The Return of the Watchers (Armageddon Rising Book 1)

by Denny Bennett

  Dorian stood looking over the seven imposing figures and felt a sense of awe at what they had accomplished, in stark contrast to the chaos, violence and mayhem on the Earth. At least that is what he thought until a group of about eight people showed up, gathering around the statue of Tauria. One of the girls from the class Matthias taught, Emerelda, was among them. She knelt down in front of it to lay a wreath and set up an unusual candle. Her outstretched hand caused an ethereal light to float above, flickering in a bluish-green flame. A few of the others set some wreaths of flowers around it as well. She looked over at Dorian who was observing the scene quietly in the distance and snarled at him. “You don't deserve to be here! Get out of here!” she shouted. He turned around to see if anyone was standing nearby. “Who? Me?” he asked, pointing at himself “I'm sorry, have I done something to upset you? I've only been here a few days, maybe you're confusing me with someone else?” he replied sheepishly. A tall male figure, about the same height as Dorian, stepped out of the group and walked over to him. Wearing a long coat with a skin tight shirt, he appeared to be quite muscular, sporting sandy blonde hair neatly cropped in addition to his beard. Several sigils were tattooed on his body that appeared to have a whitish-blue glow to them. Dorian felt hostility emanating from several of the others, in addition to Emma and the one standing in front of him. “What she means is that you might want to think about leaving, junior, before something happens that you're going to regret,” the man said, stepping in closer. “Sure, no problem, don't want any trouble, not sure what this is about, but you all seem quite upset, so I'll be leaving,” he replied, stepping back with his hands up. He quickly flashed his mind through the group to pick up their surface thoughts. Emma and the tall one, whose name was Jaxon, were brother and sister. They were honoring their mother Tauria's passing as today happened to be the tenth anniversary of her death. “My mother just passed away last week, so I know what it's like to lose a parent. I'm sorry for your loss,” Dorian said, hoping it would have some positive effect. Unfortunately, it had quite the opposite. Emma flashed a scowl at him. “You know nothing! Your father is the reason she's gone. Now get the hell out of here!” she shouted. “I'm not going to ask you again. You don't want to find out what I'm capable of,” Jaxson said as he began building up his Shi. Dorian felt the air becoming thin and time was slowing down for him as his senses became enhanced. Without willing it his spirit energy began to climb. Jaxson felt the increase from Dorian and took this as a challenge, shifting into an offensive posture. It was at that moment he foolishly attempted the technique that he learned from Yelnisha. Unfortunately, Jaxon was quite adept at thwarting such attacks and his gamble backfired on him. The scene changed and they were both under water; Jaxson a large shark and Dorian a small baitfish, swimming furiously away from him.

  A moment later he found himself on the ground with his jaw in pain and graffiti covering his face. Lykoi witnessed the attack from above and swooped in on her platform, quickly disembarking with her claws bared, snarling at Jaxon. “What is going on here! Explain yourselves!” she demanded. “I don't have to tell you anything, Whiskers. Leave before you take a cat nap,” Jaxon replied, trying to act tough. “Let's get out of here, this day just got a lot worse. Come on, let's go,” Emma said, tugging at his coat. Several of the others with her shouted curse words at Dorian as they left while Jaxon turned and scowled at the two of them. Dorian got to his feet and brushed himself off, rubbing his jaw that had been punched hard. “Are you injured?” Lykoi asked. “I'm fine. Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, noticing her slight grin. “You have....writing all over your face. You should clean up. Here,” she replied, offering a small moist towel from her pouch. Wiping his face down he sat on one of the benches for a moment to take in the situation. “Can somebody please tell me what is going on? One minute I'm looking at these statues, quietly minding my business, the next I've got the Dorian Haters Club in front of me. And here I was just beginning to like this place,” he said, leaning down to wipe the back of his neck. Lykoi sat next to him and took a deep breath. “You picked the worst day and time to come here, you know. I am surprised your father didn't mention anything to you. Perhaps he still does not accept any responsibility.” “Responsibility for what? Was he involved in her death? At least that's what I picked up from the group. What happened?” She paused for a moment and quietly looked over the seven statues, taking a deep breath. “It was ten years ago on this day your father, Tauria, her husband Narses, and twenty other operatives went to infiltrate an enemy outpost in the land of Switzerland. Your father was responsible for the operation plan, based on the intelligence report he received from Marcus Parreth, a council member here as well as the Director of Intelligence. Marcus analyzed and gathered the data, having sent several operatives there previously, including Silvan Ford who now works security at the research facility. When they followed through with the operation they were ambushed and everyone lost their lives, with the exception of Narses and Urieth.” Dorian quietly listened with a stoic expression. “There were several council meetings afterwards to try and determine what went wrong. When word reached the public here, fingers were pointing all over as to who supplied information to the enemy. It was never discovered if there was a traitor in their midst or not. Marcus, your father, and Narses were all scrutinized closely, but ultimately the public sided with them. “As you can imagine, the families of those who lost their lives have been divided on what happened. Some cast blame on Urieth and Marcus. I am sure you can guess how those children of Tauria feel about it. “She was a good woman and a friend, but I do not feel either one are responsible as I suspect there are traitors among us.

