“Lokai,” he said. “My name is Lokai.”
Taylor’s eyes seemed to widen for just a second, but Q passed it off as his imagination.
“So what happened down there Mr. Lokai?” Q went on.
“It’s very simple really,” he said. “The White Knights came out of nowhere and took over our tower. We had no warning, no tip off. Nothing. They came, they saw, they conquered.”
“You said everyone was able to escape though?”
“Ah yes. I was the first to react during the attack. We barricaded the tower and had all Knights use an underground passage. By now I reckon they’d all have found the safety bunkers we have below ground. I stayed back in the tower to give them more time to escape. I would have been dead though had it not been for the Night Witch.”
“The Night Witch again!” Q said, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. He turned to Taylor. “Why does everyone keep calling you the Night Witch?”
“You are not the Night Witch?!” Lokai exclaimed.
Taylor shook her head, her face clean of her emotions. “I must resemble the Night Witch a lot I guess,” she said.
“I apologize for my mistake,” Lokai said. “But you bear a striking resemblance to her.”
“Who is this Night Witch anyway?” Q asked. “I’ve heard her name far too many times to not be curious about it.”
“It is understandable that one who is not a Dark Knight doesn’t know of the Night Witch.”
“Oh so she was a Dark Knight then?”
“The very best. It has been more than forty years now, but I remember it like it was just yesterday,” Lokai said. “The Empress of that time, the late Empress Aria, had personally brought back a young child from Earth, a girl. This girl possessed a haunting level of inborn skill, the likes of which we had never seen before. With high levels of training, she soon grew into a domineering figure in the ranks of the Dark Knights. She was a fearless mercenary, a silent assassin. Every enemy of the Dark Knights began to fear her, for there wasn’t a single assassination that she failed to carry out however impossible it seemed. Empress Aria was most impressed by her, and gave her the name we all know her by, the Night Witch.”
“Wait so she’s still alive then?” Q asked.
Lokai shook his head, “The Night Witch gave up her rank and went back to Earth. The Empress tried to stop her but couldn’t do so. I honestly wish she had stopped her. The Night Witch did not realize it but she had made too many enemies to go back to living a safe, normal life. Her enemies soon found her on Earth and murdered her in cold blood.”
A moment of silence passed, with nothing but the wind roaring against the ship’s metal body.
“Wow, that’s...unexpected,” Q finally said.
“You look very much like she did when she was young,” Lokai turned to Taylor. “For a second I thought you were her child.”
“She had a child?” Q asked, his eyes full of curiosity. He was just eating up this Night Witch story.
“Yes, a lovely girl,” Lokai nodded. “It seems that was the reason she went back to Earth in the first place. To have a normal life and raise a family. Sadly neither of those came true. But through all those unfortunate events, I pity the daughter the most. Both her parents were murdered by her mother’s enemies, and to make matters worse, the Dark Knights did not leave her alone after that either.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was soon brought here, to the Palace of Darkness. Empress Aria and the high ranking Dark Knights missed having a Night Witch to call upon, and so they did the only thing they could. They forced the child into following her mother’s footsteps and becoming a deadly assassin, the second Night Witch.”
“That’s horrid!” Q said.
“That child was treated like a tool. I was the one who was assigned to take her and rear her into what her mother had been. I prayed that the child would be normal, that she would be unfit for combat. The Knights would have left her alone if that were the case. But alas, the girl had her mother’s blood running within her. The talent she possessed surpassed even that of the first Night Witch! But all that meant was that the child was the Empress’ perfect candidate,” he sighed, his face sorrowful in the memory of the past.
The perfect candidate, Q thought, his body shivering at the thought.
Lokai continued, “The Dark Knights were too eager to create the next Night Witch. The child was put through an abusive training regimen for what seemed like eternity. All throughout I pleaded to Empress Aria to stop, but the loss of the original Night Witch, the loss of the child she had reared into a legend, had driven her to near insanity. What’s worse, my questioning made her doubt my sincerity to her cause,” he sighed. “She took the child away from me, and inflicted even harsher training upon her. My humanity did not let me stay put as I watched the poor child suffer day and day, night after night. I finally arranged for her to be smuggled out of Drakon, and in a few days she escaped the hell that had confined her for so long.”
“The Empress didn’t try to recapture her?”
“She did not. I went and confessed to the Empress Aria about what I did. She did not go easy on my punishment, and I incurred her full rage. I was stripped of my rank, and outcast to these towers, but I have no regrets. What I did jarred the Empress into reality and she gave up on forcing the creation of another Night Witch. My only wish is for that poor girl to find peace somewhere in the Universe.”
A sudden thought struck Q, a thought that changed everything he had just heard, a thought that had sparked a hurricane of emotions in his mind.
“Lokai?” Q asked, his hands shaking. “What was the name of the girl you trained?”
“Alas, my memory has faded with age,” he said. “I have long forgotten the young one’s name.”
Taylor looked at them, her eyes expressing an untold sorrow. “Taylor,” she said, a small smile on her lips. “Her name was Taylor.”
