Chapter 10: Krystal I

She'd just arrived back at Krazoa Palace amidst a halstorm of rumors: the Xikibki murdered someone, a faction at court has taken him prisoner, the boy's father gathered an angry mob to storm the Palace grounds.

Hite begged her to let him go first and inspect the area before she left the ship.

"Absolutely not," she said, "I won't listen to rumors. I listen to facts." Yet, she was alarmed. Removing Zamo from her safety and control wouldn't endanger the whole system.

She sat in meditation trying to reach her son, or one of the court telepaths. She needed information, but there was none to be had. Don't succumb to fear, it will cloud your judgment. Still, there was a huge block to her communication with the Palace. The telepaths might have done that on purpose, to defend the Palace from psychic attacks. Still, it was disconcerting.

The ship docked and was immediately greeted by a dozen courtiers. At the head of them was Wudtod Khafu looking as calm as ever.

She marched down the causeway and did away with the formalities as he began to greet her, "Bxod..."

"Where is my son?"

"He is being held under guard at the Bastion, Bxodte." She immediately marched past him with Hite and another pair of Jootag behind her. Khafu followed trying to explain, "Please, there's no need to worry. He is there with Scoria and has every care and amenity."

"Why did it happen at all?"

"We're still working on the why."

"Why is he being held like a prisoner?" she demanded. They were now ascending the stairs to the Palace's ultra-secure central tower.

"For his own safety, Bxodte."

"Wait in my study," she turned to shoot him a brief look. He stopped in his tracks and bowed before turning away. The Jootag followed her, "Clear out this entire floor," she said, and they went to work making sure only the Bxodte, the Xikibki, and their approved courtiers were allowed on the floor. She knocked at the grand pair of elaborately decorated doors and waited just a moment before Scoria opened them. She gave a short bow, "Bxodte."

Krystal pushed past her and into the room. She'd never been here before and was pleasantly surprised at the room's spaciousness and comfort. There was a set of epic windows staring out into the ocean, and looking down onto the rest of the solid walls of their impenetrable fortress. He had a bed with silk sheets, a bookshelf that bordered on the gaudy, plush chairs that might make a peasant weep, and a small back room that led to a kitchen Scoria used.

She saw him sitting on the floor at the foot of the bed. He was dressed in court robes and jewelry, looking entirely pitiful, but alive and well. Krystal rushed to his side and dropped to the floor, "Zamo!" she cupped his head in her hand and began stroking his ear, "Are you all right?"

"There's a hypercane coming," he said.

She looked out over the ocean. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, "How do you know?"

"I just know," he said.

She put a hand on his chin and turned it toward her face, "My Prince, what happened?"

He tried to look away and just uttered, "I don't know." She saw in his eyes that he had recollection, memories of some terrible things that happened, but no real knowledge. Of that, she could tell instantly that he was honest. She kissed him on the forehead and said to him, "You're safe here, all right? Don't be afraid. Don't even think of them out there. Focus on just being here."

She kissed him again and addressed Scoria, "Deny him nothing." She left and ordered Hite, "Let no one up here without my permission. Do not hesitate to kill those who disobey."

He bowed, "Yes, Bxodte."

She moved quickly to her study where Wudtod Khafu was waiting for her along with Zexd. The two of them existed in what seemed like détente with Zexd standing on the edge of the room looking out the window and Khafu sitting in a chair by the table, "You look like squabbling children."

Khafu stood and bowed, "My apologies, Bxodte."

"Sit."

Zexd bowed low and sat next to Khafu. Krystal walked over to the desk and stood behind it, "Now. Explain this to me."

The two advisors stared at each other for a long second and then back at Krystal, "Well," Zexd began, "we... we can't explain it very well."

She looked to Wudtod Khafu, "Why not?"

"None of us saw what happened."

Krystal was shocked, "Why not?" She said each word as if it was its own sentence.

"The Xikibki wanted to play with the other children."

She slammed her hands on the desk, "You were supposed to be watching him!"

They sat still as stone.

She threw up her hands and covered her face. When she'd stifled her tears she said calmly, "What do you know?"

"We know a boy is dead. A plumber's boy." Wudtod Khafu said, "His Father is rallying the workers to strike. They see the Palace as responsible for the boy's death... we've locked down the building."

"You didn't tell her about the children," Zexd mentioned. He was quiet except for that oddly calm voice he used to explain things that upset her mind's apple cart.

"What children?"

