Ghosts of Lyarra Read online

  —

  Lyarran Throne World Havyiin

  Iana felt a cold chill over her skin as she lay in bed; a chill that she had not felt in ages. It wasn’t caused by the wind or a change in temperature; it was a reaction to something her body was telling her was happening. Quickly, she sat up and rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and legs; the touch of her fingers on her naked skin was soothing and helped ease the almost creepy sensation she struggled to understand.

  Most times, the Empress would have visions that told her the future course of things, but lately they had been quiet. Aen had been the cause of that; ripples across the ocean of the universe had muddled the reflections of what was yet to come for her to see. Without these visions, she felt exposed and helpless; unable to regain control of an Empire spinning so rapidly out of her reaches. But this, this was a feeling she had felt before.

  Her mind raced to remember; ten thousand years of memories began to sort rapidly in her mind’s eye. Then she locked into it; the last time she felt this chill was when Bryx - a refugee from his young life in slavery - had stumbled upon the shores of the world of endless oceans and found by those who had raised her. They had delivered him to her a short time later; first as a protector and then later as a confidant and a friend. It was the last time someone had ever set foot on the lost planet of the Prophets!

  She searched out with her mind and heart; trying to connect with the one who now stood on the forbidden shores. Even she didn’t know how to find the planet, but her fears were that someone had landed there with evil intentions. The Prophets had no way of defending themselves; no weapons to fight off whatever would mean to harm them. It took a few moments, but she felt herself guided in her search as a feeling of helping hands brought her down on the blue pearl of a planet and landed her at the top of a stairwell looking down at a being dressed in the armor of a Forgotten.

  Iana’s heart sank; the Prophets were no match for a warrior of the assassin’s capabilities! Then she watched as the creature began the climb and as it closed in on where she stood and noted that the faceless helmet that left the Guild killer anonymous was not being worn. The being was not one of the Forgotten, but was dressed as one for some reason. Time sped up once more and the man stood just two steps down from her. Iana recognized him almost immediately and her fear faded quickly!

  Before her stood Aen, but he did not see her as he usually did when she visited him as such. Instead, he seemed to be wrestling emotionally with something internal she could not see. His mind was blocked from her, the Prophets chose to keep his thoughts from her. As he started to climb the last two stairs, Iana felt herself whisked away and gently placed back in her body. Once more she was in her bed back on Havyiin and alone in the dark of her chamber; more puzzled than alarmed now. Just as she was about to reach out to Aen once more to learn why he was there, a voice spoke in her mind as she did to others.

  “Darkness grows in the light of Lyarra; the Gods watch but do not intervene.” It whispered to her. “The Harbinger comes to us to mend what is broken, but will not find the salvation from his struggle. It is only after all you know has ended, that you both will find what is lost together. You will watch your death from afar as you sift through the ashes of a dark past to conquer the storm that rages across Lyarra’s grace.”

  A tear fell from her eye; the Prophets had spoken to her and showed her what she could no longer see. She remembered one of the visions she had of him ending her reign as Empress and saw the symmetry with what had been just told to her. All she knew was about to change forever, but like Aen she would be able to be freed from the pain by a death that wasn’t. Maybe together, the two of them would find peace and an adventure unlike anything she could foresee.

  —

  Nammaran; the Lost Planet of the Prophets

  Aen could feel them aware of his presence, but they did nothing to acknowledge him as he entered the temple. Slowly and quietly, he moved towards the motionless and meditating robed figures. There were no recognizable features on these creatures he could use to identify what race they were; they were draped from head to toe with long, hooded robes with not an ounce of flesh revealed. No light penetrated the opening of the hood and no reflections of eyes shone back at him; for all Aen knew they were nothing but ghosts!

  “We are not ghosts, Aen of Terra Sol.”

  He heard the whispers of their collective voices coming from all directions. The sound of their voices surrounded him entirely and triggered an immediate defensive stature.

