“What’s wrong with you?” he asks, a moment later “You were a master when you first met us.” “Now you have no strength at all!” “How can [...]]]>  
Watchers
My energy sight is gone.
I can’t feel the web, or the movement of energy.
Still, I have a vague sense that Kihyez is scanning me.

“What’s wrong with you?” he asks, a moment later
“You were a master when you first met us.”
“Now you have no strength at all!”
“How can you be a watcher like this?”
“The others will crush you.”

“Others?”

He grabs me without answering, and flies toward the seventh tower.
The towers are great stone cylinders, fifty feet wide and two hundred fifty feet tall, that glitter in the daylight.
The surface of the towers is decorated with thin streams of colored crystal that move up the towers in gentle spirals that branch, merge, and disappear.
A sharp crystal spire rises another thirty feet above the cylinders.

The base of each tower is surrounded by a garden with flowers always in bloom, and a single path to the tower.
As I watch, a glowing, mostly transparent mist rises from the gardens to form a spiral around each tower.
The mist takes the color of the tower, while the rest of the mountain goes dark, suddenly shaded in grey or black.

Just before we reach the door, seven tones fill the air, one from each tower, like trumpets with a pure, clear sound.
Kihyez tries the door, but it refuses to open.

“Aren’t we going in?”

“Too late,” he answers, and flies away from the towers and down the mountain.

“Why are we running away, Kihyez?”

“To save your life, fool!”

“A tower is bound to its watcher, and soon after Sindar died, his tower sealed itself.”
“I thought your presence, as his twin, might keep it open, but I was wrong.”
“An alarm sounded in the other towers, and the watchers were woken by their assistants.”
“A meeting is called to choose his replacement.”

“Sindar chose me.”

“Yes, but we must hide that from the watchers as long as we can, and pretend that you came after his death.”
“The designated successor or anyone found with a watcher at his death must be tested.”

“Why?”

“To see if you are fit to replace him.”
“The tests would kill you, as you are now.”

“How did Sindar became a watcher?”

“The towers were empty and quiet when he first saw their light.”
“It was a hundred thousand years ago, but they looked as beautiful then as they do now.”
“Sindar barely noticed.”
“He brought his brother here, to get him far away from their world, Nilaisa.”
“Benzu was troubled and dangerous.”
“He was searching for a powerful weapon that would make him invincible, so he could crown himself king.”
“Sindar hoped Benzu would never return to threaten their world.”
“Still, Benzu was his twin, and Sindar felt that he was betraying his brother.”
“The towers became a symbol of that inner betrayal, and Sindar stayed away from them.”
“Twenty years later Benzu returned with a weapon, and destroyed their world.”
“Sindar and some other Jiku survived, but Benzu and the other dead disappeared in the energy storm.”
“There were no bodies to bury, no trace of Sindar’s parents or his bondmate and children.”
“When Sindar came back here, he blamed himself for the destruction, and his spirit was broken.”
“The only thing that kept him alive was the search for a new world, where the survivors could start again without him.”

“What about his promise to his father to protect the embryos?”

“Sindar wanted to break his word and destroy them, but in the end he couldn’t do it.”
“He explored this world, looking for a site to build a hidden facility to hold the embryos forever.”
“No place seemed right, until he stood before the seventh tower.”
“It seemed to call to him.”

“The towers are huge, Kihyez!”
“What’s in them?”

“Dozens of empty, sealed rooms, invisible to outsiders, even with energy sight.”
“Sindar found only two open rooms, one large one at ground level, and another near the top.”
“He brought the stasis machines here.”
“We came to serve him, and guard the embryos.”
“Soon after, he left us here, and searched for a world that would welcome his Jiku.”
“He brought them to their new home, and stayed with them for many years.”
“Then, he returned here, and slept for a hundred thousand years.”
“We woke him one day, when we found that his people had been caught in a great war.”

“The Fiklow wars.”

“Yes.”
“Sindar discovered that some of the Jiku had escaped to a new world, but he couldn’t find it.”
“He explored all the towers, trying to uncover their secrets.”
“He found a gateway in each one, but they wouldn’t open.”
“The next day, the gateway in the seventh tower opened from the other side, and Sindar passed through, to the world that hides behind the gate.”

“One of the worlds of the seven races?”

“Watchers are forbidden to speak of those worlds, except to those who know of their existence.”
“Why would Sindar tell you about them?”

“He didn’t.”
“The high priest of the Madar told me that there are seven races, the Bizra and Madar among them.”
“Wehdija was a prisoner of the Kizak, who were once students of the Madar.”
“I helped her escape, and brought us here, to the tower world.”
“She entered the red tower, and passed through the gateway to her home.”
“I went back to the Kizak to find out when they plan to attack my world.”

“Were you successful?”

“I know their plans and their technology, but I can’t get home.”

“Why not?”

“Even if I had the strength to open a PathFinder gate, the gates won’t open within light-years of my world.”

“I can’t help you with the gate,” says Kihyez, “but perhaps if you rest for a few days, your strength will return.”
“When it does, I’ll make you a ship, and you can open a gate far from Siksa.”

“Tell me about the paths to the seven worlds.”

“The way is different than an ordinary PathFinder gate.”
“Any of the watchers can show you how to find it, once you are accepted as one of them.”
“You touch the gate with your energy, and the inner world senses your presence.”
“Then, if they wish, they open the gate from the other side.”

“Why did Sindar tell you to keep me from the gate for a year?”

“I don’t know.”

“If no one can open the gates from this side, then why do the towers need watchers?”

“It’s not the towers that need watchers, Yagrin.”
“This place is a hub that connects countless worlds.”
“Once a master reaches here, he can go anywhere.”
“Look at the sorrow that has spread since Benzu came here, and took the artifact from a distant world.”
“Planets have been destroyed, trillions of beings are dead.”

“The inner world asked Sindar to be a watcher when they met him?”

“Not at first.”
“Sindar told them about his brother, Benzu, and suggested that they appoint watchers over each tower, to limit the travel of masters through this world.”
“Sindar was admitted to all seven worlds, and worked with the races to write the laws of the watchers.”
“The seventh race chose him to be their watcher, but he refused.”
“They were persistent, and forced him to agree.”

“How?”

“They showed him a vision.”
“He saw himself visiting the Jiku on an unfamiliar world, again and again, always returning to the towers.”
“One of the races recognized the world, and promised to tell him how to get there, if he would agree to be a watcher.”

“The Bizra!”
“They were already living on Siksa when the Jiku arrived.”

“Yes.”
“Before the Fiklow wars, while Sindar still slept, the seven races met here, among the towers, following a common vision that they all received.”
“It was time for them to teach others about the creator and the ways of energy.”
“Three universes were chosen, seven galaxies in all, one galaxy for each race.”
“They sent ships, and founded colonies to teach about the great web.”
“There was a second part to the vision.”
“Someday soon, the tower world would need to be guarded, to control who would be allowed to pass through to other worlds.”
“The vision showed an energy master would come in search of the races, and he would be the first watcher.”

“Sindar.”

“Yes.”
“They asked him to recruit watchers from among the masters who pass near the towers.”
“Each of the seven watchers is responsible for one day per week.”
“We guarded the tower in Sindar’s place when he slept, but we were commanded to wake him when danger or visitors came to the tower during our weekly watch.”

“By the time, you wake the watcher, visitors will pass through to another world.”

“No one except the watchers can open a gate from this side.”
“Those who come here are trapped, until a watcher allows them to go.”

“I’ve done it.”

“Yes, I know.”
“Perhaps it’s because you are Sindar’s twin.”

“How often does a watcher die?”

“The inner rooms of the tower have a stasis field like ours, which prevents aging.”
“Each watcher is served by machines like us, and woken when he is needed.”
“Some have chosen to leave their posts, but Sindar is the first to die.”

 
Circles
When we return, the watchers are standing next to Sindar’s body, with the machines that serve them.
Each watcher is surrounded by an energy field, that protects them, and hides their forms.
Still, I can feel that some are humanoid, and some are not.

“This is Sindar?” asks one of the watchers, speaking in Madar.
It’s the common language that the watchers use.
“The species looks so weak!”

“The watchers only see the bodies of the watchers that are appointed after them,” says Kihyez softly.
“Sindar was the first, so none have seen him before.”

“Who has come, Kihyez?” asks one of them.
“It looks like Sindar.”
“Do all of the species look so much alike?”

“I’m his brother,” I tell them.

“He has come for the death ceremony,” says Kihyez.

“How does he speak Madar?” asks one of the watchers.
“They stopped teaching a long time ago.”

“Some still remember,” I answer.
“And a few of them remain as captives among their former students.”
“I learned their language, took their form, and spoke with two of them.”

“Enough words,” says another watcher.
“We’re here for death.”
“Why do we delay?”
“Are there others who will come?”

Even with the PathFinder gates and a ship, it would take days to bring Botzar and Dilasa here.
“We have another brother, and a sister, but they know nothing of Sindar’s death, and have no way to get here.”
“No one else will come.”

I’m being scanned again.

“Leave me alone,” I shout.

“How could he change shape, or reach the towers?” asks one of them.
“He has no strength.”

“He can’t be Sindar’s brother,” says another.
“His energy is strange — bits of Jiku, Bizra, Madar, and other beings.”

“He has taken many shapes,” says Kihyez, “and his fire has echoes of them.”
“You’re right that his strength is gone, for now.”
“His fire body was damaged in his journey here.”
“Before that, he was more powerful than Sindar.”

Kihyez lifts Sindar’ body and takes it to an open area, near the edge of the plateau.
Three of Kihyez’s other bodies are waiting there.
The four of them form a circle around me.
Then they project an energy net and raise Sindar’s body eight feet above my head.

Each of the other watchers forms his own circle with his assistants.
Six concentric circles in all, with Sindar, Kihyez, and me at their center.
The watchers fly slowly around their circles, singing.
In one circle they fly clockwise, while in the next, they fly the opposite way.
Two of the songs are Jiku, but the others are full of strange languages that I don’t recognize.
I am no master today, but I can still sing with the voice I had when I was an old one.

We sing, and minutes pass.
Then the outermost circle becomes quiet and comes to a stop.
All of the circles end their songs and their movement, one at a time.
Then Kihyez lowers Sindar to the ground, at my feet.

I pour salt water over Sindar’s eyes from a stone flask that Kihyez gives me.
Then we fly to his burial site, far from the towers.
I don’t like being carried, but I have no choice.
We land in a crystal forest that reminds me of the one on Gunal.
The six watchers form a circle around Sindar’s body, and turn it into blue crystal.
One speaks.
The words are Madar, but the familiar voice sounds like a Jiku woman.

“Sindar was older than all of us, but his long years are done.”
“May his light find peace in the world of eternal energy, where we will meet someday.”

“He’s gone forever!” I announce, bitterly.
“His fire body was destroyed.”
“Ask Kihyez.”

“Is this true?”

“Yes, the accident that killed him also shattered his energy.”

The circle is quiet.

“Go back to your towers,” I tell them.
“There’s nothing more you can do here.”

“We must find another watcher,” says one, “according to Sindar’s laws.”
“Will you accept?”

“I have no strength now,” I tell them, “but maybe it will return.”
“Put off the decision for six weeks, and let Sindar’s assistants guard the tower until then.”
“If my strength returns sooner, I’ll ask your assistants to wake you.”

“Agreed,” they answer, after discussing it.
Then they rise to return to their towers.

 
First World
One of the six remains, speaking with Kihyez.
She drops her shield, revealing a Jiku woman with grey eyes.
I’ve seen her image before.

“Kihyez tells me,” she says, “that you know of the seven races.”

“Wintu?”
“Was it you who designed the murals of the living city, and left me the vision of the Spiral?”

“How did you get close enough to see the murals?”
“The city pushes people away.”

“I did what was necessary.”
“I opened the wall, and entered the city.”

“What are you called?”

“Yagrin.”

“Was my vision true?”
“Do Jiku live again on Sinesu?”
“Did you save them from that strange creature?”

“There were Jiku living there, but they have moved to other worlds near Sinesu.”
“The planet itself is gone, transformed into a sun.”

“Then you failed.”
“The Spiral attacked and drove them away.”

“No.”
“My sister and I destroyed the Spiral of that universe, and freed the Jiku from it.”
“It was the destiny of the planet to become a sun.”

“The fierce child from Sinesu is your sister?”

“Yes.”

“I would like to meet her and other Jiku from the old universe,” she says, excitedly.
“And Siksa…I must see how it has been rebuilt after the energy wars.”
“Maybe I can see the city again!”
“Will you take me to these places, Yagrin?”

“I’d like that, but I can’t look past tomorrow.”
“If my strength returns, I’m needed on Siksa.”
“Enemies from another galaxy are on their way.”
“War is coming, and Siksa may be conquered.”"

“Kihyez says you’re powerful.”
“Stop them!”

“My strength is gone, and until it returns I can’t go home.”
“The Kizak may have already arrived, while I’m trapped here.”
“You’re a Dream Hunter, Wintu!”
“Tell me what’s happening on Siksa.”

She closes her eyes, and is silent for almost a minute.
“On the tower world,” she says, “it’s hard to see visions of other places.”
“Today, I can’t see Siksa at all, but I see you, getting your strength back.”
“Hear these words:”

Sea, sky, and stone float on a blinding fire.
Song, possibility ,and transformation scatter like sparks from death’s axe.
Seven shadows give their gifts, restore an ancient light, and send it home.

“What does it mean?”

“Did you know, Yagrin, that the seven races live only in the inner worlds, and the seven galaxies where they’ve gone to teach?”
“Nowhere else.”
“They call themselves the seven lights, based on an ancient tradition, passed down from their ancestors.”

Once, the creator made a beautiful being, like the others, all of light, but she was too bright and pure for the other beings to look at.
They were embarrassed in her presence.
The creator carried the bright one far away from the others, to a strange, solid world that he had made.

“What is this place?” she asked.
“How can light live here?”
“Why did we leave the others?”

“This place is for you,” he answered, “but you can’t live here as you are.”

He gently pushed the bright one through a rainbow that surrounded the planet.
The rainbow split her into seven bursts of light that circled the planet and spread apart.
Then they rushed toward each other and turned toward the stone below, as thunder filled the air.
When they crashed into the ground, the light disappeared into the mud.

Seven glowing towers rose from those seven spots, and seven beings, of light and earth, stood next to them.
They remembered their life of light, and cried for what they had lost.
The creator made worlds for each one, and he called the new creatures inner lights.

“Do you mock us?” they asked, when they heard the name.

“No.”
“It’s a name of honor.”
“The light is still in you, only hidden.”
“I need you here,” he told them, “so you can teach others about energy.”
“Someday, when your work is done, even stone will become light.”

After they were safely settled in their new homes, the creator looked back on the mud next to the towers, and saw that seven more creatures had risen.
They looked something like the inner lights, but they were smaller and weaker.
They had little energy and strength compared with the others, so the creator called them shadows.
He took away their intelligence so they would not be embarrassed when they met the seven lights who looked like them.

The creator made many universes, and filled them with worlds.
He multiplied the shadows beyond measure, and put them in every universe, except the worlds of the seven lights.
He bound each universe to the first world, by paths of light.

“It’s a beautiful story, Wintu, but is any of it true?”

“The inner lights believe it, Yagrin, and they say that this is the first world.”
“They’ve met the seven creatures that look like them, here on the tower world, and the lights believe that the shadows are found in every universe.”

“Let me finish the story.”

The creator scattered the shadows, never letting more than a few of them live together on one world, except for the first world he created.
He blessed them, saying, “there is only a spark of light within you, but that spark will never be extinguished.”
“Those who are greater than you will seek you, and you will have the power to brighten their energy when they lose faith in it.”

“Why would the creator put the shadows in every universe, Wintu?”

“No one knows, but one of the races has a theory.”
“They believe that the paths between the tower world and each universe are anchored by the shadows.”
“Without them the paths would disappear.”

“There are so many paths.”
“Why are there so few visitors?”

“The paths to the towers are sealed, Yagrin.”

“They’re not sealed.”
“I’ve traveled on them.”

“When the inner races went out to teach, the paths to three universes were opened.”

“Sindar traveled the paths before those races began to teach.”

“Yes.”
“You and your brothers are the only ones besides the inner races that have the power to open the sealed paths.”

“What does all this mean to me?”
“What do I do to get my strength back, and go home?”

“It’s simple, Yagrin.”
“The shadows will help you find your strength again.”

“But how do I recognize them, Wintu?”
“I’ve only seen the Bizra and Madar.”
“What do the other races look like?”

“I’ve seen no more than you.”

“What about Kihyez?”
“He’s been with Sindar since he came to this world.”

“Kihyez may have seen the lights, but he’s not allowed to describe them.”
“Trust yourself, Yagrin, and you’ll feel it when you find them.”
“After your strength returns, come to the red tower and tell my assistants to wake me.”
“We’ll speak more of the war with the Kizak, and those who can help you in your fight.”

She flies away, and one of Kihyez’s bodies approaches.

“You won’t tell me what the races look like?”

“No, but I can give you tech that will help you in your search.”

He flies me back to the seventh tower, and leaves me in one of the open rooms.
Then he returns with a waterproof pack and a thick belt that holds a multi-function disk.

We go outside.
“Put on the belt,” he says.

I feel a subtle current moving through me.

“Try to fly, but not too fast.”
“You have no shield.”

The disk responds instantly to my will, and I rise up until I’m just above the towers.
Then I fly a few circles before landing.

I take a deep breath.
I find it comforting to be able to fly, even though my energy strength is still gone.

“The pack contains simple food that will last for a week.”
“There’s only a day’s supply of water, but it’s easy to find in your travels.”
“I’ve also given you special clothing to protect you from cold, heat, and other dangers while you fly or swim.”
“There’s a water-tight mask that provides air in places where you can’t breathe.”
“It has a headset which is connected to the disk.”
“The disk has maps of the entire surface of this world.”
“It can sense where life is concentrated, and display live images of the creatures who live there.”
“Contact me if you need help.”

Kihyez returns to the tower and leaves me standing alone.

He gives me a series of three security codes.

Can you remember them?

Easily.

Your identity has been authorized for full access to [...]]]>  
Alone
I walk slowly, letting the crowd move past me toward the shuttle.
Mayani takes my arm, and we stop.
He pushes on my mind wall, and I drop it.

He gives me a series of three security codes.

Can you remember them?

Easily.

Your identity has been authorized for full access to the facility, Lukara.
Enter the main storage area, and find the control surface.
Touch in the codes without requesting a command, and a hidden door will open, giving you entry to a ship hanger.

Thank you.

Where will you go?
Do you have another ship hidden on another world that can travel between galaxies?
How long will it take you to reach your home?

The ship you’ve given me will be good enough.
As soon as I get far enough from this planet, the effects of the cage projector will fade.
I’ll be home shortly after that.

Do you look anything like us?

Not so different.
Brown skin, sharper teeth, and no webs between our fingers and toes.
Even without the webs, though, most of us love to swim.

Long life, Lukara.

And to you.

Come back someday to see if we’ve overcome the Sehtoo and the emperor.

If I survive, elder.

May you find sweet waters.

Once, the Kizak language was full of references to the sea, but few use those greetings any more.

I watch Mayani walk away for a few seconds, and carefully slip into a utility corridor and out of sight.
He told me that he hacked into the shuttle and main ship’s systems, so they will show that I boarded one of the shuttles and returned from the planet.
The pilgrims and elders will be told that I’ll be alone in my room for the return trip.

That lie will last for a few days, until the guard boards the pilgrimage ship, and look for me.

I enter the storage room and sit in silence, waiting for the last shuttle to leave the planet.
The facility goes dark, and the life support systems switch to maintenance mode.
The ventilation system is off, along with the scrubbers that clean the air of carbon dioxide.
The temperature will drop to just above freezing in thirty minutes, but it doesn’t matter.
I’ll be gone soon.

I use a portable light to find my way back to the cavern, and try to open a PathFinder gateway.
The gate won’t open, even when I strengthen myself with well energy.
The cavern blocks the gate.

I return to the storage rooms, touch the codes, and a doorway appears.
Lights come on in the small hanger, and reveal three ships.
I tell the building’s AI to run full diagnostics on them.
None have weapons or shields, but the hulls are solid.
Life support, navigation, and the star drives all check out.
Time to go.

The Kizak always name their ships.
The one on the left is called LightRacer.
I like the name, so I enter the ship.
The air is thin and stale, but life support activates automatically, and the lights come on.
I keep the robes on for now.
I’ll flow new clothes for myself once I get free of the cage.

I take out a beam generator from under my robe, one of the ones that the elders used to activate the caves.
Mayani gave it to me.
“Remember us,” he said, as he gave me the generator as a souvenir.

I also carry a crystal chip from each of the seven caves.

The pilgrim’s ship begins moving toward the center of the ring, to find its way home.
Hyperspace gates won’t open within a dozen light years of the ring, except at its very center.
Worse yet, for me, something inhibits a connection with the web within the same area, except inside the caverns.
Kizak scientists can’t explain either phenomenon.
There’s no real need for the cage projectors in orbit around the ring worlds, but the empire maintains them anyway.

In ninety minutes, the pilgrims will reach the center and jump.
The ship’s AI will inform me when they’re gone, so I can follow the same path to the jump point.
Meanwhile, I familiarize myself with the ship’s capabilities.

 
The Black World
My ship is slower than the pilgrimage ship.
It will take me three hours to reach the center.
I spend most of the time meditating, waiting for the AI to tell me that we’ve arrived at the jump point.
Instead, the ship sounds a loud warning, four million miles from the center, and comes to a stop.
“Unidentified body, moving directly across our path.”

“Another ship?”

“Unknown, but it seems too large.”
“It’s invisible to our ship’s scanners, but a wide area of stars behind it are slightly dimmer than normal.”

“How can you tell that it’s moving?”

“The right edge of the dimming effect is moving to our left.”

“Why did you stop?”

“The engines shut off by themselves, and something absorbed our momentum, like we were passing through a thick liquid.”

“How far away is the object?”

“Impossible to tell, but we should be free of it in thirty minutes.”
“We can only wait, and hope that I can restart the engines when the hidden body passes.”

The ship starts accelerating.

“Did the engines come back on?” I ask the AI.

“No.”
“It’s pulling us in.”

