The Rising Sun: Episode 6 Read online

  “This day … shall mark something for both of us,” Rigmrr growled. “So return to your Nyon … and inform them of your new alliance. Us. When the war breaks … we will stand by you, against the Xeni and their demonic forces which once harassed us.”

  Nano never thought it would have been this easy. Feeling a glow of triumph brighten his world, he nodded.

  His eyes scanned the dark patches spread over the pitiful creature. “Is there a cure for this illness of yours?”

  The Ensys appeared thoughtful for a paused moment, while the rest of the creatures looked about at each other, murmuring in their unreadable, sharp tongues.

  “There is…” the Ensys said finally. “But it is exceptionally rare … It is a type of rock substance known as Eleegron … which is found at the farthest corner of the spectrum … where none dare tread.”

  Surprised, Nano shook his head. “Eleegron. We’ve heard of this rock substance before. And it is easier to reach than you might imagine.”

  There was a slightly sharp silence.

  Rigmrr was gazing at Nano with a incredulous look, his jaw half open. “Can you … procure it for me?”

  Nano let his thoughts run over what he knew of Eleegron, and its whereabouts. It was not unfamiliar for him. But at the same time, he wasn’t sure exactly how easy it was to find and procure. It could be done, surely. But how easily, and in how much time … and whether Rigmrr would survive long enough for them to find and bring it to him, Nano had no idea.

 

  “I have a faint idea of where it is found,” he answered. “The substance is not unknown to me. However, exactly how soon and how easily, I do not know. But rest assured -” he added, as the anticipation on the Ensys’s faces fell quickly. “It can definitely be found and procured … you have my word on that. It is not completely out of reach.”

  Rigmrr was gazing at Nano in a mild new light, with something relaxing in the lines of his temple. “If you manage to do so … if you manage to procure Eleegron, and have it brought to me … then we would all be eternally indebted to you. And we would support your side … with only the utmost of fervour.” He nodded, the first true smile blooming upon his face.

  “Then we will try even harder,” said Nano. “to have this substance found for you.”

  Having finished their audience, the batch of watchmen marched back down the cavern. There was a new energy in their stride, and a hum of victory played within their minds.

  6

  The ship was put in autopilot, set to make a brief halt in Jacova before moving on to Quolnos. The four Nyon stood about the large hull, their eyes fixed on the black spaces filling the four screens ahead.

  Jacova was known to be reasonably close to where they were, and they would be reaching it anytime now.

  Ion looked across the hull to see Mantra standing as calmly as ever, his serene gaze perched on the screen opposite to them. Qyro was standing beside him, his right leg shifting as it drew patterns over the floor in its boredom. Vestra was standing across the hull, her hands folded.

  And something happened, which the three youngsters in the hull sensed immediately.

  Mantra’s posture picked a sudden rigidness. His eyes shut and his breathing seemed to stall for a prolonged group of seconds.

  The three others knew what was happening.

  He was sensing something…

  Then, after a trail of seconds, he slowly opened his eyes, resuming his unwavered stare into the black screens ahead. But something new seemed to have dawned on his wizened features.

  The three others stood on the spot, looking at him quietly through the pinched silence.

  Finally, Vestra slowly stepped forward, placing a gentle arm on his shoulder. “Master … what is it?”

  He continued to gaze into the screens ahead.

  “There was a … shift in the energy field, which I sensed. And with it … I sensed a new development.” His eyes grew very slightly wide. “An important development.”

  The three others swapped serious glances.

  “What is it?” Qyro asked him.

  Mantra hadn’t moved his eyes from ahead of him. “The batch of watchmen sent for the Ensys…”

  Ion could feel his attention sharpen as he waited…

  “What happened to them?” he asked softly. A flicker of hope kindled within him. Was it, by the remotest chance, possible that they had actually succeeded? Could fortune have graced them with this victory after all? If so, then perhaps things weren’t all that bad as they seemed … they stood the meekest chance now, if they had won over the alliance of the Ensys.

  “What happened to them, master?” Qyro repeated, frowning intensely.

  “Have they done it?” Ion said, feeling the spark in his tone. “Have they won the Ensys to our side?”

  Mantra was calmly looking into the abyss of black over the screens ahead, coated with a spread of a million glinting stars. He seemed to be floating off elsewhere, leaving his physical body behind him.

  With the three of them watching him, he slowly drew in a deep, long, and then turned to bring his eyes upon them.

  “No … they never even made it out of the cave.”

  7

  Vestra gave a feeble gasp, her hands flying to her mouth. Ion and Qyro looked at each other, both their faces mirrors of the same horror and revulsion.

  “They’re … dead?” asked Vestra.

  “You mean the Ensys … the Ensys killed them?” asked Qyro.

  “Yes.” came Mantra’s calm reply. “But there’s more … the Ensys have joined the Xeni.”

  His words left a daze to fill the room.

