Chris tensed, “So his life entirely depends on me?” she asked nervously.
“You were aware of the severity of our situation, were you not?” he said sternly.
Chris nodded and remained silent.
Taylor really didn’t like the way Commander Reagan talked to his daughter, but she knew this wasn’t the time or place for her to start a family counselling session.
“Okay, I just have to know,” Q said. “What exactly is wrong with him? He seems perfectly fine when you look at him from here.”
Both Andrea and Commander Reagan hesitated, and then the Empress spoke. “About a month ago, Razy started acting weird,” she began.
“Weird is an understatement, your Highness,” the Commander said. “The boy had gone insane.”
Andrea ignored him and continued, “Most of the time he was normal. But occasionally he would act very strange. He would suddenly mumble nonsense to himself,” she paused. “He even forgot his own name quite a few times. We all assumed it was a joke until a week ago.”
“What happened a week ago?”
“He took out a Dark Knight guard.”
“You mean?”
“Yes. Razy killed him,” she said. “But as big an issue as murder is, it was still nothing compared to what happened afterwards. His eyes turned completely black and he started yelling gibberish. It was almost as though he were threatening us in an alien tongue.”
“Are you saying he seemed possessed?” Chris asked.
Andrea paused a second, as though she were trying to make sure she didn’t sound like a crazy person herself. She nodded, “Yes. He seemed possessed. He did not seem in control of his body or mind.”
“Umm…okay,” Chris said. She was clearly disturbed and confused by all this. It wasn’t every day the world of science had to try and heal possessions. As far as Taylor knew, there were no scientific entries on any conditions similar to a possession. Then again, she wasn’t exactly a healer so she could be missing out on some key facts.
“Can we go inside?” Chris pointed through the glass.
The Empress looked at Commander Reagan.
“Very well, your Highness,” he said. He placed his palm on the glass. A circle of green appeared around it and he pulled his hand back. The green afterimage of his fingerprints remained projected on the wall.
Taylor found it interesting that a scanner could bypass the battle armor he was wearing and directly scan his fingerprints alone. As expected, the Dark Knights had very high level tech.
“Opening bay doors,” a voice said. A section of the glass, the size of a door, slid into the floor.
“We’re going to have to seal ourselves in once we’re inside. Safety issues,” Commander Reagan said. “So if any of you don’t want to be stuck in here for too long I suggest you wait outside.”
No one said a word.
“Good,” he said and led them in. Just as he said, the glass wall rose back up, sealing them all inside.
The room was silent. Taylor could hear the sound of her own breathing, the sound of her hands moving through the air, the sound of her feet striding across the metal floor.
Razy lay on the table in front of her, a nineteen-year old clothed in dark robes similar to the Empress’. Looking at his bruised face, Taylor could see he had obviously struggled before being secured. She wondered what exactly had happened to him. His eyes were closed, and his face was frozen. She couldn’t even tell if he was asleep or immobile.
“He’s been out for almost a day now,” the Commander said. “Our healers put him in an induced coma. It was the easiest way to keep him safe and alive.”
Q suddenly jumped around, his eyes darting across the room.
“Q?” Taylor asked.
He took a few steps across the room, his eyes still scanning everything around him.
“Q, what’s going on?” she asked.
He turned to her, a confused look on his face. “You didn’t feel that?”
Now it was her turn to be confused, “Feel what?”
“An energy wave. It just passed through this room,” he said, his eyes darting across the floors and the walls. “It wasn’t strong enough to cause any damage, but it certainly wasn’t weak enough to escape detection.”
Taylor turned to Commander Reagan and Andrea. They shook their heads, “We didn’t feel anything,” they said.
Maybe a sorcerer was the only one who could detect it, she thought.
Q walked up to Razy’s bed. He hovered his hands over the sick boy’s chest. “It came from here.”
Taylor leaned into Razy’s face to check his breathing. Slow steady puffs of air. Nothing wrong at all.
“Taaaylooor,” a raspy voice whispered into her ear.
Taylor jumped back, completely taken by surprise. Razy’s face slowly turned towards her, his skin a vampiric pale, his lips twitching into a smile. His eyes were completely black, empty of any light.
“I thought you said it was safe!” Andrea yelled at Commander Reagan.
“Your Highness, our healers sedated him again just minutes ago. He should not have broken free of it.”
“Something provoked him,” Q said, his eyes focused on the red haired man.
“It’s soooo nice to see you again, Taylor,” Razy’s smile widened.
“I’ll get the healers,” Commander Reagan said.
“No time,” Chris said and strode over to Razy without a hint of hesitation. She confidently placed her hand on his forearm and closed her eyes.
Taylor knew exactly what she was doing. An energy scan. Most healers sent a part of their life energy into their patient to find out what needed to be healed. It was the most accurate way of determining an ailment.
Razy though, was not reacting well to the scan. He squirmed and thrashed as he tried to pry his wrist from her hand, but Chris firmly held on and kept going.
“What are you doing to me?” he bellowed, his voice going from a raspy tone into a low, powerful one.
Chris remained silent and focused on the scan.
“Has he ever been like this before?” Andrea asked the Commander.
