The disclaimer from the previous chapter goes for this one as well.
Tenchi Muyo!
Odyssey
Chapter Twenty-six:
The Trilogy of Light: Dawn by William Nichols
The dying light of the evening cast eerie, dreadful shadows as it poked through the arched windows of the royal palace on Jurai. Blackened fingers wrapped around the fluted wooden columns and elegantly styled arches. If one allowed their imagination to run from him or her, they could probably see all sorts of hobgoblins and creatures of the night lurking in the impending darkness. Maybe you would see a sinister face hiding behind a column; possibly a phantom lurking in the shadows; or maybe a pair of luminescent eyes staring back at you from some foreboding place. Most people would dismiss such things for what they really are: figments of an over-active imagination. Fairytales told to frighten little children into behaving; nothing to be feared.
That is what one would usually say.
Such whimsical thoughts were far from the mind of Queen Funaho Jurai as she walked down one of those shadowy, fairytale corridors. In the thousand years she had been first queen only once before had she had such a feeling of dread and apprehension, and that fitful ordeal ended over eight hundred years ago.
Funaho chewed her bottom lip as the click-clack of her heels echoed down the lonely corridors. Two guards snap to attention and salute as she passes by. Usually Funaho would nod in deference to their respect, but this day her mind is elsewhere. Silently she passes the guards leaving them to their solitary posts. They hear an anguished sigh as the last rays of evening light fade into a rosy glow. Obviously something was weighing heavy on their beloved queen. It is a good thing that they did not know just what it was or just how heavily it was weighing on their beloved queen.
There had not been much good news delivered to Funaho in the past two weeks. After giving Washu one of her clearance cards for level red items at the Academy archives she had begun to wonder if the diminutive genius was not being entirely forthcoming. To compound her suspicions was the fact that Tsunami was not being entirely forthcoming either, but She was a god and that was Her prerogative. Funaho had accepted long ago that something's were beyond mortal control.
But when she saw her daughter and grandson's face splashed across the galaxy on the evening news she had to have answers.
After using a few persuasive methods with Washu and Yosho the entire story had been revealed. She knew that Tenchi had been chosen to be the Elder's champion. She knew that Ryoko had been taken as his sacrifice. She knew all too well the dangers facing Tenchi and Ayeka. That had been a day she hoped would never happen. That was a day her worst fears and nightmares returned. And on that day Funaho felt a little piece of herself die.
"Milady?" spoke the palace guard right before Funaho walked into the closed doors in front of her. The puzzled queen blinked a time or two as she realized where she was. "Is there a problem Milady?" the guard asked out of honest concern.
"No," Funaho lied. The guard watched her curiously as she fumbled around in her robes for a second before producing her clearance card and swiping it across the scanner. She continued to bite her lip as the scanner recognized her.
"Please step forward for retinal and voice imprint," a tinny computerized voice commanded. Funaho stepped forward and looked into the green laser light.
"Funaho Jurai," she spoke calmly. "Access code: Tenchi-ken, Alpha, Epsilon, five, one, oh, nine, six, Tau."
"Confirmed," the metallic voice replied. The guard snapped to attention as the doors slid apart with the slightest hydraulic whisper.
"As you were," Funaho spoke as the doors closed behind her. The guard emitted a tension-relieving sigh. It was not every day that the first queen came to the Ministry of Intelligence's operations center.
The light in the ops center was dimmer than the fading light that was washing over the palace. What little light there was in the center was provided by the rows of bluish fluorescent tubes that sat snuggle in their ceiling recesses. Added to this unnatural illumination was the green glow of numerous terminal screens. As Funaho passed thru this surreal environ few looked up from their monitors. They had all been hand recruited by her, so her presence was no cause for alarm. After passing thru the seemingly endless rows of terminals Funaho found the person she was in search of.
"Minister," Funaho said calmly. A lithe man wearing the traditional robes of the Juraian court looked up from the papers he had been reading. His shoulder length white hair reflected the various hues of blue and green that was cast upon it. His face bore the lines of man who had spent the majority of his life in worry, which betrayed his age. In general he was a very amiable, if somewhat fidgety, person.
"Milady," he said as he pushed his small round spectacles back up his nose. "I am glad you came."
"I figured it was urgent," Funaho replied as the minister led her towards a large pane of glass with the Juraian sector mapped out on it in relevance to the rest of the galaxy.
