Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  “He was of the mindset that her victory had been delivered by way of luck.”

  “Yeah, Junior is kind of thick that way,” Jocasta whispered.

  “What is your assessment, Priestess?”

  “According to his memory, the engagement was shorter this time than it was when last they met,” the woman spoke as she moved her blonde hair behind her ears. Despite the strain of the feat she had performed, she was already beginning to recover. “Still, he was more prepared, what with his platoon of troops and the incantations of his sister in place to sustain him.”

  “Coletta?!” Gulfrim quickly asked and the priestess moved at the same speed, pointing at the area where five troops and an attendant stood.

  “She is alive, though the woman delivered two powerful death strokes in too rapid a succession for your daughter to withstand. Without her will to live she would have joined her brother in the death-urge.”

  “Get them back to the embassy and see to my son’s every need,” Gulfrim commanded.

  “I will see to it that he lives,” the priestess corrected, gesturing to several of the troopers. “I will also tend to your daughter.”

  “Thank you, Nassatia,” Gulfrim said softly, brushing back his auburn and gray hair. He looked at the fourth of his group and sneered. “Brutum,” he spoke in a calm albeit disgusted tone. “Collect this woman and bring her to me!”

  “At once, Master.” Despite being the largest of the entire procession, the man called Brutum moved with a stirring ease and silence. In three strides he was away from the procession and up to the front line of troops.

  “That sounds like my cue,” Jocasta said as she ran out from beside the kiosk. She moved over to see the man fall forward and catch himself on his hands. Looking up and growling, the man ran on all fours quickly reaching an unbelievable speed. He snarled as he ran, closing on his target.

  “Down boy!” Jocasta yelled as she ran. “What I wouldn’t give for a raw steak right now!” Jocasta pressed her body for speed, but she knew she was sorely overmatched by the man who mixed cold laughter with his growl. He could see where she was running and moved to cut her off from the other walkway. He left his feet to tackle the woman. She left her feet and spun under his flight arc. Her boot hammered against the side of his face as he passed over her body, and any attempt to grab her was foiled. Jocasta finished her spin and landed on her hands and feet as the man crashed against the ground and rolled into a wall. “And stay!” she shouted as she resumed her run.

  “That was… inspired,” Gulfrim noted. “Have you ever seen the like, Thashurd?”

  “Not quite in that fashion, Master!” the man who always stood closest to the Counselor took one step away from his normal position. “It was a strange mixture of acrobatics and disciplined rhythmic combat. Neither was perfect, yet the result was… strangely effective. With your permission?”

  “I don’t need my Chevalier to chase off after a bounding street-wench,” Counselor Gulfrim concluded. “The hound and Culn will suffice for such a chore.” With a slight hand gesture, the last of the entourage was activated. The man nodded in acknowledgement and removed his black robes. The armour he wore appeared to be formal dress attire, but the gems scattered through the suit, now exposed to open light, began to glow. His green-dyed hair began to glow too as the man took flight. “What I need for you to do is–”

  “I will see to it this matter never reaches the Inner Rim,” Thashurd said as he turned to face the lead officer. “Commander, get your troops to their vehicles,” he commanded.

  With his Chevalier taking care of the minor details, Gulfrim turned to his protégé who was still maintaining the portal. “Close the aperture after I am away.”

  “You wish for me to remain here?”

  “Brutum and Culn will require a means back to the embassy, Vekruv,” Gulfrim replied as he walked through the portal. “You will see to it.”

  “As you wish, Master,” the young man bowed as the Counselor took his leave. In a matter of moments he was standing alone. Thashurd was with the troops... Culn and Brutum were contending with an upstart street-woman and…

  “I’ve been left behind to serve as some sort of doorman!” the young man muttered as he began to pace.