***
3-2
The air was quiet inside the ship. Q heard Taylor’s words echo off the metals walls. He tried to wrap his head around everything that had happened in five minutes, but his mind felt like it would explode if he did that.
Taylor sat in her seat, her eyes looking up at the roof, a small smile on her face. The Dark Knight elder, on the other hand, was astounded. His eyes looked shocked, and he kept mumbling ‘It’s you’ over and over again.
Q was still trying to comprehend everything that had happened, Taylor is the daughter of the deadliest Dark Knight mercenary ever, he thought.
This was actually the first time he had heard something this specific about Taylor’s past. He knew her mother was a Dark Knight, but he had no clue she had been this powerful. He knew what had happened to her parents, but he didn’t know what Taylor had actually gone through after the Dark Knights brought her to the Palace of Darkness.
He had always known she’d had a tough time, but he didn’t know it had been this extreme. When she told him about all this a few months ago she had made it seem like she had been imprisoned by the Dark Knights. What Lokai said implied she had been mildly tortured.
Should I have known? Q wondered. Was it his fault he didn’t ask? Was Taylor okay after all this? The Palace of Darkness was probably churning up a hundred bad memories for her.
I should have come alone, he thought. Bringing Taylor here was unnecessary and it was a mistake. Why did his brother have to send her here? Carlos was probably well aware of everything from Taylor’s past.
Maybe he wanted her to face her past, Q chided. It was the only thought that could calm him down. He glanced over at Taylor and Lokai, who were just talking with smiles on their faces. No doubt they were talking about everything that had happened to her since she had left Drakon.
The P.A. system crackled, “Entering Palace of Darkness. Beginning docking procedure now.”
To be honest, Q didn’t know if the interruption was a good thing or a bad thing. He just felt so confused about how to react to all this. Sho
uld he show sympathy? It was the humane thing to do, but he also knew Taylor would probably prefer that he didn’t do so.
Ugh. Why does this have to be so hard?! he thought.
The ship jerked as it touched down, and the engine’s hum cut off. They were finally back inside the Palace of Darkness. The three of them walked into the hull just as the hatch door opened.
Lokai stepped out first. He took a deep breath, “It’s been a while since I’ve been back home,” he chuckled. “It feels...odd.”
“Well, I guess a lot about this place has changed over the years,” Taylor said.
“The Palace of Darkness rarely changes, little one,” he smiled. “But, there are small things that can change every so often, and those things might just make all the difference.”
“Anyway, we need to head to the Empress’ chambers and give her our report,” Q said.
“No need for that,” Andrea walked into the hangar, followed by her two guards. She smiled, “We find ourselves in this exact situation a few times too often.”
Q went straight to the point, “The tower has been taken over by white Knights.”
The Empress’ face changed completely, “Oh dear god,” she said.
“Everyone has evacuated though,” Taylor added.
The turned to her guards. “Send out our Knights to the bunkers and evacuate them all,” she said.
“Yes your highness!” one of them bowed and ran off.
“Do you know if there were any severe casualties?”
“Ex-commander Lokai was the only one remaining in the tower, and he has confirmed that all the Dark Knights escaped unharmed.”
“Lokai?” Andrea’s eyes widened, and she looked at Taylor, who just nodded. She turned to the elderly Dark Knight. “Are you the same Lokai my mother…”
“Ah yes, your Highness,” Lokai knelt. “I am surprised you know of the tale.”
“Rise Dark Knight,” she said. “It is not fit for you to bow down to a dynasty that treated you so wrongly.”
Lokai’s eyes looked to the ground, but his trembling arms showed the happiness that coursed through him. “I hold no hatred towards anyone, your Highness,” he said, a quiver in his voice. “You owe me no apology. I feel at home once again.”
“The Palace of Darkness welcomes you, Dark Knight,” she said.
“Thank you, your Highness,” he stood up.
Andrea turned to her guard. “Ask Commander Reagan to call all war faring Knights to the main hall. Immediately.”
“Yes, your Highness,” he bowed and walked off.
She turned back to face them, “We lost contact with two more towers while you were away. I assume the White Knights have invaded them as well. We will have to dispatch forces to bolster the remaining towers.”
“But that’ll leave the Palace of Darkness defenseless,” Taylor said.
“We have our weaponized defenses. Any invaders will struggle to even cross our walls,” she said. “Now, shall we get going? Everyone will assemble at the hall in a few minutes.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Actually, you go on ahead, Empress,” Q said. “I and Taylor will join you shortly.”
She raised an eyebrow, but gave in anyway. “Very well,” she said, “You can ask any Knight and he will lead you to the main hall.”
“Will do,” Q smiled.
“I will see you there,” she said and left.
Lokai took Q’s hand in his. “Thank you for everything,” he said. “I have not only come back to my home, but I have met the child I have wronged so much in the past. I cannot thank you enough.”
The very mentioning of that topic made Q choke on his words. “It’s alright, Lokai. I thank you for helping her find peace,” he said. “If not for you I would have never…”
Whoa whoa whoa, his mind said. What was I trying to say there?