He shook his head, “This is the first time he has spoken properly, your Highness,” he said.
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Razy screamed. His body erupted into a black flame and exploded. Q used his Elementa of Light to create small spherical shields of white light around each one of them to protect them from the blast. Smoke filled the room, blocking everyone’s vision.
Just what is going on here, Taylor thought.
“Is he still alive?” Q’s voice came from afar.
A tingling sensation passed through Taylor. She felt a dark aura lying dormant inside the smoke.
“Never mind,” Q said.
He felt it as well, Taylor’s muscles tensed.
A shadow shot out of the smoke and rammed into Taylor. Her spherical shield flew through the air and crashed into the metal wall behind her. She looked up and saw Razy standing right outside the shield. A shadowy aura emanated from his body, as though he were bathing in a dark flame. Taylor sensed that the aura was similar to that of her Dark Knight battle armor.
Razy flashed a smile at her and jumped back into the smoke. His movements were so fast he created a tailwind that cleared the smoke from his path for a moment.
Taylor watched as Q appeared in her field of vision. He lay in the corner of the room, inside his own shield. Razy rammed right into it, his fists unleashing a fury of punches against its white walls. Q’s face looked exhausted. Putting up five shields at once had drained him significantly.
I’ve got to do something, she gritted her teeth. Razy’s punches became heavier, and the faintest of cracks appeared on Q’s shield.
He can’t take it any longer, she cursed. “Q, drop my shield!” she yelled.
“But-”
“Do it!”
The shield immediately went down. Taylor put on her helmet, and her visor fired up. The smoke from the explosion hadn’t gone anywhere a
nd still blocked her vision. She switched her visor to heat vision, but all she could see was a blur.
The lingering heat from the explosion is messing with my vision, she cursed. She reverted back to normal vision and frantically looked around, trying to find out where everyone else was.
Razy noticed that her shields were down. He charged at her, his dark eyes mad with bloodlust. Taylor stood her ground and prepared to attack him. Just as he jumped at her, she slid to the ground and unleashed a furious kick right at his chest.
He should have flown through the air.
But he didn't.
Taylor’s eyes widened in shock as Razy used his hands to latch onto her kicking foot. He back flipped in the air, using his rotation to throw her right at the wall. She braced for impact and went crashing into the metal, without her shield this time.
“Taylor!” Q’s worried voice came from inside the smoke. She looked around but she still couldn’t see anyone else.
“Let’s play a little more, Taylor,” Razy stood in front of her, his dark aura turning even darker.
“I didn’t want to hurt you, Razy,” she said. She focused her mind, concentrating on the life energy inside her. She imagined it flow into her palms in a powerful stream. Her hands thrust forward, palms facing Razy. A beam of darkness burst out and rammed right into him.
He should have flow through the air.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Razy stood his ground, bearing the beam that was smacking right into him.
“Thank you for the wonderful snack,” he grinned. He raised his hand up, his palm facing her. A massive beam of darkness shot right at Taylor, smashing her against the wall.
Three times already, she thought in her weakened state. She could feel her arms and legs go numb. The sheer power in the dark beam was sapping her of her energy. Razy kept the attack going, and the beam pushed her further into the wall, its immense pressure making her feel like she was being crushed.
I can’t wait any longer. I have to do it now, she thought. She concentrated hard, her conscience imagining itself moving deep into her life energy. She could feel another presence inside her reservoir of energy, a void of darkness that lay hidden deep inside. Her mind reached out into it, trying to harness its strength.
She felt heat radiate through her body, but it escalated too quickly. A shrieking pain went through her spine and her legs buckled beneath her as she struggled to keep herself from going out of control.
She cut her mind off from the supply, and steadied herself against the wall. A quiet growl escaped her lips. Still can’t do it, she thought.
Just then, a gust of wind burst through the room and the path cleared through the smoke. Chris and Andrea stood at the other end of the path, with Chris using her Elementa of Wind to keep the path clear of smoke.
“I’m sorry I have to do this, Razy,” Andrea hovered her hand in the air, fingertips pointed at Razy, and then dropped it to the ground.
A sphere of darkness emerged around Razy, sealing him in completely. It lasted but a second, and dissolved back into the air, leaving Razy on the ground, his body still and quiet.
“I put him to sleep,” Andrea walked towards Taylor. Chris was right behind her, using her Elementa of Wind to clear up all the smoke.
I wonder why she waited that long to clear the smoke, Taylor wondered. Then she realized it was probably because Chris wasn’t exactly an expert in the Elementa of Wind, and being in a pressure situation only made her control worsen. It had probably taken her a few tries to even clear the smoke up the first time.
“I didn’t know you were a Mage, Andrea,” Q walked up to them, his face a little cheerier.
“I’m not,” the Empress said.
“Her Highness is a Druid,” Commander Reagan said.
Taylor was a bit surprised at hearing that. A Druid was basically a Mage on steroids. Druids had much more power than a Mage, and had much better control of their Elementa as well. They were an extremely rare class that lay between a Sorcerer and a Mage on the power scale.
Andrea turned to Chris, “Were you able to see what was wrong with Razy?” she asked.