  “I can appreciate your perspective!” Dungias whispered as he took hold of the man’s blade, drew the weapon, and, as he was becoming visible, slashed the neck and chest of the young SpellCasteR. The cuts were deep, but not fatal. He looked upon the crest the man wore atop his belt buckle; a bronze ‘S’ embraced in jade and brass. Only families of note had such standards, and Dungias had seen it before, worn by Falco Sylgarr. “And now, I shall broaden it!” Spinning the InvokeR around, Dungias took hold of the back of the man’s head and shoved his face into the edge of his own portal. The sudden and much unexpected pain had already loosened his grip on the incantation; now Vekruv T’Passio was being forced to merge with a tear in the fabric of reality. He screamed, but it could not be heard… not on Dungias’ side of the portal. Reactivating his stealth field, Dungias started after his Captain. The doorway closed without a flash of light or a tremor of the Energies. The Star Chaser seriously doubted things were as quiet on the other side of the aperture.

  We are searching for some kind of harmony between two intangibles: a form which we have not yet designed and a context which we cannot properly describe.

  Christopher Alexander

  (VII)

  The memory of the Enacranites was still very fresh in his mind as he entered the chamber. The sound of his staff finding the floor told him all he needed to know. The table with the chessboard was still present but there was a chair on either side of the table and Freund chuckled.

  “Aren’t you curious as to how I did it?” he asked, relieved that he had stopped off to check in on his Dark Pawn Project before coming to his home. It would not be long before they actually possessed the bodies they would need to be suitable pawns for the guardian of humanity. The doors to the chamber closed, quickly becoming part of the wall. There would be no escape from this place until it was done with Freund.

  “The details, at this time, are unimportant,” it said, striding from the darkest corner in the room, still using Star Lark’s body and her cosmic power. “Suffice to say that the Enacranites either doubt themselves or they have reinstated their faith in your capability. Erroneous in either stride.”

  “How very gracious of you,” Freund replied as he took a tighter grip of his staff. “But the intent behind your retort is painfully clear.”

  “Is it?” the creature asked as power began to collect in Tolarra’s hands.

  “Quite,” Freund insisted. “You see, my thoughts and actions had been intertwined with the game board and the game itself. For you not to sense what I was doing and thinking could only mean one thing: you were not observing the game… you had to have been playing it!

  “When the chair was first missing, I had assumed its disappearance was due to something Neve had done. But it was you!”

  “Interesting theory.”

  “It is more than a theory,” Freund stated. “You see, after my dealings with the assassin of Xaythra, the contingency I inserted into my mind was not bound by time. It could detect thoughts placed into my mind after it had been initiated… but it also could spot the false thoughts that had been placed into my mind before the contingency was created. This included the thought that playing chess was my idea. Being blind would never keep me from playing cards, not even in the way the game had started in the challenge for Old Earth. If anything, it would have been a detriment for anyone playing against me, trying to read eyes that do not exist.

  “Then of course, there is the final piece of evidence I was able to secure,” Freund said as his head lowered to his chest.

  “And what would that be?” it inquired.

  “My ability to look into the mind of the board,” Freund declared. “You are vitaceptive, but you are hardly a master of the measure. It was hubris that led yo
u into believing that you were the most gifted mind in existence. I suppose I have only myself and my kind to thank for giving you that impression.

  “But when I crept into your room, just a moment ago by the way, while you were putting together your plans to destroy me… I saw it, the strand that tied it all together. While I do not have your reasons, I saw your actions. It was only after one of the Maior Nathu encountered the fringes of vitaception that it would eventually become Baron Nomed and launch an attack against his own kind. Old Earth was simply collateral damage, wasn’t it? Something that was in the way and a means to make sure the Maior Nathu would not opt to cut and run. After the destruction of Old Earth, that Anti-Life changed, becoming Neve. That thought… that impulse was the sort of protection and guidance a creator would give their creation. The only question that remains is why! What is it that drives you to destroy humanity?!”

  “You are truly blind!” it declared as it lifted Tolarra’s hands and started toward him.

