Destiny's Kingdom: Legend of the Chosen

by Daniel Huber

  The woman stopped suddenly, and a silence fell over the crowd. She looked up, as if she wanted to say something, but no words came from her lips. Even from the distance, Quade could see her labored breath, and the panic on her face. She dropped something that was in her hand and a murmur spread through the crowd. As Quade watched in horror, he saw the outline of her body swell and begin to convulse. Somewhere, a woman screamed. And at that same instant, a hundred shadows of pitch black erupted from the woman's body, which reeled back and stiffened, bent back in mid-air as the apparitions spilled forth.

  Screams echoed throughout the room and there was the sound of breaking glass, the din of panic and the frantic stomping of footfalls as everyone in the room ran to escape. For one more second, Quade was mesmerized, watching the black demons continue to erupt from the now broken woman's body, devouring all that they came into contact with, people, furniture, decorations, even structural elements of the building.

  "This is the spawn?" People tripped and fell over each other in the panic that raged around the auditorium. The black shadows seemed to have a mouth but nothing else but a ghostly shape, and as they attacked they latched onto their victim who screamed and writhed in agony, flailing their arms and kicking their legs helplessly at the thing that fed upon them. Their horror filled faces stared panicked at the demons before the bodies turned to dust and disappeared.

  "The spawn can be seen by the living world, Quade." Echo and Mimic both hovered off to the side, and though Quade felt like he should try and flee from this horrendous scene of death and destruction, he more felt like he should watch, like it would somehow help him to experience this strange phenomena. "They are born into whatever world the SanFear seek to destroy. Where the SanFear still travel in their own realm as they move throughout each galaxy, their spawn are a force that can be felt and experienced by any living thing."

  Within minutes, the auditorium lay in waste. The walls were gone, the ceiling gone, and all that once were people scattered as dust on the breeze that blew through now that the foundation of the structure was all that was left. The SanFear that had infected the woman still hovered where she had stood and now Quade noticed that all the spawn were returning to it.

  "They serve one solitary purpose, and that is to bring sustenance to the SanFear. The act of spawning takes enormous energy and that is when the SanFear is at its weakest, just after it breeds and before the spawn return to nourish it. The spawn cannot inhabit a body, only feed upon it. They collect the energy from everything around them and return the energy to the SanFear and it in turn becomes enormously powerful again."

  He watched as the spawn shot toward the SanFear, spilling back into where it had once spilt forth, and the SanFear became denser, larger.

  "The spawn cannot live on their own though, Quade." He didn't even realize that he'd been so mesmerized by the overwhelming sight of the newly sated SanFear, he'd almost forgotten about the emissaries.

  "How long?" he cleared his throat. "How long can they live without returning to the SanFear?"

  Mimic shrugged. "'Tis different with each world. A few minutes. Not much longer than that."

  "At first the SanFear only knew how to feed upon a host." Echo continued, her voice heavy with wisdom. "Systematically they would jump from body to body, world to world and feed on each individual until their were none left to feed upon. The creation of the spawn served to accelerate their destructive pursuit. From this they acquired strength enough to move into the next world." Echo spun quickly and Mimic followed, and from that Quade knew that soon he would be again changing scene. "After a time it learned that it could bring together a populous by infecting the right person."

  "Thus, hastening their destruction even further."

  Quade watched the pattern of the spawn, how they leached the life from each person, then darted away in the same direction from where it originally came.

  "Where's it going?"

  "Back to the SanFear. To deliver this energy."

  "It takes much energy for the SanFear to spawn and inevitably it does so where there is an abundant source of food. It must be nourished immediately or it risks the possibility of starving itself into oblivion by spawning."

  "It is the SanFear's most vulnerable time."

  Nausea rose in Quade’s throat from the death that surrounded him, the helpless fleeing bodies turned to char and dust. His mind started adding elements that weren’t there; the smell of singed hair, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

  "No more," he said quietly. "I can't bear to see anymore of this defeat."

  "You shudder at this?" said Mimic who appeared in front of him. "You think this burden is too much to bear? No more, you ask? We shall surely show you more."

  CHAPTER 16

  Clea reached up to the cable above her, pulled herself along the track and tripped the ceiling panel to open. She squirmed until her weight was balanced again, then she got to work on the task she'd chosen to pass the time. The ship's program memory needed to be deleted as soon as possible after any contract, so just in case the hidden system were discovered, there would be no trace of where Duplicity had actually been. The mechanism that held her suspended just below and parallel to the ceiling wasn't made for comfort but for easy concealment, and consisted of a retractable cable that spanned one end of the engine compartment to the other, and three wide straps that hung from it. The strap that wrapped around her midsection was beginning to pinch, but Clea was almost finished with the memory wipe so it didn't really matter. Besides, the discomfort helped to keep her mind on something other than the very thing she'd come here to avoid thinking about.

  She reached up inside the opening and pointed a small hand lamp to the last connection of the navigational logs. Popping another panel, she plucked the memory pack that stored the coordinates from the orbit of the planet to the designated spot where Duplicity had landed on Tal-Min Vista. The pack that contained the journey from orbit to the outpost would stay…just in case.

