1
Distant screams for mercy echoed through the empty stone corridors.
Emperor skekSo smirked as he walked into the Crystal Chamber. The Scientist was late, but for good reason, by the sound of it. Thirteen Lords of the Crystal slowly poured in, their robes colorful and extravagant. How long had it been since so many of the Skeksis were at the castle at once?
Too long, the Emperor thought.
The Skeksis. For a thousand trine they had ruled over the lesser beings of this planet, the Gelfling. The Lords had guided Gelfling out of the caves, into civilization, and now… into their larders.
In a configuration decided upon by the Ritual-Master ages ago, the Skeksis gathered around the Dark Crystal. The heart of the world and the source of all life. The bruise-colored stone, as if held by invisible chains, was suspended over a pit that went straight down to the fires at the center of Thra. The fires below churned angrily, sending up ash and smoke. No doubt the Gelfling would say Thra's fiery core was out of balance too, affected by the Darkening.
Oh, everything's the Darkening's fault, The Emperor mused. A thousand trine ago, the Crystal was cracked, thus trapping the power within for the Skeksis to take, ensuring the Skeksis' rule for all time. There were whispers Thra was dying from the Crystal's darkening. That the seas were drying up. That the three suns were burning hotter. Bah! Was it not also said that the three suns were going cold? That the forests were withering away, that the Silver Sea was freezing into solid ice?
The Emperor scoffed. This is why the Skeksis were in control. The Gelfling couldn't even make up their minds about what horrors were supposedly happening to their world. It was best if they turned off their minds and let the Lords of the Crystal take care of everything.
The Scientist finally scuttled into the room, head bowed, claws hunched up to his chest. "Apologies, my Emperor," the Scientist said, his amber eyes darting about, looking anywhere but directly at the Emperor. "Nearly a hundred new Gelfling had to be drained."
"It's quite all right," the Emperor said with a wave of his hand. "If it means more essence, skekTek, then take all the time you need!"
The Skeksis laughed and the Ritual-Master raised his claws above his head. The ceremony was beginning.
Silence fell. The Scientist flipped a switch on a wall. A clamor of gears and mechanical grating, and the three triangular sun gates slowly opened, revealing Thra's three suns.
Sun beams struck the Crystal, causing it to glow. Strange sigils burned into the Emperor's eyes. He squeezed them shut for a moment, then opened them again, letting in the hazy magenta shadow-light.
Something… just there… The Emperor blinked again. There was something on the balcony that overlooked the Crystal. Tall and dressed in ragged, dirty robes, the figure had a spike driven through the top of their head.
"skekGra!" the Emperor said, pointing a bejeweled claw.
"It's the Heretic!" the Gourmand bellowed.
"How?" The Scrollkeeper said, cocking his needle-shaped head. "I thought the Heretic was dead?"
"SURPRISE!" The Heretic tossed his head back, cackling maniacally.
Then, marching in from the other side of the Crystal Chamber came the blue-skinned Mystic — the Wanderer — the Heretic's other half.
"Skeksis!" the Emperor said, thrusting his scepter. "After that Mystic. Now!"
Hissing and baring their teeth, the Skeksis surrounded the Wanderer, their claws raised.
With fluid movements of his four arms, the Mystic produced a sword from his pack. It was half of that strange blade that the Heretic and the Wanderer had made. The Dual Glaive.
From the balcony, the Heretic pulled out the sword's twin. He gave it a twirl. "For three hundred and eighty-two trine we waited!" the Heretic said. "We waited for someone to find it—"
"To find… our… message," the Wanderer said.
"But no one came!" the Heretic said. "No! Not a single Gelfling! And why did no Gelfling come?"
"Because—" the Wanderer started.
"Because of you!" the Heretic finished, pointing his blade at the Skeksis. "You Skeksis were draining their essence!"
"Yes," the Emperor said. "And what of it… Heretic? And what are you doing here in my castle? You are banished, skekGra. Leave."
"We're here… " the Wanderer began. "To end…"
"To end Skeksis power ourselves!" The Heretic said.
"...our…selves," the Wanderer finished.
skekSo blinked. End Skeksis power? How—
The Heretic started taking something from the hilt of his sword. It glittered in the light. skekSo's eyes widened. The shard. The shard. The missing piece of the Crystal of Truth.
"No, wait, stop!" The Emperor said. "Heretic, you can't!"
skekGra ran to the edge of the balcony and launched himself onto the Crystal, which was bathed in three beams of light, one from each sun. skekGra lifted his claw into the air. Light refracted from the Crystal, then he slammed the shard into the crack.
"NO!" the Skeksis screamed.
How long had the Emperor fought to stop this very moment from happening? Nearly a thousand trine… Every time a Gelfling got too close to the truth, he had taken care of it, snuffed them out. And for nothing. He'd failed.
The Crystal of Truth bloomed with a brilliant light. The Emperor's eyes burned from the flash. A sound like thunder boomed, deafening him. The Emperor saw the Heretic's body fly across the chamber and crash to the stone floor.
His ears were ringing. Then he heard a crystalline tink tink tink. The Emperor's vision cleared and he saw the cracks and flaws in the Crystal were beginning to seal! The dark magenta color was fading away… The Dark Crystal was healing.
"This cannot be!" the Emperor said.
Slowly, the Wanderer moved to skekGra's side near the Crystal and belched out a low chant. A humming noise. The noise. The other Skeksis clamped their claws over their ears, blocking out the abhorrent song. The song of the healed Crystal reverberated through the castle. The stone beneath the Emperor's feet began to vibrate. Dust and debris began to crumble from the walls. Slabs of masonry began to rain down, crashing into the floor.
"The castle is falling apart," the Emperor called to the Skeksis.