  “Apparently I am not the only one,” Freund returned as he stretched out his mind.

  “Tolarra, I need you!” he projected.

  Star Lark’s glowing white hand moved to grasp Freund’s head, but she stopped moving and Freund could hear Tolarra screaming, though her mouth never opened. He could feel an outpouring of fear, confusion, rage, and love coming from the woman as her transformation into a Star Bird was cued.

  “Interesting how that happened at the moment of truth,” Freund projected to it as his eyes started to glow. It was not ThoughtWill he was generating, as he was not truly generating anything. The power coming to him bridged with him of its own free will. “One might think I had planned all of this. You have underestimated Tolarra, and not all of the memory pods were sent away from the castle. Sometimes, in order to keep some things secret, you have to forget you possess it. A simple thing to do when you’re a PsyondaR! But now that the memory has returned… allow me to introduce you to what I was before I became Freund!

  “Metatsetop Amsirp!” Freund shouted and his voice echoed throughout the castle – over every floor and through every room. Sentient energy sprang from the walls, ceiling and floor, blasting at the essence of the entity inside Tolarra, causing the entity to be stunned, to hesitate, and to be drawn out of the First Sense. A power prism started forming around Lark. It had not quite formed when her eyes met with Freund’s consciousness, and they shared feelings neither of them had time to say. Freund’s head snapped back from an incredible psychic attack that sought to crush his psyche and destroy his essence. When the prism locked, the attack ceased and his body fell to the ground.

  “What have you done?” it asked.

  “Looks like us lower life forms just kicked your ass!” Tolarra projected.

  “I could kill you with a single thought!” it stated.

  “Not going to change where you are or what’s happening,” Tolarra argued. “I don’t know what the deal is with you, but it looks as if you’ve been found out and capped. It’s okay, you can be pissed, I was too when Chiaro laid me out. Do me a favor though: let’s not take five years before you figure out you’re not the end-all, be-all of the universe.”

  The power prism was a very profound construct. The entity was even more impressed that it had come from Freund by way of a spell; one that had been cast ages ago and held in place, awaiting the command he had given. The prism was an object that would accept energy, in all forms, and move it about its structure, dissecting the energy and storing it either within its own body, thus becoming stronger, or in any one of a countless number of pre-arranged storage facilities. The entity did not dare to touch the prism, for it could not say whether its own essence would fall prey to the effect of the spell.

  The key to the prism was probably a simple one, but the entity could not reach Freund’s mind. The ThoughtWill it would need to use to reach his mind would only be absorbed and disintegrated by the prism.

  “I am trapped!” it admitted.

  “That ain’t all you are, you… it-of-a-bitch!” Tolarra projected angrily as she could see the game board. It had changed yet again. Instead of a place for of two players, now there were four. “You little lying–” A low, thunderous sound interrupted Tolarra’s thoughts. Before she could decide whether or not to be afraid of the force that began to shake the castle, she heard it speaking.

  “No!” the entity exclaimed, demonstrating fear for the first time in several millennia. “This is too soon!” The castle shook once more, though with greater fury than Freund’s master casting. Books fell from the shelves and it sounded as if everything had come away from the walls in the kitchen.

  “Guardian!” a low, powerful voice called and just hearing it almost made Tolarra transform, though she had put forth no effort to do so. “Will the Guardian answer this summons?”

  “Whoever that is, they’re not the patient sort, that’s for sure.”

  A towering figure of a man appeared on the balcony and, using his index finger, he knocked harder than Tolarra had ever heard. Some of the bricks were displaced by his simplest touch. With no response to the knocking, the figure stepped inside, stooping down so that his hooded head could get under the top of the door frame. He also had to turn at the waist to allow his left shoulder into the double door passage before allowing his right shoulder entry. The figure’s hood was black with a wide silver lining flowing down into a cape of the same design. He wore platinum-colored banded armour about his chest, forearms and shins. The clothes worn under the armour were royal blue and seemed to shimmer in the soft light. He carried some sort of a silver staff that looked to have a star mounted on top of it, and his skin was a perfect blend of honey and taupe. “The Guardian is detected as being present, but the Guardian does not respond,” he spoke, but his lips never moved.

