Sovereign Servants - The Sending (VIRGIN EARTH Book 1)

by W. C. Jasper

  Yaakub, who was now eight feet away, started slowly walking towards Akini. Akini took a stance with her half-open left hand in front of her chin, and her right hand in front of her belly like a shield. Her left hand stayed loose and ready to strike, and her right shoulder stayed locked in like an anchor. Yaakub continued to walk very slowly with no concern, as if he were taking a stroll in his backyard. As he reached within two feet of Akini, every bone in her body tensed up and her mind started racing and her eyes bounced everywhere wondering where his attack would come from. No such thing happened.

  Akini was now befuddled trying to ascertain what his intention was. But Yaakub indifferently walked over to her and simply stood still at a distance of one foot. Akini, who was substantially shorter than him, had to stretch her neck to look up at him and into his eyes. Yaakub’s eyes spoke only one thing - nothing. It was not a special occurrence, for his eyes always spoke nothing. Standing only one foot apart, Akini’s entire body was now proactively making preparations for attacks coming from all sides. But no such thing happened.

  After about six whole seconds of anxiety, Akini decided to take control of the situation. She launched a barrage of extremely fast punches. As the disturbance in the air from her punches reached him, Yaakub finally took a defensive stance. He evaded and blocked her attacks with no change to his signature, expressionless eyes. Akini continued her barrage of punches for about 45 seconds, after which; still blocking and dodging her attacks, Yaakub started moving forward. The moment he started moving forward, Akini decided to capitalise on the opportunity.

  As Yaakub took a step forward, Akini launched a right-handed punch at his face which he dodged by moving his head to his left. Now that his vision on the right side was partially blocked with her right hand, she launched an open left palm with straight fingers and curled-in thumb at his kidneys. As Yaakub moved his right hand to swat away her left hand, he did not know that taking advantage of the blocked vision that her right hand ensured, she had also launched her right leg straight at his shoulder with enough power to neutralise his shoulder. The kick was perfectly hidden in his blind spot.

  But his exceptionally well-developed fighting instinct could still pick it up with his other senses. With a swift move, he blocked the kick with his left hand and swatted away her left palm with his right hand at the same time. While any other fighter might have taken a second to reel in the astonishment of him being able to block both attacks, Akini did something else. Akini was built differently. Akini was as tenacious and relentless as a human being could be. As soon as he blocked both attacks, Akini redirected her blocked right leg into the ground and rolled into a cartwheel to her right. Yaakub hopped back a foot and waited patiently for her next move.

  Yaakub’s gaze was as unimpressed as ever. But Akini’s eyes spoke very clearly that she was formulating a plan that she was sure would work. Akini stretched a little and practised a few acrobatic moves that Yaakub never thought were possible. All the soldiers standing around and witnessing the fight in absolute silence let out a huge gasp as they watched her inhuman acrobatics moves.

  Prince Jared rubbed his hands together violently and said with a sparkle in his eyes, “This feast is about to heat up, Uncle!”

  Lieutenant Hana showed up on a horse and announced without dismounting, “King Jeraash and Lieutenant Yaakub are required for an urgent matter in the 8th district. The message comes from General Feniro and General Eraami.”

  General Thayman threw up his hands in the air and declared in disappointment, “EVERY TIME!” He turned his head to Prince Jared and shaking his head, spoke, “Even when you make the most impossible bets, you either end up winning by some miracle or just like this you get saved somehow! I can understand you winning the good bets, but this! It is just unfair for you to get away with this!”

  Yaakub put on his clothes as Akini snarled like a tigress who was being forced to let go of her prey. King Jeraash signalled for his horse and started moving towards Lieutenant Hana, and as he crossed General Thayman, he spoke in a low voice, “He had no intention of winning the bet. He truly did make the bet only in the spirit of bearing confidence in his pupil.”

  General Thayman responded with a loud, hearty laugh, “A man who has never lost a single of the multiple hundreds of bets he has made risking it all for ‘the spirit of bearing confidence in his pupil’… that is certainly our Prince, isn’t it?”

