The Rising Sun: Episode 2 (15 page)

Taking five of his men with him, he stormed
down the corridor towards the door at the far end, the door to
Razvol’s room. The two bound Nyon trailed behind him. They had
their hands clasped with iron shackles, and had five rebels walking
by them, ready to freeze them at the first sign of resistance.

Drawing in a deep breath as they arrived
before Razvol’s door, Pavio pushed it open. The eight of them
walked inside the room, stopping before Razvol’s desk.

Razvol sat on his chair behind the desk,
facing back so that they couldn’t see him. And his lone bodyguard
stood beside his desk. Pavio glanced at the bodyguard nervously,
partly worried if he had interrupted Razvol in one of his bad
tempers. The guard gave a nod, and Pavio cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry for the delay, lord Razvol.” he
said. “I have the prisoners here.” He glanced back at the two Nyon,
surrounded by his five men.

“Well, so long, kids.” he said, pulling out
his z-com. He typed a verbal message to the Xeni, informing them of
the two Nyon they had captured for them. Sending the message, he
slipped the z-com back into his robe pocket.

“The Xeni will be here anytime now,” he
declared, turning to the two of them behind. “Imagine how pleased
they would be when we hand them two members of the Nyon, their most
ancient foes.” He gave a harsh chuckle. “Oh they’ll squeeze out
everything they can about your brotherhood from the two of you.
They have long awaited the opportunity to know the location of the
Nyon temple, and attack it. And it seems like today, it is finally
here.”

He enjoyed the sight of the two youngsters
flaring with rage.

“You’ll never win.” The Redling boy
whispered, his face a mirror of anger and contempt. “The Xeni will
never win.”

“They already have.” said Pavio, smiling.
“Didn’t you hear me? I’ve sent a message to them, informing them of
the two of you. They’ll be here anytime now.”

He turned back to Razvol, who continued to
sit with the back of the chair facing them.

“This will be one glorious day indeed.” said
Pavio, grinning. “The Xeni would be most pleased in what we’ve got
for them. Won’t they, master?”

He gave Razvol’s chair a mild prod from the
back … and it turned over to reveal the dead body of Razvol lying
slumped over it. A long, thin slash cut through his torso - a sword
slash. But the slash glowed in a mild orange colour, and wisps of
steam emitted from it. It was no ordinary sword which had done this
… and no ordinary attacker. A mystic…

The guard standing beside the desk suddenly
produced a long, thin sword and raised it high. There was a crisp
orange flash, and the sword’s blade was shining in bright orange …
And in that fragment of a second, Pavio realised that this was not
Razvol’s bodyguard. It was an imposter. A mystic imposter.

Before he had even begun to process his next
move, the mystic dressed up as the guard came lunging at him, fist
clenched. Pavio felt himself fly backwards at the force of the
mystic’s knuckles on his chest. He smashed into the wall behind him
and slid down…

In front of him, his five men stared for a
mini second, before reality broke over them. But by the time they
had raised their Sparklers at the mystic, he had already launched
over them…

In two swift slashes, the man had struck an
arm off two of them, and they collapsed in pain. Within the next
second, he smashed another two’s heads together, and then rammed
his sword’s hilt into the last one’s face. And all of them hit the
floor, unconscious.

The two captive Nyon stood at the corner of
the room, watching with their jaws wide open.

Dousing his blade and returning it to its
sheath, the mystic slowly walked towards where Pavio lay, bearing
down on him through the rebel’s mask he wore.

“Who are you?” Pavio asked in a bare whisper,
as the mystic slowly bent over him.

“I’m Ion.” he said. “And believe me when I
say, I’ve just come back from hell…”

He peeled off his mask to reveal the face of
a boy in his late teens, with spiked red hair. And eyes of a
burning orange colour. Ion clenched and drew back his fist, and
released a mindjolting smack upon Pavio, who felt the world around
him fade to black…

Two hours back

The Heligor slashed through the heavy waves,
the ship’s old mechanical engine loud and booming.

Steering the wheel upfront on the deck stood
a man with pitch black fur all over his body. A Blackling. He was
biting his lower lip and shaking his head to himself, giving any
stray viewer the appearance that he was having a conversation with
himself. Selvox had been the captain of this shipping boat for
twenty years now. But in all his twenty years, he had never
experienced something this … insane.

A knock on his door, and a voice came from
behind him: “Sir –”

“What’s the latest update?” Selvox cut across
the man.

The man slowly walked into the room, facing
Selvox from his right. “He says his name is Ion…”

“And what does he say as to exactly how he
dropped from the sky?”

Selvox turned to look at his crew member, who
gave an ironic chuckle.

“He says we’re better off not knowing.”

“He’s bloody right we are.” agreed Selvox,
shaking his head.

Just a few minutes ago, as he steered his
ship down the raging waters, Selvox had wondered for the meanest
moment if his eyes were functioning properly: because he caught
sight of something dropping from the cloudy skies into the raging
ocean below … But a closer look told him that it wasn’t just
something. It was a body. Dead or alive, it was hard to tell.
Selvox’s black fur rippled with chills as he gaped at what he was
seeing: a body, appearing to be chained up, crashed into the middle
of the ocean less than a mile ahead of him. He had the slightest
suspicion that it wasn’t a dead body … Somebody was being left to
drown at the bottom of the ocean. Right now.

Abandoning everything else, the crew had set
the ship to where they had seen the body drop. They had set their
divers in, equipped and armed. And in less than ten minutes, the
divers had re surfaced with a body that was chained up and
unconscious. They had laid it on the ship’s floor, cut the chains
and found that it was a mere boy. No older than eighteen for
sure.

