He reached the lane outside the building. The
streets were just as deserted as they had been, and Ion had trouble
finding someone to ask directions to. When he finally did, a
Brownling he had found strolling down the lane told him that the
planet’s only ship hangar was in its only fully inhabited city,
which was closeby enough to reach by hover bike. Ion needed to
reach the city, and then find someone to lead him to. Thanking the
man, Ion reached the place where he had parked the hover bike he
had stolen from the Naxim officer.
Though the power drive was depleted and he
couldn’t use it for space jumps, he could travel for meagre
distances within the planet in a regular speed. He checked the fuel
and was overwhelmed with relief to find that, though not fully
sufficient, the bike’s fuel would last to take him to the nearing
city, where the hangar was. Or close enough to it, anyway. He would
then get directional help from one of the inhabitants of the city,
to lead him to the hangar by foot.
Here we go, then.
His blood rushing with thrill and urgency,
Ion mounted the hover bike. The engine rumbled as he switched it
on. He gave the throttle a gentle spin, and with a slight jolt the
bike took to the air and soared off down the city.
__________
Nyon temple, Farnor
Sitting silently in a room, Mantra surveyed
the beautiful scene out of the window as he usually did when his
mind was clogged with too much to comprehend.
The six masters who had gone to find Ion had
returned just a minute or two back. The five others were now with
the rest of the elder council, and Mantra knew that they were
holding a meeting to decide as to what now needed to be done.
Feeling overweighed slightly, Mantra closed
his eyes. He let himself grow calm through a series of steady deep
breaths. And before he knew it, he had managed to find the side of
him that upheld a clear composure whatever situation passed. The
worries throbbing in his mind dulled slowly. And he let serenity
and tranquility robe his thoughts, so that everything shone with a
polished clarity … clarity bearing a greater insight into the
universe than anything else…
And through the clarity, through the
stillness and serenity, Mantra heard a sudden tune play through his
mind. A tune of beauty. A tune of harmony.
A tune of power and infinity.
It sung through the recesses of his being,
bringing a glow of knowledge. And the knowledge that it brought
made a smile liven upon Mantra’s face.
He slowly drew his eyes open, so that the
fresh depth in his mind was mirrored in the world around him. His
vision bloomed with the sight of the forest outside, rich and
untarnished in its eternal beauty. Mantra allowed his gaze to stall
over the greenery outside for a few long moments, still treasuring
the newfound glow lighting him within.
__________
The ten men stood in postures of focus, all
attention pooled at the man in the centre. The air was lit with a
sense of purpose. Vitality.
Standing at the centre, Galinor heaved a deep
breath before going on.
“This may or may not turn out to end up the
way we need it to, but like this or not, we will endure whatever
result awaits as in Radioc. Even if it means death.”
The ten other members of the elder council
gave a combined sharp nod.
“This is all we have left. My fellow Nyon,”
said Galinor, looking about the ten men standing around him slowly.
Their features held a mirror of the resolve he felt at this
desperate hour. “We are going to the inner spectrum. We are
entering the planet Radioc. We are going to the rebel controlled
village, to re acquire the object our two disciples failed to. And
we will do this whatever the cost.”
He drew in another breath, letting his voice
now run softer. “I won’t put false promises here. The chances are
that not many of us will make it out of the planet. The Naxim will
have their database in Radioc alerted when we enter it. And even if
we do enter the village and get hold of what we went there for, we
will have to brace ourselves to face the Naxim’s forces anytime
after entering it. And they will send their heaviest assault force
for their most important mystic targets, which is us, the Nyon.
With all of us marked in its hitlist.” His voice sank even lower.
“As I said, the chances are that not many of us will make it out …
and in all honestly, chances also remain that we don’t make it out
at all. And our sacrifice and efforts go down in vain. But we will
stand up and make the efforts needed to fulfil our duty. And if we
die trying, there will be peace with us in that.”
As one, the ten other masters of the elder
council gave another sharp nod.
Mantra, Galinor and the team of six who had
gone to make contact with Ion had returned here with the bad news,
just a minute or two back. They then knew that the grimmest of grim
had come to pass upon them. As Ion had refused to help them, they
knew what they now needed. They needed to do it themselves … and
brave whatever came in their way. After returning, Galinor called
on a meeting of the elder council to relay what had happened to
them. For some reason, Mantra was the only member who wasn’t
present. He seemed to have sealed himself up in another room of
this temple, and they didn’t know what it was keeping him from this
meeting right now.
Well, Mantra does have his …
eccentricities.
admitted Galinor.
Faced with a rather distressing scenario, the
elder council made a bold decision. One that they knew they would
have to make at the very end. They were heading to the planet
Radioc to acquire the object by themselves. The Naxim, which had a
tough hold on the planet, would undoubtedly by alerted when its top
mystic targets entered its primary zone. And it truly was unlikely
that they succeeded in getting the object they had to find in the
village and return, but this was all that was left…
“This may be our last day together,” said
Dantox, stepping forward from the circle. His golden hair rustled
slightly in a gentle breeze wafting from the open window. Looking
slowly over the ten others, he said, “I take this opportunity, to
say that it’s been an honour serving with you, my brothers…”
“Save the last minute sentiments for a time
where they’re needed.” cut in a familiar voice from the doorway
behind.
Galinor turned over to find Mantra standing
at the door, his calm expression lumined in a smile.
“We’re heading into the most dangerous planet
in the Naxim’s radar, with all of us on its priority list.” said
Galinor, turning to fully face him. “What’re the odds all of us
will come back?”
