New Beginnings
Alexander Schutz had grown up knowing that he was different. It was not simply different as in he did not fit in or even that he was plague by a physical or mental illness. No, his secret was far more grotesque and dangerous in the eyes of the public; he had grown up studying and watching the practices of witches and wand wizards. His mother was and still is a very influential witch; the leader of the coven on Arrakis Prime. However she had not only placed herself in danger by being a "witch", but she had gone ahead and indoctrinated her children with her beliefs or so she thought. Alex and his fraternal twin sister were expected to continue on the family legacy of being the leaders of the coven. For twenty generation before Alex's and Adri's birth, his mother's family had supposedly practiced magic and led the few other practitioners. And for two millennia their family and others like them had lived in constant fear of being found out and brought to trail for their beliefs.
Adriana Schutz, his sister, and he had always quietly questioned why the Empire considered witchcraft such a danger to their authority that it warranted such persecution. Other religions were allowed to display themselves openly; some exceedingly more radical and socially defiant than Wicca. In fact, belong to a religious group was even encouraged by the recently crowned Imperial Regent. But Wicca was prosecuted and when a witch was found guilt he or she was always put to death via crucifixion, usually hung upside down to make the death extraordinarily more painful and slow.
Witchcraft, in his opinion and personal experience, was hardly anything more than a bunch of hocus-pocus. It was purely a bunch of people searching for some way to connect with others that the more popular religions did not offer them. Only the few upper classes actually believed that magic ever existed. He and his sister certainly were not part of that group. They had never seen any spells being preformed or a single potion that in reality worked outsides the bonds of its natural chemistry. It was the most harmless and powerless faith that existed in this day and age. There was no feasible reason why it and its practitioners were the Empire's number one enemies.
Besides the fact that magic was not a reality, the number of witches was dwindling. Even on Arrakis Prime, the stronghold of Wicca and its "holy" world, the number of believers was less than a hundred. On other major planets in the Outer Rim where the Imperial Police were fewer in number there were perhaps two per planet if that. And closer to Capital and the Core, the headquarters for the Imperial family, there was one practitioner per nine-planet-system. In fact there were more deadly murders running free on Zen-Zoo, the headquarters for the Imperial Police and an ice world, than witches in the entire galaxy.
Alex ran his hand through his dark blonde hair and watched via the few street lights a group of young preteens set up the roof of one of their houses for a game of electronic soccer. Further into what was considered the capital city a gong sounded for the change of shifts at the glass plant. Arrakis Prime used to be a much lusher world before humans found it. Now it was drained of all it valuable minerals and ore deposits along with its water. The poor folk who landed living on the planet either worked for the Imperial government, such as the doctors, scientists, and educators, or those less fortunate at the one of glass factories. After all the entire planet was covered in sand and glass was still a half way needed industry. His proud and somber blue eyes glanced back into his room. He half-expected his sister to be standing in the doorway getting ready to scream at him for not being ready. Somewhat relieved to not see her he returned to his wonderings.
Alex knew that this latest "witch-hunt" was only second in its body counts and relentlessness to the witch-hunt under Wyatt Halliwell's regime. This particular witch-hunt occurred before and during the founding of the great Empire. Lord Wyatt Halliwell was the first and most brutal Emperor and his best friend Count Harry Potter was his second-in-command and the person in charge of the first Imperial witch-hunt. The Imperial Regent was making her mark in the history book by taking on Wyatt's brutality and Harry's tenacity. Something that had everyone in Arrakis four planet system upset as not all the dealings in-system were legal. Two of the more habitable planets, the last two in-system, were practically the capitals of smugglers and hired-hands.
Alex walked back into his room from the balcony. Hanging on the door to the refresher were the brown formal robes his mother had bought him the day before. He grabbed the hanger and shoved the robes into his cupboard. Brown was the color of the rich on the planet; those able to afford cooling units. Most of the families around them only wore their white air-tight, skin-tight, suits. Everyone wore air-tight suits due to the lack of moisture on the planet every drop counted. The air-tight suits stopped the sweat from escaping into the atmosphere. At night the liquid was poured into the giant vat outside the kitchen and it went through a flittering process. The remaining water was the morning drink at breakfast.