  The rest of her crew were quietly celebrating in the galley, or what served as a galley for it really wasn't big enough to deserve such a title. But there was food and a bottle or two of wine, and the happy crew had hoped she would join them, as she sometimes would after a successful run from somewhere like Tal-Min. Plus, it was their first ten-thousand chid contract. But Clea didn't feel like celebrating, didn't even feel like eating the modest bowl of food she'd brought into the cockpit then left behind when she decided to clear the ship's coordinate logs. Duplicity, like all ships, always traveled on autopilot when flying within the leylines, and the silent cockpit left too much room for the noise of her thoughts within her head. All she could think of now was the events of the previous day, all she kept hearing again and again in her mind was Quade's voice, all she kept seeing was the confused desperation that flashed in his eyes.

  "P'cadia lost, P'cadia found…"

  How could this be happening? And exactly how Avalon told her it would, that afternoon so many years ago. Clea could remember every detail of the day, the chill of the breeze on her face, the storm clouds that brewed overhead, above the thick forest trees.

  "It's time that I tell you something very important, my Clea," Avalon had said. Having just turned eleven, Clea had more important things on her mind than what, as her parents had called him, an imaginary man had to tell her. She had just spotted the nest of a glimmer finch and was very busy climbing her way up the knotted trunk of an adjoining tree to get a better look.

  "You always call me that. 'My Clea.' It sounds strange. I don't think I could ever call you 'my Avalon.'"

  "Perhaps not. But perhaps someday you might." Clea peered into the nest, her distance just far enough away that the parent birds felt no threat.

  "Maybe," she replied, not really paying attention.

  "Come down, Clea. I've a secret to share with you." This caught her interest. She looked over her shoulder to where Avalon sat on the thick patch of ferns below.

  "What kind of s
ecret?"

  "It is a secret that only few in the entire universe know about. A secret so large and so very special that you are the only other person I have ever revealed it to."

  Clea jumped from her high position in the tree, landing on the cushioning ferns right next to him, ignoring the stains that ground into her knees. She looked at him, her huge, bright eyes staring expectantly.

  "Well?" she asked impatiently. "What's the secret?"

  "This is a very important moment in your life, my Clea, one that will stay with you always. The things I tell you now must be things that you never forget, nor ever speak of again to anyone but me, until the time is right." Clea's mouth parted as she stared up in amazement, captivated by the weight carried on Avalon's words. "There is a magical place in your future my Clea. A magical place called P'cadia."

  "What's P'cadia, Avalon?"

  "P'cadia is where the Avè dwells, little one."

  "The Avè!"

  "Yes, my Clea. And someday the Avè will guide you and those you stand with on the grand quest that is your destiny, and it is a story you know well. It is the Legend of the Chosen."

  "The Legend of the Chosen? I've read that story in school."

  "It is a prophecy that masks itself in the guise of a legend, Clea. And within that prophecy lies your destiny. The key to its unfolding is the riddle I want to tell you." Avalon paused for a moment, and Clea was hardly breathing. "Would you like me to tell you the secret riddle, Clea?"

  She was almost speechless. "Yes…yes!"

  Avalon spoke, his words slow and perfectly clear:

  "A place obscure and rediscovered

  With shimmering oceans and liquid sun

  P'cadia lost, P'cadia found

  In desperate times, seek here the Avè"

  Clea frowned. "I don't understand it, Avalon."

  "In time you will, Clea. Someday you will use this secret knowledge, someday when you are ready, the knowledge will come to you perhaps when you least expect it. Perhaps when you haven't thought of it in so many years that you have almost forgotten, but then it will come back to you clear as how I'm explaining it right now."

  "How will I know that day has come?"

  "Events will begin to unfold, and the Seer will come questioning you about dreams of a mystical place, a place that he or she doesn't understand, a place called P'cadia. Only then can you ever repeat the riddle I just told you because it is the path to the Avè." Avalon watched her for a bit, trying to read the expression on her young face, trying not to doubt what the gods had assured him; that she wasn't too young to be told, that this one had to be informed early on. And that he would be forever destined to make sure that she did not run.

  "Your destiny is a higher purpose than this simple life, my Clea." He wished that she were older, so that he could embrace her or stare deeply into her eyes and offer her charm and inspiration like he had so often done over the course of his existence. But not her; the most important one to him would be the one he could offer the least of his powers to comfort or enlighten. With Clea, he would be entirely left to mortal guises. "What I've told you today gives you the power to unlock the doors and make all things possible to save everything that you know. This knowledge is the key, and you must never reveal it to anyone until it is the right time. The knowledge cannot be lost on you, for you know that only very important people in the galaxy have access to the Avè."

  "The Avè only comes forth when something disastrous is about to take place," she mumbled, not looking at Avalon. Of all the legends that weaved so intricately through the history of this universe, those that involved the Avè were the only ones that had remained intact, and stayed pure and unadulterated.

  "That's right, Clea. And he will come forth again, for this will be a most desperate time. It will be stealth and it will be shrouded in normalcy, but brewing under the surface of all that we know will be a force more dangerous than there are words to explain. But with the secret riddle, you will set the path for all things to be saved."

