ISSUE 26: ON TRIAL

I was supposed to rule Typha. Bring it back to a golden age. Now X’mil’s gloating face is all I have left. The Rulers have forsaken me.—E’ratha

Aether, you must invoke the memories of the White Defender incident. We can hide the Black a while longer but the soul eater will take many if we do not allow Eliza to act properly. The time of hiding is ending. Through Draken Nix, Unity knows the White Mother lives. We must save what souls we can! –J’kua Scouting Network Missive

One glove was lifting. In a way, it was a relief. The rest of the Universe? Now it knew just how much I had been holding back. But I would not be alone. It gave a false reading to our enemies. They thought only one Branch of Prophecy was born. The other lost to the cosmos. They would learn the error of their wicked ways. E’ratha was only the beginning. Her life? Had she known the depths of the All-Mother’s cunning? She would not have suffered such a fate. –Sleeping in Starlight, a memoir of the 22nd century

The Jupiter Rising

Lunar Shipyards of Typha

November 5th, 2115

I clutched my head.

Voices beat upon my skull.

Mom, dad, and Doc moved in as I hit the deck.

Then the messages flooded in.

It was coming. A familiar white uniform covered my body. Then the energy relays emerged. Coating me in white shimmering armor. My black spear a heavy warm presence as I hauled myself up. Aether teleported in. Bright golden rays peeling off him as he stepped forward. In the flesh!

“Won’t that reveal you to Chronos?!”

He nodded. “He will sense my presence but he is far enough away that he won't lock-in. Not yet. So I must be quick. The memory shroud surrounding your initial reveal as the White Defender is now gone.”

White cried out, <> Her tiger form materialized next to me. She growled, “I am ready.”

*****

E’ratha’s glassy eyes stared into the great nothing of the beyond. Her mind fading.

Not like this. She wanted to shout. Her mouth no longer moved.

The endless expanse engulfed her mind.

An elongated mottled white and gray shape burst from her chest.

Not physically. Her soul saw the shape of terror and recoiled from it.

Then she knew nothing more.

*****

The vast halls of House Cyphuskara exploded outward.

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Raining shards of glass, statuary, and other metallic debris down upon the streets below. The handful of demis from Earth evacuated the Typherians unable to defend themselves. While the King’s Own barked orders into military and police communications nets. A pale looming figure rose above the towering heights of the central axis within Argax City. Well over 200 feet tall. It let out a warbling guttural call. Its eyes warped with a foggy green miasma. Far below, X’mil hid within the shadows. Cradling E’ratha’s body. Using his magic on her mind. “Waste not want not” was his motto. Sister Nyx and the All-Mother still had a use for her.

He giggled and threw her over his shoulders.

Nothing pertinent remained on this godforsaken planet anyways.

A dark opaque mirror shimmered and he stepped through.

The fact that he could summon one of Unity’s mirrors here meant that the protections of C’alain’s Wall were near its end. He sighed, “Is this what victory tastes like? How quaint!”

*****

I flew from the Jupiter. The creature’s birthing cry echoed through my chest.

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White raced alongside me. An incorporeal tiger. Her three golden eyes sparkled with adrenaline. Shouts of terror cascaded throughout the city as we burst through the cloud coverage. Black swirls belched forth from the creature’s mouth. I brought the dark tip of my spear crashing downwards into the creature’s puss-filled head. It snarled but White was ready. Entrapping it within a shroud of shimmering energy. I pulled the spear from its resting place within the cancerous sinew. It came out easily. Within the souls of the damned howled. White pulled the monster skyward. She said, “Find its polluted heart. Free them!”

I whirled the black spear above my head until it let out an ear-piercing whistle. Its sigils glowing white and blue. Then I drove it downward. Tearing a bigger hole in that thing’s flesh. The tip of the spear vibrated. Keying in on the beat of the wretched heart.

*****

The All-Mother crouched next to a panicked family. The brilliant aura dimmed as the White Defender dived into the head injury of the Soul Stealer. She glared. Set had deceived them all. Was this why Thoth was pushed off Earth? What power had shielded the Ayeer Scion? Those were questions she would demand of her husband. Nearly all the sleepers were off the planet. Far from the reach of the Union or Earth’s damnable Light Shamans. The Humans had been playing dumb. She would not fall for the same tricks. They had given the Bardaxians a giant technological advantage. From what she observed of the smaller ships darting in and out to rescue civilians from the chaos.

She found a sizable ledge.

This shell husk must not be examined. She spoke the releasing word.

The wind whipping through her hair as she fell.

Awaking in a Sensate Pool.

The fires of Tarkanan heating the ghostly white liquid. Her husband already handing her a weapon. “Dress. Set has played us all for fools. That cannot stand. No matter how favored of Unity he is.” She had liked that shell. She smirked as her husband wrapped a robe around her. “Worried I'll catch my death?” His crimson eyes flashed with flecks of gold. Then cooled once more. “Behave my dear.”

