Silus looked away as Illiun sat beside him, hoping that the flush of shame that reddened his face would be credited to the heat from the campfire.
“We were just thinking of home,” Dunsany said. “A million miles away or more now for you, I suppose.”
“I can’t even begin to calculate the distance from this planet to the world we once held dear,” Illiun said. “We’ve run for so long and so far it doesn’t seem to mean anything anymore.”
“Tell us about your home.”
“It was not our home, not really. It was bequeathed to us — a gift from our creators. We were created as stewards of our world, protectors of the environment which supported and nurtured those within it.”
“Sorry,” Dunsany said. “Did you say your creators? Were you not, then, created by a god?”
“No. We are children of science, much like the silver-eyed men but far more advanced. My people’s lifespans are approximately the same as your own, and they reproduce in much the same way, yet their ancestors were born within artificial wombs deep beneath the cities of our world. I was the first, and was tasked with leading my people, becoming their overseer. As such, my creators granted me a greatly increased lifespan.”
“So Bestion was right,” Silus said. “You are a godless people.”
“It’s true that we were not created by a god, although our creators themselves were people of faith. The god they praised, however, did not interfere in their lives; he merely enriched them.”
“Then why did he turn on you?” Dunsany said. “Why did the entity pursue you across the void?”
“No, you misunderstand. The god of my creators is not the same being as the entity. The entity destroyed my creators’ god.”
Silus was beginning to feel a sinking sense of dread. Had Kerberos lied to him? Was there more to the history of Illiun’s people than he had been told, or was Illiun even now spinning a lie?
“Tell us of the entity,” Dunsany said. “What did Kerberos do?”
“The first signs of its approach to our world was the rise of a new faith; an insidious church that promised much but gave little, all the while instilling its hateful theologies within its growing flock. A new god was coming — the priests of this religion said — a new deity, stronger than the one who looked down upon them, who would guide them all to a golden age of prosperity and spiritual discovery. The one everyone thought of as their god was nothing of the kind, merely a spiritual leech, feeding on souls to sate its own greed. There was no heaven. There was no better life to come. Those who gave themselves to this old, redundant god were giving themselves to oblivion. But those who dedicated their prayers and worship to the coming god would see life eternal.
“This new church made people afraid, and in their fear they gave themselves over to the new faith entirely.”
“We know another faith which operates along very similar lines, don’t we, Silus?” Dunsany flicked the stub of his cigarillo into the fire. “Fear seems to be a very good way to get people to believe.”
“Indeed,” Illiun said. “But there was nothing we could do for our creators. It was not our place, as their servants, to draw attention to the mistakes they were making. All we could do was continue in our allotted tasks, managing the environment that their new god would soon destroy.
“Almost nothing of the old religion was left when the entity, Kerberos, showed its face. At first it was just a blue smudge out on the edge of the void, far from our own sun, but year by year it grew, as did the new church. The astronomers observing its approach said that it moved like no heavenly body they had ever seen, ignoring all laws of physics as it fell into an erratic orbit around our planet. The adherents of the new faith greeted its arrival with a religious fervour that, more than once, threatened to spill over into violence. The few remaining disciples of the old faith looked on in dread, yet dared not raise their voice against the new order.”
“And you’re sure that this new god was Kerberos?” Silus said.
“There is no doubt that the entity that brought such destruction to my home is the same that now hangs above our heads.”
“But you’re wrong about Kerberos. You must be. Don’t you see th-”
“Silus. Hush! Let Illiun finish his story.”
“I’m sorry. Please, go on.”
“There is no need to apologise,” Illiun said. “It took a long time for the entity to show its hand. For years it hung beside the pearlescent sphere that was the old god, the clouds that wreathed its form showing nothing but the occasional flicker of lightning. But then, on the anniversary of the fifth year of its arrival, Kerberos began to eclipse the old god, the great blue disk moving slowly across its face. The clouds of Kerberos darkened as it moved into full eclipse and then it blazed with a light many times the magnitude of our own sun. Those who had been watching the eclipse were instantly blinded. In the Royal Observatory, the head astronomer was said to have had his eyes cooked in their sockets as he watched through the great telescope.
“Across the face of our world raged many storms: the seas rising up all around the coasts and washing away cities that had stood for thousands of years in one violent deluge; hurricanes tearing into the sturdiest of structures and scattering the people sheltered within like dandelion seeds; torrential rains putting whole lands under water within moments.
“When Kerberos moved once more, the god that it had eclipsed was gone. It was as though it had been consumed by the usurper.
“Those of the new faith who had survived the maelstrom sang the praises of their god with renewed fervour, reasoning that as survivors of the storm they were truly of the elect. And they were indeed chosen, but not in the way they had hoped.
“The adherents of the new faith were the first to die. There was no warning, no prelude to this mass cull; they simply expired where they stood, each with his or her eyes raised to the heavens and a look of abject horror on their faces.”
“Wait a minute,” Dunsany said. “Are you saying that Kerberos killed your creators?”
Again, Silus wondered whether Illiun was lying, perhaps to hide the crime of which Kerberos had told him his people were guilty. But then there was still that doubt — what if Kerberos Himself were deceiving Silus? After all, as Dunsany had pointed out to him many a time, who truly knew the mind of a god?
“That is indeed what I am saying.”
“Then how did you escape?” Silus said.
“Not all of us did escape. However, as Kerberos had been approaching our world, some of us had been working on a project that would enable us to leave it. Those who had created us had tasked us with turning our minds to the exploration of the void. They had observed other bodies out in the darkness, so they set us to building a vessel that would enable us to reach them. In the thousands of years it took for Kerberos to reach our planet we’d built a ship, though instead of being used for exploration as intended, it was used to escape the wrath of the entity.
“When it became clear that Kerberos was going to harvest the planet of the lives that populated it, I gathered together those I could and herded them onto the ship. Even as we took to the skies, the planet was dying all around us, food for the vile leech that had come to feed upon us. The entity was not expecting anybody to escape, and once it realised what we had done it came after us. And we have been running from it ever since.”
And now I’m to complete what Kerberos began, Silus thought.
No matter the truth of Illiun’s story, it did not change the facts. If he and his people were allowed to remain here — to breed, to grow into a new civilisation on this young world that was destined to become Twilight — then everything they knew would never be; they would tumble into oblivion as their future history unravelled.
“Dunsany! Dunsany!”
Kelos came running towards them, kicking up great plumes of sand in his haste. Silus unsheathed his sword and stood, ready to face whatever threat was now coming their way. However, as Kelos stumbled and slid down the dune towards them, it was not an expression of fear he wore on his face, but one of anticipation, excitement even.
“It’s here!” the mage said, gripping Dunsany’s arms.
“What’s here, Kelos?”
“Magic. I can finally sense magic. This world isn’t completely dead after all.”
“Where?” Silus said.
“Not far, perhaps a day’s travel in the direction the star is leading us. Gods, I never thought I’d find the threads again. I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am.”