"The other children he was playing with." Khafu admitted, "What we know is that Rha Zamo was playing a game with the children. They ran out of the courtyard they were playing in screaming that a boy has died and the Xikibki fell. The guards quickly seized the Xikibki and the dead boy and brought them to the Palace."

"You have the dead boy?"

"Yes."

"And the children?"

"Were not taken."

"They're the only witnesses." Zexd confirmed.

"Not the only ones..." She demanded to be taken to the corpse which was in one of the Palace's secret chambers held under guard. When she saw him, Krystal remembered the boy vaguely. His name was Manu, and had he lived, he might have been in charge of the Palace sewers. But he didn't, and she needed to know why.

She put her hands on the boy's head and closed her eyes. The boy was dead. She couldn't talk to him as she might if he were a coma patient or a mute, but she could access the gray matter inside his head and see what he saw. She felt the life leave her body, and a blinding flash of light suddenly dimmed to reveal the ceilinged court and Zamo standing in front of her with the ball in his hand. They were playing War, a popular children's game. And then she heard Manu's voice. The way he taunted Zamo, resented him. But the words that stuck in her ears weren't Manu's, they were Zamo's: "Drop dead!"

She saw time progress backwards. The conflict whispered away and it became a normal children's game stopped suddenly with Zamo's presence and then his sudden disappearance from the scene.

Krystal took her hands off his head and looked around. Zexd seemed deeply disturbed by the whole affair. Khafu only expectant.

"There's no question... that Zamo is to blame."

"What did you see?" Khafu asked.

"All he did... was command him to die. I've never seen anything like it."

"Oh this..." he drifted off as if to consult a library that was filled with more dust than books, and he were searching for just the right tome to answer a particular question, "is not without precedence."

"It's not?"

"The First Xikibki had the ability to command matter and life, as did the Great Thirteenth. The Twenty-Second was said to possess a little of this ability. This is what made him such a great healer."

"I didn't... my father?"

"Yes, and all of them had one thing else in common." He waited to see if any of them knew what he was going to say. When neither Krystal nor Zexd responded, "Kadw."

"No." Zexd's response was almost immediate, "That's not an option."

"It must be." Khafu insisted, "Kadw is a safe place for him to learn and develop these dangerous powers of his. No one here on Sauria can train him."

"Safe? It is the exact opposite. People do not return from Kadw. They die there. Or they become lost."

"Spoken like a true apostate. Kadw is dangerous to the secure and secure to those in danger. Only the adaptable can survive. Indeed, they don't simply survive, they flourish. The Kichi who returned from there bloom."

"And if he doesn't? What then? What will you say should we wait and he never return?"

"There will always be a Xikibki." What he meant, what Krystal heard, was: we will then wait for the Twenty-Fourth Xikibki.

"Enough!" She commanded, "You're asking me to lose how many years of my son's life? Perhaps all of it."

"The Xikibki belongs neither to himself nor to you, Bxodte. He is the collective guardian energy of the Cerinian people."

She walked a short distance away and then turned and put her hands down against the stone where the dead boy lay, "Arrange for a special session of the court. Bring the boy's father." They bowed and left. She stayed longer, staring at the dead Manu. She stared so long that his face morphed into something else entirely and became both Zamo and not. And that frightened her most of all.

An hour later the great hall was packed with the entire population of the tiny island. Krystal, in full court regalia and robes, sat on her throne and had Zexd and Wudtod Khafu on either side. Zamo's throne was noticeably empty but his hat sat at the small table next to it. Everyone noticed. No one spoke.

Hite announced that the court was now in session and that the court immediately recognized Assistant Master of the Pipes Terol Debu. Before he had even finished speaking, Terol Debu stepped forward and shouted, "The Xikibki killed my son!"

That sparked an uproar. The crowd of lower-caste workers on the island began screaming and shouting in an incoherent cacophony. And the only word Krystal could distinguish was justice.

Krystal held up her hand and silence immediately descended, "I can feel your pain." She said, "Do you believe me on that?"

Slowly, with tears in his eyes, the graying plumber nodded, "I do, Bxodte."

"Then you must also understand that I have seen your son and saw what he saw in his last moments, and all I can offer is my deepest condolences for your loss." She turned slightly and addressed the crowd, "My son is possibly the greatest telepath seen since the height of our civilization. Of that, I am now certain. He is not simply the embodiment of the Krazoa, but he is intensely gifted. We might even go so far as to suggest that he might be cursed with these gifts for a reason we do not yet understand."

"My son is still dead," Terol sobbed.

"And he will be given all the proper rites befit someone above his station. Your family will want for nothing. It is all I can give."

