Falco Invictus: On the Forge of War (18 page)

“Sitara!” pleaded Nadia. “This is your
duty.” The Queen spoke with command. “It also shall prevent your
father's enemies from using you to get to his throne.”

Sitara turned to her father for help. Surely
he'd understand. Why her? Why couldn’t they sacrifice her twin on
the altar of politics?

Sitara knew the reason –
Urksa
Vorskrai
.

“Your mother’s right,” the Shotar
agreed.

“No one even asked me!”

Kulcarin didn't seem to have a problem with
the arrangement as he'd said nothing to support her case which
angered Sitara even more. Outraged she had been manipulated, the
princess stormed from the tent, her bangles clanging in her rage
and tears dripped down her lovely angular features.

“Will she be okay?” Frederika whispered in
Sharr's ear.

“Sitara will get over it,” Sharr said while
he nudged her ear with his lips. “She understands her duty. Though
she’s like her mother not all that long ago, willful and –”

Nadia cleared her throat and cut Sharr
off.

“Go. Enjoy the festival.” The Shotar patted
Frederika on the bottom to abruptly usher her away. “When you
return to the palace come to my apartments.”

She got the hint. Frederika stood and
smiled. “By your command. I'll see you tonight.”

Frederika grabbed Mia and fled the thraj.
She had the impression the Shotar and his Queen were about to have
a very vocal disagreement. Frederika hoped the presence of Sharr's
friends would keep the shouting to a minimum.

[Royal Palace Saxe-Coburg Germany]

“What's this?”

Colonel Kreis looked in awe at the strange
waveform that pulsed within the holosphere. Eight points of light
throbbed with vitality. A three-dimensional star that rotated on
its own axis. He had gifted his ward with a device that would
monitor her situation. Though she had no idea the Thor's Hammer she
wore on her collar was in truth intended to send back data from the
Falcanian's island.

“It's not an Abraxas Coil signal, sir. A
very unusual reading,” the tech said. “I've never seen a power
source of that nature.”

Oberon nodded, looking at the strange
waveform dance within the hologram emitter. “Keep monitoring it,”
the Colonel ordered. “Whatever it is, Frederika is close.”

[Vorkrür Island Evening]

Kheira sat alone inside her favorite garden
and she listened to the sounds of the festival. Her family went
into the city to attend the Falcania Kralin. The princess had no
wish to be ogled over, as those of her kind tended to be at such
functions so she amused herself here, enjoying the engineered
plants and animals in solitude.

Like all her species, she took part in the
moment of synergy when her father joined himself with the Phoenix
Heart. She experienced joy in that moment. She still did now,
basking in the shining light of the commonness of the shared
minds.

She looked up at the sky. The stars sang to
her. Kheira did not share this fact with the others. Each point of
light had its own voice, which had born witness to the birth of the
Universe. This gave the Princess comfort.

A flash of light momentarily blinded Kheira.
As her vision cleared, she noticed a shimmer out of the corner of
her eye. An object uncloaked itself in the garden, a humanoid mecha
covered with coruscating gold skin. Hinting at a predatory nature
the mechenoid examined her with eerie green eyes, like that of the
eye shine of a Falcanian's own optic receiver.

Strong emotional impulses could cause the
micro-lenses to flash on and induce the green effect. The figure
crouched, one attenuated, mechanical arm, which terminated into a
lanky five fingered hand cupped its face in contemplation while the
other sharp fingers tapped the ground.

The creature scrutinized the girl with large
angled eyes. Its ears swept back into points. Kheira flinched. It
looked more Falcanian than human.

The haunches the mechenoid rested its lithe
winged body on appeared strong enough to in one leap propel the
mechenoid hundreds of feet into the sky. Behind the golden Mecha a
flat gold and black armored burnished tail cut the air, clicked a
retractile claw to match the pattern it's spindly fingers made on
the stone. Kheira realized had the being stood at its full height,
it would tower at least ten feet above her. In its current stance
the mechenoid being appeared prepared to vault into action. It
burned with potential energy waiting to be released.

“What are you?” she whispered.