  “Joined the Xeni?” all three of them said at once, equally puzzled at this new twist.

  Mantra’s gaze grew far off. “Whatever happened in that cave,” He shook his head, looking troubled. “is disturbing. Dantox and the watchmen we sent were near victory. They were very near to winning the Ensys over to our side … But then something happened … something that I can’t properly sense, but seems troubling for some reason. Then, the Ensys decided to instead join the Xeni. And they killed them.”

  “Dantox, Nano and the watchmen?” asked Vestra. “The Ensys killed them all?”

  Mantra nodded solemnly, his eyes grim.

  As the shock passed, fury broke through Ion, so that he stood there with clenched fists. Master Dantox. And Nano. And the other watchmen. That they were all no more triggered a wave of anger that rushed through him with a visceral force.

  “But, how?” breathed Qyro, shaking his head in a gesture of utter disbelief. “How could it be that the Ensys joined the Xeni?”

  Vestra nodded along with him, frowning in equal puzzlement. “They hate Redgarn and the Xeni, don’t they? For what they did to their race eight millennia back.”

  “Yes,” said Mantra, frowning. “I thought they did too.”

  “Then why in the world would they wanna join them?” asked Ion, unable to add what had just happened.

  Mantra stroked his chin calmly, appearing to be deep in thought. He shook his head slowly, unable to come to a conclusion himself to this bizarre new twist.

  “There’s nothing more you can tell, master?” asked Qyro.

  “I wish I could, just as much as the three of you.” Mantra walked forward across the room, with the three of their eyes following him. “But I sensed a sudden shifting in the energy patters around the hundred or so watchmen. At first, triumph … and then, defeat and dissolution. They were victorious with the relation they had gone there to forge … before something happened that twisted the table completely.” His scowl deepened. “I don’t know what it is. But whatever had happened in the middle, to make the Ensys change their mind, it is greatly troubling. Whatever it is, it disturbs me more than the fate of Dantox, Nano and the watchmen.”

  The three of them switched deeply unsettled looks.

  Ion wondered what possibly could have happened, which had made Dantox and the watchmen’s victory sudd
enly turn to defeat and leave them all dead. And how could the Ensys have been made to join the Xeni, whom they bore a deep rooted hatred for?

  A heaviness pressed down upon them all, a silence that welled with the same grief.

  “And what about Nano and the watchmen?” Vestra asked suddenly. “The watchmen don’t die, do they?”

  “No, but they would have returned to the conch,” said Mantra. “to return a millennia later.”

  “A millennia?” laughed Ion, though he found nothing humorous in what he was hearing.

  “But we don’t have a millennia!” protested Qyro. “We needed them now, more than ever. We needed them for the war, when the demon forces were to be released.”

  “We still have the rest of the army,” said Mantra, the grave tone in his voice lessening. “And we’re fortunate enough that we do. The loss of Nano, Dantox and the hundred others among the watchmen is definitely a heavy one. But our position is not as weak as it could have been. As long as the rest of the army stands, we still have hope. And with the help of the rest of the army, we can forge a wide range of alliances among the non man beings. And that would be the route we now have for building our army. To fend off Redgarn’s. And as long as we take hold of this one chance, to protect what we stand for,” He shook his head firmly. “all is not lost. For now, we need to greatly sharpen our minds in the task that we have with us now: your task is to get the support of the Skrylis, while mine is to find my former student.

  “Don’t waste yourselves mourning for what has been lost. Instead, devote yourselves to avenging them through ending this battle as fast as it had started. For too much life has been lost now, and we can tarry no longer.”

  He looked around at all of them with a look of focus sharpening his calm demeanour. “Our tasks now, are of utmost importance. Because the Ensys were counted as our greatest alliance. We’ve lost them now. We need to bank upon whatever’s left now, to gather our army. And that’s why our present tasks now fall to a far, far heavier importance.”

  The energy that his words flowed with reached across the three of them, leaving the gloomy atmosphere to drain quickly. Leaving a sense of purpose to replace the heaviness in the air. Ion’s grief transformed into resolve.

  They could feel the ship’s speed plummet rapidly, leaving its spaceripping speed. And over the screen directly ahead, a large planet suddenly zoomed to life. It was a planet with a strange, maroon coloured surface.

  “We’re here at Jacova,” said Mantra, and he turned to them. “I’ll get off here, while you go on to go on to contact the Skrylis in Quolnos. When you’re done, come back here, and I’ll be waiting. If all goes well, I’ll be waiting with a much needed new alliance added to ours. With the loss of the Ensys, and the hundred watchmen, a very much needed alliance.”

  “Let’s hope you do,” said Qyro.

  Mantra turned to Ion. “Oh, and I’ll need you to accompany me in this.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes,” said Mantra. “Qyro and Vestra will be able to handle the Skrylis by themselves.”

  Ion lifted an eyebrow. “All right, then.”