A few minutes later the ship begins to slow, and then comes to a rough stop.
“Whatever it is,” says the AI, “we’re right on top of it.”
“The scanners show a solid body made of some kind of black crystal.”

Black?
There are seven, relatively accessible energy wells, and an eighth well, black and hidden.
Is there a hidden black world here?
“AI, are there any reports of a black planet in the ring?”

“One ship mentioned it, but the words are cryptic.”

The heart of the ring is alive, flashing through space.
It fills a sphere, twelve light-years wide.
The heart has a shadow, an eighth planet, black and clear, a phantom that is only seen when it wants to be seen.
It brings worthy pilgrims to paradise, and crushes those who disgrace the ring.

Something glows within me when I hear the words.
It sounds like a vision.

The AI continues.
“Every twenty or thirty years, a pilgrimage ship disappears after entering the ring, with no trace of debris or radiation.”
“Empire bureaucrats hate to leave events unexplained.”
“Catastrophic drive failure in hyperspace is the official explanation, but it’s illogical.”
“There are no proven cases of failure in the last two centuries.”
“The safety systems prevent it.”

“Still, it’s possible.”

“No.”
“There are tracking sensors installed on the ring worlds.”
“They record the flight path of the pilgrimage ships within the ring, and when the ships enter hyperspace.”
“The lost ships simply disappear in the ring, as they move toward the center.”
“There’s no sign of them entering hyperspace.”

“What’s the connection between those ships and the report of the black planet?”

“One of the lost ships launched three escape pods before it disappeared.”
“The same handwritten message was left in each of them.”

“Written?”
“Almost no one writes by hand anymore, except for a few artists and poets.”

“Everything about the incident is strange, Lukara.”

“Do the Dahwee speak about an eighth planet?”

“The elders dismiss the message.”
“They say it comes from the voices of twisted minds, born of an epidemic that damages the brain.”
“Clearly, there’s more to these words than madness.”
“This world has captured us.”

The forward view-screen is completely dark now.
At this distance, the planet doesn’t dim the view of the stars.
It blocks them.

The AI activates another screen, where the view of the stars changes dramatically every few seconds.

“What are you showing me?”

“A simple view of space from the back of the ship.”

“Why do you keep changing it?”

“You see what the ship sees,” says the AI.

“Explain!”

“We’re moving with the planet through normal space at a steady speed.”
“We seem to be orbiting the center of the ring, but every three seconds, the planet instantly shifts its position, moving up to a light-year at a time.”
“Then, three seconds later, it shifts back into its orbit.”

“How far do we move from the ring?”

“The planet stays within a virtual sphere, stretching twelve light-years from the ring’s center.”

“Are we moving through hyperspace?”

“Probably not.”
“There’s no acceleration, no sign of the typical increased radiation, and no measurable stress on our ship.”
“Perhaps this world jumps through space using the same method that the Madar once used.”
“There were many Kizak reports about instantaneous Madar travel in the past.”
“Empire investigators certified the reliability of the witnesses, but they never discovered the science behind the jumps.”

“I’m going out to explore the planet,” I tell the AI.
“I have to find out how we can escape its hold on us.”
“Without weapons or shields, there’s no way that you can get us out of here.”

“Be careful.”
“Even if you discover a way to free us, we need to escape during one of the three-second periods that the planet is close to the center.”
“Otherwise, we’ll end up light years from here, and you’ll run out of supplies long before we reach a place where we can jump.”

“Agreed.”

I put on a BioSuit, store weapons and other items in a waist pack, and go out through the airlock.
The world is still covered in darkness, but my energy senses open.
The energy web is strong and active on this world, and my connection with it seems unblocked.
With barely a thought, I cover myself with an energy shield, and rise up a hundred feet.
Then I look for a PathFinder gate to take me home.
I see the microscopic energy gates, but I can’t stretch them open.
The planet’s energy interferes.
I continue to fly up, to see if I can leave the planet in the BioSuit, but something stops me when I reach a thousand feet.

I drop down toward the ground and activate a spotlight, but the crystal consumes every drop of light, leaving the world as dark as before.
I fly slowly over the surface, looking for a way to free myself from this place.
Thank the creator, the world is still bright to energy eyes.
My flight path glows, and the world below echoes that glow with its own path.
Fountains of energy burst at random from the crystal surface, in thousands of places at once.
My senses find dozens of Kizak ships, some hundreds of years old, all perfectly preserved, but drained of power and empty of life.

The planet jumps, again and again, but there’s no acceleration, no feeling at all.
Nothing changes, except for the stars above.
I land, and spread my healing sense for miles in every direction.
I catch a feeling, a restlessness, a need, a yearning for something more.
It strengthens slowly, and peaks, just before a jump.
I try to decipher the meaning of this longing, but I can’t.
Like many worlds, this planet has an awareness, but it’s too slow, too big for me to communicate with.

I turn my attention to the graveyard of ships, five miles wide.
At the center is a structure, a perfect black sphere, ten feet high, with four arches, one for each direction.
There are energy letters floating near the arches, that spell fong, the Madar word for death.

 
Bright Darkness
The web feels normal here, and my energy senses are strong, but I’m still almost helpless.
The hand weapons I carry won’t power on.
I can fly, but not beyond the planet, and I can’t change my own shape or the shape of anything around me.
My healing sense can feel the world’s balance, but I can’t alter it in any way.
There’s no choice.
I have to approach the sphere.

It gets hard to walk, the closer I get to the sphere.
Thirty feet away, I can barely move.
I push through an invisible barrier, and everything changes.
It’s easy to walk now, and there’s visible light shining from the sphere.

My BioSuit reports that I’m surrounded with warm, breathable air, and my energy senses confirm it.
I pick one of the arches and try to move through it.
An energy field blocks the way.

I take off the suit, and try again.
I feel the pressure everywhere except my head.
The field rips my clothes, as I try to push my way through, so I leave them behind.
Finally I pass through, carrying only the beam generator and the crystal chips.
I touch the sphere, and I’m pulled down, through an opening in the stone below me.

I drift down for fifteen seconds, land gently, and the opening closes above me.
There’s no visible light, but my energy senses show me what’s here.
I’m standing on a ten-foot platform, suspended at the center of a hollow sphere of black crystal, sixty-four feet wide.
Thirty-two rings of energy stretch around the sphere, one above the next.
They’re grouped into sets of eight, tied to the eight energy wells, red through violet, and black.
The platform starts to spin, and the bands of energy begin to rise, disappearing when they reach the top of the sphere, and new bands appearing below.

A large energy gate opens before me, similar to a PathFinder gateway, and pulls at me.
I don’t know where it leads, but I’m sure that no one has returned from there.

I resist the gate with all my strength, but I’m still being dragged toward it.
I load all the crystal chips in the beam generator and fire at the ceiling above me.
The colors merge into a dark beam that strikes the black crystal, and reflects down to me.
My movement slows, but doesn’t stop.
I’ll enter the gateway in a few seconds.

The black well that drifts around me opens wide, far wider than the seven wells within me.
I direct eight streams of energy through the beam generator.
The cave glows, and the room heats up.
Seven rays of colored energy shine down on me, surrounded with a shadow of black energy.
My shape changes, and I wear Yagrin’s body again, barely able to contain the energy that moves through me from the black well.
It feels clear and colored, bright and dark, effortless and unbearable.
The black energy carries every possibility within it.

I redirect the eight streams of energy toward the gate’s edge.
It flickers for a moment, then shatters and disappears.

A voice fills my head, and I see an image of a shadow drifting, high above the possibility sea, covering the whole sea.

All is possible, Yagrin.
Accept our gift, and come to us.
Siksa was born before you, and will live when you are gone.
We are watchers.
Give up struggle, and be free.
Watch the sea, a web of dreams, and let your pain go.
Learn without end.

I will not go.

Are you so bound to your sorrow?

I’ve died again and again for this universe.
I am Embu, called to serve, and love surrounds me.

Return to your pain, then.

I find myself on the surface, standing outside the arch, the black energy still trying to burst out of me.
I change back to Lukara’s form, and put on the BioSuit again.
PathFinder gates are still blocked, but the ship is powered up, ready to leave, when I return.

“How did you free us?” asks the AI.

“I refused to accept a gift.”
“We’re no longer welcome here.”

“Welcome?”
“We were trapped here.”

“Time to go.”

The AI understands that I won’t explain more.
He accelerates quickly away from the planet, until we’re far enough away, that the hidden world doesn’t pull us with it when it shifts.
Then we’re still, waiting for the planet to pass out of our way.
Finally, we move to the center of the ring, and jump.

 
Out of Control
We complete the first jump and return to normal space, fifty light years from the ring.
Jumping from the ring always leads to the same place, not like a regular jump where you control the destination.
Another strange feature of the ring.

The view-screen shows two ships nearby: the pilgrimage ship and a guard ship.
Before I can do anything, my ship loses power, leaving only the emergency lighting and communications active.
“Do not try to regain control of your ship,” comes a voice over the message panel.
“We’re coming to arrest you.”

The guard ship has a powerful cage projector whose effects reach my ship.
I activate a nullifier, and open a weak PathFinder gate to the nearby pilgrimage ship.
I arrive in an empty corridor, wearing the pilgrim’s robe, and move toward one of the common rooms.

Another pilgrim approaches me.
“What are you doing here?” he asks.
“The guards don’t allow us to move freely around the ship.”
“You’ll get us all in trouble.”

“Who are you?” I ask in return.

“Wootak, but what does that matter?”
“The guards gave me permission to leave the common room.”
“One of the elders reported Lukara for what she did in the ring.”
“The emperor believes she is cursed, and too dangerous to let live.”
“Perhaps the emperor will kill every pilgrim on this trip!”

I pull out a light stick and stun him with it.
Then I touch his arm, and scan his thoughts.
I need more information.

I can’t believe what I find, so I uncover his face.
It’s Disu.
He faked his death, full of grief for killing me, and came on this pilgrimage.
Disu was astounded when he saw what I did as Lukara in the first few caves.
He accessed the infonet and discovered that the real Lukara is still on the homeworld.
Disu suspects that it’s me, Neyima, who hides behind her form.

On the surface, he still has affection for me, but his mind is twisted from the brainwashing of the Mind Corps.
Deep within, he has a burning desire to kill Neyima or anyone who opposes the emperor.
He’ll kill me again if I reveal myself to him.

I should just go, and leave him as he is, but I feel responsible for what’s been done to him.
Mind Weavers can change the way a person thinks, but it’s considered a betrayal of our craft.
I push that concern aside, and go deep into his mind.
They tortured him until he lowered his mind wall, and told him to never use it again.
Then they twisted his mind as they pleased.

I’ve been here before, when I built the wall, and I can sense the foreign desires buried here.
I’m surprised at how easy it is to undo the effects of the brainwashing.
There are bitter memories of his torture, hidden from his conscious mind.
I let those remain lost, except for one, where he is half-conscious, and his father tells the Corps that they can do anything they want to Disu, as long as he obeys.
I give him back the use of the wall.
Then I cover his face, and wake him.

“Wake up, Disu.”

“What did you do to me, and why did you look under my robe?”
“I’m not Disu, although I look a lot like him.”
“Didn’t you hear that he died?”

I grab his arm, so I can touch his thoughts.
Then I reveal my face.

You know that I’m not Lukara, even though I look just like her.

Who are you?
Neyima?

Yes.

Impossible!
I killed you!

Yes, but I’ve come back.
Who else could do what I did in the caves?

Are you here for revenge?
Then kill me already, and end my suffering.

You had no choice.
The Mind Corps brainwashed you, so you would kill if I appeared in the arena.
I’ve freed you from their influence.

Sooner or later the guard will discover who I am and I’ll be returned to my father.
They’ll torture me and twist my mind again.
You should have left me alone.

I sense danger and instinctively raise a shield, powered by energy from the black well.
A dozen weapons fire at me, and I feel dizzy, but my shield holds.
I hear a cry, and see Disu struck by several blasts.
I cover him with my shield, but the damage is already done.

I’ve been afraid to use the energy from the wells to overcome the cage, unsure of my ability to control that much power.
I feel how easy it is to call on that energy, and my desire to protect Disu quickly overcomes my fear.
I strike out at the guards in the corridor, to stun them.
A tremendous blast fills the corridor from end to end.

When I wake, a few seconds later, the walls are scorched, and the guards gone.
I smell burnt flesh, the only trace of the guards’ physical or energy bodies.
Disu is alive, but only barely, and his fire body is damaged.
I don’t know how to heal him.
I have to get him to the Seven Towers, and put him in stasis.

More guards come, but their weapons can’t penetrate my shield.
I start to feel sick, and my fire body looks strange.
My energy senses, powered by well energy, tell me that Mayani the elder is with them.
I touch his mind briefly to give him a message.

All that I will say is false, but it may protect you against the emperor’s foolishness.

I take Neyima’s form, and drop the robe.
I want the guards to see me.
“I am Neyima,” I announce loudly.
“Tell the emperor that I will return soon to destroy the ring and the Dahwee.”
“The cage will no longer stop me.”
“Tell him that I said he’s a fool, and no threat to us.”
“That’s why I let him live.”

I change to a Madar shape, and laugh.
The guards move back in fear for a few seconds before they start firing again.
My shield still protects me.

“I wanted the emperor to see what I did in the ring, and destroy the Dahwee.”
“Only they have the power to stop us, though they don’t understand their strength.”

After the events in the caves, the emperor fears the Dahwee, and he might decide to destroy them.
My words will make him hesitate, and make him fear me far more than them.

 
Broken Fire
My form shifts, against my will, and I’m Neyima again.
No time to wonder why.
I grab Disu, and fly to the escape pods.
Each time I draw on the well energy, I get more nauseous, and now, I have to fight to stay conscious.

I raise a shield around the pod as soon as it clears the ship, just before the guard ship stars firing on us.
Black energy moves into me, and my shape changes again, this time to Yagrin.

We’re still within the cage, so I can’t open a distant PathFinder gate without the wells.
It takes massive amounts of power to open a gate.
Can I channel so much black energy, and survive?

I struggle with the decision, but then the energy seems to jump out of me, and into the gate.
The gate starts to open, but with strange flashes of light around the edges.
A typical gate opens in seconds, but this one takes several minutes to open, and it opens to a much larger size than I intended.

I hesitate before entering the gate, wondering if it’s stable enough for us to pass through safely.
While I decide, something comes through from the other side.

A small ship, with shields raised.

I reach out my mind toward the ship, and find a familiar passenger, who recognizes my mind touch.

Yagrin?!

What are you doing here, Sindar?

My assistants detected a strange gate opening near the towers, and an unknown dark energy spreading outward from the gate.
The AIs have orders to wake me from stasis when the towers are in danger.
I opened the gate wider, and came through with this ship.
What’s going on here?
My energy senses are gone.
Is something wrong with the web?

We have enemies here with technology that blocks our connection with the web.
Their ships have weapons that will penetrate your shields.

You have to hurry.
I opened the gate in a strange way, and it’s not stable.
Turn around now, and go back.
I’ll be right behind you.

The guards fire at the pod and Sindar’s ship.
His shields fail when he’s almost through the gate.
Another blast comes and strikes one of the bright flashes at the edge of the gate.
There’s an explosion and Sindar’s ship disappears.

Is the gate still safe?
I can’t stay conscious much longer, so I take a chance, and follow Sindar.
When I’m through, the gate closes on its own.
Then I open the pod, and crawl out onto the ground, while the world spins around me.

Sindar’s ship is half gone, already surrounded by five Jiku who look like us.
They all share one mind.
An AI named Kihyez serves Sindar, and uses artificial bodies when needed.

“What did you do to Sindar?” asks the AI.

“He did nothing,” whispers Sindar.

One of them picks him up, and moves toward the tower.

“Stop.”

“You’ll die,” says Kihyez.
“I need to get you into stasis.”

“What’s the point?”
“My fire body is about to unravel.”
“I’ve never seen weapons that can do this.”

Sindar turns his head slightly toward me.
“There’s a dying alien with you Yagrin.”
“Should we save him?”

“Yes, but his fire body is also damaged.”

“Not as badly as mine.”
“Several healers, working together, can repair the damage.”
“Kihyez will put him in stasis until you can bring the healers here.”

One of my doubles takes Disu away.
I reach Sindar, and try to cover him with healing energy.

Nothing happens.
I can’t pull energy from the web.
Still, I can reach his mind.

It’s my fault, Sindar.
The Kizak weapon combined with the strange energy of my gate and did this!

There’s no time for regrets, Yagrin.
You meant no harm.
I’m happy that we met, little brother, and I was able to start you on your path.
Wish Botzar a good life, and send my love to Dilasa.

He sighs.
My years are long enough.

“Kihyez,” whispers Sindar.

“Yes?”
“When I’m gone, Yagrin will take my place as master of the tower.”
“Do you understand?”

“Yes, Sindar, but what about the hidden world?”

“When one year passes on Siksa, let Yagrin through the gateway.”

My head starts to clear, and I sit up.
Sindar gestures to me, and I move toward his face.
He touches my forehead with his palm, and kisses me on the ears.
It’s an old Jiku way that fathers say goodbye to their sons, before a long journey.

Then Sindar closes his eyes.

The common rooms for the crew are bright and noisy, hours after the pilgrims have [...]]]> A Free Heart
 
Late at night, the inside of the ship is quiet and dark, in the areas where the pilgrims sleep.
The elders keep a close watch on the pilgrims, enforcing a rigid schedule, with an early bedtime.

The common rooms for the crew are bright and noisy, hours after the pilgrims have gone to bed.
I sleep near the crew, and I often stay up with them.
The captain lets the staff decide their own hours, as long as the work gets done.

The young body that I wear doesn’t need much sleep.
Still, if I’m tired in the morning, I sleep late, or use healing energy to restore my strength.
The ship has a cage projector that cuts me off from the web, but I can block it.
I use a nullifier sparingly, to shield me from the projector, and reconnect with the web.
We’re far from any stars, but I keep a second nullifier, capable of blocking a star cage, just in case I need it during this trip.

I eat first meal, and then walk among the pilgrims, accepting their daily greeting.
Their excitement washes over me, even before they touch me.
With the Mind Cage active, and my jammer off, I can’t reach their thoughts without skin contact, but I can still read feelings, if they’re strong enough.
We’ve arrived at red world, the first planet of the ring.
Some of the pilgrims are eager to see a different world, full of legends, while other pilgrims just want a break from the ship.

Six shuttles take us down.
The worlds are small balls of rock, with gravity half of Earth.
Each planet has a fusion power plant that provides light and life support to the domes.
There are satellites above us in stationary orbit, including a cage projector.
I’ve left the nullifiers in my room for now.
I’ll stay with the pilgrims until I’ve seen the last of the ring of worlds.

We leave the ships and enter the main visitors area.
The building is seven hundred feet in diameter, with a dome centered over the entrance to the red cavern.
There are many caves on this world, but just one that we have come to see.
The elders and the pilgrims enter the cave, followed by me and a few members of the crew.

The walls are rough, but covered in red crystal.
The floorspace is nearly filled by a round, smooth platform of the same crystal, fifty feet wide, and over seven feet high.
Metal ramps provide access to the ring, but the crew and I aren’t permitted to join the others.

We watch as the elders lead the pilgrims up the ramps, and assemble in rising, concentric circles on the different levels of the platform.
Each circle is a few inches higher than the one before it.

“Welcome to the ring,” says one of the elders to the pilgrims.
“While we stand on the crystal, you may speak, but guard yourself.”
“Do not speak to those outside the ring, and watch your words.”
“This is a holy place.”

I feel strong here.
The crystal accelerates our connection with the red energy well, and it also restores the web’s balance.
I scan the room with energy eyes.
There are faint letters of energy inscribed on the ceiling.
It’s Madar.
The words are cryptic:
Rings of words, not for Kizak, and not for Madar.
Let go of power, not heart, and be free.

“Once, the beasts ruled the galaxy, and told us to be humble,” says the elder.
“They warned that the crystal rings are dangerous.”
“We could only visit here in secret.”

“Now, the Madar are gone, or slaves, and the galaxy is ours.”
“The red gift will soon be yours.”
“Accept your destiny!”

The elder raises a strange-looking weapon, and fires an energy blast at the ceiling.
The crystal glows brightly, raining energy onto the platform of circles below.
A great sound fills my ears, like waves in the ocean.

Everything in creation is energy in motion.
Each being, place, and thing has its own movements and rhythms of energy.
We call them patterns.
Some are simple, and some complex.
Energy masters have senses that see the patterns and twist them, changing the shape of the world.
I never tire of looking at that world.
The rhythms are extraordinary, and remind me that the world is full of wonder.
I have to guard myself, or I get lost in the endless motion.

Other masters get used to what they see, and the patterns become as ordinary as the dirt beneath their feet.
I might have become like that, too, but a part of me sees the world with Bizra eyes.
They find a deeper beauty in the world’s patterns, which they experience as a song.

It’s been years since I’ve walked in that form, but if I quiet my mind, I can still hear the songs in the patterns around me.
Echoes of these songs reach far beyond their source, songs of praise to the creator.

The sound of the crystal gets brighter, until I hear its song.
It sounds just like a star!
The red gateway in my fire body opens wide, and the energy spins wildly within me.
It feels alien, and I imagine that it wants to rule over me.
I won’t give in.
It seems to be trying to establish a rhythm within me, but can’t stabilize.
I feel sick, and then I pass out.

When I wake up, my face is covered.
I reach instinctively to uncover my face, but someone grabs my hand.
“Calm down, and breathe,” says a voice.

I’m surprised to find that I can breathe easily.
My eyes open and focus, and I look through the cloth that covers my face.
I’m wearing a pilgrim’s robe, my hands wear white gloves, and my feet rest in soft white shoes.
I shake off the elder’s hand, and stand up.
“Why have you given me the robe?”
“I refused it.”

“I covered you with the robe, and brought you onto the platform to help you.”
“It’s not safe for you here, without the protection of the elders.”

I feel pressure on my mind wall, and I let the elder touch the surface of my mind.

You’ve spoken with me before, Lukara.
Let’s continue this conversation in our thoughts.
There are things we must speak of, that the new pilgrims wouldn’t understand.

There’s nothing to say.
I don’t want to be a pilgrim.

