by Grant Fausey
Travis was right behind him, off to the rescue, following his flight through one chamber after another. Bevin faced off the Acreen. Lukrin reached out to her with a ghostly hand, striking her ghostly image to the floor. She instantly squirmed in agony. "Not so brave now, are we?" sputtered Lukrin as his ghostly hand reached up, entombing her life forces with in the blackness of his own light. She was dying in every sense of the word.
"So, taker–of–life," screamed Avenall at the Acreen. "I think its time we met!" The Acreen groaned, slinging blackness that struck him down in a rage. Bevin's ghost pulled her medallion from about her neck, aiming it toward the heart of the creature.
"Summon the light, Gayla," she cried. "Summon the light." Gayla scrambled across the floor toward the medallion. The medal began to glow in her hands.
"How!" she demanded.
"Remember..."
"Remember what?"
The medallion flashed, and Lukrin screamed; his body swirling against the force of energy; deforming in the midst of the light. The beast squealed, elongating in a rush toward the medallion, snapping toward it like a rubber band. The dark light of the Acreen vanished into the confines of the medallion; entombed within it as the light raced back into the medal, taking the body of the Acreen with it.
Bevin collapsed to the floor, tossing the medallion her daughter. The medallion solidified, becoming three dimensional as it reached her daughter's hands. "Destroy the medallion, Gayla," she commanded with a dying breath. "Destroy the medallion before it's too late."
"How?" screamed Gayla as she too was plucked from the floor by another an Acreen. This one, Barrah, was far worse than the first. Gayla hit the walls like a mop, being thrashed across the cavern floor more or less a limp rag doll.
The Acreen struck in a ruthless attack in contempt of life itself. "Free him!" she demanded. "I command you to free him."
Gayla choked on the beast’s words, coughing up blood as the beast tightened the grip on her torso, tossing her once again against the wall. "Damn you" she muttered beneath her breath, squirming as she pick herself up. Gayla slid to the bottom, landing face first crawling across the lair. "You're mine!"
The Acreen held the medallion in front of her, staring at it. Shaking it. Her wings widened, filling the chamber, while behind her, the living machine monkey dashed along the ledge running quickly across the top of the arches. He stopped short of the end and looked back to where Kristic peered out of a crack in the chamber wall. Kristic shook his head at Shroom, "Go on..."
The monkey dropped from above, swooping down on a direct course to Barrah's head. He pounced off her, grasping the Acreen. The beast screamed, outraged at the outcome of the event. Shroom landed on the floor in a tuck and roll, leaping out of the way then as he bounced back to his feet, making a straight line for the nearest exit, Kristic leaped down from the opening, landing between the monkey and the Acreen.
The monkey drove hard across the floor, releasing the medallion into a hand at the end of the tunnel. Travis pulled the medallion from about his neck, breaking the chain to the medal in his own fit of rage. His hands curled around the two medallions bending them together as one. Barrah thundered toward him, hurtling into a gallop before reaching the tunnel on the other side.
"Hear me..." evoked the warrior in Travis. "I summon the light. It is my destiny. Join with me, so that we may become one." Travis’ body immediately, glistened in the formation of his body armor. The armor radiated in a brilliant white luster that encased his hands. Behind him, Kristic fought a Wasper, defending his back against attack but the room darkened with their numbers. Avenall reached for Gayla, pulling her to safety.
A spray of light left the medallions, striking Barrah with an entombing force that circled her in a ghostly image that separated into different layers, imploding in a violence that succeeded in thrusting her into the confines of the medallion, imprisoning her forever. But in the process, Lukrin's ghostly likeness escaped, swept across the interior of the lair. Kristic raced after him, stopped by the discovery of his mother. Waspers climbed over her young body, stinging her repeatedly in a ritual of death. His jaws tightened in pain, emotions coursing through him, until he was no longer unable to bare witness. She was dead, but the sight caused him great anguish. Lukrin's ghost descended upon her, engulfing her in his own ritual draining the remainder of her life. Her body arched in torment, being sucked dry of its bodily fluids.
