Chapter Five:

It was only in the case of a dire emergency that any of the three generations of Artists who had led Nitaru met within the actual Tower; usually they met in whatever place that they had deemed their Council chamber. Inside the Tower, the representation of their control over Nitaru, the Founders could reach out with their minds and become aware of every aspect of their Domain, could in some ways become omniscient, at least within the boundaries of the flux-field. They could draw on the memories and experiences of all the other Artists that had lived in Nitaru, re-live those lives in a heartbeat of time. Such power was, the Council knew, dangerous; too many Artists in the Domains become changed by such power, and became the squabbling, possessive creatures that warred across the face of Nor ‘Am. But under the current circumstances, the Council had deemed such a thing necessary. So as the sun made its way over the western horizon, Sephira, Mars, Sakkariah, and Strawberry met to discuss the fate of Nitaru, if indeed they controlled such a thing.

Within the Tower, floating in fields of energy that glowed with the warp and woof of the flux energies of the Domain, the Council regarded each other. A latticework of light shot through the field, holding them in place and representing their connection to Nitaru itself. If anyone who did not possess magical ability was capable of seeing them, he or she would have only seen four young women, floating in nothingness; but to those of the Art, one saw much more. The light of their very souls shone through, as well as the glow of their auras, and one predisposed to poetry would call them angelic, visions of another world. The Council knew better; there was nothing of the divine about them, though with the power that their union with the Domain gave them, it was hard to remember that. They looked at each other, and much of their debate was not said, but rather sent via their empathy, each one thinking and knowing what the other three did. Later, they would come to recall what had happened in terms of a conversation, for that was easier for their minds to cope with. Sephira began the meeting, saying, in a rather matter of fact way, "We have a great many decisions to make, and soon."

"That’s an understatement," Strawberry said. "We have been a little careless, haven’t we?"

"I don’t know if you’d call it careless," Mars replied. "But we perhaps have blinded ourselves to a few things in our worry about the Templars. We had to keep working on the paratext, it is true, to serve as convincing bait to any spy, but Hikari’s progress in the past twenty-four hours adds a level of difficulty. We’ll soon know where the Books of the First Cataclysm are, and precisely why they were hidden here in such a fashion."

"The greatest repository of magics in history," Sakkariah said, eyes closing. Streams of blue light flowed into her aura, a sign that she was drawing on the knowledge and power of Nitaru. "The spells that engineered the fall of the Fallen Civilizations of Man, thousands of years ago, and re-shaped the very continents. Power that even Ultima Thule scorned." Sakkariah opened her eyes. "Soon we will know where that power is."

"Which leads us to the obvious question, of course," Strawberry said. "What do we do with it? Possession of the Books, it was said, drove the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation into madness and tainted the Templars. Do we dare own such things?"

"I have my doubts that you speak of a literal truth, Strawberry," Sephira noted. "Such power as the Books possess though, gives us a more practical problem. With the Books, we become even more of a target. Every Domain, every warlord of Nihon, the Emperor of Miifan, all would seek this power."

"The answer to this is obvious, my friends, though it is not suited to our normal temperament." Mars spoke in a cold tone. "Hikari has done enough work on the paratext. Events have no outstripped the usefulness of working on the Book as a tool to draw out a spy. Gilead will be moving soon."

"You think so?" Sephira asked, frowning.

Mars nodded. "Ky knows that the paratext is nearly complete. We have spoken with Daimira, seen what she saw of Orochi. Ky’s power aside, Orochi is rather clever…perhaps more clever than Ky. And though we had to tell them, the matter of Sakkariah’s vision will cause Gilead to react."

"But you know what I saw, Mars." Sakkariah called. "The path of the future doesn’t call for Gilead to play a part in this…"

"Yet," Mars replied sternly. "Your vision was unclear on some matters, my friend. And whether or not Gilead plays a part, the Templars are bound to react soon. And your vision did make it very clear what would take place when they do."

"We’re running out of time," Sephira said, "and out of options. First, though, we are all in accord on the question of the Books? Hikari is to stop working on the paratext?"

Strawberry sighed. "I hate being forced to make such decisions. It’s not what Nitaru was supposed to be about. But we can not let the Books be found, if what we know is true."

Sakkariah’s expression was somber, and when she spoke, it was quietly, thoughtfully. "We have already accepted the responsibility of hiding the secret that is buried within Nocturnus…however, Gilead knows that they’re here too. And we invoked the Protectorate to gain their presence here. By terms of that, they can force us to turn the Books over. Or can occupy Nitaru for as long as they deem it fit."

"We knew the risks of involving Gilead when we understood your vision," Sephira said. "Mars, would Gilead do such a thing?"

"I honestly do not know," Mars said. She crossed her arms over her chest and pondered this for a moment, her aura glowing crimson. "I trust Ky. My instincts tell me that Ky knows the danger that Gilead controlling the Books would cause, assuming their Church wouldn’t destroy them. If he is representative of Gilead, then they mean us no ill. But…and I hate to say this…perhaps letting Gilead help in this matter is best." The others looked at her, their expressions filled with confusion. "The Angel Host is the strongest army in the world, the Seikishidan, as Ky showed, incredibly powerful. We have a small military and few Artists trained in the arts of war."

"So we hand control of a Nitaru matter to Gilead?" Strawberry asked.

Mars smiled. "We already walked down that path, my friends, when we asked them to send Ky and Orochi. I’m just pointing out, as the military arm of Nitaru, that idealism will carry us only so far. But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?"

"True," Sephira said. "We have to do what we can with the situation as it stands now, not as it will in the future. Which is kind of ironic, since we staked Nitaru’s future on Sakkariah’s visions."

"Perhaps," Sakkariah said, "the destruction of Nitaru we speak of is not merely from the threat of the Templars. Maybe our choice shaped what will happen beyond that. Stranger things have happened."

Strawberry laughed. "You would believe that, since it was your vision."

