Chapter 17 The Lich Is Born
(I know I usually put this bolded letters stuff above the chapter name, but this is just a…
*WARNING* This chapter contains some dark material, read at your own peril.
I'm not even kidding on that. I've reread this entire thing three times and I still can barley believe that I wrote all of it. And if you don't believe what I'm saying, then read the name of the chapter again.)
Over six hundred years have passed since the City of Teotihuacan was built and as Veli had promised, their civilization had grown and prospered so much that Veli and Soturi had built hundreds of small towns all along the strip of land between the two wedge shaped land masses, made the same way Teotihuacan was, only because the city streets were getting a bit crowded. Teotihuacan had easily become the economic, cultural, and religious center of the Maytecs domain.
Periodically, the Maytecs would have questions of how to run their city or to fix problems and it was up one of the brothers to answer that question. But this became much too tedious for them and Soturi had built a very sophisticated android to answer the question for them. This android was much different than others Soturi had created. It was by far, the most sophisticated and the best looking. The android stood ten feet tall, eleven and a half when it was levitating. It was made of a metal that was ten times the tensile strength of steel, and was colored to match the sands of the planet. It had four supercomputers as a brain and a face to go with every one, inside a diamond like head that spun on a magnetic axel. The name of this android was given by mistake, Soturi was talking with Magic Man when he had activated the fist brain. Then after the computer asked for its given name, the word 'glob' appeared in the conversation and the computer accepted it. Soon the other three computers were activated, Magic Man thought it would be funny if they named the rest of them in random words. And so Glob, Grod, Grob, and Gob were born. Soturi planned to début this to the Maytecs in a few years when all of the kinks had been worked out.
At this very moment, the two brothers were once again at the top of Iso Kivi. However this time they were learning the ancient ways of magic with the Man himself. With Orion's guidance, Soturi and Veli had discovered their strengths and weaknesses. Soturi had some of the same abilities as Magic Man, he could teleport, levitate objects, and he could hear peoples thoughts and even talk with them through his mind. Veli had the same and a similar power, he could actually persuade people to do just about anything he wanted. The only way not to be persuaded is to have some serious will power. It also came as a surprise to Veli when he discovered he could also discharge green fire out from his hands. It was a surprise mostly because when you look down at your hands you don't really expect them to be engulfed in flames. The two brothers once attempted to try each other's abilities, but failure after failure led the two brothers to stick with what they could do.
"This is just incredible." Veli said, as he made the fire on his fingers dance and take shapes of whatever he wanted. He looked as if he was no more than twenty years old.
"I know what you mean." Veli turned his head to the sound of his brother's voice and saw him levitating himself about a foot in the air, almost asleep. He had been floating there for almost an hour now. Soturi had grown to look about twelve years old. As Veli went back to his fire, Magic Man emerged from his house, happier than he'd ever been. He had used his friends as guinea pigs, to see if what he had learned from that book could be taught to anyone and the two princes were the best examples of that. In a few minutes they would be leaving to present Magic Man's training to the public and he couldn't wait.
"All of you have called me crazy, before." Magic Man hollered to a small crowd of people, as if he were an announcer for a freak show. "And now I stand before you to say, I'm not." He gestured for Soturi and Veli to approach and he waited until they were close enough to him until he started to talk again. "Now these two boys, whom you might know, have undergone a series of challenges to test their skills and not for their Rite of Passage, mind you." Some of the people in the crowd were curious and they started to ask questions, but among all of them, the one that raised the most attention was,
"What kind of skills?"
"An excellent question my friend, one I think is best answered in a demonstration. Veli, why don't you start us off." Veli nodded and walked toward a random person in the crowd, a man who was eating his lunch as he watched the show in front of him. Veli looked up into his eyes and stared deeply into them. The man became mesmerized when the prince's pupils contracted to a small point in the middle of his eyes. For the next few minutes, the man became Veli's puppet, every move the prince made, the man did the exact same. Veli led the man up to Orion, where Veli released him from his control.
"What the? How did I get up here." The man asked.
"Don't worry on how you got here, or getting back." Magic Man shot a look to Soturi, signaling him to levitate the man back to where he was standing, and he did. The man was rather shocked when he rose several feet in the air, but not as shocked when Veli created a ribbon of green fire and made it circle the man in a unique dance. The crowd was completely captivated at the feats that were happening before them and Magic Man noticed this. "They know all these tricks and many more, and I have taught them just as I can teach all of you, if you give me the chance." He said in a friendly manner. The crowd started to shift anxiously as murmurs were passed back and forth. Some time passed and Magic Man frowned as most of the crowd dispersed. Only a few that were part of the original crowd stayed and began to walk toward Magic Man. One of the people spoke up before anyone else could.