  "How does it end?" she asked suddenly, finally looking up. "How does it end, Avalon? You always tell me the legends that we hear nowadays are wrong. They always have a different ending when you were there to see them actually happen. So how does this story end?"

  "How does it end in the version you know today?"

  "The Chosen three battle an evil force and they band together to defeat it, saving everybody in the galaxy. They are almost as powerful as the gods themselves when united, and their strength saves their world. Saves…our world." She stopped for a minute, thinking. "How does this version end, Avalon?"

  "I don’t know Clea. The difference between a legend and a prophecy is that in a prophecy, the events have yet to take place. " Avalon sighed, and chose to hold his tongue on some of the specifics. "There is more to the legend than you know now, little one. But we'll save that for another time. As for the ending of this version of the story, we'll make sure that it ends the same as the one that you know so well. All right?" Avalon leaned down, trying to catch her stare, but she would not look up at him. Clea was silent, and the air around them had become thick with the humidity of impending rain. She looked at the grass, toying with it idly, her young face malcontent.

  "I should go home," she said, still looking at the ground. In the distance, the low rumble of thunder sounded, announcing the storm. "I told you it was going to rain today." Avalon knew that it had suddenly become a long day for this headstrong child, and he stood and offered her his hand.

  "You did indeed." Avalon watched her pouted lips, the shadow of her long dark lashes on her cheeks. "It seems that intuition is your gift, my Clea." As he reached out to her she took his hand but watched the ground as they walked.

  "I'd rather have my gift be something more interesting. Like moving things around with magic like Aazrio does or riding horses like Trina."

  "Well your riding skills are coming along just fine. I thought you were brilliant the other day in the meadow when your horse took off running, when you least expected it."

  She looked up at him, her wide eyes blue shining jewels. "You saw that? I didn't think anyone was there to see that!" Avalon smiled warmly at the young girl who charmed him so, who knew so little about how much she would affect the world someday.

  "There are many things I see, and many things I know. All that's important to you is also important to me. Not only the things that lie ahead in your future." A shadow flickered over the light in her eyes, and Avalon quickly spoke to remove it.

  "Don't worry, Clea. Many years lie between now and the time the riddle will come to you again. Many years, with a lot of magical and carefree times in between."

  Clea snapped from her haze when the leyline ended and the ship was thrust into open space. She pressed the panel back into its place and pulled herself along the cable to the end, grabbed hold of the top bar of the service ladder, which led to access of the main engines, and squirmed out of the straps. She hung for a moment by her hands, looking down on the area below, then swung her body over to get footing on the ladder and climbed down. The cable that spanned the ceiling retracted from throwing a switch in a floor panel, and all evidence of the ceiling access was erased. Clea looked at her wrist chron. It was only five minutes travel time until their final nexus point would take them home to Bethel. She had the wild inclination to change their heading, set a course for another part of the galaxy completely. But somehow, she did not. The muscles in her arms and stomach burned from all the stretching and bending she'd been doing during her manual memory unload, but not nearly as much as the emotions were burning over her exchange with Quade. Perhaps she remembered the words Avalon had told her incorrectly. Maybe she'd get back and he would tell her that Quade had found out about P'cadia somehow in his travels. It couldn't possibly be the prophecy that Avalon had slowly explained to her over the course of her life. Couldn't possibly be an event such as that.

  CHAPTER 17

  "The gods know that someday a group of Chosen wi
ll succeed." Quade stood outside now, the din of writhing, feasting spawn all around him.

  "Only 'tis all too often reluctance or denial causes the Chosen to wait until it is too late," Mimic's voice sounded in his mind. Echo darted in front of Quade's eyes as he looked down and behind her, he saw the grass beneath his feet turning from green to dead.

  "Do not let it be too late for your world, Quade. You still have time."

  "How much time?"

  "Three days. Perhaps four."

  "Three days?!" Quade stared at Echo, shocked.

  "Perhaps four."

  "Three or four days! After all that I've seen?" He looked around him, overwhelmed at the speed in which the planet had come to lay in waste, and sunk to his knees on the ground. Echo followed him down but there was still no sign of Mimic. "Again and again the Chosen battle and die. How, within this, am I to see hope?"

  At no time did we promise you hope.

  “Then why did you come to me if there is no hope?!” He looked at Echo though it was Mimic who spoke to him inside his head.

  We come to you because it is the way of the gods' plan.

  “Ah, yes the gods' plan! And the two of you, emissaries of those gods. The gods who created this hopeless scheme! How can the gods allow this to continue? Why do the gods not stop the destruction? Why do they not stop the death?”

  "Who are you to question the gods!" Mimic's angry voice sounded in Quade's head but in an instant she appeared before his eyes next to Echo, hovered in front of him and then dropped to the ground, growing in size until she stood face to face with Quade in his seated position on the dead grass. "You must never forget they are the gods, Quade! Though now perfect they were once young and flawed. 'Tis balance they seek to establish at last. So perhaps this is what they had intended all along."