And he was alive, though with a few minor
broken bones that they were able to mend. They were lucky to have
been close to where he had fallen into the ocean. For if not, he
would have been left to drown painfully. As the boy came around, he
was seemed completely oblivious to the fact that he had just
escaped a gruesome death: all he wanted was to borrow one of their
emergency ships and leave instantly. He seemed to have to attend to
a direly important task of some sort.

Selvox had never been more intrigued in his
life.

“Where does he need to go?” he asked, letting
go of the steering wheel and turning to the crew member. “He seemed
to be in a rush from the moment he woke.”

The crew member gave a lazy shrug. “He says
that we wouldn’t believe him if he told us anyway.”

Turning back to the wheel, Selvox muttered to
himself. “This is one strange day.”

“The rest of the crew think so too. And,” The
crew member’s voice reached an edge of hesitancy. He took a step
forward. “he’s carrying a
sword
.”

Selvox needed a second for the implication of
the sentence to reach him. He whipped his head about at the crew
member, frowning. “What?”

The man gave a shrug, but his eyes were
slightly wide, apprehensive.

Selvox held the man’s gaze for a long second,
both of them now feeling the rising tension in the air. Then,
Selvox broke the tension with an easy laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
He gave a wave of his hand. “It isn’t only mystics that you find
carrying swords.”

The man looked relieved at his captain’s
dismissal of this theory, which he had apparently allowed to breed.
He also gave an airy chuckle, his posture now relaxing.

“Of course,” he said. “I just … we just
thought it was strange, though.”

Like we’re gone find a mystic falling out
of the sky!
thought Selvox. He looked at the man and said, “See
what the kid needs. He’s just been through something hell traumatic
… for whatever reason he isn’t telling us what it is, it probably
only makes it worse. He needs rest and some tending to.”

The man’s face split in a mirthful grin. “Sir
… the boy seems anything other than traumatized. And he definitely
doesn’t want rest or tending to. Whatever reason it is, he wants to
leave right now and fly off for something important – and he’s
begging to borrow one of our escape ships for it!”

Selvox scowled as he continued to steer the
ship through the treacherous waters. He was feeling almost humoured
at this strange character they had found, and everything
surrounding him.

“You know what,” he said finally. “let me go
talk to the boy. He needs some help to make a recovery from this
incident. And I’ll help him through it until we get to shore.”

“Sure.” said the man. “He’s in the first room
in the left corridor.”

Selvox nodded, set the ship in autodrive, and
then strode off down the corridor. He pushed the door open to the
room where the boy was.

But it was empty.

As he stood there, wondering where Ion had
gone, the thudding of a pair of running footsteps came forth from
the other side of the corridor. Another of his crew members came to
a stall before him, panting.

“What is it?” asked Selvox.

“C-Captain, one of…” panted the man, hands on
his knees. And then, he straightened up and shook his head. “One of
our emergency escape ships … have been
stolen
.”

Selvox blinked at the man for a second,
feeling the impact of the words land over his head slowly. He
looked around, gazing into the empty room where Ion was. He was
staring into the empty room for a long series of seconds, before
shaking his head slowly.

“This is one strange day.” he repeated.

The present

As Ion broke the iron bindings of the two
Nyon with his sword, the two of them stood there, rubbing their
arms absently. For a long, quiet second, they were both gaping at
him, as though wondering if they were seeing correctly.

“You’re welcome.” he said, dousing his sword
and sheathing it. His gaze flitted between the two of them, both
their faces mirrors of the same confusion and shock.

Inwardly, this was a moment in Ion’s life
that seemed to outweigh the beauty of all others…

Seeing her again seemed to have triggered a
small explosion at the bottom of his stomach.

Vestra didn’t recognise him though, and her
black eyes held the same mixture of confusion and shock as the
other Nyon next to her. Ion’s gaze shifted to the boy standing
beside her. He was a Redling, his pointed yellow teeth revealed
slightly as he stared at Ion with a half open mouth. His bronze
hair was wild and tousled, somewhat like Ion’s. Like the other two
youngsters in the room, he too, looked about eighteen. His eyes
unlatched themselves from Ion to run through the rest of the room,
and the bodies of the unconscious rebels lying over it. Before
travelling back to Ion with a deeper shade of shock.

“Who are you?” asked the Redling finally,
sounding bewildered.

“Someone whom you can count on to show up at
the right time.” replied Ion.

The two of them exchanged a glance.

The Redling cocked his head slightly,
surveying Ion with a calculating expression. “Are you here to help
us?”

“Judging by the fact that I just saved your
life,” said Ion. “your best bet should be that I am.”

“But … why?” asked Vestra, sounding confused
more than shocked.

The Redling beside her continued to regard
Ion with a sceptical look, his head tilted. “No offence … but how
do we know we can trust you?”

Ion turned and stared out the window, past
the row of buildings stretching down the large village. The
dangerous enemy territory they were now amidst. He turned back to
the Redling and Vestra with a press of impatience in his tone as he
spoke.

“I suggest you take my word for it at the
moment. Because right now, if we’re gonna wanna go on living, we’d
better be running instead of talking.”

While the Redling continued to survey him,
Vestra slowly drew in a deep breath and placed an arm on the boy’s
shoulder.

“Qyro, he’s right.” she told him. “Now’s not
the time. We should leave while we can.”

The Redling, Qyro, inhaled slowly and nodded.
“Fair enough, then.” His gaze darted to Razvol’s table, behind Ion.
“But let’s not forget what we came here for.”

He leapt across the room in three strides and
pushed the chair with Razvol’s body aside, causing the body to
slump and fall off. Ion watched as he searched the top of the table
in a neat sweep of his eyes before bending down, wrenching open his
drawers and rummaging through them. Finally, his hands froze in the
midst of the rummaging, and a smile spread across his red furred
features.