I know you’re young, and you haven’t learned Dahwee discipline, but you’re acting like a spoiled child!
You’ve come with us because you want to experience the energy of the ring.
You can’t do that as an outsider.

I felt it the same as any of you!

You’re wrong.
Most of the new pilgrims don’t feel more than a mild tingling.
You’re highly sensitive to it, maybe more than any of the elders, and that makes you vulnerable.
You were fortunate this time, Lukara.
The raw energy could easily kill you.
I won’t let you stand on the outside again, when we activate the next crystal.

And if I join you?

The gifts move differently in us when we stand on the platform.
There, your body will be able to safely absorb the energy.
You have a choice.
Become a pilgrim and join us in the crystal rings, or take off the robe and stay out of the caverns.

I wait several seconds before I answer aloud, for the benefit of the other pilgrims.
“Thank you for your help, elder.”
“I’ll keep the robe, and accept your protection.”

I hear the song again, but fainter, and feel the red energy below me, still circling through the crystal ring.
I kneel on the crystal, and shape energy hands that reach through the heart gateway to the well beyond.
I hover there in the well, and the deep green grows larger and larger, as the edges rush away from me.
Everyone I have known is there with me, and all places I have seen.
I carry them with me.

A song of energy begins.
It spins through my fire body in endless circles, and the Madar words float upon it.
This is my song, but it has endless room for others.

Far away, I see my body’s hands reach toward the crystal where I kneel.
Then the red song enters me.

I have no desire to control it, and it moves however it needs to.
My song spins with me, a true friend, and continues to shine through me.
The red gift spins through the seven gateways, faster and faster, until soon, it finds its place in the red gateway, and disappears.

I come back to my physical body.
A bright red light shines from the bottom of my spine, and fills the cave, before gently fading away.
Waves of heat radiate from my spine for a few more seconds, and then everything is as it was.
Except my gloves have turned red.

The pilgrims are staring.
“See how the gift blesses your sister, pilgrims,” says the elder who spoke before.

“We should give her new gloves,” says another elder.

“What do you say, sister?” asks the first elder.

“The gloves will turn back to white when we leave this world,” I tell them.

“Let it be so.”

We return to the ship, and my gloves lose their color.
The sleep manager moves me to one of the tiny Dahwee sleeping rooms.
I’m sorry to leave the crew, their food, and their comfortable rooms, but it’s not for long.

The worlds of the ring are in a near-perfect circle, sixty million miles apart.
It’s only three hours between worlds at one-thirtieth of light speed.
The first landing is the most tiring, so this will be our only landing today.
We’ll complete the circuit in just three more days, landing on two planets each day.
Then I’ll open a gate from the seventh cavern, and return to Siksa.

Today leaves me so exhausted that I fall into sleep’s arms, and soon forget everything, even Shazira and my home.

 
Lifeline
The orange world is smaller than the red, and has a plain round building that covers its cave.
Within, is a set of seven concentric crystal circles, like the circles on the red world, except that these grow smaller as they descend into a deep darkness.
There are more Madar words here, written in energy script:
The Dance is born, and gives birth to life.

The elders lead us into the circles.
One elder stands below us on the last platform, and fires a blast of energy at the orange ceiling.
Ropes of orange light descend, each one searching out one of the pilgrims, the thickest rope coming for me.

It finds its home in the fire body, in a place just below my navel.
I reach energy hands within, and pull my awareness into the orange well.
The words of the Madar appear suddenly, and fade, again and again, black rockets bursting into this world of orange fire.
A song rises from a place far away, and circles around me.
It disappears within me for a moment, my song, again.
Then it spreads out in all directions like a light or mist that nourishes everything near me.
I draw energy from the well, and shape my own ropes which spread out from the mist, arms of energy that connect with the orange gateways of the pilgrims.
My song sounds along all the pathways, leaving an echo of my energy throughout the ring.

The light fades from the crystal, and I’m left with orange gloves.
One of the elders approaches, and I open the mind wall.

Are you the same elder that spoke to me before?

Yes, my name is Mayani.
What’s your true form, girl, and true name?

I don’t understand.

Stop lying.
Lukara is still on the homeworld.
Are you Madar, come to crush our spirits, again?

No.

Why are you here?

To experience the ring, that’s all.

Then tell me who you are.

How long have you known that I’m not Lukara?

Since this morning.
I ordered a full search on you when I saw what happened in the red cave.

Who else knows?

No one.

Why didn’t you kill me, or send for the guard?

The crystal calls to you, as it calls to none of us.
We’ve been waiting for you for a long time.

Explain.

The Madar found the seven worlds, shortly after they came to the Kizak.
We are the closest life to the ring of worlds, and the Madar took that as a sign that our destiny is tied to it.

They taught you how to use the crystal platforms on each world?

No.
They brought us to the caves, and told us that the future will meet us here.
The Madar branded each cave with a hidden image, a hint that teaches how to use the energy properly.
We could never see all the images, and even the ones that we saw, we never understood.
The beasts refused to explain them, promising that a stranger would discover the truth, someday.
They stayed away from the caves, telling us that the ring is not for Madar.
We grew tired of being treated like children, who are never allowed to grow up.
We called ourselves, Sehtoo, ancient ones, in defiance.
The caves became a symbol of the Madar holding us back.

You attacked the Madar?

No, we were too weak then.
Instead, we looked for a way to convince them to abandon us.
The Madar always spoke of peace, so we decided to reject their teaching, and used our energy skills to conquer other worlds.
We thought this would disgust the beasts.
Instead, they rose up and crushed us.
During that brief war, we captured one of them, and tortured an important secret from her.
A certain type of energy beam, passing through a chip of the cave’s crystal, activates the energy in the cave.
That secret was preserved when the Sehtoo went into hiding.
Two centuries later, the Dahwee were born, and we began the pilgrimages to the ring.

Didn’t the Madar see what the Dahwee did in the caves?

They were arrogant, and thought we couldn’t master the crystals without their help, so they ignored us.
The caves gave us energy abilities, including the mind barrier, that remained when the emperor surrounded us all with the star cage.

These gifts are weak compared to what’s possible when the cage is lifted.

Yes.
Many of us wonder whether the caves will be abandoned when the cage is gone.
Where is the greatness in this?
Something else must be hidden here.
We hate the Madar, but some of us still wait for the future that they promised us.
Lately, we’ve come to think that we are fools, believing a Madar lie.

Until I came.

Yes.
You understand the Madar words, and use them to bring the cave to life in a new way.

The words are simple.

We see them, and can translate, but that’s not enough.
How do you know what to do?

It’s hard to explain.
You’d call it intuition.
I let an intelligence within me take over.

Will you be able to do this for all the caves?

I don’t know.
You’ll let me continue?

I have no choice.
We need you.
Usually, only a small percentage of the pilgrims feel the energy of the caves, even after several visits.
When you unleash the energy of the caves, every pilgrim feels it.
We can turn most of them into true believers.

What will happen when we leave the ring of worlds?
You’ll kill me, or turn me over to the guard.

Perhaps, but I’d rather learn to do what you’ve done, so we can turn all the Kizak into believers.
When the pilgrimage is over, you’ll have to answer my questions, and then I’ll decide what to do with you.
Even though I am first among the Dahwee, I can’t be sure that the decision will be mine to make.

Why not?

The Dahwee have kept their love of energy ways secret, first, from the Madar, and now from the emperor.
If we don’t seem to want power, then no one will fear us.
It was a good plan, but the emperor has many spies.
He must know by now what we believe, and someday, he will act on it.
There are different factions among the Dahwee.
Most of the elders on this pilgrimage follow the way as truth, and regret the wars and destruction.
I walk among them.
Many other elders think we are still Sehtoo.
Pretending to be Dahwee is a disguise that hides an endless selfishness.
They say that the universe exists for the Kizak alone.
Twenty years ago, few of the elders walked in this path, but they are the majority now.
They have a great hunger, and think that they should rule the empire, and all other races.
Soon, I will be pushed aside, or killed, and one of them will take my place as first.
Many of us can see your inner energy body, including the Sehtoo elders.
Some say that your fires are not Madar or Kizak.
I’ve suggested that you look so different because of your unusual talent, but I’m sure they don’t accept my explanation.
They’ll keep silent until the end of the trip, but who knows what they will do then?

 
Light
No permanent lighting is allowed in any of the caves.
The elders carry portable lights to push away the darkness, and the lights are shut off, just before the gift is activated.

The pilgrims descend the yellow cave through a steep path that goes down over a hundred feet.
A hill, black and yellow, rises from its center.
The top of the hill is flat and narrow, wide enough for two elders and me.
The ceiling and walls are full of the yellow crystal, but mixed with rings and speckles of white.

The black is obsidian, volcanic glass.
There are dozens of veins of yellow crystal that begin at the hilltop, and pour down the hillside in all directions, widening, and streaming to the bottom.
The elders arrange the pilgrims so everyone stands along the rivers of crystal.

I look at the walls and ceiling of the cave for Madar words, but there are none.

A different elder leads the procession in each cave.
The current leader looks toward me, as if to ask if I’m ready.
Mayani does not wait, and signals the leader to begin.
As the elder fires the burst of yellow and white energy, the world seems to slow down, giving me the time I need.
I scan the hill, and in its center I find the Madar words:
Seeds of light falling into darkness.

I clear my thoughts, and shape energy hands, which I plunge into the yellow well.
My awareness follows, and a song rolls through me.

The yellow gift spreads through the cave.
It rises from the crystal paths, and covers the fire bodies of the pilgrims.
The gift is rejected.
The yellow gateways within the new pilgrims are dark, unable to feel the light.

I shape hundreds of yellow spheres within the well, that shine like little suns.
I send them through my gateway, and into the cave.
They float like bubbles in the cave, and cover the pilgrims with their energy.
Not with rays of light, but with bursts of energy, pretending to be yellow flowers with white circles at their centers.
The energy awakens the pilgrims, intensifying and becoming visible to all.
The light gathers itself into thousands of bright, spinning winds that circle the hill, three times slowly, before disappearing into the hill.
Soon, darkness returns to the cave, except for the eyes of the pilgrims that still glow.
The elders switch on the portable lights and lead us out.

 
Breath
The green cave has a sloping, spiral entrance, that descends into an immense space, warmer than the other caves, and bright.
No portable lights are needed in here.

I feel like I’m standing in a meadow.
The floor is level, and covered in a thick carpet of glowing green grass that moves in great waves, as though it was blowing in the wind.
But there is no wind.

The ceiling and walls are also covered with the same grass.
Of the four caves, this one looks the most artificial, with straight walls, and perfect curves where the walls meet the ceiling.
The cave is a mile wide, and two hundred feet high.

“How is the air pumped into the caves?” I ask Mayani.
“I can’t find any ventilation openings, or moving air.”

“I don’t know,” he answers.
“The Madar told us that they couldn’t understand it.”
“When we started the pilgrimages, we tried to determine how the air stays fresh, but we gave up.”
“We just accept it as part of the gift.”

The lead elder brings us to the center of the cave, and into a large dark circle.
The floor is also covered with grass, except that it doesn’t glow until we stand on it.
My energy eyes scan it to explore its secrets.

The grass is not organic.
It’s a soft, growing crystal.
The green light in the center circle brightens and dims, with a pleasant series of audible tones.
The cave is breathing, not air, but energy.
The grass is calling to the world, over and over.
No words, only a feeling that says, “all is life and awareness.”
All life forms exchange energy with the web, but the more self-aware creatures, with energy bodies, often interfere with the movement of energy.
The grass embraces the energy of the web, strong in the cave, holding nothing back.
It dances with the web, and swims in it.

An energy song rises from the living crystal, and drifts through the cave, carried by the green light.
Two words from the Madar language come to mind: Galis Tsira, waves of song.

“This cave is different from the others,” says the lead elder.
He fires the energy beam at the floor instead of the ceiling, and the crystal glows brighter.
The brighter light spreads out from the center in a great circular wave, and then returns to the center.
When it reaches the starting point, the whole cave lights up at once, floor, walls, and ceiling.

Madar words reveal themselves to my inner eyes, reflecting the cave’s green energy:
Ginda Tsira, breathing a song.
I go within myself, dipping energy hands into the green well.
I sing the song that I am, stronger, and stronger.

We are great trees, standing together, growing toward the source of life, and praising the awareness that surrounds us.
Living mirrors, reaching out for light, and passing it to those who cannot see.

I let go of all resistance to the energy around me.
I let go of all fear that holds me back from embracing the world with all my strength.
My fire body glows more and more,
a moon, reflecting the green energy of the well that streams through the gateway,
a magnet, attracting and absorbing all the green light in the cave.

Soon, my physical body glows green in great waves that brighten and dim, and shine through the white clothes that I wear.

The pilgrims float upon these waves of light for several minutes, and they breathe the green gift with me.
Then the cave darkens for a few seconds, before the normal glow returns.
My whole robe stays filled with this cave’s color, not just my gloves.

A pilgrim approaches me as we prepare to leave the surface of the green world.
“What’s your name?” he asks.
The robe’s cloth interacts with the sound waves of the wearer’s voice, distorting and disguising the voice.
The elders want the pilgrims to be anonymous on the journey.

For me, it’s too late.
They all saw my face before I took the pilgrim’s robe.

“Lukara.”

“Are you a believer?”

“Not before the trip.”

“And now?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Look at what you’ve done, and all the wonders you’ve seen!”
“How can you deny the truth of the Dahwee beliefs?”

I hear the frustration in his voice.
He can’t understand why I don’t believe.

“The caves are extraordinary,” I say gently, “but they were here long before the Dahwee came.”
“No one owns them.”

“The elders are ready to welcome you as one of them.”
“All you have to do is accept the way.”

“How do you know this?”

“I overheard their surface thoughts,” he says quietly, embarrassed.
Surface thoughts can’t be trusted.
They are often full of lies, but I don’t tell him that.

“I’m surprised.”
“I would have guessed that you’re a first-time pilgrim, but that can’t be right, if you’re able to hear thoughts.”

“This is my first journey, Lukara.”
“I started hearing some thoughts after the green gift.”

“What’s your name?”

He pauses for a few seconds.
“Wootak.”
His emotions at the moment are so intense that I feel them without any effort.
He’s lying.

“I’m not denying the Dahwee way, Wootak.”
“Some of us are stubborn, and slow to admit the truth.”
“Be patient with us.”
“I’ll think more about what you’ve said, but we have to board the shuttle now.”
“It’s late and I’m tired.”

“Of course, but I hope we’ll speak again.”

I turn away from him, and move toward the ship.

 
Voice
The blue cave is above ground, but hidden within mountains.
A simple building covers the entrance.

An elder leads us through a tall tunnel, eighty feet long, and into the dark cave.
Other elders are mixed in with the pilgrims, and carry lights, so we can watch our steps.
The pilgrims also carry lights, but they’re turned off, and our lights are small compared to the lights of the elders.
“Why do we all need lights?” asks one of the pilgrims, but his question goes unanswered.

The elders place their lanterns of cool white light on the floor, along the walls of the room, revealing its shape to us.
It looks like a diamond, with a smooth disk of blue crystal in the center.
Each wall, floor to ceiling is dotted with small caves.

“The individual caves are all the same size, seven feet tall, and ten feet deep,” says the lead elder.
“Ninety-one on each wall, seven rows of thirteen.”
“While the elders stand on the platform, each of you will sit at the front of a cave, with your small light at your back.”

“How will we get to our caves?” asks a pilgrim, looking up.

The leader points to four elders, each one standing at the center of a wall, with a large black case at her feet.
He raises his arms high, and the elders remove grav projectors from their cases, and activate them.

“The elders will lift you to your places,” says the leader, “and then we’ll activate the blue gift.”
Each pilgrim’s name is called by one of elders, until only I am left.
“Where does Lukara go?” asks Mayani.

The leader shouts at one of the wall elders, annoyed.
“You are short one pilgrim,” he complains.
“Lukara goes with you!”

“She strengthens the gifts for all,” says the elder.
“How can we hide her away in a cave?”

“The traditions will be kept,” says the leader, sharply.
“She is a new pilgrim, not an elder, and the caves must be filled.”
“The gifts were here before she came, and they will still be here when she is gone.”
“Put her in the center of your wall, seventh cave of the fourth row.”

I join the group without speaking.
“Go,” says the elder to me, and she lifts me up and into the cave using the projector.
I put my light at the back of the cave, and turn it on.
Then I sit and wait for the other pilgrims to be raised into their places.

When all the pilgrims are in place, the elders shut off the strong lights, and form a circle in the center of the platform.
It’s beautiful.
I see rows and rows of the white pilgrims sitting quietly, bathed in blue light by the small lights in each cave, reflecting off the blue crystal.

“As you sit today,” shouts the lead elder, “so each of you has your own inner light that fills the world.”
“How wonderful when all the lights come together.”
The elder activates the blue energy beam, pointing it at the ceiling.
The blue energy forms a large sphere at the top of the cavern, and then bursts into four rivers which spread out along each wall, and fill each cave.

Madar words float beneath the ceiling, burning with blue fire.

Deep inside, we are not quiet, one call, one shout, that has no beginning, no end.
Life carries light through the fog, true fire, that ignites the world.

I can see each pilgrim touched by the gift, their gateways to the blue well lighting up.
Some feel the gift, but most do not.
Deeper, there is a hunger that hides in all of them, but it can’t reach the surface.
As the gift fades away, that hunger turns into a great, hidden cry.

I leap out of the cave, and into the air of the great cavern, weaving a blue stream of energy that moves around me, faster and faster, stronger and stronger, until the energy becomes visible to ordinary eyes as blue light.
The air in the cavern follows the energy stream, and becomes a spinning wind.
A song rushes from my throat, and spreads, carried on the wind.

I pull at the caves that surround me, and the pilgrims float into the air, their robes filled with the blue wind.
Their blue gateways open wide, and energy streams from their throat in all directions.
The hunger within each of them pushes its way to the surface, and they sing.
Each voice is different, some made of sweet sounds, and others a rough mix of cries and shouts.
Each pilgrim has her own song, is a song, sent out to touch the world.

The energy and the song makes their skin glow so brightly that their faces are visible through their robes.
A cloud of light forms around each pilgrim, with drifting, dancing streams of color, and sparkling energy bursts.
Our songs dance together for a few minutes, before they fade away.
I take a deep breath, give a gentle push, and watch, as the pilgrims settle back into their caves, and the air is quiet.

 
Knowing and Unknowing
The indigo cave is above ground, like the blue cave before it, but half-way up a mountain.
The visitor’s building is built around the mountain at that height.
The elders ask me to join them as they enter the cave, while the other pilgrims remain in the visitor area.
The indigo leader carries a portable light, but the cave remains dark.
“Ordinary light is useless in this cave,” she says.
“Only those with energy sight can see here.”

My energy eyes scan the cave.
The walls, floors, and ceiling are rough stone, with no sign of indigo crystal.
I look deeper into the mountain, but there’s nothing here but rock.

“Is this the right place?” I ask.
“There’s no crystal anywhere!”

“So it seems,” says the leader, “but the Madar showed us this place, and told us that it’s one of the seven caves.”

“Why have we come here without the pilgrims?”

“I wanted to give you time, Lukara,” says Mayani, “to find the Madar words, and discover what you need to do to enhance the indigo gift.”

“Does anything happen when you activate the indigo energy beam?”

“Show her,” says Mayani.

We stand in the center of the cave, and the leader activates the energy beam.
The beam looks completely ordinary to energy eyes, not like the beams in the other caves.

“What crystal did you use for the beam?”

“Do you see any crystal in here?” asks the leader.
“We’ve taken an ordinary stone chip from the wall.”

“The beam had no effect.”

“Wait,” says Mayani.
“In other caves, we activate the beam for a few seconds.”
“Here, it takes more time.”

Thirty seconds pass, and suddenly, the cave is covered with indigo crystal, but only visible to energy eyes.
Random bursts of indigo energy pass from the ceiling to the floor, throughout the cave.
After a few minutes, the bursts stop, and the crystal fades away.

“Is the crystal real or an illusion?” I ask them.

“I think there’s something here that deceives our energy sight,” says the leader, “but decide for yourself.”
“None of us feel anything, even when we’re struck by the energy bursts.”

“You still come here.”

“We follow tradition.”
“What can you tell us about the cave?” he adds.

“Nothing.”
“I see only what you see.”
“There are no Madar words here.”

“Try again,” says Mayani.
“They must be here!”

“You are a fool, Mayani,” says the cave leader, “to believe so much in the promises of the Madar.”

I quiet my mind, and ask myself how to reveal what is hidden.
The word glow comes into my thoughts.
I pull energy from the web, and radiate the energy that I call the Feldin glow.
An unbearable brightness assaults our energy eyes.

“Stop,” cries Mayani.
“What did you do?”

“I released energy to push away the shadows, and show us what’s really here.”
“Give me the beam, shut down your energy senses, and close your eyes.”
“I’m going to try again.”

I wait a few seconds, and then release the glow, this time using the blue well to power it, and directing it through the chip of rock in the beam.
The cave fills with an indigo energy brighter than before, that overloads my energy senses.
I force myself to keep my senses open, but the energy blinds me to everything else.
I scan through the fog of energy, looking for a clue.

Nothing.
The energy is the same wherever I look, boringly consistent, no strange patterns that could hide a message.
I close off my energy senses in frustration.
Where else can I look?

I listen to the quiet and chaos within me, waiting.
There’s an ache, a longing to search.
I pour out that feeling, and cover the cave with the energy.
I give it all my strength, a search more powerful than any question needs, or any answer can satisfy.

Something returns, not a seeing, but a feeling of place, of dark, thick walls, covered with something thin and fast – crystal.
Then I feel the energy still rushing through the cave in perfect circles.
There.
A brief weakness in the energy as it passes one place.
I send more indigo energy into the cave, touched with the glow, and focused on that spot.

The weakness takes shape, and forms Madar words:

Make yourself blind to what others see and fear.
Search beyond anything you can know.
See what cannot be seen, but must be.

I close down the energy, and let the cave become dull again.
“Open your senses,” I tell the elders.
“I’ve let the energy go.”

“Did you find anything?”

I give them the words I felt.

“Do you know what it means?”

“Bring the pilgrims, and I’ll show you.”
“Tell them to close their eyes.”
“When we’re all in place, close your eyes, and your energy senses, and give me the beam.”
“I know what to do.”

