Starblazer- Through the Black Gate

by Reiter

  “Only three,” Freund thought, extending his senses. He felt one in the room that was not allowed to return to him. It explained a few things, but there were four that had opted not to return, and as Freund extended his awareness, he found himself surprised and slightly delighted at the reason. “Well, that could be problematic, but it will have to wait for the moment.”

  “I will stand for the last available Champion position,” a man said as he strode into the castle and approached Freund. His skin and hair matched that of the giant judge, but his eyebrows ran down the outside corners of his head and merged with his sideburns. “The door was open, but I request your permission to enter.”

  “It is given,” Freund said, a slight shake in his voice. The slender man, clad in crystalline dress armour and a royal purple cloak, removed his helmet and his long, shiny, straight black hair fell around his shoulders.

  “The Adjudicator recognizes the Gamesman. He is accepted and the four Champions have been named.” The large figure turned to exit but stopped at the door leading out. “The Adjudicator will review the full scene and summon the Champions when the game is set to begin. However, the rules of the Champions must be followed from this point until a victor has been name.” Turning to leave, the next footfall did not even make a sound. Freund could feel his memory pod moving as the Adjudicator moved and he suppressed a smile. The list of things that would be made to wait was growing steadily longer. The large figure slowed in movement as he faded from sight, followed by a soft breeze and spark of light just beyond the stars.

  The Gamesman smiled and nodded, turning back to face Freund. He seemed to recognize the human entity, but the knowledge was not mutually shared. “Do you even know what you are playing for?”

  “The prize does not matter so much as what I protect,” Freund answered.

  “So ‘no’ then. I see.” He sneered as he removed his gloves. “This scene is askew,” he said. “It will be eradicated.”

  “Define ‘scene’ if you please,” Freund requested.

  “This existence, blind one! We created it, and now we are done with it. Out with the old and in with the new, as your kind are prone to say.” He laughed as both he and Freund flashed brightly before departing the castle. A small orb of a soft glowing light remained behind and floated slowly down to the prism. When it touched, light filled the room and the prism shattered inward. The Lark sang a high-pitched note of fright, beating its wings and hopping about. When the light faded, Tolarra stood up on two very human legs. The prism remained, but it was now inside a crystal sphere that was making its way to the mantle over the fireplace.

  “My dearest!” Freund projected and although she could barely hear his thoughts, she could see numbers flashing before her eyes.

  “Coordinates!” she thought.

  “Indeed they are,” he replied. “Find out all you can, my love! If I do not return, you are my prox–”

  “No!” she screamed, reaching out with her mind. She could feel nothing. As far as her senses could tell her, Freund was gone! She closed her eyes and immediately recalled the lessons of the Light Priest that had changed her life and the entity that had changed her heart. “Okay,” she said, trying not to fall into a panic. “I need to get to that place and quickly!” A streak of coherent light was all that was left of Tolarra as she sped across the systems towards the destination she had been given.

  “And I might as well start thinking of a Plan B,” Tolarra thought as she flapped her wings for even more speed. “If I haven’t learned anything else from that man, I’ve learned that having another plan in place can save your ass in more ways than one!

  “Wait,” she whispered. “Chiaro didn’t go to Freund for facts or opinions… not after he became a Light Priest. After that, he sought the Temple of Light! Hell, that sounds like a Plan B to me!” Tolarra continued through the vacuum of space, using the time to concoct a Plan C and D. The first was in case what she found at the given coordinates made finding the Temple of Light unnecessary. The second was for if she had to find the temple and it too fell short of what she needed.