"I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we would like to learn." The smile returned to Orion's face as he peered over the small number of people who were ready and willing. But one person in general had caught his eye. A beautiful young woman with dark brown curls. Magic Man tipped his yellow hat to her and the he turned to Soturi and Veli.
"I think your work here is done, and I thank you for all of your work. If by chance you wish to learn more, you know where to find me." The two brothers smiled and nodded, Veli was about to say goodbye but Soturi had already teleported them both back to the palace.
"Why did you do that, I didn't even get to say goodbye."
"Because I have to put the finishing touches on our gift to the Maytecs and I figured you didn't want to walk all that way." Veli would have disagreed, but once again Soturi made a point. So he let his brother run off to do whatever he wanted and he decided he would do the same. Veli began walking in the direction of his bedroom, where he would lie down on his bed and relax, something he hadn't done in a while. However, halfway to his room Veli ran into his father.
"Veli, where have you been?"
"Around." The prince said casually.
"Well I would like it if you would stay closer to the palace from now on. You will have a lot more responsibilities to bear sooner than you think." Jalo said, crossing his arms.
"Yes father." Veli answered with a sigh. The Rite of Passage the two brothers were going through had been completed shortly after Teotihuacan was constructed and it was decided that Veli was going to inherit the throne, and everyone was happy for him, even Soturi. And because of his glorification, he had discovered a new sense of pride, not only in himself but in everything and everyone around him.
"Where have you been running off to all the time? I suspected you were helping Soturi with one of his projects, but he's been locked away in his workshop for a long while now." Veli looked at his father in deep thought, trying to think of a lie. But nothing came to mind. And with no other excuse, Veli just told his father a half lie.
"Well I have been working on something. Would you like to see it?"
"Actually, I would. I don't have anything planned for the rest of the day, so why not."
"That's good cause it's a long walk." Veli said, almost laughing.
Veli wasn't kidding when he said that. It took King Jalo thirteen hours to walk up Iso Kivi with his son. His excuse was a rather good one. 'I'm not as young as I used to be.' But when they had, the sun had already set. They had found the cave that Veli had fallen into. Jalo took his time climbing down into the cave and once he was in, his son told him what to do, and in a matter of seconds the King of Rumah was far from home. When Veli appeared on the transporter, he helped his father up off of the ground and outside the cave they were in. The Mayans had helped dig out the transporter near their old village and move it to a much bigger cave close to Teotihuacan; just beyond the outskirts of the city. As Veli lugged his father through the city, he enlightened him of the origins of the Maytecs, including Soturi's theory of them being clones, but he did not say his name at all.
"They were completely self sufficient before this city was given to them, unlike those giant lizards; they have their own customs and religion, even if it is a little, gruesome." Veli felt sick to his stomach at the recollection of watching one of those sacrifices, the look on that young girl's face would linger in his head for a long time. It was not a look of pain or fear that gripped her when the girl's still beating heart was ripped out of her chest and held upward toward the sky, but an expression of happiness. She was happy to give her life for their 'gods', so that the rain for their crops would fall, so peace between the tribes would last, and so the moon and sun would rise again. "All in all, they are good people, father."
Veli had carried his father to the Pyramid of the Moon where he sat him down on the steps of the pyramid, and while he was listening to Veli talk he never responded to any of it, he just held an overwhelmed look on his face. But after about a minute of sitting on those stone steps he finally found something to say. "You said that this city was given to them, correct."
"Yes."
"How was it given to them?"
"Sions were used to create every single building you see around you." Jalo lowered his head before speaking again.
"Son, would you please fetch me something to drink. I'm in dire need of some water." As Veli hurried off to find something for his father to drink, Jalo raised his valta to his mouth and talked into it as if it were a walkie-talkie. "Royale Guard, arrive at my position as soon as possible. Bring the restraints and the Knoll."
Word had spread that Veli had not only returned, but brought a friend as well. Soon some of the citizens of Teotihuacan began to crowd Jalo and when Veli returned with some water from the river, he had to part through a mass of people. The people tried to converse with Jalo but he just stared at them like they were unintelligible. Veli shouted above the crowd in their native language to let him by and they did. After that, it didn't take long for the prince to translate all of the questions the natives had and around the twelfth question the king saw a red dot fall from the sky and land about twenty miles away. All forty of the royal guard that were acting on his thought were on the planet and heading this way.
When they reached the city limits, the royal guards began to surround Teotihuacan. Except for two of the royal guard that marched down the Avenue of the Dead all the way toward the Pyramid of the Moon. The crowd of people were terrified of the machines. The floating body parts are what freaked them out the most. One royal guard came up to its king and helped him up.
"Father, how and why, are the royal guard here?" Veli asked.