I feed the indigo energy and the glow, and an endless feeling of searching through the beam.
The energy fills the cave, and everyone in it.
We stay conscious, but lose control of our physical bodies.
I sense it coming, and lower us all, gently, to the floor.
Then I call out to everyone with a mind touch so they won’t panic.

Don’t be afraid.
It’s part of the gift, and it’s only temporary.

The cave disappears, and we are elsewhere, a place with no boundaries, and energy everywhere.
I see us all as clouds of light that hover and mix together.
The clouds are thick where we come together, but our spreads thinly in all directions.
No words move within us, just a feeling of reaching out, forever.
A moment later, the cave returns, empty of light and energy, plain stone.
The pilgrims stand up, and are led out of the cave, and into the visitor’s building.
“Explain,” says the leader, when she returns.

“Elder, first tell me what you feel.”

“I came to a strange place.”
“Were we all there?”

“All the elders and all the pilgrims.”
“This is the cave’s true gift.”

“I felt endless, Lukara, but now that I’m here, I feel small.”

“Nothing else remains?”

“There’s a movement within me, an endless desire to touch that which can’t be bound in words or color or place or time.”

“We all feel that,” I tell her.

“What good is a gift that makes us feel small?” says one of the elders.

“Who are you elder?” asks Mayani.

“What do you mean?”

“We are comfortable with our small self, elder,” says Mayani, “and call it home, but we are also something endless.”
“The cave gave us a glimpse of it, but now, only the endless desire hints at who we really are.”
“We were born, far away, in an infinite world, and part of us searches, wanting to find that world, again.”

“Will that feeling stay with us, Lukara?” asks the elder.

“It’s possible, but only if we work at it.”
“The Dahwee teachings speak of it:

Leave behind the comfort of the familiar, every day.
Let it die, if you wish to touch the infinite.

 
Tomorrow
I gather with most of the pilgrims to watch the last of the ring worlds appear on the ship’s view-screen.
I can feel the excitement, but there’s no shouting or cheering.
We’re still pledged to be silent aboard ship.

The shuttles will board soon.
One of the elders approaches, and I feel pressure against the mind wall.

I open the wall, and let the elder touch the surface of my mind.

Is it you, Mayani?

Yes, Lukara.
I came to warn you.

Of what?

One of the elders has contacted the guards, and accused you of being a rebel.

How do you know?

I get copies of all elder communication aboard ship.

What will happen?

The guards will not appear until after we begin our journey home.
Don’t return with us, when we leave the violet world.
Each of the ring worlds has a few escape ships, hidden away for emergencies.
I’ll give you the location, and the codes to release the security lock.
Travel won’t be comfortable, but you’ll survive it.
The ship is stocked with emergency rations, and the AI can open a hyperspace gate, and get you to a safe place.

Why are you doing this?

You’ve strengthened all the elders on this journey, and most of us follow the true way.
Many of the pilgrims have been transformed, and I hope to bring them to our side.
The few Sehtoo elders with us are rethinking their allegiance.
Soon, we will be strong enough to eliminate the Sehtoo faction within the Dahwee.
Then, we can restore peace to the empire.

I hope you succeed, Mayani.
How do I thank you?

Help us.
I’ll tell you how to safely contact me after you escape.
We’ll arrange for you to take the form and place of one of the Sehtoo elders after we eliminate him or her.
You’re more powerful than all of us.
You can crush the Sehtoo.

The Kizak have plans to conquer my world, Mayani, and the attack ships have already left.
I would like to help you, but I have to go home and defend my people.

If your sisters are like you, the guard can’t win.

The cage takes away our strength, the same as yours, and will leave us helpless.
The ring has given me new strength that the cage can’t banish.
I will be able to fight, but I don’t know if it will be enough.

Our silent conversation is interrupted when Mayani is called away to board the first shuttle.
I follow on the next.

The violet world is just rock, like the others, but the surface is smooth, like a polished stone.
Only one mountain interrupts the unchanging landscape.
Our destination is a great cavern near the top.
Before the visitor’s center was built, one could stand in the open cavern and look up at the sky, thick with stars.
Now the building, and the landing pad on its roof, form a cover for the cave.

The walls and floors are covered with a smooth layer of violet crystal.
The new ceiling looks like crystal, but it’s only artificial stone, painted to match the walls.
This place is broken, giving us no protection from the cage.
Still, with the strength I’ve gained in the ring, I can scan the cave.
There are no Madar words here.

“Where do you point the beam?” I ask the leader.

“The Madar we captured told us that the beam is useless here.”
“Someday,” he told us, “one of you will discover what to do there.”

“We tried directing the energy toward the walls and floor, but it had no effect.”

“How do you activate the crystal?”

“If there’s a way, we haven’t found it.”

“Why come here?”

“Maybe this cave affects us without being activated.”
“Who knows?”
“Besides, we need to says a proper goodbye to the ring.”

The leader arranges us in seven concentric circles.
This time, the elders, and even the leader stand among us.
“Now,” says the elder, “we are the same, walking the same road, all touched by the ring.”
“The gifts in the ring are bright, but the creator has gifts for us everywhere we go.”
He leads us in three prayers of gratitude.

“Time to go,” he says, when our echoes die out.
“May we circle the ring, together again, strong, in sweet days to come.”

“Stop,” I call to the leader.

“What, Lukara?”

“Fire the beam at my head.”

“The energy is strong.”
“It will harm or kill you.”

“No, it won’t.”

He hesitates, but the other elders motion to him to continue.
I can control the energy within six of the gateways, even with the cage around me, but not the seventh.
I open the six, and pour the energy of those wells toward the violet gateway, and the well beyond it.

It opens within me a moment before he fires.
A shell of energy forms around me, lighting up the cave, and making the crystal on the floor light up.
My shape changes, taking on the look of living crystal, covered with my own glow, full of all the colors.
The beam touches my crystal glow, and the cave shakes.

“Earthquake?” asks the leader.

“No,” I answer, “but move everyone next to the walls.”

The others move away, leaving me in the center.
I pull at the energy of the wells, and manage to hover just above the stone.

“Fire at me, again,” I tell the leader.

The violet well echoes the violet beam, and a flood of energy moves through me, striking the floor in pulsing waves.
I feel a gentle wind move through the cave, driven by vibrations in the floor.
A clear, high tone is heard, louder and louder, and the center of the floor crumbles.
White-hot crystal fragments rise from the deep hole, avoid me by a few inches, and form a fountain that spreads across the roof of the cave.
The scraps of stone melt together, forming a permanent crystal ceiling.
When the fountain stops, the floor seals itself, and I feel the cage disappear.

“Aim the beam at the ceiling,” I tell the leader, and he does.

The words reveal themselves:

Death calls you, birds of light.
The day disappears, and another comes.
The future weaves itself before your eyes, every moment precious.
New dreams are born, and become life.
Each face searches for itself, and finds another.
Death is midwife to all, and the world grows, hunting for itself, forever.

Violet energy pours out of me and rushes along the surface of the crystal, opening the gateway wide within each pilgrim.
A few seconds later it fades, and I return to Lukara’s form.

The pilgrims look at the new ceiling, glowing with a gentle light that fills the cave.

Most of the waiting areas are underground, beneath the clusters of landing pads. The ships rise and rest quietly, through g-tech that allows them to manipulate gravity. The [...]]]>  
Pilgrims
The spaceport near the capital city is called StarPath.
It was designed by one of the empire’s leading architects, filled with curves and high ceilings.

Most of the waiting areas are underground, beneath the clusters of landing pads.
The ships rise and rest quietly, through g-tech that allows them to manipulate gravity.
The above-ground terminal is made of three domes, surrounding a taller fourth dome, with a blue stone tower.
The smaller domes are red, yellow, and green, with black-roofed walkways at ground level leading to the larger white dome.
Each of the three outer domes has a large entrance, marked by an arch thirty feet tall.
A river of stars and planets moves across the arch, displaying the colonies of the empire.
The inner walls of the spaceport are also in motion, covered with info streams, or decorative, moving patterns.

I find the loading gate, and a place to sit.
One of the walls shows our ship, the RingShaper, waiting to leave for the ring of planets.
It’s designed for speed, not luxury, but it’s new and pleasing to the eye, with a bright silver hull, and spiral designs of green and black.
The Kizak expect their ships to be beautiful.

This one is small for a Kizak passenger ship, and carries less than four hundred guests.
We enter, forty or fifty at a time, through an elevator that takes us up into the center of the ship.

The pilgrims all dress the same, but only some are bright-Dahwee, true believers.
The rest are shadow-Dahwee, unsure, uncommitted.
The Dahwee-van, the clear way, is the dominant religion in the empire.
Nearly all Kizak go on the pilgrimage, sooner or later, even if they don’t believe.

There are other reasons to visit the ring, and many science and tourist vessels go there.
Still, it’s rare and strange to do what I’m doing, walking with the pilgrims, while setting myself apart.

I relax when I see some of the ship’s crew, dressed in ordinary clothes, like me.
One of them calls my name, and she leads me away from the others.
Soon, she stops by a large opening, edged in gold, and marked with a dark blue light.

“This is your place,” she says.
“Touch the pad.”
I put my left hand on the security pad, and the doors open to a beautiful, large room.

Not what I expected.
Dahwee pilgrims pledge to abandon comfort and rich foods during their silent journey, and the ships reflect their simple needs.

I’m confused.
“How can this be a pilgrimage ship?” I ask.
“It’s too luxurious.”

“This section of the ship is for the crew and the occasional special guest, not pilgrims.”
“We don’t take the pledge, and we like our comfort.”

For a moment, I wonder how to tip her.
Then I remember that tips are an insult among the Kizak.

“Do you mind a personal question?” she asks.

“Go ahead, but I might not answer it.”

“You’re going to the ring of worlds anyway.”
“Why not just put on the robe and join the pilgrimage?”
“Almost everyone does it sooner or later.”

“Cover myself from head to feet, and keep quiet?”
“Not me.”

“You know the rules on this trip?”

“Of course.”
“If I speak to the pilgrims, I get confined to my room.”

“Right.”

“I bound myself to the travel contract with a retinal scan.”
“I don’t agree to anything unless I check it out first.”

“Knowing isn’t enough.”
“It’s much easier to promise to be quiet, than to actually do it.”
“Most of us can’t be silent for ten minutes when we’re surrounded by others.”

“I’ll be careful.”
“I can’t stay in my room all the time, or the walls will start closing on on me.”
“Besides, I need to eat.”

“Join the Dahwee in one of the eating rooms, if you like, but you’ll have to suffer with their food.”

“Is it so bad?”

“Not bad, but really plain.”

“What choice is there?”

“Eat with us.”
“We’re loud, but the food is better.”

“Isn’t there a rule against passengers eating with the crew.”

“Not unless we force you.”

I smile.

“Good,” she says.
“Someone will message you with the meal times.”
I sit down when she leaves, and the doors close.

 
Music and Prayer
In the quiet, my thoughts turn to Disu, dead because I came into his life.
He might have traveled on this ship, if he had lived.

Most Kizak take the robe between twenty and thirty years old.
The royal family has a different custom, set by the first emperor, Dinik.

“Don’t trust the Dahwee,” said Dinik to his children, “and stay far from their ways.”
“Religion is necessary to keep weak minds out of trouble, but we don’t need it in the palace.”
“The teachings of discipline and responsibility are true enough, but what use is the rest, and all that prayer?”
“It’s just a waste of time.”

“The people follow them, father,” said his son, “and everyone goes on the pilgrimage.”
“How can we ignore them?”

“How old are you, Opri?”

“You know that father, almost fifteen!”

“You’re wise for your years, and you’ll make a good emperor.”
“We will pretend to follow the Dahwee, attending prayer meetings on the three major holidays.”
“You’ll go on the silent journey with the other pilgrims, just after your fifteenth birthday.”

“No one goes so young.”

“This will protect you from Dahwee foolishness.”
“You won’t fit in with the adults, so they’ll keep their distance from you.”

“Yes, father.”

“Be careful with their music.”
“It’s relaxing, but if you listen too much, it dulls the mind.”

It was Opri who later introduced the custom of the Madar val on the fifteenth birthday.

Disu confessed to me that he loved the Dahwee prayers, with their poetic rhythms that speak of the wonders of creation.
He wished that he could go to the prayer meetings every week, instead of three times a year.
Disu also wanted to study the Dahwee teachings.
He could never admit this to his father.

“Listen to your heart, Disu,” I told him, “and do whatever you can, in secret, here in the palace.”
“Just keep your actions and feelings hidden.”

Disu studied the Dahwee teachings, and listened to their music.
It’s called seed music, and people say that it feeds the spirit.

I listened a few times.
The music fills the whole body, lighting up the energy centers, one after another.
It leaves the body with a feeling of peace and calm.

I didn’t discourage Disu, but the music is little more than a way to relax.
It helps the listener feel spiritual, but doesn’t seem to have any long-term benefit.
There are studies in the library that support Dinik’s claim that long-term use of the music slows down the mind.

At first Disu was able to hide his growing interest in the Dahwee ways from his father.
I helped him, by giving him one hour of each study day to explore the teachings, the music, and the prayer.

This wasn’t enough to satisfy his hunger.
One evening he disguised himself, and went out to a Dahwee prayer meeting.
He loved it, but the guard tracked him, and his actions were reported.

His father was furious.
“Do that again,” said the emperor, “and I won’t let you go on the pilgrimage!”

Disu was watched more closely after that, even during our study time.

I take a deep breath, and let go of thoughts about him.
The past is gone.

Then I prepare for departure.

The bells sound for two minutes before we enter hyperspace.
After we leave normal space, the warning lights go dark, and the passengers pour out of their rooms into the common areas.
I feel like I’m in a dream, swimming through a sea of white shadows.
Their robes, gloves, and shoes are all white, and their faces are covered.

Air passes through the special fabric, so the pilgrims stay cool, and breathe easily.
The openings for the eyes are covered with a reflective material, like one-way glass.
The Dahwee see out, but no one sees in.

Their hidden faces are far more unsettling than their silence, and at first, I avoid them.
I spend the first morning in my room, writing and meditating, but soon the space gets too small, and I find a crew member to walk with.

“The pilgrims wear message bands,” she tells me.
“They’re allowed to text message each other or the crew, without voice, although elders limit this to ten messages a day.”

I’ve experimented in the past with voice fasts.
The written messages won’t relieve the thirst to hear their own voices.
“That won’t help much,” I tell the crew woman.

“You’re right,” she agrees, surprised that I know.
“The elders give them one way to rest from the silence.”
“Prayer.”
“The pilgrims are allowed to meet and recite prayers together, out loud, twice a day.”

“Can I join them?”

She looks at me strangely, wondering why I would want to join the prayers, but not wear the robe.
“No.”
“Only pilgrims are allowed in the prayer rooms.”

 
Isolation
I sit with the crew for second meal.
The food is good, and there’s plenty of it.

“I’m Tela,” says one of the crew women, as she sits down across from me.
“How do you eat so much, and stay so thin?” she asks, as she watches me eat.

I smile at her.
“Fast metabolism.”
The Kizak woman whose body I’ve copied doesn’t eat much, but I’ve brought my own habits with me.
The food brings me comfort.

An alarm sounds in the crew room, and three of the crew get up and head for the transport.
“What’s that?” I ask.

The crew woman looks upset as she reads the report on her message-band.
“Trouble on the deck below us,” she says.
“A pilgrim was declared empty, but she refuses to go to her room.”

“Empty?”

“On some trips, one or two of the first-time pilgrims can’t adapt to the rules.”
“They’ve gone through Dahwee orientation, and practiced their silence, but words still slip from their lips.”
“A few mistakes are forgiven, but after that, the elders declare them empty, unworthy.”
“An empty pilgrim is confined her to her room for the rest of the trip, and never permitted to visit the ring.”

“Those tiny rooms?”
“Doesn’t that drive them crazy?”

“Sometimes.”
“We drug them, if necessary.”
“I’ve got to go.”
“I’m needed to keep the other pilgrims away from the area.”

She starts running, and I follow her into the transport closet.
“Can I come with you?”

“No,” she says, as she reads more details on her band.
“You’d probably speak to the pilgrims and get us both in trouble.”
“Stay in the crew area.”
“The pilgrim on level four is armed and violent.”

“I can take care of myself,” I tell her, and touch the pad to close the door.

She looks at the thin, short body that I’m carrying, and doesn’t believe me, but she has no time to argue.
The transport opens on another deck, and the woman steps out.
“Go back to the crew area,” she shouts, and then goes to help with crowd control.

When the doors close, I hesitate.
I should tap in level three, and go back to the crew area, but instead I enter four into the pad.

A pilgrim is standing with her back to a door, her torn robe exposing her face.
She’s holding a knife to the throat of another pilgrim with a blood-stained robe.
A Dahwee elder and a crewman are both pointing blasters at the agitated passenger.
Other crew are standing around.
Everyone is silent, but the blasters speak loud enough.
The pilgrim is expected to surrender.

I could disarm her, but there would be too many questions.
Instead, I activate a jammer under my clothes, and touch her mind.

Her name is Willa, and she’s caught in a severe panic attack.
She suffers from claustrophobia, and went on the pilgrimage against the advice of her counselor.
Willa is from a rich family, and she used her money to buy her doctor’s silence, and his signoff on the medical forms.
She has no great love for Dahwee ways, but she just wants to go on the pilgrimage, like her friends.

The patch she wears to relax isn’t good enough.
She can barely keep from shouting when the robe covers her face.

The robe comes off when she enters her room, but then the small space closes in on her.
Willa only enters the room at night, and takes her sleeping pills right away.

When she’s nervous, she talks, and has spoken several times since she came on board.
The elders gave her a written warning yesterday, but Willa spoke again after that.
A few hours ago, the elders declared her empty, and marked the back of her robe with a large, black circle.
They ordered her to stay in her room, and informed the crew.

She refused in writing, promising to be quiet.

There are no second chances.
The elders escorted her to her room, armed with knives, their traditional weapons.
Willa took the knife from one and cut his robe.
Then she raised the knife to his throat, and won’t back down.
Willa’s more afraid of that room, than a knife or blaster.

I search her memories to find a weapon to use against her.
Then I fall to the ground in front of her, and shake like I’m having a seizure.
She’s seen her younger sister like this, too many times, and it frightens her.
She stares at me in horror, and takes her eyes off the others, who quickly disarm her.

“Are you all right?” asks one of the crew, helping me up.

“It was just an act, to distract her.”

“You were pretty convincing.”

“Thanks.”

I feel pressure against my mind wall.
An elder is facing me, and trying to probe me.
I should have stayed away.
Now, he knows that I have mind skills.
He’ll become even more suspicious if I don’t communicate with him.
I drop the wall, and let him touch the surface of my mind.

You knew how to distract her!

A lucky guess.

No, you have a barrier, and you saw her thoughts!

Please.
I don’t want people to know that I’m strange.
I shouldn’t have gotten involved.

You saved her.

I don’t understand.
You looked in her mind, and saw her sickness.
Why did you try to force Willa into her room?

We don’t look at the thoughts of every pilgrim!
I first tried to see her thoughts after she held the knife, but I couldn’t see through her panic.
You did.

Yes.

It was fortunate you were here.
She is a fool.
She knew her weakness, and chose to ignore it.

You have a vow of silence!
Doesn’t mind speech break it?

This is permitted when there’s a need.
You have power.
Take the pilgrim’s robe and join us.

We’re almost there.
When I take the robe, I want the full experience of being a pilgrim.

Your choice.
The elders thank you for your help.
I hope we will meet again, soon.

He turns and walks away.
Willa will be sedated for the rest of the trip, and kept in a medical holding area.

 
Secrets
I’m allowed to speak with the crew, even in front of the pilgrims.
When I first see this, I’m surprised.
Why would the elders permit this?
Hearing our words makes it harder for the pilgrims to stay silent.
I ask one of the crew about it.

“You don’t understand,” she tells me.
“The elders ask us to speak in front of the pilgrims.”

“Why?”
“Are they trying to torture them?”

“No.”
“The Dahwee way is full of discipline.”
“The elders want the pilgrims to see and hear us, to test their self-control.”

“Don’t some of the pilgrims avoid us, to stay free of the threat to their silence?”

“They’re not allowed to ignore us.”
“The elders require them to give a special touch greeting to those who speak, at least once a day.”

There are twenty crew members who walk the ship, but most of the Dahwee choose me for the greeting, even before word spreads about the incident with Willa, and my role in it.
I guess they wonder what I’m doing on the ship.

The greeting is intimate in a strange way, and it bothers me at first.
Still, the physical contact gives me a chance to scan their minds without a jammer.

I extend my right hand as though I was giving a handshake.
The pilgrim closes her right hand into a fist, and traces a circle on my right palm with her thumb.
Then she pulls her fist toward herself, across my palm and fingers.
The open palm of her right hand finally comes to rest against her chest.

A few of these pilgrims already have the mind block.
It’s too strong for the Mind Corps to penetrate, but I can see its weak spots, and reach through.
Over the next few days, I’m greeted by almost all of the pilgrims.
The four elders who walk among the pilgrims avoid my touch, choosing to greet the crew instead.
And there are thirty pilgrims who never leave their rooms.

I’ve read the public writings of the Dahwee-van, that discuss the wonders of creation, the mystery of the creator, and the thirst within each spirit to create, grow, and face any challenge.
The Dahwee speak of choice, personal responsibility, and the hidden power within us, but there is no mention of the energy web that binds all life together.

There’s nothing in their words that threatens the empire.
And Dahwee leaders denounce the energy ways of the Sehtoo and the rebels, supporting the use of the cage to protect us all from the curses.
The elders publicly reject the energy worlds as dangerous.
Is this just a way to disguise their true feelings?
Are they allied with the rebels?

I scan each pilgrim’s mind, concentrating on the true believers, as I look for hidden knowledge and love of the web.
I find no secrets or conspiracies here, just ordinary people from all levels of Kizak society.

One out of ten of the shadow-Dahwee, the uncommitted, resonate with the Dahwee-van, eager to find meaning and mystery in their lives.
They want to be transformed by the pilgrimage, and return home to a new life.
Too bad that change is rarely that simple or quick.

