The Rising Sun: Episode 3

by J Hawk

  The four of them stood there gazing at Mantra in a heavy silence. The elderly master seemed to now awaken a whole new dimension in Ion’s perception … As he now looked at him, Ion suddenly felt the weight of the new world he had entered bear down upon him with a might like no other.

  He had just felt the pain of what the Nyon had endured … the pain that the Xeni had wrought. And as he did, a sudden steely resolve arose within him. He had always known what to do. But now, he knew exactly why it had to be done. They had to fight the Xeni, and prevent the return of their army, because if they didn’t … eight millennia of sheer grief and pain would survive as a blotch in history that was never erased. And eight thousand years’ worth of loss would go down in vain.

  He could feel Vestra and Qyro equally moved and stunned by what they had seen.

  “The key … to the demon army.” said Qyro at last. “That’s what it is.”

  Mantra slipped his hand into his robe and produced the crystal for them to see … And this time, as the three of their eyes fell over it, the same air of dark understanding stretched over them.

  “We now see how important that mission was.” said Vestra, shaking her head. “We were acquiring the most deadly object from the Xeni’s hold. We didn’t dream that the mission you were sending us for was so-”

  “That was because the masters and I decided that keeping you in the dark, at least until you received it and successfully returned, was necessary.” Mantra paused for a breath. “We thought if you knew the enormity of what you were being sent to, the pressure of it might have been detrimental to your focus.”

  Ion gave a moment’s thought over the map of everything that had now formed in his head, and felt a frown sink into his brow. “But what did the rebels have to do with this entire thing? How did they get hold of the crystal?”

  Mantra nodded. “The Xeni had been hiding, sealed off the known world for eight millennia. But however well hidden they stayed, they knew that they were holding an object far more important than even their own lives: the plague crystal was more important than even their survival. For they were merely there to learn the ways of the dark arts, and then pass them on to the forthcoming members who would join. But the crystal was the constant, and the soul of their entire force. They needed to keep it far more well hidden than even their own selves.”

  He stopped for a moment’s pause, and a scowl came over his features. “I could sense it over the ages. I could sense that the crystal was being moved about through the spectrum. And with it, carried the dark taint of the demon army that it hid in the other dimension. I wasn’t attuned enough to find the exact location of the crystal, or of the Xeni. My senses aren’t that attuned, as are all mystics’, even the greatest of them. But I knew for certain that the Xeni were making arrangements to keep their crystal safer than we could imagine. Over the ages, they slowly built ties with rogue organisations. They identified them well, as you have guessed. They ensured that the organisations resided where none of us, the Nyon, could dare enter. They identified organisations that were under the protection of the Naxim’s high territory, and bade them to protect the crystal for them. And so, over the millennia, they passed the protection of the plague crystal down an entire list of such rogue organisations in tight Naxim terrain, and this list ended with the rebels that you just attacked.”

  He slipped the crystal back into his pocket again.

  “Most of this, I found through plain logic and guesswork.” he carried on. “The Xeni were likely to form ties among other rogue organisations, despite being mystics. Firstly, they may not necessarily need to do it legitimately. I’m pretty sure a portion of the criminals they hired to hide the crystal for them were made to do so under blackmail and threats: even criminals are dead afraid of mystics, as we’re well aware. And so, through these eight millennia, the Xeni kept their most treasured artifact in the safest hands possible. For what they did prevented the crystal from being threatened both by the Naxim, and by us.”

  “So over the millennia,” said Ion. “they kept hiring criminals to hide the crystal for them?”

  “But couldn’t you guys know where the crystal was, at any point?” asked Vestra.

  Mantra gave a pained smile. “You can imagine how things were for us over the past eight millennia. We’ve been facing a struggle all through, not only to hide from the Naxim constantly and its raids … but also to find new initiates, to keep our brotherhood going. And that was proving to be really tough under the heated anti mystic climate we’ve faced till now. But yes, even amidst all of it, our priority was finding the crystal. I tried my best, and all I could do was to keep myself attuned to pick up any signs of alert. The crystal leaves its negative radiation where it travels, and I knew I was the only one who could scent the radiation. It wasn’t until very recently … that breakthrough happened.

