Tales of Reign

by M E Wise

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  Reign Chapter 3

  “Commitment and Rite”

  Massive archways repeat as the spiral stairway climbs around the Cathedraline seemingly going on forever. I find it reminiscent to an Earthen temple called Pisa in its openness, something in that towers design left it leaning out of plumb. I am not an architect and some Earthen design is too strange for me to grasp, leaving their mistake absent to me; much like this cathedral to the Mor’h past, maybe they had some grand effect in mind. The bowl shape of the Cathedraline, the largest building in the Mor’h city is supported by huge buttresses.

  I find it interesting that there is no tram line or fast travel walk way into this great place. I have been walking upward and circling for thirty minutes now. The stadium-like nature of the Cathedraline narrows slightly toward the top as seen from a distance. I have spent many an evening gazing at it from my quarters, imagining the going’s on there, here. Somehow I knew I was destined to be brought before the Tah’l council, either for being the alien hybrid or in more fanciful dreams a significant person of great respect. Yet no matter the case I am requested like the sequestered being I am. I humorously considered not showing in a timely manner just to see what happens! But that would be unwise.

  I suppose the one pleasant element of this precipice is the changing view. The circular Mor’h city line does not vary much by design. Everything sort of cascades from the Cathedraline out. Beyond the city are the plains and scattered bodies of water. The River Pathe, one of the longest rivers on Mor’h flows by the entire eastern side of the Mor’h city and away from the direct southern edge of the commons there. I have never traveled the length of it, maps end it into a series of tributaries emptying into one the largest body of water named the Livewell Sea. From this height I can barely make out an end to the plains much less the forest and river. Even further across the sea is the Great Sands; a desert of dry earth far and wide.

  Nearing the top I finally see an entrance to the Cathedraline. A large portico waits at the end of the final archways; as large as it is, it is still engulfed by the pathway and arches. I feel a link being created and before I can identify the source, images and a series of pilgrimage-like events flood my mind one after another. Each a different being who traveled the route up the spiral path. As I begin to sense something new, something unlike what I know of the Mor’h, the sharing is ended.

  “I am Designat Kae’Lo, Reign.” States an ornately robed Lo’Mor’h.

  I nod and wait for his next offering, somewhat taken aback by the attire. Every Mor’h I have known were very minimal in their nature and their expression, this person had a near sneer at my presence and an almost posh demeanor. The brightly colored tunic fit snug and the Lo’Mor’h escort wore heels. Was this some sort of sect or class thing? I’m afraid to ask.

  The impatient escort began walking and talking without notice. “Did the path console you?”

  “Console me?” I asked puzzled. “The climb of it had a nice view and I thought of architecture. I’m uncertain what you are asking?”

  I feel Kae’Lo’s disappointment. “The path and the climb is a rite of passage. All Mor’h must climb it once to reveal the entrance. They all must console themselves in the ascent of any persistent emotion that can contaminate the sharing here.” He huffed as if burdened with the lowly job of escorting someone unwanted.

  I chuckled a bit at the notion. Noticing the irritation at my reaction I explained.” I am honored at the invitation. And I have come empty to receive the council of the Tah’l. I mean no offense. The door was revealed to me so maybe I did something right.” My sarcasm wasn’t delivered well but I couldn’t see the nature of a direct path to a dead-end as some sort of trial or test.

  “How simple you are! The path is always here. The door we passed through always there. It is the entrance at the bottom that will appear to you if you learn from the rite.” Scoffed Kae’Lo as if to put me in my final place. He stood smugly waiting for some retort.

  “Magic then!” I laughed. “It’s somewhat over the top.”

  It is a rare thing to see anger on a Lo’Mor’h and I had successfully pulled the right strings. His lower eyelids raised high on his large pale eyes, the striped black iris’ drew closed and the pinpointed effect flashed with my impudence. “Human, the Mor’h make a commitment to climb this path as their first respect to the council. The door, revealed to you at the bottom, is a metaphorical boon! That they have allowed a non-council member new access to the chamber by giving you leave through the new door is a great reward. It is not expected nor is it even denied but it is a respect of our order!” His words spat forth with an eloquence rarely achieved in the spoken tongue of the Mor’h.

  “Some of this order do not believe in your right to do so. We Mor’h have survived in limited number by maintaining this respect for balance, for ceremony and avoiding the disillusion that comes with cultural contamination. In our existence, a non-Mor’h has never made council here.” Kae’Lo let slip his sharing and I felt some of his experience. “Should you fail here…” He stopped there. It was too late though. I knew how he felt. Not what he thought but how he felt!

  I now knew the first bigoted zealot left of the Mor’h. For all their teachings and preservation, they still harbored parts of what they believed they had removed. He hid his own values, should the word be so stretched by his use of some, generalizing that his opinion was shared. My person was offensive and to him I am nothing more than an experiment allowed to pretend a life. I am neither Human, which he perceived as some lesser monkey bent on war, incest and consumption; nor Mor’h. According to him Lo’Mor’h and Tah’l alike should shun my existence or even rectify me for whatever that meant.