The other three considered this, then joined Strawberry in laughter. After a few moments of mirth, the group calmed themselves. "So, we are agreed that we do not allow the Books to be found, if it is possible?" Sephira said. "Therefore, how to tell Hikari to stop working on them?"

"We tell her it’s for the good of Nitaru and the good of the world," Strawberry said. "She’s a very reasonable girl."

"And how reasonable will she be when we destroy her research and eradicate any text that was used to find the Books?" Sakkariah asked. "If we are resolute in keeping the Books away from the world, that is our next step."

"Such steps are not immediate," Sephira replied. "Our immediate need is dealing with what is before us now. The rest, we deal with when we can." She closed her link to the others, and, alone, sighed. We have been short sighted, naïve. We thought only of the here and now, frightened by the possibility of our destruction. We will have to change that. For better or worse, we’ve opened Nitaru to the world. We must be careful.

Ky Kiske stood outside of Mars’ home, watching the sunrise.

He had not slept at all that night, perhaps worried about what dreams would come; in truth, his training enabled him to, if need be, ignore sleep for a certain amount of time. He had wandered restlessly throughout Mars’ home, once encountering Gally in a hallway (the cat had regarded him with her eyes, almost sardonically, before passing by in silence), returning frequently to his room to check his thought-engine for a message from Avantasia. He and Orochi had agreed to jointly write their latest report and send it via both their engines, hopefully to impress upon his mother and uncle the seriousness of the situation. They both were assuming that the Council was aware that they were sending messages that could set into motion the arrival of the Angel Host in Nitaru, and both were concerned, albeit for different reasons. Orochi’s concerns centered on the fact that they could be accused, by the oversight committees in the Assembly, of not acting in the interests of Gilead or the Church. Ky, however, had other worries.

He worried over the deeper implications, the responsibility that Gilead was likely to assume over Nitaru due to the presence of the Books, and the possibility that Gilead would claim them. What worried him, more than anything, was the fact that it was just as likely that his homeland would use the Books as they would destroy them. The legend of the Church of the Faith, of its war against the forces of Darkness, did not hold up in the present, where New Jerusalem and Avantasia fought a war against each other for control over the future of Gilead. It was difficult to explain, to an outsider, for understand the lines that were drawn across his homeland, between those who descended from those who had lived in Eden, and those who had come from Nihon and Miifan. The Church had never really gotten over losing so much control over the Angel Host, their preferred warriors, the Saint Soldiers, being replaced by the Seikishidan. Was there someone in the Assembly, in the Church, who would see the Books not as a sin, as a curse, but as a means to an end? Worse, there were many in Avantasia who did not care about the source of such a weapon, merely that the Templars did not have it.

He cursed himself for not seeing the larger picture, for thinking only of the Templars and not the Books, not what they could do if they were discovered. He wondered if that reflected upon his ability as a commander, as a soldier; if perhaps he was not ready for the role he had assumed. Of course, he mused, the women of Nitaru had made mistakes, as well, so no one was perfect. It was small comfort, but comfort nonetheless.

His senses told him that, within Mars’ home, Orochi was awake now, moving about, and soon she would come to him, telling him whether or not Avantasia had responded. It would be time to get back to work then, he knew. In that last space of time, he decided to think about Embla, as he had been more and more since arriving here. He, of course, had always been rather modest with Orochi about the extent of the relationship he had with Embla-to the extent that he lied about her not being his girlfriend. He did so partly because that was how he was, but partly because he was no fool. She had been sent to Avantasia to monitor his progress as much as she was training, and he was perfectly aware that her beauty had been meant to charm him and distract him. He had initially tried to keep her at arm’s length, hearing constantly from his mother and uncle about the ill that her father meant towards the Seikishidan, but a strange thing had happened. He had found her charming, and more so charming in a way that was displayed best in unguarded moments, when she was less an instrument of the Assembly and more the teenage girl she truly was. And she was, of course, beautiful. So after a time, Ky let her become, if not his friend, at least an associate, someone to spend time with, though he never truly let his guard down.

When she confessed to him the true reason that she had been assigned to his case, her minor empathic power, Ky had first been certain that she had somehow used it on him, controlling him in some way. He had accused her of that very thing, and she had simply looked back at him. "I can’t disprove that, Ky. In fact, the only reason why I told you I have this gift was because I wanted everything to be in the open between you and me."

"And why exactly is that?" he had asked, scornfully. They had been on the campus of the Academy then, near his dormitory building, and quite a few of his classmates were looking out the windows, watching to see how he dealt with her. The level of dislike for her father, for the Assembly, on campus was quite high (though of course the males there all stared at her in admiration, it must be said.) and many wanted to see her get her comeuppance.

Embla had looked down, her hair in her face. When she spoke, it was in a whisper. "Has it ever occurred to you, Ky, that I don’t really want to be here? That this isn’t easy for me?" She turned on her heel and marched off, walking quickly away, leaving behind Ky, utterly stunned. Part of him had instantly thought it an act on her part, an artifice to get him to feel sympathy for her; after all, he had spent his entire life acting out a role that others had chosen for him. But the voice of reason was overcome by his heart, which he tended to follow too often according to his teachers. He had seen that Embla was more than her duty, more than her father’s ambitions, and for some reason, she had opened herself to him. And he had sent her away. He had spent a long time that night, he recalled, a night much like this one, thinking about things. And for once, he decided to act on them.

He had gone to Embla’s dormitory as soon as the sun rose and waited outside, knowing as he did that he was getting deeper and deeper in trouble for missing a class in unarmed combat. Akiyama, his principal instructor, tended to punish using his fists, and while Ky could one day boast of being stronger than Akiyama, today was not that day. He did not care. He watched the girls in Embla’s dorm pass him by, some in their combat course garb, others in the female version of the Academy uniform (the consensus amongst the male cadets, Ky included, was that the skirt could have stood to be shorter than knee-length), talking amongst themselves. Some of them saw him and smiled politely, saluting to the young Seikishidan candidate; a few giggled and whispered to each other. He was certain they knew who he was; Orochi had once told him that there were a considerable number of female cadets who found him attractive. She had also pointed out that he was too skinny and needed a haircut, just to keep him in line.