  “Recently, I had been sensing dark forces rising … chaos stirring. I heightened my efforts, knowing that it indicated the return of the Xeni. And amidst the stirring evil that I sensed, I could find the location of the plague crystal. And it was at the rebel village. But by then, it was too late. The masters had all been enlisted in the Naxim’s hitlist in the raid they conducted a few years back, which we barely escaped from. We knew the crystal’s location … but we were helpless. Going to the planet would have been nothing short of suicide. And so, we waited. We found two initiates in this dangerous stage.” His gaze fixed over Vestra and Qyro. “But at the same time, sending them in for this mission too, would have been suicide. For they had just joined, and were not yet powerful enough for such an undertaking.

  “And so, we decided to wait, let the two of you grow to a powerful stage before we sent you for this deadly mission. But there, too, fate intervened.” He sighed and turned to look past the forests on the right. “Just a day back, I found signals of the gravest type possible … I could feel that something very dark was stirring around us. And when I dawned over the news of the terrorist attack in Tansof, it was evident that the Xeni were behind it. And that was when I knew that this was the time to act. We needed to obtain the crystal from the Xeni’s hold before it was too late … and so, I convinced the council that no matter what the risk, the only option remaining was to be taken. If we couldn’t go to the planet ourselves - and that definitely was ruled out - we needed to take the only measure left to try procuring the crystal. And so we sent the two of you, who were not on the Naxim’s hitlist and could therefore enter the planet without invoking their attacks, for this mission.”

  “Why has it been so hard, finding new initiates?” asked Ion.

 

  “The brotherhood is lucky to have survived this long,” said Vestra. “Incase you didn’t catch that part, when the Naxim exiled the mystics, we, the Nyon, were their foremost targets. We had to keep ourselves as low as possible. And so, we hardly had mystics joining us.”

  “But mystics who were found alive itself were getting hard.” said Mantra. “And even among the few mystics joining our order over the ages, many of them were caught by the Naxim when they made their raids in unknown planets in the outer spectrum.”

  “Raids?” asked Ion.

  “Raids.” Mantra nodded. “The Naxim conducted them specially for us. Because they knew we were the biggest bunch of mystics there was to find. There was one conducted very recently, and the eighty three of us here now were too lucky to have escaped.” He gave a pained sigh. “Many others weren’t. It was a few years back. After we managed to escape, we relocated the temple, like the other hundred times over the eight millennial span that we needed to. And we continued to lie low.”

  “But when the Naxim was founded,” asked Ion, frowning. “Why did they mark us, the Nyon, as an enemy?”

  “Ion, look at it from their eyes.” said Mantra, shaking his head. “The spectrum had just undergone the heaviest span of torture under the rule of a bunch of satanic mystics. A bunch of satanic mystics that we, the Nyon, had created.”

  “But the Nyon
didn’t create them!” Ion argued fiercely.

  “But did they see it like that?” Mantra sighed. “When Redgarn and his empire had fallen, the spectrum had been seized by a fresh wave of fury for what they, the Xeni, had taken from them. They had robbed them of the golden age, and had left the entire world in shambles. The newly freed peoples of the spectrum wanted to protect themselves from it happening again. But what’s more, they wanted revenge. And both of these motives added up to sum one conclusion: the Nyon and the existence of mystics had led to Redgarn and the Xeni. And the devastation they had wrought through their mystic powers came through our teachings. They saw the carnage that Redgarn’s empire wreaked as a side effect of our mystical teachings. They did not understand that Redgarn had simply misused what we had given him as knowledge.”

  As Ion opened his mouth to argue again, Mantra held up his hand, shaking his head with the same mild smile. “No, Ion. the fault was ours. you’re forgetting that if Tesmor had had the courage to look past his arrogance and his blinded affection for his student … If he had just done the right thing by delivering justice and imprisoning Redgarn and the eight others that day for their crimes, nothing of this grievous fate would have happened. And as a result, the Nyon is partially responsible. We carved this of our own hands … as all men do for their fates.”

  Silence landed between them again, as Ion chewed what the three of them had just been taken through. Then, as something slowly dawned on him, he looked at Mantra and asked, “So the watchmen, the Grael conch … what happened to them after the war?”

  “After the war, we kept the conch.”

  “What for?” asked Ion.

  “Yes,” replied Mantra. “The Grael conch contains the power of the watchmen within it. A power that cannot be destroyed. After the war, the watchmen were returned to the conch, where they slumbered.”

  “Slumbered?” asked Qyro, slanting his eyebrow. “You mean … the watchmen’re not gone?”

