Ice Phoenix
Chapter 36 - The love of a witch

“Namasar died before he could complete the lacing,” said the voices.

“But that makes no sense!” Raimus cried out. “The lacing is in place, it has been confining the Dream Walker for thousands of years. A lacing must be sealed after it is completed or it will not take effect! Had it been sealed halfway through, the consequences would have been dire.”

“Quite right, weaver. According to the laws of lacing, if a lacing is not completed properly, or deviates by even a single percentage, then the effect will be something other than what you wanted originally. Initially, it may appear that all is well, but at some point or another, the lacing will unravel.”

“After three thousand years, why would you say the lacing is incomplete?” Raimus asked, looking confused. He wasn’t the only one. Everyone else looked as though they had grown two heads in an attempt to solve the mystery of the incomplete lacing.

“Namasar died before he could complete it. The Dream Walker killed him and the other nine.”

“Then if he or the others did not complete the lacing or seal it, who did?” asked Kuldor. This was proving more intriguing by the minute and everyone was listening intently, desperate to hear more.

“His witch.”

“Skra?” Raimus gasped in amazement. “But how? She was just a witch!”

“You said she was overlooked,” Lorn called out. “She was a weaver, wasn’t she?”

“Truly spoken, young one. Skra was a weaver and no one knew, not even her lover, Namasar. Her witch’s power was enough of a heavy burden, and she had no desire to publicise her multiple talents. Foresight is a terrible gift to have when all you see is death. She foresaw Namasar’s death at the hands of the Dream Walker, and she begged him not to go. But she knew that Namasar would not listen. It was his destiny to face the Dream Walker, and any other way would have been a traitor’s path.

“Skra accepted this in the end and she watched Namasar leave, ultimately to his death. Namasar called on everything he had to battle the Dream Walker, but it was not enough. Even his pendant could not match the burning fury of the Dream Walker and at last he fell. But just before he died, Skra went to his aid. She had summoned Dartkala through her own pendant, and there in the void, she faced the Dream Walker.”

“How was it that she managed to achieve what Namasar could not?” Raimus asked.

“Or what made her decide to face the Dream Walker in the first place?” said Quempa. “She had, after all, foreseen her lover’s death so she knew she could not have saved him. Did she foresee her own victory?”

“We believe she foresaw hope and, ultimately, it convinced her to join the fight. She achieved what Namasar could not, because she felt something which neither Namasar nor the Dream Walker felt at the time — and that was grief. She had just lost the man she loved. She fought with all the rage, pain, and sorrow of her grief. The Dream Walker could never have expected this, and he had no idea how to deal with it. A woman’s grief is a dangerous thing indeed.

“And between Namasar and Skra, the witch was the stronger weaver and her pendant reflected it. Skra could not complete the lacing for she did not know how to, so she sealed it instead. She performed this by bending her will and the force of Dartkala to create the prison that still holds the Dream Walker today. The Dream Walker’s prison is more a weaving than lacing, and it is that weaving that holds the Dream Walker prisoner. It is the lacing that is now unravelling and it must be performed once more to contain the Dream Walker.”

“Then that means we can still complete the lacing!” exclaimed Raimus.

“Yes, you can still complete the lacing. We, as a race, could not defeat the Dream Walker, and in our arrogance we believed that no one else could. But it took a woman and her broken heart to prove us wrong. She was too grief-stricken to even contemplate failure, and this is why she succeeded.”

“What happened to her after she returned?” asked Prince Gil Ra Im.

“After informing the governments of what had befallen the ten, and how the Dream Walker had been imprisoned and cast beyond the Voron Cloud, she was hunted by the officials she had spoken to.”

“What?” uttered Raimus. He wasn’t the only one; the others seemed just as shocked.

“Skra had just returned without Namasar’s pendant, carrying the only remaining one — her own. How could a mere witch have battled and fought someone as powerful as the Dream Walker and survived? This was how the united governments thought. They accused Skra of murdering the ten and stealing Namasar’s pendant. They wanted the pendants for themselves.”

“Despicable,” hissed Quempa.

