“I took this form as a great sacrifice,” said Ozumire. “But it is not relevant to the Truth, nor to the Divine Plan for the galaxy.”
Calvin nodded. “Please continue.”
“Eventually, all the Progenitors died,” said Ozumire. “When that happened, the Polarians—threatened by the Skotadi, perhaps because of our abilities—fought a war against us and ultimately cast us out, ever banishing us to the Nether Space and beyond.”
Calvin assumed Nether Space referred to the even more mysterious space beyond Polarian Forbidden Space. An area of the galaxy that was unexplored, but known to be saturated with quasars, neutron stars and, most importantly, black holes—some of which had planets orbiting them. Whatever lay beyond Nether Space, Calvin truly had no idea.
“We were exiled, banished forever from our homeworld, Novobella, which is the True name for the planet you call the Forbidden Planet.”
“So the Dark Ones—excuse me,” said Calvin, “the Skotadi originated from the Forbidden System alongside the Polarians?”
“Yes,” said Ozumire. “Though the Polarians have since denied it, claiming now to have come from some other world.”
“Polaris,” said Calvin.
“Yes that is the one. But it is a lie, much like their religion. Brought forth by the Master of Lies…but I am getting ahead of myself. After the war, and the expulsion of all surviving Skotadi from Novobella, many years and centuries passed by. The Polarians forgot the ways of the Truth, perhaps as punishment for what they had done to us—their brothers. And so they became quickly seduced with the False Ways. The rites, rituals, and ceremonies given to them by the Master of Lies.”
“Who is the Master of Lies?” asked Calvin.
“Like the One True God, he has no name,” said Ozumire. “Yet he is not without power. Such as a planet must have a night and a day. All truths must have a lie; and a lie a truth. All things that stem from the Truth have their counterpoint in the great Fountain of Lies. The Polarians drink from these fountains, unholy stars that change their color to blue, and, in so doing, transfer all manner of False knowledge into them.”
“But not the Skotadi,” said Calvin.
“Of course not,” said Ozumire. “We have remained loyal to the One True God, just as the Progenitors would have wanted. It is a shame they loved us both; perhaps that was their sin, I do not know, but had the Progenitors destroyed the Polarians in their infancy, while they still could, then there would not be the vitriolic poison of the False Ways, belief in the so-called Essences, ubiquitously spread throughout the entire swath of space claimed by the Polarians. The One True God will not suffer such blasphemers to prosper as the Polarians have done. The time for their fall is nigh, as you shall soon understand.”
Nikolai opened his mouth, as if to speak, but Calvin silenced him with one finger raised to his lips, and a stern expression. Then Nikolai thought better of it.
“Can all Skotadi take the form of another being?” asked Calvin. He remembered that Rez’nac had also referred to them as the Faceless Ones.
“Yes,” said Ozumire. “But most do not do so, as it is a great sacrifice, and causes much pain, and one can never be oneself again afterward.”
“So, correct me if I am wrong,” said Calvin, “But the Truth is that the universe is governed by a creator, the One True God, and, the False Ways are the Polarian’s belief in the Essences?”
“That is one sliver of the Truth, yes,” said Ozumire. “Although any belief that is not True can be counted as part of the False Ways, by definition.”
“If that is but a sliver of the Truth, what more can you teach me?” asked Calvin.
Ozumire eyed him, almost suspiciously. “Ever eager to learn, this one,” he nodded toward Calvin, but spoke as if to the ceiling, not to Nikolai, who was the only other person in the tiny room. “Perhaps too eager,” his tone darkened.
Calvin tried to think of what to say. Then he remembered something Ozumire had said before. “You said there was another drotha who learned the ways of the Truth. How do you know I am not to follow in his same footsteps?”
This gave Ozumire some pause. “Perhaps it is so,” he said. “For the other has recently gone into the oblivion that swallows all things, and the One True God brought you to me…could it be that you are here, now, to replace the first? You are wearing the same clothes he wore when first I met him.”