  Prince Jared yelled out, “We are done for today. You would not have been able to land a hit anyway.” Akini was furious at the Prince undermining her in front of everyone and put on her clothes, breathing heavily in anger. General Thayman whispered in the Prince’s ear, “Hmm… Based on the fact that you would bet on her behind her back and undermine her publicly, I am guessing this one feeds more on negative reinforcements than positive…” Prince Jared turned to him with a tight smile and nodded as General Thayman added, “She sure reminds me of you when you were a child. Do not misunderstand me, she is quite different from you in a lot of things, yet… in some sense… you two really could be peas from the same pod. No… Let me correct myself. You two are more like two different fruits from the same garden! Yes… That is more accurate.”

  As the Prince, Akini, and General Thayman walked to the Royal Palace; Akini snarled in irritation, “How can you say I would not have landed a single hit on him?”

  General Thayman turned to her and gave her a stern look as she added, “My Prince.”

  Prince Jared replied, “I’ve already told you about the supernatural abilities that the royal blood of the House of Rash-Yaph gives us. So, tell me, how do you think it is that Queen Maomi was an equal to me and my brother as a warrior even before becoming a part of the Royal Family? How do you think people like Yaakub hope to fight monsters like us one day? They specialise in evading attacks. Queen Maomi is marginally slower than me, and yet she is better than me at evading attacks. I will choose to block or redirect attacks quite often in fights due to the supernatural durability my body has had since birth. But Queen Maomi grew up without that. She trained for years being aware of the powers we have. Knowing this, she understood that in order to rival the greatest warriors, she would have to master dodging attacks far better than others. She trained herself strategically to bridge the gap between her and the people who have such abilities. Which is why even today, extremely rarely will she have to resort to blocking an attack. You, on the other hand, think that your intensity will suffice for achieving everything. Do not get me wrong, I appreciate your uniqueness more than anyone else, even yourself. But, you also need to learn the concept of covering the weaknesses in your walls. A fortress that has impenetrable walls on all ends except for one hole is effectively a vulnerable fortress. Your natural talent of heightened focus during battle is ludicrously powerful. That focus of yours is probably as good as mine. That is the reason you were able to get Yaakub in that first exchange against him. His physical speed is far greater than yours, but because of your supreme focus, your mental speed gives you a great advantage. But once Yaakub had gauged you and had gotten serious, you had no chance. Well, technically, I believe you had about a 22.4 percent chance. But we should not count that, because that 22.4 percent chance is only because of your supreme focus, tenacity, and how those two things enable you to come up with miraculous strategies right in the middle of an intense battle. And while that is pretty much a supernatural power to have in a battle, that is not the way to prepare yourself to be a warrior. While it will enable you to defeat warriors who are better than you to a certain extent, and sometimes even warriors far better than you such as Yaakub; it will never help you become an elite warrior.”

  The last day of the next week, Prince Jared set apart the entire second half of the day for his two-year-old daughter. The night fell very early that night, and at the end of the nineteenth hour, the sky began an unimaginably beautiful dance of lights. Prince Jared took his little Princess to the terrace of the Royal Palace and found the King and Queen to be standing on the
eastern end of the terrace, enjoying the sky’s enchanting performance. At the sight of their backs with the Queen leaning on the King’s shoulder, Prince Jared smiled with all his heart. It brought warmth to his body, soul, and spirit to see his brother have all the joy he deserved. He stood still for a few seconds etching an everlasting image of that moment in his soul. Suddenly Princess Jeniah woke up with a short burst of cry. King Jeraash and Queen Maomi turned around and their faces lit up in delight at seeing them. Queen Maomi spoke with an excited voice, “Come here darling! Come quick! We would not want to miss a second of this! Today’s sky-dance is exceptionally beautiful!” Prince Jared smiled a faint smile from the depths of his being as he spoke under his breath, “It really is… If only you could see this moment through my eyes, you would know how beautiful it truly is…”

  Prince Jared was shirtless (for he was pretty much always shirtless while at home).