“Like you, I am also a Falcanian. I come
from a far future,” the melodious voice sang. “This mechanical
shell you see is no more than armor our kind wear. It is a garb
that allows gods to walk among mortals.” The metallic face smiled
pleasantly at the princess showing what appeared to be fangs. “My
true form is much more magnificent to look upon. You and your sire
have seen it in your dreams when you walk Char.”

A part of her felt an urge to call for the
Drakorian Guard but she stilled the desire. She felt it inside her.
A kinship to this creature, a vibration she felt in her soul synced
with this enigmatic other.

What had her people evolved into, that
required them to use an exosuit to walk among normal beings? She
thought about what this creature’s true form probably looked like.
Kheira had seen in her dreams a Phoenix-like being. She always
assumed it to be a fantasy given shape in Char.

“Why have you come?”

“To warn you, child.”

Her brow arched and the glow of her skin
increased. She moved closer to the Golden One. “What is the
danger?”

The mechenoid Falcanian who now stood at its
full length walked around the girl with an elasticity ease
indicative of its lithe body. “Beware the Eye of Ishallrav,”said
the coruscating being in its song-like voice. “Darkness has entered
the Falcanian soul. Chaos burns and seeks to be unleashed upon this
planet.” The Golden One took a considerate pause, declared: “You
are the key, child.” The Golden Falcanian took her face delicately
between its light-handed fingers. “The Shadow, the tool of the Eye,
will try to destroy you. It wants to undo the light. Beware of
Kranix!”

“Kranix,” Kheira whispered the name and felt
its shadow.

She saw a convergence in the commonness of
the over-soul. Looking into the Golden One's green eyes, she could
see he did as well for an expression of concern crossed its oddly
articulate metal face.

“Do not speak that name out loud again,” the
Golden One warned. “Take my admonition to your sire and the
Valküri. They shall understand what to do.”

“Why should they listen to me? I am a
child.”

“Sharr will believe you.”

“Aunt T'Kara will not.” Kheira had not
always had the best relationship with Queen Nadia. It echoed her
tangles with Sitara. “It is she who leads the Sisterhood. You must
give me proof,” demanded Kheira. “What do I call you?”

“Shiertar.”

“Dark-Star,” she murmured, a name of
foreboding. “Of what aerie?”

“That does not matter. But as you said, you
require proof.” The future Falcanian walked about on its limber
stride, almost as if gravity did not matter. “I will let you look
upon my true form and even the Queen will be unable to deny the
veracity of your statements when she pulls the image from your
shining soul.” Shiertar grinned. “A Falcanian knows a
Falcanian.”

“Why not simply tell me where to find this…”
for a second Kheira thought the name of Kranix but repressed it.
“…this Shadow so my father's forces can eradicate it from our
being?”

“To do so would risk undoing what we are to
become, little one. The Skatha have a role to play.”

Shiertar realized he chanced his own being
in coming here. Alas his presence had not been his doing, Shiertar
knew himself to be marooned here. He came because of what had been
unearthed in the Valküri’s vault. His light would shield her from
the Eye of Ishallrav, she who would be the first to ascend. In the
records of the Valküri, Shiertar’s presence in this time was
preserved. His fate determined, if not inescapable. He could not
direct his forerunners to destroy Kranix or the Ascension would not
come to pass.

He had already interfered too much. For
months he watched. Waited. Hidden. Then the Sword of Doom came to
Vanguard Island. When he looked upon Frederika, he took his first
action and prevented Sharr from dying of heart failure. In
Shiertar's time that was an unknown fact, the first Shotar had
always been thought to be in perfect health. It was a historical
fact that Sharr did not die such a death.

“I have gone much further then I dared
should have, Kheira.” Shiertar pitied the girl for the religion
which would be invoked in her name. But it could not be avoided.
“And the Shining-Star, she who dwells on the White Mountain, shall
ascend as the first Charis. To become a goddess to guide her kind
to the flaming light!”