"The why is more important than the how. You have violated the law that every Ruman knows by heart." King Jalo ordered the closest royal guard to arrest Veli for crimes against the city. As the machine walked toward the prince, one of the Maytecs stood in front of Veli to protect him. As noble as it was, the royal guard identified the man as a threat and then grabbed him by the arm; the man was then thrown a good twenty feet. No one else dared to approach the royal guard, in fact everyone else backed up a few steps. But not Veli, he stood his ground. Besides, there was no use of out running one of these things, since shortly before hand the prince learned that they can apparently fly. So the best thing for Veli to do was to just submit as two metallic bands were placed around his wrists. Instantly a magnetic force pulled the two bands together.
"Father you don't have to do this, these people would never wage war against us, they aren't like those lizards, they are like us in more ways than you would think." Veli said, not looking up from the shackles on his wrists.
"Oh I know the won't wage war, I'm going to make sure of it." The king stated in a solemn voice. "Tell everyone that they will never see you again." Veli was able to give his final goodbyes to the few people around him before the royal guard took hold of the prince and slung him over its shoulder. The people watched as the two machines marched back down the Avenue of the Dead to the boarder of the city, where a glowing red wall that was almost transparent had appeared. This was the Knoll, and it was nothing more than an organic eradication device. The device itself is no bigger than a soccer ball, almost looked like one too. What it does it self-explanatory, it breaks down everything organic within the wall to the molecular level. It was constructed shortly after the Rumans arrived on the red planet in accordance with the new law that had been created. If some other semi-intelligent life form had retrieved information from the archives in any way, shape, or form, the way to deal with them is as such: effective immediately the life forms will be wiped out of existence using the Knoll, so they would not use the information against the Ruman people. It was a law that everyone thought was unnecessary, because what person would be crazy enough to actually break it. As the two royal guards approached the wall an opening formed for them and only them. Veli was thrown to the ground while Jalo was placed upright against the wall. The king was able to turn his valta around so that he could activate the Knoll and once he had done that, the wall began to rise and curve toward the soccer ball like object floating high above the city. All of Teotihuacan was now concealed in a dome, now nothing organic could get in or out.
Inside of the dome, the people were very confused. Most stared up at the purple sky in both speculation and surprise, some walked toward the dome in an attempt to find a way out, with no luck of course. A few tried to dig under the dome, only to find out that it went three hundred and sixty degrees around the city. One man had his body pressed up against the dome. He gazed through and saw Veli placed on the ground behind an older man in a well-designed outfit, who was being held up by a being with floating limbs. The older man's left hand began to glow a bright blue that shined through the dome. The man leaned back from the barrier when he started to feel funny, his entire body was vibrating. It almost tickled. Then the only part of the man's body that was still touching the dome, which were his hands, then received a deep burn. He quickly pulled back, screaming in pain. When the man's eyes caught movement he looked back up. He saw that the dome was crawling towards him, he also saw that the ground outside of the shrinking dome was bare and scorched. The man walked backwards, keeping his eyes on the dome. But when it gained speed, so did he. Unfortunately, he tripped on a rock and fell on his back when the dome was only about a foot away. The next and last feeling the man felt when the barrier passed over him could only be described in one word, excruciating. The only thing left of him, was a hollow scream. This was the same fate for everyone inside of the dome, every man, woman, and child; no one was spared. It was a holocaust that happened in less than five minutes.
As the dome shrank to nothing, it left behind it a city that once flourished with life, but now it was nothing but a smoldering skeleton of that. Jalo was turned around by the royal guard so that he could face his son.
"I hope you understand the severity of this crime." Veli did not see his father as he talked, even though he was right in front of him, the prince looked past him and at the tragedy he, his brother, and Magic Man had created.
"I do." The royal guard that had thrown Veli on the ground picked him up again and brought him up so The king could look him in the eyes and ask him one question.
"Did you act alone in this?"
Veli knew he was going to ask that question and had easily given his answer. "Yes, I acted alone." The prince knew if he had told the truth, both he and Soturi would be executed. A Ruman can only marry once, there is no such thing as divorce in the city, and with the Queen of Rumah dead, she could not bear Jalo another prince or princess, the royal blood line would be cut once the king drew his last breath.
With everything done on this planet it was time to return to theirs. Jalo was being carried back to the cave he and his son emerged from, with Veli being dragged behind him. While he was being dragged, he saw up on a hill a young man about fifteen years old. He had gone out of the city to do a task for his father. He had lived to see the entire thing, but mostly he lived. Lucky him. Veli then had a terrible thought, this is the only site that his father knows about. What if he finds out about the hundreds that spread out through the land. So as a precautionary measure, Veli sent thoughts into the young man's head telling him to give this message to the rest of his people, when he agreed these were the words that were given to him in his mind.