"And the murderer?"

"Guard your tongue!" Hite said, his hand on the hilt of his blade.

She held up her hands again, "It's fine," she said calmly, "I beg you for understanding in your grief, Terol. My son is scared of the sacred powers inside of him. He doesn't understand them or know how to control them."

"And which of us is next?" someone from the mob called out, with a chorus of agreement and approval.

"No one," Krystal announced, "we have found a proper Cumu for the Xikibki. One who can teach him to focus his energies and control them without hurting people, even using them to help our nation."

"Who is this Cumu?"

"I wish I could tell you," she said, "but that is a name I cannot give. Please, this is a time of great intensity and spiritual challenge for us all. Let us have charity for one another." She then made sure to issue a bottle of ukuu from the Palace distillery to every village house, along with a kilo of salted meat from their stockpiles. And then, without further questions or requests, the court was adjourned.

Krystal turned to her advisors and said, "I hope you will not begrudge me my last night with my son. Tomorrow morning we can send him through the Portal." Hite escorted her back to the Bastion and they entered the room to find Scoria serving Zamo a meal. Hite closed the door behind them, "May I serve you as well?" Scoria asked.

"Yes," Krystal confirmed, "Set places for all of us." And they ate like a family, ignoring the strange world outside their Palace filled with politics and violence.

When all of the food was eaten, Krystal turned to Zamo and said, "I need to tell you something very important."

He didn't miss a beat, "Did I kill Manu?"

She paused, "Yes."

"I didn't mean to."

"We know," she responded, "But that's why we need to send you away. It's not your fault. But you'll be in a place that's safe. A place where you will learn more than anyone who has ever lived."

"How?"

"I don't know." She said, "I've never been there."

"Where is it?"

"It's a planet called Kadw. On another quadrant of the galaxy. The whole planet was reserved to the Krazoa, it's where the first of our ancestors were taught to be Krazoa Strong, to create the will of the Krazoa here."

"Is it a good place?"

"It can be. Time works very differently there. To you it may seem like you are gone for years, but for me it may be only days." She thought of that again, how she would lose him. Lose Zamo's whole childhood and have only memories to sustain her.

He was quiet, and didn't eat much., even after Scoria brought out the keranpang for desert. She wanted to tell him to enjoy it, because she was certain that there was no sweet breads on Kadw, but she didn't know for sure. Nor was she able to bring herself to say it. Krystal was relieved when Zamo finally took a bite, but it turned sour when it was clear he wouldn't take another. Hite then played the part of the father, "Are you going to eat that?" The answer was obviously no, but Zamo clearly wanted the possibility of eating it. Hite took it without an answer and almost put it in his mouth. Zamo jumped onto him to defend his dessert and screamed with boyish delight. They played like that for sometime, and although Krystal would have liked for them to stay up all night, she insisted that Zamo sleep early. All four of them got in the bed and held each other as they slept in a great pile. Only Krystal didn't sleep, knowing that the last thing Fox ever gave her would leave her in the morning.

Before the dawn broke to a storm-filled and frightening morning, Krystal was up and woke Scoria so she would make a hearty breakfast. She woke Zamo only when it was ready and they all waited apart as Zamo ate alone. Hite provided him with a Jootag tunic and a small empty bag. Just as the sun rose, she knew it was time. She pulled him out the door and walked with Scoria and Hite following, Zamo in between them. Zexd and Wudtod Khafu met them at the first basement level. There was a whole series of large, ornate doors. Some were useless, others dangerous. Only the one at the very end of the hall was of any real use.

There at the end of the hall in ancient Cerinian glyphs were the difficult-to-decipher, but absolutely there words: KADW. The door was gargantuan, perfectly square, and had an intricate geometric design with a small white sun at the base. At the center of the sun was a keyhole. Krystal took the staff from her belt, extended it to its full length, and closed her eyes. The bottom end of the weapon slid into the keyhole without resistance. She used what power she had to affix the staff's shape to the key – it was a lot of energy for such an ancient door – and turned. The door shrunk away from the staff, and its many layers shifted away from them until they all turned and disappeared, revealing an alien landscape that was both ten steps, and billions of light years away. It was a deep, dark forest with trees that seemed like the evil step children of mushrooms and spruce, shrouded in a blue mist that ate whatever it touched. Zamo looked back at her and then at the landscape he was expected to venture into alone.

She held back tears and offered the only encouragement she could imagine, "I love you."

Her son took the steps to another star system. He didn't look back.

Just as Krystal regret this decision and was about to call out, the door reappeared and shut.