by Viola Grace
She stood at the podium and listened to the concerns of the citizens of the Citadel.
“I understand your concern for your families and friends, but if they come to us for help, we will give it, for a price. If they did not want to fight on your behalf, we will make them pay to have us fight on theirs.
“Warnings have been sent to your loved ones, and we now have to wait.”
One of the front watchers waved their arms. Noma climbed across the crowd to the inner wall. “What is it?”
He pointed toward the distance. “Two groups of citizens, riding fast with no weaponry.”
To her surprise, they were coming from two directions. She smiled and patted his shoulder. “Get the greeters ready and buckle up.”
He winked and she returned to the podium.
“We have just been alerted to two approaching groups, from different directions. They have had to face their gods for the first time, and they might not like what they saw. Anyone who is prepared to fight, report to Rybril and stand by. Everyone else, prepare to pull extra duty on food prep and clothing production. This will not be forever, but it will last for a few weeks. We have been through a lot together and created a community. Remember that. Now, all to your stations, classes will resume the moment there is a master with a day off.”
Urad smiled, and they headed for the front gates by the expediency of walking over the crops and livestock. The cattle didn’t even flinch anymore when the light and shadow touched down next to them.
“This is the moment you were waiting for.” Urad murmured it for her ears only.
“This is just the beginning, but yes, it has to happen. The Citadel needs to become a business and not just a collection of refugees.”
“In case I haven’t mentioned it, thank you, Noma. Your efforts to move us forward are truly mind boggling.”
Noma smiled and took his hand. “Normally, you only thank me when we are in bed and all sweaty, so I will take it. You are welcome.”
As the folk approached from either side, she caught a glimpse of someone in the shadows. She had seen the woman several times over the last few months, and the red hair and starry eyes were distinctive.
She didn’t mind being watched, but there was something that Skiria had told her about the Watchers. They had a link to the Vorwings that went beyond just being creepy. They bore watching.
She stood with Urad by the guard post and waited for the incoming citizens to herald the next phase of the Citadel’s evolution. It didn’t take long.
Chapter Ten
With Urad, Noma was able to blast the ships that carried the invaders. Precision allowed them to target strategic points that just kept the ship from taking off so that they could rescue any talents frozen inside.
City by city, they attacked the invaders, gaining minerals and wood for the Citadel as well as trading contracts.
It was only when a huge vessel took up position over the Citadel that she met her first Vorwing.
The commander of the vessel flew down to meet with the heads of the Citadel.
In the open plain outside of the Citadel, Noma waited with Urad and watched the lavender man descend.
He smiled and inclined his head. “I am Captain Temross. I would like to engage in a treaty with you. I would like to exchange technology for some of your personnel.”
Noma felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. “Unacceptable. We are free born, free talents and free to blast you out of the sky.”
“You would defy your gods?”
Urad chuckled. “You are not gods. You are aliens who prey on less technically advanced species by using superstition and paranoia. We have gained that knowledge and shared it. You will not find gullible citizens here any longer.”
Temross sighed. “Then, I will take the citizens of the Citadel.”
“You will not.”
Temross flicked his hand forward and a ball of seething dark energy struck Noma in the chest, sending her stumbling backward.
Urad caught her and held her as the Vorwing took to the skies, returning to his ship.
* * * *
Urad watched as Noma fought for air; the dark energy was in her chest and moving across her skin.
A woman rushed to his side and placed his hands over the energy. “Let in the light. Burn out the infection.”
He did as she said, watching as Noma’s pain eased and the light began to glow under her skin. “It is working.”
“You are causing the ancient energy to retreat. It will not hold forever, and eventually, she will be encompassed by the power of a dead universe, but that is in the distant future. I will come at that time and take her to the next phase of her life.”
“You are saying she will die.”
“I am saying that the moment that energy hit her, she was already dead. You can keep that infection at bay, and she will remain active as long as you do.”
“So, when I die, she dies?”
“She will move on, yes.”
Noma opened her eyes. “I don’t want to be without him.”
The woman frowned but quirked one side of her mouth up. “You would take him with you into eternity?”
Urad looked down at his wife. “I would follow her wherever she went.”
The woman grinned. “Good. With the mingling of power you have engaged in, the infection will soon spread to you. Her darkness will support you as your light supports her.”
In his arms, Noma asked, “When were you going to tell him?”
“Before I left. I will be checking in from time to time.” She smiled as if her words were amusing. “For now, the ship is getting ready to attack.”
Urad tried to hold his wife down, but she got up and stood shoulder to shoulder with him. “Aim for the engines, sweetie.”
The ship was moving into position over the Citadel, and it spun violently to the side as spiralling light and darkness struck it. They pushed it over into the edge of the mountains and their power surged evenly through them, welling from the ground and out through their hands.
They smiled when the ship started smoking, and a moment later, it fought to gain altitude.
Urad caught Noma in his arms when she collapsed. “I am fine, just a little tired.”
He looked around for the woman, but she had disappeared. “Do you know what she was?”
Noma smiled and patted his cheek as he elevated them and walked back into the Citadel. Her smile was soft and had hope. It gave him the boost he needed to get her to the healers.
