And so it was. From sunup to sundown, Zy would meet with Asna who would be a hellcrab and train him physically. He was given a strict regimen of foods to eat, to avoid, to indulge in. Exercises to do in his spare time and a chant to memorize. Pa wa ba san fan, a chant usable by humanoids whose vocal cords are found within their throats. He ran the obstacle course chanting this. Was told to fall asleep chanting it! He did so though after the days he’s had he could only get Pa wa ba before he was gone into a dreamless sleep.

Today he was being taught the secrets of connecting to the Dao. He was strong enough now. After three months he hoped so. While Zerians were smaller and lighter to accommodate their wings, they also had extremely good physical prowess. Their metabolisms were perfect and they healed fast as such bone and muscle density were easier to accumulate too.

We get blown aside like a breeze in combat though!

He dodged Asna's swing of her claw and jumped over her and the next swing using the physical aspects of the Dao. He had the leaping, dodging, hitting with extra force down. All he needed would be shown today.

“Good! Very good Zyros! Now follow me to the pond,” said Asna as she shook her shell. Zy wiped his forehead of excess sweat and followed the crab. He gulped. Up to now, the Dao had been physical and mental, but today he would learn to make contact with the Dao. His visions would be explored today.

He batted a frond from the tropical trees surrounding the garden. It was supposed to be cactuses and other dried plants that surrounded them, but Asna had been creative and planted small coconut trees that grew about three feet tall from a planet called Sol III, home to a humanoid race called Terrans. They sat at the edge of the white rockface.

“Now, get comfortable. Relax. Remember that chant I asked you to memorize?” she asked, trailing a pincer in the water.

“Pa wa ba san fan?”

“Yes, that one. You are going to use it as if you want to cause something to happen, but you are instead going to focus on meeting the source of the cause.” She held out a rock. “Instead of lifting it or shifting it out of your way, you are making contact with the Dao only.”

He nodded and started to say the words. “Pa wa ba san fan.”

At first, the rock floated or shifted and every time it happened Asna would hit him over the head with a pincer.

“Again!” she’d cry and again he’d try. On his sixth try, however, there was a shift. His eyes widened as he felt the floodgates to a titanic force open. He was swept away.

“We shall return!” cried Lithelios to the star-filled night sky, tears on his cheeks, rage in his face, as he stood alone in an open field.

—------------

“This weapon shall be a light in the darkness,” said a curly-haired, bronze-skinned Terran man as he held aloft a sword made of starlight.

—-----------------------

The curly-haired man stood. The shadows seemed to cloak him. He seemed to be glaring at the red-eyed, black-haired beauty of a Terran woman.

“Victoria! How dare you; are your hands not bloody enough!?” he yelled, gripping his star blade.

“There comes a time when your hands are so caked in blood, you no longer care,” she said, gripping her star blade.

“Our son would be ashamed of you,” The man said, readying his blade.

“I know I am beyond his forgiveness,” the woman, Victoria, muttered before taking her battle stance. “But I am willing to stain my hands for a greater good. What of you, Frederico? Will you raise your sword against the Empire?”

Around them, the world rattled with bombs. Shouting and shooting could be heard.

—--------------------

Lithelios sat alone in a poorly lit throne room, his eyes downcast, his hand flimsily holding a spilled cup of blue wine. He allowed the cup to fall. The doors to his empty throne room swung open, but he did not react.

Zy was shaken from his reverie to notice that the cosmic lights were off and he was in bed. He sat on his duvet wondering how he should come to tell Lithelios and Asna what he saw. Would it come true? Was it truly the Dao? He checked his galactical timepiece and sighed; another few hours til sunrise. Until then he would stew.

Forget stewing, I'll walk around the ship.

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He stood from his bed and dressed himself in silver robes and grey gi pants. Grabbing his practice staff, he went to the rock garden to find Asna meditating there. He joined her. One eyestalk turned to him.

“I don’t presume to know what you saw but everyone has a reason for what they do, young one. Nothing is in black and white. In this universe not even the Dao is innocent. Remember this. I will tell you to visit Lithelios for answers before trusting that bird blindly,” she said, taking a breath and continuing with her meditation.

Zy nodded standing. He had a heading. The cells. The Sunbird.

When he arrived the Sunbird was awake and still captive but it managed a sharp trill. It thrust its beak at Zy who grabbed it with his hands and was soon in an empty white space floating. A beautiful woman wearing strange red clothes made of fire and feathers greeted him. Her pink eyes resembled his own only hers were ringed with gold and red and she had no pupils. She smiled and pointed to a blurry image of a warliner. No, it was THIS ship. He couldn’t mistake it.