"Indeed it is," he said placing a hand on the shoulder of one of the young technicians manning the display. The young woman nodded respectfully and left the Minister and Queen in private. "As you can see our borders with Tyran space have been secured," he began as he pointed to the red line and to the blue triangles representing the Juraian ships on the border.
"Very good," Funaho said, but this did not require her presence. I know the border has been secured. Why did he call me down here? Unless… "What are you not telling me?" she asked playing off of the intuition. The Minister fidgeted even more than normal and motioned towards the area on the map opposite of the Jurai sector. "What is it?" Funaho asked. The only thing out there was a few of Jurai's most recent exodite worlds.
"We have lost contact with this region," the minister finally spat out.
"What do you mean?" Funaho asked. True, interstellar communication is far from perfect. Any number of stellar phenomena could interfere with communications.
"Total contact," he said, placing emphasis on 'contact'. Funaho vaguely stared at him as she tried to decipher his cryptic answer. Seeing this the Minister decided that for the safety of his neck he had better elaborate more. "It is as if this region of space has ceased to exist," he continued.
"Ceased? To exist?" Funaho asked trying to digest his words.
"Yes, Milady," he sighed. "We can detect the location of this sector," he paused to find the right words, "but we cannot confirm the existence of this sector of space."
"What has caused this?" Funaho asked, trying to hide the panic in her voice. Sectors of space just do not simply vanish.
"Near as we can tell," the Minister started as he flipped though the pages he had been carrying, "It is a wave of darkness."
"A wave of darkness?"
"Near as we can tell." Funaho just shook her head. This did not make any sense. Once again fearing his neck the Minister spoke forth. "We have used every scanning and detection method imaginable, and few that we just invented," he continued. "Spectral, astral, temporal, gamma wave, beta wave, alpha particle, chronometric, red shift, e-mag; you name it," he ticked off using his fingers. "Everything is just absorbed by the wave."
"Then how do you know it is a wave of darkness?" Funaho asked. Darkness does travel in waves. In fact darkness does not travel at all!
"We looked," the minister admitted somewhat sheepishly.
"You looked?"
"Yes Milady. When all of the other sensors failed, we had the Academy focus their highest powered, optical telescope towards this sector."
"And what did they see?"
"Darkness. Pure darkness."
Funaho stared at the chart, trying to comprehend what she had just been told. Could this have anything to do with what the high priest told me today, she mentally asked herself.
"And it gets worse," the Minister continued.
"How?"
"It's moving."
"M-m-moving?" Funaho deadpanned.
"Yes Milady," he said gravely. "By our calculations the Jurai sector will be engulfed in less than three days, and after that this entire quadrant within the week." Funaho swallowed audibly at this grave prediction. "And a week after that, the entire galaxy will be engulfed, not that we'd be around to see it."
"Three days," Funaho parroted. The Minister only nodded. This has to be related to what the priest told me, and what's happening to Tenchi, she thought as the dark line slowly inched across the map.
*****
"Where am I?" Ayeka asked as the world hazily came into view around her. "What is this place?" The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in Marnot's arms after they had transported away from the sanctuary of fire. Her paramour had landed them on a rather desolate piece of rock that was near the galactic core, as he had explained. The proximity of the planet to the galactic core washed it constantly in a warm glow, even at night. But it was no worse that the night lights of Tokyo or the capital city of Jurai.
That was the last thing Ayeka had remembered before sleep had claimed her. Needless to say the place she now found herself in was not the place in which she had fallen asleep.
"W-w-what's going on?" she frantically asked into the darkness that surrounded her; total and complete darkness. Ayeka swallowed hard and tried to burry the overwhelming sense of panic that was permeating every fiber of her being.
"Tenchi! Marnot!" she called out over and over again as she ran through the darkened landscape. At every turn she encountered more and more darkness. What is happening to me? What has happened to Tenchi and Marnot?
Ayeka's breaths were coming in short, jagged huffs as she desperately ran through the darkness. After running for what felt like hours she could not go any further. "Tenchi!" she sobbed as she fell to her knees and buried her face into her palms. Warm tears flowed between her fingers as Ayeka tried to choke back her sobs. At that moment she felt a comforting hand touch her shoulder. "M-Marnot?" she hesitantly asked as she turned to see who was behind her.
And then she screamed.