Gem's face shriveled, deforming before his eyes. Kristic felt helpless; his failure overwhelming. Travis raced to his side, leaving the heart of the Wasper nest behind him. Life drained from his face. The sight of his beloved was overpowering like a death warrant signed and delivered. His mind shifted. Everything he loved dissolved away. Death was everywhere around him and nothing seemed real. It was like he was in the midst of another nightmare.
Travis felt the ground move beneath his feet, the lair itself entangling him in a web of nest's branches. The walls moved around him, seizing him in a nightmarish reality dragging him underground. Kristic moved slowly, arching in slow motion. A ring of light forming in his hands and raced from one corner of his mind to another. What was happening was real.
"Heeelllpppp mmmmeeee," screamed Travis out of sync with the world. The Nexusphere was in transition again, shifting time and location. Kristic looked to his hands; his head moving like an animated figure. He heard the lair burst around him, charges set beginning to detonate. He had to act now, before time itself changed everything.
"Krrriiissstttiiiccc, hhhheeellllppp mmmeee..." shouted Travis. "Hellpp meee!"
Kristic snapped the light ring out of his hand, using it like a boomerang to slice through the roots to the wall beyond. Travis screamed again taken by surprise, his armor radiating an intense heat to burn away his trapper. Kristic yelled back at him. "Now we're even for that little number on the Destiny! Remember?"
"How could I forget!" shouted Travis. "It was such an exciting time in my life!"
"Yeah, well now I get the chance to be the apprentice and you get to be the mentor!"
"Right!" Another explosion rocked the lair, setting the structure ablaze with the power of his medallion. The creatures flash burned; exploding into little pools of light, but one of them slipped in and managed to sting him in the chest.
Travis screamed in agony. Kristic's expression turned to terror, as his father vanished in the blinding light of his body's molecularly disassembly. Kristic ran for his life, leaving behind a wave of death and destruction engulfed by the light of his own medallion. His body transported to the surface in its own molecular disassembly.
Avenall laid Gayla next to Travis, both bodies silently reassembled on the mountainside near the castle. Kristic reappeared within the forest, beside Avenall. He looked above them, seeing the lair radiate a brilliant glow on the curve of the upper world as it vaporized in a massive explosion that left no trace of the battle that had just taken place. Gayla opened her eyes and hugged Kristic as he bent down to kiss her softly on the forehead. He was still a youth, no more than sixteen, but she held him tenderly for a moment, anyway: Both of them bathed by the light of his medallion.
The gold medal radiated in a glittering beauty that covered his body in a blue-white light. "It's a death glow," whispered Kristic. "The medallion is keeping him alive until we can get him to the Vericonians temple of light."
"Vericonians?" questioned Gayla. "He'll never survive the trip." Kristic pulled her up off the ground, holding her close. "He'll survive, Gayla," he said with pride. "And he'll live again, if not here then in times long gone, or in the future. But he will live, and we my friends, we still have a job to do."
Kristic's attention changed as if in a dream. Lukrin's spectral image descended to the birth sands of the Waspers; his ghostly body passing over the dunes in sweeping movements, adrift in the breeze, gently blowing across the hot lands. The Acreen's flight was a delicate one; he was in no hurry. He fluttered to the ground, landing face down in the sand, rolling over to look
at the sky above him. Then as if on a magic carpet ride, he lifted into the sky once again. His journey across the sand wasn't an escape, but rather a pungent adventure. With a mere thought, he had projected himself back in time to when Trithen Kellnar died in the sand before him. His body wobbling from the added weight of the Acreen's disembodied spirit.
Travis joined the spectacle, a ghostly image standing alone near the edge of a dune. Kristic watched the hatchlings lift from the ground, and mount to the wind on their first journey into the sky.
"Your task is greater than I had ever imagined, Travis," he said softly approaching the young warrior. "They match us for a war like no other in history." He paused, pulling up his sleeves. "It's a war that spans time itself. The future is truly at stake. You must listen to the warrior within you and awaken the Knight that you are, or else I'm afraid you're going to die, father."