Today he would not be wearing brown. Black was the color only the foolish wore. Those with black hair usually died it or cut it off. Adri did neither and took the heat from everyone in the city. He would wear black today to annoy his mother. He found the black set of robes that once belonged to his father back when he lived on the tropical world closer to the core. He pulled off his night wear and placed the items in the moisture-extraction unit; the water would be piped down underground and used only in a dire emergency. He opened the door to the refresher and turned on the high-powered air cleaners. Water was too expensive to waste on cleaning oneself. The green light on the tape of the refresher blinked once and a squirt of gel landed on his short hair. He rubbed it over his hair and a mirror appeared in front of his face. He carefully brushed his hair and turned off the air. He got out of the refresher and pulled on his white suit and pulled his black robes over the rubbery suit.
He looked at himself in the thin mirror on his door that led to the rest of the small two story hut. He took a deep breath; he was not looking forward to the events to come. He walked back onto the balcony and spotted the twin suns rising over the horizon. The lights of the city shut down and for a few seconds everything was dark and peaceful. Then the suns climbed further up into the sky and the city became baked in their heat. He ignored the irritation of the heat and turned his thought back to the history lesson.
Supposedly Wyatt and Harry were great powerful witches; wizards in the Wicca sense were more of a type of benevolent extinct demon. Wyatt and Harry were Earth's saviors from the tyrannical rule of the Dark Lords Voldemort and Ash Goth. After the defeat of the two Dark Lords, the celebrations came to a close sooner after the magical government decided to try the followers of the Dark Lords for crimes of treason and murder. The Death Eaters lucky enough to survive the war found themselves faced with an execution sentence. Harry and Wyatt, not liking the idea of having so many humans executed, disappeared from the world. For three following decades the world of magic and the mundane lived in harmony and peace. Those three decades were the last days of peace and happiness magical folk would see.
Harry Potter came out of hiding and went on a killing spree. He started the first witch-hunt in almost two hundred years. The witch-hunt and murders never truly ended until his death on his class three star traveler. He personally ended the lives of the Power of Five including his last family member, and every single member of the staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He led the assaults on various government institutions including the massacre that all but obliterated the International Magical Committee which was the Phoenix Council during the war against Voldemort plus a muggle representative. He had his demonic hordes kill all the Wizengamots and replaced the Minters of Magic with his top demonic officials.
About a year after Harry emergence, Wyatt decided it was time to join the fight. He along with Harry used powerful dark magic to vanquish the ruling body at that time, the Avatars. They then turned their attention on the Halliwell line and the Elders. Wyatt brought about the collapse of the Elders by re-releasing the Titans and then he personally burnt the Titans with his bare hands. Harry meanwhile launched a series of well timed attacks on the members of the Halliwell family. He helped kill Chris and Prue but allowed the new Source the pleasure of ending the lives of the Charmed Ones. Wyatt killed his cousins and nephew.
The killing spree was officially called off once Wyatt was sure his father was dead. Harry continued to order the deaths of witches and wand wizards including the execution of his two best friends and their son. About ten years after their reemergence almost everyone with magical potential was dead or they had pledged loyalty to Wyatt.
It was at this point Wyatt declared himself the Emperor of Earth. He had the muggles, non-magical humans, continue their research into space travel and by years end they had the staring of a colony on Mars. Wyatt made sure that any intelligent life answered to his rule through terror and occasionally flattery a.k.a. bribery. The space-faring species known today as the Vong still hold their spot on the Imperial Court as the Head of Planetary Immigration.
Harry officially stopped his murdering and execution paper signing when he was appointed Count, the title of the second-in-command, at Wyatt and Ginny's wedding. The Empire just continued to grow even after the deaths of Wyatt and Harry; both of whom lived inhumanly long. Magic was completely wiped out during their reign except for the few lucky children who never expressed their potential or went into hiding. This was all according to his mother. He could not research the truth of any of it. Wyatt had all records of the years prior to the Empire settling on Mars destroyed save for mundane, muggle, information.
Whether magic ever existed Alex did not know but he felt that it certainly never survived the purge at the founding of the empire. He never stated his opinion openly as it would bring his mother's wrath on him. He took another deep breath and tried to reassure himself that they were doing the right thing. He stopped staring out over the giant red boulders that marked the otherwise shapeless desert landscape of various sized dunes that surrounded the capital city. He brushed off the specs of dust of his formal black robes. His dark blue eyes now had a golden tinge to them from his contact lenses. He only wore the lenses instead of his glasses because of the strict instructions his mother had left him. He knew he was pushing his luck with the black robes. Today he was going to meet the only witch who his mother was answerable to, His Holy One, Rashid Jacob Nyoka.