After he had waited for quite some time-long enough to wonder if Embla would even be attending the classes she was taking at the Academy, mainly military intelligence courses for her future role as an Archangel-she finally stepped out of the dorm building, alone. She was carrying her books under one arm, a small briefcase that, Ky later found out, held a thought-engine in her other hand. She saw him and, for one moment, looked as if she wished to retreat. Ky walked up to her and said, "You can leave when I finish. But since I’m most likely going to be spending the rest of the day enduring punishment from Master Akiyama, I would like to get this over with."

"You’re missing class?" Embla blinked in surprise. "I find that hard to believe. What brings this on?"

Ky had recently been able to look Embla in the eye, but today, he was back to the way he had been when he had first met her, all shy and awkward. He studied, rather closely, the seams and creases of his uniform pants as he said, "I came to say I’m sorry. You…you were rather open and fair with me yesterday, and I was just plain rude. I am sorry, Embla."

She regarded him through her glasses for a moment, and then smiled at him. "Perhaps I should have expected you to react as you did. I pretty much told you I was meant to spy on you in ways that went beyond the obvious. It’s just that…" She looked down too, and Ky was inwardly amused at what they must have looked like; two young people, both of high rank and station, staring at their feet, uncertain of what to say. "Just because I was sent here to watch you, doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy being in your company. And I wanted you to know everything about me, so if you disliked it, we could proceed on a purely professional level."

Ky looked up at Embla. "That implies, Embla, that if I don’t mind, things might proceed otherwise."

She blushed. "I…I don’t mean it that way, Ky. I, I meant if it’s possible for a von Prios and the nephew of Toshiaki Misawa to be friends, then, we could be friends?"

Ky realized then that she did mean it that way, that somehow, beyond all hope, certainly beyond the wishes of her father, she was attracted to him. It was months later before he was brave enough to admit to her what had started on this day, that he had fallen in love with her. And though to this day, he still wondered, in the depths of his soul, if Embla would side with her father if the day came that the Assembly and the Seikishidan stood on opposing sides, he still loved her. He had never really thought about her in terms of missing her, but he did, now, standing hundreds of miles away, in a place where his death had been foretold. And come hell or high water, he would return to her. Listen to yourself, Ky. Next thing you know you’re going to propose to her.

His musings were interrupted by the arrival of Orochi, in uniform, Bloodthorn on her hip. In one hand she carried a slip of paper that looked like it had come from her thought-engine, a print-out. She said, "Good morning. As some learned sage once noted about a difficult situation, the shit has truly hit the fan."

Ky took the print out from Orochi and saw that it was written in one of the battle languages used by the Misawa Clan, a variation of a dialect from Nihon that had not been spoken in two thousand years. Rendered into the Common Tongue, it read as follows:

"We just got this in?" Ky asked.

"It came in five minutes ago. That means it left Avantasia twenty-nine minutes after the Sixteenth departed; an hour’s time difference between there and Nitaru."

"Probably throwing a bone to the Assembly, to keep us from trying to respond and stop it." Ky re-read the message. "Just the Sixteenth, huh? They won’t vote on using the remainder of the Host for a few hours? Sounds like someone outwitted the Assembly."

"How do you mean?" Orochi asked.

"If the Angel Host had been allowed to come immediately, that means the Archangels would have come along. And that means the Church would really be controlling the operation. But it’s Mother who is controlling things for today at least."

Orochi grinned. "An entire corps of the Seikishidan, all their support vessels, escorts, and all of that, surrounding Nitaru. Those Church lapdogs won’t be in control of anything."

"Yeah. Remind me to ask my uncle how he pulled that off. But for now, we had best warn the ladies that company is coming. And they’re heavily armed." Ky focused a bit of his power and incinerated the print out, turning it into ashes. He wished now he had managed to get some rest; he had a feeling he was going to need it.

Jessica Kiske was back where she belonged.

Of late-the past few years, as the political infighting had grown more fierce in Gilead-Jessica had found herself spending more time in front of the Assembly, trying to get budgets cleared, than doing what she did best, leading soldiers in battle. Other commanders-those of the Angel Host, not of the pure, true Seikishidan-were given the assignments in the Domains. She had watched her kind become almost diplomats, rarely using their true power. But from the moment that the Nitaru business had cropped up, she had decided to take advantage of the situation to allow herself to return to the field. It helped that Ky was chosen to go, and that the Assembly and the Church was aware of his rather special status. Assigning the Sixteenth to the duty was child’s play then. When word had come from Nitaru detailing the difficulties that the mission had run into, she knew that there was no way that she would be kept from going into action, though, as she well knew, it would not be immediate.

Jessica stood on the bridge of the command vessel of her squadron, some fifty airships strong. The Pain of Salvation was one of ten vessels of its class, an aerial dreadnought constructed in Neo-Olympus by the highest class of Mechanics, the Technocrats. In all of Nor ‘Am, there were few equals to its size, firepower, and lifting capability. The size of the vessel was reflected in the size of the bridge and the number of the crew needed to command it. Where most airships, even combat ones, usually had a command crew of between three to six, the Pain of Salvation had a bridge crew of fifteen, their duties ranging from navigation to engineering to thought-engine management. They were arranged in a rough semi-circle around the two levels of the room, each station connected to the remainder of the ship via thought engine links; technomantic devices throughout the ship sent back information of every aspect of the ship and allowed the crew to control the monster as if it was a third the size. Also, from the bridge Jessica could contact any of the ships under her command via short-wave radio, directing the firepower of the air fleet in an instant. Such power, she mused, not counting the troops in the troop carriers. Add them, and she led one of the most powerful forces in Nor ‘Am-certainly enough to deal with the Templars.