“However humble you may act, it doesn’t change the fact that I am forever in your debt,” Lokai said. “Please call upon me when you are in times of need,” he bowed and left along the same path Andrea had taken.
“He’s quite a dramatist isn’t he?” Taylor chuckled.
Q remained silent.
Taylor turned to him, “So anyway, what’s wrong?” her face turned serious. “Did something happen?”
Q looked about, and noticed the few Dark Knights who were working around the hangar.
“We need to go somewhere else,” he held up his hand and a white glow covered them both.
“Q? What’s going on?”
They surged forward and out the still-open hangar door. A few seconds into the flight they had crossed the boundaries of the Palace and were in the abandoned city. The night sky above them was silent and dark, just the way Q liked it.
He scouted below and found a tall tower below them. It wasn’t even a quarter the height of the palace of course, but it was still much larger than the other buildings in the city. He brought them both down onto the flat top of the tower.
“Okay seriously,” Taylor said as her feet touched down. “What’s wrong?”
Q looked at her, his eyes staring into hers. “I didn’t know,” he said, his voice more silent than the wind. He threw his arms around her, his sorrow exploding from within. “You could have told me,” he said, the words choking in his silent, dry sobs.
Taylor was surprised at first, and then she seemed to realize what was going. “You idiot,” she said. “Is that what this is all about?”
He nodded, not letting go of her.
She put her hand on his head, twirling his black locks around her finger.
“All those terrible things,” his voice quivered.
She just held him in silence.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine, silly,” she held him tight, resting her head on his shoulder. She smelled like lilies and jasmines, a scent Q found most soothing. He felt himself calm down, and his cluttered thoughts disappeared, leaving his mind as clear as the night sky above them.
Taylor put her hand on his cheek, and looked right at him. “I know I should have told you about all that, and I’m sorry I didn’t. But the reason I didn’t tell you isn’t because I don’t trust you, but because I’m over everything that happened. Those were horrible memories for me, yes, but I don’t think of them anymore. They’re all a part of the past I no longer acknowledge. Those memories belong to the Taylor from the Palace of Darkness, not the Taylor from Aliea Academy. They’re not a part of me anymore,” she smiled. “Trust me, I’m fine.”
Q felt a bit of sorrow disappear from within him, “Really?” he managed a small smile.
She held his face with her hands, and her radiant blue eyes looked right into his. “Really,” she said and kissed him on the cheek.
Before Q could even react, she had pulled away and turned around to face the Palace of Darkness, which was a few hundred yards out. “Think I can jump that far?” she asked, a twinkle in her eye.
Q went along with the sudden change of mood. “No way,” he chuckled.
“You’re on,” she smiled. She backed up to the edge of the roof, giving herself the most running space available to her. A dark flame emerged around her again, and Q could see her infuse her muscles with her life energy.
Power infusion, he recalled. A warrior could greatly enhance their physical abilities by infusing their muscles with life energy, which was exactly what Taylor was doing right now.
“See you on the other side, Q,” Taylor grinned and charged across the stone roof. A sonic boom blasted from the point she had been standing on an instant ago, and her side of the roof crumbled under the force of her steps. In less than a millisecond, she went from running along the stones, to jumping off the roof, to soaring through the air.
Q gazed at her mystical flowing form, a form that emanated both sheer power and serene grace. In his eyes, Taylor was no longer a Dark Knight, no longer the Night Witch’s daughter, no longer that little girl with a haunting past. She was bu
t a streak of darkness painting the night sky.
A beautiful streak of darkness.
***
3-3
Chris waited patiently as Commander Reagan led the healers into the council room. Men and women walked in, draped not in battle armor, but in dark, silky robes that were similar to the ones the Empress wore. The healers were all quite old, but the only part that looked old about them was their silvery-gray hair. Their bodies were much stronger than she could ever hope to be, and they all looked like they could throw her over their heads.
“Ah, is this not your child, Reagan?” one of them noticed as they all sat down.
Chris panicked. How am I supposed to respond to that? she thought. Am I supposed to respond to that in the first place?
“Let us leave the chit chat for later, elder,” Commander Reagan said and kept watch at the door side.
Chris didn’t know if he was actually supposed to keep watch, or if that was something he did to prevent himself from sitting at the same table as she. He couldn’t be that disgraced by her could he?
Talk about drama queen, Chris sighed. She began to wonder if she could ever get this family thing under control. So far it had all just gone downhill.
“So what have we all been called here for?” an elder spoke, her silver hair flowing down to her lower back.
Chris breathed deeply. “We have a new development on the condition of the patient,” she said.
Everyone’s eyes turned towards her, some in astonishment, others in curiosity.
“Did any of you perform an energy scan on him using your own life energy?” she asked.
“We all did,” the lady said without skipping a beat.
“Did any of you find some sort of void inside him?”
The room exploded into chatter as the elders discussed among themselves. Slowly two lone hands went up.
“I felt a presence inside him,” one man said. “It was too faint for me to confirm. I tried scanning him many times after, but never found it again.”
The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5 Page 70
