people of philosophers and theologians and artists. The last of these once gentle people, which was tearing Centauri Prime apart.
Lennier was not sure where he was going, only that he had to go somewhere, anywhere that was away from here. He had to get away from Londo, for fear of losing control of himself, of becoming a threat to the only person he had been able to call a friend.
His eyes opened, and he looked once more at the room in which he found himself. He saw with a clarity greater than ever before, and for the first time in three years his Keeper fell silent.
Ambassador Morden and Lord Kiro were staring at each other, unmoving. The bodies of two women lay on the floor. Behind Lord Kiro was the crackling madness that funnelled from the byakheeshaggai, and behind Ambassador Morden....
.... was the spirit of a Vorlon.
'There was something I said when I began my crusade against the Enemy. Something I said to the first person to ally himself to my cause.
''If we cannot live together, we shall surely die apart.'
'I have said that over and over again, to everyone who will listen. I have spoken it in the mountains and in the temples and in the Parliaments and in the town squares. I have said that in this very building, and I will keep saying it until everyone in this galaxy has listened to me and has understood my words.
'You all.... every one of you has heard those words, and you have all forgotten. So I will say them again.
''If we cannot live together, we shall surely die apart.'
'This war with the Centauri furthers nothing. It spreads chaos and anarchy and death. We should be fighting together, Narn and Centauri, against a common enemy, as we did once, in the beginning. Instead we wage war against each other. Instead we cause parents to grieve and children to be made orphans. For long years of occupation we watched as that was done to us, and we swore 'never again'. But now it is happening again, and this time it is not the Centauri who are to blame. We are.
'How often must I speak to you? How many times must I say the words before you listen?
''If we cannot live together we shall surely die apart.''
G'Kar stopped and looked around the room, looked at the circles extending upwards in which sat the Narn Government, the people in whom the Narn people placed their trust and their hopes for the future.
One of them rose and looked directly at G'Kar himself. He did not shy away from the prophet's furious gaze. 'Your words are welcome here, Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar, as always, but they are ill–advised. The Centauri are allied with the Enemy. This we all know.'
'Then you know nothing, H'Klo. Whatever alliance there is, exists not between the Centauri government and the Enemy. Maybe there is such an alliance, but the Emperor is not involved. The Shadows spread chaos. They set allies to fight one another. That is what they do, and that is what they are doing now! We should be helping the Centauri fight the agents on their worlds, not wage war on all the innocent because of a few who are guilty.'
'They are Centauri,' barked one voice, high in the circles. 'There are no innocents there.'
'And that is what they said to us!' G'Kar roared. 'Do none of you see? We can wage a war against them from now until the time our grandchildren are mouldering bones in long–forgotten graves, and what will that have won us? In a hundred years, a Centauri government will sit as we do now, and argue that there are no Narn innocents. I suffered during the occupation, as did we all....
'But the occupation is over! And so will this war be over!
'I was told once there are three ways to deal with an enemy. Kill him, hate him, or make him your friend. We cannot kill the Centauri, and an enemy you hate can never become your friend.'
'Your words are.... powerful, Ha'Cormar'ah G'Kar,' H'Klo said again. 'But need we remind you that you have no official standing here? You resigned your position in the Kha'Ri and turned down numerous offers to lead us. You have an official position within the United Alliance, yes.... but not here. Therefore your words are persuasive only, and you cannot set policy for the Kha'Ri.'
'I have no intention of setting policy,' G'Kar snapped. 'You are right. My words to you here cannot do that.
'But my words to the Narn people can, and they will. I will return to the temples, to the cities, to the streets, and I will speak until I am listened to, or until I collapse dead. Once I was afraid of the power my words could have, the power to topple governments and change peoples. I am still afraid, but I will not stop until we are turned from this path we are on.
'Councillors, this war will end now, today. If not at my urging, then at that of the people you rule.
'The decision is yours.'
The last hope of the Centauri Republic moved nearer and nearer to the homeworld. Heedless of the Narn fleet left unguarded at his back, General Carn Mollari brought the
What choice did they have? To save the homeworld, or to avenge it?
Jump gates opened above Centauri Prime and Carn led the fleet into the heavens above his homeworld. A fleet of Shadow warships was there, waiting for him.
Unhesitating, Carn gave the order to attack.
Ah, Lords of Light, what fools these mortals were.
Morden took a step forward, and behind him the spirit of his Master flowed. The power it radiated was enough to blind these insects, these beings who believed they understood the cosmos when they knew only a tiny corner of it. Even after all he had seen and done, Morden knew he understood little.
'They are here,' Kiro whispered. The would–be Emperor looked weak. His clothes were in rags, his hair limp. There were scratches and weeping wounds on his face and hands, some new, some old. The only thing about him that marked him out was the fervour in his eyes, the crimson mist that seeped from his soul. Beyond that, he might have been nothing more than a beggar or a vagabond.
'They are here,' he said over and over again, repeating it like a mantra.
'Yes,' Morden said softly, in flawless and unaccented High Tongue. 'Your Masters are here. Go out and herald their coming. Be witness to their return.'
Kiro's eyes flashed. 'You mock me. You dare to mock me! The Dark Masters will....'
'They will do nothing,' Morden said. He could feel his Light Master observing him, shielding him from the power of the byakheeshaggai. That was a taxing task, a draining one, but the Vorlons were more than powerful enough for what was necessary. It was just a shame there was no node of the network on Centauri Prime. Oh well, that would soon change.
'You live on delusions,' Morden said, his voice firm. 'You huddle to the Shadow believing it will soothe and succour when it drains the life from you. It is not too late for you to seek forgiveness, but I am not the right person for that. When an Inquisitor arrives, maybe, but for now....' Morden smiled. 'For now, you will have to be content with seeing the truth.'
Kiro looked directly at him, and for just an instant Morden saw himself reflected in the madman's eyes. Then the mirrors there became filled with light, a light so old and so powerful and so bright that all reflections, all insanity, all that was there.... was erased.
Kiro fell back, resting against the throne. He remained there for a few minutes and then looked around the room, his eyes those of a child who is seeing the world for the first time. He looked at Mariel's dead body, at the woman he had thought would have been his Empress, at the shadows in an empty corner, at the throne he had recently sat on, and then at Morden and the angel behind him.
Then, saying nothing, Kiro turned and limped away from the throne room.
Morden turned to look at the two guards who had succumbed to Kiro's will, but they were motionless, drooling on the floor, their minds utterly broken at last by the same thing that had broken Kiro's - the sight of a Vorlon.
A sound suddenly reached him, as if coming from a long way away. He blinked, feeling the banalities of the
