The Fifth Cycle of Time Part 4

From: Cheryl Baumgartner(C Baumgartner, Posted Date: Jan 22nd, 2011

The Scroll of the Ancients(Terlara 1000 years ago)

The Council of Judges had reconvened.  Stanley and Xev were once again in their carved seats surrounded by their honor guard.  Everyone was awaiting the opening of the scroll.  Several robed and hooded figures had entered taking up positions on each side of the door.  They were followed by acolytes carrying a medium sized chest inlaid with gold silver and what looked to be very valuable gemstones.  Finally one last richly robed figure had entered.   The robed man stepped forward and pulled back his hood.  He was identical to Timor.

“This chest was sealed thousands of years ago upon the death of Our warrior mother Adana of Brunnis.  It contains the Scroll of the Ancients and the personal belongings of Adana herself.   It was Adana’s last order that this chest be sealed to be opened when in the passing of time The Messengers appeared.”  He unlocked the chest and opened the lid.  He reached inside and pulled out something wrapped in dark cloth and set it to the side.  Now he reached in a pulled out a large rolled parchment sealed with wax.  He held it up. “The Scroll of the Ancients. Rather than read the entire scroll I will read the part that interests you.’

He carefully broke the wax seal and unrolled the scroll began to read:
“Warrior Delegate Kai of Brunnis delivered in good faith the promised weapons and pilots to provide training to Pordyan Security Forces.” Signed and Agreed by the Council of Judges and Warrior Delegate Kai of Brunnis, proxy of High Warrior Delegate Adana of Brunnis.”

One of the Council members held up his hand. “You have confirmed what we needed confirmed.  The name Kai is indeed recorded in the Scroll of the Ancients.  Kai did indeed set foot on our world. The Messengers walk among us.” The Council all stood as did the crowd. 

The robed man now walked to where Xev and Stanley sat and bowed deeply to them.  “My brother Timor has had the honor of serving you as head of the Terlaran Ground Security Force.  I am Tano, Head of the Temple of Warriors.  It is my honor now to serve you also.  Quarters have been prepared for you at the temple.  He gestured to the robed men flanking the doors who now approached them.  “In addition to the honor guard of the ground forces these warrior priests will also protect you.  Each of them traces their bloodline back to the warriors who originally came here to train our people.   Kai sent you to us, as you were in his care before you are in our care now.  We welcome you to Terlara.” He bowed once again and then returned to the makeshift altar.

“Timor wears the badge of the Kai bloodline originally given to Dava by Kai of Brunnis.” He picked up the cloth wrapped item he had set aside earlier.  “Our Warrior Mother Adana also wore the badge of the Kai bloodline.  This badge signifies that our bloodline has existed throughout the ages from the time of the Great Brunnen G Warlord Kai.  It was Adana’s wish that her badge remain sealed in this chest until the arrival of the Messengers.  The arrival of the messengers signals the rebirth of the Brunnen G Warrior Caste.  She ordered that the occasion be marked by the return of her badge to be worn by the highest ranking Warrior Priest of the Kai bloodline.”

Timor walked over to his twin brother and took the Clan badge in his hand.  Timor pinned the badge to Tano’s robe.  Dara spoke loudly “And so the time of Great Evil begins.”

 

If the old quarters Xev and Stanley were given could be considered posh, their new quarters were down right palatial.  “Is everything to your liking?” Tano asked.

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” Xev replied.  “Can we go out now or do we have to stay here?  I want to explore your world.”

“You may go where you wish Xev, but you will be accompanied by an honor guard of both Ground Security Forces and Warrior Priests.  Tano or I will also personally accompany you.  We have a sacred duty to protect you.  This is the beginning of the time of Great Evil.  That evil will work now to secure its power base.  Killing you and Stanley would go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.  You have faced this evil at the side of Kai, The Last of the Brunnen G, the only survivor of the Lost Bloodlines of Brunnis.  The knowledge you carry is dangerous to our enemy.” Timor said.

“I can take care of myself, Timor.  I’m not helpless.” Xev replied

“Yeah she’s part Cluster Lizard.  If anyone get’s in her way she’ll just eat their brain.” Stan added.

