Bryx quickly realized that the drift he stood upon was more massive than he could have imagined. It spanned not only the entire way down the same distance he had climbed but also kept a near forty-five degree angle the whole way. As large as it was, he was certain it wouldn’t hold his near thousand pound frame in a slow descent. He decided to use this vantage point to his advantage to survey the scene below before sliding down the drift quickly to avoid being trapped in soft snow.
Scanning the scene with his eyes he tried to get a grip on the interior layout. The darkness below held its secrets close and gave away very little. Even with his hawk-like vision, Bryx could only make out a few shapes in the shadows but not much else. As he was about to give up and slide down, he noticed off to his right - towards the debris of the middle of the ship - came an eerie, dull blue glow. It was barely enough to permeate the darkness, but enough that his sharp eyes and trained mind noticed it didn’t belong there. He had found Aen! Without haste, he plopped down on his hindquarters and slid down the embankment. It didn’t take long for his momentum to bring him to the bottom.
Now amongst the deep shadows of the belly of the ship, Bryx stood still and let his eyes adjust to the light conditions. Being J’Karin meant being adaptable, and within a few moments he was able to see in the murky darkness that now swallowed him as well. Quickly he searched for the same dull glow he had noticed above. Within moments he found his destination; and something else entirely unexpected! The shapes he had noticed before but couldn’t make out were bodies of the Husk; purposely placed and posed.
Those nearest to him seemed like a wall that lined a street; arms outstretched and pointing further down the path. Most were broken and missing parts, limbs, and some even lacked heads; but they were his guides to show him the way to the one he sought. Bryx was wary as he slowly walked the path lined with these grizzly corpses; the thought of walking into a trap weighed heavy on his mind as his eyes scanned back and forth to either side of the path. He would take a cautious step, wait, then take another as this display of the dead bothered him deeply. In all his years, he had never witnessed anything like this!
The path was long. A lot longer than he expected, but led to an open doorway of sorts that was ‘guarded’ by two large, dead Husk with their weapon arms held upwards at ready. As he peered inside, the glow became more prevalent and he could see this morbid display actually became more extensive. Stepping inside the threshold of the cavernous room, he stood on the only pathway he could see. Everywhere else, hundreds, if not thousands, of Husk corpses lay prostrate in perfect formation on the floor, all bowing to their master in the center of the room. Following the lines, his eyes were drawn to the point of all this dramatic imagery. In the center of the room and sitting upon a makeshift throne of ice was Aen. Bryx approached slowly, knowing full well the potential threat that sat before him and the fact that Aen was more powerful than any other creature he had faced before. But the makeshift king didn’t move, nor did he acknowledge the fact that Bryx was even there. He just stared straight ahead in an unblinking and unflinching glare. After a slow and cautious walk, Bryx now stood directly in front of Aen and slowly reached out to wave his hand before the statuesque creature to see if he was alive. As expected, Aen didn’t move. Bryx sighed, the first sound he had made since sliding down the bank, as he began to think he had come here only to retrieve a body.
“Why is it they all bow to me, but you do not?” the whisper was so faint Bryx had thought he imagined it. “Why is it you come from so far away but yet do not seem happy for what you have found?”
“I have come for you, and thought you had perished whence I saw you.” Bryx replied to the still unmoved figure. He leaned in to see if it was truly him that had spoken, but yet could not tell if Aen still lived.
A warmth began to radiate from the creature upon the throne and Bryx instinctively drew back. As the heat built up, Bryx could see why Aen had not moved as water began to drip from the shell of ice that encased him. It had been thick, but crystal clear so it was easy to miss if not looking for it, but Aen had been truly buried in this tomb as he now broke free to live once more. Cracks began to echo around the room as the ice splintered off his form. In a matter of minutes Aen was free. He turned his head and looked directly at his visitor.
“Why do you come for me?” he asked. “And what is it you want?”
“The Queen of Heaven has sent me to find you and bring you back to the land of the living.” Bryx replied, stepping forward. “She has deemed that you not fall into the wrong hands and wishes to save you from being used for personal gain.”
“And what gains does this ‘Queen of Heaven’ wish to seek by reaching me first?”
Bryx frowned; the creature truly didn’t remember anything. “She has no want for you as a weapon or a crutch to reach a higher power. The Goddess has all she could want or yearn for. She does however, want you to be free and in being so, be free to see your future how you wish it to be without hindrance by others.”
The creature hesitated, saying and doing nothing as he contemplated these words spoken by the giant. He closed his eyes. The result of which immediately dimmed all light in the room and thought long and hard. It was obvious that this thing knew him, and there was so much missing in his memory he knew not what to do. All he knew was that inside him was a great power and he was hesitant to return to civilization to grant others access to this power.
“Trust in my guardian child, I sent the best I had to offer to bring you home.” A whisper spoke in his head. He had heard this woman’s voice before. When he lay in the snow waiting for the end she had told him to get up. On the edge of space, the Empress of Lyarra was reaching out to him. “I shall hide you in plain sight, so when you are able to remember who you are you can freely pursue the woman you love once more.”