Alex was of age, sixteen standard Imperial years, and had he been born into a normal family would be going off to fulfill his duties as a male citizen of the Galactic Empire in the Imperial Navy. Instead he was to be trained in the arts of Wicca. Adri was also to be trained but their mother would train her since she was a young woman. Alex could not help but wonder why Adri and he put up with these rituals. It placed both of their lives in needless danger and it took precious time out of their lives. Alex had expressed this apprehension to his sister the night before. She acknowledged he held a valid view on the matter. But went on to explain that they were playing along by going through the rituals in order to try and understand their mother better. The end had to justify the means. They would fully understand why their mother practiced this fake religion but in return they had to practice the same useless illegal religion. Adri had even gone as far as on to say that they must truly believe that magic was real in order to have their experiment work.
Alex shut the door to the balcony just as Adri entered his room. She was the complete opposite of him physically; dark hair, eyes, and olive skin. But intellectually they were exact duplicates of the other. They had the same thought patterns, the same mannerisms. She was obviously more subtle and self-controlled but that did not negate the fact she had the same feelings on a particular subject as he. That went without exception…excluding technology. Ever since they were born there had been this bond between them that allowed them to know things about each other without ever articulating them.
Adri about five feet and nine inches was three inches short than Alex but that did not stop her from claiming to be the oldest. Today she was also dressed up to meet their guest. She wore a brown ritual robe over her leather-fighting outfit. Her short black hair was tucked under her robe's hood. Her intelligent bright brown eyes along with the rest of her soft face were completely hidden by the emotionless sun mask. A sun mask was only worn by a female who was planning on spending the night in the desert. Today she was wearing it as a symbol of servitude. She remained at the doorway, silent, waiting for him to acknowledge her.
"Oh come on, Adri," he whined which caused a short playful laugh to escape from his sister, "just because we are of age does not mean we have to be formal and civilized."
"We need to act the way expected of us." Was her impassive response.
"Adri, don't be like that." Alex pleaded as he walked up to her. "Lets not make this day even worse than it already is by fighting."
Adri removed the sun disc to reveal her sad expression. "It's not going to be the same after this…"
Alex hugged her and stroked her hair softly. "We could still run away," he joked.
Adri smacked him playfully and smiled. "Don't tempt me…but seriously Alex, after today we probably won't be seeing each other that much. Mother has been going on about me learning to control my emotions…more so than usual. She hinted at this separation being a permanent thing…that you're going off world soon."
Alex's face hardened. "Well I won't leave this planet without you. We're stronger together. Mom always told us that."
"But it may not be up to her," Adri's voice dropped to a whisper. "Mom seems quite intimidated by this man."
Alex nodded and went over to his bed to collect his blaster. "Well that could be because he is the imperial historian…"
Adri slowly expressed her agreement through their twin bond. She replaced her sun mask. "We are expected in the sitting room," She stated emotionlessly, "His Holy One is waiting." She turned and walked out of the door without waiting for him to respond or follow.
He shook his head annoyed. She had spoken in her "mother's" voice; this impersonal commanding higher than thou tone. She knew that he despised being spoken to that way. Yet despite his annoyance he could not help but crack a smile. She was still toying with him even when everything pointed otherwise. That was the difference between them; she could play and tease quietly but he never could. He was the loud hardly ever serious boy despite being the man of the house for six years.
He hesitated, meeting His Holy One meant that his sister and he would never been the same, their bond would weaken. He knew he could catch her and make good on his offer to run away; run to a forgotten remote world. They could have their freedom, their everlasting childhood. Then fantasy vanished just as quickly as it had begun. He knew that he would never do that; he would always stay and fight. Neither of them were cowards and running from this challenge would be a cowardly thing to do. With a final look around his room he made up his mind and strode out the door to follow in his older sister's footsteps.
