by Elin Wyn
I dropped to a knee and saw through my peripheral that Maki was laying on the ground, her arms over her ears as best as she could.
The hybrid started to retreat, a noise coming from it that I recognized as pure and utter fear.
The Puppet Master lurched forward and dozens of vines erupted from the walls. I launched myself at Maki and covered her while chaos reigned behind me.
There were sounds coming from behind us that scared me.
There was ripping and rending and tearing and other noises that I didn’t know a body could make when it was being torn apart by a monster the size of a planet.
Maki screamed beneath me as she tried to roll herself deeper into a ball beneath me.
Finally, the noise stopped and the only thing we could hear was our own panicked breathing.
I looked back to see pieces, that was all that was left. Pieces.
I don’t believe that we would have ever managed to put that hybrid back together again, even if we wanted to.
The Puppet Master was staring at me. “We must speak.”
It took me a moment to realize that what I had heard was his voice, in my head.
“I repeat, we must speak.”
Right, then.
After that show of force, I wasn’t going to argue.
Maki
All that I could feel was adrenaline.
It was coursing through my veins like a drug, shifting the atmosphere, changing the world around me, leaving me a frantic, excited mess.
I wanted to pinch myself, it seemed such an unlikely occurrence.
Going through the rift, tumbling and contorting to travel from one spot to the next had been weird enough.
But now came this even more surreal moment, one that I couldn’t get a handle on because my whole body was trembling. It wasn’t fear that I felt however, it was intrigue.
Disregarding Tyehn completely, I dived into a tailspin, my words tumbling out of me like water.
“Holy shit, you’re the Puppet Master, the Puppet Master. Wow.” I managed to briefly pause to take in some more air — I was going to need it — and then dove right back in. “I have questions,”
“Maki, now’s not the—” Tyehn tried to explain.
“Shush, I’m busy,” I shooed him with my hands, hoping to quiet him so that I could continue. “So, are you an enemy or really a good guy? Are the new hybrid critters your doing? Oooh, what do you eat — do you eat? Where do you come from? Do you always speak telepathically or does it depend?”
I couldn’t stop myself, the words just poured on and on. There wasn’t an off switch for me to press, even if I’d wanted to.
A lot of what I was asking had little meaning in the grand scheme of things, but my mind was on autopilot, unable to stop itself.
I simply moved from one curiosity to the next, leaving poor Tyehn to stare in horrified disbelief.
The Puppet Master however, calmly regarded me. This piqued my curiosity even more because it possessed the power to stop me, to kill me.
Yet it waited for me to ride out the last embers of my adrenaline.
It was gracious in how it conducted itself, the decades of its existence having shaped how it saw the world; it was a wise old sage compared to us rambunctious younglings.
“Please, still your mind,” Came the most tranquil yet intense voice inside my head.
Immediately I stopped.
It was like falling into a deep trance.
Only unlike the hybrids, I was still my own person, in command of my own senses. Still, the experience was equally as surprising as it was thrilling.
Eager to hear more, I found myself able to stem the torrent of questions building up inside of me, at least for the time being.
Tyehn looked a bit relieved, though I noticed he still appeared tense. I could tell that the gentle giant I knew was still uncertain of where the lines in the sand lay.
“Thank you.” It was a thunderous tone, but there was a gentleness to it as well. As organic as the vines trailing from its body, the Puppet Master incited a series of fervent emotions in all who stood before it. “I understand you have questions, but time is of the essence. We must speak quickly, before others come.”
When I heard the word “others”, I instantly felt less excited, my disquiet starting to match Tyehn’s.
More hybrids would prove a challenge, even in spite of our combined levels of skill. There’d been one too many hairy moments before now, I didn’t relish the thought of more, even if the Puppet Master decided to help.
Appreciating the urgency of the matter, both Tyehn and I remained silent. In truth, it was much easier for Tyehn to keep his mouth shut than it was for me.
Once again, the questions were threatening to overflow, my racing mind desperately in need of an outlet.
Never in my life had I struggled to keep my mouth as still as I did now. It wasn’t in my nature to be quiet.
I was born to investigate, my natural love for learning always encouraging me to seek out new discoveries. It had served me well up until this point, and so I wasn’t about to turn my back on that natural instinct.
“As you rightly stated, I’m the Puppet Master. My life is intertwined with this very planet: all life flows through me. I’m a beginning and an end to it. If I die, the planet dies with it.”
My mouth gaped open as I took in his words. Rumors had always circulated about the Puppet Master, but it was often hard to tell fact from fiction.
All of us were guilty of getting carried away with the idea of this all seeing, all knowing entity — there was a certain romance to it.
One steeped in mystery. It charmed you, drawing you in.
“Your caution is understandable, but there’s a greater threat than I.”
“The horde.” I heard Tyehn mumble, more to himself than to us. In spite of his hushed tone however, his words still rang true. I doubted there was anywhere the Puppet Master’s abilities couldn’t reach.