It was not something advertised by the Seikishidan, but for all their fearsome reputation, a Corps of the elite forces of Gilead was not composed entirely of those fighters. In truth, fighters with the power that she had, that Ky had, were members of the Knights of the Cross; while the rank and file of the Corps were of a level of skill above that of the Angel Host levies, they didn’t possess the insanely high power levels of the Knights of the Cross. It tended to work as psychological warfare, Jessica knew, but the fact remained that within the Sixteenth were only ten Knights of the Cross, herself and nine others aboard the ten main warships of the fleet. And thanks to the Assembly she was lucky to get that.

She had wanted to launch long before she did, hoping to arrive in Nitaru by mid-morning at the latest. But the Assembly, ever striving to remind Avantasia where they thought the power lay, had called Misawa to an emergency session of the Military Oversight Committee, the one owned and operated by Embla’s father Gerheman. They were going to approve the mission, but they wanted their Archangels to oversee everything (and likely, she suspected, find a way to get a hold of the Books) and wanted to send the Angel Host as soon as possible. Misawa’s response had been remarkable in its effectiveness. He pointed out that Nitaru, while part of the Protectorate in a technical sense, was not a signatory to the most recent treaty with Jumi defining the areas of responsibility of the Angel Host. "While none can gainsay the rights of the Seikishidan to intervene to aid those of the Corps, Gilead can not be seen to be sending our armies headlong into war without respect to our allies. The full Assembly, therefore, should vote for proper military action as defined under the Treaty of Jumi." She had loved the look of shock that had crossed the faces of the twelve members of the committee. Misawa then threw them a bone. "However, in light of the Intelligence Directorate’s concerns in this area, and given the identity of the operatives we have in place at Nitaru, I propose that Embla von Prios be assigned to this mission as an observer."

That had been an admirable ploy on Misawa’s part, but unfortunately for Jessica, that meant she had to deal with Embla, who at once was an Archangel, the daughter of the leader of the opposition to the Seikishidan, and her son’s lover. (That she knew this was not testament to her skills as a mother or even in the area of military intelligence; she had bluntly asked Embla once and had been treated to a rather simple "Yes.") She stood just behind Jessica, arms crossed, staring off into the distance. She wondered if Embla was simply brooding or trying to use her talents to reach out to Ky. Other than one burst of Ky using his power that she had reported, she had been cut off from him, most likely by the power of Nitaru’s flux field. Embla realized that Jessica was looking at her and said, "It’s a different experience, being on a vessel of this size. Normally I travel aboard my…my father’s airship, and it’s much smaller and prone to being affected by the weather."

"The Pain of Salvation is not immune to such things, but the control systems allow us to conquer the majority of the weather conditions here over the ocean. Since we’re not in the proper season for a typhoon, we should arrive in Nitaru on schedule."

"That’s a relief." She stepped a little closer to Jessica before she spoke again. "I know you have certain doubts about me, Commander, but I assure you I do care for Ky."

"Your feelings for my son are your own, Embla. Myself, as much as I wish to behave as a parent, my first concern has to be my duty to Gilead and to the Seikishidan. Ky was trained for his entire life for this. He’s ready."

"But…but you read the reports. The one that spoke of the vision…"

Jessica turned away from Embla. "I don’t believe that is Ky’s fate, and if you think about it, you should too."

Embla frowned. She could not speak openly of the reasons why Jessica was so assured that her son was not to die here-indeed, she did not know all the details herself-but she still felt the need to say something. She cared too much for Ky to do otherwise. "But what if you’re wrong?" she asked.

Jessica whirled on Embla, so sudden a movement that her sword, Dream Nail, slapped against her thigh. A few of the nearest crewmen pretended not to notice what had happened. "I don’t have time to deal with that, Embla," she fairly hissed. "I love my son as well, but I have a job to do. Of course I worry that the vision could be right, but please, allow me to do my job."

"I am sorry," Embla said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. "This is a difficult time for all of us, Commander."

Jessica accepted this gracefully. "I too am sorry, Embla. None of us slept much last night."

Before Embla could formulate a reply, or perhaps find something else to occupy her time, one of the bridge crew spoke. He was a youngish man with close-cropped hair that he’d dyed an odd shade of orange, by the name of Ohtani, and his responsibilities included monitoring the technomantic devices in the bow of the ship that detected changes in the weather. An airship was still, even with the powerful engines used by the vessels of Gilead, affected by the whims of the wind and storms, and keeping an eye on the weather was necessary. "Commander Kiske, I’m picking up something…well, strange."

"What is it, Ohtani?"

Ohtani scowled at one of his display screens, green light playing across it. "I’m not certain, in all honesty, Commander. It appears to be some sort of storm front, approximately two hundred miles in front of the flux field of Nitaru."

"What is so unusual about that?" Jessica asked.

"Well, Commander, what is unusual about it is the fact that ten minutes ago, this system did not exist…and it is being generated by five separate sources."

Jessica went over to Ohtani’s station and peered over his shoulder. She saw that, on the screen, there were five patterns of green light, shapes that represented the movement of air and pressure. As she watched, the five patterns began to move towards each other, forming a rough arc in front of Nitaru. Jessica swore under her breath. "Contact the Combat Sensor unit. Tell them we have a possible case of flux usage in our flight path. I want to know what’s causing that ASAP. Commo officer, notify all ships of the fleet to prepare for possible inclement weather conditions. All gunnery officers, go to stage two alert." Damnation; the Templars are already on the move. They are, historically, masters of the elemental arts. Well, then, if they seek to block us, then they will find that Gilead does not run from battle lightly.

Behind her, Embla watched as the bridge crew swept into duty, a well-oiled machine dedicated to the purpose of war. Not for the first time, she thought it strange that a nation that had been founded on the principles of the Church would be so skilled at the art of war. But then, she mused, being the daughter of a politician, she should have been used to the concept of hypocrisy. She sighed to herself and hoped that Ky was all right, and more importantly would be that way when she reached Nitaru.

Aboard the Atavism of Twilight, Aesgir Haroy prepared for what was to come.