'My name is Veli, I am one of the three who built the world you were born in and I am the one responsible for what has happened to Teotihuacán. I am the reason it is nothing but dust. It is the last blunder I shall ever make. I ask for you forgiveness, even though I wouldn't expect you to. By the time my word is given to you, more than likely I will be dead. I would give anything to take back what I have done, but I can't. The innocent are gone. But perhaps I prevent something like this from happening again with this warning. Abandon the homes that were given to you and never return to them, go back into the jungle and live on. Goodbye forever.
Five days have passed by very slowly. The second they returned to the red planet, Veli was stripped of his honors as prince and thrown into a jail cell in the lower levels of Rumah, the only one they had, and then the people were enlightened about the prince's endeavors on the next planet. They were as shocked as they were furious. Someone like Veli should have known better than to break such a simple law. Because Prince Veli broke that one law, he was branded a new title. The Lich Prince. To be called a Lich in the Ruman society, is the most horrible insult that can slip off the tongue. A Lich, was once a member of a social class in ancient Rumah, they were the worst of the worst. Thieves, murderers, rapists, you name it. And now, the first Lich in eons, sits quietly in a dark cell with his head resting up against the wall. For five days he has barely moved from that one spot, only to eat what little food they gave him and to use the bathroom. He had almost fallen asleep before he heard a set of footsteps coming down the corridor. Just as Veli started to stand up, Soturi appeared on the other side of the cell.
"Soturi, what are you doing?"
"I'm getting you out of here."Soturi said as he removed a key from his pocket and unlocked the cell door. The rusty door was opened only to be slammed shut. The prince looked up and saw one of Veli's hands wrapped around a single bar on the door. He then looked up at his brother with very confused eyes.
"I can't let you do that, Soturi."
"And why is that?" Soturi said, sounding more irritated than confused.
"Because if you help me escape, people will discover that I had accomplices. Then they will find out about you and then it won't be good for anyone; the throne will have no heir. Where would I even go?"
"I did a biological scan of the blue and green planet, there are millions of them, on other land masses. I figured you could take Rinnat and blend in among them."
"I'm not going anywhere Soturi, I have to be…"
"NO!" Soturi screamed, making Veli flinch in surprise. He had not heard Soturi talk with such anger in his voice in a long time. "I don't want to hear any of your arrogance! I don't even want to know what was going through your head when you told father about the city. But most of all, I don't!…" Soturi's voice calmed down as he looked at the floor to try and hide the tears forming in his eyes. "…I don't want my big brother to die." He said in a anguish filled tone. Soturi had always tried to act like he was more mature than everyone else, and most of the time people thought he was. So he tried his hardest to keep his composure all the time, but as Veli's arms passed through the bars and wrapped around his brother for a comforting hug, the tears started rolling down his cheeks and onto the cold metal bars. After about a minute of weeping, Soturi looked up at his brother with questioning eyes. Veli couldn't read minds but he could tell what that question was.
"Everything's going to be okay, someday, just not today."
Veli's trial was held the very next week and the stadium Soturi had competed in the Otella tournament was used as the courtroom. Every single seat was filled with people who had come to witness this historical event. The stadium was so packed that some had gathered outside the stadium where holographic screens had been placed on the wall. Everyone wanted to know the fate of the Lich, and to see if this law truly could be carried out
Veli was shackled and escorted up to the stadium by two royal guards. He was carried up on a small elevator that held just the three of them. It was the longest thirty seconds of his life. Once The Lich was in view of everyone, all of the conversations that the people were having stopped almost immediately. The Lich Prince looked around the stadium hoping to find faces to read, he always felt more comfortable when he did that. He didn't even bother looking for his brother, Soturi had told him that he was not going to come, instead he would just hide in his room all day. Almost everyone had a blank expression, the only face he read was Rinnat's. She was sitting in the front row and wearing a long white dress and veil. Much like what Ruman women would wear to funerals. The color white symbolizes the tears that are shed for the person who has passed away, for the peaceful sleep that person has now entered, and for the celebration of the person's life. Rinnat's face could be read as full of sorrow and resentment, and that became ever more clear as the royal guard pushed Veli forward to the feet of his father who was sitting atop a tall limestone throne in the middle of the spacious, sandy arena. The back of Veli's knees were kicked by the second royal guard and he fell down onto them before King Jalo spoke.
"Veli; you have been accused of breaking Varoitus' Law. How do you plead?"
If Veli had found the nerves to say he was innocent, a whole trial would ensue with evidence taken from the memory banks of the royal guards that entered Teotihuacan, but he just saved everyone the trouble and said,
"Guilty." He knew there was no other way out of this mess, and if everyone started digging through the dirt more bloodshed would follow after his. Just then the horrific memory of that young girl being sacrificed to the Maytecs' gods crept back into his mind. That memory didn't seem that much different from the situation he was currently in. The loss of one life will allow the entire city to live on. It would be for the benefit for everyone. Veli bowed his head and smiled so no one could see it as he whispered to himself, "I get it now."