“Yes. These beings may be human, but they’re controlled by entities known as the Ancient Enemies. They’re non corporeal beings, unable to withstand physical contact, and so they assume control of a host. Humans serve as their host. They are pliable and able to receive suggestions. However, some hosts react differently.”
I’d heard of some whisperings of people who had changed demeanors.
Everyone had whispered about it. Some people struggled and some people were complete opposites from how they’d acted before.
And then, there was what we’d seen in the jungle.
“They really are possessed,” I thought.
“You’re right,” My eyes grew wide when I heard this. Although it made sense that the Puppet Master could hear our thoughts, it was still unnerving. It was the deepest invasion of privacy, yet it felt light due to the subtlety of his actions. “I have seen some hosts who could resist their power, while others proved too weak of mind to fight back.”
There was no comfort in knowing this. What we’d seen had changed us forever.
Even if we could understand the reason for the changes in people we’d known, it didn’t make the situation any easier to handle.
How could it?
If the Puppet Master was to be trusted, which it seemed that it could be, then we were dealing with an unknown that had limitless capabilities.
To add to the mounting hurdles that posed, we then had to deal with the susceptibility of humans; millions were at risk.
Looking back on how the hybrid had been obliterated, it made sense for the carnage we’d been forced to witness.
Even if I still didn’t appreciate it, my sore throat a reminder of what I’d seen. It had been the most guttural sounding dismemberment I’d ever heard, and its sounds would stay with me forever.
But if these Ancient Enemies were to be as feared as it seemed, it easily explained why the Puppet Master had reacted so violently.
Why it had torn the thing limb from limb, leaving nothing but bloody pieces of brittle bone a
nd crimson liquid.
I shuddered just thinking about it, my eyes quickly looking around at the remains.
Did that fate await me?
Nothing had been said about how likely resistance was, which seemed to suggest that it was rare for a host to fight back.
If that was true, my own mind, body, and soul could be next. It was an idea that didn’t bear thinking about. Yet I couldn’t prevent the nightmare of its imagery from flashing inside my mind’s eye.
I didn’t want to end up like that. I couldn’t end up like that.
Desperate to learn more, I pushed back my dread and tried to focus on what we could do in the present; the future was still a long way off. At least for now.
“Is their purpose simply to take someone over so that they can interact on a physical level?” I felt like a child stumbling in matters I didn’t understand, which was plain ridiculous.
I’d spent years researching and immersing myself inside academic study — topics like this were within my comfort zone. In a way.
Nothing could quite prepare you for this.
A tendril from the Puppet Master reached out and pawed at the bloody debris before it. There was a tenderness to its touch, even in spite of how it talked about the Ancient Enemies with disdain.
It seemed that there was mutual respect between the two of them, but ultimately, they couldn’t easily coexist.
“These possessed beings are created with a specific purpose in mind, one far greater than the need to interact with the physical world.”
“What’s that then?” I asked exasperatedly.
Although I relished being able to stand before such a foreboding yet strangely beautiful creature, I didn’t want to be spoon fed information.
If this was going to be a battle for survival, we needed to be better prepared.
We didn’t have time to avoid finding the truth, no matter how harsh it was.
“These beings are here to kill me.”
“Oh god,” I murmured, the gravity of the situation finally setting in.
Judging by the silence gripping Tyehn, he was as troubled as I. “If the Ancient Enemies control enough humans, they could take over the planet. They’d be unstoppable,” he said.
And the worst of all would be that nobody would see it coming.
Mankind would be powerless to stop the transition to subservient puppet because they lacked the strength to do so.
Our own genetic design made us weak.
Some would overthrow the mind control, but not enough.
We’d be swarmed.
These Ancient Enemies would gain complete control.
And this planet would die.
Tyehn
“So, you know them,” I said.
I made sure it was phrased as a statement, not a question.
“Yes. I know the Ancient Enemies.”
“How?”
“Our peoples have fought a war for countless millions of years,” he answered me.
I was absolutely floored. Here was an entity that was who knows how old, capable of creating a planet, supporting life on said planet, and could most likely destroy said planet with little effort, and he had just told me that they’ve been at war with some non corporeal beings that take over people’s minds and can change them into literal mindless beasts.
“I will not apologize for my past associations with creatures that had come to fool us all. I will, however, apologize for forgetting who they were and what they showed themselves to be many ages ago.”
“I forgot you could read minds, as well,” I said with a slight smirk after my initial shock of him answering my mental questions.
“I do my best to not do so, friend Tyehn. However, when there are moments such as this where direct conversation is needed, I find it much quicker and far more efficient to do so. It allows me to understand a person’s true objectives.”
“Okay,” I nodded. “I understand that. I do. What was that host’s objective?”