This other, about whom he speaks, thought Calvin. It has to be Blackmoth.
Calvin said nothing; instead, he allowed Ozumire to reason out the justifications for opening up to Calvin on his own, something he was doing a rather good job at—it seemed. And then, he reached his conclusion. “Very well, I will teach you all I know, and then you may too be a servant of the One True God. Is this what you wish?”
“Of course,” said Calvin.
Ozumire’s eyes grew stern then. “You lie,” he said. “I warned you that I would be able to tell. “I should hold my tongue and say nothing more to you. But, I believe it to be the One True God’s will that you be brought into the fold, whether you think you are ready for it or not.”
“Can’t argue with that,” said Calvin.
“No…” said Ozumire with a cautious pause. “I cannot. To do so would be…forbidden. And yet, I do not trust you, human. You are clever for a drotha. That cunning makes me mistrust you. But, at the same time, perhaps that cunning is a gift endowed upon you by the One True God for purposes that He only sees and I cannot. It is not my place to judge His will.”
Go on then, thought Calvin. Start telling me things I can actually use…
“Another portion of the Truth is the ultimate fate of the galaxy,” said Ozumire, apparently deciding to continue.
“Which is?”
“A cleansing of the entire galaxy, world by world, until only the followers of the One True God remain.”
Calvin had to resist the tremble that trickled down his spine when he heard those words. He imagined billions of people on thousands of worlds, all slaughtered in the name of some invented mythos that probably was less modern than the bronze age. Still, he held his composure. Ever the eager listener.
“It has already begun,” said Ozumire, and Calvin tried not to flinch as he remembered the debris he had seen during his flight into Polarian space. The merciless devastation. It was malice beyond his comprehension. And for no reason he could imagine.
“How did it begin?” asked Calvin. “Surely this cleansing—the purging of world after world—would be difficult. The populations would resist.”
“Indeed,” said Ozumire in apparent agreement. “Entire kingdoms, thrones, and principalities had to be thrown into chaos, else we could never achieve the command the One True God had given us: to fulfill the fate of the galaxy and ensure the destruction of the drotha. But the One True God never provides a command without also providing some means by which we might accomplish that command. In this case, it began when we started making inroads within the Polarian society itself. Many of the young Polarians have proven wiser than their fathers, and they have chosen to join the ways of the One True God.”
That must refer to the schism within the Polarian religion that Rez’nac had spoken about, thought Calvin.
“With their help, we acquired the ships we need, and the passes and command codes, to allow us to circumvent blockades, evade patrols, and smuggle whatever we needed to wherever we needed,” said Ozumire. “As I said, the One True God always provides a way. Even when it is a method one must discover for one’s own self, there is always a way.”
To Calvin’s mind, if you had a problem and did the work to figure out the solution on your own, God shouldn’t get the credit—he was powerful enough to create the universe, but refused to materialize your stolen wallet into your hand…you’re the one who hunted it down, why not thank yourself? Maybe that is why I am agnostic, he wondered. I neither believe in any religion nor am I certain that death is, in fact, the end.
Meanwhile, Ozumire continued speaking.
“To achieve the great commandment that the One True God gave us—to eliminate all the kingdoms and worlds of the drotha, wherever they may be, we would need tools and means to do so. This resulted in two very important efforts, which, if either had failed, then we would all be sinners and failures in the eyes of the One True God. Yet, none of us doubted our eventual success. Because the One True God’s Design for the destiny of the galaxy cannot and will not be stopped by the ineptitude, nor the resistance of, mere mortals.”
“What were the two parts of this plan?” asked Calvin. “They must have been glorious to achieve such a feat as the one commanded of you.” He did everything possible to sound positive and not the least bit sarcastic, or angry. Evidently, his efforts succeeded, because Ozumire continued.
“The first you already know,” said Ozumire. “Many of us would have to return to Novobella—which, when all this is over, we will reclaim and have prosperity like unto the Progenitors. We had to make the great sacrifice and take these uncomfortable forms, some of us as Prelains, others as soldiers, and officers, and whatever other roles we needed.”
