~F R O M~
Published By
Rik Johnston
Copyright 2017
Dark Perceptions Publishing
ISBN: 9781370045839
Digital Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to a third party. If you would like to share this book with Another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the publisher and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. Please note that this is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places or events are purely coincidental.
I
Her process of malfeasance was sharply interrupted by a bright and persistent glint in her eye. It was so tiny and insignificant that she had nearly forgotten its presence altogether in the thousands of years it had endlessly tumbled throughout the void, drifting with, and without intention to the place that fate quietly carried it. It was nearly time to draw her savior from the black stream that carried him on his currents, and she would breathe new life into him, and chisel him into a being of her own making, who would respect and fear her with every breath in his body. This would be her weapon against The Profezya Manifesto, which tore at her heart, assuring her destruction was closer with each passing day.
The Profezya Manifesto. The perpetual thorn in her side. She was The Usurper Serendipity, and The Multiverse of Spheres would be hers for the conquest, despite what an ancient prophecy from a washed-up enemy dictated. Still, that prophecy gnawed at her spirt every passing moment, bringing a renewal of her fear, which gave her strength and resolve. Knowing her fate had been preordained, she spent every breath fighting against it, hoping to discover a way to sabotage the prophecy in any way she could. This object floating before her, so recently set free, yet so long ago forgotten, could hold the key to both her freedom and her desire.
Carefully, she reached down into the stream, and plucked him from his course of conveyance, setting him down upon a lost world deep within The Pockets of Nothingspace, where he broke from his cocoon, a breath away from death, his body damaged beyond any hope of natural repair. It was there, upon that cold, nameless world that The Usurper Serendipity’s spirit took human form and set foot, beginning to heal that which had been so badly broken. She breathed exceptionally long life back into the lungs of the traveler, and renewed his life with purpose, that he might become an unspeakable instrument of her will and her maleficence.
She adapted his body to withstand radiation and temperatures much colder and greater than that of others of his kind, and gave him the ability to breathe in any kind of toxic environment. She gifted him great strength that he might rend other beings in two with his bare hands, and made his hide tough enough to withstand damage from projectiles and blades. His damaged limbs, organs and facial prosthesis were replaced with cybernetic apparatus of various designs of construction, which gave him a menacing and foreboding look. His left eye had the ability to track targets very quickly, see through walls, and read and process data into his mind at an accelerated pace, so that he could accomplish everything that she needed him to accomplish. She gave the distant traveler every tool that his heart would desire to set him out onto the path of the destruction of The Human Tribes that her enemy had cherished so greatly.
And when she had finished with him, she looked upon the beauty of that which she had created, and fell deeply in love with her creation, causing new sensations to stir within her that she had never known before. And somewhere taking inventory of her personal creations, he became her favorite, and was cherished to him, as the Human Tribes were to The Empress.
II
Upon waking, seeing the beauty of her face and form convinced him that he had been located by an angel, and a pleasant calm washed over him. His disposition changed once the traveler gazed upon his new features. And he was wholly displeased, failing to recognize that which had been bestowed upon him as a gift from a loving creator, instead was a curse that had robbed him of his form and purpose. The Usurper Serendipity reached out and took his hand, placing the spiritual power of her hand into the cold, unfeeling metal of his, and gazing into his face, feeling pleased in her accomplishment. Strangely, he could feel everything with the metal hand that he could as if it were his own flesh. The Usurper Serendipity, seeing his displeasure caused her to question what could be disconcerting to the man she had just salvaged and resuscitated.
“What troubles you, my love?” She asked kindly, appearing as if she were speaking from some remnant of The Ichouli she had once been many millions of millennia before.
“My love?” The cybernetic figure answered, trying to assimilate the information he was taking in. “I don’t even know you.”
“I know you.” The Usurper Serendipity returned in kind. “I know where you’ve come from, I know what you’ve been through. I know what drives you, and I know that intolerable hatred you possess that would motivate you to kill any other who dared to cross you.”
“You’re just generalizing.” He countered, realizing that her description had been too broad and all-encompassing, and that she was just trying to trying to hit any mark that she could grasp at to pique his interest. No sooner had the words leaked from his lips, her hand thrust forward and onto his forehead, blasting light into his mind, replaying his memory in crystal-clear definition for him. While the process took no more than a fraction of a second, he relived his life in real-time and in third person, as if he were watching a motion picture.
He remembered his childhood, and the town he had lived in, what school he went to. There was a girl, he remembered that too. He recalled all the happy moments, the melancholy moments, the peace, the anger, and the heat of the sun on his skin. And while he was watching his life unfold through another’s eyes, he could somehow sense the happiness that person had experienced watching over him. Every moment appeared for his viewing, no matter how insignificant or how boundless, and that sense of joy from the eyes of another persisted. And while it had seemed that all the years of his life had passed, it all occurred in that brief space of time.