It didn't surprise that many people when the Lich pleaded guilty, including the king. He waited for one of the royal guards to approach Veli from behind with its plasma spear before he spoke. "Then as king of this city, I here by sentence you…" Jalo raised his left hand to signal the royal guard when to strike. But as he looked down at his son, he saw an acceptance of his fate and then an alterative popped into his head, and without thinking he just blurted it out. "…to life imprisonment."
Every single head in that stadium turned and stared at the king because of the bombshell he had just dropped, even the expressionless faces of the royal guards seemed to look astonished. But as guards they must obey their king. Veli was picked up again and carried off, back to the dark and damp cell that is now his home for the rest of his days. Leaving everyone else left staring at their king hoping for an explanation. After several second, Jalo gave the populace his opinion.
"Death for him, would be the easy way out. A criminal of his magnitude deserves to suffer the consequences of his actions. " That is what came out of King Jalo's mouth, but what he wanted to say was something completely different. 'Whether a man be a lowly peasant or a wise old king, he could never send his own flesh and blood to death'
Gradually, all of the people left the stadium and returned to whatever they were doing prior to the trial, until the only person left in the entire place was the king, or so he thought. When he scanned the empty rows of seats the king saw Rinnat sitting on a chair with her legs crossed. The only reason she was still here was to discover who she could outlast, the king of her city or the tears. The answer was neither, after Jalo had made eye contact with her, Rinnat tried to scream at him to find out why he did it, but as soon as the first word got caught in her throat, the rest of her words forced the tears out. Rinnat immediately shot up and ran out of the stadium as fast as her legs could carry her. King Jalo had then slumped back in his throne and remained there until the sun had set, questioning if he had made the right decision.
Almost a thousand years has passed by and the Lich had become a distant memory for pretty much everyone. Jalo returned to his duties as king. Rinnat had eventually moved on and found herself a good man to marry. Magic Man's teaching spread throughout the city and he had found an interest in one of his first students, as did she have an interest in her teacher. Soturi had accepted his responsibilities as the new heir to the throne. Now, the Lich lies on a decomposing mattress he had been given on day one. He had stopped taking care of himself after around the six hundredth year, the same year Soturi stopped visiting him, his hair had grown and become filthy, much like the rest of him. Veli had grown to be a sickly form of his younger self. A person would have speculated his age around two thousand and eight hundred, or thirty one in a human's perspective, and both would have been correct. Lately he had been hearing a voice in his head that ranged in volumes of quiet whispers to ear piercing screams. It always had something clever or hurtful to say, and now the same voice had returned once more.
"What has become of you Veli, I've watched you lie in you own filth for far too long and I think it's just pathetic!" Veli looked around frantically to try and discover where the voice was coming from this time. But as he listened to the voice rant on, he relaxed and just took the words. "You should not be sitting in this cell, rotting from the inside out, you deserve to be on that throne, where you belong, and you should take it while you still have a chance."
"Why must you always be a nuisance to me, I know you are not real. You are just a result of me slowly losing my mind."
"Oh but I am very real, I am what your scientists have proven to be false. I am a god, just as you are grime on the floor. I have seen everything you could possibly think of and then some."
"I kinda find that hard to believe."
"Do you now?" Veli's eyes caught movement near the cell door and then two bright purple eyes appeared out of nowhere, the slender black cloud that formed around them only made the eyes stand out that much more. It looked more like a ghost than anything. The Lich jumped in surprise, now he thought he was hallucinating.
"Who, what are you?"
"As of right now, my name is of no importance. I am here to grant you something you have been lacking for centuries." The cloud reached down to lift Veli's face so that it could look him dead in the eyes and say, "Power. It is your birthright, you deserve it."
"No, I don't deserve anything. Perhaps I should just end it all, I mean, what do I have to live for."
"Right now, nothing. But whose fault is that?"
"Mine." Veli said desolately.
"Wrong! It was your father that was so stubborn he could not see what you and your brother had done made Varodius' law null and void. It was him that sent countless people to their deaths, people that had done nothing wrong, people whom if you had told them not to, would have worshipped you and Soturi like you were gods!"
"What do you want from me?" The Lich asked, sounding more angry than miserable.
"I want you to answer me one question. What do you want?"
Veli didn't give much thought on that question. "I want to leave this place and never return."
"And by this place I assume you mean the city as well as the entire planet."
"Yes."
"I can make that possible, but this would mean you would need to cut all of the connections you have here."
"Do whatever you must to get me out of this agony." The cloud then pulled Veli up quickly and violently, he was actually levitating three inches off the ground.
