had been both of us getting lost in a coma for three cycles. Had my friends, Marius in particular, visited? I was about to ask when I got distracted by the image in the mirror. I must have been distracted the first time I had passed it but now it had my full attention.
I am not vain. At least, I like to think I’m not. It was just the refection in the mirror was — well, three cycles had gone by since I last saw my appearance. My black hair had been taken care of, the healthy sheen of the dark locks attested to that. But where it had been barely long enough to touch my shoulders, it now flowed in waves down to the small of my back. I was now three cycles worth of growth taller — and maybe a little bit more developed in some places. On some worlds I would be marriageable at this point, I thought absently. Of course those were the agricultural worlds such as Ha’vanna and Terress. I don’t feel three cycles older, I muttered silently, touching my cheek. Glancing at those slightly more developed parts, I had to acknowledge that I looked older.
MENTALLY SPEAKING, YOU FEEL LIKE NO TIME SHOULD HAVE PASSED? Kylesst asked.
No. Mentally I feel like millennia have gone by. But that is probably your fault, I replied privately. My Spectral chuckled.
Lost in my thoughts, I didn’t hear my father warn me that I was about to get visitors. I may have squawked when I was suddenly swarmed by my friends, who had snuck in while I was checking myself out. The lot of them almost knocked me off my feet when they saw that not only was I awake, but walking. “Rylynn!!!”
“That’s my name, last time I checked,” I said, but I don’t think they heard me in their excitement. I hugged them back and we were just this chaotic jumble of hugging, exclaiming people.
That is, until my father cleared his throat. “Boys, give the poor girl some breathing room. She did just get out of bed.”
“Oh, right. Sorry Rylynn,” Jason said. My three best friends backed up and I finally got the chance to look them over. The passing of time had marked them as well as it did me, though their eyes were much older. Combat did that. Jason was a bit taller, but still shorter than Westley. His features looked exactly like what he was, a youth on the doorstep to adulthood. His tri-colored eyes were bright with excitement. Westley had a bit more muscle to him now, which filled out his t-shirt rather well. Just like my father, all of them were out of uniform. Since joining the Legion Fleet Academy, I had never seen them in anything but some form of LF uniform. Perhaps they were all on leave, though with the war going on, that didn’t make se
nse.
But the most different of them all was Marius. He didn’t look three cycles older. He looked like twenty-two had gone past. His thick, ebony hair was touched with gray and a neatly trimmed goatee framed his mouth. What little baby fat he had softening his features before was gone. His facial structure was angular and striking. It was almost like looking at a stranger, except for his eyes. That green gaze was the same.
I eyed him for a moment longer, cataloguing all the differences. The corner of his lips twitched. He and the others shared a look. I wondered if they had placed bets on how I would react. If so … I smiled at Marius and said, “You’re apparent age still doesn’t match your eyes.” Marius grunted and Westley nudged Jason.
Jason shot him a glare before crossing his arms and confronting me. “That’s it? The guy is much older now and that’s all you have to say?”
I adopted an innocent expression. “It isn’t my fault you lost a bet.” Jason grumbled something and I grinned. “Man, did I miss you guys,” I said, looking them over again. Being in the dark with only Kylesst in more memories than anyone would care for made me drink in the light and their presence like arid ground sucking up a gentle rain. Eventually, I had to start silently telling myself that I had to stop staring. Sadly I couldn’t help myself. They were good looking before, but now … now … I glanced back at my aunt and father. My aunt’s eyes glittered with knowing amusement. I felt my cheeks heat and prayed that no one noticed. Okay, no one other than my aunt.
MALES OF CORPREAL PEOPLES DO TEND TO BE OBLVIOUS, Kylesst assured me — before ruining it. OF COURSE, THAT IS USUALLY WHEN YOU WANT THEM TO NOTICE SOMETHING.
You are no help at all, I silently growled at him. I ignored him after that. The old coot was laughing at me. I turned back to my friends and pelted them with questions. ‘How were they?’ ‘What had they been up too?’ ‘Were they on leave?’ And anything else I could think of to distract them from my reaction to them. Maybe they would forget. It also served to sate my curiosity.
“We no longer serve on the Hail Mary, we were given a new commission. Rylynn, how are you?” Westley asked, before I could slide in another question.
“I’m vertical and can actually do things now. I’ve been filled in on what has been happening between the Empire, the Movement, the Zar’dakens, and the Soul Shadows. I am curious though, what has been done about the last?” I asked the room as a whole.
“What can be done?” Jason asked in reply.
“Many of us have been saved by the Spectrals, but there are many, many more who are on their own,” Westley added. “Only the Spectral Shields somebody came up with have protected a few places.”
My father had explained that the Spectral Shields amplified the effects of the bond throughout a region. The more Shades in an area, the stronger and larger the shield could be. While that kept us from being completely annihilated, at least for now, it didn’t solve the problem of the Soul Shadows. From what I had seen in Kylesst’s memories, the monsters were beyond ravenous. The preferred living energy, but that wasn’t the only energy out there. “But that won’t keep the Soul Shadows from spreading. From consuming everything in their path,” I pointed out.
“No, but what can we possibly do? We have other problems to worry about.”
‘Yeah, the Zar’dakens,” Jason agreed. “With the help of those traitors, they’ve been carving up the Empire.”