  Queen Maomi: “For the sake of the dignity of the Royal Family, learn to put on a shirt once in a while!”

  Prince Jared lowered his head and spoke in a shameful voice, “I’m sorry… But would it at all be possible for me to have the terrace to myself tonight?”

  Queen Maomi’s eyes filled with concern, but King Jeraash replied at once with a gentle smile, “My Prince shall have anything he desires. He can do anything he wants except apologise to me. Retract it.”

  Prince Jared chuckled and replied, “Yes Brother, I retract it.”

  Queen Maomi kissed the Prince on his forehead, and then kissed Princess Jeniah’s forehead as King Jeraash spoke, “I will bring up your ebony-mahogany guitar and Jeniah’s rocking crib, give me five minutes.”

  Prince Jared: “As if all the greatness you have weren’t enough… Sathyam had to give you the ability to read minds too… Heh!”

  King Jeraash proceeded to kiss the Prince’s cheek and then the Princess, and the King and Queen surrendered the terrace to him. In about four minutes, King Jeraash appeared with the Prince’s ebony-mahogany guitar and Princess Jeniah’s crib that the King had designed himself. He quickly handed it to him and rushed away at once after kissing him and the Princess once again. Princess Jeniah’s rocking crib was one of King Jeraash’s greatest creations. It had taken him 50 days to make it, he had sculpted every last piece of design on it with the utmost care and attention. Prince Jared’s guitar was a very unique one. Unlike any of the guitars of those days, he had crafted it with an ebony fretboard, striped ebony top, mahogany sides, and koa back. This was a very unusual pairing of woods that the Prince had put together for a dark, deep, and sombre voice that he enjoyed.

  Prince Jared lay the Princess on her rocking crib and convinced her to lie down quietly and enjoy the sky-dance. It truly was one of the most beautiful sky-dances of that century. The sky had far too many stars, eight other distinctly visible celestial bodies with an overlay of a curtain of green light that was brushed over with patches of blue light that covered about 20 percent of the green light. It was a slow dance that made it appear as if the blue light was unwittingly overpowering the green light and the green light enjoying it, yielded to it willingly and succumbed. Prince Jared tuned his guitar and started to sing.

  Chapter Eight

  Old Wounds And New Talents

  SHAR 3305

  As Prince Jared and King Jeraash stepped out of the house, they looked at the unusual weather and thought to themselves, “Of course…”

  Dressed in their ‘in-house clothes’, they descended the steps of the verandah and walked to the northern side of the palace. Walking along the sides of the enormous palace, they arrived at a valakaram tree inside the compound walls of the palace. Valakaram trees had the thickest and the strongest trunks in all the Earth and at the top of their trunks, the branches spread out like a banyan tree. The trunk of an average valakaram tree was big enough to have a diameter of 35 feet. The biggest valakaram trees had trunks with a diameter of up to 65 feet. Every branch emerging from the trunk was immensely thick and as strong as an individual small tree. Every branch had countless little, thick plants growing out of them, which gave the crown of the tree an extremely bushy and thick appearance. A thick enough appearance that even the smallest of birds could hide inside the crown of the tree and become completely invisible to the outside world. They bore no fruits and had no prop roots.

  This particular tree had a trunk that was 27 feet in diameter, and its crown was about 80 feet in diameter.

  Lady Heidi Rabek Cordiam arrived on time, “Blessings, My King, My Prince.” Her sky-blue eyes sparkled and her porcelain-pink skin shone white under the unusually faint morning sun. Her short, straight, blonde hair danced violently under the strangely wild winds of this queer morning. At the age of 61, Lady Heidi Cordiam was in her physical prime. She had no skill or prowess in combat, but she carried great wisdom. Apart from being the King’s and Prince’s foremost choice for spiritual guidance, she also held a special connection with the two brothers. She was the only female spiritual leader in Jerudia. More importantly, she was the only spiritual leader that the House of Rash-Yaph trusted without any reservations. And even more importantly, despite not believing in Jerudia’s God and being untethered from the spiritual practices of Jerudia; Prince Jared always willingly submitted himself to and obeyed her spiritual leadership. Apart from being bound by her unreserved love, Prince Jared also believed her to be genuinely selfless and an infinitely kind person.