“Do you think I’m still, how did you put it, generalizing?” She giggled playfully, taking joy in the revelation she had given him. “You’re no longer that man, you’re my Shadowhead, the one who will rule The Sphere at my side.”
As he regained his vision of the world, his countenance changed, giving the right-of-way to the realization that despite his misgivings about the changes she had made to his physical form, that she had essentially saved his life, for better or for worse. And while some part of him was grateful for that, he was in no way ready to get himself into a committed relationship with an omnipotent being. He’d read too many stories in his day to know that nothing good ever came from being in a relationship with somebody who had that much power.
“I’m sorry.” The man confessed, trying to figure out to let her down gently. “I don’t feel as you do. I just think…”
“I know you don’t.” The Usurper Serendipity cut him off, trying to make best of the situation. “But you could grow to love me. I can give you everything your heart desires. I can give you the galaxy, I can give you power, and I can give you a love that can never be ripped away from you. You’re here, so you may as well get comfortable and enjoy yourself.”
He shook his head in agreement, especially since he didn’t know where “here” even was. And there were worse places one could be than in the company of a beautiful spirit woman.
III
Many units of time that he perceived as w
eeks had passed, though he could not be certain in any measure, as there was no sunlight to measure it by. He was not certain if this was the afterlife, or if it was another life, or if he’d been brought back from the dead for another chance to right the wrongs of his past life. Whoever The Usurper Serendipity was, she seemed benevolent enough to him, even if he hadn’t felt that he warranted such fine treatment from her. His days were spent growing in strength, and while he found that he enjoyed her company immensely, he could not bring himself to give himself to her. But she appeared to be genuinely patient and giving, and the pair of them went spirit travelling in spirit form to the most beautiful places in The Sphere, educating him about the worlds, and the vast number of settled colonies placed throughout it. She instructed him on the intricacies of economy and government and how these could be used to build or to topple societies.
She showed him how to have a conversation with The Xumanfelian Wasteland on Dahlshor, and took nomadic journeys forbidden by law on Vinestrus. She danced with him in the grain fields of Nyppatoria and swam in the warm, tropical seas amongst the unclothed forms that populated Hestendra. The two of them peered down into the pure glass waters to straight to the bottom of the seas of Paradiso. They watched the Earthset together from Luna-Michrondis and skimmed the frozen surface of Dyntallo.
And when she showed him one-one millionth of the splendor of The Sphere, the two returned after many months to The Pockets of Nothingspace, where they shared a marvelous meal at a large table that stretched far across the room of the abode she had prepared for him. The two of them spent hours talking, and enjoying each other’s company, and it was as much of a perfect moment as the two of them could have asked for. As he stared at her, he was suddenly overcome with the compulsion to know more about her.
“Tell me more about your enemy.” He asked her, hoping to learn more about her personally.
“You don’t want to hear about that?” She deflected the question, assuming he was attempting to placate her. “I can’t really put that part of myself out there.”
“If I didn’t want to know, I wouldn’t have asked.” He replied, placing his arm around her, and looking at her in a way he never had before. “I want to know all about you.”
She felt uncomfortable with the tale, but told it anyway. “I am the rightful ruler of a race of supreme beings called The Ichouli. We are beings made of pure light who live in a Sphere that exists outside and encompasses this one. I can come and go between both Spheres as I choose. My enemy is the former Empress, she and her followers became afflicted with a disease, and to protect our kind from extinction, I assumed the throne and exiled them here in this Sphere, to quarantine them. Upon coming here, the disease created madness within them, and they created The Human Tribes so they could eventually use them to return to The Greater Sphere and overthrow me.”
“That’s horrible!” He said to her as tears began to fall freely from her eyes. He reached over and gently wiped a tear from her face with his flesh hand, and held her hand with the cybernetic hand. “I don’t even know your name.”
She paused, looking at him, trying to regain her composure momentarily. “My name is Trinta.” She whispered softly. The name sounded awkward in her voice, as she hadn’t used it in many millions of millennia, but she allowed it to slip out. It was, after all, the only request he had made of her since his arrival, and she felt as if speaking her name would earn his love, then it was worth the risk to her.
“That’s a beautiful name.” He responded in kind, still holding her hand, rubbing it with his thumb.
“Thank you.” Trinta replied, smiling ever so slightly. “I wish I had the power to fully restore your broken body, but my enemy stole that ability from me.”
His curiosity piqued at Trinta’s mention of the restoral of his body.