“Skra understood that her pendant could not fall into the wrong hands, and so she disappeared. No hunters, weavers or lacers were able to locate her.”

“Well, it’s no wonder!” blurted Raimus. “She picked Si Ren Da! Who would have thought of searching for her there?”

The grandmaster frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He had listened carefully to everything the voices had related, and no matter which way he looked at it, there was one glaringly large hole in their story, and it troubled him.

“With respect, everything you have spoken of, everything you described, was of events that have had a deep impact in the ten sectors. Events of that scale could not have simply been overlooked or forgotten by the people of UWIB, but that is exactly what happened. Why wasn’t it recorded in our history? Our archives were created two centuries after UWIB’s formation, but even so, we had the ability, the technology, to record those events. The queen had to scour the ten sectors to glean what she could from scrap paper! Why did we have to learn this from you?”

The voices hissed and fell into silence. Several minutes passed and there was no answer forthcoming.

“It seems your question greatly disturbed them,” said Kuldor to the grandmaster. He released a deep sigh and sat down suddenly, crossing his legs. Grandmaster Deitrux joined him and the two sat in silence. Finally, Grandmaster Deitrux spoke.

“It appears that way. They have a lot to answer for. The severity of these events was undeniably grave and the information should have been passed down to all UWIB citizens, but instead was erased from history. The truth behind UWIB’s formation and the Dream Walker’s existence had been deliberately kept hidden. There are not many in this world who are capable of such a feat.

“Then, there is the other matter regarding the united archive, which was not built until two centuries later, after UWIB’s creation. I had always found that a little strange. We had the means to communicate, the means to save and transfer data, and yet nothing prior to the creation of UWIB was recorded. How did that happen?”

The grass rippled gently and everyone straightened, waiting for the voices to speak. Finally, they resumed.

“You speak truly, Grandmaster Deitrux. We are to blame for the missing part of your history. We were deeply ashamed of our involvement in the atrocities committed by the Dream Walker and the Valpuri, and there were many of us, particularly the Ancients, who wished to erase our part in this history forever. We slowly altered people’s memories and transplanted new ones, erased any collective data we could replace, and for two hundred years we held back the progress of UWIB, until we were certain that no one would remember the events of the Valpuri and Dream Walker war. We could have helped clear Skra’s name, offered her protection, but instead we did her a great injustice by not stepping forwards. We allowed her to be hunted like an animal until she was forced to spend the rest of her life on Si Ren Da.”

For the first time since he had materialised on DalKal 7, Grandmaster Deitrux’s face darkened; those who knew him well knew he was angry.

“It was, indeed, the greatest injustice you could have committed,” he said, “Not only to Skra, but also to the valiant ten who sacrificed their lives to protect our universe. They are the only reason we are alive today. Your interference in UWIB’s affairs has not only robbed us of a history, but also left us unprepared to deal with the re-emergence of the Valpuri and the Dream Walker.”

The voices fell silent once more, and the Imeldors picked up a strong sense of shame emanating from them. When finally the silence became unbearable, Kuldor asked a question. “Is there a way to kill the Dream Walker?”

“We think so,” the voices said quickly, eager to move on. “We previously believed that it couldn’t be done, that the Dream Walker was invincible, but we may have been wrong. Now, we are almost certain of what Skra foresaw three thousand years ago that gave her hope.”

“What was it?” Raimus asked quickly.

“Another being, born like the Dream Walker. We believe that Skra foresaw the existence of another being whose power would rival the Dream Walker’s. Someone with the same blood as he.”

“Is it another person from Olden Kartath?” asked Lorn.

The voices laughed, baffling everyone. They ignored the question and continued talking about the Dream Walker. “The Dream Walker is not one of us. He is not Kartathian, as we call ourselves here.”

“I’m sorry, but would you mind repeating that?” said Raimus, very loudly. “Did you say that the Dream Walker was not Kartathian? Wasn’t he born in Olden Kartath?”

