Villain

by Ivan Kal

  Ryaana closed her eyes, her shoulders shaking. “So many people… I…I felt the damage, the bore… But you didn’t even try to stop it!”

  “I couldn’t stop it, Ryaana.” Adrian took a step closer, raising his hand. But she took a step back.

  “No, don’t. Dad…you didn’t even hesitate,” she said hoarsely.

  “I did what was necessary. A lesser evil.”

  “Evil… Yes, it was,” Ryaana said, her words full of disgust.

  “And what would you have done, daughter?” Adrian asked simply.

  “I…” She deflated, then shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ll never know.”

  “Be thankful that you will never need to make such a decision,” he said. His daughter was right to feel that way, and he felt little different. He could still remember the impressions of every life he had taken.

  He turned to look at the Lurker of the Depths. “And what of you? What do you think?”

  “I do not know, Heart of the Mountain. Perhaps it was the only thing that could’ve been done,” Lurker of the Depths said. Adrian noticed his choice of a name, and a part of him understood. He was no longer who he used to be, and the name he had been given long ago was more appropriate.

  “Adrian?” A voice startled them, and he saw his armor on the ground. The voice came from its speakers.

  “Iris?” he asked.

  “You are alive!”

  “Where are you?”

  “Moirai and I are in high orbit. You will need to—” She was speaking but he had already found them. He felt Moirai’s presence, but there was something strange about it. He stepped next to Lurker of the Depths and Ryaana, and bent space around them. The structure no longer held any Sha, as he had drained it all. Still, there was some kind of resistance that made it harder to bend space, but he was so much more powerful now. It bowed before his power, and they appeared in the core of Moirai.

  A moment later Iris appeared in her holographic form. “Adrian! How did you do that?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The planet! When the weapon activated, there was an explosion of some kind. The entire planet was shaken, and it got thrown closer to the black hole!”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Time, you idiot! It’s been seven years since you went to the planet!” Iris screamed.

  He blinked. He hadn’t felt anything like that while he was using it. “Seven years?”

  “Yes, I don’t know how you just arrived here. It took me months to get the message down there. I’ve been monitoring the inside of the chamber since you disappeared. What happened?”

  “Aranis triggered the weapon, and it couldn’t be stopped. I had to guide it. I repaired the damage.”

  Iris didn’t look surprised. “I figured as much. Hyperspace and trans-space no longer work. We can only use skim drives, but they are too slow. We’ve been stuck here in this system. I can communicate with my ships across the galaxy. It is…not good out there.”

  “Tell me,” he said, and as he settled in to listen, Lurker of the Depths and Ryaana did the same.

  * * *

  After hearing all about what happened to the galaxy in the last seven years, he spoke a bit with Moirai. She had been changed; she hadn’t lost her body, as only those in the Sha state had, but Moirai had become far more in tune with the Sha, and she could now enter the Sha state. It was an amazing development—but he had other things to do now.

  He bent space and appeared on Araxi. He marveled at his power; he was always in the Sha state, and far more deeply than he used to be. It was as if the entire universe was a part of him, and he could bend it however he wanted.

  He was met by the Seventh.

  “Adrian. Welcome back,” the Seventh said.

  “I think…I think that name no longer applies,” he said.

  The Seventh nodded. It, more than anyone else, understood this. “What name are you taking on now?”

  “Heart of the Mountain seems apt.”

  “Very well. I suspect that you have come to tell me about what you did? Iris has informed me of what happened across the galaxy. The damage is repaired, but at a cost.”

  “Yes,” Heart of the Mountain said. “The weapon couldn’t be stopped, only aimed. Still, I think that even if it could’ve been stopped, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  “You believe that the damage warranted it?”

  “Yes. It was not what the Enlightened believed, but they were right that it was necessary.”

  “The Krashinar know about necessary sacrifices. The loss of my people will have hurt the other of the Seven, but I know that we will endure.”

  Heart of the Mountain smiled—it was because of this that he had spared them. “I knew that you would feel that way, my friend. I knew that if I could’ve asked every race in the galaxy to sacrifice themselves, that only the Krashinar would’ve agreed. That is why I have not touched the Krashinar. Your people are whole.”

  He felt the Seventh’s surprise, shock, relief, and gratitude. “We’ve named you a friend of the Krashinar well, I see.”

  Heart of the Mountain nodded, but didn’t comment. “I know that you’ve been staying here because Iris believed that we weren’t dead, that you plan on going back home now.”

  “It will take a long time with just the skim, but we will reach home eventually.”

  “You don’t want to use access points?”

  “From what Iris informed me, the Krashinar are no longer welcome in the Empire. We don’t know if they’ve done something to the access point to deny us passage.”

  Heart of the Mountain shook his head. What Iris told him about the galaxy made him sad. It had happened exactly as Aranis predicted it would. “There is no need for that. I can take you home. In fact, I wish to speak with the Seven… I might need their help for something in the near future.”

  “Of course, friend.”

  * * *

  Tomas stood next to the window of the palace on Sanctuary. He looked at the city stretching before him. The people were recovering, but it was a slow process. They had all lost so much.