Death towered above Ayeka in all of its horrific, morbid glory. The being was at least two and a half meters tall and cloaked in the black robes one would traditionally depict death as cloaked in. The terrified princess backpedaled as Death's half-decomposed hand reached for her again; bits of fetid flesh hanging from its ancient fingers. Ayeka screamed again as the Beasts eyes flared, illuminating the rotted flesh of its foul face. Deaths skin was corpse white. Vast chunks of that skin had peeled away revealing the putrid flesh beneath.
As Death twisted its black lips into a wicked smile another piece fell from its decayed face, revealing a mass of writhing maggots, which began to spill forth from the opened lesion. "You are mine!" Death proclaimed as Ayeka shrieked once more. Now the darkness was replaced with the glow of hellfire.
As Ayeka backpedaled she slipped on something and fell backward. She braced herself expecting to hit the ground, but instead she was engulfed in a pool of thick, gooey liquid. Gasping for air as she broke the surface of the pool Ayeka thought that the world had gone red, then she realized what she was in.
Blood.
Then to her horror she saw whose blood it was. The bodies of Tenchi, Sasami, Ryoko, Washu, Kiyone, Mihoshi, Marnot, and everyone else she held dear were crucified onto the walls of her hellish prison. The pained visage of their death's looked as if they were blaming her for their demise.
"Mine!" Death hissed as its wretched hand grabbed the top of her skull and pulled her from the pool of her loved ones blood. Ayeka tried to scream once more but all that would come from her lips was incoherent syllables and grunts. Death twisted its putrid lips into a smile again as reached for Ayeka's throat. The last thing Ayeka heard was cold, callous laughter as her world faded from existence.
And then she woke up.
"Ayeka!" Tenchi and Marnot said simultaneously as the terrified princess shot out of her bedroll screaming as if there was no tomorrow. Marnot was the first to reach her and she willingly collapsed into his arms as violent sobs wracked her body.
"Their, their," he comforted as her tears soaked his tunic. Tenchi looked at Marnot quizzically but all the perplexed guardian could do is shrug slightly and continue to stroke the back of the distraught Ayeka's neck. After she had regained a measure of her composure Ayeka pulled back from Marnot and stared blankly off into the unknown.
"What happened?" Marnot asked softly. Tenchi took a knee next to Ayeka and held her free hand
"All a dream…" she muttered tonelessly. "All a dream…"
"What was?" Marnot asked, trying not to upset her any further.
"I cannot put it into words," Ayeka said with a shudder. "You were all dead, and, and…"
"And what?" Tenchi said as Ayeka's grip tightened on his and Marnot's hands.
"And it came for me…" she sobbed falling back into Marnot's arms. The guardian rocked back and forth slightly as he tried to comfort Ayeka. Tenchi stood up and walked a few meters away as he tried to make sense of what Ayeka had said. After Ayeka had fallen back into what he hoped would be a more merciful sleep, Marnot joined Tenchi across the clearing.
"What was that about?" Tenchi asked, trying not to wake up Ayeka.
"I am not entirely sure," Marnot replied as he ran a hand through his raven hair. "What ever she saw scared the hell out of her, plus some."
Tenchi continued to pace before he spun around and stared Marnot in the eyes. "Did that have anything to do with what is coming?" he demanded of the guardian.
"I cannot say for certain," the disturbed guardian replied.
"Cut the bullshit," Tenchi demanded. "What happened to her?!"
Marnot chewed his bottom lip for a second before he sighed. Why the hell not? I'm in it deep enough as it is. "Yes," Marnot answered. "It had to do with what is coming."
"What is it exactly?" Tenchi said. "I know you said it was a fallen Elder, but that does not help me any."
"When the Dark One fell he became the embodiment of everything that defies the light," Marnot explained, gesturing wildly. "His desire is to wipe the slate of creation clean of what he sees as a perversion of its true destiny."
"Why?" Tenchi quizzed. "Destroying the universe seems so ironic. I mean, what will it accomplish? What will that leave him?"
"A clean slate to draw the universe as he sees fit," Marnot explained as he too began to pace. "A new dimension to populate with those that he deems worthy of life."
"A universe of hell?" Tenchi asked.
"That is how it appears to us," Marnot elaborated. "But to him we are the universe of hell, and one of your family members is partly responsible for that outlook."
Tenchi stared thunderstruck at Marnot for a brief second as his last words rang in his ears. 'And one of your family members is responsible…' "What does that mean? Which one? How?"