“He was born in Olden Kartath, but no Kartathian birthed him. Three days prior to his birth, one of our planets, Syrog, experienced a strange weather phenomenon. On the fourth day, a vortex appeared and through it came a mass of qi, qi we had never seen or experienced before. It was so powerful that our people had to flee the planet. Then, on the sixth day, the qi vanished, leaving behind a baby boy. That baby boy grew up to be the Dream Walker.

“The Dream Walker was birthed from darkness, from nothing. He is Dartkala’s son.”

Everyone paled and Grandmaster Deitrux looked stunned. “Then that means ...”

“Dartkala is sentient.”

“There must be a logical explanation for this,” insisted Kuldor. “He could have been genetically engineered and abandoned —”

“Do you think we would not have thought of this, Gratchonian?” chided the voices. “We ran countless tests, we studied him day and night, and not for one second did we leave him alone as a child. We were driven to discover the truth of his origins. All those tests came out inconclusive.

“His DNA structure was unlike anything we had ever encountered. They didn’t only replicate at phenomenal rates, there were times when they just didn’t exist, flickering in and out of existence. We took his cells, experimented with them. We split a single cell nucleus; we discovered more nuclei inside, containing different information than that of its parent. Do you know what other entity has similar properties?”

“Dartkala,” answered Grandmaster Deitrux, his voice sounding hollow.

“Yes. The faars, the ice-phoenixes, and the Dream Walker are all Dartkala’s children. Every advanced civilisation has tried to unravel the DNA sequencing of feiyed creatures and failed. The Dream Walker is Dartkala’s child.”

“That is just incredible!” gasped Raimus, clutching his head. “So, the Dream Walker is feiyed! But, what about this other being that Skra foresaw? Has it been born yet?”

There was a strong gust of wind and whispering flooded their minds. “The being has been born and, surprisingly, is among you.”

Raimus drew back in surprise. “Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”

“How can that be?” asked Lady Anrath.

“If only that were true,” said Quempa.

There was a jumble of voices as everyone tried to speak at once. They fell silent as they noticed the grandmaster was sighing and shaking his head sadly. “It’s Terrana, isn’t it?” he said, with resignation.

The breath went out of Terrana and she stared at the grandmaster, shocked that he had uttered those words.

“Yes,” the voices replied, “her confrontation with the Valpuri alerted us.”

Terrana jumped to her feet and glared angrily at the treetops, then spun around to face the grandmaster. “What are you talking about? I’m human! I’m not some freak who was born out of nothing! I have parents and a brother. I’m flesh and blood!”

Grandmaster Deitrux looked torn. He had found a way to save the world if the Dream Walker should ever escape the confines of his prison, but this would destroy everything Terrana believed about herself.

“Terrana,” he said gently. “You ... are feiyed.”

"No! Only animals are feiyed! I’m human! My mother’s human. My father’s human. My brother’s human. I’m human.”

She couldn’t believe what they were trying to tell her. With just a few words, the grandmaster had eradicated the meaning of her existence. If what they were saying was true, then her entire life spent in Sector Thirteen had been a lie. How could she have been born feiyed to a perfectly normal family in Fiji? The happiest times of her life had been with them — they were her flesh and blood. She felt as though she was going to shatter.

“Proof,” she cried. “What proof do you have to make those claims?” She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, regarding her with both pity and curiosity.

“You wear it around your neck,” the voices murmured sadly.

Terrana froze. With a trembling hand, she reached under her cardigan and tugged at the leather thong around her neck. Miraculously, it had survived her fiery outburst on Si Ren Da, just as it had survived the fire in Fiji. It came off easily and she raised it so that she could stare at the black pearl that Puddy had given to her. It was the only keepsake of her life and family in Fiji. A single black teardrop.

“Dear Dartkala,” whispered Grandmaster Deitrux, his tone bordering between shock and amazement. ”You had Skra’s pendant all this time!” At his words, everyone shuffled closer to Terrana.

Raimus craned his neck to get a better look at the pearl and his eyes widened when he saw it. “That’s not the one we retrieved in Si Ren Da. It looked less like a teardrop and more like a brain.”

The voices sighed.

“What is it?” Grandmaster Deitrux asked sharply.