Most of the uncommitted that I scan have little interest in the teachings.
They come because everyone does it, and many break the pilgrim’s oath of silence and simplicity.
Some have hidden music players that they use in their rooms, and others bribe the crew to get better food.

I don’t care about their little secrets.
I turn my attention to the Dahwee that stay all day in their rooms.
If there’s any hidden knowledge here, it lies with them.

 
The Twenty-three
I hack into the ship’s network, and look over the records of the pilgrims who never leave their room.
Twenty-three of them are bright-Dahwee, long-time members of the sect, elders.
They sit alone, their days filled with prayer, until we reach the first planet in the ring.
Then, they’ll cast off their isolation, to lead the procession on each planet.
On the planets, the leaders and the pilgrims are permitted to speak with each other.
In the ring, only the crew and I must be silent.

There are seven half-Dahwee, uncommitted, who stay in their rooms all day for medical reasons.
They’re hoping that the old worlds will bring them a miracle, conquering the diseases that Kizak medicine can’t touch.

According to pilgrimage custom, everyone, even the thirty, change rooms each night, as directed by a Dahwee administrator.
The crew is told immediately where each of the sick Dahwee has gone.
Then, just before morning meal, the crew is given a list of the other twenty-three rooms which require meals.
The ship’s scanners could reveal the names of the Dahwee in each room, but the crew will not use them except in an emergency.
All the Dahwee, except the sick ones, become nameless after the first day when they change rooms.

I wander the ship during meal time when the the leaders are brought food.
The thick metal walls of the rooms interfere with the mind touch, even when I use a jammer, so I wait until the door opens.
It takes less than a minute for the crew member to bring in the meal and leave.
That’s not much time for me to make a connection and search for memories, but it’s better than nothing.

I follow the crew to different parts of the ship, so I can scan as many elders as possible.
Each time the door opens, I’m ready to push through a mind block, but all of their minds are open.
Their thoughts are full of the trip, Dahwee beliefs, or life back home, but no secrets.

I walk away disappointed, reviewing my contact with the elders.
I have a strong feeling that I’m missing something.
Then I get it.
The thoughts were pure, free of desire and violence, yet I felt a cloud of desire when a beautiful crew member brought a few of them food.
The emotions I sensed didn’t match the thoughts.

At the next meal, I try again, and push hard, beyond the thoughts and memories.
There should be nothing here but a chaotic mix of words, images, and sensations, shadows of the conscious and unconscious minds.
Instead, I find a mind block.

It doesn’t make sense.
The block should lie outside the mind, not within it!
I push through and find a clear chain of thoughts.
Two minds?
No.
The first collection of thoughts isn’t real.
It’s only a mask to cover the mind block.

Inside the block, I find what I came for.
The Dahwee leaders pretend to be loyal to the emperor, but they’re plotting against him.
They have always studied the ways of energy, in secret, and they’ve taken over the leadership of the Mind Corps.

This is good!
If they succeed, they’ll stop the empire from using the cage, and end the wars.

The next leader’s thoughts crush my optimism.
The Dahwee are the true heirs of the Sehtoo, hungry to conquer other races.
Like their ancestors, they believe that the Kizak are superior, born to rule the universe.
The Dahwee do want to free their people from the cage, but only so they can use the blessings in war.

The truth about the ring is hidden deeper in her thoughts.
Each of the seven worlds is tuned to one of the energy wells, and a visit there strengthens our inner connection with that well.
Some pilgrims are able to touch minds, even in the presence of a jammer.
Others gain unusual physical strength.
All the effects of the first visit fade in a few days, but additional trips through the ring bring permanent effects.
Two or three visits give some pilgrims a mind block.
A few more trips, and the use of special crystals and music, brings control over the block, and immunity to the star cage.

Not true immunity.
The cage continues to block the web, but the fire bodies draw enough energy from the wells to fuel some of the blessings:
Energy perception (what I call energy eyes), a strong mind touch, energy blasts and shields, and limited power to transform objects.

There’s a natural bond between the fire body and the wells.
Look with energy eyes at a fire body, and you’ll see seven bright colored wells, along with a black well, nearly invisible, that hovers around the fire body.
Go deeper and you’ll understand that what we see are not true wells, but gateways.

We touch the wells so easily through the gateways that the wells seem to be within us, but they are far away, one set of wells binding all energy life together.
It’s natural for fire bodies to pull a small amount of energy from each well, but the ring opens that connection wider and much more energy moves through it.
There are consequences to this unnatural use of the wells.
Many Kizak children are born with this heightened connection, but can’t control the energy, and it burns them alive.
There are masters who can control it, but their physical bodies are slowly damaged by the intense energy from the wells, and their life is cut short.

The energy masters of most races gain their abilities from working with the web, not the intense, powerful, and dangerous wells.
The Gen use the wells for transformation, but even Gen strength primarily comes from the web.
The teachings of the Bizra and the Madar both warn against using the wells on a regular basis.
They say that it will damage the physical body, the web, and ultimately the stars.

“Yes, great father.”

“I have a few questions for you.” “I want to understand the training that you’ve been giving [...]]]>  
Cruelty and Purpose
The emperor calls me in to see him.
“Congratulations, Neyima.”
“Disu has made incredible progress in his fighting skills, and he told me that he has agreed to the Madar val.”

“Yes, great father.”

“I have a few questions for you.”
“I want to understand the training that you’ve been giving him.”
“My staff has been analyzing the sims that you use.”
“Acting?”
“Practicing silence?”
“Being insulted?”
“These seem like a complete waste of time, and totally different from what the other tutors did.”

“May I speak freely?”

“Of course.”

“The other tutors accomplished nothing with Disu, great father.”
“Their approach was clearly the wrong one, at least for him.”

“But acting?”

“A good leader would like to always speak the truth to his people, but sometimes the people aren’t ready for it.”
“The emperor must be convincing whenever he speaks, whether or not he’s telling the truth.”
“He must show the emotion that’s needed, and be in control at all times.”
“To do this, a person needs skill in acting.”
“He must be comfortable with silence, and be able to ignore insults.”
“He must control what and who he allows to influence his thoughts and feelings, and most of all his words.”

“You’re teaching Disu to lie!”

“I’m teaching him to stay focused on what he must to do, great father, whether it’s easy, true, or not.”

“He could lose his way, and misuse these skills.”

“Yes, but all power can be turned toward good or evil.”
“My job is to help him focus his power so he is worthy to be emperor.”

“That’s not what you were asked to do.”

“Great father, Disu will be the next emperor.”
“Is that so little a task, that it requires no preparation?”
“All his training must bring him to that future, whatever other purpose it serves.”
“He has many talents, but where will they take him if he remains undisciplined and scattered, with no sense of duty?”

“You think you can change him so much in a few months?”

“I can start him moving in a new direction, but he’ll have to continue his practice, and work with other teachers when I’m gone.”
“He’ll need help to stay focused, and to learn to put the empire’s needs before his own.”

The emperor thinks.
“I’m still troubled by what you’re doing, Neyima, but I have to admit that the results are exceptional.”
“You may continue this training program, for now.”

“Thank you, great father.”

“Tell me about your time with the Palace Guard trainees.”
“I’ve heard that it has not gone well.”

“The Palace Guard are different than I expected.”

“You refused to follow orders.”

“Yes, but strictly speaking, great father, I’m just an instructor.”
“I’m not in the guard, and therefore, not subject to their orders.”
“They armed a group of five skilled trainees, and told them to kill me, or be killed.”
“Then they asked me to kill the group.”
“I disarmed the trainees instead.”

“You know that the five were killed anyway?”
“True, but I won’t be part of it.”

“The training program has an unmatched record for producing the fiercest guards.”
“They follow orders without question.”

“The palace guards are very capable, I agree, but the program takes all the Kizak out of them.”
“They’re little more than intelligent animals now, with a talent for killing.”
“In many ways, they’re worse than animals.”
“They enjoy killing and being cruel for its own sake, even when it serves no purpose.”
“Eventually, they will destroy the empire.”

“They are loyal!”

“Their loyalty is overrated.”
“I don’t trust them, any more than I would trust a trained wild animal to obey.”
“If the commanders turned against you, the guard would follow them without a thought.”

“You’re angry with the guard for what happened to your friend.”
“She knew the risks.”
Talika was paralyzed during the first month of training.

“I am angry, great father.”
“The trainers broke her back at random, just to inspire fear in the others.”

“A waste of talent, certainly, but it does serve a greater purpose.”
“I value your opinion, Neyima, but we disagree about this.”

“I don’t see how I can work with the guards.”

“I have to agree.”
“You’re released from that responsibility.”

“Thank you, great father.”

He looks at me for a few seconds.
“Why are you so sure that the guards can’t be trusted?”

I don’t respond.

“Yesterday, the corps told me that they found traitors in the palace.”
“Several guards have been executed.”
“You knew of this?”

“Yes, I was ordered to find them.”
I thought I would have trouble betraying the guards who supported the rebels, but it was easy.
They were animals like the others,even though they helped the rebels.

“You entered the minds of every one of my guards?”
“There are hundreds!”

“Most, but not all.”
“A few are protected with some kind of tech, the same as you carry.”

“Can the rest hide any of their thoughts or memories from you?”

“No.”

“Something troubles me, Neyima.”
“Who will search your thoughts?”
“I was told that no one can penetrate your mind, and that no mind thief can resist you.”

“True, as far as I know.”

“Have you heard what happens when a mind thief encounters a Madar in the arena?”

“No.”

“A jammer is used in the arena so the Madar may connect with the mind of those who enter.”
“Most children survive this encounter, even if the beast enters their thoughts.”
“Mind thieves do not.”

“I know that some children go mad.”
“Is that what happens to the others?”

“In a way.”
“When a thief touches the Madar, the beast stops its strange behavior and stands there, calmly.”
“Then the Madar and mind thief approach the doorway to the arena, and try to kill the guards.”
“There are few Madar.”
“The only way to stop the attack is to kill the thief.”

“Why not stun them?”

“The stun settings have no effect when a thief is in contact with the Madar.”

“Why would you put a mind thief in the arena with a Madar?”

“The Madar had tech that enabled instant transport between distant star systems.”
“We’ve never been able to find it, and we’ve heard reports that the rebels may have it.”
“Once, every few years, I send the most powerful mind thief to try and get the location from the Madar.”
“The corps doesn’t like it, but they can’t refuse.”
“All the thieves have died.”
“Perhaps you’ll be different.”

“When?”

“A month before Disu’s Madar val.”

I’m silent.

“No protest, Neyima?”

“No.”
“I’ve accepted dangerous assignments before, great father.”
“Why should this be different?”

“What do you know about the transport tech, Neyima?”
“How did you disappear from the prison planet?”

“Two prisoners told me they could escape, if only they could get out of the sims.”
“I helped them get back to their bodies.”
“I thought they would lead me to other rebels.”
“We were transported to a ship, but I never saw the tech.”
“When I woke up, my hands were bound, and I was kept in a locked room.”
“There was nothing to identify where I was, or who else was there.”
“The next time I woke, I was alone on the homeworld, with no clothes.”

He smiles.
“Yes, I heard about that.”
Then his face darkens, and he sends me away.

 
The Message
Disu’s storage sphere is empty now.
I erased it to protect us, after extracting what I need.
If I was found with it, I could explain why I need the information, but Disu can’t be caught defying his father.

Of everything that I saw in the sphere, it’s the scientist’s face that haunts me.
It’s the face of the caretaker!
The scientist must have escaped with the help of the Madar, and spent his last days at the school.

His diary is clear in my mind, especially the details of the projector.
I close my eyes and see the schematics.
It took me weeks to build the device.
I haven’t spent as much time in the lab as I hoped to.
The emperor keeps me busy in the evening with staff meetings and social events.

The device that I built is different than the plans, at least on the outside.
I made it look like a modern cage projector, so anyone observing my lab will ignore it.

The critical difference between this device and a regular projector is a special tuning circuit.
According to the diary, it enables the field to resonate with the altered web, and counter the effect of the star cage.
It’s not a cure.
The nullifier will have a limited range, and only work well at night.
Still, I’ll be happy to have it.

When I activate the device, it creates a chaos field, but doesn’t neutralize the star cage.
Disu said that the military was never able to build a working nullifier from the plans, but I didn’t want to believe it.
All this for nothing?!
Why is there so much detail in the diary and the schematics about the tuning circuit, and the six settings that shape it?
The diary repeats the exact numbers for each of the settings thirteen times.
The scientist says, again and again, that the correct values must be used.
I’m about to trash the nullifier when an image fills my mind.

I’m looking down at the scientist as he stands on a dark blue stone floor, with three Madar forming a circle around him.
The Madar dance a slow, spinning dance, sometimes clockwise, sometimes counter-clockwise.
Each Madar spins a few times, but never more than twelve, then waits for three seconds, and begins spinning again.
Several times, they pause for six seconds.
A few times they clap instead of spinning, and follow it with a three second delay.

This is the message that the Madar left for me, but what does it mean?

Is this a dance of numbers?
I count the number of spins, and the direction.
I take note of each pause, and whether it’s short or long.
What do I do with all the numbers, claps, and pauses?
I spend days reviewing the code systems that Mayla gave me through Tzina.
None of them help me decipher the dances.

Finally I realize that the five long pauses separate the dance into six groups, like the six settings of the nullifier!
Each group is one setting.
The short pauses separate the digits within a single number.
A clap must be a zero, and a counter-clockwise spin indicates a negative number.
At first, finding ten, eleven, or twelve spins confuses me.
Then I remember that the Madar number system is base thirteen, so a single place/digit can be as large as twelve.

I adjust the tuning circuit using the new settings, and feel the change in the web’s energy.
I test the range using my healing sense, and find that it works for thirty feet in each direction.

Unfortunately, the device is almost six feet long.
I need something smaller, so I can carry it with me, unnoticed.
The bulk comes from the projector itself.
The tuning circuit itself is tiny.

What about the inhibitor armbands used in Tshuan?
Do they add chaos like the projector?
Will they work against the star cage, if I add a tuning circuit?

The armband requires a special crystal, plentiful on Siksa, but unknown on this world.
I go the Madar cave and activate a tech screen, to hide from any listening or viewing devices.
Then I flow the materials I need.
It feels so good to flow again, even if it’s just for a few minutes within the cave.

I return to my lab, and build the inhibitor armband using Kizak power cells.
Thank the creator!
The inhibitor works as I hoped, adding chaos to the web, similar to the projector.

Now, the real work begins.
First, I insert a security chip that allows the device to avoid a tech screen.
Then, I adapt the tuning circuit to the inhibitor.
An hour before first light I’m ready to test it.
The field is narrow by design, extending only a few feet beyond the body.
I try to expand its range, but the power requirements increase exponentially, so I put it back as it was.
Even so, the inhibitor and tuning circuit only work for five minutes on a standard Kizak power cell.
I use that time to flood my body with healing energy, and restore my strength, as if I had slept.

Tomorrow, I’ll modify the inhibitor so I can quickly replace the power cells.

 
Choices
After the first month, the regular training continues with Disu, but we also speak of energy ways.
We add daily, silent hikes or swims, which build up his stamina, and give me an excuse to mind speak with him, undisturbed.
While we mind speak, I cover us with a temporary mind shield, so no one can hear us.
I teach about the energy wells and the web.
I tell him about healing, weaving, and flow, along with more exotic skills like Mind Weaving and PathFinding.
When we stop for a few seconds to rest, I give him full memories, so he can see and feel what it’s like.

I finish the armbands at the end of the second month, etching decorative designs into the surface.
Disu and I wear them constantly after that, although they’re usually shut off.

The emperor touches Disu’s armband the first time he sees us wearing it.
“What is this, Neyima?” he asks, “and why do you both have it?”

“It signifies that Disu and I are student and teacher, great father.”
“It was an ancient custom among those who learned Kruta.”

“The material is strange,” says the emperor.
“Smooth and cool like metal, but it does strange things with light.”

“It’s a metal alloy with a crystalline dust as one of its ingredients.”

At night, Disu and I walk around the compound, wearing the armbands, and carrying a dozen energy cells.
We practice energy sight and healing for five minutes at a time.
He’s talented, but with so many interruptions, progress is slow.

Every two weeks, we go to the rainbow caves at night.
I’ve installed a tech screen in the eighth cave that I can activate remotely, so no one can monitor our arrival.
Occasionally we enter through the lake, but more often we use one of several old tunnels that connect to the cave.
I’ve expanded the tunnels, and sealed the rock with a coating of metal.
The ends of the tunnels stay closed, except when we use them.

I flow the cave’s water into air when we arrive.
We stay there about an hour, and practice flow.

The months pass, and my Madar val approaches.
A week before the date, the info-streams are told of it.
It’s rare when an adult faces the Madar, and such events attract a large crowd.
This one will bring more people than ever, some because they want to see me killed, other because they are curious if I can resist the beast.

Disu is upset when he hears what his father expect me to do.
“Father, why do the info-streams hear of it before me!”

“You’re right, Disu.”
“I should have told you first.”

“How can you ask Neyima go deep into the beast’s thoughts?”
“Look what happened to the others that you sent to do this!”

“It’s necessary, Disu,” says his father, calmly.

“He’s too valuable to lose on some foolish errand.”

“Bind your words, Disu!”
“I’m your father, and the emperor.”
“You will show respect!”

Disu lets the anger drain away, as Neyima taught him.
“I’m sorry, father, but is the benefit truly worth the risk?”

“You’ll be emperor someday, Disu, so it’s time that you start dealing with the unpleasant side of leadership.”
“I like Neyima, but he knows too much about the palace compound.”
“He’s been in the heads of everyone here except me.”

“You invited him, and he was ordered to investigate the guards!”

“We needed him here, but not anymore.”
“You’re ready for your Madar val, even though it’s a month away.”
“Neyima can’t stay forever, and it’s too risky to let him go.”

“I looked at the records, father.”
“No mind thief has ever survived contact with the Madar.”
“You’re sending him to his death.”

“I’m trying to give him an honorable death, Disu, serving the empire.”
“Would you rather I order his execution, or send him away, and let him be killed by rebels?”

“There has to be another way.”
“The surgeons could change his face, and he could go far away.”

“I can’t take a chance that rebels could extract information from him, or turn him to their cause.”
“This is our only choice.”

Disu comes to me a few hours later, and takes my arm.
I build the mind link, and surround us with a mind shield, so no one can hear our thoughts.
He tells me all that his father said.

“Don’t be troubled, Disu.”

“You don’t deserve death, Neyima.”
“Escape!”
“Take the nullifier, and go.”

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“To teach me?”

“Not exactly, Disu.”
“The empire has forgotten what it means to be alive.”
“Loyal soldiers are prized above everything else, even if they are little more than animals.”
“The empire has no spirit, no imagination, no possibility.”
“Once we were called Kizak, because we were strong like stone, able to do whatever needed to be done.”
“Now, we are as empty of life as stone.”

“I don’t understand.”
“People still live their lives.”
“New worlds join the empire every year.”

“The empire conquers worlds, and then sucks the life out of them.”
“I came here to stop that.”

“As long as the worlds pay their taxes, the empire doesn’t ask much.”

“The empire uses the star cage to keep us trapped in the physical world.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“It’s not bad, but so much more is possible.”
“Imagine that you were a Kizak child raised in a forest without language of any kind.”
“You eat, sleep, even have a family.”
“You can be happy, but you never imagine that another life is possible.”

“I don’t see it like that, Neyima.”
“The things you’ve shown me are mysterious, exciting, and full of power, but would they really change my life?”

“You’ve only seen shadows of that other world, Disu.”
“It’s like trying to understand the sun from inside a cave.”
“You need to spend time living in the web of a world with no cage.”

“I can’t do that on the homeworld.”

“No.”
“When I met you, I listened to your heart and your thoughts.”
“You wanted to see beyond your eyes, and leave this world behind.”
“Have you changed your mind?”

“I don’t know.”

“You have a choice, Disu.”
“You can leave your home and search for a world without the cage, where you can learn about the blessings. If you do this, you’ll never become emperor.”
“Or you can stay here, and grow up to be a different kind of leader than your father, and change the empire.”

“I can’t do it without you.”
“Change your appearance, and stay.”

“It’s not that simple.”
“I need to touch minds with the Madar, and this is my chance.”

“Even if it kills you?”

“I’ll take the risk.”

“You’re as crazy as my father!”
Disu rushes away.

 
Loose Ends
There’s one last thing I have to do before I enter the arena.
Talika is paralyzed from the neck down, and spends her days in a guard hospital where they’ll take care of her for the rest of her life.

I visited her once.
She asked me to kill her, and when I refused she told me to go.
Talika hates being weak, and won’t let any of her friends see her like this.

I take several armbands with fresh power cells, and go to the hospital.
Her room is guarded.

“No visitors,” says the guard.

“I’m on the emperor’s staff.”

“I know who you are,” she says, pointing a blaster.
“Talika doesn’t want to see anyone, especially you.”

I press a remote in my pocket, and active an armband that I’m wearing.
Then I raise a shield.
I strike the guard at a pressure point, knocking her out for a few minutes.
I carry her through the door, and put her down in the corner.

“Get out of here,” shouts Talika from her bed.

“Be quiet and listen,” I tell her, roughly.
“I don’t have much time.”
“The emperor has asked me to have my own Madar val tomorrow.”
“I probably won’t survive it.”

“Do you want pity?” she asks.
“I’d rather die than lie here, but they won’t let me die.”

I slip an armband on her and activate it.
I hold her body immobile with my will, and pour healing energy across her spinal column, repairing the cord, the bones and the disks.
I rebuild the muscles in her upper and lower body that have atrophied.
She screams from the pain, before she realizes that she can feel her body again.
My work is done just before the power runs out on my nullifier.

I take the armband off her, and she runs her hands across her arms and legs, feeling the hard muscles.
“What did you do, Neyima?”

“Sorry I didn’t have time to put you to sleep first.”
“I healed your spine and your back, and put your muscles back in shape.”

“How?”

“No time to explain.”
“I have a lot to do today.”

“You did heal me when the rebels attacked!”
“I knew it.”

“Yes, you were right.”

“Stay.”
“I’m sorry I was so disgusting to you.”

“No problem, but I have to go.”
“Give my apologies to the guard when she wakes up in a few minutes.”