“Is it really so bad as all that?” asked Calvin. “The transformation I mean.”
Ozumire sighed. “How would you like to permanently share the exact same appearance as your worst, sworn enemy, for the rest of your life?”
“I take your meaning.”
“We then infiltrated the Council of Prelains, slowly replacing them, and as many of the soldiers as we could, and eventually replaced the High Prelain himself.”
“What did you do with the originals?” asked Calvin.
“You mean those useless blasphemers?” asked Ozumire, as though the answer had been obvious. “We sacrificed them to the One True God, of course.”
Of course, thought Calvin. After all, this was a religion that was surprisingly okay with the bombardment of innocent planets, including the slaughtering of billions of children.
“You then used the power you now had, with the Council of Prelains, along with the High Prelain himself, and used their voices to call for the Dread Fleet, which would be the weapon you would use for the scourging of the galaxy,” suggested Calvin.
“Cleansing, not scourging,” Ozumire corrected him. “And, essentially, yes. The High Prelain was now in fact a Skotadi, and supported by several Skotadi who now occupied seats on the Prelain Council, none of which the foolish Polarians knew—all the good their Essences did them,” Ozumire laughed. “The High Prelain then summoned forth the call for a Reckoning, one unlike any other before seen. He sold it to the Polarians as the Iyruta Prophecy—sometimes referred to in your language as the Prophecy of the Final War.”
Calvin shrugged. “I don’t believe I have heard of it.”
“It is an ancient Polarian prophecy, one that promises they shall take the stars themselves and slay, or tame, all the beasts there. Well, some of the more devout take such things a bit literally—the Master of Lies chooses those who he deceives well. Therefore, we made the cry all throughout Polarian space, planet to planet, that a new Reckoning had come, and this time it was meant to fulfill the Iyruta Prophecy.”
“And that helped?” asked Calvin.
“Of course it did,” said Ozumire. “Tremendously! The cry was heard on many hundreds of planets, and soon all manner of starships had colored themselves black and arrived at Novobella to join the newly reawakened Dread Fleet—including most of the Polarian Military. Civilian ships were outfitted with armor and guns; military craft, obviously, came already prepared to fight. It took some while for the Dread Fleet to prepare. And when it did finally move, it moved slowly, but a more magnificent sight there has never been, nor a deadlier one.”
Calvin agreed with the second part. “You said there were two phases to this plan, yet all of that still sounds like one phase.”
“That is because you expect conclusions from mere partial truths,” said Ozumire. “Patience.”
Nikolai again looked about to speak, and again Calvin silenced him.
“The rest of the plan was intended to divide, collapse, and destroy the kingdoms of the drotha, making them as weak as possible, so they could not resist the Dread Fleet, either alone or, as we feared, in cooperation.
And so we brokered deals, many, many deals, with powerful humans and elite Rotham; deals which they believed gave them something they wanted—and sometimes it did—but always, always, always, though they were made to believe to be pulling the strings, we were the puppet-masters. No, I take that back. The strings were held by the One True God, the Skotadi, us, we were merely higher up on the hierarchy of strings and puppet-masters that, ultimately, were held by the One True God.”
Now this was the part Calvin was interested in. He was glad to have played along long enough and well enough to get his captive to begin to spill such crucial details.
“What powerful humans and Rotham did you make deals with?” asked Calvin, although he had a few guesses.
“Primarily the Rahajiim and the Phoenix Ring. The latter proved especially easy to manipulate. In both cases, we were able to plant agents among them, all the while fooling them that they were being paid. Allow me to clarify what I mean; we would pretend to sell to them our fellow Skotadi, in any form they wished, in exchange for the things we wanted and needed. Meanwhile, these Skotadi would nominally do what they were told by the humans and the Rotham, but ultimately remained loyal to the One True God.”
“Did you know what the Phoenix Ring and the Rahajiim were using the Skotadi for?” asked Calvin.
