Quest for the Sun Orb

by Laura Jo Phillips

  “No, it didn’t,” Tiari replied. “It felt...awkward. I had a difficult time balancing it.”

  “As I thought,” Karma said, nodding. “The second thing I learned is that you have astonishing reflexes, and an exceptionally good sense of your physical self and your environment. Probably because you’ve spent most of your life relying on senses other than your eyes. You react so quickly it’s almost as though you can read your opponent’s thoughts. That also explains why the staff doesn’t work for you. It’s too broad in scope. Your focus is more specific to an immediate threat. Does any of this make sense to you?”

  Tiari nodded. “Yes, it really does, though I never would have thought of those things myself.”

  “My opinion is that you need a weapon that is smaller, more direct,” Karma said.

  “Do you think a sword would work for her?” Tomas asked, more than impressed with all that Karma had learned. He had noticed the same problems that Karma had noticed, but he hadn’t applied that knowledge in the way she had.

  “Yes, I think a sword would be perfect for her,” Karma replied. “However, it cannot be as long and heavy as those you Hunters use. Tiari needs something shorter, lighter, and with a finer blade.”

  Tomas nodded in agreement, his mind already seeking a suitable blade for Tiari that would fit Karma’s specifications.

  “Do you think that I’m fast enough to use a weapon like that?” Tiari asked.

  “Absolutely,” Karma replied. “In fact, I think that, in time, you will become exceptionally fast. Your other senses will help you a great deal. Once we find a suitable weapon for you, I think it would be a good idea to begin training both with, and without, your eyesight.”

  Tiari gaped in surprise then closed her mouth with a snap. “You think I can use this weapon even when I cannot see?”

  “Yes, I think so,” Karma said. “Like I said, your other senses are so finely honed that you seem to almost read your opponent’s mind, feeling an attack before it occurs. If you practice, I suspect you will become quite phenomenal both with, and without, your sight.”

  “When can we start?” Tiari asked with an excited grin.

  “First we need to find a weapon for you,” Karma said. “Second, we need to find someone to teach you. I don’t know swords, so I cannot do it myself.”

  Tiari’s face fell. “I will teach you,” Tomas said. “However, I would ask for your help, Karma. You are an exceptional teacher, and I am not. Your guidance would be invaluable to me, and Tiari.”

  “Of course, Tomas,” Karma replied. “I’d be happy to help in any way that I can.”

  “Thank you, Karma, and you as well, Tomas,” Tiari said, fighting back sudden tears. Never had so many people offered her so much, so freely. She was a little overcome.

  Karma and Tomas politely looked away, allowing her time to compose herself. “The only question now is, where do we find the right weapon for her?” Karma asked.

  “I think I know where to find a blade that will work,” Tomas said.

  “Yes?” Karma asked, noting Tomas’s reluctance.

  “Saigar was especially skilled in bladed weapons, and often carried several on his person,” Tomas said, meeting Karma’s gaze steadily. “He also carried a large array of them whenever he travelled. We still have his belongings, since he left without them.”

  “You think there might be something among them that will work for Tiari?”

  “Yes, I do,” Tomas said. “In fact, I have one in mind. I’m hesitant to have her touch anything that belonged to Saigar, though.”

  “Who is Saigar?” Tiari asked.

  “He was once a friend of mine,” Tomas said. Tiari sensed the pain behind his words and wondered at it, but did not question him further.

  “Objects can only carry evil if one uses dark magic on them,” Karma said. “If you find something suitable bring it to me. I’ll ask Nikura to check it to be sure it’s safe before you give it to Tiari.”

  “That is a good idea,” Tomas said. “Nikura has been through Saigar’s possessions already, of course, but I would feel much better if he double-checked anything I find before she touches it.”

  “So would I,” Karma agreed.

  “Thank you, Karma,” Tomas said with relief. Ordinarily he would never suggest that Tiari touch anything that had once belonged to Saigar. But he knew how important it was to her to learn to defend herself, and he could think of no other way to get a weapon that would suit her. “I will go through Saigar’s belongings tonight.”