I nodded and started to pace. I blamed the three-cycle long bed rest, for I needed to move for the sake of moving. “True, but a plan has already been implemented to give the empire some breathing room. The Soul Shadows are the real problem right now. You can bet that they aren’t just attacking us; the galaxy and beyond is in danger from them.” The universe, really, I added in my head. And considering my interesting relationship with the universe, I found the situation somewhat ironic.
“Jeeze, she isn’t out of bed for an hour and already she’s thinking about how to save the empire,” Jason muttered.
I shot him a look. “You would do what you could, too, if you had been trapped in a coma for three cycles and saw a vision of those monsters escaping. Of being unable to do anything because you’re lost in your own head.”
Jason raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry! Sorry! I didn’t mean anything by it!”
“Betrayer might know how to destroy the Soul Shadows,” Aunt Sylvie said thoughtfully.
“Who?” Jason and Westley asked. Marius paled in such a way that I figured he knew of what Sylvia was talking about.
“The guy who stabbed me in the back on Colony Lenti,” I said, while forcing myself to stop the constant back and forth motion. While the moving had been a good thing, I hadn’t missed my aunt’s slight frown as I wore a slight trench into the hardwood. My friends’ eyes went wide at my explanation but I was more concerned with what my aunt was saying. “Why do you say that?”
She shrugged her slim shoulders. “He was the one who built the prison that trapped the Soul Shadows. It was inescapable, even by dying. I wouldn’t be surprised if he created the monsters in the first place.”
“Where is his base?”
“He has many, I’m sure, but the one that I know the location of is hidden in the clouds of the gas giant Iceron.”
My father shook his head when I turned hopeful eyes on him. My plea for a transport there died as he explained, “That is deep in Shadow Space. Even with a Spectral Shield, there are the enemy ships that may have gotten lucky and been ignored in favor of something else. I suggest we look first in the library here for any reference to the Soul Shadows and how to destroy them.” I didn’t have high hopes for that, but I nodded. I understood that he wanted to keep us all safe for just a little longer. And while I appreciated it, I knew that there was nowhere completely safe. While the bond between a Spectral and a corporeal being were of a divine nature and not liable to failing, technology didn’t have the same track record. The universe used tech of all times to cause problems whenever it fancied.
A chime sounded and the guys’ eyes brightened. “Dinner time! Let’s go,” they said, charging toward the door. Then Westley jerked to a halt and glanced back at Admiral Wingstar. My father was standing up as the young men hesitated. “After you, Sir,” Westley said. And my father grinned. He gestured for them to proceed him. “We are not on a ship and my mother-in-law is against formality.”
Smiling in relief, the guys walked out the door in a hurry. “Come on, Rylynn! You don’t want to miss this,” Jason called over his shoulder.
My brows rose. Aunt Sylvie laughed. “The cooks here are fantastic,” she explained and I understood my friends’ rush. Then Aunt Sylvie winked at me “And I think they’re excited to see your reaction.”
“My reaction?” I parroted. “To what?”
“You’ll see.” She smiled mysteriously.
She moved past me and I glanced up at my father as he took my arm and guided me after the others. “What’s going on?” I asked, and he just shook his head. I would get no answer from him. Kylesst, what are they not telling me?
Kylesst chuckled. YOU WILL SEE SOON ENOUGH.
Seriously?! You too?
I THOUGHT I WAS ALWAYS THIS WAY.
I grumbled. He was back to being cryptic. I turned back to my father and asked what was probably a very silly question, considering the circumstances, but it had been on the back burner for a while now. “If you don’t mind my asking, why did you choose the name ‘Braeden Wingstar?’”
“My middle name is Brae so I just added to it. And ‘Wingstar’ was the name I always used as a boy when I was playing with my brothers.”
“So they would have known who you were,” I mused aloud.
“If they ever saw me or heard about me. Thankfully, they were always much more interested in the affairs of Bresol and not much beyond. I made sure to never be assigned that system to patrol, as both a captain and a Shade,” he answered.
“Will you go back there now? Or when all of this is over?”
A pained look crossed his face and I wished I could take my words back. He mulled over the question for so long I thought maybe he just wouldn’t answer. But he did, just before we arrived at what smelled like the Foréss dining room. “Perhaps when this is over, we can both go.”
“I’d like that,” I said. It sure beat meeting family that I never knew I had alone. He nodded and opened the door for me.
And that was when I finally understood what everyone had been hinting at before.
Chapter 16 – Duty-Bound
Ace, Carden, and Mykio were already sitting at a table. But they stood when they saw me. Ace was the fairer of the three. His pale skin made him almost ghost-like when compared to his companions. His strawberry blond hair and bright blue eyes drew attention. Especially now that his eyes danced with joy and mischief. His attention-getting looks probably had something to do with his charisma. After him, the eye had a choice as to which to let draw it next. Both Carden and Mykio were of darker complexions. Both of them had dark hair. The choice came in whether the eye was drawn to lithe strength and somewhat exotic looks or to quiet confidence. Mykio was the light one with amber eyes and long brown hair tipped in black. Carden was as tall as Mykio, with twice the mass. And that mass was all muscle. Carden was not one you wanted to find yourself on the wrong side of. To be honest, none of them were someone you wanted to be against in a fight, but it was Carden who instilled fear first. He was just that intimidating.
Right now, though, it was obvious that they were not of a mind to start a fight. They just looked relieved and happy to see me. I glanced at Westley, Marius, and Jason. All three of them looked somewhat smug.
Defender of the Empire: Chaos Page 12