  “Your might and power is useless here. Only peace and understanding have sway in the temple lands.” The voices spoke in unison. “Come forward and ask your questions, for you have travelled long to ask them. The only thing that can harm you here is the truth and that will guide you to where you are needed next.”

  “Where am I needed next?” he asked in response to the cryptic message spoken before.

  “That is not what you came to ask, Harbinger.”

  Aen paused; this was an awkward situation. They obviously knew his questions, but yet waited for him to ask them before answering. He carefully began to choose his words before speaking once more.

  “What am I?”

  “You are what you were born to be.”

  It wasn’t the answer he wanted.

  “I was born a man, yet that is not what I am now.”

  “Fate has chosen you to be much more than what you remember of yourself. As the fires cleanse the Empire, it is you who will show it how to go on in the face of tragedy.”

  “Fate didn’t make me what I am, so what am I?”

  “You are the end of what is, and the light to show what will be.”

  This was going nowhere fast; the answers were cryptic and anything but clear. Aen decided to move on to the next question.

  “Why can’t I remember anything?” he tried next.

  “Because you cannot open your eyes to see it.”

  None of this was making sense and it was beginning to frustrate him.

  “Every step to find your answers opened your eyes to what you cannot see. The journey held the answers you so sorely search for yet you cannot see past your eyes to see the truth.”

  More hidden messages; more puzzles to solve that would give him headaches later. Aen was not impressed with what he was finding here.

  “The past lies in the dust under your feet; it cannot help you now, yet it shaped what you are and guides you to what you must do next. In the ashes of your past you find only pain and loss; but in the here and now you can reach out to the falling star of kindness. There is one that needs you to help her more than you need your answers.”

  “Iana.” He answered. “How can I help the great Empress of the Lyarran Empire?”

  “By killing her before those in the shadows do. By setting her free so she too can find herself.”

  “You want me to kill Iana; the Empress?” Aen hollered.

  “You must kill one to save the other. It is the only way to face the growing darkness. The God’s chose you for a reason; once you are whole again you will have all your answers. Before, you were struggling with your gifts and fighting your broken soul. Now you have forgotten that soul which made you formidable enough to defeat the impossible. Find what you left behind on Terra Sol and there you can show her what it means to live once more.”

  “There is treachery in the house we built, but the darkness holds its secrets even from us. Only when you are whole can you raze the house to the ground and purge the evil from its shadowy corners. Rebuild what has been lost; cleanse what has been tainted, and light the way for those to follow. This is why you were born Harbinger.”

  Before Aen could respond, he felt the wind pick up and swirl inside the temple; picking up the dust off the floor and making it impossible to see. The dust storm quickly rose, intensified to a near gale force, then faded away to nothingness in mere moments. When he was able to see again, he was all alone inside the temple that looked exactly the same as it did before
the storm. The Prophets were gone and he was left with more questions than answers, with the exception of one thing he hadn’t noticed when he first entered; a portable holo-link device! His borrowed ship wasn’t equipped with one, and he remembered reading that the Prophets would watch the Council sessions from time to time and this was how they did so. It couldn’t be a coincidence this was left here to find; coupled with the upcoming session in two weeks, he was positive they wanted him to observe it. So he scooped up the device and made his way to leave with his frustration over the lack of help still high. As he was out on the top step and preparing to teleport to his ship, he heard a whisper in his ear that almost made him fall down the mile high staircase in surprise.

  “To find an answer, you must know the beginning.”

  Aen’s head hurt, and he hoped that all these cryptic answers weren’t helping. All he knew is that he needed to watch the upcoming meeting, and that there he would get an answer of some kind. He was just hoping it would be one that he wanted.