  ***

  Karma sat across from Zakiel in their tent after dinner, sipping her tea, unaware of the frown that had graced her face all evening.

  “What’s troubling you, valia?” Zakiel asked.

  “Nothing,” Karma replied. “Why do you ask?”

  “Many reasons,” Zakiel replied. “Not the least of which is the fact that you barely cracked a smile when I told you how closely Kapia came to besting me in front of the entire camp. I thought you would be pleased at your student’s progress.”

  “I am pleased,” Karma said. “I hoped she would win, but perhaps next time.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Zakiel said wryly. “It is one thing for the powerful Lady Techu to best me in sight of my Hunters, but quite another for my baby sister to do it. Now please, tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Karma blew out a frustrated sigh. “That’s just it,” she said. “I don’t know what it is.”

  “I don’t understand,” Zakiel said.

  “Neither do I,” Karma said. “I’ve had this feeling growing in me all day long that I’m missing something. Something important. But I don’t know what it is.”

  “When did the feeling begin?” Zakiel asked, gesturing to Timon. Karma frowned in thought.

  “Before lunch,” she said finally. “I was talking with Kapia and Tiari when we first started out this morning. I first noticed it when we stopped talking for a while around mid-morning.”

  “Was there something you discussed that may have caused it?” Zakiel asked, accepting a bottle of wine and two glasses from Timon. While Karma thought, he poured them each a glass and handed one to her.

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling at him before taking a sip. “I don’t think it’s anything we discussed. At least, nothing feels right.”

  “That leaves this morning’s discussion with Kapia about Bredon,” Zakiel said.

  “Yes, I thought about that,” Karma said. “To be honest, there’s a lot about that conversation that I don’t understand.”

  “Such as?” Zakiel prompted.

  “What is this artifact? Why Darkly Fen? I don’t even like the name of that place. If Darkly Fen is so full of demons and this is a demon artifact, then why haven’t they already found it?”

  “What’s this about Darkly Fen?” Nikura asked.

  Karma turned to see the Sphin just inside the tent, frozen in mid-step, ears straight up, his entire body radiating tension.

  “That’s where Bredon is heading,” Karma said. “You weren’t here this morning when we spoke with Kapia?”

  “No, I was out hunting,” Nikura said. He yawned, baring his sharp, white teeth, then walked toward them, taking a seat on one of the spare cushions between Zakiel and Karma. “Perhaps you should fill me in.”

  Karma looked at Zakiel and shrugged. “Nikura wasn’t here this morning and wants to know about Bredon and Darkly Fen. He doesn’t sound too happy about something.”

  Zakiel nodded, then repeated all that Kapia had told them that morning while Karma sipped her wine. Nikura’s eyes narrowed as he listened intently. When Zakiel was finished, the Sphin remained motionless for a long minute.

  “I ask that Princess Kapia join us, if you do not mind, Prince Zakiel.”

  Karma translated and Zakiel nodded at Timon, who turned and left through the new opening connecting the two tents. Kapia joined them moments later, her expression curious.

  “Thank you, Kapia, for c
oming so quickly,” Zakiel said after she’d taken the last cushion directly across from Nikura. He quickly filled her in. When he was finished, Nikura looked at Karma.

  “Would you mind, Lady Techu, using the Ti-Ank so that we can all speak together?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Karma agreed, reaching for the Ti-Ank that was never more than a few inches from her hand. She sent a fine thread of energy into the winged ankh headpiece attached to her staff so that Zakiel and Kapia could hear Nikura as she did.

  “Tell me, Prince Zakiel,” Nikura began, “of all the demons you have crossed paths with, did any of them seem to possess intelligence that equaled your own?”

  Zakiel was surprised by the question, but he thought carefully before answering. “No, Nikura,” he said. “I cannot say that I thought any of them to be much more intelligent than a diplo, or any other wild beast I have hunted.”