  ** b *** t *** o *** r **

  It had seemed like a really sound strategy: keeping the Affiliation and the masquerading demons in the dark about what she had managed to uncover. S’Vrili was willing to take that claim to the grave. She had, however, entertained many notions of being much older before initiating her life’s dismount. The cries of the five demons behind her were closer than they had been two sets of shrieks past. It was a classic competition: Mechanix versus MajiKs, the technology of propulsion systems and aerospace engineering in a race against leathery wings and incantations. The former was a mastery of the rules of physical science, the latter was allowed to ignore them. It did not help matters that S’Vrili was only enough of a pilot to reach her destinations in a very pedestrian manner. What she needed was a true pilot, a daredevil, someone who knew how to climb into a rules-minding machine and break the rules anyway. The winner of this challenge, in this particular case, had been declared ages ago; the young Affiliate was simply delaying the inevitable.

  “They’re almost close enough to attack and actually have a chance of hitting me,” S’Vrili thought as her eyes looked at her console, spying the part responsible for communications. How quickly she could have opened a channel and called for help… bringing good people out to an early demise! No, whatever the Fates had prescribed for her, S’Vrili would meet it with a clear conscience. “…I am still over the city! Escape for me is not possible; it’s time to think of others!” S’Vrili took a sharp turn to her left and set the nose of her aircraft for the mountains in the distance. There were probably people up there too, but the chances of the craft coming down and missing innocents was greatly improved.

  Looking back, S’Vrili was relieved to see her turn had surprised her pursuers and she had opened the distance between them and herself. She programmed the craft to begin the automated landing cycle in two minutes and unstrapped herself from the chair. She looked at the gem atop her wrist and managed a smile as she patted the arm of the chair. The gem was not the rich azure she was used to seeing it glow. It was a faded blue, becoming murky, approaching black, which meant the battery was nearly out of power to give to her.

  “Looks like I’ll have to do this on personal reserves,” she thought.

  “Not necessarily,” a soft, warm female voice responded. S’Vrili looked around, but she could not see anyone. “Oh come now, did you really think you would look into the Stars and they would not at least look into you in return?” S’Vrili smiled as she pushed the emergency eject lever forward. She took in a deep breath as she fell through the bottom of the craft. She was surprised by the sensation and cursed herself for not remembering that she had to pull the lever to be ejected through the top of the aircraft.

  The chair rockets fired as it was quickly clear of the craft. S’Vrili fell away from the chair before she heard metal crunching behind her. She looked back to see her chair torn into several pieces as a demoness streaked toward her. “You have much to answer for, mortal,” she hissed. “My masters await your soul!”

  “I’m sure,” S’Vrili whispered as she closed her eyes and started making movements with her hands. The demoness laughed as she drew closer.

  “An incantation will not save you, witch!”

  S’Vrili opened her eyes and they gave a spark of purplish-black light. “Aahhh yes, I am indeed a Witch!” S’Vrili clapped her hands together. The demoness and two other demons screamed as they turned to stone. Pleased that three had managed to touch the chair she had enchanted to be the agent of delivery, S’Vrili put her attention toward the two remaining demons and the statue drawing close to her. She took hold of it and used it as a makeshift platform.

  “Definitely have to remember the night I air-surfed a demoness,” S’Vrili thought, finding it surprisingly easy to achieve and maintain her balance. “Make that an aerodynamic demoness! Still, that’s three down and two to go.”

&nbs
p; “I can see her power locke,” one of the two demons stated, pointed at the blue gem. “She is weak. She cannot have but one or two more efforts left to her. Press on!”

  “These boys don’t get out too often,” S’Vrili whispered. “Still, I likes my demons like I likes all of my opponents: dumb enough to walk into one!” S’Vrili locked into her threshold of MannA and cast a MannA Bolt spell. A normal bolt was about the size of an average human fist. What S’Vrili generated and released was nearly the size of her torso! It streaked high into the sky and both demons veered around it. “Hmmm, good flyers, those two.”

  “That was one, witch!”

  She could hear the statue crack under her feet and S’Vrili sighed in disgust. “And aren’t you the most worthless thing?!” she cried as she stepped off the statue, diving for the ground below. The demoness cracked into thousands of tiny fragments before becoming dust, and both demons flew through her remains.

  “Well, I was intending on going on a trip,” the Affiliate thought. “… the only trouble is that I never found my destination… but that was before I heard her voice!”