* * * *
Noma sat up in bed and watched Urad come in from the bathroom, towelling his hair dry. He was still beautiful after two hundred years of working with her. That took stamina.
“You are as pretty as the day I met you.” She smiled and drew her knees up, putting her chin on them.
“And you grow more lovely with each passing day. Now, what is wrong?”
She smiled and reached out for him. “I think I am almost at the end of my stamina.”
He sat next to her and pulled her into his arms. “I know. I can feel it. What will happen next?”
She looked up into his eyes, and a black night’s sky slowly spiralled outward from his inner self.
He smiled down at her and smiled, “There are stars in your eyes.”
She laughed and pressed her lips to his. “There always are when I look at you.”
A woman appeared next to their bed, and she smiled, “I see you have both relaxed into your situation.”
Urad smiled and kissed Noma’s hand. “As long as we go together.”
“Then, come with me and I will take you home for basic training. There has been much discussion of your situation, and you will be allowed to return here to the moment you left. Your lives are here in this world, and as long as Skora-Mark remains separate from other worlds, you will be allowed to continue your work.”
Noma got to her feet, put on her robes and held onto Urad, �
�We can go now. I need to get back before too much time passes.”
The woman smiled. “That will not be a problem.”
Months went by in the pocket universe and only a few moments had gone by on Skora-Mark.
Noma went about her business and explained the ocular change by saying she and Urad had been infected by the Vorwings years earlier.
This current generation of talents was restless and highly trained. They needed to do more than protect Skora-Mark.
Envix—Urad’s great-great nephew—was desperate for new worlds to explore and new places to be. His one journey in the experimental ship housing Skiria’s consciousness had left him wrapped in a dark nebula that had bonded to his abnormal strength and ability for flight. He didn’t resent the power that he had, but it did make it hard to find a woman.
“I want to go somewhere again, Auntie. I need to be off this world and doing something.”
Noma smiled and looked closely at him. He was finally the right age. “You know, you remind me of a portrait my sister drew once. If you want to be part of a world that is in turmoil, needs protection and needs a calm head, I have just the place for you.”
“Your sister? She looks like you?”
“She is blonde, blue eyed and needs someone to protect her. She has just become the Avatar to a world that is under siege.”
“Isn’t that a little weird?”
“You are not my great-great nephew by blood. I don’t have any descendants. My sister is the only one of my bloodline. Resicor offered you to her when we were children. I am thinking that it is time to send you over to deliver on that promise.”
He blinked. “You said that you were from six hundred years in the future.”
“I am, and now, I can put you in the moment when I left my world and my sister was in her most vulnerable moments.”
“You are serious?”
She waggled her eyebrows. “Of course I am. Now, are you interested in the thought of joining a world at war to rescue a woman whose light shines in the darkness and whose good nature makes her put her own self at risk to save others. She needs help.”
“Give me an hour and I will go.”
She nodded, closed her eyes and searched the timeline for the moment when she had left. The burst of energy was unmistakable, she just hoped that she hit it right on or the world would have shifted and he would emerge in space.
Hosting a nebula, he could move in space, but it was difficult to get propulsion from a standing start.
Noma smiled at Urad across the courtyard. He was working on colony plans for a new Citadel on Necridid. They could reach it with the salvaged shuttles, and it would enable Skora-Mark to disappear into history.
After Envix made his farewells and returned, she gave him the briefing. She told him about Io Vix, Urad’s aunt, who had been taken before he had escaped. She mentioned him not telling Trala about why he was there until he couldn’t hide it any longer. “Trala loves a mystery and she gets paranoid when folks are looking out for her.”
“So, keep my distance and don’t tell her anything.” He smiled. “This is sounding tricky. I like it.”
“Are you ready to go?”
He nodded. “I have said my goodbyes. Will you pass on messages if I see you?”
“As often as I can.”
Noma looked around. “We had better do this outside.”
She, Urad and Envix took off, flying into the open meadow and standing in the grass.
“Ready when you are, Auntie, Uncle.”
Noma swallowed, focused on the point in time and the orb she cast swallowed him up as a bug flew across her field of vision. The orb disappeared and she winced. “Oh darn.”
“What?”
“I think he ended up in the moon. I mean he will be fine, but he will need to get to the surface and there is an armada in his way.”
Urad wrapped his arms around her. “I think he will be fine. We can keep an eye on them.”
She leaned against him. “That is the idea. In my mind, Trala has been locked in the moment that I left. I can’t communicate because we are out of synch. With Envix there, I will have a glaringly obvious tracking point.”
He grinned. “I am glad to sacrifice my flesh and blood for your relationship with your sister.”
“You say the sweetest things.” She nipped at his lips, and they flew back to the Citadel, light and shadow entwined forever.
Author’s Note
And so, we see how the Citadel began. We have not seen the end of Skora-Mark or its inhabitants. After a few dispersals throughout time, it becomes a Well of Time. That will be a different book very far down the line.
Do you remember the haunted, young woman in Shattered Light? Well, she is out in the stars now, and she is hunting a soul.
See you next time,
Viola Grace
http://www.violagrace.com
[email protected]
About the Author
Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barely keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.