  —

  Lyarran Flag Ship, Lyarra’s Fire

  He disliked being in the Empress’ chamber without her, but Bryx had to investigate the malfunctioning sensor alarm. It had roused him from his slumber in the palace below and now irritated for losing what little sleep he did get, his irritation slowly became frustration as his search was turning up nothing. It wasn’t like something could hide in a room lit as brightly as this, so he was beginning to think it was an electronic failure. The chambers were completely sealed off from the rest of the ship and under constant guard, so an intruder was ludicrous to say the least; or so he thought. He looked about the suite, starting with the bed chambers. Nothing was out of place in the massive bed that would swallow him whole and still have room for more to join him. The silken sheets of gold and silver remained untouched as the bed was made perfectly. The walk-in closet was full of clothes and darkness; nothing dangerous in there. The lounge area was searched next and once more, nothing was out of the norm. Last, he walked through the command and control room; the place where Iana spent the majority of her time aboard the Lyarra’s Fire. In the center of the room was a throne; sitting high upon a pedestal that stood above the rest of the room that was rarely ever sat in. It was the one seat in here that she hated, and only sat there for official business by the holo-net. The walls were blank; the display system that showed the different star maps and the display of the galaxy were powered down in her absence. There was nothing here! Bryx was about to leave the chamber when a voice behind him made him freeze in his tracks.

  “I figured it would be you to check up on the disturbance.” The familiar voice called out.

  Bryx turned abruptly; instinct had him on guard the instant the first syllable was spoken and even though he recognized the voice he was still uneasy about him being in this place. Leaning at the back of the room by the bedroom he had already checked was Aen; not the weak and abandoned creature he had rescued three years back, but the hardened and seemingly dangerous being he had now become. Adorned with the armor of the Forgotten, which he had obviously obtained after his incident with them on the lonely station. Aen simply stared back at him with his churning black eyes brimmed with a ring of blue fire. It was a stare that made the mighty Bryx a little fearful.

  “You are not allowed here!” Bryx’s voice boomed in the sealed room.

  “A ghost is not subject to the rules of the Empire, or those of anyone else.” Aen said smugly.

  “You are anything but a ghost, and you know that!” Bryx fired back. “But of all the places to blindly appear, why do you show up here?”

  “Straight and to the point!” Aen smiled. “There’s no getting off topic with you; I like that! I am here because I knew you would come; I am here because the Prophets asked me to intervene.”

  “Intervene?” Bryx was puzzled. “Explain yourself whelp?”

  “You see it all around you now; the shadows that loom over her are great and threatening. Sooner or later they will either consume her or destroy her if nothing is done. I have met the puppets - the Forgotten have turned against their master - but even I cannot pierce the veil of darkness to see the puppeteer; at least not yet.”

  Aen was right, there was danger that Bryx knew of though he could not stop. Iana was exposed and the center of all the growing disdain in the Empire. It frustrated the J’Karin; he was used to stopping all threats before they could gain traction, but this one had grown so large so quietly there was no way to see and react to what had started it. He needed help, though he was not sure if he could trust this creature yet.

  “And what do you plan on doing?”

  “To be honest I hadn’t planned on helping at all until the Prophets asked, and their instructions took me until I arrived here to figure out. It is simple what has to be done; brutal but effective.”

  “I’m not sure where this is going, but I don’t like the direction it’s headed; get to the point.”

  “The point is we have to strike before the enemy does.” Aen stood straight and walked towards the giant. “The point is we have to do what they aim to do, and do it more dramatically than they would. You and I have to save Iana, but in doing so we have to kill the Empress!”

  The instant the words were uttered, Bryx lunged forward and wrapped his claws around Aen’s neck. To even entertain such an act was against his very being, so he struck out at the new threat. But instead of a soft and breakable neck beneath his claws, the J’Karin felt hardened stone as his new adversary barely flinched at the attack. The more he squeezed, the less he felt his actions were effective. After a few seconds, Bryx felt his body being pushed away by some unseen hand; a force greater than he had ever felt, moved the thousand pound mammoth backwards and separated him from Aen.

  “Now that you have that out of your system, maybe you will let me continue.” Aen said calmly; feeling no ill effects from the mighty guardian’s assault.