“Lyxia.” He mumbled the only name he could remember.
“She too, waits for you Aen.” Bryx’s voice rumbled.
“Where will you take me?” he asked.
“To a place where none shall follow. To a place where the darkness swallows the light whole. There, the Goddess will come and help you find yourself once more and shelter you from the coming storm. There is nothing left for you here; the dead hold no sway on you.” He held out his paw to both greet and help him up.
Again, he hesitated. Although the creature gave off no bad vibes, it was the not knowing thing that held him back. There were a million reasons to turn this massive hulk into a pile of ash at his feet, but only one reason to go with him, Lyxia. Her very name caused his heart to soar. To him, it was the only reason he took the monster’s hand. It was time for him to go to her; it was time that he became whole once more.
ONE
Sagittarius A*,
Lyarran Research Station A7185
The center of the Milky Way galaxy was a hostile place with stars racing around at unfathomable speeds in a choreographed dance around the powerhouse that drove it all. It had many names; the Great Devourer, the God of Death, and Sagittarius A*. But more simply it was the supermassive black hole that sat at the heart of the galaxy. A crushing point where gravity was so intense not even light could escape it; the black hole was the single largest thing in the galaxy. While the beast itself was sheer blackness and not able to be seen in any spectrum of light, the accretion disc that spun around it littered with debris and matter torn apart circled it like water down a drain that stretched for light years. This disc shone bright as it encircled its master, glowing white hot at the point of no return on the precipice of the edge to the black hole itself; the event horizon.
On the very edge of the black hole’s gravitational tug and out of the reach of any real danger of being dragged in, sat the Imperial research station dubbed ‘The Brink’. Established two thousand years ago, it was the pinnacle achievement of the Empire, but yet was manned by none from the Guild, the establishment for religion and science for the Empire. Instead, it was an automated research station run by drones and a
VI. When The Brink was built, it was briefly manned by the Guild but abandoned shortly thereafter. Murmurs and whispers of spirits and bad omens plagued the station. Now it was left to the ghosts and the drones to carry out the important experiments on gravity and observations of the great unknown of the black hole. A most fitting place to hide a creature that was supposed to be no more than a ghost himself now.
Aen stood at the main view port of the observation lounge and marvelled at the majesty of the dark monster looming before him. It was the only place aboard the station that offered him any peace. The war within him pushed and pulled his fractured mind to the point of no return. He felt every part the ghost amongst the darkness, a creature so broken within there was no better place for him to be. Aen knew who he was. Three years of studying files provided to him by Iana gave him the complete picture of the being he once was, but his mind still held tight to the locked away memories. He was no closer to remembering anything than the day the giant came to release him from his icy prison. Only two memories pierced the veil of darkness within him, the beautiful face of the Council of the Dark Light – Lyxia - and the whispering voice of another woman that haunted his very soul. It wasn’t the Empress; her voice would appear in his head from time to time to check in on him. It was another one from his past; one that whispered lovingly to him in moments of quiet and serenity. All told, it was quite the experience to be something less than whole and was probably the sole reason he was hidden away here until he could find himself once again.
Looking out upon the epic power of the Dark God, Aen could see his reflection in the glass. Not much of him looked like the being that saved Terra Sol anymore. Gone was the look of innocence and hurt. Gone was the bright eyed and hopeful savior. Now he was hardened. Two years on the icy moon alone tore the innocence away and made him stronger. Along with the loss of memories, Aen was no longer the being that inspired many to fight on in life. He was a shadow of the man he used to be, a ghost of the prophecy of the Harbinger.
He wore his hair longer now than it was in the files, hanging to mid torso in its dark blue color with lighter blue highlights. Aen let it hang over his face to cover the glowing blue eyes that no longer showed hope and love as they once did, but the haunting glow still shone through regardless. He stood at an impressive six foot seven inches and was a statuesque figure of lean musculature. Not bulky but yet with a look that was carved from stone. Dressed in only a greyish colored under layer of the Ifierin armor, he looked like the literal fallen god. The sad, unwritten ending to the prophetic tale of Aen.
The deck rumbled beneath his feet, breaking him away from his silent desolation as the station’s thrusters ignited to push away from the grasp of the black hole’s ever reaching grasp. Every few hours, the station would pull itself back a little more as even from here the gravity well of the dark monster pulled it ever closer to its hungry maw. Aen could feel these ‘ghosts’ that drove the other sentient beings to abandon this place and paid them little attention. This close to such an immense gravity field, it messed with the brain’s ability to perceive reality in the normal way. The black hole warped time and space to the degree that every so often echoes from the past were heard in the here and now. In a way the station was haunted, but it was the darkness of the great beyond within the black hole itself and not ghosts and demons.
Then there were the whispers, the ones that were similar to what Aen could remember hearing on the frozen surface of the moon he was trapped on. He had used the access to the Imperial Archives given to him to research this matter and found his assumption to be right. The stars themselves were alive and as they were, so was this dark being before him now! On the moon, the host star murmured to him constantly, but here the black hole spoke to him directly and by name. The darkness reached out to him and all others around it!