  I quietly followed and hid my revelation well. We descended in an elevator of sorts about midway into the Cathedraline. The doors opened and an unusually high concentration of flowery smells filled the elevator. The interior was enormous, as if the entire purpose of the exterior climb and columns were to enclose and support this one area. There was no roof, just a shield of energy or some invisible material allowing for the sky above to be both ambient light and ever-changing ceiling. Columns up the sides were so tall and vast they carried the weight of the entire structure and seamlessly disappeared into the walls supporting the halo ceiling ring. The base level was a labyrinth of gardens and fountains, none blocking your line of sight until center.

  At center another cascade of rings and shapes raised into a larger fountain. Each ascending ring or shape held a variety of foliage that were married in harmonious arrangement. It felt holy, the most private of places. Kae’Lo had lead ahead several paces in my awe. I stepped for the first time into the Chamber and became anxiously aware that not one but all of the Tah’l sect were peering at me. Some looked toward me from open photo-electric screens and the Lo’Mor’h on those screens followed suit. The majority stood from busy places, either working on gardens or conversing in small groups but no matter the function they gave me total attention.

  They each stood seven feet at the least. They wore robes that hid their long thin frames; all but their arms or at least that was the most common look. Their robes flowed like drawings of fabric by Leonardo, an artist I found of exceptional note. Their necks extended as if exaggerated but somehow it was as proportionate to the whole. I locked stares with a Tah’l closer to me and although the eyes held the familiar Mor’h gaze, the face was elongated and this was pronounced further by a horn or thorn that grew from the chin downward. A line, as if by design traced from that point of the horn to the peak of the jutting crown that grew on top of his head. The Tah’l felt majestic.

  They began to gather in some sort of order. They didn’t lumber or move robotically like the Lo’Mor’h, they flowed or floated with a gliding stride, something I believe carefully considered in the craft of their wear. Before I realized it the elevator behind me had receded and the area closed to make a circle that encompassed the chamber. The Tah’l all lined the circl
e behind some graphic wall similar to the personal photo-electric screens. Kae’Lo stood at center chamber and urged me forward. I moved cautiously and deliberately.

  The central fountain began to recede and telescope into the flooring. “There.” Said Kae’Lo as he walks away. I took my place and couldn’t help but feel this was unusually dramatic. Maybe this was some hint about the nature of gardens and how they all seem to say look at me. My podium and I raise slightly above the smaller gardens bringing me closer to eye level with the towering Tah’l which was settling. And then there was a long silent pause.

  I braced myself with the podium as a great number of minds began to link with mine. I have never experienced a sharing any larger than seven and it was taxing. In front of all present and above me images began to fill the room. Or did they fill my mind? First we jumped from solar system to solar system. Then we lingered on the Sol system as the image mapped out the growth of humanity. From their beginnings on Earth to the slow expansion to the moon and onto Mars, man took its time or at least didn’t focus on the exploration of outer space more than necessity.

  Years sprang forward like the 1950’s and 60’s space races. A moon colony was established in 2042 nearly a century later. Mars began colonization or at least a corporate land run began in 2070 causing images of conflict. All of their behavior was superseded for resources or competition. It was around this time that social consciousness grew worse by the Halfer crisis and my birth on the moon colony! Although it would seem only a select few knew of this happening.

  My parents, or genetic donors, were tied to politically intertwined and corporate military families. They were already involved in hostile takeovers and pushed hard for controlling expansion into space by applications vetted on social status. Their concerned partners had vast money invested into military sciences and resource allocation rights; like mineral and fuel. My birthplace on the lunar facility was the beginnings of an alliance vying to control that space militarily as a spring board and watch tower between Earth and Mars. Luna was declared a sovereign state.

  Upon my arrival in the universe humans were at a tipping point between controlling space or conquering space. The Mor’h had perceived this long ago as images of Earth’s recorded wars and senseless need for resource after resource was projected at such a high frequency I felt myself losing consciousness. The council felt this and ebbed back. Removing me in such an elaborate way further stoked the paranoid elite. They held quiet conferences and made decisions that effected the standards of social reform negatively effecting the Halfers and many more.

  “You took me and revealed yourselves to a paranoid race!” I struggled to remain standing. “Now they appear united or at least so fearful and threatened to that idea that they are foaming at the notion of being prepared for anything! You expected more from xenophobes?”

  Images of the moon base on Luna as it is today, were projected to the chamber center. I gaze upward and out at some bastardized pyramid structure with an obelisk like tower spiraling high above from its point. Landing strips and other buildings dot around it all connected by underground tunnels. War shuttles line the runways, but they only look like runways at first glance. They are giant landing pads for massive ships like space-faring battleships! The image pulls out to show these ships orbiting and patrolling the Sol system.

  “Are you asking me for a solution? I’m as much alien to them as you are!” I cried out.