Her caustic laughter filled the chamber. “By your command!”

*****

Lotah pulled his wife along.

Hand gripping her’s tight. His stomach turned at the sight of the pale Typherian woman walking towards the terrace ledge. Danger sparked in that woman’s eyes. His daughter, C’yah, buried her head in his shoulder as mother and father sprinted towards the nearest evac point. A small sphere of olive green turned the corner. <>

Kath’rym, formerly of the 3rd House Ordus Auxiliary, shouted a warning.

“LIVING STONE!”

Lotah shifted. Maneuvering his daughter onto his back. While his wife pulled out her service let’ah, a raytracer to the human tongue. Its boiling yellow beams cut into the leading abomination. While the green ball spun. Opening up microarrays against the enemy. A surprising weapon for a combatant of that size. A heavy war staff appeared in Lotah’s hands. Brought forth from the segmented pieces within his jacket. Energy humming as each piece clicked into place. Lotah braced himself. Their daughter chanted. A small pillar of light raining down from the heavens.

Her bright brown and black eyes were vacant.

Lotah’s body filled with renewed vigor.

He had heard of the legends but never thought his daughter would possess the skill of the Light Sages. A man clothed in Muthra gear added to the battlefield chaos. His chants combining with his daughter’s.

*****

Arthon motioned for the family to follow as the last Living Stone creature exploded into a fine dust. He had arrived with the Expansion Fleet. Exo Mars 1. The Hammer of Illarium. Taleer pulled them all into a military-grade shuttle. “Brace yourselves for chop ahead. The sky is raining Living Stone. Seems Unity doesn’t want people to escape from the Soul Stealer.” They watched as the Stealer broke through the atmosphere around Typha. An ethereal white tiger dragging it towards the binary suns.

C’yah pointed.

“The White Defender has found the heart. The souls are breaking free!”

Her voice was oddly calm.

Kath’rym gasped. A silver thread emerged from the giant’s head.

A figure pulled at gangrenous muscle.

*****

Ghostly faces shouted into the void.

Scion! Blood of C’alain! Save us!

I yanked the membranes of the heart. Ligaments broke apart as I used the heft of my spear as leverage. I knew I was closer to the core of its horrific power source when the black scrawl flowed overhead. Sizzling on the barriers of my White Defender armor. C’alain borrowed my voice, “Back to the shadow with you. Deceiver of all!” Spirits that made up segments of the Wall joined us. His former guardians.

No, not just the Wall surrounding Typha. C’alain had linked it to the Ouroborous itself.

I shouted, “No more innocents for you!”

I drove the tip of the spear through the blighted green mass at the apex of the dark heart.

A tidal wave of souls phased through me. Impressions too fleeting to take in all at once.

Carrying me away to another place and time.

Altar of the Three

Typha

The 3rd Age

C’alain remained motionless. The starships carrying the last of the Light Sages beyond the orbit of the Twin Suns. Hextor of House Urraden strode forward but was blocked by Ayeer knights. Their plasma swords were trained on the upstart. Urraden howled, “You go too far, King!” The last word slurred.

The man was drunk. His eyes were bloodshot.

C’alain replied harshly, “The Waters of this place were befouled even before we rose from huts built beside crystalline shores. You would do well to remember that Hextor!”

He pushed past the guards.

Using matter manipulation to sink them partially through the bedrock of metal and stone.

C’alain sidestepped the sloppy charge. With a flick of his wrist, merged Hextor up to his neck in borrowed materials. From the heraldry dangling along the walls to the very blades of his guards. Deactivated of course. Ayeer shook his head sadly at the lumbering oaf. “Do not make the same mistake your Uncle did young steward of House Urraden.”

I gawked at the splendor. Just how much history had my mother’s people lost?

A silver-hued C’alain reached out. Pointing at a slender white spire in the distance.

His voice low, “We have forgotten much. I will show you.”

I glanced at Hextor. His face was reminiscent of the All-Father’s. Golden eyes and all.

I asked, “Weren't they all banished?”

C’alain frowned, “Most.” He didn’t elaborate but beckoned me.

“Walk the Path of the Ancients.”

I responded, “Beware that Path. The Ruins of Old rest there. Unbound by time.”

He smiled, “Correct answer.”

The world faded away until all I could see was C’alain’s piercing blue eyes.

We will talk again my child. Blood of my Blood.

Altar of the Three

United Earth Front Universe

A pale man raised his head to the starless sky. Lunar lights illuminated the ancient palace of worship. Dressed in long flowing green and gray robes. His black hair cut military-grade short. As he rose his pitch-black eyes rested on the central figure, “I will not fail you. Though my blood is lacking!”

Three sets of golden eyes stared back.

Silent.