  He was beaten before he even started; the greatest threat to his ward stood before him and Bryx was helpless against it. For the first time in his life he felt defeated. A data pad fell at his feet; tossed to him by Aen. He picked it up and looked intently at the display; his despair turned to complete confusion.

  “Tell me my giant friend, how can we initiate these emergency protocols without being found out and how quickly can we do it? I believe the enemy will strike at the Council meeting and our window to act is closing each minute we stand idle.”

  TWO

  Lyarran Vessel: Dark Light

  Imperial Shipyards of Thsin

  She hated these meetings; there were so many things she would rather be doing than standing in the midst of those power hungry meddlers, but Lyxia knew it was her duty to represent her ship in the Lyarran Grand Council. As much as it was a pain in the ass - and it was a major one - it was a necessary pain that needed to be done. But lately it had felt she was the last sane being in an insane era; the meetings had begun to take an ominous tone.

  For two years, she had attended these meetings while orbiting Terra Sol as her ship - the Dark Light - underwent massive repairs from the battle against the Husk. For a short time, her heroics had made her a bit of a celebrity in the Council halls from afar, but as time wore on the heroic light faded. Once able to use her jump space engines, the Dark Light returned to the shipyards of Thsin in the Lyarran home system and her crew was given leave as the retrofit resumed in greater detail. Over the next three years, Lyxia was stuck at home on Pax, wishing she was out amongst the stars looking for Aen. She had fallen deeply in love with him over their brief encounters; feelings she didn’t understand at all.

  The Empress had tried to reason with her; she tried to explain the intricacies of the heart and how such small instances could ignite the most powerful of emotions in anyone. But Lyxia remained in shock over it all; her heart longed for her to join the search for the lost Harbinger though the Goddess long preached there would be nothing to find. So she sank into depression and threw herself into her duty. Lyx
ia turned herself off emotionally and went into automatic, to the dismay of Iana and all her friends. Three years passed like the wind and now the Dark Light was ready to rejoin the Fleet amongst the galaxy.

  But as she readied herself for this meeting, she couldn’t shake the odd feeling that something was wrong. There were only a few other times she had felt like this in her life; the day her family had been slaughtered by the Husk on their colony had been the last. She awoke with this feeling in her gut long before the horrible news had been given to her. Now as she paced the holo-link chamber, Lyxia wondered what dread awaited her today. It was evident that there was trouble brewing, but it wasn’t a trouble she was accustomed or trained to deal with. Instead of a physical opponent she was faced with a political one; and despite her prowess in battle Lyxia was helpless in this arena.

  It had all started with a whisper; dark tidings of reform in the shadows of the halls of the Grand Council. At the time, she had dismissed them as musings of bitter old hags that longed for more power. These whispers had always existed. They were faceless and held no weight; at least they hadn’t until now. Then came Aen, and the faceless hags now had a weapon to exact their dark plans. And with his disappearance came desperation; a race to find the missing weapon in an attempt to hold the key to sitting upon the Throne of Light. No one would say it aloud, but Lyxia knew that was the next step; Iana’s time on the throne was coming to an end and Lyxia was sure it would be a sudden and tragic one.

  It was only a matter of time; Iana had ruled flawlessly for over ten thousand years. In that time she had grown the Lyarran Empire to great proportions, led them in times of war with the Husk and countless other rogue worlds, and nurtured her people to become worthy of the Gods themselves. But now that was being forgotten; the quest for power always made those who seek it short sighted. For her part, she stayed away from the whispers and schemers; if the end of an era was upon them Lyxia wanted nothing to do with the regime that would replace this one with dark intentions. She wasn’t the only one that felt this way, the J’Karins had also began to distance themselves from the Council; so much so that many felt the already quiet giants were threatening to secede from the Empire as a whole. There were other worlds that shared similar opinions, though quiet with their thoughts; and then there was Terra Sol.