The Redemption of Viren

I, Viren Sorro, son to Lord Galba Sorro and Parthia Sorro, born 9,914 In the Year of the Empire on Londor, do here write down what befell Xadar Dromon and his loyal followers subsequent to our exile from the Gasha Order and the events leading to the death of our leader, Lord Dromon.  I and my companion, Nat Peilow, took the title Axath after our conquest of the primitive Dark Empire and the growth of the Axeum.

***

Viren huddled on the cave floor, cloak wrapped tight around him, slowly freezing to death.  A feeble bit of heat wafted across him from the few soaked twigs that had managed to catch fire.  His pack lay open and useless by his feet, the few supplies left were scattered on the icy floor.  His pulsblade, once a proud reminder of what he was, had been thrown into the darkness at the very back of the cave.  Qur, Viren's only loyal friend and an android, stood idly by the fire in attempt to keep his circuitry from also freezing.  Qur's eyes flickered on.  The blue orb blinked once, the Qur rolled himself next to his shivering master.

"I have received a transmission from the Holo.  It seems it concerns you."

Viren looked up at Qur, the human's face was ragged, tired by fighting and traveling, and unshaved, icy tracks ran down his cheeks, and his gray eyes had the glassy look of a man who had seen too much.  Viren rose with huge effort, an invisible burden weighing down his shoulders.

"Play it." Viren croaked.  He had not spoken in days.

Qur projected a hologram from his single eye, the image hanging in mid-air.  It showed a young woman with a newborn infant in her arms.

"It appears your wife has given birth, master." Qur said.

Viren stared at the hologram for minutes, the images reflected in his eyes, the reality of what he was seeing sinking in.

"Cantthra... gave birth?  A child?" fresh tears rolled down harrowed cheeks, "What is it: a boy or a girl?  Tell me!"

"A girl, master.  Myndorra Sorro, born on 3.20, 9,938 AI at 9 pounds and 6 ounces."

"Myndorra." Viren whispered.  He reached out to touch the hologram, only to have his fingers pass right through it, "We have a girl, Canthra, like you always wanted."

Viren doubled over, coughing violently into his hands.  Qur ended the projection; Canthra and Myndorra faded into the air.  Viren collapsed on the ground no longer strong enough to sit up.  He could feel death climbing up his fingers and through his frozen veins soon to reach his heart and forever separate him from his wife and daughter.  No, no, no, he couldn't die, not yet.  Viren placed his white hands on the cave floor, his fingers could no longer feel the cold of the ice, and pushed.  With a yell of effort that roared off the cave walls, Viren rose to his feet.

"Qur," he wheezed, "I'm going back."

***

I was in the Great Dasorium on the Capital, flushed with my triumph at ending the Rama Conflict.  Nat was with me in the Cenotaph Atrium as we were being welcomed by the Council and congratulated by our fellow knights.  With that boyish grin still plastered to his face, my friend Nat turned my attention to a party of three standing off by a statue detached from the celebrations.  It was Canthra Jan, an accomplished knight in her own right, discussing her recent return with Sirs Iodal Quigh and Xadar Dromon.  I had, before that, gone on several peacekeeping and investigative missions with Canthra Jan; as a Patrivian she was an expert diplomat, much better than I was, and a talented swordsman.  My look made Nat turn his attention elsewhere, though the grin stayed in the corners of his mouth.  I would not let my swell of emotions from my victory cloud my judgement and make me do some rash act.  Once I had properly greeted and been congratulated by all the assembled Gasha, I made my way over to where now only Canthra Jan and Master Dromon stood still talking over the details of her previous mission.  With an abrupt nod and a sweeping bow and jovial praise for me, Master Xadar Dromon left us.  As the atrium emptied of Gasha, Nat leaving to celebrate his return and ascension to knighthood with his family, Canthra and I passed pleasantries  each unwilling to discuss the obvious topic.  I felt like a boy again training on Kavos filled with the first flushes of manhood.  This, and the dark look hidden in her eyes kept me from making any advances.  She left, claiming she had other duties to attend to.  I was left alone in the dim atrium rather awkwardly.

