Shattered Light (7 page)

“Once I have crafted safeguards for those who are vulnerable, I will welcome them. We need to work out a system of societal laws and regulations.”

Turnari smiled, “We have a contract specialist who can help you, as well as archivists who will record everything. Some of them are already there.”

Trala looked around the com centre in the ship she occupied. “I think I need to work on getting myself a home. Resicor might not need a house but I do.”

Relay smiled, “Not going to take over the capitol?”

“No. I am here to protect what Resicor has nurtured, not to change its direction. This is a one-time reboot of their system.”

She rubbed her hands together and then wiped them on her thighs. “I feel I have aged fifty years in the last few days. I need some time to watch them enjoying their new freedoms before I pop my head up again. Micro managing was never part of this arrangement.”

Relay nodded. “Thank you for your consultation and offer to recruit from your world. We will take advantage of it, both Turnari and myself as well as the other branches. Can we pass you invitation to the Nyal Imperium?”

“As long as they maintain the freedom of my people they can have anyone who volunteers. If I find that one of mine has been enslaved or chained, I will come and free them. That is not something that anyone wants.”

She felt her glow brightening and she ruthlessly throttled it down. Resicor had tried to take over the conversation but Trala was holding steady. It was her body and she would take on her responsibilities as Avatar by speaking for the world.

Relay nodded again. “It is understood. Will you allow me to use the orb to continue communications with you?”

“Of course. When I ask it for privacy I would ask that you let it go dormant until I voice activate it again.
Orb on
and
orb off
should do it.”

Relay’s eyes flicked rapidly. “The programming has been added. This is a very exciting time. Most worlds do not have this advanced of a technological species when they rise.”

Trala laughed. “I know. They kept me under for over two hundred years. There is still a Vorwing running around on my surface I can feel him but I can’t find him. They are slippery creatures.”

“I have confidence in your people and their ability to defend themselves now that they are allowed to. How did you get the Kozue to help?”

Trala’s face was grim. “The people of the Kozue owe those of Resicor. The scales are now balanced.”

She nodded and got to her feet. “I need to continue my work. There are ships returning with the first round of lost ones. I need to see how many require relocation to another world.”

She used her mind to turn off the coms and left the ship, thanking the crew who had assisted her with the call.

She glowed brightly and watched cautiously, hoping to see empty vehicles returning. Volunteers could always be found from folk at the dome or the general population.

Her heart sank when a dozen folk emerged from the first shuttle and came toward her.

They gathered and looked at each other, nodding. One of the men spoke, “We wish to leave. Our people are gone and those who remain will not claim us. Will you send us to another world?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I will send you, but come with me, we need to decide where you want to go.”

Inside the cavern she used her light to draw a map with thirty dots on it and the names of all the worlds as well as the environments, pros and cons of the social structures. They would not be travelling blind.

When two more vessels returned she had a total of forty volunteers and so she set out with a briefing. She told them about each world and highlighted the worlds where genetic alteration would be needed for survival.

“Will we find mates there?” One of the men called out.

“That is the ideal situation. The planets want to add the power of the talents of Resicor to their population. This is a slow immigration program. The Avatars of these worlds will do all they can to help you find a good match, it is in their interests as well as yours.”

“Can we really be altered to breathe water? What if we can do it already?”

“The alteration is recommended. If you are the one who grows a tail, you will still be able to, but your base form will already be amphibious.” Trala smiled and the woman blushed.

“When can we leave?”

She blinked. “I suppose you can choose your world, sign your name and date and we can take you to the gateway of that world today.”

“Where do I sign?”

Trala got a datapad from the Citadel staff and they started to gather signatures and locations. Every Resicoran leaving would be accounted for and each would go with her blessing.

The next ships returned with more lost ones and she gave them the same briefing, letting them choose their world and explaining about alterations.

Twelve hours later she had seven hundred volunteers and she was both elated and depressed. So many were taken from the ones they loved and now there was nothing left for them. Most didn’t even have control of their talents.

A member of the Sector Guard rushed up to her and pointed to a name on the manifest. “Abrinako Lenz, please come speak with me for a moment.”

She had called it out with her Avatar voice and a man with a shock of dark purple hair and sad eyes made it to the front of the crowd. She beckoned him toward her. “Please step over here with me.”

He was a little confused but he followed her. “What is this about? I wish to leave. My family remains and would take me, but my wife is long gone. I can’t live without her.”

“Your wife is Urikara Lenz?”

He blinked. “Yes. How did you…?”

“You are invited to go to Morganti where the Avatar will guide you to the seer who has made all this possible. She is a powerful seer, and she has been waiting for this day a very long time.”

Tears welled in his eyes.

“Please don’t speak of this, just go with this Guardsman and he will take you to Morganti. I don’t have a direct portal there but I have spoken to Gant and the seer is eager to meet with you after all this time.”

Tears welled in her eyes that matched his and light coursed down her cheeks that shattered into small stones on the ground. She laughed in surprise. “That was new.”

He smiled. “I could work with those. My skill is as a sculptor. I work with my hands.”

She wiped her eyes and pushed him toward the Guardsman who was waiting for him. “It will be a courier ship so you will be travelling fast. You should be there in under a day.”

“I have waited for two hundred years but this will be the longest day.”

Trala squeaked as he hugged her before he ran to the Guardsman with the hope of meeting his wife.

Gant, he is on his way. You might want to let her know.

Thank you, Resicor. She is already out of her tank and in medical. Reset is coming to help her out. When he gets here, she will be presentable, if a few years older than he remembers.