"I was hoping you'd say something like that." In the next instant the cloud spiraled around the Lich to make itself even more slender and it phased directly into his skull. Once all of the cloud was inside of his brain, Veli fell down wriggling around like a worm and gripping his head in pain. The voice was attempting, and succeeding, to take control over his body. After a long minute of excruciating pain, the Lich finally calmed down when his pupils expanded to cover all of the whites of his eyes and left a small glowing green dot in the center of a black void. He was gasping hard when he stood up and asked the thing inside his head, as he inspected his body.
"What have you done to me?" His health seemed to return as if time had reversed itself, he could feel most of the muscle he had lost come back better than before, his skin had regained the color it had lost from all the years in the dark. He had even grown a couple of inches.
"To grant you your wish, I will need you to do things that you would not be able to do without my help."
"What kinds of things?" After Veli had said that, the voice forced him to raise his arms and form a condensed green fireball. The fireball then shot out of hands and engulfed the lock on the cell door until it melted away. Veli then walked towards the door and simply pushed it open. As the Lich walked out of his cell and began running down the hall towards the light, he heard the voice say one last thing before he let it take over completely.
"You'll find out."
It did not take long for Veli to find his way around the city to Rinnat's new home. Lucky for him, no one walking the streets that day could recognize him with the scraggly beard that had formed on his face. He had waited for her husband to leave until he entered the home and found Rinnat finishing her household tasks. When Veli closed the door, the woman thought her spouse had returned for something.
"What did you forget now?" She said as she turned to face the stranger in her home. She stared at the dirty man before her in confusion. "Who are you?" The Lich let out a small laugh. This was the fist time in a long time he had seen her, the girl he had fallen in love with, and she didn't even remember him. But then again the beard did help that.
"Why am surprised that you don't recognize me, how long has it been, almost a thousand years." It was that voice that had once made Rinnat weak in her knees and still does, that made her recognize who was standing before her.
"Veli, what are you doing here?"
"I'm leaving Rinnat, forever, and before I go I just had to see you one last time." Veli walked towards the woman and embraced her. Veli gently grabbed the base of her head to bring her even closer to him. Rinnat looked deep into Veli's green eyes as she listened to him say. "I wanted to tell you that no matter what happens, I will always love you." The Lich quickly but tenderly placed his forehead on Rinnat's, both of them closed their eyes so they could enjoy their last intimate moment. The truth was that she never stopped caring about Veli, there would always be a special place in her heart that belonged to him, that no other man in the entire city could touch, not even her husband. But Rumens are affectionate creatures, they want to love and to be loved at the same time, preferably by one person, and Veli was this person to Rinnat. She knew this would be the last time she saw him and was in acceptance of the fact that what they were doing might be bad for her marriage, but good for the both of them. However after a few seconds, Veli's eyes shot open and both orbs had shifted back to the black void with a single green dot to show that the voice took control of him again. Before Rinnat was even aware that Veli was gone, the voice made his arm that wasn't holding the back of her head move with lightning speed and take hold of her chin with a death grip and snap her neck as if it were a twig. She was dead before she hit the ground. It was quick, painless and merciful, for Rinnat. Veli looked down at Rinnat's corpse as tears formed in his eyes and rolled down his face. The voice may have had control of his muscles and nervous system, but Veli was still aware, the voice had no control over his mind, his essence, or his heart, or whatever pieces of it that were left. The thing that had taken control of his muscles forced him to smile as he looked down upon the dead body of the woman he loved. It was truly a grim sight.
The sound of Rinnat's neck breaking was loud enough to awaken her infant child in the next room. Veli forced the voice in his head to take him away from Rinnat and the voice made him follow the sound of the crying child and he found it laying in its crib. It was a girl that looked as if she was only five years old, and she was upset that something had awoken her from her nap. To stop the baby from crying, the Lich stroked the child's face from her forehead down to the bridge of her nose, and it worked wonders. The child stopped crying almost instantly. He continued to stroke the baby girl's face with the same hand that killed her mother as he said,
"Sleep in peace for now my child, for one day I shall return for all of my children and you will all either embrace me as your king, or share the same fate as your mother." The voice in his head did not make him say any of that, it had actually left his body the moment after he set foot in the child's bedroom. He was acting on his own free will now, but his eyes remained the same. The energy left behind from the voice had corrupted his mind, to an extent. Veli walked out of the child's bedroom and saw Rinnat's body once again. It forced some part of himself to return, but not all of him. He went to the kitchen to retrieve a knife and then he rushed out of the house and toward the palace. The Lich left the door of the house open so if the infant started to cry again, someone might discover Rinnat and tend to the baby until they could get hold of the father. It only took about an hour and a half for a random pedestrian to do this.