He had planned the operation that had been launched by the arrival of Kloften’s message for a considerable amount of time now, aided by Mickelson and (he was loathe to admit it) Turilli, and though the situation differed from how he had thought it would play out, the plan remained largely unaltered. He had always intended to dispatch five airships, commanded by five Templars with an affinity for air elemental magic, to serve as a bulwark against the possible intervention of Gilead. Now, he knew, they were buying him the time he would need to secure Nitaru and claim the Books. He knew very well that his ships could not win a battle with the ships at the command of Gilead, so his occupation of Nitaru, by necessity, would be briefer than he had hoped. His overall scheme was still in place; his mercenaries prepared to assault the city, while his remaining Templars would deal with the magics that the Artists would throw at him. Which left him to deal with the fighter that had made his presence felt on Nocturnus. Then Kloften would guide them to where the Books were hidden (he had already sent a return message to his spy, once which would allow him to finally throw off the shackles of being Gunderson), and then Aesgir Haroy would have the power he had long sought.

The Brotherhood, he mused, would never have appointed him to this task had they known of his ambitions; the fact that one of them might seek individual power and glory had apparently escaped them. They honestly believed that he would simply bring the Books to them, and try to rebuild the days of old, when the Black Templars had helped the Lords of Ultima Thule hold sway over Nor ‘Am. The truth, of course, was that those days were dead, and while Haroy owed Gilead the force of the vengeance of the Templars, he intended to deliver it personally. And for his own benefit. He had sent Mickelson to command his own vessel, the Heavenward, partly because it was part of the plan, but mainly because he wanted Mickelson to be somewhere else when he made his move. That of course was in the future; now, the twenty-five ships of his fleet drew ever nearer to Nitaru, to war, and to the power that he had dreamed of.

It was an old saying amongst the warrior-philosophers of Nihon, whose martial arts disciplines and beliefs had formed the backbone of the twenty-four Paths to Heaven practiced by the Seikishidan, that everything happens at once.

Invariably, when some cadet at the Academy of Combat heard this, they pointed out that this was rather obvious. Of course everything happened at once; how else could the universe work? The instructor would then sigh, and patiently explain the deeper meaning of such an obvious saying. The fact that everything happened at once was a thing that, by normal human nature, limited one. One could only sense what was within the limits of one’s senses; however, the things that occurred elsewhere affected a person despite their lack of knowledge of an event. "You can not anticipate everything that happens," the instructor would go on to say. "Rather, you must learn to adapt to an ever changing world, one that you can never control, only understand your place in."

If proof of this axiom ever existed, it did on this morning in Nitaru.

As the Council debated their proper course of action, as Ky Kiske thought of his love and then heard that his mother was racing to save him, as Jessica Kiske debated with Embla von Prios, and as Aesgir Haroy launched his assault on Nitaru, Hikari completed the paratext that told of the location of the Books of the First Cataclysm.

She had again worked through the night, fueled by an energy that she suspected came from the paratext itself, from the power it bound and defined. In her mind, the whispers spoke constantly, telling her exactly what needed to be done to create the thing that, she now saw, served far more purposes than any of them could imagine. Her senses had seemed to expand, to show her aspects of the world that previously she had never seen. And as she had fitted the last few pieces of the puzzle together, she saw, for a moment, what was to come. She saw everything, in denial in a certain way of the philosophers who said one could only be limited to their viewpoint. And she also saw that there was nothing that could be done to halt what coming. She worked on, paying no heed to the return of Daimira, and finally, at long last, the paratext was completed, and she knew all. She knew where the Books of the First Cataclysm were located. She knew why they had been hidden, and moreover, she knew what they, in and of themselves, were hiding. She knew, in that one second, as Daimira looked up from the other side of the table they both sat at, all that was to come. She knew that the Council had decided, too late, to halt her work; that Ky Kiske was racing to tell the Council of the arrival of his mother and her war fleet. And she knew what would happen next.

She looked down between her hands, where the paratext had been floating, and saw that nothing was there. She knew then that she had become the paratext, she was the opener of the way to the Books, and to more than the Books. She knew why that was so. She looked at Daimira, and smiled gently, and said, "You’ve been a good friend, and a good assistant, Daimira."

Daimira was puzzled, but before she could speak, Gunderson entered the laboratory. She noticed that he seemed somehow different, that he moved with a purpose and a grace he had never displayed before. He regarded Hikari, who glowed with a golden light, and asked, "You have finished the paratext, Hikari?"

"Yes, I have. You do not have to do what you think you must, Olav Kloften."

Daimira scarcely registered the new name by which Hikari had addressed Gunderson, for with one swift gesture he drew a long bladed knife from beneath his cloak and smashed the end of it against her skull, stunning her. Kloften lifted the unconscious alchemist with one hand, the other bringing the knife to her throat. "You…you knew who I was?" he asked, stunned.

Hikari rose to her feet. "I know it now, Templar. And that is all that matters. I also know that you do not kill Daimira, because I take you to Nocturnus to locate the power your master seeks. I fear, though, that it is not the power he believed he was to find."

Kloften left the blade at Daimira’s throat, more perplexed than ever. "Where…where is the paratext? That is all I require, Hikari."

Hikari smiled at him, a smile at once enchanting and terrifying. "You knew when you first saw me, Kloften. I am the paratext. I am the living representation of the workings that the Books of the First Cataclysm themselves were a part of, the word made flesh as it were."

"I am the voice of the Empyreal Lexicon."

Across Nitaru, in that instant, a change was felt in the fabric of the Domain, a shift in the fields of flux that powered the realm. Most people that lived in Nitaru did not truly sense what had just happened, or from where it had come from, but they felt a moment of unease, a cold chill that crept up their spines. Those more closely attuned with the Library felt a shock to their systems, an icy dagger to the heart, their minds flooded with incomprehensible images, before they were tossed free of the network of the Library.