I honestly do not think he cares. She is all he has.

Thank you for this. She has been a good friend.

You are welcome.

Gant didn’t understand, but he couldn’t. He no longer had people of his own. Wanting the best for them was different than letting them have it.

Each volunteer was given a kiss on their forehead before they passed through the portal. They were given the touch of the light of Resicor and it would forever be seeded in their minds.

Envix stood at her side as she blessed the last of the emigrants and he held her while she cried.

Two weeks of logistics, public speaking and looking under every rock and shrub for the elusive Vorwing survivor had stressed her out and the moment that this final task was done, she felt the pain of Noma’s loss.

Envix wrapped her in shadows and held her tight as she wailed her grief and loss. Her twin, the other half of her soul was gone. Resicor filled her mind, but her soul was her own and it was in pain.

The world remained quiet and held herself back.

When Envix pressed his lips to hers in the darkness she answered the touch, seeking comfort where she could. He had stood at her side since this whole debacle began and now he was offering something more than just guard duty.

Her suit chirped. “Avatar, there is a delivery for you in the capitol.”

She pulled away from Envix and whispered. “I am on my way.”

He pressed his lips to her cheek and whispered, “Am I not worth waiting for a delivery?”

“You are worth waiting for, but I still don’t know who or what you are. I don’t even know why you are here.” She touched his jaw. “I appreciate your help but you are too much a mystery.”

He inhaled to speak and she flew out of his arms, away from him and toward the capitol with the swirling cloud of darkness behind her.

A huge crowd was gathered in the central courtyard outside the law courts building that now housed equal numbers of physical talents, psychic and normal citizens.

Several talents were lifting a huge object covered in a silken tarp and settling it on the pedestal in the centre of the courtyard.

Trala landed. “What is it?”

“It is a present from the Lenz’s of Morganti.” The man in the uniform of the Morganti Base grinned.

When it was settled, Trala reached out and removed the tarp and stared at the image of her sister carved in black granite and onyx.

The base of the statue said,
Noma Sheewah, Founder of the Citadel. The light in the darkness. Child of Resicor.

Tears started flowing more rapidly than she could stop. Envix put his hands on her shoulders as slow applause began and spread through the crowd in the courtyard.

“How did they know?”

“She is a legendary symbol in the Citadel, but we were told never to name her. I met her when I first
was given my energy by the dark nebula. She taught me to control the darkness and when she first saw my face she laughed. She said I was the promise but not for her.”

“Wait, what?” Trala looked up at him. “Where did you meet her?”

“It wasn’t where, it was when. I met her six hundred years ago when she founded the first Citadel out of the caged talents of Skora-Mark. It was her idea to charge the locals for the help they had previously rejected. When the aliens came, she defended her adopted world and made contacts that no one had thought of.” He sighed.

“Six hundred…”

“I came forward through a portal at the moment she flicked out of this world and back in time. We traded places but there was a slight miscalculation so I appeared on the dark side of your moon. It took me a while to find you, but fortunately you glow even on the brightest day.”

She blushed and frowned. “Wait, you mean to say that my sister set me up?”

“And the world you house in your body. I might have been promised to you, but you were also promised to me. It was an equal opportunity exchange.” He let his shadows retreat.

Trala looked up at the image of her sister and she glared at it. “Seriously? On the day I am finally feeling the pain of your loss, you do this to me?”

She could swear that stone Noma winked at her.

Something struck her. “There are records of her?”

He grinned. “Thousands. She knew you would want the archive so the moment that Resicor Citadel is up and running, a historical archivist will be there, with copies of everything pertaining to the first Citadel and the woman who pursued power for profit.”

“For a woman cloaked in shadow she could always find the bright side of things.”

He wrapped his arms around her as they stared at the image of her sister and what she was realising was his friend.

When they finished staring at the image he walked her back to her home in the depths of the capitol building and held her throughout the night while she grieved her loss.

In a matter of weeks they completed the transition from companions to mates and the balance of shadows and light made the folk of Resicor feel better during the transition from hostile to accepting.

There were bumps, there were misused talents but there were consequences and rewards on all sides.

* * * *

It was over. Temross had made it through the first two months and was successfully using technology to mask his colouration.

He was on his way back to his home after his third date with a baker and he was stopped by a bright light.

“You don’t think I forgot you were out here, did you
?” The Avatar effectively blocked him.

“You don’t understand. I can help you rule this place. It has so much potential and my children could be a force to be reckoned with.”

“I do not need help to rule this place. I am Resicor and you are a grasping little snake from a dead universe.”

He backed away. “If you kill me, the power released will be devastating.”

She smiled and her voice changed. “She isn’t going to kill you. She just told me who to call.”

He turned and two of the Nameless were there. He screamed as they destroyed him, pulling the energy of the orb from him and leaving him nothing but ash.

* * * *

“Thank you. He was the last thing on my list of old business.” Trala smiled at her sister and winked. “I am glad you found something to work on after you passed away.”

Noma inclined her head. “Everyone needs a hobby. See you later?”

“You know where and when to find me, but stop popping in when Envix and I are in bed.”

Noma sighed. “But that is when I know you are together.” She grinned her mischievous grin and disappeared with her scowling companion.

Envix landed behind her and Trala turned to hug him. “How did you know?”

“Once Resicor went through pains to explain what a Watcher and a Nameless was, there had to be a reason.”

“I can see your heart has lightened.”

“It has explained a lot.” She linked arms with him and walked down the moonlit path with him. Her heart was finally at peace with everything that had happened and the future stretching before her.