  The images pull further back to the edge of the solar system. A familiar pattern is highlighted, only the scope is so enormous it encloses the system. An entire system! “You caged them and expected what? You played with their biology and their molecules with no explanation and you did not think of a repercussion?” Exhaustion is setting in faster than I can withstand. The array becomes a clean picture relayed back to the Mor’h Chamber. Captured debris from both space and Earthen origin fill the gaps and react to anything that passes between like a Venus flytrap to a fly. Meteorites, space dust, lost satellites of natural and manmade origin form an impassable barrier around the system beyond a dwarf planet called Pluto. Humorously a golf ball floats by the lens, apparently a remnant of some space sport lacking the responsible forethought of cosmic littering.

  A familiar presence joins the overwhelming link. “Reign, this was an obsession that slipped out of control years before your birth. You were the one thing I selfishly believed I could salvage from the situation.” Q’ua Z places his hands on my back to steady me. His small frame wavers with labor as he blocks many of my attentions focused on pain with neutral emotions. I have felt this once before but I can’t quite place it…wait…when I was born! Mor’h didn’t use a spoken language, they shared links making Q’ua Z’s efforts easy. When their speech drifted they would usually link to prevent confusion.

  “You think I can be the glue between your peoples! I barely understand my own existence here. I am alien to both worlds.” My voice fades as I realize the futility of my situation. I have no choice. This is my birth-rite. If this wasn’t planned, then their desperation smelled of guilt. Being the most human looking person on Mor’h was no longer an alienating condition, it was the proponent of my rite.

  “This has always been one possible outcome of your life.” An aged and rattled voice comes from the menagerie surrounding me. “I speak for all Mor’h that what was a mistake once debated, can possibly correct itself as a solution; as contradictory as that is perceived.” Said a darker Tah’l in deep red robes. His horn appeared to be a braided briar. Waffled thorny growth climbed up from his brow and into knotted black petals.

  “T’Mir is right.” Says another Tah’l. I had always been told they do not speak. Lo’Mor’h have always said the Tah’l have not the will nor the tongue for it. But as I stand near fallen from this weary link they speak to me, about me and of my future like they own it. They speak for my ears because they have to and they need to. My daydreams of finding some importance to my life, to the design of my accidental person are coming true. I know I cannot hide my thoughts now and they are aware of it. I need this to be over as well, manipulative or not.

  “We cannot send him alone and we cannot direct him into the line of fire at first contact. We are responsible for Reign’s existence and we will be responsible for his death should this endeavor fail.” A compassionate Tah’l steps down through the projected partition, adorned in soft blues and greens. She flows, covering the distance quickly because of her length. Softly she daintily touches my face. “Reign; I am S’lei and I will provide for you.” The link retreats gradually for my benefit. S’lei’s long slender face had more humanity in it than most Mor’h. Her large eyes had yellow fading to orange iris’ against a subtle black where the white in a human eye would be. She had no thorn on her chin, and a small stubbled crown leading to variegated and smoothed petal-like hair.

  “S’lei has spoken and taken to the roots of this being. We should honor her decision and trust her guidance.” Announces T’Mir judiciously. I sense the rest accept with no resistance. The links are broken and this sharing will never be forgotten by myself, those here and even those who will surely link to others who’ve shared this moment. An alien has appeared before the Tah’l council and represents all of Mor’h to the Sol system. As the links release my mind I feel the strength leave my limbs. I collapse and I am cradled by the Tah’l S’lei. She is not new to me somehow.

  I feel the motion of being transported. They take great care in my treatment. I do not feel any discomfort and the subtle thump of a foreign heartbeat throbs in my mind. I focus on the sound. I am flushed with rushing fluids and I feel myself weightless and free. I give into the sensation.

  The light fades. I can hear my own heartbeat. I black out. I have found a new threshold.

  

  She had deeply black hair. Lips as red as apples. She smiled once and her eyes closed. A man cried loudly and in a distraught haste ripped me from her hands. Everything was blurry, my vision was weak. One sense though let me know too
much. I felt too much. Being alive was not my choice, her death was not either.

  Reign Chapter 4

  Don’t Shoot the Messenger

  My eyes stutter to open as light blurs through some substance thicker than air. I am weightless but held in place and some apparatus is attached to my face. It is thick in my mouth and throat; I panic briefly as I feel Qz in the sharing, “remain calm Reign. You are in no danger. We have placed you in a nutrient rich cloning tank to help you repair the strain of the Council link.”

  My head throbbed intensely. Lo’Mor’h scurried around the tank. Had they cloned me! I felt fear welling up inside. What have you done! I spoiled the link. Many stumbled about as I struggled to stay linked and awake. I press against the glass and see that my hands are my own. I am myself but am I still the same? My eyes are so heavy. Too heavy to keep them open.

  I shudder and wail in the cold container. Devices tear at my flesh. My infancy is hell!

  Q’ua Z stumbles backward and speaks loudly, “you must calm yourself Reign! You taint our sharing with awful memories.” Sleep suddenly takes me once again. I think I am being sedated.