Seeker's Light

by N. I. Snow

  It was also disheartening for her to know that it was not by his own will that he had been such a cruel and feared Elder, that at one point in his tortured lifetime he had been nearly as benevolent as Lutianist. Emma knew she shouldn't pity the deceased Elder much. Had it not been for Zaharak the crazed creature would have crushed her life from her own body. Yet…

  Emma looked past Zaharak. She doubted the silence had any effect on the stone-hearted Seeker. For him, this wasn't some funeral procession. No, instead he was merely discarding unwanted trash from his ship. She was sure that despite his inner turmoils, Zaharak was still the same murderous Seeker, unaffected by any form of death.

  The pair walked over to the thin plasma barrier that protected the hangar from the vacuum of space. They stopped near it and Emma watched as Zaharak readied himself to throw Soforin's body through the barrier. However, before he made the move, he paused and his golden eyes settled for a moment on a dark area of the hangar behind the girl. Then gently he laid Soforin's body flat against ground, bent down, and lifted the bone-white tail. Placing the limp limb across the Elder's chest, Zaharak stood up once more and backed away to where he had once stood above the Elder's broken head, his golden eyes returning once more to the area behind Emma.

  Emma jumped as a cloaked figure walked past her, paying her no heed. The figure stopped next to Soforin's body. A pair of auburn-scaled hands pulled back the hood of the cloak to reveal the gaunt emotionless snout of the Elder Shadonel. The female Tazalian's cold, gray eyes peered down at Soforin's still form. Emma almost expected to see some form of grief to appear on her features. She showed none, not even a solemn nod.

  “So, he has finally been released from his prison, has he?” Shadonel spoke softly in her barren voice. “Finally he can rest in silence forever. I wonder if you understand fully the gift you have given him. After all, you are changing, are you not?”

  Shadonel turned her cold gaze on Zaharak. She stared for sometime as if reading his soul, when she did speak again her voice was still its usual expressionless tone, “Yes, subtle as it is, I can see it, despite the fact that you are trying to hide it.”

  Zaharak made no attempt at an arrogant response to try to prove her wrong; instead he remained silent, his own cold eyes watching her. It was Emma who spoke timidly to the emotionless Elder, “How did you know we would travel here? You must have known somehow; how else could you have been here before us.”

  Shadonel turned around to face Emma, her blank, gray eyes surveying the girl. “Quite the impolite child, are you not? But I shall feed your curiosity.” She motioned with one hand towards Zaharak. “It was his father, my mate, who told me not only of your destination but also of the changes our son would be going through.”

  Emma gaped at the Elder even as Shadonel turned her back to the girl to face the Seeker still standing at Soforin's head. It made sense that Shadonel would be Zaharak's mother, but Emma was unable to believe that the kind-hearted Lutianist would ever have been in love with such an emotionless monster as Shadonel.

  As if she had heard Emma's thoughts, Shadonel spoke while staring Zaharak, “I could never feel the emotions others could, happiness, anger, grief, but with your father I could. Not with my own features, but with his. In his smile I could see mine as well, with his tears fell my own. He could share and feel my emotions that I could not. Now that he is gone there is nothing left for me. I never cared for Salianos's promises of a Tazalian-ruled galaxy. I never cared to find the Gaia.”

  “Then why come here?” Emma asked quietly.

  This time Shadonel did not turn to look at the girl, instead she kept her gaze on Zaharak. “Soforin was not the only creature who needed to be freed from its prison.” The auburn Elder unfastened her cloak and let it fall from her shoulders, her eyes still holding to Zaharak's. “Let's see just how much you have changed for this girl, Seeker. Will you stop me from handing her over to Salianos?”

  Zaharak moved first, his body becoming a gray blur once more. Shadonel was ready for him. The emotionless Tazalian Elder brought her open, clawed hands up and thrust her entire body towards the Seeker. When her hands connected with his forward-propelled chest, the Seeker was sent flying backwards. To catch himself, Zaharak turned in a full flip and his booted feet skidded to a stop dangerously close to the plasma barrier. Righting himself, the gray-scaled Tazalian turned his emotionless, golden gaze back on the auburn Elder.