  “Good.” Mantra turned to the other two, and gave a stern nod. “Well, good luck to the two of you. Because I think if there was a time when we could use the aid of luck … it would be now.”

  “We’ve already told you this before,” said Qyro.

  “We don’t need luck.” finished Vestra, her eyes sparked with fervour.

  __________

  Reaching the large maroon planet, the ship had zoomed in to the edge of a very feeble inhabitance. It was something of a village. Huts erected with bricks and straw roofs were seen on the rocky, sloping terrain. They were all spread over an enormous area, making the place look lesser like a true village and more like a random group of huts. Some of the huts were larger, some of them smaller. The inhabitants could be seen outside of a few of them, shooting curious glances at Mantra and Ion as they swiftly strode past.

  Through the haze at the distance, mountains could be seen rising into the horizon, an extension of the land that they were now crossing.

  Some of the huts had hover cars or bikes stationed beside them. Very few had full sized ships perched amidst the wide terrain. Most of them were of a greatly old craft, with a tarnished look, as though their owners hadn’t used or driven them in ages.

  “So who is this student of yours?” asked Ion, trying to evade the boredom as they trotted down the lands in silence.

  “A mystic who definitely would have done well to join our brotherhood.” sighed Mantra. “It was too bad he decided not to. I could see so much in him, so much waiting to be unleashed if he had stayed with us. But he decided to move on to other things. And staying with us did not hold much of an appeal to him, I’m sorry to say. But I think, given the present climate, he may decide to do what he should have done long back … and join hands with us. I’m hoping he would.”

  Ion let his thoughts wander over the tense predicament that had found them. The sheer graveness of the present. The storm waiting to break soon now … and how they were the only ones left to stand in its way when it did. When it broke. The army of watchmen, along with the whatever allies they managed to forge, were all that now remained to defend this world against the evil unleashed by the Xeni.

  Unable to stand it, Ion turned to Mantra and asked, “Will they succeed?”

  Mantra looked at him. “Who?”

  “The watchmen.” he said, hearing the desperacy in his own voice. “Right now, they’re spread over the outer spectrum, making allies among the non man beings. But …will they succeed in getting the support that we need? To build our army?”

  Mantra smiled. “Ah, Ion, don’t mistake me for too much of what I seem to be: there are some things I cannot sense, and the future is one of them”

  “But we really need them to.” Ion shook his head. “We need them to win over all the allies possible to aid our war, don’t we?”

  “Definitely so.” replied Mantra, gazing on ahead as he walked. “But don’t let that affect you now. Even if they don’t succeed in that, we have them. We have the army of watchmen. Without them, we would truly be nothing right now. And that should suffice in the most meagre means. Let us treasure what we have been given, without letting dark times shroud our vision. And right now, the watchmen are a true treasure to our side. A divine treasure indeed.” He turned and brought his calm gaze over Ion again. “But to satiate your fears, let me give you my answer. Yes. The watchmen are proficient in what they were made for. Which was, to protect our world whatever the cost. They will definitely win over a large alliance among the creatures they find in the outer spectrum.”

  The stern faith he spoke with quelled a portion of Ion’s fears.

  “When they’re done,” Mantra continued, turning to him again. “We will gather with all of the forces we have amassed. The four of us, the entire army of watchmen, and all of the forces they have mustered for this war, will gather and unite in preparation of what we must fend for now.”

  Ion suddenly realised something, which he found strange not to have realised earlier. “But wait … How’re we going to reach them?”

  “Who?”

 

  “The watchmen.”

  Mantra slipped a hand beneath the front of his cloak around his chest and withdrew the necklace with the Grael conch.

  Oh, forgot about that. thought Ion.

  “The conch is the instrument of summoning the watchmen.” Mantra explained. “The person sounding the conch summons the entire army, as one, to gather where he is, and lets the army move from there only with his approven command.” He slipped the conch back below his cloak. “We’ll summon the entire army, and see what they’ve managed to scrape out of their different ventures across the outer spectrum.”

  The two of them were now edging to the end of the largely spread group of huts. The huts were now distributed far more spaced out, and the rocky region was starting to grow rougher. T
hey climbed up and down the unlevelled land. Mantra hopped over one of the large boulders situated in their path, and his eyes scanned the distance. Ion climbed up alongside him and looked down the land.

  “There he is.” said Mantra, pointing not very far from them. Nearing the edge of the last huts in sight was a large, grand looking ship of black colour.

  “He’s in there?” asked Ion, turning to Mantra.

  “No,” Mantra edged closer to Ion, jabbing his forefinger harder into the air in front. Ion narrowed his eyes and saw it: less than a hundred or so metres in front of the large black ship, they could see a man in a brown cloak sitting in front of a fire, soothing his hands.

  “Yup, I see him.” said Ion, climbing down the rock. As Mantra leapt off the rock, landing beside him, Ion asked, “How’d you know exactly where he was?”