Shiertar cursed the one who would whisper
these things to the general Falcanian populace and create a
religion not meant for the Falcanian kind. It would come to pass
and ensure The Sundering. “In my time a war rages. Shadow and Holy
Light combat each other. In contest is command of our world. A
place of technological wonder,” Shiertar said, the horror of his
world weighed heavily upon him. “The galaxy burns and we have set
it aflame to battle the Eye. Creatures known as Skatha, an offshoot
of our species have taken hold and they kill my kind. Our feral
cousins were bred to make war by their master Lord Skar who is
enslaved to the Eye.” The tragedy Shiertar felt to speak of Skar.
Kulcarin had been such a noble man to have fallen to Kranix proved
such a waste. “Our jeweled home of Falcania-Vor is to become home
of new gods.”

And here things would splinter. Voices would
rise up, wish for the Falcanian people to be brought to this
promised land. However, much blood would spill before The Sundering
would send Falcanians to the stars to seek a new homeworld for
themselves.

“Look upon me, little one. See what you are
to become. See the light that shines in your soul and burns with
the might of a thousand suns!”

He opened his carapace and bathed the
Princess in his own light.

“What's this?” Frederika asked as she gazed
intently curious at the Kaliburn script which hung from a banner
outside of a green thraj.

“Tarot readings I think,” Mia said.

Tarot reading? Frederika thought. That was
completely unexpected. At first glance it seemed these Falcanians
were rationalists, but the truth turned out to be vastly more
complex. One would not expect them to allow such an occult idea as
the tarot deck to enter their culture and yet here it was.

“How strange,” The blonde cocked an eyebrow.
Curiosity got the better of her and she tugged Mia's arm. “Let’s go
in.”

Sweet pungent incense filled the tent which
left a citric taste on the tongue. “Hello?” Frederika called
out.

“Please sit,” a softly accented female voice
responded. “I shall be with you in a moment."

The two girls sat themselves down at a low
table and waited for the owner of the voice to join them. Garbed in
white, she held a staff capped with an obsidian crystal pyramid.
The blonde woman joined the two human females at the center of her
thraj. Exquisite like the rest of her species she had definitive
Asian features. If anything she looked much more Asian than the
rest of her kind.

Her long blonde, almost white hair was
braided and set around her shoulders in an artful manner. Metal
clips held loose strands away from her oval ears. It was difficult
to determine her age, but like all Falcanian females, she was very
beautiful. Her wings were the color of lapis lazuli and rested
behind her and her black tail swayed with ease as she walked her
thraj and looked down on the two human women with her.

“T'Saar. I give you welcome,” the woman
greeted. “Go, look now to the starlight, may it light your road. I
am Teila Kiralna and I suppose you young women would like your
fortunes read.”

Frederika nodded.

Teila produced a tarot deck and joined the
women at the table.

“Forgive me for asking, but aren't tarot
cards a little mystical for your society?” Frederika bit her lip.
“I mean from what I’ve learned, the 'supernatural' does not appear
to be central to your religion, if it is a religion? Didn't this
culture arise out of Transhumanism, an inherently atheistic
philosophy?”

“Very observant, child.” Teila clicked her
fingers. “No, the 'supernatural' as you put is not central to our
way. However, we’re not without mysticism.”

Teila began to cut the cards with an expert
ease, effectively ending that topic of conversation. Once she was
done she handed them to Frederika.

“Please shuffle the deck and hand it back to
me.” Frederika took the cards and shuffled the tarot deck, handing
it back to the Falcanian oracle.

Teila spread the tarot suite face down in
front of Frederika. “Choose a card.”

Frederika with the tips of her fine nails
inched a card forth and handed it to the Oracle.

“Ah!” Teila exclaimed. “You are the
Prime-Kraris.”

She placed the representative card before
Frederika. On it was a picture of the unsheathed Falcanian holy
long-knife. Pulling another card from the deck Teila let it fall
onto the card which represented Frederika.

“Indeed the Narshin, an interesting omen to
be sure,” the oracle said. “One cannot deny the Phoenix!”

The Phoenix card, Frederika considered this:
Change drove evolution.

“A choice is about to be set before you.”
Teila put a card down with a scale on it. The image hung in
balance, yet the scale dangerously leaned, ready to tip too far
leftward. It was a card setup in strict contrasts; one side red the
other black. “Make sure you pick right or you risk losing yourself,
becoming consumed by another's fire.”