Thirty minutes after Veli had left Rinnat's home he was now at his old home, to be more precise he had just scaled a wall to climb through an open window near his father's bed chamber. He decided the best thing to do was to hide and wait, his father would have to come back here eventually and four hours later, he did. Jalo was at his wit's end, it had been a long time since a murder had taken place in the city and it was always up to the ones in power to solve crimes such as this one. The question bouncing around inside his head was who would kill the mother of a new born child. He took a seat at the desk which sat directly under a large window that overlooked the city and reread the information given to him. The king was disrupted by the sound of a door slowly opening behind him. He turned and saw his son standing in the door frame of his closet. Jalo recognized him as his son only because of the way he spoke.
"Hello father." The Lich Prince said in a dismal voice. King Jalo immediately stood up to make sure that was indeed his son. Slowly, Veli explained what he was doing here, saying that he had to ask several questions before he left this world. "Why did you not kill me? Why did you send me to perish slowly in the darkness?"
"Because I could not force myself to destroy one of the few things I have left in this world." The king walked closer to Veli, and once Jalo was close enough he placed his hands on his shoulders. "I could not kill the son I love." Because it was nearly dusk and because Jalo had not turned on the lights when he entered the room, he could just barely make out his son's face, including his eyes. But the bright green dot in the center of Veli's eyes stuck out like a sore thumb and Jalo was about to ask what was wrong with his eyes, but was cut off when the knife Veli was hiding in his sleeve slid silently between two ribs and into the lower part of the king's lung.
"You should have ended me, father…" Veli twisted the knife with enough power to break the two ribs it lay between and to make more blood to fill his lungs. "…when you had the chance." Veli let go of the knife and stepped back to watch his father drown in his own blood. Before the king buckled forward, driving the knife deeper into his body, he coughed up a large amount of blood and most of it landed on Veli. The crimson liquid began to pool around the king once he was laying face down on the floor. When the Lich was certain his father was dead, he flipped him over with his foot and reclaimed the knife. Just then, several loud knocks came from the door.
"The royal guard has just informed me that Veli has escaped from his cell, father what are we going to do." It was Soturi, it was mostly bad luck that he wound up here just in time to meet his brother again. Veli strolled toward the door but stopped when his eyes caught movement once again. He promptly turned his head around to find his father standing upright and coated in blood. The blank expression on his face led Veli to think that the voice that had taken control of him had now taken to control of Jalo. It only took several seconds for The Lich to realize that it was him who was controlling his father, because when he raised his hand, so did his father. He decided to use this to his advantage and have him open the door for Soturi. Jalo limped over to the door and pushed it open. It took Soturi no more than three seconds to realize what his father was covered in and he screamed in horror. Before he could run away, Veli made his father grab Soturi and pin him up against a wall. He greeted the new heir to the throne as he walked out. Soturi was completely shocked at the sight of his brother, but Veli was as calm as ever. Soturi had grown to fill the spot his brother left behind, he looked to be about twenty one years old but was really twenty three hundred years old. He tried to push his father away but only got more blood on his own clothes.
"Why are you doing this, brother?"
"It is what's best for the city. Father was getting old, too old, and someone better is needed to take his place."
"You?" Soturi asked in a spiteful tone.
"No brother, you. No one would accept me as their king, now. That is why I must go. What you do with this city for now is your choice." Veli said as he slowly turned around and walked away.
"So that's it, you're just going to leave! What about me, what about our father!?"
"Oh don't worry about him. I'm sure once I get far enough away he'll just drop dead again." Veli said nonchalantly as he continued to walk. The only thing that made him stop were the next words that left Soturi's mouth.
"You Lich."
It took only a second for Veli to return to his sibling, at which point he grabbed his hair and pulled back hard. "What did you just call me?"
"The name you were given several days before your trial, The Lich Prince, and now I think it suits you just fine."
"Actually, it does have a nice ring to it, but I don't think it's quite accurate anymore. Because a prince isn't exactly a prince anymore once a king dies and both of us have evolved into that. You as the King of Rumah, and me, The Lich King." Veli said as he traced the tip of the knife around the skin on Soturi's neck. The knife blade was still soaked with a combination of Jalo's blood and Soturi's neck sweat.
"Are you just going to kill me, just because you can?"
"Just because I can, doesn't mean I will." The Lich said as he removed the knife from Soturi's neck and placed the tip on the center of his forehead. "But then again, that also doesn't mean I can't leave my mark." The Lich applied pressure to the knife and it sliced through every layer of skin as he traced it down his face and ending it just right of his nose. Soturi screamed in pain during the entire process. His own blood had seeped out of the wound and trailed down onto his clothes. Once Veli was done he walked away again and this time Soturi said nothing, he couldn't talk anyway because of the pain that was coursing through him. He watched his brother throw the knife at the floor and have it lodged in the marble tiles. The Lich then ran as fast as he could, and he ran until he reached the base of Iso Kivi and then began to climb. It wasn't till dawn when he had reached the transporter and left his home. But before he stepped onto it, he made sure no one would follow him by rigging the transporter to overcharge and explode once it had teleported him off world, leaving a small crater on the side of that big rock.