  Something in the back of his mind alerted him that he was no longer alone. Slowly he turned around and saw someone standing behind him, half covered in shadows. Before he could do anything the stranger took a step, and Tomas saw his face.

  “Hello, Tomas,” Adrian said.

  “Adrian!” he exclaimed. “You are alive!”

  “I am, although I am no longer Adrian. He had been a person whose life was in many ways far simpler. Now…things are not so simple. I go by Heart of the Mountain now.”

  Tomas blinked, noticing the change in Adrian—Heart of the Mountain. He could just barely feel him with his Sha, and he hadn’t even heard him when he came in. There had been no news about the fleet that had gone to the core. It was too far away for them to know. They’d sent scouts, but it would take them years yet to reach the core now when only the skim worked.

  “All right… How are you alive? After everything that happened we assumed that you failed. The Enlightened fired their weapon.”

  “No. Aranis is dead, and their weapon… Aranis turned it on, but he didn’t guide it. I did.”

  Tomas blinked. “What do you mean, you guided it?”

  “The weapon couldn’t be stopped. If left unguided, it would’ve destroyed the universe entirely. I took hold of it and guided it, as the only way to shut it down was to repair the damage, and that damage was far worse than what the Enlightened feared. They didn’t know everything, and they were wrong about what had caused it. We had a few decades at most before the universe was destroyed, in fact.”

  “You used the weapon?” Tomas asked again, his voice turning cold.

  “Did you not hear what I said?” the other man asked. “The universe would’ve died if I hadn’t repaired the damage. In a couple of decades everything would’ve died.”

  “You…you have killed so many. Do you even understand what you have done?” Tomas yelled at t
he monster in front of him.

  But Adrian—no, Heart of the Mountain—just sighed. “I knew that you wouldn’t understand, and I told them that there was no point in me coming here. But they wanted me to tell you the truth, that you deserved it.”

  “You murdered my people!”

  “I saved your people.”

  “My son! You murdered my son!” Tomas shook, and his power lashed out as a kinetic burst that fizzled out and fell apart before it could even reach his target.

  Adrian looked sad for a moment, but then his face cleared. “I am sorry about your son. I have suffered losses too—Anessa, my children. I didn’t do it because I wanted to, I did it because I had no choice, Tomas.”

  “You are a monster. You did exactly what you swore you would prevent! You promised me that you were going to stop the Enlightened!”

  “I told you that there was no choice for me to make. I could either stand aside and let the weapon destroy everything, or pay the price to save the rest.”

  Tomas used his imp to call for help, to call for guards, but none came. The other man seemed to notice, and he sighed.

  “It won’t work. No signal leaves this room without me wanting it to.”

  “You know that so many people were calling you a hero? The person that went to the core in order to save all life, who sacrificed himself in order to defeat the Enlightened. We thought that you managed to defeat the Enlightened before they could wipe us all out! But no, it was you who killed them, murdered them in cold blood. You are not a hero…you are the villain!”

  Heart of the Mountain shook his head. “A price had to be paid, and you would’ve done the same.”

  “I…I… No, I never would have sacrificed my own people!”

  “Oh, Tomas. You are so blind to even your own actions, a failing that I see now plagues most life. You are all so wrapped up into your own lies that you can’t accept the truth when it is presented to you. You say that you would never have done what I have? But you already have. You left Earth, you took with you all of your advances and technology, your people. Olympus abandoned Earth, and you were the one who made the decision of who was going to come with you to your new home. You knew full well what was going to happen to Earth—you knew that without you and your help they would go to war and kill one another. How many lives did you murder by that action?” he asked. “You did it because you believed that the price of their lives was worth saving the few who had come with you. And afterward, when we defeated the Ra’a’zani, you ordered them sterilized. You murdered their entire species, gave them a slow death, a punishment for what they did to Earth. To make matters worse, you took their young and twisted them into new forms, raised them to serve your Empire.

  Heart of the Mountain stared at him. “No, Tomas, you are no better than me. You are a hypocrite. I did what I did for the same reasons you did: to save people. The only difference between us is one of scale.”

  Tomas couldn’t even open his mouth to speak. He stared at Heart of the Mountain, intending to scream at him, to deny him, but then the fight left him and he fell down onto his chair. He felt tears build up in his eyes—the memories of his son, of so many others who had died. The galaxy was on fire; civilization was breaking down, and it was all on him to bear. His Empire was the only thing that was keeping any semblance of peace and stability in the galaxy.

  “Do you have any idea what you did to the galaxy?” Tomas whispered, his voice breaking. “Without hyperspace and trans-space, thousands—no, far more than thousands—of systems were left isolated. Some couldn’t sustain themselves. They starved to death before aid could find them. Others resorted to murdering their neighbors for resources. You have plunged the galaxy into fire and blood.”

  “I know, and I am sorry for it, but I know that you have been establishing order. The galaxy will recover—but I had no choice, Tomas. It was either this or nothing at all,” the other man said, his words sad.

  Tomas raised his head to look at him, seeing pain in them. How could one do such a thing callously, and yet regret it?