“The pendant you saw back in Si Ren Da was Namasar’s.”

“What?” cried everyone in unison.

The voices almost seemed to take a deep breath before continuing, “It appears that Skra did return with Namasar’s pendant, only no one knew, including us. What we do know, however, was that when Namasar died in Skra’s arms, the shape of her pendant changed. That is the tear that Skra cried. Terrana has been wearing Skra’s sorrow her entire life.”

“Stop it! Just stop it!” screamed Terrana, her hands over her ears as she tried to shut out the world. She hadn’t believed that her life could have regressed from disastrous to catastrophic, but somehow it had gone beyond that. Until now, she had not accepted the truth of Baneyon’s death, and she still didn’t want to, but she could see in the Imeldors’ eyes that they had accepted it.

The shock from admitting the truth numbed her. Every cell in her body ached to grieve for him, but she wasn’t even allowed to do that.

"You are liars! Every single one of you! My name is Terrana Lee and I am human!"

“Terrana.” Lorn went to her side but she shoved him away roughly.

“Get away from me!” she snarled. She turned and ran, disappearing through the trees that lined the edge of the embankment. Prince Gil Ra Im stood up. He and Lorn looked at each other. They hesitated only a second before running after her.

“Let the children be,” said the voices, as the adults also prepared to give chase. “They are safe on this planet.”

“Why does she have Skra’s pendant?” asked Quempa angrily. “How did you know?”

“We didn’t know she possessed the pendant until she arrived here. The pendant does not prove that she is Dartkala’s child, we know she is. But it may be proof of the hope that Skra had foreseen. It is the only reason why she possesses the pendant. Skra would have ensured that it found its way to the right person. And if Skra’s pendant is with her, then ...”

Everyone steeled themselves, preparing to hear the worst.

“The child has an extremely powerful guardian, someone who is able to conceal her qi. He or she probably gave her the pendant and hid her away in the thirteenth sector.”

“Dear Dartkala,” said Grandmaster Deitrux, looking very worried. “Is it even possible that someone exists who can tame the power of a feiyed child? As witnesses to what she did in Si Ren Da, her qi is not something which can be concealed. Who or what are we dealing with?”

“We do not know. We can only surmise that when you removed the child from Sector Thirteen, you separated her from her guardian. Rest assured, he or she will come for her.”

“We had no idea she had a guardian when we rescued her from Sector Thirteen. All we knew was that, unlike the other inhabitants of that world, she had qi. We did not leave her on that planet because we did not want the humans to discover her abilities. Anyway, her parents and brother were dead, and we thought she would be happier on a planet where everyone had qi. As she began displaying her powers, I began to suspect that someone had been hiding her in Sector Thirteen, but I did not know why. Discovering she is feiyed is a complete shock, and knowing she is our only hope against the Dream Walker saddens me greatly.”

“Was the family’s death accidental?”

Grandmaster Deitrux turned cold. “We are unsure. It could have been the child herself who started the fire that killed them, or it could have been the sea creature she befriended.”

“We saw nothing of a sea creature when we read her mind.”

“She had a dolphin for a friend, Ancient Ones. It’s been with her since her birth and we suspected the dolphin may have been feiyed.”

“We did not see a dolphin in her mind,” the voices stressed again. They seemed flustered now, worried even.

“Also, the dolphin has appeared twice to her in Pa Gumpina. On one occasion, the girl transformed and we believed it was because of the mammal’s presence.”

“And yet there was no dolphin in Si Ren Da, was there?”

“No, Ancient Ones.”

“The child needs her guardian. It is highly possible that this dolphin is her guardian.”

“Forgive me for interrupting, but why did you ask if the family’s death was accidental?” asked the grandmaster. He was levitating now, and in order to hear him properly, the others had to follow suit.

“It is vital to establish how this girl’s family died. Were they murdered, is the real question. You must realise, the girl is young and vulnerable at this stage of her development, and if someone wants to kill her, this would be the time for them to strike. Our fear is that the Dream Walker has learned of her existence, and if he has, rest assured he will stop at nothing to destroy her if he ever gets free.”