  “You have read many accounts of different demons, haven’t you?”

  “I have,” Zakiel said, frowning as he tried to understand what Nikura was getting at. “I do not recall reading anything that indicated a demon of intelligence.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Nikura said. “From the beginning we considered demons to be rather low in intelligence, like smart animals. Vicious, evil, and extremely dangerous, but not particularly intelligent. And yet, I have never come across a cin-sahib that was not intelligent, wily and exceedingly dangerous.”

  Zakiel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You are correct,” he said. “The demon possessing Saigar fought with two swords and exhibited reasoning and strategic skills. That was no animal I fought.”

  “Why is it that the demons we see in their natural form are little more than beasts, and those who possess humans are intelligent?” Nikura asked.

  “The logical answer is that there are not the same,” Karma said. “On Earth there is a mythological evil being commonly known as Satan. He cannot walk the Earth as humans do, so he uses certain animals to do his bidding. Snakes, bats, spiders, things like that. Maybe that’s the situation here.”

  “And yet, no one ever guessed at this before?” Zakiel asked skeptically. “Why have we never seen these intelligent demons?”

  “Who is to say they have never been seen?” Nikura asked. He turned to Kapia. “Princess, did Sir Bredon say anything else about Darkly Fen?”

  “No, only what I told Zakiel and Karma this morning,” she replied. “I wasn’t able to hold the connection for very long. Why?”

  “I must tell you a story,” Nikura said, and they all heard the reluctance in his mental voice though nothing in his physical appearance changed by so much as a whisker. “A few years after the pyramid was built and sent to the dimension where it now resides, the Lady Techu and Prince who was also Vatra of that time, turned their attention to ridding Rathira of as many demons as they could. So many had crossed through the tear before it was closed that it was impossible to rid our world of them completely, but they succeeded in thinning the numbers a great deal.

  “One evening Lady Techu and the Prince had a difference of opinion on one thing or another. The Prince took the form of Vatra and flew away in anger. He did not return for two days and two nights. On the third morning Vatra crashed into the middle of our camp, badly injured, barely alive. How he’d managed to fly at all was a mystery. How he came to be injured so badly, as powerful as he was, was another mystery. But he wanted only to see Lady Techu one last time, and so he did. He died shortly afterward.”

  “Did you ever learn what happened to him?” Zakiel asked.

  “He did not have the chance to tell us,” Nikura said. “All I knew for certain was that it had taken a very powerful being to kill the Vatra. More powerful than anything on Rathira that we knew of.”

  “What has this to do with Darkly Fen?” Karma asked.

  “Some years later I began to hear rumors of a place called Darkly Fen,” Nikura replied. “It was said that many demons lived within it’s dark fog, and that few who crossed its borders lived to speak of it. Those who did survive said that the people who lived in the center of that land called themselves the Djinn, but nothing more was known of them.”

  “Djinn?” Karma asked in surprise.

  “You know this name?” Nikura asked, both ears snapping forward.

  “Yes, I do,” Karma replied. “The Djinn are prominent in ancient Earth mythology.”

  “What do you know of them?” Nikura asked.

  “Not a lot,” Karma replied. “Different stories describe them in different ways. Mainly they are said to be elemental, made of fire or ice, earth or water, and the stories I read usually depicted them as being very powerful, and evil. It is also said that they exist in a void between worlds.”

  Nikura thought about that for a moment, but made no comment. Then he continued his story. “The rumors said that a group of warriors went into Darkly Fen to meet these Djinn that no one knew anything about. Of those that entered, about one hundred from what I was able to learn at that time, only three men returned. They said that the Djinn were all dead, and had been for some time, but nothing further could be gotten from them that made any kind of sense.

  “I decided to go to Darkly Fen myself. There were, indeed, many demons in the dark, wild fog, but my interest lay in the center of that land, where these Djinn were said to have lived. The rumors that they were gone turned out to be true. I searched carefully, but I found nothing that resembled the remains of bodies. No bones, no blood, no clothing, no hair, no weapons. I found only the remains of buildings; stone, dust and rubble. I might have thought they had simply abandoned the place, except for one thing.”

