Orin are dead because of all these things. I don’t think I can bear to hear anymore of it.” said Tiet.
Ranul and Wynn got up to leave.
“I cannot say I know how you feel, young master,” Wynn said, placing his hand firmly upon Tiet’s shoulder, “but I’m here for you. You must go on despite what has happened. Your father is dead. But you, the heir to the king…you live on, and our people live on with you. I hope you will not let their legacy die now after all that has happened.”
Wynn followed Ranul out the door, leaving Tiet on his bed to ponder. It was so horrible. Everything was worse in reality than he could have ever imagined in his worst nightmares. Yet, he was still alive. Now what am I supposed to do?
Tiet thought of Orin. Back when they lived in a cave far in the wasteland, when he had taught him to be a man and a warrior. Orin had taught him to resolve a difficult situation through prayer to the One God, Elithias.
Tiet thought upon those lessons for some time. Orin had always been very wise. He wondered if his own father had perhaps imparted his wisdom in some way to Orin. Now both men were gone, but their wisdom still lived in his memory.
He got up from his bed and walked to the portal window. Tiet could see over the city of Baeth Periege below. Much of it lay in ruins from the battle with Grod and his army.
Wynn had said that these people, the civilians, had longed for peace and had hoped for it even through years and years of oppression under their own military government. That government was gone-defeated by Grod’s Horva. Grod was apparently also dead. The Horva were defeated and fleeing from Baeth Periege. Maybe, just maybe, he thought, there was something left that was good after all.
BARUK
Year 9028: Planet Castai-Rex
The bright red glow of the binary star Casiss glided across the surface of defense probe number: 2041. Its mission, to hold a position in this quadrant and maintain continuous long range scans toward the home system of the Baruk, had been uneventful for the last six months since its launch. The probe sailed through a vast sea of silence. Casiss was calculated at nearly one quarter of a light year away, with none of its uninhabitable planetary bodies visible to the eye, save the electronic eye of probe number: 2041.
Something entered into its sensor band one tenth of a light year away from the probe. Number: 2041 closed in on the object with its sensors to distinguish whether it might be a naturally occurring object such as a meteor. It had been the case fourteen times already since the probe took position there.
The object was quite large, but it was not following the normally erratic flight pattern of a natural space body. Quickly, the sensor field was penetrated by even more similar objects-fifty in all. Each of the objects followed virtually the same flight path putting the group on a direct course for the planet Castai.
Wynn walked through the Courtyard of Pools outside of the newly appointed combat training facilities. The artwork was pure Vorn from different eras he was unfamiliar with. He took note of the rich detail present in the forms-some were of natural things such as native animals and some of the Vorn race. But the gray stone gave little indication that these were the Vorn since nothing but their skin color distinguished them from any other clan of humans.
As Wynn came through the serene garden area into the main courtyard, he heard the sounds of battle. He saw hundreds of warriors from among the Vorn intermingled with many Castillians from nearly every tribe which had migrated across the rift after the battle of Baeth Periege eighteen months ago.
The migration had been rather unexpected. But there had been a rally cry to join the Barudii king. The Vorn had been defeated on Tiet’s home-world by Estall. The people had begun to refer to it as Castai-Origin. The twin Castai here across the rift had similarly begun to be referred to as Castai-Rex, illustrating the presence of the Barudii king.
There was at present, however, no king at all. Tiet was the heir to that throne but had chosen to remain on this side of the transdimensional rift following the battle at Baeth Periege. His intention had been to remain on Castai’s twin because of the likelihood of further conflict with the Horva and the impending attack of the Baruk.
Tiet had assumed no formal power, yet the people looked for leadership in the wake of all of the fighting. The Vorn had originally looked to Daooth or Wynn as potential leaders to unite the people, while the Castillians had looked to Estall as the victorious leader of the Aolene who had brought about the capture and subordination of the Vorn military on Castai-Origin.
Wynn had emphatically refused, pointing out that he could never assume power under any circumstance so long as an heir to the throne of his people lived. With Daooth backing Wynn, and a history of relations between the Vorn and the Barudii kings of the past, a consensus developed supporting the throne of the Barudii. Estall had also deferred to the throne of the Barudii and hoped Tiet would step up to the task.
It all seemed like a wonderful opportunity, but Tiet had not consented to assume his father’s throne. It had become a matter of great frustration, both to Wynn and those among the Council of the Twelve Cities, that Tiet remained reluctant. Wynn had spent hours trying to persuade the young man, who at times seemed ready to cave in to the pressure. But Tiet doubted himself. The deaths of his friends were still weighing heavily upon his mind.
Tiet had taken a great interest in organizing civilians from among the Vorn and the migrating Castillians to form a large ground force in training. He had become obsessed with the task in fact, leading Wynn to the conclusion that it was in part to relieve himself from his own troubling thoughts concerning recent events and the deaths of those dearest to him.
Wynn ascended a stairway leading to a very long balcony overlooking the training courtyard. He couldn’t help but be delighted to see his own Castillian people training with the Vorn to fight a common foe. A dream had been realized with the uniting of these people. He hoped nothing would tear them apart again. Still, it was vitally important that they have the necessary leadership and that leadership could not be served better than in the Barudii King.
Swords clashed on the courtyard as instructors from among the Aolene guided the trainees in various sparring exercises. The handsome new uniforms Tiet had designed were of the same material used in the old Barudii cloaks and rendered the wearer electronically invisible.
Various improvements from Vorn technology allowed for the E.M. shields to be reduced in size and incorporated directly into the garments along with components that provided a real-time holographic data display and nano-sensory components. These additions helped to mimic the Barudii’s ability to sense information such as number and position of combatants within a certain range of their bodies.
The data from the suits sensors was used to create pressure sensations in the garment which then alerted the wearer-in effect giving them perception in all directions simultaneously. Other nano-components provided scanning of one’s surroundings, feeding the information to the holographic display.
Today, the trainees were practicing Barudii blade techniques. Much progress had been made in the eighteen months since Baeth Periege had been engulfed in battle. More trainees appeared daily as the migration from Castai-Origin continued, despite the threat of the Baruk. The city had been under constant repair by numerous robot construction crews, although the cloning facility which had once been a jewel of science for the city was never rebuilt. The Vorn “Council of the Twelve Cities,” named for the twelve large cities now housing the population for unification and safety concerns, had outlawed the cloning of Horva as servants.
General Grod’s Horva troops provided little interference to reconstruction after their defeat. There had been a few raids on smaller cities that were nearly abandoned, but it appeared they sought supplies now rather than conquest. Grod himself had been proven to still be alive, a fact which had brought considerable alarm to the Council. While there seemed to be no immediate threat, it was a definite possibility that Tiet’s new recruits might face a war on two fronts if the Horva resurfaced and the Baruk arrived.
Wynn continued to walk the length of the balcony until he saw a group of recruits surrounding one unarmed man. The young man was blindfolded but not bound. Several of the recruits moved in to strike. The first strike went for the face. The blindfolded man’s head bobbed to one side as the strike passed before him. He quickly struck the mid-section of the attacker then swept the feet while countering another strike from a different recruit.