 
Madar val
The Kizak are far more modest than the Jiku.
Still, when I come to the arena, the custom is to wear shorts, sandals, weapons, and little else.
We’re supposed to challenge the animal within us, and then reveal the civilized man.

I carry the long knives and a blaster, but they’re only here to tempt me.
Killing one of the captive Madar is punishable by death.

I visit the emperor and Disu in a high-security room near the top of the arena.
I leave my weapons with a guard at the door.
The room has a large screen showing the center of the arena.

“I don’t want to watch,” says Disu, as I enter.

“You must,” says the emperor.
“It will help you prepare for your own Madar val.”

Disu looks at the armband I wear, and realizes that I’m planning something.

The emperor turns to me.
“There was an incident yesterday at the hospital, Neyima.”
“You attacked a guard.”

“I moved her out of the way without harming her.”
“I needed to see Talika one last time.”

“I heard that your friend had a miraculous recovery.”

“Astonishing, isn’t it?”

“I’m not a fool, Neyima.”
“As I suspected, you’re a healer.”

“Yes, great father, I have that talent, but it’s dangerous for me to do it within the cage.”
“It worked out well this time.”

“The talent for healing is usually found among the cursed.”

“I’ve heard this, but healing has little to do with their other strange ways.”
“How could healing ever be a curse?”

He doesn’t answer.

“Long life, Prince Disu,” I tell the boy.

At first, Disu is quiet.
Finally, he stands up and hugs me.
“Clear days, Neyima, in this world and the next.”

I travel down to ground level and enter the arena.
There are thousands of spectators.
I reach toward the emperor’s room, and salute, a signal that I’m ready.

A large hole opens at the center of the arena, and an elevator rises through it, holding a cage.
The cage opens, and the beast staggers out and looks around.
There are three genders among the Madar, who must join together to produce children.
A group of three choose each other, and bond for life.

This one is female.
She makes strange noises, occasionally mixed with random words in Kizak or Madar.
I move toward her, and begin a dance of numbers, using the spinning Madar movements.
I dance out numbers from one to thirty-nine, all in base thirteen.
Her mind is chaos, but I touch its surface, just enough so she can hear me count the numbers in Madar while I dance.

She stops talking to herself, and the noise in her head starts to quiet down as she stares at me.
When I finish the sequence, I pause for thirteen seconds.
Then I dance the first thirteen prime numbers, from two to forty-one, letting the Madar hear my counting thoughts.

I complete the dance, and move toward the Madar, who looks puzzled.
She pronounces one word in a thunderous voice, “miva.”
Then in a quiet voice, she says “miva-tik”, “miva-na”, “miva-li”, “miva-hu.”
Miva is one of the most important words in the Madar language.
It has four meanings, number, energy web, order, voices, determined by the suffix added to the word.

When I’m close enough to touch the Madar, I remove a large black legband that I’m hiding under my shorts.
I slip the band onto one of its thick arms and activate the device.
Then I stand back.

Her mind clears, freed from the madness of the cage, and she looks around carefully, before taking hold of my arm.
I put a mind shield around both of us to hide our conversation.

There’s a chorus of voices in her head.
One is loud and clear, and says the word Wehdija, again and again.
This voice seems to be hers.
I don’t know what the others are, but they’re whispering, too soft for me to hear.
Are they other personalities?

“This the arena, again,” she says.
“My name is Wehdija, and I’ve been here before.”

“You remember?”

“Whenever I touch a clear mind, I get free of the madness, but today something is different.”
“My mind started to clear without the touch.

“Do you remember the dance?”

“Yes, it settled my mind.”

“I activated the armband to keep your head clear.”
“It interferes with the cage, but lasts for only five minutes.”
“I’ve also put a shield around our minds, so the Kizak can’t hear our mind speech.”

“You’re not like the others.”
“I can’t take over your mind, and control your body.”

“Why do you try to escape every time, even though you never succeed?”

“I’m only pretending to escape.”
“I just want the guards to kill me, and end this torture.”

“Each Kizak who joins you in the arena carries weapons.”
“Why not take a weapon, and kill yourself, or tell the Kizak to shoot you?”

“I can’t.”
“It’s against Madar beliefs to kill, except in self-defense, or to save a life.”

“Why are you here?” she adds.
“Looking for Madar tech like the others?”

“The Kizak want your transport tech, but not me.”
“I need to find a way to undo the star cage.”
“My name is Yagrin.”
“I’m not Kizak, and my world is threatened.”

I flood the surface of her mind with my memories of the caretaker and the school.
Then I show her fragments of the years since I came to Siksa, and tell her of being an Embu traveler.
She sees my many shapes: human, Bizra, Jiku, old one, Mehkeel, Fiklow.
She smiles, at least I think it’s a smile.

“Strange tales,” she says.
“I wish I could believe them.”

“How else would I get those memories?”

“I don’t know, but I can’t take a chance.”

“Let me help you.”
“I can build a wall around your mind, which you can open and close.”
“It will keep out the madness, even when you’re alone.”

I start to move deeper into her mind, but I’m pushed back.

“You’re stronger than the others,” she says, “but you will not see my secrets until you prove yourself.”

There’s only one way to convince her.
I activate my armband, resize it, and take a Gen crystal form.
Then I move at unnatural speed around the arena, changing shape, and glowing in different colors.
I stop in front of her, and she touches me.

My heart well fills with energy, and the arena is covered in light for a few seconds.
I look down and see that I’ve changed into a Madar form.

“Did you do this?” I ask her.
“I changed after you touched me.”

“No.”
“You did it without thinking, so you could match my shape.”
“Can you hold it for long.”

“I am Madar now.”
“I can hold it forever.”
“Will you let me help you now?”

“Yes, but not here.”
“Take me somewhere safe.”

Five guards enter the arena, including Talika, back in uniform.
The emperor doesn’t know what I’m doing, but he will not tolerate a display of cursed abilities.
Talika looks at me, and remembers that I was once her friend.
Still, she fires first to prove her loyalty.
The energy is absorbed by my shield.

I take hold of all Wehdija’s arms, and suddenly feel stronger.
The feeling reminds me of Balshown’s people, the Veezal, and the way their strength multiplies when they swarm together.
The healthy web spreads around us to a range of thirty feet.

The quiet voices from Wehdija grow louder and louder, and I start to hear them in me.
I’m filled with images of thousands of worlds, beings of all kinds.
My black well opens wide, and I feel like I’m covered with waters of light.

It’s hard to concentrate, and keep the shield in place.

“What are the voices that I hear coming from many worlds?”
“I can’t concentrate with so much noise!”

“You hear them?” she asks, surprised.
“When Madar are young, our elders open us to the voices, and we learn to control them.”
“We call it swimming with the voices.”
“When we need advice, we speak to the voices, and sometimes they answer.”

I have to get us out of here now!
I squeeze the black well until it shrinks, and the voices grow quiet.
I take us up, into the air and through the open roof, traveling at Gen speed.
Then I expand a PathFinder gateway, and go through.

 
Necklace
We stand in the eighth rainbow cave, where the web is healthy.
I flow the water in this cave into air, and turn the water in the next cave into stone.
They’ll look for us here, eventually, and thirty feet of solid rock will slow them down.
But will it give us enough time?

“How did you move us to the cave?” she asks.
“Do you have the Madar transport tech?”

“No, I’m a PathFinder, another blessing.”
“The word for PathFinder in Jiku is Sindar, and it’s more than one hundred thousand years old.”

“How wonderful.”
“Sindar means guide in the Madar language.”
“What are the limits of that blessing?”
“How far can you travel?”

“Anywhere in this galaxy, and beyond.”
“I know you have a lot of questions, as I do, but we have to hurry.”

“Go ahead,” she says.
“Build the wall.”

I’m surprised by what I find when I move through her mind.
I was told that the Madar high priest was killed, reaching for the black necklace, but that’s wrong.
Wehdija is the high priest, and one of the Madar’s top scientists.
I discover that there is a way to remove the Kizak star cage, but it requires a Madar star cage generator using anti-matter.
I understand the theory, as she does, but the details of the tech aren’t in her head.

It takes me about twenty minutes to complete the mind shield, and train her in its use.

“Did you find what you want?” she asks.

“Only part of it.”
“I understand the theory, but I don’t have the details necessary to create anti-matter, and build the Madar generator.”

“Even if you had the plans, you wouldn’t be able to build it by yourself.”
“Working with anti-matter is dangerous and tricky.”
“It takes months of training to learn to handle it safely.”

“You never completed the training?”

“No, and there were never many Madar who did.”
“The anti-matter was created in one of a small number of secret facilities.”
“All of them were destroyed during the Madar civil war.”

“Do you think anti-matter tech was left with the caretaker?”

“The school was built after I was captured, so I don’t know anything about it.”
“However, I doubt that my people would leave actual tech or even knowledge of anti-matter with any Kizak, even those who believed in the blessings.”
“How could my people trust any Kizak so much after what they did to us?”
“You’ll have to look elsewhere to find a working Madar generator, still loaded with anti-matter.”

“Where should I look?”

“I don’t know.”
“Search beneath the ruins on the old Madar worlds.”
“It’s possible that the Kizak have one.”

“A good suggestion.”
“We need to leave before they find us.”
“I’ll take you to the school.”

“I know it was built by Madar, and it teaches the blessings, but there are Kizak there, and I want to get far away from everything Kizak.”
“Take me to the seven towers.”

“So it’s true.”
“The Madar are from one of the tower worlds.”
“Do you want to take the black necklace with you?”

“What do you know of it?”
“I assumed it was lost, hidden, or destroyed!”

“I know that you only wore it a few times a year.”
“It’s sitting in the emperor’s private treasury, and I’ve seen others like it on my own world.”
I tell her about the necklace I brought with me as a traveler, and the necklace in Tshuan with a symbol, like hers.

“Each of the seven races had identical necklaces,” she says, “but only the first race to leave the towers, and teach the ways of energy carried the necklace.”
“The others agreed to leave the necklaces behind.”
“Perhaps the Bizra violated the agreement.”

I open a gateway into the royal treasury, and we find the Madar necklace.
Her hands shake as she picks it up and carefully pulls it over her head.
Then we return to the cave.

“Can the voices help me stop the empire from conquering my world?” I ask her.

“They give advice, nothing more.”
“Perhaps you could find an answer there, but you haven’t been trained.”
“Without training, you would drown in them, and go mad.”

“Can you train me?”

“No.”
“I’m not skilled in opening the voices for others.”
“Besides, you’re not Madar, even if you can take our form.”
“Who knows if you can learn to do it?”

She looks at me with her intense red eyes.
“I’m disgusted by this world, Yagrin.”
“Take me home.”

“How can I fight them without you?”
“When our hands are joined, and we wear the armbands, the web is strong around us, for thirty feet.”
“Without you, the healthy web ends just a few feet from my skin.”
“I can’t open a gateway in that space.”

“How do you plan to fight them?”

“I haven’t thought it through.”

“Are you going to kill the emperor, and take his place?”

“No, that won’t work.”

“Will you try and destroy the Kizak Guard everywhere in the galaxy?”
“There are a million guards and a few thousand ships.”

“No.”

“You could destroy one of the colonies, and then threaten to shatter the Kizak homeworld, if the guard attacks Siksa.”
“That might work.”
“Of course, you would have to be willing to kill billions of them.”

“Stop the sarcasm!”
“I’m willing to go to war with them, but I’m not a murderer.”

“War is not so different than murder.”
“Madar don’t kill, except in the most extreme circumstances.”
“The Kizak cage made us into beasts, and we killed billions.”
“I hate what the Kizak have done, Yagrin, but I can’t be a part of your war.”

“You don’t have to do anything except stay with me.”

“Just hold your hands, and watch you kill?!”

“I’m desperate.”
“Tell me what to do!”
“The empire will put a star cage around my sun, and take the web from us!”

“I wish I knew how to save your world, Yagrin, but I don’t.”
“I can’t help you.”

“What about their tech screen?”
“Is there a way to disable it?”

“The screen is an energy field that we call the chaos field.”
“It disrupts the normal flow of energy in electronics, weapons, etc.”

“I already know that.”

“Did you ever wonder why the screen doesn’t affect the web, or the electricity that moves through our bodies?”

“No.”

“The chaos field doesn’t touch the more subtle types of energy that flow through the web.”
“That won’t help you fight them, because tech doesn’t use those subtle energies.”
“But it’s also possible to shield a device against the screen.”

“How?”

“The chips that the Kizak put in the guard weapons generate a counter-field.”
“Unfortunately that only works when the counter-field is tuned to the screen, and the Kizak change their screen every day.”
“There’s a better way.”
“Our bodies are unaffected by the chaos field, because there’s so much salt water and carbon in us.”
“Either one neutralizes the field.”
“Build your ships and your weapons with heavy use of carbon fibers.”

“Thank you, Wehdija.”
“This gives us a chance to defend ourselves.”

What will happen when the guard reach this cave.
They know that I’ve been coming here.
Will they destroy it?
The web is healthy for five feet beyond the cave walls.
I flow the metal door into a thick layer of rock, and move the whole cave to a safer place, with us still in it.

Too bad that I have to hide it away to protect it.
Disu will be crushed to find it gone.

What will happen to Disu?
Will his father think that Disu has been tainted by his time with me?
No time for these thoughts now.

I bring Wehdija to the seven towers, and then take back my Jiku form.

“I like your dark skin,” she says.
“Not black like mine, but not bad.”
“At least you don’t look Kizak.”

Wehdija stretches out all four hands toward me, palms open.
I flow into the Madar shape, so I can meet all her hands with mine.
Then I change back.

The towers are about a hundred yards away.
She could fly there, but she decides to walk instead, and I walk with her.

“I don’t have many years left, and I want to die among my people.”

“Nothing more than death?”

“There may still be joy, if my mates live.”
“No matter what I find, you have given me a great gift.”
“My mind is my own again, and I walk free.”

“You’re welcome.”

“You have difficult days ahead, Yagrin, and the empire is powerful.”
“I hope that you defeat them, save your world, and live a long life.”
“If death comes for you, don’t be afraid.”
“It has its own gifts.
“You will find true peace when the weight of your body is gone, and you are all energy.”

“I’ve experienced death many times, Wehdija.”
“Like the Gen, I walk with death.”
“It has no hold on me.”

She stops and looks at me.
“I knew that you walked among the Mehkeel, but are you Gen now?”

“Not exactly, but when my body dies, I make another.”

“Do you know what Gen means, Yagrin?”

“It comes from words in the Mehkeel language, gensai fong, hands of light.”

She laughs a strange laugh.

“In the Madar language, gensai fong means ‘friends of death’.”
“The two meanings seem worlds apart, but it’s not so.”
“We are all energy and light after death.”

She continues.
“A few years before the madness came, one of us had a vision of the civil war.”
“No one believed it could happen, but the vision was true.”

Madar become beasts, and smile as they kill each other.
The High priest is buried for centuries in a circle of madness.
Her mates grieve, but will not forget her.
A friend of death visits her grave, and brings an end to pain.

“You knew of the vision?”

“Yes, but I didn’t believe it until the wars came.”
“When the Madar were weak, our defenses gone, I was captured by the Kizak.”
“Every time I woke in the arena, I remembered the vision, and hoped that death would free me from my torture, but there was no end until you came.”
“You are the friend of death in the vision, Yagrin.”

“What does it matter now, Wehdija.”
“You’re free.”
“Don’t be captured by the vision.”
“They tell us what they mean, only after the events come.”
“They twist our lives, as we follow them, or struggle to prevent them.”

“You haven’t heard the rest of the vision, Yagrin.”
“It matters a great deal if you are the friend of death!”
“Only the vision can give meaning to all my pain.”

The friend of death must pass through the sea to the heart of blessings.
He is Madar and not Madar.
The waters of life will welcome him.
He raises the sword, and the suns tremble.
Blessings will return, and the Madar will teach again.

“I don’t understand much of it, but I’m sure it speaks of your visit to the school.”
“Your presence promises a return of blessings, sometime soon.”

Wehdija turns and walks away.
I watch quietly as she disappears into the first tower on the left, that leads to her world.

I hear the words from far way, but they help me fight my way back to full consciousness. Finally I open my eyes, but everything is blurry.

“Good,” says the voice. “You’re in a med station.” “Do you remember what happened?”

“The attack on the prince.” “Is he all [...]]]>  
The Rebellious Son
“Wake up.”

I hear the words from far way, but they help me fight my way back to full consciousness.
Finally I open my eyes, but everything is blurry.

“Good,” says the voice.
“You’re in a med station.”
“Do you remember what happened?”

“The attack on the prince.”
“Is he all right?”

“Yes, and so is the guard that you were found with.”
“She needed some surgery, but she’ll make a full recovery.”

I try to get up, but I just don’t have the strength.

“Lie down!”
“You’ve been in a coma for four weeks.”
“We didn’t expect you to survive.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

“No one knows, but your brain was barely active.”
“Some thought you suffered neurological damage from an energy weapon.”
“Guess they were wrong.”
“We wanted to disconnect life support, but the prince wouldn’t let us.”
“You made quite an impression on him.”
“The emperor tried to convince him that we should let you die, but he was stubborn.”

“I saved his life.”
“He’s grateful.”

“It’s more than that.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m head of this med station.”
“They called me when it looked like you were trying to wake up.”

“I can’t focus.”

“Don’t worry about it now.”
“You’re lucky to be alive.”

I don’t remember falling asleep after that, but I feel much stronger the next time I wake up.
This time I can see clearly, and sit up easily.

Someone is sitting on a chair in the room, wearing a hospital robe.

“Talika, it’s good to see you up.”

“I’m fine, but they won’t let me go.”
“They think I have some strange healing factor and they keep running tests.”

“Why do they think that?”

“The doctors opened me up to repair the damage from the knife wounds.”
“They saw that there had been a lot of internal bleeding, but the inner wounds were mostly healed.

“I’m happy you’re all right.”

“I had a strange dream, Neyima, while I was unconscious.”
“Maybe you can explain it to me.”
“I was dying, bleeding inside, when a cloud covered me, and filled every part of me.”
“The cloud had a voice, your voice, and said that you wouldn’t let me die.”

“It’s a sweet dream, Talika, but I don’t know what it means.”

“I do.”
“You healed me somehow, and it almost killed you.”

She’s so intuitive.
I wish I could tell her the truth, but I can’t admit to any of this.

“Be as silent as you like,” she says.
“I know it’s true.”

“Where’s your room?” I ask her.

“Right here,” she answers.
“After you woke the first time, I asked to be assigned the other sleep nest in this room.”
“I like watching over you.”

The next day they let me get out of the nest and sit in a chair.
I feel fine, but they’re very cautious with me.

After morning meal, Talika wheels me through a long hallway toward a guarded elevator.
We’re scanned, and then allowed to board the elevator.
“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see, Neyima.”
“Patience.”

We rise twelve floors, and the elevator opens to a small lobby and large security doors.
The guards scan us, and then let us enter.
There are even more guards on the other side of the door, and they scan us again.
Finally, Neyima wheels me into a large room with comfortable chairs.

Disu is sitting there with the emperor.
I recognize him from images I’ve seen.

I start to get up out of respect, and Talika moves toward him.

“Stop,” he says to both of us, and smiles.
“You deserve your rest.
“You can kiss my thumbs the next time we meet.”

“Yes, great father,” I tell him.
When the Kizak first defeated the Madar, the Kizak leader declared himself emperor and took absolute power, calling himself the great father.
Every emperor since has carried the same title.

Still, this emperor was born into a new world.
His father created a civilian authority at the end of his life, and submitted himself to it.
The current emperor is still leader of the military, but he is no longer above the law.

“I wanted to meet you both, and thank you for saving my son.”

“I didn’t do anything,” says Talika, nervously.

“Sit, Talika,” he says.

She moves my wheelchair next to a small couch, where the two of us sit.

“Talika, says the emperor, “tell us how you fought with the terrorists.”

“When I saw how many had come, I activated a tech screen, to disable any energy weapons within a hundred feet.”
“I thought I’d have a better chance with hand-to-hand combat.”
“They were good fighters.”
“I killed only four of them with my knife, before the rest overcame me.”
“They disarmed me, tied me up, and shut off the tech screen.”
“When the last of them were getting ready to escape, they stabbed me, and left me to die.”
“The few I killed made no difference.”
“The rest would have killed the prince, if not for Neyima.”

“What do you say, Neyima?” he asks.

“I did what I had to do.”
“I’m happy that I was able to save the prince and his friends.”

“Thank you again,” says Disu.
“I owe you my life.”

“You’ve already repaid me, stopping the doctors from taking me off life support.”

“He is stubborn,” says the emperor, “and it worked out well for you.”

The emperor looks carefully at my face.
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

“Many people offer you their fear.”
“I’d rather give you my respect.”

“You killed over thirty men, more than a dozen with your strange knives, before you were brought down.”

“Not exactly, great father.”
“I was trying to revive Talika when I passed out.”
“The terrorists were all dead at that point.”

“Where did you get those knives?”

“I made them myself.”

“You carry them everywhere?”

“Pretty much.”

“Here,” says the emperor, handing me a wrapped package.
“This is a gift from Disu and me.”
“Open it.”

The Kizak love to give gifts, and have many customs around it.
Any occasion is a good excuse, but everyone gives gifts at life’s key milestones.
There are also gifts for friendship, love, gratitude.
There are gifts for meeting important people, starting a job, promotions.

The box holds two beautiful knife sheaths, the right size for my long knives.

“Thank you great father.”
“I’m sorry that I don’t have a gift prepared for you.

“Another time, Neyima.”
“Right now, I want you to explain something to me.”
“My staff did some research on your knives.”
“Those knives have never been seen on this world before you came, and there’s only one off-world sighting.”

“Really?”

“On one of the fringe worlds, a tech named Yagrin jumped off a two thousand foot cliff into the ocean, and used long knives to fight off ten sea predators, all to save an infant.”
“I saw an image of the knives, and they’re just like yours.”
“The man, also, looks exactly like you.”
“Do you have a twin?”

“Unfortunately, no.”
“It would be nice to have someone to blame for my mistakes.”

The emperor smiles, and then waits for me to comment on what he told me.

I sigh.
“The story has been twisted somewhat in the retelling, great father.”
“It was no infant; it was a twelve-year-old girl.”
“The cliff was only seven hundred feet, and there were three Vitsa.”