In the Tower, where they still communed, trying to resolve themselves to the morally difficult choice they had just made, the Council felt the awakening of the power of the paratext and they saw that they were too late; the choice had been made for them. A power unlike any that the Council had ever felt, either in actuality or through their shared memories, erupted at the center of Nitaru, and in one fell swoop cut off their connection to the Library. For the membership of the Council, a void opened in the pattern that was the Domain, an emptiness that their power could not touch. For a moment, perhaps, they did not know what to do; then their steel wills turned back to their problems. Mars knew at once what had to be done, for she felt that what they had just sensed was not the ending, but the beginning, and she knew Nitaru had to be protected…no, defended. "I’m going to raise the Guard! Someone find Ky and Orochi and send them to me!" She transferred out, leaving behind a pattern of light that floated there, in her shape, for a split second.

Sakkariah turned towards Strawberry and Sephira. "My vision-casting powers are enhanced here; I can draw on the memory of older rituals from here, though not for long. I will remain here and serve as our eyes and ears, while I can. You two head for the Library and try to regain control over it." Without questioning, they transferred out, leaving Sakkariah to her own ways. She closed her eyes, calming herself, for the rites of blood she used were bought through pain, and to use them in the fashion that she was about to would cause her great mental agony. She reached inside herself, her shared memories with her ancestors, and began creating in herself the necessary frame of mind to see into the future.

Within Nitaru, Ky Kiske, already trotting towards where he and Orochi had first met the Council, suddenly came to a halt. He too, had sensed the power that had briefly flared into being at the Library before becoming enveloped in a void that was beyond his power to understand. He had considered turning that way, but decided that he should try to locate the Council first. However, before he got anywhere near his destination, he sensed something else. He turned towards the west, towards the rising sun, his eyes narrowing. Orochi stopped beside of him and tugged at his sleeve. "Come on, Ky," she urged, but he didn’t move. "Ky?"

He did not look away from the west, and said, in a calm tone, "Orochi. Contact Keiko and tell her to get the Ars Nova out of here. Go as far to east as it takes to remain in communication with you and to contact the Sixteenth."

"Ky, what are you talking about?"

He regarded her with the same look of cold determination that he’d worn the day before on Nocturnus, the look of a warrior that belied his essentially gentle nature. "The Templars are coming, Orochi. A lot of them, along with a hell of a lot more men than we thought they had. Get Keiko airborne now, and then find Mars, or Neu, or Enii. Help them organize defenses."

"And where are you going?"

"To the Library. I suspect I should have listened closer to what I was told. Hikari’s in danger." He blurred into motion, leaving behind an afterimage for a moment that looked terribly ghostly to Orochi. She shuddered, then got to work herself.

Olav Kloften stared in wonder at the girl before him, so awed by what he saw, what he sensed, that he let his grip on Daimira loosen. With a gesture, Hikari sent her out of the laboratory, the familiar aura of transference surrounding her body. "You are fortunate that Hikari set into motion a chain of events that can not be stopped, Kloften. Or the mission of the Black Templars would have ended in failure here. But since the goals of the Lexicon are aligned, somewhat, with yours, then it truly does not matter."

"What…what is the Lexicon? Gunderson’s memories tell me it was just a myth…"

Hikari-or rather, the entity that she had become once completing the paratext-opened her mouth to speak, then scowled. "The keepers of this Domain seek to interfere with the will of the Empyreal Lexicon. And I am not quite ready to leave this place yet. Very well, then." She closed her eyes-eyes, Kloften saw, were now filled with golden flakes of light-and spoke in a whisper. The words she used were of such strange, alien power that they drove him to one knee, his mind filling with a fog. He felt a wave of energy rush through him, and the fog cleared from his brain. "There. I have briefly severed the Library from the flux of Nitaru and warped the security workings of the laboratory into an anti-entropic field."

"You…did…what?"

"I have temporarily slowed time within the laboratory. Within it, minutes are like seconds beyond it. That allows me to do what I need to do, and then to go. But to answer the question you are doubtless about to ask me, yes, the Empyreal Lexicon does in fact exist. All references to it are couched in myth because any factual knowledge of the Lexicon existed long before the First Cataclysm."

"And the Lexicon is, exactly?"

Hikari moved around the room, reaching out with her hands, drawing streams of energy to her in the same fashion that one drew a text to them from the Library. "Amazing. Fifty thousand years and they’ve accumulated so little original knowledge. Still, it could be of use."

"You’re stealing from the Library?"

"Copying, Mr. Kloften. And to continue, the Lexicon is a repository of magical knowledge far older than the Books of the First Cataclysm. In fact, for all their vaunted power, the Books are merely a garbled echo of the Lexicon itself…which was why they were perfectly suited to mask a fragment of the Lexicon." She laughed. "I seem to have inherited Hikari’s habit of speaking in enigmatic revelations. But then, describing the Lexicon in terms you would understand tends to rob it of understanding."

"Who created the Lexicon? The Lords of Ultima Thule?"

Hikari laughed, in a way that seemed far more malicious than was possible coming from her body. "Ultima Thule? Those pretenders to a glory created long before they even knew what power truly was? No, Kloften, the power of the Lexicon does not come from Ultima Thule, or from any other force you know of."

"Then where does it…"

"From nowhere in this world, Kloften. The Empyreal Lexicon comes from another world…a world, in fact, long since vanished, the sun it orbited having destroyed it. The Lexicon comes from the stars." She stopped drawing energy into her, and nodded to herself. "You will understand more, once we travel to Nocturnus and liberate the Books of the First Cataclysm." Hikari waved a hand at Kloften, who was opening his mouth to explain that this was not the plan, he had to get her to Haroy, but the world disappeared around him in a blur, and he transferred out of the Library.