“You would not have stood by Kai’s side if you were helpless.  But we also know that both of you have stood with Kai on the path to the Dream Zone but Kai would not let you pass.  It is recorded in Adana’s personal journal.”  Tano spoke.

Dara now spoke up.  “I feel I should warn you both, trust only myself, Ari, Tano and Timor.  You are the key to the defeat of the great evil.  Kai’s death stopped it for now and has bought us time.  This is Adana’s personal journal.  Through it we know much about you already.  Adana wrote down much about the three of you.


Adana’s Journal Part 1

This is the last time I write my thoughts in my home.  Tomorrow myself and half of our caste travel to Pordyah.  This is a bittersweet time.  My mate has finally stepped onto the path to the Dream Zone.  Kai waits there to welcome him.  Brunnis is slowly dying.  The scientists have finally figured out that the end is near.  They are searching for another fractal core.  The plan is for our people to escape and find a new home free of the insect threat.  They are destined for failure, the insects await us there.  I grieve to know what will happen to them at the hands of the insects.  They will extract a terrible price not only from the Brunnen G but from the line of Kai which passes through me and my daughter.  I wonder if Bann the Demented understood what he set in motion all those eons ago when he dedicated his son to Rakais, if he knew the price that would be paid by the sons of his line?  And the daughters?  To bring life into the world knowing that the babes we suckled at our breasts would be sacrificed to the struggle between forces that move us about like pieces in some game of strategy. 

My own son Kai has sacrificed himself far from his home but in his sacrifice he gave me a gift of immeasurable worth, a  grandson, Tano.  I will not be alone on Pordyah but welcomed by a family that sprang from my son’s loins through Dava.  She would have been a fitting mate for my son had she been born Brunnen G.  I have seen the strength that will run through that bloodline, strength that will be missing in the bloodline of my daughter. 

I despair of the long line of cowards she will produce.  Only one of her line will truly be Brunnen G.  His birth will set In motion the destruction of all that is Brunnen G.   Just like my own son he will be born the hand of destruction and he will be sacrificed to this long drawn out struggle.  I grieve for this child of my line, his burden is unthinkable.  He will pay a heavy price for the Brunnen G.   He will become something we cannot imagine, something it is impossible for us to become; a killer of other men.  No Brunnen G has ever taken the life of a human, and he will take many.  Even knowing that this is necessary, it sends a pain into my heart and that is only the beginning of this child’s torment.

Stanley set the journal down as Xev came into the sitting room carrying a tray of fruit.  The words of Kai’s grandmother with who knows how many greats in front of it were full of pain.  This woman grieved for Kai the son she gave birth to and for the Kai who would not be born for centuries.  

 “Have you read anything that would be important to us yet?” She asked as she settled onto the couch curling her legs beneath her.

“Only that our Kai was the first Brunnen G to kill another human being.   They were incapable of doing something so ‘horrific’.  And Adana carried a lot of grief for her son and for our Kai.”  Stanley picked the Journal up and started reading again this time out loud.

Through him the Brunnen G will become something other than we have known, just as the enemy will become something other than we have known. I sense that there are other forces that will enter the battle this time, forces that have remained neutral until this time.  This Kai is the beginning of the end of all we know.

I fear the path of this Kai. He will stand in two worlds, the world of life and the world of death.  He will become the thing that disturbs our sleep, the shadow that stalks us in our dreams.   The name Kai will be used by mother’s to control their unruly children.  He will become a relentless, remorseless killer of his fellow man.  He will kill in the name of the insects, and no one will find mercy in him. 

Everyone the insects mean to die by his hand will die except for two. Fate will intervene.  Instead of his victims, they will become his allies and together they will face and defeat the insect order and steal the mighty weapon of destruction the insects create to exterminate mankind.

“That would be us. When we stole the LEXX” Stanley said.

The three of them will stand in the village of Duha’naur, where this struggle first began.  They will release our world from its living death and allow new life to flourish and grow in its place. That will be the final death of all that is Brunnen G.  Except for the knowledge that travels with us to Pordyah, all that we ever were will be destroyed.  Kai will be the catalyst that causes the destruction.