The Lich King was wrong about his father, long after he left the planet, Jalo's corpse was still holding Soturi against the wall. Soturi had covered the bleeding wound on his face with his hand to try and stop most of the bleeding and waited until he could regain enough strength to kick his father back and teleport away. But because of his fatigued state, Soturi faltered as he appeared in the city square and skidded several feet. The king didn't bother getting up, he had lost a good amount of blood. People who were the closest came to his side and then sent others for help. The last thing Soturi saw before he blacked out was a man picking him up.
Soturi woke hours later, in his own bed, after the doctors had cleaned and bandaged his wound. The bandages covered seventy five percent of his face, and there were gaps in the wrappings so that he could see and breathe through his nose. He awoke to see one of four crimson faces smiling at him and he immediately recognized the face as Glob.
"Good morning, Soturi."
Soturi did not reply, he only brought his hand up to his face, hoping that what he had just been through was nothing but a bad dream. His fingers recoiled as they touched the gauze, but then they slowly returned and traced the lining. The gauze was coated in a special oil that makes the cells multiply at a faster rate.
"There's nothing good about it my friend. Father is dead, his murderer is somewhere on the next planet, the city is more than likely in shambles, and I, the only person in the city who the people will trust in this dark time, can barely see with these bandages covering the humiliating gash on my face." Soturi said as he closed his eyes and sulked. The four sided head swiveled so that Grod now faced Soturi.
"You should have more assurance in the people, they are just as hurt as you are. Not physically, but mentally. They will help you heal, only if you do the same with them."
"Would they really?"
"See for yourself, Soturi." Grod said as he gestured to the window. Soturi forced himself out of bed and carried himself to that window only to see the enormous crowd that had gather outside the palace. They had all come to see if Soturi would face them again, not just as their king but face them period. As one person looked up at the new King of Rumah, so did another, and another, until every head in the sea of citizens was gazing and smiling at the young man. One person in the crowd started to chant and soon everyone else joined in on the chant. As the King watched from his high window, tears of joy began to dampen his bandages, he had never felt such satisfaction pass through his heart. The chant was loud enough that it could have been heard by a person on the top of Iso Kivi, the chant would raise the new king's spirit for decades to come, yet the chant was nothing more than four words.
"LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING! LONG LIVE THE KING!"
A funeral was held in the gardens the very next day and the only one to speak was Soturi. Jalo had actually dropped dead a second time not ten hours before the funeral. No one knew it at the time but that was the sign that Veli, wherever he was on that planet, had returned to normal. Because so many people mourned the loss of King Jalo, Soturi had it broadcasted across the city. The image consisted of the king wearing a white robe and standing in between two closed caskets that were surrounded by flowers. The casket to his left his left held Rinnat, and the one on his right held the king. Soturi placed his hands on both of the coffins before he spoke.
"My fellow Rumens, I come before you today not as your king, but as a son who has lost a father and a friend. I've kept the two caskets you see before me closed as a reminder that once a person dies, they leave behind a lot of things, whether they may be a baby girl who hasn't grown her first tooth yet, to an entire city to rule; but the thing they leave the most of, are memories. There is one memory in particular that keeps repeating itself in my mind. It was about a thousand years ago, the day my father had made a mistake, and that mistake stabbed him in the chest and watched him die. That mistake was my brother, and that is why as soon as I am able, I will leave to find my brother and do what should have been done a long time ago…" Soturi continued to talk even as he reached up and grabbed his bandages and began to rip them off. The wound had healed mostly and now it was nothing but a scar with a few small scabs. "…I will end him just as he ended our father." Soturi stepped back from the caskets, so that the cremation process could begin. Soturi signaled the royal guard to light the fire and both coffins were then engulfed in flames he tossed his bandages into the flames, and as tradition goes everyone who was watching did so until the last ember had died out.
All of the people that had come to the gardens to view the funeral had come one by one to give Soturi their condolences, and then slowly left. Several hours later, it was only Soturi sitting alone on the ground in front of a large pile of ashes. It wasn't long after the last person had left when the four G's came up behind him as quiet as ever, but Soturi knew they were there.
"Why did I say all of those things. I'm not even sure I can find my brother, let alone kill him. You four were programmed to answer questions like this, so tell me, did I make the right decision?" The four computers rotated until it could process an acceptable answer.
"Yes and no. You have made the right decision because you have shown the people that you have accepted your new role as king, but you have also made the wrong decision at the same time. You admitted that you will be leaving the city and abandoning the people?"
"I never said anything about abandoning them." Soturi said as he stood up and started to walk away. They could still hear the king mumble to himself even though he was about twenty feet away. "But I will do what I must, I will do what is right."