While there were precincts throughout the entirety of the city of Nitaru that enabled the Guard to be nearer to trouble zones, the main headquarters was alongside the barracks buildings, which was just beyond the edge of the airfield. The headquarters building was a low, three story affair that served as the central communication point for the entire city, as well as an armory and the main administrative center for the Guard. The heart of the headquarters was the control room, as it was called, but all it was really was a roomed filled with the short wave radios that allowed the operators to contact the other precincts and the Guard in the field. As a redundant feature, usually in times of rough weather, each precinct and the headquarters had an Artist to send messages via thought-cast. On this morning, the Artist on duty-in fact, nearing the end of her duty shift along with two other men of the Guard-was a young woman named Nao. She and the other Artists assigned to this duty had been trained by Mars to understand combat situations to allow them to quickly respond to what came up (in fact, she had been the one that had summoned Mars to the brawl where Enii had become famous for using the frying pan.) To signify her role as part of the Guard, she wore the uniform of the Guard, albeit with a knee length skirt; she sat at the raised platform at the back of the control room that was the commander’s post. Artists doubled as watch commanders due to their power; it was a considerable responsibility, she knew. She did her job well, though at the end of a shift, she hoped to get through the next hour or so and get some sleep.

She was about to be disappointed.

The first hint that something was wrong, as far as Nao was concerned, was a radio call from the airfield. A harried air controller had reported that the airship from Gilead, the Ars Nova, had suddenly taken off without permission to do so from the tower. She was dealing with that controller, talking directly to him over short wave, when the second hint that something was wrong appeared in front of her in a burst of transference; Mars wasted little time in letting them know that something was up by saying, "Go to combat alert Omega. Everyone in the Guard, assume combat positions. Nao, contact every Artist in the Communications Division and tell them to get any Artist that they know of with attack spell levels above two moving. We’re about to be attacked."

"Lady Mars," Nao said, "The Ars Nova just took off without permission, heading eastward at combat speeds. Is this related?"

Mars’ brow furrowed with concentration. "I hope they’re going for help, because we need it. Now sound the alarm, and get moving." Nao closed her eyes and began sending messages to her fellow Artists while the other Guardsmen got to work, turning on the alarm klaxon while radioing the other precincts and Guard in the field. It looked like that she wouldn’t be getting to sleep anytime soon.

Foxfire was convinced that some force in the universe was out to get him when the alarm sounded.

His head was pounding before he even opened his eyes, which was not a good sign; he vaguely recalled that he and Kristof, after their aborted attempt to get Ky Kiske drunk, had left the Shining Wizard and gone trawling through the taverns and bars. From the feel of things, he had passed out in his quarters in his uniform, which was not a first by any stretch of the imagination. And now, the alarm klaxon was sounding, and given that the alarm system had been imported from Neo-Olympus to be used as a means to notify the Guard in the event of a Domain-wide threat, Foxfire doubted the day was going to go well. He opened his eyes and saw the room spin around him; he concentrated, and the sensation faded a bit. Hopefully some Artist or another had a charm that would help him deal with the effects of too much drink, he thought as he sat up, and saw something odd. A hat, a match to the one that Kristof wore, but a darker shade of blue, was sitting on his night stand. Foxfire frowned as he buttoned his uniform jacket shut and picked up the hat, hearing footsteps outside. He opened his door just as Neu ran up, buckling her sword belt on. She regarded him, then the hat, then chuckled. "Sucker," she said.

"Why do I have Kristof’s hat?" he asked, following her as she broke into a run towards the doors that led out of the barracks towards the headquarters.

"You don’t. Before you left the Wizard, Kristof convinced you that the hat was a good way to get the attention of women, so you went looking for an Artist with the ability to duplicate objects. Looks like they got the color a bit wrong."

"If the hangover didn’t tell me already," Foxfire groaned, "then that tells me I was drunk last night."

As they made their way towards the headquarters, they were joined by Kristof and Enii, the latter letting out a series of whooping war cries that made anyone in earshot wince. Kristof stared at the hat that was in Foxfire’s hand, then tipped his and said, "So we did do that. I had wondered about that."

"This," Foxfire said, "is going to be a terribly long day."

Sephira and Strawberry appeared in the courtyard before the Library to find a scene of minor chaos.

The Library itself was surrounded by a barrier of some sort, a dome of energy that floated in the air like a heat haze, shot through with rainbow colors. Before the Library, they saw, was a crowd of about twenty people, most of them dressed in the robes that marked them as custodians of the Library, milling about, looking confused. A few were clustered around a person they recognized as Daimira, sitting on the ground, blood running from a cut at her temple. Strawberry knelt beside of her and lifted a hand to the cut and spoke a few words, a simple healing spell. "Daimira, what happened?" she asked.

"I’m…I’m not certain…" Daimira said. "I was with Hikari…she was working on the paratext, and I think…I think she finished it. The energies around her changed…she spoke to me, and then someone came up behind me and hit me." She rubbed at her temple, at the spot where the injury had been just seconds ago. "I think…I think it was Gunderson?"

Strawberry looked up at Sephira. "We scanned the daylights out of his mind. How could he be the spy?"

"Who knows?" She raised her staff and called, "Xin!" Her familiar burst from the end of the staff and flew around her head, cooing at her. "The field," she ordered. Xin let out a little sound and flew towards the field, arcing around it. Sephira knew Xin was picking up information about the field, as that was one of the spells she had worked into the familiar. As Xin did its work, she and Strawberry felt a considerable power coming towards them, and thankfully it was a familiar one, as Ky appeared before them. "Ladies, we have trouble."

"That would appear to be obvious," Strawberry remarked, indicating the field around the Library with a thumb.

"Besides that," Ky said. "I’m sensing a great amount of power coming from the west, and fast. The Templars are coming."

"Do you have any good news?" Strawberry said, shaking her head sadly.

"Depends on how you define good news." He told them about the message from Gilead, about the impending arrival of the Sixteenth Seikishidan Corps. "They won’t beat the Templars here, but all you have to do is hold on a bit."

"Perhaps," Sephira said. Xin flew back down from the field and settled on her shoulder, chirping and cooing at her; information flowed into her from the familiar. She frowned and then said, "I’ve never sensed a field like this before. It doesn’t seem to have the qualities of a barrier field…and if Xin was correct, something strange is going on within it. Time…time is strange in there." She closed her eyes and thought cast back to the tower. Sakkariah, Ky says that the Templars are coming from the East. Have you sensed anything?

