Disclaimer: Roswell, and its characters do not belong to me. Melinda Metz, Jason Katims and 20th Century Fox have that particular pleasure. I'm simply borrowing them until the Season 2 DVD's get released.
Chapter Seventy – Four – A Father's Story
"Are you ready now to hear the rest of the story?" Drinian asked.
"Well, actually, I'm kind of hungry," said Kyle. "Do you think we can get something to eat before we begin."
"Kyle," Kitana said kindly. "This is a palace, and you are one of the chosen rulers. You can have anything you'd like."
"Hey, you, wench," said Kyle, pointing at Ava. "Fetch me a Ho Ho. Ow, ow! Hey, cut it out!" Kyle shouted while everyone else laughed. Ava, in retaliation for Kyle's little outburst had used her powers to set the pillow he sat upon on fire.
"Actually, you will find that all of your belongings, including those you had stored in the tunnel room have been brought over to the palace," said Drinian. "So finding you some food that you will enjoy won't be very difficult. We will arrange for somebody to bring in some," he paused, searching for the right words.
"Junk food," offered Alex.
"Exactly," smiled Drinian. "Thank you Alex."
"Okay, now that we have the food issues taken care of," said Kyle. "I'm good."
"Before I can tell you what you want to know, I want to share something with you, all. I made a very big mistake, and because of it, our world suffered a great loss. It was because of me that Kivar was able to take control."
"No, Drinian, it wasn't," said Kitana, placing her hand on her husband's arm. "Kivar was an evil, villainous man, and he would have found a way, no matter what."
"No matter," said Drinian, addressing his wife. "They need to know my role in everything so that they don't blame themselves."
He took deep breath, steeling himself to share the unhappy memories that led to the fall of Antar. Seeing the pain and sadness in his eyes, Liz moved forward, and knelt down next to his chair. She didn't say anything. There wasn't anything she could say, but she wanted to be there to support him, the way he supported and comforted her when she lost her child.
Drinian looked down at Liz, and saw the love and support reflected in her eyes, and he smiled. Reaching down, he took her hand in his and squeezed it gently, drawing strength and comfort from her.
"I turned my back on a very important part of our culture while I was Antar's leader," he said. "And I made the mistake of passing my beliefs on to my son, and this played a large part in allowing Kivar to take control of Antar."
"Why, what was it?" asked Zan, clearly confused.
"The Granolith," answered Maria and Ava. Both girls smiled at each other, the animosity they once felt towards each other was long gone.
"Exactly," said Drinian. "It was the Granolith. "But how did you know?"
"We saw it appear on top of the palace," said Ava. "And you could just see this change come over the faces of the people. It was like they all had blindfolds taken off or something."
"Exactly," said Drinian. "You both are very observant. That trait will serve you well in your lives."
"See that, Space Boy," Maria said, nudging Michael in the side. "You should pay more attention to me."
"I always do, Maria," said Michael, rolling his eyes skyward. "I always do."
"So, you were saying, Father," said Max. "About the Granolith?"
"Yes," said Drinian, suppressing the smile of satisfaction he felt at Max's words. "The Granolith. It is a very important part of our culture, and one I chose to, while I did not ignore it, I didn't respect it either. The Granolith is a religious icon of sorts. We have a central deity that we worship, and it is common belief in our world that the Granolith was given to us by our deity."
"That doesn't explain what Ava said she and Maria saw happen when it reappeared," said Isabel.
"I'm not explaining this well," said Drinian. "I will ask you to just bear with me while I try to explain this. The actual physical structure of the Granolith is rumored to have just appeared thousands of years ago. Our people assumed it was a gift from our deity. Technology is also a very important facet of our lives, and someone at one time, managed to harness the energy of the Granolith."
"But what does it do, exactly?" asked Liz and Alex simultaneously.
"You two are ever the scientists, aren't you?" laughed Drinian. "We are unaware of many of the gifts of the Granolith, but one thing it does do is impede the ability to mind warp."
"And was that the giant flash I saw when the Granolith appeared, Father?" asked Zan.