  Shadonel crossed her arms along her red-and-white robed chest, “The greatest Seeker ever born, feared by Salianos himself. That is you correct? Then prove it, child.”

  Zaharak studied Shadonel carefully, seeing if she would make the next move. She wouldn't. Shadonel was one to stay in a defensive mode to give herself the opportunity to read her opponents’ movements. It gave her many advantages; however, Zaharak knew how to use it against her.

  The Seeker sprang forward once more, and Shadonel readied herself. At the last minute before Shadonel could intercept Zaharak's attack, the gray-scaled Tazalian shifted his body. Instead of attacking her directly Zaharak sidestepped her waiting claws and whipped his tail across her head. The Seeker then rounded on one foot to turn back towards the Elder before she could recover from the blow. Lowering his shoulders, Zaharak charged towards Shadonel's from the side and using the weight of his own body, he pushed against Shadonel's with his right shoulder. The pair fell to the ground with the auburn Tazalian quickly turning against Zaharak. Using an arm, she pushed the Seeker from her and rolled away from him.

  Standing quickly, Shadonel’s empty gray eyes watched Zaharak with more caution as he, too, stood. “Well done, but this is not over yet.” From the folds of her robe, the Elder pulled out a long-bladed knife. “Let us see how well you can fight with that hat of yours.”

  Zaharak removed his hat and smoothed his silver hair with his free hand, then smashed the hat between both hands and the sound of whirling gears filled the hangar. When silence fell, Zaharak held up the deadly throwing disk for Shadonel to see. The Elder nodded her approval.

  From the sidelines, Emma watched anxiously as mother and son lunged at each other with their deadly blades. Her heart nearly stopped when she heard a sharp metallic screech of the throwing disk hooking Shadonel's knife, its sharp edge only a hair away from where Zaharak's clawed fingers clasped the disk’s handle.

  As Emma held her breath, Zaharak twisted the disk, tearing the knife from Shadonel's hand. The blade flew through the air and landed with a clatter on the ground not far from the combatants. Shadonel ducked underneath Zaharak's disk and threw her body into a roll for her knife. When her body came to a stop near her blade, she reached out and snatched it up. She quickly turned to fend off a swing from Zaharak's weapon. Zaharak kept control of his blade by allowing his disk to flow with her block, giving him an opening. In a lightning fast motion Zaharak sent a fist for the Elder's snout. When the Seeker's fist connected, Shadonel stumbled back, blue blood running from her nostrils. In another lightning motion Zaharak brought the blade of his disk across his opponent’s robed chest. Shadonel glanced down at the blood that flowed like a river from a gaping wound.

  “As is expected. You have what it takes to kill me, but this is where our battle ends,” Shadonel let the long-bladed dagger fall to the floor. “My death is not one you need on your claws. To kill me would be taking a step back from the change that has become you.”

  Shadonel walked slowly over to Zaharak, who stopped his attack at the moment of Shadonel’s surrender. Mother stood nearly snout to snout with son, her cold, emotionless, gray eyes staring into his own golden orbs. Reaching up with a shaking, auburn-scaled hand, she placed it against his thin snout. “I denied you a life that may have…no…would have indeed been better than the one I forced upon you before you could even understand what was going on around you. Now you have a chance to become something different and I will not, cannot, stop you. You have always been different from the other Seekers.”

  Shadonel stepped back from Zaharak and turne
d. The loss of blood slowed her steps as she walked over to Soforin's body. Bending down, then kneeling, she weakly rolled the dead Elder's body to the plasma barrier. With a heavy push, she sent Soforin's body through the barrier and watched as it was pulled by the centrifugal force of a nearby gas cloud until the two met in a luminous explosion.

  Shadonel got awkwardly to her feet, her back still to Zaharak and Emma. “Now it is time for the last caged bird to go free.” Turning to face the pair, her eyes roved from the awestruck face of Emma, who looked ready to say something but found no words could pass her lips, to the blank-faced Zaharak, who despite effort was unable to hide the tiny differences within him, differences that Shadonel could see but could as yet not name.