Later, while making my way purposelessly to the festivities in Galactic Plaza, I was stopped from my brooding by Master Xadar Dromon.  I was very puzzled by this, for Sir Dromon was often preoccupied in the Council chambers or else locked away in his study.  I greeted him courteously enough with the respect due to a Gasha master, and he greeted me in a quite friendly manner.  He gave me more praise for my heroics and boldness, my prescient tactics and wisdom.  I was shocked a master such as Xadar Dromon was giving me so much attention.  I did not have a reply.  He then told me something that at first seemed so innocent, but haunted me the rest of the night.  He told me I deserved a seat on the Gasha Council, or a liaison to the Admiralty or some high rank, and that he wished to teach me personally of matters he had discovered in his studies.  My slight confusion gave way to pride and honor; that a master like Dromon wished to share some of his vast knowledge with me was more than I could've asked for.  I enthusiastically accepted his invitation, and he replied that that was exactly the attitude he expected: boldness and an eagerness to learn.  I went on my way to the grand party being held partly in my honor, my ego soaring to new heights up into the clouds above my reason.  I joined Nat as the focus of the celebrations when I arrived, with the Gasha Masters and the Emperor himself noting our noble services to the Galactic Empire.  The night, some 9 hours local time, blurred together in a haze of reveling, conversation, and consumption.  With my mind soaring over a sea of confidence, I, at some point during the night, ended up on a balcony overlooking a magnificent view of the Galactic Senate and Imperial Palace, but I was not looking at architecture that night but rather the face of Canthra Jan.  I let my desires, pulsing like the rap of a hammer through my diluted veins, take control during that night.  Our faces were so close as to be touching.

I awoke the next morning in my cell, amnesiac as to how I got there and most of the previous night.  I dressed quickly and reported back to the Council accompanied by a drunken Nat, who, I believe, had never even returned to his cell.  That was how Nat Peilow was.  After the debriefing Nat fled to solve the problem of how to cure a hangover while I stayed behind in the Dasorium, half hoping she was there, half not.  She was there.  Dressed ready for travel, she was still glowing from the night before.  We slowly found each other, both of us embarrassed by our closeness during the celebrations; I had not planned on making clumsy advances while intoxicated and egotistical.  I determined to do properly what I had done before.  I would have offered to accompany her on her new mission back to her home Patrivia, but–alas–I had a my first meeting with Xadar Dromon.  How much better would it have been if I had gone with my heart rather than my self?  How better the galaxy would have been?  How many lives spared?  I bade farewell to Canthra and dutifully marched to Master Dromon's study with a mind torn: torn between the secrets I was soon to learn or the woman I had left behind.  When I entered, Master Dromon rose quickly from his seat, a holoscreen vanishing into the air, to greet me with a friendly smile.  I hid my curiosity as to what he had been viewing.  We began my lessons in earnest; Master Dromon sat me down in a seat opposite from his.  I learned... so much, too much.  Most of what I learned I have since forced myself to forget, but while I was learning it, when I was a younger man, I absorbed it all thinking it not evil in any way.

Master Xadar and I delved into such arcane lore and ancient techniques, and my mind so eager, that soon I surpassed all my pears in knowledge and power.  Hours–days–I spent locked away with Master Dromon, preferring Canthra, when she was returned from her continual negotiations on Patrivia, and Nat's company second to Dromon's.  But as I grew in power, my mind I now realize, became weaker and weaker to Master Dromon's will.  Canthra Jan was absent during much of this time–I believe it was a year and a half at least–due to the tenuous situation in Patrivia.  I know now why the situation seemed to always return just when Canthra thought she had solved it and why Master Xadar was always bothered and impatient when she was around: he didn't want her distracting and diverting my mind.  I was granted the rank of Gasha Warden and made a counselor on the Emperor's own advisory council; as a Warden I was second only to the Gasha Council itself.  I am certain my master had a large role in my procuring these lofty positions.  When he believed my training sufficient and my mind properly his, Master Xadar Dromon revealed to me that I was not his only pupil, though I was his star student: he had in fact been training Nat Peilow in a similar manner and many other more feeble-minded Gasha.  He had also tried to persuade Canthra Jan to come under his wing, but she had refused.  He revealed many things to me that day, all of which should have made me turn on him in revulsion, but which instead led me more securely into his grip.  Though Nat was his other most powerful student, he said–truly–that I was the stronger and thus make sure Nat assumes his role of follower.  He said too that I would need to watch Nat warily at all times so he would not usurp my powers.  I'm sure now he poisoned Nat with similar words.  Thus ended mine and Nat's friendship.  Shaken but still loyal after these words, we studied and practiced for many, many more hours, Dromon finally nodding to signal me my training was complete: I was his full apprentice now.

