Heart's Desire
by Candice Raquel Lee
Anger flares and Love ignites....A bag of gold to pick up a trinket from an old friend, that's what the wizard said, and it didn't sound like such a bad deal until Conraydin found out who his travelling companion was going to be. . . the woman he had assumed dead for the last five years. Anger flares and love ignites in this heartbreaking and magical short story about making your own destiny.A high school student inadvertently discovers that his father is working on a top secret project with the CIA and aliens from another planet. When the aliens discover this serious security breach they insist on Peter Turner's exile to Tarizon. Meanwhile Tarizon is recovering from a series of super volcanic eruptions that has nearly destroyed all life on the planet. Tarizon is slowly recovering ecologically but the political situation is volatile. Videl Lai has become Chancellor in a tainted election. Once in power, he renounces Tarizon's constitution, The Supreme Mandate, and orders the extermination of all non-human life forms. The Loyalist party, however, has been planning a civil war to restore rule under the Supreme Mandate and stop the genocide. The Loyalist Party, however, is weak and there is little hope it will be able to defeat Videl Lai and his formidable army. The only hope seems to be a prophecy that foretells of the arrival of a Liberator from Earth who would lead a revolt to rid Tarizon of a ruthless dictator. When Videl Lai learns of Peter's imminent arrival and the talk that he might be the Liberator, he vows to have him killed the moment he sets foot on Tarizon.