  “In any case, it was a very painful moment in our history here, and we are still are no closer to determining what went wrong. Since that day there have not been any significant operations against the enemy, allowing them to increase their foothold as well as their strength. “Anyway, go home, get cleaned up and meet me on the field in thirty minutes. You spoke with you father regarding your training assignment, correct?” she asked. “Yes, thank you, Lykoi, Hopefully I don't continue to embarrass myself like I have been,” he said, rubbing his sore jaw. Setting up his platform, he programmed the destination to return home and departed. “Thank The Source it ended as it did, as I suspect Jaxon would have been destroyed, and on such a day! Emerelda would have been broken beyond repair,” Lykoi thought to herself as she climbed aboard her platform. Dorian made it home and washed up, all the while thinking about what happened. “Well, that explains why Emma was so rude to me when I went into the class with Matthias. I'll have to talk to him about this. I think it's going to be awkward with the two of us in the same room together now.”

  Elsewhere in a satellite office of The Sanctum of Atonement, a short muscular man wearing an Anidon security uniform was in a control room quietly making adjustments to several pieces of surveillance equipment that monitored the coming and goings of citizens and visitors. Tapping into the live feed, he played a continuous loop of an empty threshold at the outer gates. Having checked the scheduled departures and arrivals to be certain there was no activity for some time, he sped off towards the entrance, avoiding eye contact with everyone. While en route he quickly changed into civilian clothes and put on a head covering to obscure his appearance in an effort to avoid detection. A short moment later he arrived near the gates and disembarked his platform. Several officers were on patrol nearby, which caught his attention. Stopping a distance away, he held a communication device to his head in an attempt to feign a conversation and not draw unnecessary attention to himself. A moment later the gate was clear. Timing was everything, as he could not predict when the unexpected person could be coming or going. Leaving was the easy part, it was the return that would prove difficult. Making the necessary hand gesture along with the required words, he passed through the doorway to the outer gate free of prying eyes. An enormous parking structure stood off to the side of the entrance. It held the modern Earth
vehicles for those who travelled back and forth to carry out their missions. He quickly climbed aboard a nearby motorcycle and started it up, taking an extra can of fuel along with him. Having left the structure he was now in the tunnel. The entrance had disappeared, requiring him to check his arm for the code to the lock. Instead of following the markers to depart, he turned the opposite direction, driving for about thirty minutes until he was far enough away from the entrance to use the device he had procured from the research facility- a tracking locator of dark spirit energies. The path twisted and turned many times and bifurcated several more before the signal began to increase in strength. It was not long thereafter when he approached the caravan of Arita'el and his followers. They had sensed his presence long before they heard his motorcycle and all were standing outside of their vehicles. As he pulled up and stopped in front of the imposing group he turned off his engine and got off of the bike. “Whom do you serve?” Lahash asked with an aggressive tone. All of the occupants looked somewhat haggard as they were tiring of their confinement. “Do not be concerned, Lahash, I know this one. He serves Dantanian. Silvan Ford is it? I trust you are here to have us freed?” Arita'el asked patiently. “Of course. Quickly, we need to leave. Follow me closely and do not fall behind. The lock will only work for me and those I travel with,” he replied, getting back on his motorbike. “Wait, human. What of our task? What of Lystad?” Ehasar asked, looking at the others in the group. “He will be dealt with soon. For now it would be too difficult to make any move against him in Anidon. There are mechanisms already in motion to ensure his capture. Right now you all have been ordered to report to Belial in Frankfurt, Germany. Ah, I almost forgot,” Silvan said, producing a small silver puck from his pocket. “I was instructed to give this to you.” Arita'el took the object. He held it between both hands and twisted it, causing a reddish-orange glowing light to pulse and travel up his arm into his body. He stood for a moment as if in a trance, then fixed his gaze ahead. “Let us be away then,” he said, his eyes flashing with fire.