Mantra shook his head, giving a soft laugh.
“We won’t be going at all. Because right now, Ion has decided to
change his mind. He’s making his way to the planet as we now
speak.”
The ten masters made sounds of shock and
delight.
Galinor continued to stare at Mantra for a
moment after he heard this, before relief rushed through him. “If
that’s really true…”
“Yes,” said Mantra, nodding. “there is a
pretty good chance after all, fellow masters, that we may have the
object securely acquired after all. The boy will enter the planet
without setting off the Naxim’s alarms, as he isn’t marked by them.
And they don’t have his mystical aura traced in their energy
detectors. I’d like to hold my faith up in him, that he will fetch
us the object victoriously … and my faith usually manages to align
itself with reality.”
__________
Ion walked down the semi urban lane flanked
by old, cracked structures. He found civilians strolling down the
street, most of them cloaked.
The hover bike had carried him to the very
outskirts of this city, the one where the ship hangar of this
planet was, before its fuel ran out as Ion had rightly predicted.
But Ion had wasted no time at all and had hurriedly scrambled down
the maze of structures, making his way to the hangar by foot.
The sense of urgency was slowly mounting
within him: he had left almost an hour ago. He had reached here
just over half an hour ago. And for half an hour, he had been
looking for a way to get to the hangar. For half an hour, he had
wandered helplessly and stupidly. And finally, he had found a kind
old man who had agreed to lead him to the hangar, which it seemed,
was closer than he had thought. Ion felt a growing anxiety in his
stride. He needed to get to the village quickly. Time seemed flow
by faster by the second … and time was what he didn’t have.
“Thanks again by the way,” he said, looking
at the elderly man who was leading him to the hangar. The man gave
a nod, his waist length white hair flapping.
As Ion looked down the lane sweeping the city
ahead, his thoughts slowly drifted back to the event that had
changed his life, an hour ago. And an upsurge of emotion, mixed
with gratitude, arose within him.
His final meeting with his master would stay
branded in his memory.
“
You are searching for revenge … But you
will never find it. You can’t. And you yourself know that … you are
not
searching
for the one in the poster, you’re
hiding
from him. Hiding from reality … trying to outrun it. But you
can’t.”
Ion painfully accepted it.
He was
right.
All this while, for two years, he had been
trying to outrun the past. But he knew he couldn’t.
“
I am a part of you, Ion.”
The voice
from his dreams echoed within him.
Jedius’s words had now opened his eyes. Ion
now admitted what he had always known: he had to face those things
that he couldn’t alter or change. And the past was one of those
things.
He was now willing to accept that there was
no escape from the pain. He had to face it, and bear it. And go on
to do what needed to be done. Ion knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
He knew the courage that was needed for this … but it was Jedius’s
courage that he borrowed. His master’s memory would light the way
ahead in this meandering road. The large fang like object he had
left with Ion lay tucked inside his pocket.
But as of now, the real steel being driven
through him came from someone else. The true source of the resolve
he now felt … was her.
Vestra…
Ion remembered the pained look on Mantra’s
face, when he had asked him what had become of her … He now knew
why. Vestra was one of the two students they had sent for this
mission, who hadn’t come back. And Mantra had decided to hide this
from Ion, to save him from that pain.
Ion’s stomach boiled as his thoughts zipped
to whatever fate she now lay in … and whether or not that fate left
her dead or alive.
No way, don’t think that!
he
admonished himself sternly.
She’s alive, she’s gotta be … and
I’m going to go get that object she and the other Nyon she went
with had gone for, and get both of them out of there alive
…
He repeated it to himself a few times, trying
to rig it into his belief. It took him a moment to notice that his
breath had turned pacy. He calmed himself, knowing better than to
lose it now. But the urgency of the situation bit into him like a
talon.
“Are we there yet?” he asked, turning to the
elderly man.
“Almost.”
Ion turned back, gazing down the small street
that they were now in, with even smaller lanes on both sides. He
could feel the bustle of a large commotion somewhere nearby,
undoubtedly the ship hangar. They were moving towards it, down the
smaller juncture of lanes.
But even beyond the fear of it, the fear that
Vestra might not be alive when he reached the village, there was
the regret. Because if she really wasn’t, it would have been Ion’s
fault…
He might have been able to save her if he
made his mind up at the first instance, when Mantra and the other
five masters reached him.
If he was too late now, he would never
forgive himself.
The aged man was now walking ahead of him,
leading him into what looked like the joint alley between two
buildings. Four dustbins lay at the corners of the alley, which the
two of them briskly strode through. The elderly man suddenly
stopped and swung about to face Ion. Ion halted abruptly as well,
as he faced the elderly man fully for the first time…
Eryx tore off the wig of long white hair and
threw it to the ground. A triumphant sneer spread across his face
as he took a step forward towards a completely shellshocked
Ion.
“You wriggled outta that one didn’t you, you
little worm?” He said, abandoning the sweet, soft tone of the
elderly man he had feigned to be all along. His voice now jumped
back to the same rough, mildly savage one Ion had conversed with in
the z-com earlier.
“You!” exclaimed Ion, taking a step back.
He suddenly remembered something that had
slipped his mind earlier on, chased out by the bulkiness of his
meeting with the Nyon masters. “What was that you tried with me,
earlier on? The Zelgron? What the hell was that all about?”
“You half wit,” laughed Eryx. “You’re talking
to a member of the cause that’s responsible for leaving the Nyon
terrified off their skins.”