  “The brotherhood of the Elders is coming to an end. Should you allow it, all that will remain of us will be Salianos. He will not share power with his two loyal lackeys, who hang on his every word as if he were already a god. He will not allow his fellow Elders to be remembered. All that will be is him. Unless,” her gaze pierced deeper into Zaharak's, “you would stop him and take his place. Our people need a leader that has no interest in universal conquest or power. I digress however. Despite your current interest, I doubt you will change enough to care about leading Tazal.”

  Shadonel clutched at her bleeding chest and bent over in pain. Quickly she righted herself, returning her gaze to Zaharak’s. “You know well that the Gaia has the power to give you anything you ask. Do you know what I would have wanted from it should I have found it?” An empty smile crossed her face. “To be able to feel the warmth of a true smile on my snout.”

  With that, she closed her emotionless, gray eyes and threw her arms out wide, and stepping against the barrier behind her, leaned backwards into the vacuum of space. Emma had to close her eyes as the vacuum forced Shadonel's still beating heart to pump out a heavy torrent of blood from her body until the beating organ finally ruptured. The girl could only wonder which killed the Elder first, her wound or lack of oxygen. Either way, the poor human child could not watch the horrific event. She wanted to cry for the auburn Tazalian. She may have feared her at one time; but now knowing her real nature, she felt a deep pity for her.

  She felt Zaharak's heavy hands fall on her shoulders and heard his husky voice speak calmly to her. It was the first time since their encounter with Shadonel that she heard him talk. “You can open your eyes now.”

  Emma did and looked cautiously at the plasma barrier. There was no sight of Shadonel's body anywhere, nor any blood, though she knew that the Tazalian's blood would have evaporated quickly. Behind her Zaharak spoke once more, “She collided with a gas cloud.”

  Emma bit her lip, fighting back tears that tried to form in her eyes, “I never expected any of that from her. I always thought that she was as black hearted as Salianos.”

  Zaharak released his hold on Emma. He turned away from the plasma barriers and stared emptily towards the far end of the hangar. His husky voice was hushed, “So did I.”

  A week passed leaving two Elders' deaths to weigh heavily in Emma's mind. The young girl sat watching radiant streaks of light pass the viewport of the station's bridge. Within each blue or lilac center shot a dangerous meteor that threatened to collide with the station. However, as each stone came near, the metallic panels that covered the structure would emit sonic pulses that would divert the deadly rock away from the station.

  Emma shared the room and the viewport with the group of empty eye sockets that stared unseeing at the same amazing sight. One could only wonder how much the galaxy's center had shifted and changed since the Ancients had passed away. On Emma’s other side still sat the skeletal remains of Alekia. She looked up to his grinning skull, wondering what secrets still lay hidden within his lifeless bones.

  Then she turned back to the wondrous clouds that filled the viewport. Her thoughts drifted to the days that waited ahead of her. Each passing moment only brought more fear and worry. After nearly being killed by Soforin, Emma was afraid that even with Zaharak’s aid, any attempt to fend off Salianos and his followers would only give the High Elder a better opportunity to capture her—especially when Zaharak would be busy defending her. Salianos or one of the other Elders would be bound to have a chance to catch her. Soforin had made it clear just how easy it would be for either the Elders or the Seekers to grab her before she could reach the Valkyrie. Emma was also worried about Jonah. She would rather be captured than have her brother killed.

  Emma rubbed a hand on her neck and winced as she ran it along the bruises left by Soforin's claws. She let out a sigh. She had hoped the Seeker would have treated and healed the bruises; but after Shadonel's death, he had vanished somewhere within the station and for the past week she had not seen him. Not even the Valkyrie's A.I. knew where he had gone.