“How was that ability stolen from you?” He asked, hoping to gain some answers on how he might become whole again.
“Within each Sphere lies a smaller Sphere.” Trinta began, deliberately and slowly laying out the details for him. “The smaller Sphere contains more power than the Sphere that contains it. The former Empress has taken this smaller Sphere into herself and weaponized it, powering a device called The Empÿre Omega, which she can use to destroy me if I come to claim it. I not only risk annihilation if I come to claim The Empÿre Omega, I would also surely become infected with the same disease that afflicts her”
She allowed her sorrow to overtake her as she continued to speak to him. “All I’m asking for is the power to defend my people. If the former Empress and her diseased followers are able to defeat me and return to The Greater Sphere, it will most assuredly mean extinction for The Ichouli. Humans are not affected by their disease, so what I need is a Human I can trust to lead an army to reclaim the Lesser Sphere from The Empÿre Omega.”
Trinta broke down and cried like she never had before, and in that moment, his feelings for her were unleashed in a tidal wave of emotion, declaring vengeance upon his love’s great enemy.
“I am your Shadowhead, my love!” He boldly and proudly proclaimed. “I will help you protect your people, and you will restore me. Your enemy will be torn down and you will be victorious to reign for a billion millennia. Together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.”
Trinta looked up at her Shadowhead and smiled, as he wiped the tears from her eyes, kissing her softly as he did so.
The two of them swore and eternal bond of love on the day of Iryntyl, and became bound together in a marriage ritual. It was the beginning of an eternity together.
IV
Following their binding ceremony, Trinta led The Shadowhead through a series of passages that brought them to and underground cavern where there were several alien creatures had been long imprisoned for an unknown reason. Many of them were as badly injured as The Shadowhead had been upon when he had been brought to this dark world. Seeing the potential, The Shadowhead turned to his bride, and made a request of her.
“Can you do for them what you have done for me?” The Shadowhead asked curiously, his eyes full of fire. “I need an army!”
“I can do anything you want, my love.” Trinta replied, kissing him on his neck.
Something then softened in Trinta, something that she hadn’t known before. It occurred to her for the first time in her existence that she was honestly happy, and somehow the venom inside of her had become less potent in the presence of her bound husband. They could go anywhere, they could leave it all behind, and they could together become anything that they wanted to become. It had never crossed Trinta’s mind that she could leave everything she knew behind and that start over somewhere else. The idea was warm and inviting to her, and intoxicating, just she and her love together in any one of a trillion places throughout The Multiverse in settings that neither Human nor a mind of The Ichouli could comprehend.
And while The Shadowhead slept that night, Trinta slipped out to have a secret audience with The Empress, desperately hoping not to get herself killed in the process. When Trinta arrived in the place where she could summon The Empress, she called out several times before receiving an answer.
“Lionstemia, may we speak?” Trinta cautiously called out one last time. “I come with no ill will.”
“I can speak from here, you vile, treacherous creature!” The Empress returned, her distant voice eager to avoid the discussion altogether. “What is it you want?”
“I want to put everything behind us.” Trinta confessed, bright-eyed, in her most optimistic tone. “I’m ready to give you back the throne.”
Lionstemia couldn’t believe the words that were coming from Trinta’s mouth. Not only were they last thing she had expected to hear from Trinta, but they were wholly unbelievable in the sense that Lionstemia thought of them as nothing more than another untruth in a long string of deceptions that had stretched out since their arrival in The Sphere. The entirely of The Ichouli throughout The Sphere brightened up at Trinta’s s
uggestion, believing that they may be able to go home at long last.
“What are your terms?” Lionstemia called out to Trinta in an effort to ascertain the meaning of this madness.
“I have the ability to travel to other Spheres, and I want to travel far away from all of this.” Trinta confessed, softening her tone even further. “My love and I want to leave this all behind and find somewhere to live our lives in peace.”
“It’s not that simple, Serendipity.” Lionstemia said, shaking her head. “You must be brought to justice for your crimes. We cannot allow you to wantonly inflict the horror you have inflicted here on the other Spheres.”
“Please.” Trinta implored, pleading her case. “Please. There will be no hostilities from me in any other Sphere. I just want to walk away from it all.”
Suddenly a burst of concentrated power from The Empÿre Omega shot through the darkness of space, clipping Trinta in the side, injuring her deeply, doubling her over in excruciating pain.
“We do not yet have the power to return to The Greater Sphere until The Great Unification.” Lionstemia proclaimed boldly, directing her vitriol at Trinta. “When that day comes, your defeat and your judgment will be complete, as has been ordained in accordance with The Profezya Manifesto.”