It whispered things only the darkness would know, secrets and vile deeds done in the name of evil. It whispered for him to end his struggle and to throw himself into its depths to join his power with its own, which Aen laughed off. But most importantly, it whispered about a coming storm that would break upon the shores of the Empire of Light and change it forever. These whispers, Aen paid the most attention to. These whispers told of the fall of the only one to help him, Iana.
Then it occurred to him that the engines had been running for more than just the initial burst needed to free the station from the grasp of the gravity well. For a moment he thought that it may be a supply ship docking to unload, but there was not a scheduled delivery of parts and sensors to arrive for another few months. Aside from the Empress, there was only one other that knew he was here, but as soon as he felt the first footfalls upon the station’s floors he knew it wasn’t Bryx. Instead of the heavy crashes of the ten foot J’Karin, there were three sets of light and careful feet treading cautiously from the docked vessel. Aen knew immediately the Guild had sent their prized assassins - the Forgotten - to investigate the ghostly station. It was only a matter of time until his constant inquiries into the database attracted attention. Three years was a long time to go unnoticed in the very connected reaches of the Empire.
Instinctively, Aen flooded the observation chamber in heat from the star that resided within him, making the temperature a few degrees warmer so that he could detect the shift in temperature when his ‘guests’ joined him. He left his back to the door to further invite the stealthy killers to continue to sneak up on him thinking he was unaware of their presence; he was anything but! The door was always open, so there was no noise to alert him as the three assassins crept through it. But the coolness of their dark armor coming into contact with the warmer air inside the room let him know they had arrived like an infrared scanner. Now, as they slowly moved towards him he knew exactly where they were and it was time to have some fun.
Aen slowly turned to face his adversaries; the glow from the event horizon cast an ominous tone to the room in hues of orange and red. Once realizing they had been made, the three assassins stopped dead in their tracks and waited to see what Aen would do. He was curious, more so than he should be and not realizing the gravity of the situation. The Forgotten were sent to kill him and leave no traces, but he was sure they did not know what they were truly up against so he let them make the first move.
It didn’t take long for them to take the initiative and attack as the three leapt in unison towards him in an attempt to overwhelm him. Again Aen smiled to himself; they had no clue who it was inhabiting the station only that they were to kill him. Any other being would have cowered as the three assassins jumped to strike, but Aen simply waved his hand and changed the gravitational fields in the room and slowed time as well, leaving them hanging helplessly in mid-air. The scene intrigued him, three trained and ruthless killers now hung helplessly at his mercy as he stood a few meters away with a curious look on his face. Behind their masks, he was sure they were more than furious!
With a motion of his hand - opening it from a fist while reaching out to them - two of the Forgotten were reduced to smouldering ashes; burning away so hot and fast there was little time for flames as he reached deep within them to superheat their cells to over 5000 degrees in mere seconds. It was so quick there was no time for his victims to even scream. The middle assassin hung in the air until Aen pushed him with his mind and threw him across the room to strike the wall with a crunch. Aen wasn’t in a hurry, so instead of rushing straight in for the kill he circled like a shark that had injured its prey to see what was next, choosing the wide angle to approach his fallen foe. He could tell his opponent’s arm and shoulder were hurt badly the way it hung lifelessly at its side as it struggled to regain a defensive stance.
“Heretic!” it hissed at him. Aen didn’t reply as he closed in slowly.
“You trespass on holy ground! More will come to cleanse your filth!” it spat. “Those who sent you will be destroyed, the Guild demands it!”
The assassin reached with its left hand behind it and drew a plasma blade, throwing it quickly at Aen. It
struck home in his chest, but did little to stop his advance. Aen grabbed the creature by the neck and lifted it up to eye level, listening to it choke on the blood he was sure was drowning it from broken bones and internal bleeding. Calmly, he let his heart burn the blade to cinders to demonstrate how little the strike affected him.
“Why does the Empress send her killers to hunt me?” Aen demanded.
“She does not guide us on our journeys! The Guild is not hers to command!” it hissed back with great effort.
“Iana is the Guild. She is their Goddess and their sworn leader.” Aen replied with a response designed more to learn more without revealing much of what and who he was.
“Stupid heretic. There is a storm coming and in its wake is change. You know nothing of the world in the shadows and will not live long enough to see them come to light!” the assassin growled hatefully. “Her fate was sealed when she let the Harbinger fall!”
There it was; the answer Aen was looking for! Tossing his crippled prey back against the wall he began to contemplate his next actions. Iana was obviously in danger and knew little or nothing about this coming storm so it was pertinent that he warn her, but first he had to wrap up this loose end. As he moved in for the kill, the assassin struck out with its good arm in a surprise attack. To Aen, it was not a quick strike but a slow lumbering lunge that was easily side stepped. He caught the assassin by the neck as it passed him and whispered in its ear.
Ghosts of Lyarra Page 2