  The King and Prince bowed gently with their right hands on their chest and greeted her.

  “We wouldn’t want anyone to see the King and Prince bowing to me,” said Lady Heidi and flashed her hallmark smile that had a comforting effect even on the most tough-shielded strangers.

  King Jeraash replied as he released his bow, “Bowing to the second-most important spiritual leader in Jerudia. And as far as we are concerned, the only trustworthy spiritual leader.” He put his hands on her arms and kissed her cheek as she reciprocated the greeting, “I do not care if anyone has a problem with this. And moreover,” he shrugged, “I am the king. I could always just banish them from the Kingdom.”

  The three of them laughed as Lady Heidi kissed King Jeraash’s hand. She then proceeded to greet Prince Jared in identical fashion, but the kiss on the hand was replaced with a kiss on his forehead; as always.

  Lady Heidi spoke with her abnormally kind voice, “So, what are we doing here? If you wanted a private conversation, I think the inside of the palace would have been better.”

  King Jeraash: “Follow us please, My Lady.”

  King Jeraash walked up to the trunk of the tree as his brother and Lady Heidi followed him. Upon reaching the foot of the gigantic trunk of the tree, he rubbed his hand against the trunk and caught a brown rope that was perfectly camouflaged against the tree trunk. It was quite obvious that the rope was painted to specifically camouflage against the surface of the trunk. He pulled the rope and it immediately released a rope ladder from the crown of the tree. A ladder with rope on the sides and tight leather rungs that provided the best stability possible. Lady Heidi looked to Prince Jared for answers, but received only a nod and a blink requesting patience. As she watched the King and Prince enter what was clearly a treehouse, she heard voices of joyous greetings from inside.

  She followed the brothers and entered to find that it was not just a treehouse, but a truly huge treehouse. King Jeraash had taken full advantage of all the space available and built a tremendously spacious treehouse. The overly thick and bushy leaf-structure of the crown allowed him to cut out the inside of the crown for a diameter of 70 feet and still have the tree look like a completely ordinary valakaram tree.

  Lady Heidi looked around and marvelled at the unbelievably beautiful architecture of the treehouse. Standard procedure for anyone witnessing King Jeraash’s handiwork. She looked around and noticed that the wood used was of various colours and textures. The planks of woods of various trees were put together strategically for aesthetic pleasure. But such was the work of King Jeraash�
�s hands that to call it perfection would have been an insult. Apart from the incredible woodwork, the house was decorated with numerous oliones (lights) of white and yellow.

  Oliones were one of the best examples of nature’s superior providence in the young, undefiled Earth of SHAR. Oliones served as a far superior and more sustainable alternative to our electricity and fire-based lights. They were stones that emitted light in darkness, under the moonlight, or under the light emitted by other oliones. However, under the sun and any light born of fire, they were completely ordinary stones. Oliones were generally round, and came in all sizes and colours except black. The light they emitted ranged from faint to extremely powerful lights. They were used to craft torches, light-based ornaments, and decorative and festive lightings. But the oliones in this room were housed in a glass prism of unusual shapes. Unusual, but beautifully designed for dispersing light in an enchanting manner. Even custom-designed to shape the dispersal of light according to shape and size of each room. These particular creations were a display of the Prince’s creativity. Lady Heidi also noticed that a lot of the oliones were covered up to control the amount of light in the rooms.

  The unmatched beauty of the interior of the house designed by the King mesmerised Lady Heidi to an extent that it took her quite a few seconds to notice the three women standing in the house. One of the women was a maidservant from the Royal Palace that Lady Heidi recognised. She greeted her, “Blessings, Miss Nafisa.”