Talika and the prince look astonished, but the emperor shows no surprise.

“You’re an unusual man, Neyima.”

“So I’ve been told.”

The emperor laughs for a few seconds, and then his face turns serious.

“We have a problem, Neyima.”
“Someone at the med center took your image and fed it to all the info-streams.”
“The streams love to find a hero, almost as much as they enjoy tearing up a villain, but a mystery is even better.”

“What do you mean?”

“They did enough research to know that your Neyima identity is made up.”
“No one knows for sure that you’re Special Corps, but they’re suggesting it.”
“Now, all the streams are asking who you really are.”

“I won’t be able to operate undercover after this.”

“No.”
“Your face is too well known.”
“I’m not sure if you’ll even be safe on the street.”
“There are rebels everywhere.”

“No one leaves the corps, great father, but they could change my face.”

“Yes, but I have another idea.”
“Some corps members are assigned to me.”

“What would I do for you?”
“The Palace Guard doesn’t need me.”

“There are surveillance imagers in orbit that recorded your fight with the terrorists.”
“I’ve seen those images, and discussed them with the Palace Guard.”
“There’s no record of a fighting style like yours, and the guards would love to have you as an instructor.”

“It’s true that the style is unique.”
“I’m the only one in the galaxy who practices it.”
“It’s an ancient martial art called Kruta, developed by another race.”
“I’ve never taught it to anyone, so I don’t know how good a teacher I would be to the guard.”

“I have no tolerance for modesty, Neyima.”
“Just do it.”
“You’re skilled, patient, and fearless.”
“What else do you need to be successful?”
“I told the guard you would spend a few hours a week with them, but I want most of your time for something else.”

“What?”

“Disu needs a tutor.”
“His Madar val is coming in six months, and he must learn to defend himself against the beast.”

The Madar val is a rite of passage for the children of the empire’s elite.
The ritual is voluntary, but it’s almost impossible to reach high positions without it.
On the child’s fifteenth birthday she enters a small arena with two light sticks, and a Madar is released to join her.
The child must walk up to the creature and touch one of its hands.
Two things can happen.
The Madar attacks, and the child must escape the arena without killing the beast.

Alternatively, the creature enters the child’s mind, and fills it with the beast’s own wild thoughts.
The child must control her fear, and remain in contact with the Madar for thirty seconds.
Then she leaves the arena.

Most children leave without harm, but some are killed by the Madar and some go mad.

“I’ve never faced the Madar, great father.”

“No, but you’re not afraid of anything, and you’re a skilled fighter.”
“You could teach Disu to stand before the beast without fear.”

“I don’t want the Madar val,” says Disu.
“It’s a stupid ritual.”

The emperor glares at his son for defying him in public.
“Those who will lead the empire must face the wild spirit of the Madar, and not be afraid of it, or corrupted by it.”
“Disu is a spoiled child.”
“It’s time for him to grow up.”
“He’s not brave enough enough to face the Madar alone, and he shows no interest in changing.”
“None of the other tutors,” he adds, “have been able to make him do what must be done.”
“None have been able to motivate him to prepare.”
“He respects you.”
“Perhaps he will listen to you.”

I take Disu’s hand, and touch his mind.

Don’t argue, and don’t interrupt.
I promise you won’t regret it.

“Disu is decisive, and has plenty of courage, great father.”
“I saw how he faced me when he thought I was one of the attackers.”
“After I suggested a plan of action, he made a quick decision to follow me.”
I let go of his hand and continue.

“Disu understands that there are many Kizak who want to kill him, and he’s seen that even the guard can’t always protect him.”
“Now that he sees the danger, he’ll do what needs to be done to protect himself.”
“I’ll teach him how to fight and use weapons.”

“How will this convince him to face the Madar?”

“He doesn’t understand yet that what threatens the empire, threatens him.”
“We’ll discuss how a wild nature destroyed the Madar civilization, and brought destruction to the galaxy.”
“I’ll show him that the danger to the galaxy and beyond is not dead, but still here, and the need to act is urgent.”
If only the emperor knew that I’m speaking about the wild nature of the Kizak, not the Madar.

“Well said, Neyima!”
“I wish the civilian assembly thought as you do.”
“I could help you get a seat there someday.”

“It’s not for me.”
“Politicians are always afraid to say what they think and feel.”
“I’m not perfect, but I won’t serve with those who lie for a living.”

“What do you say, Disu?” asks the emperor.

“I don’t like tutors,” he says.
“They’re afraid of you, so they don’t know how to act with me.”
“They yell one minute, and apologize the next.”
“They’re so desperate to please you father, it disgusts me!”
“I think Neyima might be different.”
“He’s not afraid of us, and shows respect without trying so hard to please.”
“I’ll let him teach me how to fight.”

“And the Madar val?”

“I’ll speak about it with Neyima, but I won’t promise anything more.”

“Good enough for now.”
“Neyima, what about your friend Talika?”
“How should I reward her for her courage?”

“I’m a soldier, great father,” says Talika.
“I need no reward.”

“Would you like to join the Palace Guard?”
Only the elite are invited to join this group.

“I’m not sure I deserve it.”

“You wouldn’t refuse your emperor?”

“No, of course not.”

“Do you know what will be asked of you?”

“I’ve heard that the training is brutal, and a quarter of the trainees don’t survive it.”
“The only way to leave the service of the palace is through death, or the emperor’s approval.”

“The number who die is closer to a third, Talika.”
“During the training you’ll be bullied, stabbed, and your bones broken.”
“Do you still want it?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”
“I’ll arrange for your transfer to the training program.”
“If you make it through, you’ll be able to see much more of Neyima.”
“He’ll spend most of his time in the palace.”

“I barely know her, great father,” I tell him.

The emperor smiles at Talika, who looks embarrassed.
“Did you hear how she waited in your room, Neyima, praying for you to wake?”
“She knows a good man when she sees one.”

 
Fortress
The palace compound sits at the heart of the capital city, circled by a sparkling wall, twenty-three stories high.
The emperor’s residence is at the center of the compound, with two rings of buildings surrounding the tall house.
The outer ring of buildings is open to the public, and is home to the civilian government.
The great assembly meets in the tallest of the government buildings, rising above the great wall.
Once a month, the emperor meets with the assembly, and then speaks to the people from a balcony just above the wall.

The inner compound is like a fortress.
The guards and the emperor’s staff sleep in the buildings of the inner ring.
That’s where I’ll live while I tutor Disu.
I put my things in a six room apartment that’s too big for me.
I’ve been given a few days to get settled before my work begins.
I have my own kitchen, butt I’m expected to join the senior staff for meals.
Guards have very simple quarters.
They’re given small private bedrooms, and they spend most of their off-time outside the compound, or in the large common rooms.

My experimental tech is in storage, until I can find a safe place to continue my work.
There are research labs buried under the compound, with walls and ceilings built to contain explosions and energy blasts.
I requisition space in one of the labs, supposedly so I can continue work on rebel tech that threatens the cage.
At first, my request is refused.

I look for the bureaucrat who turned down my request.

“Tutors have no right to use the labs,” he says, “and what do you know of science?”
“You’re just a fight instructor.”
“Do you really expect us to believe that you would know anything about rebel tech?”
“Be happy that I don’t report you to the emperor for wasting our time.”
This man has probably never met the emperor.
Like most bureaucrats, he likes to say no, so he can pretend to be powerful.

I go back to my room, annoyed.
I don’t want to bother the emperor with this.
Besides, I have another way to resolve it.
I activate the message screen in secure mode, punch in an id for the corps, and leave a message.
According to protocol, I don’t mention the corps in the message, I just use a code phrase that indicates that I need contact.

The screen in my room lights up a few minutes later.
The control panel displays a wall icon, indicating the connection is secure, but it shows in a strange color.
I hear the other person, but there’s no image.
My visual isn’t blocked so she can see me.

“You can speak freely, Neyima,” she says.
“The connection activates a short-range tech screen.”
“No one but us can hear or see you.”

“Is someone watching me at all times?”

“Yes.”
“The Palace Guard monitors the senior staff.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Don’t let it bother you.”
“Stay focused on who you are and what you’ve accomplished.”
“You’ve done well for us.”
“The emperor is pleased.”

“I haven’t contacted you for praise.”
“I need access to a tech lab.”
“The rebels are trying to develop weapons to block the cage.”
“I have some of the specs, and I want to experiment with their tech.”

“There are corps labs in the compound.”
“We’ll give you access to one of them, but you have to do something for us.”

“What?”

“Someone in the Palace Guard told the rebels when the prince would be at the lake.”
“We need to find out who it is.”
“Scan the thoughts of all the guards, and look for rebel sympathizers or outright traitors.”
“Give us details of all their indiscretions, so we can use that knowledge against them.”

“What about the city guards?”

“They were assigned to the lake only an hour in advance, and then told about the prince.”
“The rebels couldn’t execute such a coordinated attack at the last minute.”

“One more thing,” she says.
“We’re concerned about the prince himself.”
“He may not be a fit successor to the emperor.”

“Explain.”

“He’s weak, with no understanding of sacrifice, and no interest in tradition.”
“He’ll have no stomach for war, and no desire to preserve and expand the empire.
“Even worse, we know that he sympathizes with the rebels.”

“How?”

“We scan his thoughts every few months.”
“The emperor would destroy the corps if he knew what we’re doing, but these scans are necessary.”
“If Disu continues on his path, we can’t let him become the next emperor.”

“How will you stop him?”
“Are you planning to have him killed?”

“He’s still young, Neyima.”
“You saved him once, and you can save him again.”

“How?”

“We know you’re able to scan deeper into a mind that the rest of us.”
“Explore Disu’s inner thoughts, and see just how confused he is.”
“Even if he is guilty of thought crimes, there’s time to help him change.”
“You’ll help us find the bad influences in his life, and remove them.”

“I understand.”

“Contact us once a week with the names of those who we need to remove, and other details on your progress.”

The screen shuts down, and leaves me struggling with my thoughts.
I need to stay in the palace at all costs, and keep working on the tech.
To do that, I have to keep Disu, his father, and the corps happy.

I’ve promised the emperor that I’ll teach Disu about the Madar’s terrible history.
That gives me an excuse to gather more information about the Madar and the empire.

The emperor wants his son to pass through the Madar val.
Disu will never do it unless I show him the ways of energy, and tell him that the Madar were peaceful energy masters driven mad by the cage.

The corps expects me to find and betray palace guards who believe in energy ways.
The rebels should be my friends, and I’ve killed thirty of them already.
How many more will be lost so I can save Siksa?

I access the corps data-store, and look at reports of the curses.
I’m curious how some of the Kizak overcome the cage, and use the strength of the web.
Most of the incidents occur with children, after they reach puberty.
Some move objects with or without intent.
Other children manage to fly or transform objects.

I search deeper into the records, wondering what happened to these children.
Many die in fire, or other accidents.
The rest seem to disappear without a trace.

Disu hasn’t yet shown any ability to overcome the cage, but his brother did, and burned to death from an uncontrolled release of energy.
Will Disu meet a similar fate?

The corps wants me to report on his thought crimes, and make him worthy to be emperor.
Instead I’ll turn him into a powerful rebel who can tear the empire apart.

 
Preparation
Disu is arrogant but he doesn’t lie, a dangerous combination.
His arrogance loosens his tongue, and the truth spills out.

My first challenge is to build him a mind wall, but I need a jammer to make the mental link.
I could do it without the jammer, if I maintained physical contact for fifteen minutes, but that would look too suspicious.

An ordinary jammer won’t do.
No one except the palace guards can carry weapons outside their rooms.
Other energy weapons, and most tech, are neutralized by a tech screen in place throughout the compound.
The guards’ weapons are different.
Each day, the screen is activated with a different weakness, and new security chips are loaded into the weapons.
The chip enables the weapon to exploit the weakness, and generate a field that blocks that day’s tech screen.
Still, the location of each active weapon is recorded every few minutes, along with the identity of who carries it.

My corps lab provides me with special tech that I add to the jammer that I build.
I include a universal chip that downloads each day’s pattern of weakness from a secure part of the corps information net.
The chip also enables my jammer to hide from the system that records the active weapons.

Disu and I meet in a private gym.
I give him a gift to mark our new teacher-student relationship.

“What is it?” he asks.

“Open it and see.”

I’ve given him two hand made short-knives, along with sheaths.

“Thank you, Neyima.”

“Life will bring me gifts,” I tell him, repeating the formal Kizak equivalent of thank you.
“The first thing to learn is self control,” I add.
“We’ll practice silence at the beginning of every day, today for fifteen minutes, so that speaking becomes a deliberate act.”

“Can I do other things while we’re quiet?”

“No.”
“Listen to your breathing, feel the sensation of your body on the mat, and watch your thoughts as though they were programmed by someone else for a sim.”
“Feel that they are strange, instead of familiar.”

“Today, Disu, we’ll use the silence for something else.”
“I need the time to build you a mind wall.”

“What’s that?”

“A way for you to cover your thoughts, so no one, not even me, can tell what you’re thinking.”
“Without the wall, your thoughts of ancient ways will get us both in trouble.”

I move through his mind web, seeing his memories and building the wall.
When the web is finished, we practice raising it and lowering it, until it becomes second nature for him.

“Keep the wall up at all times, unless I signal you to lower it.”

We train in sims.
The pain feels real, but there’s no permanent damage.

One hour a day for acting skills.
He needs to be a good liar, to hide his feelings about being emperor.

Another hour to learn to control his emotions and his words.
This sim is designed to pull at his feelings, get him upset, put him off-balance.
No matter what happens in the sim, he has to remain silent.

The rest of our time is focused on combat, some with knives, but mostly hand-to-hand.
I try to transfer fighting skills to him, as Tzina did for me, but it seems to have no effect.
He doesn’t remember any of the blocks, spins, or throws.
Still, when we start the training, he learns the moves unnaturally fast.
The transfer must have left an impression, and helped him learn quickly.
As his fighting skills improve, we combine combat with emotional control and silence.
He has to fight and keep his emotions clear.

Outside the sims, when we want to speak mind-to-mind, we use prearranged signals.
When he signals me, I build a temporary mind shield around us, and we drop our mind walls.

“Neyima, it’s been a month.”
“You promised to start teaching me about the old ways if I trained well for a month.”
“I know there’s much more than this mind speech.”

“You’ve done well, Disu.”
“I’ll keep my promise, but you have to promise me something in return.”

“What?”

“The Madar val.”

“It’s a stupid ritual.”

“The Madar were the greatest energy masters in your galaxy before they went crazy.”
“Don’t you want to learn more about them?”

“What do you want me to learn from them?”
“That energy makes us violent and drives us crazy?!”

“The cage did that.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Kizak developed a new version of the cage, and used it against the Madar.”
“It drove them crazy.”

“My ancestors were responsible for the Madar wars, and all the killing?”

“Yes.”

“Did the Kizak know what they were doing?”

“I think so, but I can’t be sure.”

“Neyima, I need to know.”

“I’ve looked through many historical records.”
“There are hints, but no proof.”

“I might have a way to find out,” he tells me.
“There are diaries of all the emperors, only accessible to an emperor or his children.”

“Why haven’t you looked at them until now?”

“My father said that I’m not allowed to view them until I’m twenty.”
“Besides, I expected them to be boring.”
“I’m not interested in war.”

Disu leaves, and doesn’t return until shortly before night meal.
His face is troubled, and he signals me to use a mind touch.

“What did you find?”

“The diary of the first emperor wasn’t listed in the index.”
“Many of the early documents were left unindexed.”

“I asked the computer to look for any document that is secured like the diaries, and dates from that era.”
“Eventually, the AI found it.”

“What did you learn?”

“The Kizak didn’t know that their cage would have that effect on the Madar, but they soon realized what had happened.”
“Still, they continued to activate the cage on more worlds, even after they discovered that it would drive the Madar crazy.”

“Did the diary speak of any way to reverse the star cage?”

“Yes, but it says that the effects are only temporary, and it only works at night.”

“Tell me.”

“The scientist who created the Kizak cage generator regretted his work when he saw the destruction it caused.”
“Iska tried to find a way to completely reverse it, but was unsuccessful.”
“Still, he invented the local cage projector, he claimed, as a way to temporarily reverse the star cage.”
“He spoke out publicly against the use of the cage, and said that he hoped someday to undo it.”

“The Kizak leader felt that Iska threatened his plans to destroy the Madar, and take over their empire.”
“He ordered Iska killed, but the scientist disappeared.”

“The military was never able to find him or the device, only a copy of his diary and schematics.”
“When they built it, they discovered that the device had no effect on the star cage.

He hands me a storage sphere.

“This has a copy of the original diary and all the details of the tech from the scientist’s writings.”
“I’m going to publicize it.”
“I hope it tears the empire apart!”

“Disu, this kind of truth will get you killed.”

“I don’t care.”
“Neyima, when I was little, I wanted to be just like my father.”
“Then I saw my brother catch on fire, unable to contain the energy within him.”
“My father told me that it was better that he died.”
“He said that my older brother didn’t like war, and that anyone with energy talent would become a traitor!”
“That’s when I started to rebel inside.”

“I understand, Disu, but how many Kizak will care about other races that suffered long ago from the Madar?”
“Few Kizak were killed.”
“You have to keep this hidden for now, and find another way to change or destroy the empire.”
“To do this, you have to enter the Madar val and pretend to be one of them.”

He doesn’t answer at first, but he knows I’m right.

“I’ll do the Madar val,” he says at last, “but first you have to teach me about energy.”

“Are you all right?” asks a guard, peering down at me.

I’m sitting on wet rocks a few feet from the lake.

“I was [...]]]>  
Wenri
I’m dazed when I land, and it takes a few seconds for my vision to clear.
My skin still tingles, but at least I can feel my body again.

“Are you all right?” asks a guard, peering down at me.

I’m sitting on wet rocks a few feet from the lake.

“I was about to go swimming, but I must have slipped on the stones.”

The guard wears a headset with an embedded display.
She helps me up and stares at me to scan my identity chip.

Her posture instantly changes, and she almost salutes before she catches herself.

“Officer Neyima,” she whispers, looking around, “sorry to have disturbed you.”
She must be in charge of a security detail, so she has access to a database that identifies me as a member of the Special Corps.
Most scans wouldn’t show it.
The corps is an elite part of the military that does not wear uniforms, and keeps their actions secret from the general public.

“No problem, but let’s be quiet about it.”

“Sure.”
“Have you been to the lake before?”

“No.”
“In fact, it’s my first time on the homeworld.”

“Wenri is the most beautiful world in the empire, and the lake has incredible underwater caves!”
“Do you own an air fountain?”
The air fountain extracts oxygen from the water.

“No.”

“Get one, and a waterproof headset, that connects with the fountain.”
The headset is a wearable computer with an intelligent voice interface.
It provides communication, entertainment, and information services.
It’s lightweight, and slips over the head and ears, with retractable visual displays that come down over the eyes.

“Tell the set to download a tour module for the lake.”
“Then you can ask the headset questions about the caves, and see a map that highlights areas of interest.”

“Are you enhanced, or does your biosense still work?”

“I’m from one of the fringe worlds.”
“Almost no one gets enhanced out there.”

When the Kizak race was younger, they used to hunt in the water, and the biosense was used to locate prey and predators.
It enables us to sense the approach of living things, by sensing the electromagnetic radiation that they all emit.
The empire tells the public that they’re providing an intelligence enhancement to infants, with the unfortunate side effect that the biosense is lost.
The truth is that the empire is intentionally disabling the sense, and weakening certain areas of the brain to make the people more docile.

“Get one of the old bio-maps.”
“It generates a weak electrical field that your biosense will read as a map.”

“Why do I need that, if I have the tour module?”

“Many of the caves are officially closed, because they’re too dangerous for kids.”
“The tour module shows the entrance, but nothing more.”
“The old maps will show you the interior layout of those caves.”
“You have to see the Rainbow Caves, and the Three Circles.”
“Be careful though, and don’t tell anyone I suggested it.”

“Do I need ropes or any special gear?”

“No, but wear a shirt and swimming shorts.”
“Parts of the caves are pretty narrow.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

“You’re welcome.”
“My name is Talika.”

“Neyima.”

“I know.”
“I scanned you, remember?”

I laugh.

“I’m going to a song room tonight with some guard friends.”
“Would you like to come?”

“I don’t know if I should be seen with guards.”
“I’m supposed to pretend to be an ordinary citizen.”

“Guards have plenty of citizen friends.”
“I won’t tell anyone, even the other guards.”
“I’ll just say you’re ex-military.”
“You should come.”

“I could use a break.”

“Tough last assignment?”

“Can’t talk about it, but it involved torture.”

“That’s terrible!”
“I don’t know if I could actually torture someone.”

“I was the one being tortured.”

“You seem like such a happy person!”
“How can you do things like that and still be normal?”

“Hard to explain.”
“Still want me to join you tonight?”

“Of course.”

“Leave a message on my account with the location and time,” I tell her.
“I’ll meet you there.”

“Great.”

“One more question, Talika.”

“Yeah?”

“Where can I get a military upgrade for the headset?”
Brewky told me about it.
With that software I can query the central network and get information on anyone wearing a headset, including their current location.

“The civilian government outlawed the software except in cases of emergency.”
“Nobody sells it, and you would need a high clearance to use it, even if you had the module.”

I don’t answer, waiting for her to figure it out.

“Sorry I”m so stupid,” she adds, after a few seconds.
“Your clearance is high enough.”

“Can I get it on the black market?”

“The module is military property and much harder to get than the maps.”
“The place I’m sending you for the map might have it, but I don’t know if she’ll sell it to you.”
“She’s a guard informant, so we let her do business, but she can’t be caught doing anything that illegal.”
“Give her my name, and tell her I said thank you for the red dress.”

“Dress?”

“Code word.”
“Maybe you can convince her.”

I go to the nearest shopping tower to find a store with swimming clothes and sandals.
The city’s walkways were not meant to be used with bare feet.
People stare at me like I’m crazy when I enter the tower naked.
The owner of the swimming store is surprised to see me walk in to her store like that, but she’s happy enough to scan my chip and get the credits.