  Ion shared the same confusion that his tone carried.

  Mantra gave a strangely hollow smile. “The watchmen were spirits of Elderon. The conch carried the glow of his life force itself. The force of harmony. And when unleashed, that power would form them and give them mortal forms in this world, to fight for the cause of harmony. The watchmen were indeed mortal in their make, and they were normal beings. But their core was not: when their mortal shell falls, they return to occupy the conch. And there, they wait until the time arises once more for the battle between Elderon and Mezmeron. And here is the most tragic part of the entire story.”

  The three of them glanced at each other.

  “What do you mean?” asked Vestra.

  “But the battle between Elderon and Mezmeron’s arisen now!” pressed Qyro. “Where are they?”

  “They don’t just jump into existence, Qyro.” said Mantra. “After falling once, they rest in the conch for a thousand years. After that span of time, if the Nyon needed them, we were to sound the conch, in order have them re summoned.”

  “A thousand years?” asked Vestra, sounding incredulous. “But well over that’s passed! Eight thousand years have passed!”

  Qyro nodded. “I’m pretty sure they would have had more than enough rest by now. If the conch is held safely with the Nyon, why haven’t we sounded it and summoned-”

  “As I said,” Mantra cut across them, the pained look in his eyes deepening. “Here is the most tragic part of the entire story.” He heaved a quiet sigh. “You see, the Grael conch was meant to be preserved. By us, by the Nyon, so that when the time came for good to resist the uprising of evil again, the conch could be sounded, and the army of watchmen could be released. We were meant to protect and keep it safe with us. It was our foremost and most sacred duty, one entrusted by Elderon again. But alas … it was a duty we failed in.”

  “Failed in?” gasped Vestra, looking close to aghast.

  “You mean the conch is … gone?” asked Qyro silently.

  “But how?” asked Ion.

  “The Nyon had been greatly weakened after the Naxim’s stand against mystics. And in the pitiful state that we were pitted in at the time, we were piled with more worries than we were meant to be.” Mantra’s eyes drifted out of focus, gazing into the distance. “Though the war was won, and the world was free, we, the Nyon, had just entered a gravely chaotic phase for ourselves. We were faced with threats from all sides, and amidst it, trying to keep the brotherhood alive. Amidst all the woes, the Grael conch was given a feebler protection than it was meant to. It was our greatest fault yet.” His voice grew heavy. “My greatest fault yet.”

  He continued to gaze into the distance in a heavy silence. Vestra took a step forward and patted the elderly man consolingly.

  “It would be wrong for you to claim full responsibility for it, master.” she consoled him softly. “It isn’t your fault.”

  Mantra’s white eyes focussed on her, and he nodded. “Thank you, Vestra.” He walked a few steps forward, continuing to look past the forests beyond. “I thought I was doing the best there was needed to keep the conch safe. I installed a system that I believed was failproof in guarding our most precious asset. I entrusted the conch to a line of Nyon called as the conch keepers. It was a line of secret members, and they were never to reveal their identities, for I believed that, though we were safer from infiltration from the Xeni than before, this knowledge was far too sacred to merely fling about. Even among the Nyon themselves. And yes, I did believe that we were not completely free from infiltration, though it looked such. I knew I had to keep myself vigilant for the return of our most dreaded enemy.” He paused, and then turned to face the three of them. “The line spawned from master to student. A master would, after keeping the conch safe through his days, hand it down to his student. And so it went on … until, I believe, one of them was caught and executed by the Naxim.”

  Vestra gave a sharp gasp, while Qyro shook his head heavily.

  “And I think,” went on Mantra, seeming to push every word out of him. “The conch … was destroyed at that instance by the Naxim, who failed to know what it was, or even bother to find out. We were sure of that. But if it wasn’t destroyed, the conch was never to be heard of again.”

  The three of them stood there, feeling the weight of his words press upon them silently.

  “We failed in our duty.” said Mantra in the same tone. “Our most sacred one. And the price for that weighs upon us now. We failed to protect the weapon of Elderon himself. And that is the reason today, Elderon has fallen. And Mezmeron rises.”

  A short silence pervaded, whereupon the sorrow of everything they had had just heard seemed to survive as a lingering echo.

  “But in order to release Mezmeron’s forces,” said Ion. “they have to bring the anarchy in this realm to its peak, right?”