The walk down the passage that connected his bedroom to the rest of the house was done in complete and utter silence. Even the sound their footsteps seemed to be deadened more than usual by the soft blue rug that ran down the length of the passage. Adri remained two paces ahead of him, never looking back, and walked with an air of someone who was the ruler of, or at least knew about, everything. Alex kept his mind on the calming ritual his mother had taught him when he was five the first time his father had left the planet since the twin's birth. Fear brings death. It will kill all those it has in its grips. There is nothing to fear only fear itself. Find the light and never let go and no shadow can touch you. Hold on to nothing, attachment is for fools. With no attachment there is no fear, with no fear there is no mistake. An idiotic combination of the mantras on fear in the two greatest science fiction books, Star Wars and Dune. If only the authors knew how true their fictional worlds would become moments after their deaths.
Alex stopped at the entrance to the living room.
"Ahh," an old man's voice interrupted him from his thoughts and pulled him into the room, "so this is young Alexander Löwe Schutz. I was beginning whether you had the guts to come down."
"I was just behind my sister, sir." He said keeping as much of his anger out of his voice.
"I see that you have learned something already," the Holy One looked thoughtfully at Alex's mother, "that was to be expected." He spoke with such power and pride that Alex did not know whether he wanted to kill the man or worship him.
The man appeared to be in his early sixties but Alex knew from the little he had been able to ascertain from his mother that Rashid was much older than that. He had served the last five Emperors and once the Imperial heir became of age he would be on his sixth. Rashid had almost glowing blue eyes that showed little or no emotion. His balding hair still held onto their golden color. Alex forced himself to stop inspecting the man's physical features and turned his attention to the man's stance. He knew a second before the man moved that he held a weapon.
Rashid arose from the chair and revealed a tiny syringe filled with a clear liquid. He smiled when Alex removed his hand from the blaster; he and held the syringe out for Alex to take. Alex took a deep breath and reached out to grab the syringe but the old man moved suddenly and quickly. He had the needle right against Alex's neck and he was standing behind the boy. Adri moved to help her brother but their mother held her in place.
"You've learned more than I anticipated," Rashid spoke slowly. "Studying another human's stance is a very advanced skill. Few teenagers have the patience to learn it.
Alex looked straight ahead and refused to move his neck. When he spoke he spoke evenly and persuasively. "You do not wish to kill me, sir."
Rashid laughed softly and pushed the needle a little harder against Alex's neck. "You trust too much in the fact that I need you." He whispered; Alex did not flinch. "This syringe has a poison more powerful than the one used by the Regent to kill her personal enemies. Do you fear dying, young Alex?" Rashid's voice became silkier with every syllable.
Alex remained calm. "If I feared dying, sir, do you think I would have come down here?"
"So you knew I meant to kill you?" Rashid questioned softly.
Alex closed his eyes the fear was becoming overwhelming. "I knew you could never kill me, Holy One, but being your apprentice places my life in danger from the Empire." Rashid allowed surprise to show in his face and the needle stopped making an indent on Alex's neck.
Alex continued with a bit more resolve. "I know you need me. If you killed me there will no longer be Wicca; it would die with you. Without a Holy One to channel the powers from the universe for the witches, none could access and harness their inborn abilities. I know also that I am your last chance at training a new Holy One; all the other potentials are too self-centered to be successfully trained."
The leader of all witches dropped the syringe, his training forgotten. Alex's smile grew but he got himself under control and replaced his emotionless mask that usually was seen on his face. It took Rashid a few more moments to regain his composure.
"So you know more about your heritage than your mother let on in our conversations." Rashid focused his full attention on Alex's mother who was just as stunned as Rashid had been moments before. Alex felt Adri's glee though their bond.
Alex was thrown off by the mention of 'heritage'. Ancestry was something that very few people knew because those records were kept out of public knowledge by order of Wyatt. Alex guessed it was Wyatt's way of keeping anyone from being able to claiming with any proof to be a descendent of the Power of Five or other great figures from his and Harry's past. So when someone of wealth and importance mentions heritage always meant that it was something of great importance and usually backed up with fact. Many families in the early part of the Empire tried to claim to be part of some famous lineage and usually lost everything soon after.
"What does my ancestry have to do with this?" Alex voiced his question after some internal debate.
"Everything!" Holy One stated fixing his stare into Alex's eyes. Finally the old man looked away and stood up. "We will leave for the high desert caves in an hour. Find your moon mask and be ready to leave by then. Amelia I would like a word with you…"
AN: So I know it was short but what do you think? I hope you enjoyed it.
Next Chapter - More history...Rashid explains some things...Hell on "Earth"