“That must be when we visited Brunnis.” Xev remarked.

The destruction of our world will trigger the rebirth of our long standing enemy.  In a form that my son  knew well, the Gigashadow.  Once again Kai and the two will face the insect order.    This child of my line will bear the burden of carrying that which we have fought so hard to destroy within him.  Through him the enemy will reborn in a new form.  The enemy fears Kai and will seek to destroy him.  I do know that this is a mistake on the part of the enemy. Kai in death is stronger than Kai in life.

The two allies will come to Pordyah,  bringing the weapon and news of Kai’s death. They will solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Brunnen G. They have both stood before Kai on the Path to the Dream Zone and he blocked their way.  They know the enemy you will face, Kai sent them back to come to you even as he will die to stop the evil from spreading before its time.

“They call dying walking the path to the Dream Zone.  You died on Water Stan.” Xev said.

“Vlad also killed you.  How did Adana know all this?  But from what this journal says we were meant to come here.”  Stan said.  “But Kai died destroying the asteroid carrying Lyekka and her sister’s, not fighting  insects.  You stomped Mantrid’s little cube thingy to bits when we first came back to the Dark Zone. I think maybe we need to tell them how Kai died.” 

 

 “So it wasn’t insects that caused Kai’s death.  It was Lyekka’s sisters.  They had already tried to kill us before Kai died.” Stan said. 

“What exactly is a Lyekka?” Tano asked

“She was a plant.  She looked like a girl I knew a long time ago but she was well, smooth round the bend.”

“Smooth round the bend?” Timor questioned.

She didn’t have  you know, ‘girl parts’.”

“Ooohhhhh.” The twins nodded in understanding.

“So it was Lyekka that killed Kai and it is Lyekka that is the great evil that we must face.” Tano concluded.  “It is good that you have told us this.  It has always before been the insects, but the Warrior Mother Adana did say that the enemy would be something other than we knew this time.”

 

The hooded guard nodded at those he passed on the way back to his cell. He was deep in thought, considering what he had learned, serving as ‘honor guard’ to the messengers. Who knew that the Last of the Brunnen G would prove to be so easy to kill.  He was created to be indestructible.  He did not know this name Prince but he was grateful since it was Prince’s interference that ultimately caused the death of Kai.  He had feared the existence of the LEXX, of Kai.  The Last Brunnen G was dead.  The home world of the Brunnen G had been destroyed.  The long battle that had started so long ago when one warrior had killed so many of his kind was over, The Brunnen G were all gone but he still lived.  Although these people claimed to be Brunnen G they were simply an allied world of Brunnis centuries ago.  Many people on many worlds claimed to be Brunnen G but Kai was the last of that lot. 

Killing Stanley and Xev now would be a mistake.  They had unknowingly done him a great service.  Kai’s death was blamed on the plant lady and Xev and Stanley had convinced the Terlarans that it was Lyekka that was the threat.   He would let them reinforce the idea of that threat.  He could now formulate plans that would make him the master of this universe.

He opened the door to his cell.  Creating the Lyekka asteroid was a stroke of genius on his part.  Although it was strictly done as a decoy it had resulted in freeing him of the threat of Kai.  Just as his cube discovered on the LEXX immediately after arriving in the Dark Zone was a decoy created to allow him to escape the LEXX.  The defeat at the hands of Kai and the humans was still fresh in his mind.  He had allowed fear to rule his actions.  Now he had nothing to fear. He was ‘dead’ . 

The three parts of him had fully integrated into a single entity.  That entity now had a new goal.  He would not eliminate mankind he would subjugate them.   He would make them dependent on him.  And then he would toy with them, terrorize them, torture them.  The human part of him was capable of great cruelty and was already thinking of the many ways he would make humanity suffer to satisfy the insect part of him.  The machine part of him was already plotting the strategy that would make this possible. 

Stanley and Xev had provided the basis of the plan by telling the Terlarans about Lyekka. He had the perfect nemesis to send against mankind and unite them under one leader.  Mantrid had learned all he needed to know, it was time to leave this world and begin building his empire.