“But you don’t believe he knows, do you?” said the grandmaster.

“No.”

“Then let’s get back to who started the fire, and why. I don’t think it was Terrana or her guardian — that does not make sense. It must have been someone who knew about Terrana and wanted to destroy her — the fire was meant to kill Terrana, not her family. So, who could have known about Terrana’s powers and also knew where to replace her?”

“We do not know. Our discovery of her existence came as a surprise, even to us.”

“The bottom line is that we must protect Terrana,” said Raimus, rubbing his stomach thoughtfully.

“She is the best hope our worlds have against the Dream Walker if he ever escapes. If she perishes, so will everything else. She must be nurtured, trained, and protected.”

“We are running out of time then,” said Kuldor. “Nashim has met Terrana and he will be looking into her background. If he discovers who she is and reaches the Dream Walker ...”

“We will not allow that to happen,” added Quempa quickly. “There’s still a chance we can stop Nashim. After all, we have Skra’s pendant. We have the means to pass through the Voron Cloud.”

“And we will send our best weavers and lacers into the cloud, where they will restore the lacing to hold the Dream Walker for all eternity,” finished the grandmaster.

Kuldor shook his head. “There’s a problem with that plan. Nashim is most likely on his way to the Dream Walker now. He has the tonien and Namasar’s pendant. We don’t have the tonien, which means we cannot replace our way to the Dream Walker.”

The stream gurgled loudly and a strong wind blew across the blue grass. “Our systems indicate that he has not been able to unlock the tonien. He has no advantage over you,” said the voices.

“Could you run that by us again?” said Raimus, cheekily cupping his hand to his ear. “Unlock the tonien did you say?”

“The tonien requires three keys. The first key is a generated algorithm requiring a password spoken in our tongue. The password itself is a combination of sounds, digits, and words that only an authorised Kartathian knows. The second key is an Olden Kartath puzzle based on Kartathian logic. The third key is physical. It still remains here with us in Olden Kartath.”

“Damn you!” blurted Raimus, turning red in the face. “You could have told us that from the very beginning! If I wasn’t already missing a heart, I’d throw one at you, you heartless bastards!”

The voices went silent.

“Raimus, you must keep calm,” chided the grandmaster. “We need the Kartathians’ help. Without it, our worlds may well perish at the hands of the Valpuri and the Dream Walker.”

Raimus inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry, Grandmaster Deitrux. You are right.” He looked at the pods hanging from the tree tops.

“Please accept my heartfelt apology, Ancient Ones. My words were uttered in anger, and I’m afraid I caved in to the pressure of these dire circumstances. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.”

The voices seemed to accept his apology, because they resumed speaking. “Even without the tonien, the Valpuri can still replace their way to the Dream Walker. It will take them longer using only the pendant, and it is not certain that they will replace him in their lifetime. You can track the Valpuri using Skra’s pendant. You can still stop them.”

“Then we must leave immediately,” said Grandmaster Deitrux. “But before we do, you must show us how to activate the pendant.”

“We will tell only you, Grandmaster Deitrux.”

The grandmaster suddenly went still, and he remained frozen for several minutes as the voices spoke directly into his head. When it was over, the voices spoke aloud again. “There is one more thing you need to know.”

Raimus groaned and shook his head. “Why do I get the feeling it’s not going to be good?”

“The Valpuri have been known to travel with certain creatures called wrails. If your planet has the misfortune to host them, it will be destroyed in a matter of days. Do not hesitate to eradicate them when you see them.”

“What are they?” asked Quempa.

“Creatures from the Valpuri world. They are transported in eggs and lie dormant until they are needed. They are extremely difficult to kill; in a sense they are feiyed. They can survive if they are cast into Dartkala, but unlike true feiyed creatures, they cannot traverse the In-Between. Instead, they lie dormant until they come across any planet or asteroid capable of supporting them.”

“Sounds wonderful,” muttered Raimus.

“We will return you to your ship now and bid you a safe journey. The fate of our worlds rests in your hands.”