Assured of my unwavering loyalty, Master Xadar initiated me as his first knight by revealing the ugly truth behind his secrecy and his power: he had, in his extensive studies, discovered a power, an intelligence, beyond what the Gasha called their Protector.  This intelligence had made contact with Xadar Dromon, choosing him as its disciple, giving new powers and forgotten secrets about the stars.  This being or entity he labelled with the name Charse.  A small part of my mind still yet free of Dromon's plague rebelled at this, realizing Dromon for what he was and also what was to happen to Canthra now.  I fled from Dromon, wishing at the same time to rescue Canthra from harm I knew was about to befall her and tell the Council the evil truth behind Master Xadar Dromon.  Both my wishes were granted at once; for as I was rushing through the Cenotaph Atrium with intent to go straight to the hangar, I came upon fathered members of the Council, Master Iodal Quigh was among them.  I pressured them to tell me what they had been discussing previous to my arrival; Master Iodal told me that Canthra Jan had, not an hour before, been taken hostage by the Patrivian government.  They were currently making threats on her life if the Imperial government did not start taking Patrivian demands seriously.  Horrified by the thought that I could not save Canthra, I hurriedly told them all the truth about Xadar Dromon.  Of course, none believed my tale.  Except Master Iodal: he looked in my eyes and saw the validity behind my words.  He also must have seen how far gone I was.  But I did not stay to see if they acted upon my claim or not, I flew straight to the hangar, boarded my ship, and jumped to Patrivia.  I arrived in a panic, pushing my way past the Patrivian port authorities and guards to the Embassy.  There I found Canthra Jan, wholesome and unharmed,  concluding matters with Jant Dajex, Lord Protector of the Patrivian systems.  I told Canthra all that had transpired, feeling very foolish while doing so, but my foolishness paid off.  After a conference with the masters, Canthra and I journeyed to my home Londor to be alone as we experienced the first days of marriage.

Those days... those days were the happiest one of my life.  I cannot put into words nor describe how blessed they were.  I was away from everything: from politics, from fighting, and most of all, from Master Dromon.  It was only my Canthra that I thought about.  Yet, yet there was that part of me still enthralled by what Master Xadar had to offer me.  And somehow finding out that Canthra's peril on Patrivia was only a fable meant that, perhaps, Master Dromon had no interest in her, not dark intent or ill will.  I was, of course, wrong.  Dromon knew that Canthra Jan was the one chink, the one ray of light, in the darkness he had shrouded my mind with.  Our time in paradise was short.  Before too long–much sooner than the end of our allotted time on Londor–a call came for Canthra Sorro to go not to Patrivia but the much more dangerous Corostis system.  Xadar Dromon was the author of this request, and he was such an eloquent speaker that he often got his way with things, especially since that Master Iodal was at that time distracted by dealing with issues on his native Nyrador V.  Canthra and I bade a sad farewell before she went to deal with the hostile Corost.

By myself now–a loathsome state of being–I decided on a whim to go back to Crux Terra to witness the trial of Master Xadar Dromon before the assembled Gasha masters and Imperial solons of the Galactic Supreme Courts.  I was filled with some desire to see this trouble caused by Master Dromon through to the end, but what I really would do was more terrible than anything Xadar had done to that point.  Why was I such a fool to go back into that twisted nest of lies constructed so intricately by my master?  How much better would things have been if I had simply stayed on Londor.  But, as I am still, I was a detestable wretch soaring once agin on updrafts of selfishness.  I arrived at the galactic capital and joined the masters in time to witness the heretic Dromon being lead under armed guard to the Council chamber.  He must have been planning everything, every action, and ever event, up to that moment.  He looked up to me, right into my eyes, as calmly as if we were back in his chambers learning together.  At that moment, Master Iodal, returned briefly to oversee the trial, received word that Corosti extremists had attacked and overwhelmed the Imperial Embassy.  Extremists that may have been, but I am sure they had Imperial credits behind them.  To add to the crisis, the Corostis government and Corosti Bannerets had done nothing to stop the attack.  Dromon almost had to hide his smile from me.  I knew what he would say before he spoke it, and when he did say; say that I knew how to save Canthra, that we knew how, that I had the power needed.              