  “Was there no other way?” Tomas asked hoarsely.

  “After they triggered the weapon, there no longer was. If I had been stronger, if we hadn’t fought, hadn’t split our forces… If Anessa had been with me, or a thousand different things. Perhaps then it could’ve been different.”

  Tomas could feel only regret, for being so full of pride, for being so stubborn. “What should we do now?” he asked, not really expecting an answer.

  “You help the galaxy heal. You are a good man, Tomas. If anyone can keep the peace, then that person is you. You might not know everything, but you have a good heart and good intentions. You have the access points, and you have power. Use it for good, but remember: I held more power in my hands than anyone has ever held, and the only thing I could do was limit the damage. Do better than me.” And at that, the other man looked away.

  “I…” Tomas started. “I can’t forgive you, Adrian. I understand that sometimes there are no good choices, but no matter what, I can’t forgive you. I lost my son,” he said softly.

  “You need not worry. I will not stay here for long.”

  “I don’t think you should come back here again. I can’t—” Tomas stopped abruptly as his throat closed. He couldn’t even speak. He mustered the power, and managed to speak again. “Your mother was among them.”

  Heart of the Mountain closed his eyes, his face tightening. “I couldn’t choose, couldn’t spare anyone. It wouldn’t have been fair.”

  “You should go,” Tomas said quietly. “You might’ve done everything that you could. You might’ve even saved us, as you say. But this… It doesn’t feel like we’ve been saved.”

  The other man looked at him and nodded. “I don’t think that I will come back, not in a long time. Perhaps ever,” he said, and with that he turned around and started walking. “Goodbye, Tomas.”

  “Goodbye,” Tomas said.

  With those words the space around him shimmered, and he was gone, leaving Tomas alone in the room filled regrets. The moment he had left, his implant managed to get a message through and his guards ran into the room. Tomas ignored them and their words, keeping his eyes on the place where Adrian—the Heart of the Mountain—had just been.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Year 726 of the Empire — Sowir Homeworld

  Ryaana stood next to Lurker of the Depths on an island on his homeworld. Her father had gone to see Tomas, but she couldn’t go there. She couldn’t walk through the streets of the Empire without remembering the feeling of watching him rip the Sha from all those people

  She had tried to stop him, to make him hear her, but nothing could’ve reached him. He held so much power, and she had been there with him, had been changed in the same way that he had. She had seen the damage, known that they had to repair it. But the cost… It weighed down on her. She had always wanted to protect people. She had hated the Enlightened for their beliefs, had hated her friend, and in the end it turned out that they had been right. She couldn’t handle that.

  “It is so small now,” Lurker of the Depths said, bringing her attention to him.

  “What is?” she asked.

  “My home. Just one little planet in a universe that is infinite. How can this hold any value? I have felt everything, have seen so much life, and have felt it die. My home, my people had always been my anchors. But now? What is this little ocean in the face of what I have seen? What can I do now?”

  “I don’t know,” Ryaana admitted. She felt glad that she wasn’t the only one who had problems grasping their new reality. They were something more than they had been before. Yet her father seemed completely at ease, as if he had always meant to do this. “We can only continue forward.”

  “Your father’s plan?” Lurker of the Depths asked.

  “Yes. I might not be able to come to grips with what he has done, but I do understand what he wants. He is right—we have a responsibility to those who are now gone, a respons
ibility to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. We need to find the source and deal with it,” Ryaana said. “Also, I want to… We need to stay close to him.”

  “I don’t think either of us could’ve done anything differently if we had been the ones in charge of the weapon. I understand, Ryaana, but it was a choice forced on us, on him,” Lurker of the Depths sent.

  “I know, and perhaps there wasn’t anything that we could’ve done. Perhaps we would’ve done worse than he did. But I am worried about him; he did it so easily, with so little remorse. He made the choice, and this time perhaps he had no other option, this time perhaps he had been right. But what about the next? What if he decides to do something worse? He has all this power now, and he could easily just start to do things because he thinks they are necessary.”

  “And what would you want to do if he does?”

  “I want to stay close to him, to be there in case that he ever needs stopping. I love him—he is the only family I have left—but I can’t get the memory of him ripping the life out of all those people out of my mind. The feeling of his grief over mother, the acceptance that he had to do what the Enlightened wanted… I can’t let him turn into something that he would hate. We are the only ones who could stop him if he turns,” she said, turning to look at the Sowir.

  “We are as powerful as he, but somehow… I don’t think that will matter.”

  Ryaana sighed. “We must be there anyway.”

  She was trying so hard to accept that what had happened was the only way. But every time she saw her father, she remembered. She never wanted to feel anything like that again.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Year 726 of the Empire — Krashinar Territory

  Heart of the Mountain stood with Lurker of the Depths and Ryaana in the large courtyard that was the meeting place for the Seven. They had spent days discussing matters with the Krashinar, and taken the time to rest. Ryaana didn’t forgive him for what he had done, but at least she understood. Lurker of the Depths was more reserved with his thoughts, but he was still with him, so Heart of the Mountain took it as a good sign.