“Yes,” said Ozumire. “For the Rahajiim, we planted evidence indicating that the human kingdom—your Empire—had spies in their territory and had committed some minor sabotage, nothing serious, just enough to send them into a panic and wish to hit back. This made them eager to buy Skotadi, which we had demonstrated to them had the ability to change shapes—but fooled them into thinking only human shapes worked. They bought several of these and attempted to plant them inside the human kingdom and replace the commanders of several warships. I do not know how well they succeeded. But they gave us whatever we wanted—and needed—in exchange.
As for the Phoenix Ring, there was another, quite dangerous, human to whom we reached out. This target gave us the idea to convince some other ambitious humans to attempt to overthrow the human government and, in the eyes of the target, fail to do so, manufacture a crisis in the process, to which the original target would swoop in, seize power, and save the day, happening to win the throne in the process.”
Calvin noticed an expression of uneasiness on Nikolai’s face, and he was uncertain if the man had become ill or if this was his strange way of expressing intense boredom. Whatever it was, Calvin ignored it.
“However, unfortunately for that target, we chose to even the odds and heightened the conflict by empowering the second group of humans, later naming themselves the Phoenix Ring, with the knowledge that Skotadi could be bought, made to perfectly change shape, and then used to replace high-ranking admirals, captains, and so forth. This advantage was not known by the target and proved to lead to quite a beautiful conflict that ultimately weakened the human kingdom by a significant degree.
“There were others with whom we worked, many more with whom we struck bargains, always convincing our ‘customers’ that we were only dealing with them and no one else, that they had an exclusive advantage. When, in reality, we were placing our own agents into very influential places, gathering ships and resources through such trade, and causing chains of events that increased animosity among the species themselves, as well as groups within each species, until, ultimately, an extraordinary amount of fighting occurred.
“The idea must have come from the One True God himself because it was perfect. It could not have gone better. At one point, as you know, the animosity we had created had grown so hostile that the human kingdom literally tore itself in two and destroyed much, if not most of its defensive infrastructure. We also managed to get the Rotham and the humans to fight each
other. Then, when the fleets were closely engaged, we caused the destruction of oh so many warships by detonating an isotome missile inside the star of that system.”
That was you, thought Calvin, having wondered at the possibility, but never having confirmation—until now. You bastards! No wonder the Polarians hate you so!
“In fact,” continued Ozumire, “It was the sacred responsibility of your forbearer, the drotha in whose shoes you now must walk, that successfully executed that mission in the name of the One True God. Now, how about that?”
Calvin forced a smile. “A miraculous coincidence,” said Calvin.
“Miraculous, yes, coincidence, no,” corrected Ozumire. “There are no coincidences. All things happen according to the Divine plan.”
“So plans one and two were both successes then?” asked Calvin.
“Yes,” said Ozumire. “And now the Dread Fleet marches, entirely unopposed, to eliminate the now barely defended worlds of the drotha wherever they may be, including some Polarian worlds too—so far only those who have abandoned the religion of the Essences, but in time we shall either convert or, somehow, cleanse the rest of Polarian space of its impurities and False Ways. After the galaxy has been cleansed of the humans and the Rotham, and the One True God’s celestial objects purified.”
The very notion was sickening to Calvin; he feared he showed it…that his disdain and disgust might have broken through his smiling façade, though he tried his hardest to remain in character as perfectly as he could.
“You said you needed ships and equipment, and that you traded for such things. Why would you need any of that from either the humans or the Rotham?” asked Calvin.
“Partly to smuggle things around,” said Ozumire. “But most importantly we needed technology that could actually penetrate the Veil and get us back to Novobella, so we could infiltrate the council. For instance, this very ship,” he lifted his arms, as if gesturing all around them. “We traded with the Rahajiim to acquire it. It is the grandest and largest of the Hunter ships they made, and it, with its unique stealth capability, allows it to slide through the Veil as though it isn’t there.”
The Phoenix Requiem (The Phoenix Conspiracy Series Book 7) Page 45