by Ava D. Dohn
*
This material, taken from the periodical, Ottawa, reveals some interesting details about Terey during the time of events being discussed by the author of this book, it being written shortly after these events occurred. Excerpts are herein quoted.
- “Terey’s skills and courage had been demonstrated on many occasions. During the Great War, she was engaged in every major battle involving the main fleet, often returning to the war while still nursing injuries received in previous encounters. Two of her planes were shot out of the skies, and many times she had brought others home, crippled. If a person flew in Mihai’s squadron, they expected such danger. Captains like Terey fought with the same desperation as their commander in trying to beat the enemy down and drive it out of the Empire. There had been no other squadron that was more often engaged in battle or suffered heavier losses than Mihai’s. Yet it was that determined desperation displayed by so many that finally forced the enemy out and won the war.
The skills of a statesman and councilor were not lost on Terey. She manifested outstanding insight in political, social and military matters. In the early days of the Rebellion, her insight was sought from governors and princes. Her voice helped to persuade many who were indecisive to remain loyal to Ma-we. Eventually she became a permanent member of Ma-we’s council. Officially, Terey was still a member of that council, but upon Mihai’s request for assistance, Terey had joined her council and had remained there since.”
-“She sat there, silently contemplating the outcome of changing events. Showing no outward emotion, her smoky, blue-grey eyes revealed a fiery concern burning deeply within her. In Terey’s mind, the events of the past and present were one and the same, a continuum of only one much larger event conceived thousands of years before, whose labor pains were not yet completed. She saw a universe soaked in blood, rivers overflowing and seas flooding from it, with no end in sight. A new round of slaughter was about to begin. The crown Mihai was wearing had sealed their fate. Asotos’ jealous outrage would explode against all living things when he found out, and Terey knew it.
Two thousand years had passed now, but the memory was still crystal clear. When her rebel brother learned that Mihai received power over the peoples as a chief steward, he reached out to destroy those of the Second Realm who followed her. Failing that, he influenced those same people to deify and worship her, hoping Mihai would destroy them, herself. Again failing, he raised up another group of worshipers who reveled in holy war. For nearly a thousand years, the Second Realm ran red with the blood of destruction. But he had failed to understand the spirit of these creatures possessing the realm below. Even a polluted worship of the real God made them stronger than people who worshipped a make-believe one. Eventually, in the name of their deified messiah, they crushed his grand army of followers, forcing them to flee into the cracks and crevices of the planet to hide, awaiting the day when he would awaken them to again unleash a reign of terror upon the planet.
The victors of these wars lifted high the cross of battle and proceeded to plunder the planet in the name of their God. They eventually returned the breath of life to an ancient beast by returning its heart to it. The last ruler over that beast had seen its demise coming, and he had created a great religion to preserve its heart alive. While others concluded that it had died, the men in the sacred cathedrals knew better. They were only waiting for the right leader, to give it to a man who would continue to recognize their power and greatness. Eventually one came. They made him king and declared a kingdom of a thousand years had started. But their revelry did not last.
In their newfound power and glory, these people finally crushed the infidels. Shortly thereafter, their grand kingdom fell apart. The Great Rebel tried to destroy them from within by raising up differing sects inside the kingdom. Again, the world ran red with the blood of innocent people. After generations of murder, one kingdom succeeded in wresting the heart of the old beast away from the others. It used that heart to gain control and expand its influence across the planet. When one of its former estates rebelled against it, war erupted between them. When that war ended, there were now two powers sharing the same heart. Down to the day of this council, it had remained the same.”
- “And what about her own part during all this time? Terey thought about the many battles and skirmishes she had survived. Wreckage from countless engagements lay scattered across the galaxy. Many lovers and companions were gone now. People she had shared lifetimes with had become crumbling piles of bones moldering on some desert planet, or had been blasted to dust in cosmic conflagrations.
Most of these battles were defensive actions, done to prevent the Rebellion from progressing too fast, too soon. They fought the enemy for the sake of a timetable, to prevent things from happening too quickly. It wasn’t until the Great War that they had gone on the offensive, and more had perished in that war than all the others combined. It, too, had only been one more step in the grand picture. The period of time between then and now was only for rest, a breather until the next storm; but they had rested too long. She could now see the storm brewing. Ma-we had waited for her children as long as possible, could wait no longer, and was preparing to hold up the bait to draw Terey’s rebel brother out. He would react quickly to crush it with all his military strength. Terey could see that her people were not prepared for the fight to come. She now also realized that her brother was going to strike first…”
* * *
Section Three
Legend’s Heroes