The Chamberlain whimpered. "Yes! Must escape!"
"We're all going to die!" The Collector wailed.
"Not me!" skekLi the Satirist said. "Out of my way!" He bolted for the nearest doorway. Dust rained down and slabs of masonry came crashing down onto the Satirist.
The Skeksis screamed and scattered.
A ray of light emitted from the Crystal and struck the singing Mystic and his eyes glowed gold. The Heretic got up from the floor and walked to his other half, his arms wide open.
And they embraced.
Light blazed. The stones stopped falling from the walls. A corona of silver light formed, rising up from the Heretic and the Wanderer's embrace was the tall being that glowed like a flame. Its eyes were sad and familiar. It hovered in the air like the Crystal. It wore white robes laced with swirling etched designs.
It was an urSkek. The Heretic and the Wanderer were becoming one again.
The Emperor remembered the old life. He had been an urSkek once; all the Skeksis had. Then the urSkeks had divided their souls. The Mystics had taken on the very worst parts of themselves: their guilt, their worries, their weaknesses. The Skeksis retained the best: their ambition, their intellect, their power.
Skeksis were urSkeks unfettered by flaw; Skeksis were perfection. The Skeksis would not—could not—end. Not ever.
A deep, guttural howl emerged, sounding as if it came from everywhere at once. The Emperor looked up. One of the three suns was moving out of the triangular portal in the roof. The light faded, leaving only two sunbeams touching the Crystal.
The howling… it was the urSkek.
"THERE IS NOT…" the urSkek said in the Heretic's shrill voice. "ENOUGH… POWER…" the Wanderer's voice finished.
Two suns' light isn't enough to complete the unification, the Emperor realized. Or the healing. Sure enough, the Crystal's cracks had stopped healing.
"NO!" the urSkek roared. Its face started to rip apart and separate. "PLEASE! WE MUST BE ONE! I WILL BE ONE! I WILL BE—" Black, inky spots started to emerge from the urSkek's chest. Its eyes were blazing suns; the once silver corona on its head was now a violet fire.
It looked like a nightmare.
"THE AGE OF THE SKEKSIS IS ENDED!" the urSkek's voice was a blend of the Heretic's and the Wanderer's now, two voices trying speaking as one.
The urSkek pulled at the air. skekNa the Slave-Master yelped, his feet suddenly ripped out from under him pulling him toward the urSkek.
The Slave-Master screamed as the invisible force dragged him. He flailed, searching for anything to grab onto. He slammed his hooked claw into the floor. It scraped against the stone, sending sparks flying.
The urSkek flicked his wrist, and the Slave-Master flew into the pit beneath the Crystal. Down to the fiery core of the planet.
The urSkek grabbed at its head, groaning. It was vulnerable.
skekSa the Mariner took advantage of the opportunity, pulling out one of her thunder eggs and throwing it.
The explosive froze in midair, right before hitting the urSkek, who narrowed its eyes at the contraption. Then, with the wave of its hand, sent it shooting back at the Mariner.
BOOM!
skekSa exploded into a spray of ashes.
The Skeksis screamed, but no one moved. Another dead Skeksis, the Emperor thought. It was heretical. Skeksis did not die.
"Mercy!"
skekShod the Treasurer threw his staff to the floor with a clang. "I-I beg for your mercy, Master!"
"DO YOU THINK I CANNOT SEE THROUGH YOU, SKEKSHOD?"
But skekShod did not reply. His body, his elaborate robes, everything had turned to clear glass. The glass body slowly keeled over and shattered onto the hard floor.
Another sunbeam faded from the Crystal, leaving one remaining ray of light. The urSkek's inner light faded, and it fell to the floor.
"Now, Skeksis!" skekUng bellowed, pulling out his curved blade. "Attack!" He brought the great sword down and chopped the urSkek's head clean off. The head quickly vaporized; the blade continued on, sparking as it made contact with the floor.
The urSkek's body tensed. Slowly a new head grew in to replace the old one. The new head twisted to look at skekUng. "Well done, General," the urSkek's double-voice said. "Or… no. That's skekVar, isn't it? Then what are you? You are… NOTHING." The urSkek rose back up into the air, looming above skekUng. "YOU GO WHERE THE EMPEROR COMMANDS. YOU ARE THE EMPEROR'S PET." The urSkek made a strange, thunderous noise. It was a laugh. "YOU ARE BUT HIS FIZZGIG!"
"No!" skekUng roared. But then he was cut off. He grabbed at his throat and gave a choked-off cough. He gasped for breath. His snout popped and twisted, retracting into his face. His usually wild mane of hair grew wilder still, turning brown.
The urSkek drew his blade and with a swift motion, lopped off skekUng's head. It rolled away, growling and barking. The armor clattered to the floor in an empty heap.
The last sunbeam faded from the Crystal. The Shard stuck out, half-fused, in its crack. There simply was not enough power from the sun to complete the transformation.
The urSkek screeched, collapsing back to floor, writhing, bubbling in agony. The two halves of the urSkek were rejecting one another.
skekSo laughed as he walked toward the wretched thing. "It was a nice attempt, Heretic. Not bad at all." His claw squeezed around his scepter: a rod that ended with the crescent-shaped Skeksis symbol of power and domination. The small gem embedded within the crescent glowed with the same shadow-light as the Dark Crystal.
The once-urSkek groaned. It knew it was defeated. And, of course it was. No matter the obstacle, the Skeksis always won in the end. They had for all ages before, and they would for all ages yet to come.
"SKEKSIS ETERNAL!" skekSo yelled. He raised the scepter and smashed it, like a hammer to an anvil, where the shard was melding back into the Crystal.
The urSkek screamed.