She shook her head, “I have no clue,” she said.
Taylor looked at Razy’s unconscious body on the floor. She shivered at the thought of his pure black eyes, at the thought of the blood lust she had seen explode within them.
Just what had they gotten themselves into?
***
2-1
Taylor lay on her bed, her fingers grasping the black silk covers, her eyes staring at the stone ceiling of her chambers. The silence in the air amplified the sound of her thoughts. And all she could think about was one thing.
Just what was going on with Razy?
Even a highly-trained Dark Knight shouldn’t have had as much power as he had summoned. To make matters worse, Chris revealed she had no clue what was ailing him. Taylor wondered if it was a good idea to bring Chris instead of Trisha after all. Sure, she empathized with Chris’ reason for coming here. She knew the feeling all too well. But she also knew that letting emotions play into a mission like this wasn’t a smart thing to do.
Taylor heard a knock on the wooden double-doors. She sat up. “Come in,” she said. Andrea entered, dressed in her loose, dark robe. Her face was calm and steady, but her eyes showed that her mind was not the same. Taylor cringed the moment she saw her Empress walk in. She hadn’t expected her to come. She hadn’t wanted her to come.
“I believe you know why I’ve come here?” Andrea made her way to the bed and sat herself down right next to Taylor.
Taylor nodded, “I think I have a general idea,” she sighed.
A while ago, Aliea Academy had come under attack by a formidable enemy. Taylor had escaped from their clutches and headed to a Dark Knight sub-territory, the planet Dryke. The Empress, who had coincidentally been visiting the planet, saw the situation at Aliea as a lost cause and imprisoned Taylor to keep her from going back to Aliea, citing that she would only die if she did so. Taylor though, escaped her confinement, and returned to Aliea, which fell upon good fortune and survived the enemy attack. Taylor had not talked to any Dark Knight since.
“It’s been weeks, Taylor,” Andrea’s voice quivered. “I understand it was wrong of me to try to prevent you from going back to Aliea. I understand it was wrong for me to not feel what you felt. I understand why you ran away from here.”
Taylor waited patiently as Andrea steadied her flustered breathing.
“The least you could have done was tell me you were okay.”
“I wasn’t sure how you would react,” Taylor said, her eyes fixed to the wall opposite to them. “The moment I ran away, I expected to receive your whole hatred. I never even considered that a different scenario would play out.”
“Do you see me as Andrea, the Empress or as Andrea, your best friend?”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered quietly.
Andrea threw her arms around her, “Please don’t do that again,” she hugged her tight. “I can’t bear to think of what I would do if something happened to you.”
“Well,” Taylor grinned. “I do tend to get into trouble, you know. Like a lot. You better get ready to be worried a ton.”
Andrea pulled away, a wide smile on her face. “I’ll train myself,” she laughed.
A sense of ease settled upon Taylor’s mind. All that paranoia she had about Andrea just vanished in a moment. She could finally relax again, knowing that things were just fine between her and her Empress.
“I must say though,” Andrea’s voice turned a bit more serious. “I did not expect you to come back as a Druid.”
Taylor jumped in surprise. “What?”
“Oh please,” she chuckled. “The others may think you’re still a Mage, but your aura shows your power exceeds to much higher levels.”
Taylor started twirling her hair nervously. Out of the fat and into the fire, she thought.
“I expect Carlos knows about this?”
> She hesitated for a moment, and then nodded.
“The others are absolutely clueless I see.”
She nodded again.
“Any reason you’re trying to hide this from everyone?”
She bit her lip, “I don’t really feel comfortable about it.”
Andrea raised her eyebrow, “Very well,” she said. “The main reason I came here is because I wanted to talk to you about the White Knights.”
Taylor’s mind jumped into concentration mode. When she had gone to Dryke, Andrea had told her that the Dark Knights were at war with another mercenary organization called the White Knights. In fact, Andrea had declined to provide any backup when Aliea was attacked, citing that the White Knights were forcing her to use every single weapon in her arsenal.
“What happened after I left?” Taylor asked.
“It was quite comical actually. The White Knights suddenly pulled away from all battlefronts in a span of minutes. One moment we were at war, and the next my ships were patrolling through empty space.”
Taylor’s eyebrows scrunched as she wracked her brain. “That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“It doesn’t make sense if you think war was what they wanted in the first place.”
“So you’re saying it’s not?”
“I checked our battle log. The White Knights pulled away moments after Aliea was liberated.”
Taylor’s eyes widened. “So you’re saying they were only trying to hold you back?”
Andrea nodded, “They were trying to keep us from getting to you.”
“It actually makes sense,” Taylor said, recalling that the enemy who attacked Aliea had very close ties to the White Knights.
“Please don’t analyze this whole thing,” Andrea sighed. “We are all happy that the Knight war has ended so quickly. We don’t need any conspiracy theories going on right now. I only told you about all this because I thought I owed it to you.”
“Thank you,” Taylor said, a smile on her face, but what she felt was utterly different. Pangs of guilt began to gnaw at her insides. She had never really been concerned about what was going one with the Dark Knights. The part of her that rejected them all had blocked her mind from ever thinking about any of them.
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