Before anyone knew what was happening, Iodal was dead, my blade drawn.  Of all my actions, this is the one I regret the most.  I still awake in the midst of the night, cold with terror, the face of Iodal hanging in the air before me, my hands dripping, my body drenched, in his blood; his phantom his often joined by the twenty others I killed that day: twenty true Gasha Knights who did not even have the time to draw their swords.  On that day of slaughter, I was joined by Nat Peilow leading some of Dromon's disciples.  Soon the Dasorium atrium was flowing with Gasha blood.  While I went about the slaughter in a state of dark duty, Nat, once my apprentice, took a perverse delight in the blood of his fellow knights, in the way their bones broke and skin split open, in the way their blood tasted in his mouth and their screams felt in his ear.  Imperial Marines were ordered to aid the Gasha Knights fight back the heretics, but Runan Geminus, a prominent senator and leading member of the Emperor's council and Dromon's friend, held the marines back, wanting to see who came out victorious before taking action.  When all but the young or submissive knights remained, Xadar entered the Council chamber, throwing out all the seats but one.  Xadar Dromon announced to the Senate that a small but well trained number of the Gasha had betrayed the order, killing such revered masters as Iodal Quigh and slaughtering many others.  Conveniently, the Gasha who had, according to Dromon's story, risen up were all from or tied closely to the Corost Independency.  Marines were sent in to verify the Dromon's report; after their sweep, the Senate acknowledged the story and recognized Xadar Dromon as the only surviving member of the Gasha Council on Crux Terra.

Without receiving my master’s blessing, I jumped for Corost emblazoned by fury, ready to unleash upon the Corosti what I had given the Gasha.  When I arrived, the Corosti demanded, pleaded, that I stop my ship immediately.  They had learned of the battle in the Dasorium from Sir Doril Quy-Jel, a Corosti Gasha who had survived the slaughter.  Landing recklessly, I crashed my ship into the ground, causing much damage to nearby buildings.  Knowing me for what I was, common citizens hid themselves in their dwellings as I swept by.  I stormed the place they were holding Canthra in, no amount of pleading officials or Corosti Bannerets could dissuade me; I pushed through all of them.  I kept my sword sheathed, for it was not their blood I ached for, but that of those extremists who held my Canthra.  They had hidden themselves and Canthra in an old quarter of the governmental palace.  I turned over the building in my search, tearing apart room after room hoping each next one would hold my Canthra.  Even if I had not been probing the building with my mind, the ambush of mercenaries would have been slaughtered all the same.  I retraced their path back to the secret vault where I met a small division of the extremists.  I unleashed upon them such fury as they had never seen; surely they did not know what was to befall them when they accepted Dromon's credits.  Once I had put all those wretches to death, I found to my horror that Canthra was not there at all, only her diplomatic companions were there bound.  My rage overwhelmed me: my fury burned greater than any fire, I was at that moment ready to wreak such destruction as to devastate the city in its entirety.  I was nearly blinded by whatever and anger that I only just saw the looks of pure horror on those bound faces; my rage cooled just enough that I then noticed the dents and ruptures on the walls and the cracks spreading like a spider's web in the floor.  A voice not unlike Canthra's I suddenly heard whisper a contorting phrase in my head, at once making me feel surer of her safety and greatly ashamed.  I then caught an image of myself reflected in the smooth side of a column: I saw dark eyes lidded with guilt, a man full of anger, back bent by hatred's weight.  Was this the man Canthra had married?  Not pausing to think that they were my professed enemies or not I freed those bound Imperials and besought of them where Canthra had been taken.  They did not know.  They all fled from me after that and no more did I see them.  Blind to where my feet were taking me, I came outside onto the plaza