There was a moment of silence, and then Sakkariah’s thought-voice came to her and Strawberry, strain evident from how she "spoke." He is correct. In the near future, I see them arriving in a great number of airships. They will strike at the docks and the airfield first.

What of the Seikishidan? Strawberry asked. Are they coming?

Then get out of the Tower, Sephira commanded. You’ll do more good helping Mars than you will hurting yourself. Mars, Sakkariah is coming to you; the Templars are attacking us in strength, the docks and the airfield.

Sephira relayed the message to Ky, who was staring at the field around the Library, his hand on one hip. "I wanted it to serve as a relay between here and the incoming air fleet. Sorry I didn’t have time to tell you all."

"This has been a morning for errors in judgment, Ky," Strawberry said, helping Daimira to her feet. "The question is, what do we do now?"

As if the universe had chosen to answer them, the field around the Library simply vanished. A bolt of energy thundered from the main building, a blue white beam of light that screamed into the distance and vanished. Ky followed it with his eyes and said, "Damn it. Two life forces, Hikari and Gunderson…but a Gunderson displaying a great deal of power…just headed for Nocturnus."

Sephira gasped. "Hikari is taking him to the vaults? But why…what on Earth is she doing?"

Daimira spoke up. "Hikari seemed…different when she finished the paratext. As if she was someone else, yet still Hikari. I didn’t get much of a chance to figure it out before I was attacked."

Ky turned to look at Sephira and Strawberry. "We don’t have a lot of time. Can one of you get me to Nocturnus, fast?"

The two Artists looked at each other for a moment, and then Sephira gently spoke. "Ky…the visions…Sakkariah’s vision told us that you will meet your fate on Nocturnus."

"And if I don’t go then Nitaru is destroyed!" Ky stepped up to Sephira and put one hand on her shoulder. "Sephira, I swore an oath to defend the world from men like Haroy, to give my life up if need be to save people like Hikari. I don’t have a choice. Take me to Nocturnus."

Sephira sighed, then took his hand from her shoulder and held it in hers. "If you die, Kiske, I’ll never forgive myself."

"Then I won’t die," Ky said, smiling gently as he felt the world begin to go away from him. He sensed a flash of power, and with that, he and Sephira left Nitaru, their atoms racing towards the vaults of Nocturnus. Strawberry watched as the aura of their transference field vanished, and then her expression hardened. "Daimira, it’s time to go to war." She looked into the distance, where Sephira and Ky had gone, and wished both of them well.

Orochi ran from the airfield, having felt the power that was Ky race away from Nitaru, her mind whirling. She had not expected Ky to leave the Domain, but the fact that he had suggested that the Books were threatened. Not having any place better to go, she decided to go to the Guard headquarters, and arrived just as Sakkariah appeared in front of the building, dropping to one knee, breathing heavily. Orochi knelt beside of her and asked, "Are you all right?"

Sakkariah nodded, though it took an effort. "That took more out of me than I thought; the rituals don’t work well if someone is interfering with them." Orochi helped Sakkariah to her feet. "Your damn fool friend just went to Nocturnus. His death awaits him there, you know."

"I wouldn’t say that for certain. If anyone could stare death down, it’s Ky Kiske." Orochi hoped that was not merely bravado as she helped Sakkariah into the headquarters, and she said a quick prayer for her friend.

Hikari and Kloften appeared outside of the vault that Sephira had opened during the expedition to Nocturnus, so suddenly that Kloften was dizzied by the change in location. He bent over, hands on his thighs, as the world spun around him. "Where…where are we?" he asked.

"Where you wished to be," Hikari said. "The vaults of Nocturnus, where, long centuries ago, the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation did the bidding of the Lexicon, though they realized it not." She raised her hands over her head, and the entire face of the cliff before them exploded into a million shards of rock that somehow did not strike them. "Within the vaults of Nocturnus, the Brotherhood, who had infiltrated many of the Domains of the Covenant, managed to hide their greatest treasures, from both their enemies and their allies of Ultima Thule. They thought that they could last out the war between the Covenant and Ultima Thule, but they instead were destroyed alongside their lackeys, the Black Templars, during the Battle of the Ivory Plains."

"What does have to do with the Lexicon?" Kloften asked.

"Walk with me and your questions shall be answered, Olav Kloften. We have much to do, before the end comes." Hikari walked into the vaults, her back straight, eyes locked forward, almost as if she was being drawn into the vaults by some force. After a moment, Kloften followed, wondering exactly what she meant by "before the end comes." He had a feeling he was not going to enjoy it.

The black ships of the Templars raced towards Nitaru, flying less than one hundred feet above the water; a hapless airship, on the way to trade at Nitaru, got in the path of the fleet and was quickly blasted apart by the guns of the lead vessels. The island appeared on the horizon as the ships went into the final formations, one wedge of ships targeting the docks, one going after the airfield, while a third group was tasked with flying over the entire Domain, causing property damage and generally terrorizing the citizens before assuming an air cover above Nitaru. Aboard the Atavism of Twilight, Aesgir Haroy watched as the Templar fleet began their assault, ships attacking the vessels in the harbor and raking the airfield with fire. Soon, he knew, the troop ships would lower to their deployment level, and Turilli’s mercenaries would take the field, hopefully taking as many of the enemy with them as they could as they died. And then, he knew, he would have the power he long had sought, the power that would shake the very heavens itself.

Across Nitaru, everyone-from Mars and Sakkariah, to Orochi, to Strawberry and Daimira, Neu and Enii, Foxfire and Kristof-heard the roar of airship engines, the thunder of their guns, as the Templar air fleet blasted overhead. They hardened their hearts, and prepared for battle, though the number of ships frankly amazed them; no one had even considered that so much of the enemy could be out there. But they would fight, for they had no choice, after all.

The storming of Nitaru had begun.

To be continued…

Author’s Note:

Sorry Chapter Five took so long to finish; it’s been a hectic month around my house. I’d also like to warn everyone that, from now on out, this story will be a series of cliffhangers as the war between Nitaru and the Templars rages. Hope your nerves can take it.

J.R.