I ask shoppers in the tower for advice on where to go to buy street clothes, a waterproof headset, and an air fountain.
The corps maintains generous accounts for its members, so I don’t even look at what things cost.
How long, I wonder, before they decide that I’ve gone rogue, and come after me?
They know that I’ve disappeared from the prison with a couple of the inmates.
They probably think that we used some unknown tech to transport to a hidden ship.
They’ll be happy that I went with the prisoners to get the tech.

I guess I’ve got about a year.
Undercover missions often last longer than that, but the corps will expect some results from me within a year.

 
Shopping
I travel by tube-train to a different shopping tower, fifteen miles away, to get the map.
The neighborhood there is more run-down, and the tower is much smaller.
I find the small jewelry shop on the fourth floor.
“Is the owner here?” I ask one of the workers.

“She’s in the back.”

“Tell her that I’m looking to buy something that will go with a red dress.”

A few minutes later, an older woman comes out.

“Have you been here before?”

“No.”
“I’m a friend of Talika.”
“She said to thank you for the red dress?”

“Come in the back with me.”

We go into a small room, and she closes the door.
“Where did you hear about the red dress?”

“From Talika.”

“I don’t know her.”

“She’s a guard.”
“She told me you’re an informant.”

“She talks too much.”
“What if you were a rebel or a crime boss?”
“I’d be dead or out of business.”

“She knew she could trust me.”

“What about me?”
“The guard hasn’t been treating me so well recently, and you have an old code word that I haven’t used in months.”

“I’m here, and I’ve got plenty of credits.”

“Your clothes are brand new.”

“I just arrived, and fringe world clothes aren’t in style.”

She laughs nervously.
“I guess not.”

“What were you looking for?” she asks.

“I need a map of the lake.”

“Maps?”
“You can get a module for a good price one floor up.”

“A bio-map.”

“They’re not being made any more, and they’re illegal to sell.”

“Illegal?”

“Yes, all objects that use the biosense have been outlawed as a misuse of empire resources.”
“Where have you been?”

“Far away, in the military.”
“This is my first time on the homeworld.”

“I can’t get away with selling biotech.”

“Of course not.”
“You might just happen to have an old object in your possession that had recently become illegal to sell.”
“I might buy an expensive piece of jewelry, and knowing my interest in antiques, you might decide to give the old item to me as a gift.”

“An interesting thought, but I can’t help you.”

“Now you’re wasting my time.”
“If you prefer, I can call my friends in the guard and ask them to harass you, doing frequent searches for illegal items.”

“I’ve done nothing!”

“The guard won’t care about your protests.”
“They’ll still do the searches, and the tower may decide that you need to go elsewhere.”

“You’re not a nice man.”

“I want the map, I asked for it, and I’m prepared to pay generously for it.”
“You’re the one who is making this difficult.”

“Wait here,” she says.
She comes back in a few minutes with a long tube, and a container of water.
Inside is a map made of a flexible material like plastic.

“This one is really old, and the projector element is a little weak, but it’s the only one that I’ve got.”
“You’ll have to hold it near your chest or your hands where the body’s main bio-sensors are.”

“I can do that.”

“Test it out.”
“I don’t accept returns.”
“This container is small, but put your hand in the water with a corner of the map, and you’ll sense it.”

I try it, and a piece of the map comes into view.

She points a weapon at me.
“Don’t move or activate your headset or I’ll kill you.”
“I’ve called some friends of mine who don’t like the guard.”
“Maybe you can convince them to trust you.”
“Either way I won’t have to deal with you!”

She’s shocked when I take the weapon away from her.

“No one moves that fast.”
“You’re Special Corps, and you’re here to interrogate me!”

“The corps doesn’t exist.”
“Everyone knows that.”
“But if it did, you wouldn’t want them after you.”
“Call off your friends.”

She speaks into a headset, and tells them that she worked out the problem by herself.
“What do you really want with me?”

“Only the map.”

“Take it as a gift and get out.”

I feel light pressure on my mind wall.
She’s a mind thief, and has a jammer.
One of the weaknesses of the jammer is that it works for both sides of the connection.
I drop my shield and pull some useful information out of her mind.

She feels me there, and shuts off the jammer, but I grab her hand to hold the connection.

“Jammers won’t help you,” I tell her.
“I’m like you, but I have a mental shield that protects me.”
“I know a lot about jammers, by the way, including how to build them.”

“I don’t care.”
“Just go.”

“Too bad you didn’t get to meet Illwi when you were in the school.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You were in the school of blessings, but you never met the caretaker.”
“I know you can’t speak of it, but I can walk through your memories.”

“You can’t read that!”
“No one can.”

I tell her details that I’ve stolen from her memory.

“Who are you really?” she asks.

“The caretaker sent me to this world, but I can’t tell you more than that.”
“I’m not your enemy.”
“How can I convince you?”

“You can’t.”

I give her a blessing in Madar.

“I don’t speak Madar, you fool, but I recognize the strange tones.”
“No one speaks it aloud, except the caretaker.”
“You’re way too stupid to be part of the corps.”
“Even a member of the corps would be executed for speaking it aloud.”

She speaks into the headset again.
“Cancel the call,” she says, “school3628.”
“The first time I cancelled, I didn’t use the code.”
“They knew I was being forced.”
“Now, they’ll leave you alone.”

“I also need a military module.”

“You’re trying to get me killed!”

“Look, I may be reckless, but I’m trying to bring down the empire, and I need those items.”
I do want to stop the empire, but I don’t think I can help them kill a child.

“You know I’ve studied the old ways.”
“That’s enough to get me tortured.”
“I can’t get in more trouble my selling you what you want.”

“Let’s do what I suggested,” I tell her.
“I’ll buy something, and you slip the bio-map and module into the bag.”
“And add the cost of the blaster, if you can spare it.”
“I’d like to take it with me.”

“You planning to visit the lake?” she asks.

“Yes.”

“Don’t go near it tomorrow, especially after 1.”

“Why not?”

“A protest, a prank, a terrorist attack, who knows?”
“Whatever it is, word is spreading to stay away from the lake.”

 
Song Room
I’m too busy today for swimming.
I need a place to live.

I find a small apartment with floor to ceiling windows and a great view of the lake.
I rent time on a fabricator to form my knives and some custom parts.
Then I buy tools and parts, and set up a work table by the window.
The first thing I assemble is Mehkoos’s nullifier.
The nullifier adds more structure to the web’s energy streams, and counters the excessive chaos created by a local cage projector.
I need the opposite effect to counter the star cage generator, which creates too much order in the web.

I wanted to modify the nullifier to introduce chaos.
The only thing I succeeded in doing is making myself nauseous.

What if I customize a local cage projector instead?
Can I generate enough chaos to balance the web near me, even for a few seconds?
If I succeed, how do I make a projector small enough to carry under my clothes?

I’ll need more parts to build the projector, but that will have to wait for another day.
Evening is already here, and I get dressed to go out, strapping the knife sheaths on my legs under the pants.

I find the song room easily enough.
Talika’s waiting for me outside, and introduces me to two men and two women that are with her, all guards.

“You came, Neyima.”

“I’m happy to join you.”

She smiles.

“What’s the big deal?” asks one of the other guards.
“We expand the empire and face death.”
“What does he do except sit around and earn credits?”
“He’s just a citizen.”
The guard reaches out to flick my ear, the equivalent of a slap in the face among the Kizak.
His hand never reaches my ear.
I grab his wrist and twist it just enough to cause pain.

“Let go,” he says.

I do.

“So you’re fast.”
“Big deal.”

“I’m pretty good in a fight,” I tell him.
“I could have broken your wrist.”
“How about I show you?”

Talika steps between us.
“Stop it,” she says, looking at me.
Then she turns to the guard.
“He’s ex-military, Khisay, and a martial arts expert.”
“No fighting tonight boys, understood?”

Talika sits next to me.
“What do you like to drink?” she asks.

“I’m not much of a drinker,” I tell her.
I order something fruity and low-alcohol.

“I knew you weren’t very tough,” says Khisay.

“Ignore him,” says Talika.
“He would rather get drunk than breathe.”

I can’t find anything to like in the music that they play here.
The sweet voices of the singers are hidden behind the chaotic sounds of the instruments.

I try to ignore the music and talk with Talika and the others.
After an hour, my discomfort shows on my face.

“You’re bored with us, Neyima?” she asks.

“I like being with you and your friends.”
“It’s the music I hate.”

“Let’s get out of here while Khisay can still walk.”

Talika, Khisay, and I walk together along the street, enjoying a light breeze.
Now that he’s drunk, Khisay is friendly and fun to be with.
The other guards are gone, off to another song room.

We wander along the streets, following Khisay, until we come to a place that’s pretty deserted.

“It’s time to find a tube-train, Khisay,” says Talika.

“I want to show you something,” he says.
He shows us a place where a new building is half-finished.
“I led a raid here on the old building.”
“There was a group of rebels occupying one of the floors.”
“They wouldn’t come out, so we cleared everyone else out of the building and burned them out.”

“Proud of yourself, guard?” asks someone behind us.
“There were women and children in there.”
We turn, and there are a group of twelve people near us.

“If they were all rebels, good riddance,” says Khisay.

What an idiot he is!
We’re surrounded.

Everyone in the group pulls knives.
It’s rare for anyone to carry energy weapons on the street.
The penalties are too severe.

I take off my pants, and the group looks at me like I’m crazy.

“What are you doing, Neyima?” she asks, until I pull my knives out.
Then she whispers, “Khisay and I are unarmed.”
“Besides, there are too many of them.”
“Run!”

“How do you plan to get through the crowd?” I whisper back.

“Are you planning to kill all of us?” I ask the group.

“That’s the idea,” says the leader.
“There are too many guards, as it is.”

“I’m not a guard.”
“I’m just with them.”

“Close enough.”

“Nothing happened yet,” I tell them, putting my knives back in the sheaths.
“There’s still time to walk away.

“Not for us,” says the leader.

I could disarm them all, but Talika or her friend might get hurt.
One deep breath, and I kill the leader with his own knife before he can move.

“Get out of here,” I scream, with a voice designed to frighten them.
Eight run away.
I disarm the three remaining ones quickly, just knocking them out.

Khisay looks sober, as I wipe off the blood that splashed on my face.
“Let’s get out of here,” I tell them.

“We need to bring the guards,” she says.
Talika pulls out her headset and calls them.
“Khisay’s brother was killed in this building,” she whispers to me.
“He was killed when he knocked on the rebel’s door to ask them to turn down the sound, a year after he saved one of their children from drowning.”

We wait for the guards to arrive.

 
Madar Places
It’s morning.
I should be back in my room, building a projector, but something pulls at me to go to the lake.
I’m curious what’s going to happen today, but it’s more than that.
I sit on one of the beaches to relax while I review the caves on the headset.
A few minutes later I get up.

I tell the headset to show me the way to the rainbow caves.
It displays a map, and directs me to another beach with a gentle slope into the lake.
Dozens of people rest on each of the lake’s six beaches, but almost no one goes in the water.
It’s still a little cool this time of year.

I touch the water with my webbed feet.
Not bad.
I jump in and reach the first cave in eight minutes, well before I feel any pressure to breathe.
This is the first of the seven rainbow caves.
Each oval cave is covered with glowing crystal of a different color.
The entrance to the first cave is at the bottom of the lake, and just big enough for me to fit through.
Without the headset’s guidance, I’d never find the opening.

The seven caves form a chain, and I pass through one to reach the next.
At the center of each cave is a beautiful pillar of colored crystal, a foot wide and four feet tall.
The base of each pillar is a two foot wide hemisphere, flat end down.
Another hemisphere the same size forms the top of the pillar, flat end up.
The top hemisphere has a white, slightly raised edge, a thick ring of colored stone, and a six inch black center.
The pillar has the same black core.

I find an electronic door at the far end of the seventh cave.
The headset doesn’t show the door or what’s behind it.
The bio-map shows a closed eighth cave, with a series of tunnels that go to the surface.

I wonder what’s in there?
I touch an old, over-sized handpad, never expecting it to open for me.

The upper cave walls are covered with clusters of glowing green crystals, shaped like flowers
There’s a small stone dome at the top of the cave, also covered in green.
This is Gen birthing crystal, just like the cave that protects Filarin.

There’s a modern light spreader, a kind of flashlight, resting on a charge pad.
The guards have been in here, but they’re preserving it for some reason.
The over-sized handpad must be Madar technology, now connected with a Kizak security database.

The cave is perfectly round, with a solid black pillar in its center, and dimly glowing words engraved on the top in the Madar language.
“Death is the greatest teacher of all.”

How did the Madar enter here?
Not through the small opening at the bottom of the lake, or any of the old tunnels.
There are three tunnels leading to the surface, all sealed with a material that feels like stone.
The blaster might open the tunnels, but I’ll try that another day when I have more time to explore.
Besides, this cave might be monitored.

My biosense is struggling to make sense of streams of energy that fill the cave.
I realize that it’s like a primitive version of energy sight, that only works in water, but I’m looking at the web.
This wasn’t visible in the last cave.
I reach for my energy sight and find that it’s here!
The cave normalizes the web that’s within it.
I try to reach beyond the cave with energy eyes, but my sight fades in places where the web is still under the influence of the cage.

I hear a tone, but not in my ears.
I look around the cave, and realize that the inner sound is coming from the pillar.
There’s an energy stream in the black pillar in the shape of a circle.
I feel a strong urge to touch the top of the pillar.
Nothing happens.

I scan the area looking for any devices which are monitoring the room.
The handpad by the door is connected wirelessly to an outside database, but there are no other electrical devices here except for the light spreader and a chargepad.
I seal all three within a dark material which blocks all energy signals.

I take off my clothes, headset, and air fountain.
Then I flow myself into a Madar form.
I shape a large air fountain that will support my body, and put it on.
As I approach the pillar, the energy stream reshapes itself into an image of Sindar’s symbol.

Why is it here?
I have the same strong urge to touch the pillar.
When I do, the world fades.

 
The Color of Death
I wake up on the floor, dizzy and nauseous.
What happened?

I look at the pillar and the image of Sindar’s symbol is gone.
The urge to touch it is gone, but I reach for it anyway.
Nothing happens.

I change back into my Kizak form, and put on the clothes, air fountain, and headset, glancing at the time display.
I’ve been unconscious over an hour!
It’s after one.
I have to get back to the surface, and see what’s going on.
A weapon appears in my hand.
I didn’t flow it consciously, although I recognize it.
It’s a Madar energy weapon that works underwater.
Most don’t.

I put the weapon in a waist-pack, planning to figure out later where it came from.
I stretch out my empty hands, palms up, and the long knives appear in sheaths.

I left my knives back in the apartment.
What’s happening?
I strap the sheaths to my legs.
Then I uncover the handpad and the other devices, and touch the pad.
The door opens and I swim out as quickly as I can.

I approach the surface, but something feels wrong.
There’s a group of four boys about thirty feet away, swimming madly in my direction.

Far behind them are two small boats chasing them at full speed, one a few minutes behind the other.
I feel energy blasts hitting the water, about forty feet behind the boys.
Soon the weapons will be in range.

It doesn’t make sense!
Why would guards fire on children?

I break through the surface in front of the boys, and slip the air fountain off my face.

“We’re trapped,” says one of the boys.
“They’ll get us now.”

“Leave us alone,” says another boy.
“You’ll suffer a horrible death when the guard catch you.”
I recognize him from images the caretaker showed me.
It’s Disu, the emperor’s son.
All I have to do is turn away, and he’ll be killed, and perhaps the empire will fall.

I can’t do it.
Instead I grab his hand, so I can read his thoughts.

Disu expects me to kill him, but I push past the thoughts of fear.

He doesn’t want to be emperor when he grows up.
Disu hates the wars that the empire fights, and the killing that comes with them.
He reads forbidden books about the energy ways of the Madar, and waits for the day that he can experience the world without the cage.
His greatest fear is that he will change as he grows up, and become just like his father.

I let go of his hand.

When there is no blood left to follow his ways, the Madar will come again.

We don’t need to kill Disu.
He’s already abandoned his father’s ways.

“I’m ex-guard, and I’m not after you.”
“Get in the water now, where their energy blasts can’t reach you.”

“We don’t have air fountains!”

I give mine to Disu.
“I can get us to a safe place where there’s air, but you have to follow me now!’
“The air fountain can support all you boys if you share it, two minutes at a time.”
“Just hold your breath when it’s not your turn for the fountain.”

“What will you do?”

“I’ll have to hold my breath longer.”

“Follow him,” says Disu, “we have nothing to lose.”

I hand him my headset.
“It’s waterproof.”
“Message the guards to send help.”
“Then ask the headset to lead you to the rainbow caves.”
“When you get in, go straight to the last cave.
“I’ll be right behind you.”

I follow them underwater, and then stop, twenty feet under the surface, as they swim toward the bottom.
I wait until the boat comes in range of my energy weapon, and fire.
If I’m lucky it will kill all of them.

No luck.
The boat has some kind of shielding.
I keep firing, exhausting the weapons’s charge, but finally the boat breaks up.
Two bodies float on the surface, but four of them enter the water, wearing air fountains.
They shoot at me with their energy weapons, but the weapons fail in the water.

I swim away toward the caves.
The last of the boys enters the cave, just before I get there.

The four men are split into two groups.
Two are right behind me, while the others stay near the wreckage of the first boat, waiting for the other boat to arrive.
I turn, pulling both knives from the sheaths.
The men near me have knives, but they are no match for my training and speed.
I take their headsets and air fountains.
Then I sheath the knives, enter the cave, and swim quickly to the end.

I gave away a headset and fountain for the boys to share.
One of Disu’s friends points to the blood seeping into the water from my sheaths.
I touch the handpad, and the door to the eighth cave opens.
I gesture and they all enter.
When I’m in, I seal the door.

My energy abilities are back, but I don’t want to reveal myself.
I give the captured headset to Disu, and take back my own.
I tell the headset to keep headset conversations within this cave private,

“What is this place?” asks Disu over the headset.

“A strange, old place.”
“At least we’re safe for now.”
“What happened?”
“Why didn’t the guards protect you?”

“They were spread out around the lake, doing a final sweep after sending everyone away.”
“We came a few minutes early, and we were waiting by the water, hidden by some trees, for the guards to finish their job.”

“Heavily armed groups of men dressed as guards ambushed the real guards with high-power energy weapons.”
“A small airship moved around the lake directing the attackers to remaining guards.”

“Why didn’t the guards call for help?”

“The attackers must have been jamming communications.”
“My friends were frantic.”
“They wanted to hide until more guards came and saved us, but I knew we shouldn’t wait.”
“At this point, we couldn’t trust anyone wearing a guard’s uniform.
“The attackers dragged the bodies out of sight and took the guard headsets.”
“The airship left.”

“Do you think the attackers spoke with central command and told them everything was fine.”

“I don’t know.”
“Once the airship was out of sight, I led my friends around the lake for about a hundred feet.”
“There were no more trees after that, so we went underwater and swam as long as we could hold our breath.”

“We came up far into the lake, but still, a boat found us.”
“They called me by name from a distance, saying they wouldn’t harm me.”
“After what they had already done, I didn’t believe them.”
“Then you showed up.”
“That’s it.”

“Did you reach guard headquarters on the headset?”

“The local headquarters was bombed, so they’re sending men from farther away.”
“My father is sending some of the Palace Guard.”
“At least one hundred men are coming, heavily armed, but it may take them fifteen minutes to reach us.”
“They identified you from the headset, and told me I can trust you.”
“Thank you for saving us.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Why didn’t the door open for me?” asks Disu.
“I tried it.”

“This is a secure and dangerous place.”
“I have high clearance.”

“Look at this,” says the other boy wearing a captured headset.

“It’s Madar script,” says Disu.

What would he say if I told him that this writing is shared by seven ancient races, and found in multiple galaxies across the universe?
This is the same ancient script that I’ve seen on Siksa on the harbor wall!
I bury all these thoughts.
“You’ve seen it before?” I ask.

“A few times in museums.”

Someone starts banging on the door.

“Headset,” I say, “scan the identity chips of all Kizak in the first seven caves and the lake.”
“Are they guards?”

“No.”

“How many in the caves?”

“Twelve.”

“In the lake?”

“At least another twenty.”

“Identify how many of the twelve in the caves have active headsets.”
“Specify locations of any men that don’t.”

“Ten have active sets.”
“There are two men in cave three with damaged headsets.”

“Override safety protocols and initiate fatal shock through headsets in caves one through seven.”
“Jam all network connection and communication for headsets in or around lake.”

“Done.”
“One headset in cave two did not kill its wearer, only stun her.”

“Disu, keep everyone here.”
“I have to go out.”

He reaches out his hand, with an astonished expression on his face.
There’s a Madar weapon in it, like the one I shaped earlier.
I pretend to reach behind the pillar, and find another weapon.

I take Disu’s hand to strengthen the mental connection.

No time to talk, Disu.
If we survive, I’ll explain.

I leave the Madar cave, and pass through the others.
When I reach cave five, I start slitting the throats of every body I find, just in case one is pretending to be dead.
I move into the lake and find the three attackers just above me.

“Headset, are any guards still alive in the lake, or on its surface.”

“No.”

“Initiate fatal shock to all headsets in or on lake except mine.”

“Command given, but some of them are too far away for me to tell whether effort was successful.”

The surviving attackers are shocked by the sudden death of most of their group.
A few turn to face me, while the rest head for the surface.
I turn the weapon on all of them.

When I reach the surface, I find an empty boat, and head straight for the main dock.
The boat stops dead a hundred feet from the dock.
My weapon is off-line also.
The arriving guards must have activated a tech screen, to shut off all tech around the lake.

I swim the rest of the way.
A dozen of the attackers are left, trying to open the electronic door of an airship.
A few approach me with knives, while the others continue to work on the door.
Soon, they’re all lying on the ground.

“Headset, are there any guards in this area who are hurt, but still have life signs.”
It directs me to a woman on the ground near the airship.
I pull off her headset, and feel for a pulse.

It’s Talika.
Her pulse is weak.
Even if the guards show up now, she won’t last long enough to reach a med station.

I still have a shadow of my healing sense, but it saps my strength when I use it.
I need to touch her skin so my listener can move through her.
It moves slowly, but it’s able to locate internal bleeding and other problems.
Maybe I can slow the bleeding enough, so she’ll survive to reach the med station.
I feed her my own strength as healing energy, before I black out from the effort.