  S’Vrili altered the perspective of her threshold and used KaA to empower the faith she had in herself and in the Stars. “But I don’t need to know where I am going to begin my journey.

  “Stars, guide me!” she said as her body began to glow with a soft white-gold light. Extending her hand in front of her, a beam of light shot from her palm and created an aperture just above the clouds. S’Vrili flew through it; she could feel the Energies passing over her body, and each was of use to her. She could see where she was going, and S’Vrili quickly focused her talents to absorb her momentum as teleportation would not negate her speed of travel. Her feet touched down on fine flooring tiles and she walked forward under the remaining momentum her body had acquired in the fall from her aircraft. Both demons flew into the floor and S’Vrili winced as she heard both the tiles and the bones in their bodies snap, break, and grind.

  “That sounded bad… for them, not for me… but still pretty bad.” Both demons began to stir, still stunned, as their bodies began to mend. “Durable bastards!” S’Vrili whispered as she looked around the room where she had been taken. “Remember, S’Vrili, you trust the Stars. Just because this location makes no sense to you doesn’t mean it’s the wrong destination. Sometimes it takes time for the wisdom of the Stars to shine through.” One of the demons growled as it stood up from the divot its body had made. “And it isn’t as if you’re going to be standing around just waiting.” The second demon stood up as the first was struck in the back with the MannA Bolt. The energy was so great that it burned through its back, bursting from its chest. The demon started to fall to its knees, but it was only black dust before the joints reached the floor. “You’ve got to love how that spell tracks down its target,” S’Vrili remarked as the aperture she had come through finally closed.

  The last demon roared as it lunged forward, swiping its right wing for S’Vrili’s legs. She fell face-forward but rolled as quickly as she could. The spike bone from the left wing speared through her robes and the floor, just missing the ribs of the rolling Witch. “The bolt was one,” the demon said coldly as it slowly approached. S’Vrili moved on her hands and feet, backing away from the creature. “… that aperture was a second. I doubt you have any power left to you… aside from your life-force that is.”

  “I could be old and decrepit and fare better than you, demon!” S’Vrili spat. The demon snarled and attacked, lunging forward again. It expected S’Vrili to try a somersault throw and caught her foot as she lifted it. Taking hold of one arm, the demon lifted the woman and hurled her into the wall. The Witch struck hard, but she was not allowed to reach the ground before the demon lunged forward, driving its shoulder into her chest. S’Vrili could not scream as she felt her ribs give from the incredible strength of the demon and the icy touch of its body on her flesh.

  “You fared well, mortal,” the demon said, pulling back and taking hold of her neck. S’Vrili’s feet touched down on the floor, but she could not feel it. “A full score of my kind is not easily turned back. But alas, I am the last, and thanks to you, when I return to my Prince, I will be placed at a higher station.”

  “P-p-p-prince?” S’Vrili panted, struggling to regain her focus. She could do nothing while the cold of the demonic touch grasped at her body and her mind. “Th-that narrows it d-d-down for me!”

  The back of the demon’s hand smacked against her cheek and she was nearly knocked unconscious. The room started spinning about her and all she could hear was her heartbeat and the demon’s laughter. It took a grip of the top of her head, the tips of its claws inserting into her face.

  “The pain,” she thought as her hands balled up into tight fists. The lesson of an old housekeeper flooded her memory. As the demon peered into the visions she had gathered from the Stars, she remembered holding on to a poker Renaldo had just brought from the fire. “Focus on the pain, S’Vrili! It is not the normal path, but it is still a path… and bless you, old man, it is the only path left to me!

  “Get out of my mind!” S’Vrili screamed as her threshold shifted once more. EnerJa was now hers to wield, and her eyes flashed with a reddish-orange light before beams of the same color fired into the face of the demon. The energy beams burned against its flesh, and the demon was forced to release her as it stepped back. S’Vrili knew better than to look at the gem on her wrist; she knew it was going to be black and cold.