  “I am here!” it cried. “I am right here!” The sound it made did not escape the prism, and the giant did not pay any attention to the small glowing object on the floor.

  “Well, isn’t that a fine how-do-ya-do!” Tolarra thought, watching the figure lift his head and look around with large teal eyes. He too could see through the bricks and mortar of this place, beyond what even Tolarra considered sight. Before he was done viewing, there was a moment that Star Lark felt as if she were being read.

  “The Guardian is absent or it has been compromised. The scene is askew! The template for the challenge has been prepared. Will the Champions answer this summons?”

  “I answer in the name of Neve,” a figure shrouded in black light and thick, black smoke spoke as it appeared in the game room.

  “This Adjudicator does not recognize your station as proxy,” he replied. “Produce this Neve or consider your claim rebuked.”

  Opening the robes at the chest, the figure revealed black light thriving in its chest which the imposing figure reviewed.

  “Neve is recognized as a Champion.”

  “You have got to be shitting me!” Tolarra thought. “That bitch gets to com it in?!”

  “Are there any other Champions?” the Adjudicator asked.

  “I stand for the prize of this challenge,” a wispy soft and calm female voice was heard as a dark green robed figure appeared in the room with the hood of her robes covering her face. “And I would prefer not to have my name mentioned. Here is a sampling of my essence and therefore my right to participate.” Her skin was nearly white, but it did not appear dead, as her hand came away from her side. In the center of her palm shone a small silvery light.

  “This Adjudicator recognizes your authority. Both you and your request are accepted.” With two answering for the challenge and Freund still on the ground not moving, Tolarra grew desperate. She had to try something, and she knew that the worst that could happen was that her attempt simply would not work!

  “Me!” Tolarra projected, trying her best to shout through her mind.

  “Me!” Freund’s body spoke. The sound was very weak, but her zeal was heard in his tones.

  “Most interesting,�
� the robed woman remarked.

  “How did you do that?” Tolarra’s fellow captive asked. Both were trapped inside the prism, but somehow Tolarra’s thoughts had been allowed to leave. “A rapport!” it quickly concluded. “You share a rapport with Freund!”

  “Sugar, that’s not all we share,” Tolarra thought. “Stop it, Tolarra! Focus, woman! Your man… all of mankind, is counting on you!” ThoughtWill touched Tolarra’s mind as the entity tried to avail itself of the rapport, but that effort took energy, and it was immediately absorbed by the prism. “Damn if the man does not have you all trussed up!”

  “You are just as trapped as I am,” it asserted.

  “Nice try,” Tolarra thought. “I reach out to Freund, you reach for me. This thing might have you locked up, but your grazing shot has Freund down for the count. And don’t think that he left me without images of you increasing my power! Who knows what you could do with that one instant in contact with his mind. I was born during the day, babykins, but it wasn’t yesterday!”

  “The… reclined figure has been viewed and weighed. This Adjudicator recognizes your authority. Both you and your request are also accepted.”

  “He is not even conscious!” the light and smoke-veiled figure argued. The Adjudicator turned his head slightly, triggering a function of the castle. The creature was removed instantly and very much against its will. It then looked to the robed woman who nodded her head.

  “The blind one and I are very well acquainted, and I have no argument with your rulings,” she said softly. “It is good to see you again, after all this time.”

  “Time is irrelevant.”

  “Only to those who do not have to wait for it, Adjudicator,” she replied. “Wake up, Freund. Let’s make this interesting!” A spark of soft gray light came from under the hood of the woman as she faded from sight and Freund sat up straight away. Three memory pods quickly returned to him. He was surprised but relieved to see the prism still there and still holding the entity securely.