"I do not know the details," Marnot lied, "your sacrifices mother and her sisters were responsible for the Dark One's turning against humanity some twenty thousand years ago." Tenchi continued to gape as Marnot furthered his much over due explanation. "He saw the Juraian trinity as decadent and corrupting the known universe. When the other Elder refused to act upon his demands to destroy them he turned against creation and a full half of the heavens followed him.
"The Elder sent their champion to eternal realm to enlist the aid of the Megami and they consented, trying to right the wrong they had seemingly set into motion. After a war that nearly rent the heavens in two the Dark One and his minions were contained in a dimensional prison of sorts."
"So how did he, they, escape?" Tenchi asked as the enormity of Marnot's revelations sank in on him.
"Once again that is partly to blame on your family." Before Tenchi could interrupt him Marnot held up a halting hand. "Let me continue. When the temporal entity known as KAIN broke out of sub-space and traveled across the dimensional barriers in an attempt to kill your family, you followed him. While you were successful in preserving the timeline, all of that cross-dimensional travel weakened the barriers between the dimensions. Add in the dimension hopping that happened during that incident with Haruna, and you have dimensional barriers that are weakened significantly.
"Seeing this the Dark Once set about to free himself from his restraints. The Elder had thought that their devises would be enough to contain the Dark One, but their power has diminished since his fall, that and the Juraian Megami were separated to keep any further incidents form occurring. Little did the Elder realize at that time that their power was mutual. The Megami are elder beings of a lower order, so naturally their power resonated with the Elders." Marnot paused a second as Tenchi stared at him in near disbelief. "The Elder may be nearly omnipotent but they are not omniscient." Tenchi nodded in either understanding or agreeance at Marnot's explanation of the Elder's short sightedness. "With the triumvirate broken and a full half of the heavens locked away with the Dark One, the Elder's power has diminished to the point that it took their entire focus to contain the Dark One. And not even the Elder can keep that level of focus up indefinitely."
"That is why I was chosen as champion," Tenchi muttered barely above a whisper. "I have to set right what we did." Marnot only nodded. "But why would that affect Ayeka like that?"
"I would say because of her close link with Tsunami," Marnot said as he cast a glance back towards his sleeping love. "Washu and Tsunami have traveled back to the eternal realm in an attempt to solicit the aid of their sister Tokimi," Marnot said as Ayeka rolled over onto her side. "Something has to be happening beyond my sight and that bled through into Ayeka's subconscious."
"I'm part Juraian," Tenchi said somewhat confused. "So why did I not have the same dream?"
"Ayeka has been in sync with the Jurai power radiated by Tsunami far longer than you have been, young champion. That is the only reason I can offer as to why she experienced such a horrid vision."
"So Tsunami is in danger?"
"Not to my knowledge," Marnot said as he rubbed his temples. If he had not been an eternal, he could have sworn that he had a headache setting in. "But something dark is transpiring, and it managed to push its way into her dream."
"Like a premonition?"
"Exactly." Marnot's look became concerned as Ayeka moaned slightly before rolling over to her other side. After watching her for another moment Marnot turned his attention back to the still stunned Tenchi. "Now you have a better understanding of what is at stake here," the guardian sighed.
"I do," Tenchi said as he set his resolve to righting what had been set into motion. "You really do love her?" he asked of Marnot seemingly out of the blue.
"As your Ryoko does you," he replied honestly.
"I just hope we get to grow old with them," Tenchi said trying to lighten an all too serious situation.
"As do I," replied a now grinning Marnot. "Get some rest," he told Tenchi. "I will stand watch."
"Take care of her," Tenchi said as he slipped back into his bedroll.
"With all of my power," Marnot promised.
****
As Funaho left the Ministry of Intelligence the Minister's prediction weighed heavily on her mind. She was certain that it had relevance to what the high priest had told her…
Funaho bowed respectfully as she entered the Temple of Tsunami in the capital city on Jurai. The massive structure was an ornate blend of carved stone, and living trees. The trees had been grown millennia ago by the priesthood using their Jurai power to grow them into the various shapes and buttresses of the temple. When someone said the temple was alive with the presence of Tsunami, it was a valid statement.
But today Funaho had not come to pay her respects to Jurai's patron deity. The High Priest had requested an immediate audience, and she granted it. It has to be dire, she reckoned.
"My Queen," the priest said bowing before Funaho. She calmly motioned for him to rise and he complied. "I have had the most dire premonition," he said as calmly as he could.