  “Now what, Witch?” she asked herself. “You are a keg tossed at the mid-point of the fraternity party: tapped and drained!”

  The burns on the demon’s face slowly faded and S’Vrili shook her head. The room was obviously used for the casting, the shutter for a teleportation aperture was glowing, but the energy keeping it in place was dedicated; this side of the doorway was closed and required the caster’s permission, or a power greater than his, to force an opening. There was not enough ambient MannA for her to bother absorbing it with what little time she had. There were no weapons on the wall, and she had lost her dagger even before she had appropriated the aircraft.

  “When I have the rest of your memories, I will cleave the flesh from your bones!” the demon hissed as it bent at the knees. It was not about to show her any mercy or make a minimal effort in its next attack; too many had done that already and were no longer in the chase. “You have no power and even less hope!”

  S’Vrili’s eyes opened wide as they started to glow. The shutter had opened and as the screams of one man’s torment flooded the room, so did an abundance of MannA. S’Vrili collected enough to align her body with the power, and she could feel more about to flood into the chamber. By becoming one with the power, she would not be harmed by the explosion which was about to occur. She could see the doors to the chamber opening – exceptionally bad timing for that party, and even worse for the demon that was instantly incinerated by the MannA. Demons were creatures of focused KaA, and MannA was definitely a bane to their existence. S’Vrili walked slowly through the flames of power as the aperture consumed its creator, scattering him across the dimensions. She could feel a contingency activate around the InvokeR and she was impressed at his resourcefulness. She hoped, for his sake, that the contingency would merge well with the circumstance of his forced transference from this dimension.

  “The Stars have delivered me,” S’Vrili thought as light came through the aperture and touched her body. She could suddenly feel everything that was on the other side of the dying spell. The building, in growing need of repair… the people, scurrying for cover… and one lone figure who was not afraid… not for himself. S’Vrili turned and looked through the beam of light to see him. A tall and massive form was there, turning its back to the doorway as he erected a field that bent the light of the visible spectrum around his body. It was a sensation never before experienced, but the Stars had introduced her to him. “… and this is the agent they used… the very one I was bade to find!” Looking down at the gem
on her wrist, the Witch smiled to see that it was now glowing white. With her battery filled to its maximum capacity, S’Vrili allowed the abundant power to pass into her threshold where it too fed until it could take no more. “Thank you for your assistance, Z’Gunok Tel Dungias. Now let’s see if I can return the favor!”

  Young people have a marvelous faculty of either dying or adapting themselves to circumstances.

  Samuel Butler

  (Rims Time: XII-4201.22)

  Fayja was not yet used to her surroundings, it was still something of a miracle that she had survived angering Prince Valwonn. In the weeks since she had been taken from the bedchambers of the youngest son of the Emperor, Fayja had found herself in a constant state of regret and remorse. She had lost count of the items she had broken that belonged to her benefactor, and already her hopes for going this day without an incident were lost.

  “This might aid in the effort,” Kannadi said, lowering a dustpan to the floor as she squatted to hold it in place.

  “Thank you,” Fayja laughed nervously. “Was the figurine one of his favorites?”

  “It was one of the many he has made,” Kannadi replied. “But don’t let that–” Kannadi looked up at the young woman who started to cry. “Perhaps that advice comes too late,” Kannadi whispered as she stood up.

  “I don’t understand what’s wrong with me!” Fayja shouted. “I can’t walk ten meters without breaking something. I’ve never been so trouble prone!”

  “The problem is not your coordination,” Kannadi insisted as she took a gentle hold of Fayja’s shoulder. “I have seen what you are doing, but it was my body I could not trust. I have felt what you are feeling, Fayja. It is only fear.”

  “Fear?!” Fayja repeated, sounding confused. “But–”

  “I know, you are thrown by my words. You were saved from the Prince by my Master, but he is a man, and he probably resembles the men you have been forced to lay with. Your fear is that you are simply passing time until his hungers take hold of his reason and he betrays you, like every other man you have known.”