Again, Drinian smothered a smile at hearing his sons call him Father. "That is it exactly, Zan," he said. "When the Granolith returned to it's proper home, the force field reactivated itself and broke the mind warp Kivar and his people had created. I was foolish; I didn't respect the power the Granolith had. There are so many things that it is capable of doing, and I, in my arrogance thought that we didn't need it."
"You mean like the way it married us or whatever you want to call it, back on Earth," said Alex. "I get it, but I don't get how it did it."
"I don't either, or I would explain it to you," said Drinian. "The collective consciousness that you absorbed, is stored, in part, in the Granolith. It isn't something we did, it just happened when a person died. I believe when it was sent to Earth, it absorbed the collective consciousness of Earth as well, and that is how it knew that the eight of you were destined to be together. Each one of you compliments the other. You are like two sides of one coin, and the Granolith sensed that, and joined you."
"So, it's alive, then?" asked Isabel.
"Yes, and no," said Drinian. "Is it a living, breathing entity, no, it is not, but it does seem to grow in sense of it's abilities. It is very confusing, indeed."
"Fine, it's confusing," said Maria. "Everything about you people is, so that's no surprise, but I'm still not getting how your not believing in the Granolith led to all of this."
"Many of our people learned how to block the power of the mind warp without the aid of the Granolith," said Drinian. "I believe you told me one time that Michael had this ability." He looked over at Michael who nodded. "You're mother did as well," Drinian continued. "She was instrumental in teaching many people this skill. But because so many people could do it, I did not believe the Granolith was a necessity. I did not guard it as it should be guarded. Each successive king of Antar is entrusted with the guardianship of the Granolith. I was derelict in my duties, and allowed it to be taken. That was how Kivar was able to create his intricate mind warp that enslaved our world."
"But what exactly happened?" asked Max. "You didn't just leave it unguarded, did you?"
"No, even I, in my arrogance would never have done that, but I wasn't careful about the guards that I did chose, and worse, I allowed my attitude regarding the Granolith to rub off on you. You saw how I reacted to the Granolith, and you adopted my attitude for your own."
Max's expression darkened at his father's words. He felt the weight of failure pressing down on him. He opened his mouth to answer his father, but Drinian was quicker.
"No, Max, it wasn't your fault, and it wasn't Zan's fault," he added, looking at his other son's hangdog expression. "You learned at my knee not to believe in the Granolith. The fault is mine, and no others."
"But since the Granolith was on Earth, you must have been able to gain control of it again," said Liz.
"No, I was not," said Drinian. "When Zan fell in battle, I made my way to the Granolith to see if it would choose me as King again. I knew our people needed a leader, but it would not choose me. I knew then what I had to do. I made arrangements to have it sent to Earth to watch over you. Had the incubation pods worked as intended, you would have known exactly what to do. Luckily, you were smart enough to decode the books and activate it yourselves."
"Then how did the Granolith get to Earth with us?" asked Zan. "Or with them, I should say?"
"Zan, we had no idea how far Kivar's duplicity stretched," said Drinian. "You know of course how his people mixed up the pods. We knew from previous experiments that one set would prove to be more viable, and well, adapt better to the duplication process. You saw for yourself how evil Lonnie and Rath were, as was Tess. Statistically, one half of the embryos were going to develop poorly, or with defects. You, my son, beat the odds, and survived and developed with out the defects." Drinian paused and took a drink from the cup Kitana passed him. He set the cup on the floor beside him, and continued his story.
"As I said, statistically, four of the eight embryos were supposed to develop with defects. We did our best to choose which had the best chance of developing normally. However, Kivar's people switched the embryos before we had a chance to send them to Earth. Our people did the best they could to try and figure out which was which, but remember, there was a civil war going on at the time. In the end, the decision was made, and the Granolith went to New Mexico."
"For the most part, your people chose well," said Kyle. "I mean, Ava got stuck in New York, and we got Tess the beast, but honestly, I don't think they ever figured two of the Zan pods would develop normally. What I want to know is what happened to their protectors? I mean, Nescado, not much in the way of a father figure, you know?"