"And your task is one that I do not envy, Kristic." Travis gestured, watching Lukrin inhabit Trithen Kellnar's dead body as it rose from the sand. "When he reaches the past, he'll change history again. Perhaps even erase your history, my history. Unless you can stop him, there is no future." Kristic took a short walk, dragging his feet in the sand. He took in a deep breath.
"These memories will awaken within you at the proper time, Kristic," Travis continued to speak. "Lukrin must be destroyed, before the Ziethen machines become his willing slaves or we will die, and the future will die with us. You must find the real Sara Jolland and save her life. On this all depends."
Travis stepped away from Kristic and watched the Acreen from the dunes. Lukrin's new life grew stronger, evolving backwards into the black light of his birth. Trithen Kellnar's body radiated in the dark illumination, vanishing across the winds of time, out of Kristic's grasp in the beat of a moment. Kristic's visionary dream ended as abruptly as it had began, and his mind returned to the glade where Travis lay silently in a death glow, Avenall standing over him, as he looked on at the electric city of light.
"I don't know if I'll return," said Kristic pulling Gayla to him, holding her tightly in his arms. "I can't see that far into the future, or the past. But I must go just as you must carry on here. There's much to rebuild. My only hope is that you will always remember me."
"You'll be back," she said with confidence, putting her arms around his waist. She held him tight confiding in him a true love. "Your father will stand beside you again."
Avenall grasped his arm and pulled Kristic close in a manly hug. "I'll watch over her, young knight. You just finish this mess. We've a life to rebuild."
Kristic smiled and laughed. There was no separating them now. They had gone through too much together to ever be separated again. He took Gayla's hand and walked to his father. He let go of her fingers and knelt before Travis' silent body and bowed his head. A moment later, he arose again standing on at the edge of an icy cliff overlooking Rallumn's fortress in the bitter cold. The freezing wind cut deep into the trails, forcing the slow procession of hundreds of humans, aliens and living machines dressed in fur covered clothing, as they marched upward across the steps that lead to the castle.
The young knight lifted his medallion, standing before the great wooden doors that lead to the audience chamber. He removed his medallion from about his neck, coiling the chain around his hand and walked to the huge doors, touching his medal to the wood. The gigantic entrance loomed open, yawning like the mouth of a dragon.
Its hot breath drew in the cold, letting it out as a mist. Kristic stepped forward; his mind filled with thoughts of a thousand possibilities of what he would find inside. The branches engulfed him in the corridors of darkness.
"Come closer," thundered Rallumn's voice from deep within the tree. "I know why you have come, young Kristic. Do not be afraid." There was no choice but to go on. The branches blocked the path across the bridge behind him. Rallumn's audience chamber was filled with sounds of ancient machinery echoing from the depths of the abyss encircling his throne.
Kristic felt alone like a child in the temple caverns for the first time, fear coursing through his veins. He moved him to stand in front of the living machine wizard. "So," greeted Rallumn, "the quest for futures has returned you to the past, young Knight."
"Yes," answered Kristic. "My father's life lies in the balance. He remains at the mercy of the winds of time, surrounded by the light of Alvericon."
"Then the light shall save him, young Knight."
"And what of the Acreen who caused his––" questioned Kristic, being cut off in mid sentence.
"He has been here for many years, Kristic. His is a workable edge; the Ziethen machines are irreversible now."
"And what of the rebellion against the Industries?" Kristic huffed.
"A formidable task by any means. You must seek out your enemy. Only his destruction will secure the cycles of the future." The wizard lifted from his throne, maneuvering the branches supporting in order to face him. "You must create an endless circle of events, Kristic. One from which your adversary can never escape, only then will your future be returned to a normal path. Your father knew this and, now, you must carry the light. Allow it to guide you. There is much darkness ahead of you."