It was chasing the Sunbird through space. He saw an escape pod shoot through the chase, shaking from the shots being taken then came the deciding shot. The Sunbird turned around and shot a blast of fire at the ship, while the ship shot a cannon blast straight back hitting its front wing.

It careened downward on the Nova Roda. By some miracle, it stopped inches from it and flipped right back up, trilling angrily. The ship shot again but it went wide, hitting the Nova Roda and blowing it up.

The Sunbird rescued the escape pod and brought it to Kylon III’s atmosphere, sending a bit of the Dao with it. It wrapped around the escape pod and sunk within.

“Zyros. We never meant for that to happen. It was at an ill time but we saved you from it all. It was no happenstance that your ball entered the escape pod when it did. I saved you so that together we could put an end to those who would use a boy and a creature as weapons for subjugation. Soon your purpose will be done, and Lithelios will have you sent to be locked away again for good. If you want to remain free then…”

“I do not trust blindly, bird. I will ask Lithelios what I saw and come back with my answer.”

“It will be too late then but as you wish.”

Zy disconnected from the Sunbird and raced away with tears in his eyes. He wiped them away. Until he got the full scope he wasn’t making a decision. He walked toward Lithelios’ rooms when something gave him pause. Sibiline had been missing from her cell but her bear had been left. The girl had been partial to the bear; why had it been left behind unless–her parents had also been missing. Were they released? Or something far worse had befallen them all?

He raced ahead to find Lithelios standing at his big window. “Asna tells me the bird showed you a version of the Nova Roda’s destruction.”

Zy nodded. “But I didn’t believe it.”

Lithelios chuckled mirthlessly. “It’s correct in its assessment but it’s wrong to assume I didn’t feel anything when my beam hit the cruiser. I felt deeply. Do you know the mistake my uncle made? It was letting that cruiser through space when they had been warned that the Sunbird was nearby. I was chasing it off further into deep space. A monster of that size can bring unimaginable destruction.”

“So that man and woman were–”

“Foreign Flight Affair’s very own leaders: Alba Concetti Handrigh and his wife Donna Concetti Handrigh.”

“What happened to Sybiline?” he asked worriedly.

“She is with Aunt Cystralias on Epsilios IV. She left her bear. We intend she have that back as soon as We can.”

Zy nodded. “My dreams make sense now. Someone named Frederico was the star of them and I was told that he would be the end of the Empire.”

Lithelios flinched. “Do you know how he comes to power?”

“No, but he wielded a sword made of starlight,” Zy replied, making Lithelios’ eyes widen.

“A star knight,” the prince whispered. “Now, more than ever, I must take the reins of destiny into my hands. Come Zy. We’ve a future to write.”

As Zy and the prince walked, Lithelios recited the history of the Pangalactic Empire. The way Lithelios told it was as if he had been there! It was obvious Lithelios loved the Pangalactic Empire.

“The Empire’s power is waning,” Lithelios said, his voice broken somewhat. “The eastern and western halves of the Galaxy see the Throne as weak. If this persists, the Empire might crumble, and war may yet return to the Galaxy.”

“Shouldn’t the people choose whether they want the Empire to continue ruling?.”

Lithelios glared. “The common folk care not for politics, but if their stomachs are yet full. A charlatan may go to the worlds where the Empire has yet to establish trade routes and speak nonsense on how the Throne ignores them. What knows the commoner of politics and economics, when they have not the interest to study them? A forked tongue speaks wisdom when listened to by ignorant ears!”

Zy said nothing.

“It is in the commoner’s best interest to leave such squabbles to their betters, those born with the divine right to rule,” said Lithelios as he and Zy parted ways. “Remember that always. We must now prepare the Sunbird; go and speak to Asna, then return when you are ready.”

Zy hurried to the rock garden where Asna was meditating. He crept to her side. “I did as you said.”

Asna’s eyestalks opened and she clicked her beak-like mouth. “The Dao works mysteriously. All happens for a reason. Remember this now. Open your mind to the Dao. It is a wondrous source, a knowledgeable source, a bountiful source. Do not be afraid of what it shows.” She stood and floated off the rockface.

“I’m off. Last lesson. Trust the Dao. It will never lead you wrong.”

Zy nodded and kneeled beside the pond, mind, and heart open. Like that the Dao took him.

“His heart is dark,” growled the voice. “Lead him to me.”

—---------------

Lithelios stood over Zy’s corpse, his face filled with rage.

Zy gasped and backed away from the pond’s edge, scared. He stood and wiped his clothes. He had been wearing some black robes and gi pants in navy blue but he doubted clothes would warn him of when this would happen if it happened. Zy reached his room and lay on his bed, tired from today's emotional upheaval. The maid brought some juice in and he, thinking nothing of it, drank it completely. He laid back and fell into a dreamless slumber.