  Additionally, it was still difficult for Emma to believe that Zaharak was different from when they first met. His absence reinforced her feeling that for him to be actually concerned for her safety was impossible. He had spent his entire long life banishing from his very soul any thoughts or feelings for others. Despite Shadonel’s observations it was hard to see why he should change now. What would cause him to will himself to learn how to feel? If it was happening, how long would it last? How genuine was it?

  Emma thought of Shadonel's final words. The emotionless Elder wanted to feel emotions, so much so that she would have asked the Gaia for a chance to experience them. Her son on the other hand once had the ability, but his training refused him the luxury. Perhaps the Gaia was granting Shadonel's wish through Zaharak, opening his soul to allow the emotions he has been trying to stifle. If this was happening, Emma couldn’t imagine what the end result would be for the Seeker.

  “Enjoying yourself?” A guttural voice sounded behind the girl.

  Emma jumped and tilted her head back to see Zaharak looking down at her, his golden eyes as cold and impassive as ever in their gray sockets. Emma paused as she searched his grim features, trying to see what change Shadonel had seen in the gray abyss of Zaharak's scales. “I was just thinking.”

  A flash of deadly fangs shown briefly as he asked, “About what?”

  Emma watched the Seeker with an odd look as he sat down beside her, his long tail folded over his crossed legs. She spoke softly, “Well, a lot of things really. Mostly I'm worried about when Salianos will arrive.”

  “Had we not had your brother to concern ourselves with we would not have told Salianos where we were going.” Zaharak spoke without inflection.

  “I'm not leaving my brother to those monsters.” Emma spat angrily at Zaharak. “He has always been there for me when I needed him and now he needs me.” Emma turned her head away from the Seeker, “Not that you would understand.”

  “No, I don't.” Zaharak's husky voice rolled out with an odd bemusement that caught Emma off guard. “Since the day I was hatched, I had to follow the training every Seeker before me went through. We had to learn quickly to care for our own scales.”

  “Which is why I have to wonder why you are going through so much trouble to help my brother and me out. Why should you care what happens to us? After all it was your fault that we are in this mess.”

  No reply came from Zaharak, not that Emma expected one. She didn't even know why she had bothered asking the question. She hated the Seeker that was certain. No matter how much he was changing, nothing was going to make her feel any different about him. Even if he were to open up his soul and bare his heart to her, she would not forgive him for what he had done. She knew that Zaharak knew this as well. He may have been changing, but that didn't make him naive. There was also the fact that he could very well sell her and Jonah off to the highest bidder after their ordeal with Salianos. Despite his teaching her how to defend herself against his fellow Seekers, Emma knew there was much to learn and not enough time to do so. She doubted she would know enough to avoid capture by Salianos’s group, especially if Zaharak decided again to sell her off.

  “I don't expect you to fo
rgive me.” Zaharak spoke suddenly making Emma's head jolt towards him. “I don't expect you to trust me. However, if we are to work together against Salianos, we do need some understanding between us. Since I already know where you stand in all this it is only fair that you know why I have decided to help you.”

  Emma raised a brow. “This should be interesting. You have my full attention.”

  Zaharak noted the sarcasm in her words; however, he ignored it and began his tale with his usual detached tone. “After I deposited you with Lutianist, I had expected for my work to return to its usual state, but that song of yours made it difficult…”

  The Seeker noted that Emma's interest had become genuine at this statement. Her gray eyes glittered with curiosity as he continued, “Every thought was filled with confusion. I knew I had heard the song from somewhere, and yet I could not place where. I couldn't train, couldn't think, couldn't sleep without hearing it drift through my mind. For some reason, I needed to know where it had come from, where I had heard it.”

  “Then it came to me. The day Tarline tore my heart from my body was when I had heard your song. As my spirit drifted into the galaxy I could hear it being sung in such a soothing voice. I never wanted to leave the realm of death; even when I was forced back to the living, I wanted to stay there. And, with my return, the song was forgotten to me. That is, until I heard it again from you.”

  Zaharak looked over at Emma as she interrupted him, a bewildered look on her young features. “It can't be the same song. I've known it my whole life, and I know for a fact that I haven't had any near death experiences.”