"What does it entail?" Funaho asked as the priest straightened the fabric of his flowing blue and white robe.
"The end of our time," he said in all earnesty. "Tsunami's light has grown dim."
"How can that be?" inquired an alarmed Funaho.
"I do not know but Her light is diminished and the seers have not been able to scry the lines of fate."
"What are the implications of this?"
"According to our ancient prophecies," he said before clearing his throat, "the end of all creation is nigh at hand."
"Can you be certain of that?" Funaho asked. All she needed was for an over zealous priest to create a panic preaching the end of the world.
"When dealing with fate nothing can be certain," the priest replied. "All I do know is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sense the presence of Tsunami."
"You will keep me informed," Funaho said as she turned to leave the temple. "And you are not to spread this top the general populace. Understood?"
"Yes my Queen."
At the time Funaho had dismissed the priest's words as simply Tsunami being involved elsewhere or just being fickle. But following her meeting with the minister, she was now placing renewed credence onto the priest's words.
*****
Katsuhito was drawn from his deep meditation by the soft beep of the communications console in the shrine office. After her last visit to earth his mother had insisted that install one so that she could talk to her absent son whenever she wanted. Reluctantly he rose from his thoughts and walked over to the seemingly normal filing cabinet. After twisting the upper handle a small monitor rose from the cabinet's top.
"Yosho," came the voice of his mother as the screen came into focus. The normally placid Funaho looked as if the weight of the universe had been thrust upon her shoulders. The start of dark circles had begun under her eyes and her usually illustrious raven hair some how seemed a bit duller.
"Yes mother," he replied as his generated disguise faded away.
"I was just checking on everyone," she said. "How is everyone holding up?"
Yosho bit his lip as he watched the worried expressions on his mothers face. "Washu and Tsunami have traveled to the eternal realm," he said as Funaho's eyes went wide. "Apart from that nothing has changed."
"So that explains it…" Funaho mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing important," Funaho lied. "Listen Yosho," she began. "Watch over Sasami and tell her I love her."
"What's the matter mother?"
"I think you should know," Funaho stated flatly.
"I do," Yosho answered.
"Yosho?"
"Yes mother?"
"I love you my son."
"I love you as well mother," he said as the screen blinked out. Katsuhito sighed as he twisted the cabinet handle back to its original position. After the screen had clicked back into place he returned to his meditation. Every thing was now in the hands of his grandson and the Megami.
"May mercy be upon us all…" he whispered as he returned to his meditation.
***
"Mmmmmm," Ayeka sighed as her eyes opened to the warm light of the galactic core.
"Sleep better?" Marnot asked as Ayeka stretched. He had stayed awake all night watching over her after is discussion with Tenchi. He would protect her with all of his power.
"A little," she said softly. "How much time do we have?"
"A little over two days," Tenchi said as he clicked the orb on. "There's not much left to eat," he added as he riffled thru the knapsack. This had to be one of Washu's better inventions. "Just a few energy bars," Tenchi, said with a somewhat disgusted look on his face.
"They will have to do," Ayeka mumbled as she accepted one of the chocolate and granola bars.
"We should get on the move," Marnot said as he stood up and stretched.
"Let's check the medallion," Tenchi said as he angled the golden disk into the sunlight. The first rays glinted off its surface and began to create the now familiar mass of swirling holo-graphic images. Finally the lay of the land became clear and the picture zoomed in on where they were standing. After the angle circled them it sped across the clearing and through the scrub brush surrounding them before it came to an ancient monolith. A ring of massive, capped stones circled a ring of smaller blocks, each aligned to the cardinal points. In front of each of these four stones stood a small alter. In the center of the inner ring was the all to familiar obelisk that had kept creeping into the temples and sanctuaries.
"That is where we must go," Marnot calmly announced. "I'd say it's a no more than two or three kilometers away."
"I'm impressed," Ayeka giggled. "You landed us in the general vicinity this time."
"You wound me," Marnot mocked back to her.
"Come on," Tenchi ordered trying to get the two lovebirds to cut it out. "We don't have much time left."
The Odyssey shall continue in The Trilogy of Light: Zenith.
I sincerely thank everyone who has followed this story from day one and those who have just joined in the fun. All of your kind words mean so much to me. Thank you. I hope that the tension is building nicely in preparation for the ultimate show down that is looming on the horizon. As always let me know what you think in the review box. Until next time. Later.
William Nichols.