“Information. There were two minds fighting, two minds studying, and two minds attempting to understand what they were seeing. The human mind had managed to dominate, but it was a primitive domination led purely by curiosity and a willingness to learn. It was later, when the other mind began to gain control that I was able to understand what was at stake. I fear, however, that I was too late in eliminating the threat before his message was sent.”
“What does that mean?”
“The Ancient Enemies, for they are as old as my own kind, perhaps older, and their name forgotten to the ether of the universe, represent conflict and chaos whereas my kind represent growth and harmony. They believe that progress comes from evolution. And that evolution comes from strife. They seek war to grow. Just as we seek to let life grow without interruption.”
“How did they become your ‘Ancient Enemies’?” Maki asked from next to me.
Both of us were sitting down at the edge of a drop-off where we were looking down at a beautiful wonderland of plant-life, water, and creatures living under the surface of the planet, and all of it maintained by this creature that was speaking into our heads.
“How long has this been going on?”
“This conflict has replayed itself since the birth of our civilizations. But we are but children in this universe.”
“Then, back to Maki’s question, how did they become your enemy?” I asked.
“They became more interested in learning how to control the other life, the life that came to us over the life we created. They began to gain control of that life, taking them over so that they would have physical bodies. At first, we did not argue their choices because they took those people and did good things. They built, they created, and they ended conflicts that would have destroyed civilizations that have since brought about so much for the rest of the universe.
“However, they began to become more and more demanding, more and more zealous in their actions. Overzealous in many cases. When they wished to join with us in order to create ‘better life’ as they felt was needed, we hesitated. What was at first a partnership soon turned into a takeover. They began to either enslave the mind of the host, or simply burned the mind out and took over the body for themselves. They wanted to do the same with my own brothers and sisters. That was the beginning of our battles with them.”
“So, wait,” Maki said. “You’re telling us that you and these Ancient Enemies of yours are responsible for life in the universe?”
“No. Sentient life has always existed. We are merely responsible for the homes in which sentient life lives.”
“Damn.”
I looked down at Maki to see that she was not dealing with this information well. I could see her trying to process the information, and I could only imagine what she was thinking.
The idea that the Puppet Master and his kind created worlds for us all to live on, did they create my home? Did they create the planets of my system? Were they responsible for the different types of life, plant or animal, that my people lived with?
Then, to find out that they had a partner that betrayed their trust.
“It is difficult to speak of things such as this. Not because it is painful, but because it has happened so many millennia ago that even my own memory strains to find all of the pathways to the past. The Ancient Enemies became ruthless, more insistent on taking over minds, even wiping out entire species in their attempts to take over my kind. We resisted for years that have been lost to time, never to be remembered or regained. We fought one another for so long that time lost meaning.”
“How did you manage to defeat them?” I asked.
“I do not remember. I only remember that we finally defeated them and sent them away. Then, my kind spread out throughout the universe, doing our best to escape everything that had happened and to ensure that we would never be caught together. I came here, covered myself and established life here, then fell asleep. My unconscious mind recognizes that you,” he indicated with a vine pointing at Maki, “and the
rest of your people were not the first here, as I’m sure you’ve discovered.”
Maki nodded.
“In truth, I remember seven different sentient species here before your kind, almost all dying out or leaving long before your people came into existence.”
My own eyes went wide at hearing that.
How old was this world?
If Puppet Master was millions of centuries old, how old was this world if this is what he made to hide himself and sleep?
“Older than three of her Earths. Older than three of your own home,” he answered my silent question. That was interesting information, to find out that my home was as old as Maki’s. “This world, that you have dubbed Ankau, is older than both of your worlds. And, I fear that it has been found by the Ancient Enemies that wish to take over.”
“How bad is it?”
“The ones that have come through thus far are the weaker ones. They are only capable of taking over the humans that are weaker in mind. Perhaps ‘weak’ is the inappropriate word. There is something within the human mind that appeals to the Enemy, that allows them a quicker connection. I do not know how they have managed to find me, but they are here and they are using the humans to attempt to establish a hold on this part of reality.”
Maki and I looked at one another. What were we supposed to do now?
“How do we fight them?”
“I do not remember.”
“Okay. Then we need to get more people together on this. Can you speak to Rouhr and the others about this?” I asked.
“I already have. I’ve been carrying this same conversation with him as I have with you. It is surprising how similar your reactions and questions have been.”
I was mildly flattered at the thought that I shared a similar mentality to the General.
Then, something hit me. “What about my team? Can you reach them? Do you know if they’re okay? We were attacked by humans possessed by the Ancient Enemies on the surface.”
“I have reached out to them in order to ascertain their well-being. I am happy to tell you that they are all alive and well. As a matter of fact, your commander, Sk’lar, is not only happy that you are safe, but also highly agitated with your disappearance and says ‘Tell his ass to get back to base now or he’ll be cleaning the latrines for a month.’ I believe he is merely attempting to keep up appearances.”