  “Yes, anarchy is the force of Mezmeron.” Mantra nodded. “The demon army, being creations of Mezmeron, need anarchy to feed them and to allow them to thrive. And so, in order to use the crystal to release Mezmeron’s wretched army, the Xeni first need to make this world a trove of anarchy, Mezmeron’s blood. Only then would it be conducive for the release of the demons.”

  “So that’s what they’re upto now.” Qyro said.

  “What?” asked Mantra, turning to look at him.

  “You said they were behind two terrorist attacks just earlier on. So that was the point of the attacks, right? Raising the anarchy?”

  Mantra’s gaze carried away from Qyro, into the distance of the dark forest extending beyond them. He was silent for a few seconds, thinking.

  “I think the anarchy that they created from the two attacks,” he said finally in a slow tone. “was just a side effect…”

  “What do you mean?” asked Vestra.

  Mantra was frowning, his gaze ponderous. “I think they were doing it with the intention of accomplishing something. But what that something is, I can’t tell for sure.” His voice faded, but he continued to frown, clearly still
robed deep in thought.

  “You mean they had an intention behind the two attacks?” asked Vestra, her head tilted. “But … what could it be?”

  Mantra didn’t answer, and continued to gaze past the distance in silence.

  “So all we do now,” said Ion. “is just keep the crystal safe here, away from them?”

  Mantra turned to him, and a faint smile flickered on his lips. “It’s all we can do … and, though I realise this may sound harsh in the current climate, it’s all that we should do. If we go outside and risk trying to find them, or stop them, we’re risking the most powerful force that’s left that can stop them - us. Because the more we risk our necks, the stronger we’re letting our enemies get. We have to keep ourselves together and strong now. Because the Xeni are a real threat. But the only thing that can challenge this threat is us, the Nyon. If we make a falsely reasoned move, one reckless decision, and lose our already lessened members, then we’re wasting the only resource that’s left to protect the world at this hour. And we can’t do that.”

  He paused for a moment, and the look on his face eased. “And what’s more, without the crystal, there’s nothing left for them. Whatever they’re after, their ultimate goal is definitely getting the crystal and releasing the demon army. So in that sense, what we’re doing is what’s needed at the current climate: we’re keeping the crystal as safe as can be here with us. The Xeni have not the faintest clue of our location. Nor can they. This, the Nyon temple, is the safest place for the crystal as of now.”

  As silence fell again, the three of them were absorbed in their own thoughtful meanderings about everything they had heard and seen. Ion looked past the dense greenery spreading around them. Overhead, he spotted a gaggle of swan like birds sail past the cloudy skies.

  “How was it?” asked Qyro suddenly.

  “What?” asked Mantra.

  “The time of the evil empire.” said Qyro, after a slight pause.

  Something in the depths of Mantra’s eyes darkened. “The worst possible time. The Xeni ruled over the spectrum for three centuries. The three most chaotic centuries in history. But the tyranny of their empire didn’t stop with the realm of man beings … during their rule, the Xeni and their demon army oppressed non man beings above all others. Some of the non man beings’ species have been scarred terribly by their reign.”

  “Like the Ensys.” said Ion, remembering the Redling in the cruiser having told him this.

  Mantra gave a slow nod. “Especially the Ensys. They were the worst of the victims that Redgarn’s empire had destroyed. They were driven far into the outer spectrum, into hiding, and they are hard to come by even this day. They remember the Xeni’s reign and hate them for it upto this day.” He heaved a deep sigh, his voice now softer. “Their empire was broken, and Redgarn and the captured Xeni were left to die in the prison Taurandor. It brought about the end of the single darkest age in our spectrum’s history. And our greatest duty, is to guard it from ever happening again.” He stuffed his hand into his pocket and withdrew the crystal again. “If you had failed to acquire the crystal … there could not have been a greater catastrophe that the one which would have passed.”

  Ion felt a shudder pass him at the tone in which he spoke.

  “Earlier on, you mentioned something called a mystical tablet.” said Vestra. “A powerful instrument in the realm of mystics, which Redgarn and his men used to conjure the demon army, in their days of exile.”

  “Yes.” said Mantra.

  “What is that?” asked Vestra.

  Ion realised that he, too, had never heard of such a thing before. A mystical tablet.

  Mantra thought for a second, before giving the three of them a curt nod.

  “Let me show you.”

  He turned and strode off the way he had come, and the three of them, with a quick glance at each other, followed him.

  __________