  “Which was?” Karma asked.

  “Even after the passage of years, I was able to detect traces of very strong magic. An enormous battle had taken place there, destroying everything and everyone, leaving nothing but rubble and dust behind. I could never be absolutely certain, but I have always believed that Vatra’s final battle was fought there, in the center of Darkly Fen. If I am correct, it was a battle that he won, though it cost him his life.”

  “And what is it that you believe he fought?” Zakiel asked.

  “Those who called themselves the Djinn,” Nikura replied. “I had no idea who or what they were, but I have spent a few hundred years trying to understand it.”

  “I don’t recall ever coming across that name in my studies,” Zakiel said. “Do you think there are more of them here, on Rathira?”

  “I do not,” Nikura replied. “I spent a century or two searching, and never heard nor saw any sign of such beings outside of Darkly Fen.”

  “Why did you never tell anyone about this?” Zakiel asked.

  Nikura’s eyes narrowed as he stared at the Prince for a long moment. Then he yawned widely, baring his teeth.

  Zakiel frowned, then flushed in understanding. “I apologize, Nikura,” he said. “That was an amazingly stupid thing to say. I’ve gotten so used to being able to hear and speak with you through Karma that I keep forgetting that without her, you cannot communicate with us.”

  Nikura dipped his head very slightly in acceptance of the apology, but remained silent.

  “That does bring up a question though,” Karma said. “What about Samyi? Did you never tell her your suspicions?”

  “By that time the Lady Techu had gone to the beyond to be with her beloved Prince,” Nikura said. “And yes, before you ask, she did speak with him after he’d passed. She wanted to know what had happened, how the Vatra had become so injured, how he’d died. But the Prince remembered nothing of what the Vatra had done. The Vatra was no longer a part of his soul, and had taken its knowledge and memories with it.”

  “So, what does all of this mean?” Kapia asked. “There are demons, this we know. The tear is sealed within the pyramid, so no new demons can cross into Rathira. So how are new cin-sahib being made if not by the demons already here? How did Marene make a deal with them over the Moon Orb?”

  “If we assume that there are intellige
nt demons, or Djinn,” Zakiel said, “and assume further that there are no longer any of them on Rathira, then it seems reasonable, based on the existence of cin-sahib, to assume that these Djinn are able to cross the dimensions with their minds, or their magic, but not their bodies.”

  “That’s a lot of assuming,” Kapia said.

  “And yet, I think that may be the case,” Nikura said. “It certainly explains why they possess humans so often which, I admit, has always baffled me. Why possess a human when their own bodies are so powerful?”

  “I bet that’s why people have to invite them into their own minds,” Kapia said. “They need a door that’s already open.”

  “That makes sense,” Karma agreed. “The real question is, does any of this matter? If there aren’t any of these Djinn left on Rathira, and their only way of getting here is to possess people who invite them in, then nothing has changed.”

  “Yes, something has changed,” Nikura corrected. “Marene. Marene has changed things.”

  Karma’s mouth fell open and her eyes took on a distant, glazed appearance for a long moment. Then she closed her mouth with a snap. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “The thing that’s been nagging at me all day long. I can’t believe I didn’t put this together sooner.”

  Zakiel, Nikura, and Kapia all stared at Karma in surprise.

  “I spoke with Samyi the other night. I couldn’t understand why the demons would want to stop us from retrieving the pyramid. It makes no sense. If the pyramid is not retrieved, it will return on it’s own and destroy Rathira in the process. They can’t invade a world that no longer exists.”

  “True,” Zakiel said. “What did she say?”

  “She helped me to understand that the Ti-Ank is designed to be used by anyone who has the ability to command its powers. It cannot be used against Rathira or those of Rathira, but that is its only limitation. It is the Ti-Ank that the demons are really after, not the orbs.”