Kristic faded into the shadows of the fortress, the light of Alvericon teleporting him onto a world of dreams light-years from the center of the galaxy. The confines of a Trufold's village surrounded him in the clear glades of a blossoming meadow. He had returned to the planet Telta Minor. Little beings, ghostly images of ancient sylphlike creatures reached out to touch his medallion, dancing about him, as if to draw him closer to the journal keepers. An elderly spirit stepped silently to stand before the pages of a brilliant, transparent book and read the words across the top of the ledger, allowing Kristic to hear his voice in his mind.
––– 42 –––
JOURNALS OF MACCON
Kristic looked strangely upon the ghostly book of records, seeing the truth of history as it had been written, but now the pages erased themselves, destined with change. The pages were blank. The elderly keeper handed Kristic an unearthly quill, and placed his hand in his, scribbling a new existence upon the blank pages. The keeper smiled and nodded, acknowledging the truth that Kristic had placed on the pages of history. The words flowed in golden light, scrubbing the symbols and signs of the declaration then as if out of a nightmare, he awoke to stare at his father, Travis Creed.
Bathed in an aura of brilliant blue-white light, Kristic took Gayla's hands near to his, pulling her closer. "Are you okay?" she asked. Kristic stared at her in amazement, an endless stare with an overwhelming contentment in his heart. The events of his making touched her memories of the journey taken to the farthest reaches of the universe. Yet, out of his conviction,” he said softly. "If I have succeeded then life will return. If I have not then there's nothing we can do."
Gayla marveled at him, watching as he raised his father's medallion from his chest. "With this," Kristic said, his voice sober. "We can send my father to wherever the light guides him; to wherever strength is his valor, as it is with all of us. He is no different." Gayla grasped a hold of the medallion in Kristic's hand, and spoke her mind.
"Then with the powers of this Verconian Medallion,” she said with warmth of heart and conviction. Let's send him to where he's needed and loved. Back to the light from which he came."
Gayla no sooner spoke the words than a blinding light filled the surroundings, radiating from Travis' body. Alvericon's image appeared within the light and a glowing medallion formed about her neck. Its fiery red glow glistened, became a radiant blue-white. "Rise Gayla and stand before me," echoed the voice of Alvericon. "Stand in the light warrior of the Ronna-kaa and repeat after me. Forever shall you be a part of me." Gayla listened and shuttered, tears filling her eyes. The words of Verconian strengthened her as she could feel her body set aglow in the brilliance of a blue-white aura. "Hear me brother of the light," she began repeating Alvericon’s wisdom of truth. "We send you to wherever the light guides you; to wha
tever time in which you must live. As you have gone before, so must you journey now. I will be with you always––it is my destiny. Feel the power … it’s flowing. Let the eternal light surround you, bind you and guide you defender of the eternal light. Through the powers of Source I summon all that we have been; all that we must be. Join with me, so that we may become one."
The radiance surrounded both Kristic and Gayla, becoming a familiar blinding white. Travis rose to stand beside them, engulfed in their love and friendship. His arms embraced them and his smile radiated in his vision of truth, while his body left behind this time, gathered together his companions, until he vanished in the brilliance being swept away into the corridors of time.
The light absorbed the fields and the forests, twinkling out of existence in an eerie hush that befell another meadow on another world. The light flickered into existence, glittering in beams of brilliant blue-white light and Travis materialized in the flash, while Alvericon's voice echoed throughout the night.
"I will be with you always––it is my destiny. Join with me, so that we may become one.
––– 43 –––
JANTIS ATILIES
"Jantis Atilies," said Avenall, taking care as he walked the length of the meadow to stand before a towering marble pillar of greying stone. Like a temple it rose into the landlocked sky, laced with overgrown vines and underbrush. "It's the pillars of the black sun. The Jantis Atilies."
"The temple must be around here, somewhere,” Kristic said looking around. “I thought it was only legend."
"Me too," said Gayla. She had no idea of what they were talking about. "What's this Jantis Atilies suppose to be, anyway? Some kind of carpenter or something."
"It's legend.” Avenall chuckled, stepped up next to the pillar with her and said, “A stone that marks the edge of the Universe."