When I was returned, my master Dromon assured me that Canthra was safe, but going through intensive healing and thus unreachable at the moment.  Still determined to see my wife for myself, I once again took my place beside my master as we prepared to go meet the Kavosian Gasha in battle.  The ruling Gasha Council on ancient Kavos had demanded Xadar Dromon step down as Gasha master on Crux Terra or else be forcibly removed and tried.  He chose the latter; he gathered together all his followers, together led by himself, Nat, and me, we went to meet the Kavosian Gasha on the fields of Cliath.  I searched the battlefield for an opponent equal to or greater than myself in the hopes, perhaps, to vindicate my actions: if I prevailed, I must have been fighting for a noble cause, but if he prevailed, I would know I was in error.  Again the Imperial government held back, wanting to see who would come out victorious from this conflict.  We prevailed there on Cliath and at many other battlefields.

Xadar Dromon renamed the Great Dasorium the Axeum, a temple dedicated to his dread god, and called himself the Axath, the master of the temple.  War continued to rage between Kavos and its ally Tystus, ancient Gasha worlds, and our Axeum.  Axath Dromon corrupted many Gasha Knights to his side, even gaining the aid of the dasorium on Sekhotep.  Nat Peilow and I took the titles Axath as well and continued to serve our master faithfully through the bloody war.  While I did indeed serve my master faithfully, Nat was the most ambitious of us two–my lust for power being tempered with a dark melancholy.  Nat soon assumed the master’s role among him, myself, and the other disciples of Dromon.  In our quest to bring the Gasha Order on the right path to power, we ravaged settlements and conquered worlds, destroyed space stations, and spilt much blood; most of it innocent.  All this while I kept wondering deep inside myself where my Canthra was.  My master–at that point grown very powerful and very evil–kept soothing me with words of comfort, claiming that Canthra was safe, but I was far to busy to have time to visit her.  Like a dog that knows it will be beaten if it nudges its master too often, I obeyed my master and continued doing his dark errands for him.

At last the final confrontation between the Gasha and our Axeum came, though none knew it at the time.  Axath Xadar, Nat, and myself were leading the majority of our fleet into the Rhynon Nebula from which we would launch surprise assaults on the nearby Gasha outposts.  As it would happen, a Gasha Knight happened to scout into the nebula and spot us from a distance.  Soon he was joined by the gathered might of the Gasha Order and a furious space battle ensued.  I, in my fighter, destroyed many good Gasha Knights.  Our flagship was attacked, taking heavy damage, and soon chaos erupted as it was boarded.  In the thick of warning lights, klaxons, clashing swords, and raised voices, I felt a familiar and long sought presence: Canthra’s.  She was near, in the Gasha fleet.  Dromon hadn’t known where she was for this entire period.  He had been lying to me, as he had from the very beginning.  To me and to everyone.  My mind suddenly saw the truth that Dromon had blinded me to.  I was free.  

His back was turned to me, watching not his loyal underlings but the Gasha trying to force access to the bridge.  I knew what had to be done.  Drawing my sword that was so stained with Gasha blood, I struck down my master then and there.  He fell dead amongst the harried figures of his lesser disciples; some froze, shocked; others drew theirs swords on me, quickly following their master into the void.  The Gasha stormed into the bridge, sparing none: Axath Nat, now master of the Axeum, fled in an escape pod with several of his followers.  I remained only long enough to kill those the Gasha could not, and then I too, fled.

With Dromon dead and Nat and I vanished, an Imperial fleet arrived and aided the Gasha in sweeping the remnants of the Axeum away; the fleet was destroyed and a combined force of knights and marines stormed the axeums on Crux Terra and Sekhotep.  Axath Nat and his small band of followers drifted into deep space, away from the Galactic Empire, in search of the Dark Empire Axath Xadar had told them of.  And I, I gathered what meager supplies I could, and went into exile on an uninhabited planet on the Imperial Rim with only Qur, my loyal android, my only follower.