Ice Phoenix

Terrana awoke from a dreamless sleep. She blinked her eyes rapidly, panicking when she found herself smothered in the cold gel. As she struggled to break free from its squishy confines, it seemed to sense her distress and reacted instinctively, slowly squeezing her out of the sphere.

Finally, she remembered where she was and looked down in awe at the way the sphere regurgitated her to the top. Without any idea of how long she had been incubated, she looked at the clock fixed to the underside of the sphere. Thirty-six hours, ten minutes, and nineteen seconds. That wasn’t long, which probably explained why she wasn’t experiencing the nauseous after effects Master Drummik had warned her about.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, she stepped out gingerly from the sphere, looking around the cold, lifeless room. Where was everyone? She had expected Master Drummik to be there, waiting to greet her as he had promised. Her boots were still on the floor where she had left them, and she quickly slipped them on. Then standing straight, she took a wobbly step towards the door.

“Hello, Terrana,” said someone from behind her.

Her heart pounded as she turned around slowly, afraid of who she would see. It was not a voice she recognised. Red, glowing eyes met hers and she suddenly found herself unable to move, frozen by a face she had seen in Si Ren Da.

“Something wrong?” asked Nashim, portraying fake concern. In his left hand was a large, heavy gun of some sort. He took a step towards her.

“Stay away from me!” she croaked, her voice heavy with sleep.

“And why should I do that? Do you plan on screaming to alert the others?” The left, mechanical side of his face pulsed strangely, and Terrana could make out dark qi flowing through the fine wires behind his mask.

“How can you be here? You were banished into the void!”

This was bad — she needed to get away but she knew it would not be easy. She also sensed that Nashim expected her to run, which suggested there was something waiting for her outside.

“Ever the suspicious mind for someone from Sector Thirteen. Go on, leave this room. I won’t stop you.”

“What have you done with Master Drummik?”

“Nothing that he wouldn’t have done to me.” He released a long sigh. “I tire of this place. Let’s leave.” He waved his hand and the door to the incubation room slid open.

Terrana moved suddenly. With a speed she did not know she was capable of, she ran up his chest and kicked him on the jaw. She sailed through the air, landed on the floor and bolted out the door. Nashim laughed and followed her out.

Terrana ran down the deserted corridors screaming as loud as she could, hoping someone would hear her, but that part of the ship appeared empty. She shot up the chutes, desperate to warn the others. Behind her, a cloud of black smoke followed.

She stumbled across the first casualty wandering aimlessly towards the bridge; a crew member who had no idea where he was going. As Terrana watched, he bumped against the wall and banged his head. There was no sign of recognition or awareness in his eyes.

Backing away in fear, she bolted towards the bridge, slowing down only to allow the doors to open for her.

“Nashim’s here!” she screamed, rushing in.

Blank faces stared at her. There was the captain, several crew members, and all five UWIB representatives standing idly on the bridge, completely bereft of their senses. Like a warm wave washing over her, Terrana finally understood — they were being mind controlled.

A footstep sounded lightly behind her and she spun around. A large hand clamped around her throat and lifted her into the air.

“Why?” she croaked, staring into Nashim’s eyes as she struggled to breathe. Her fingers pried at his but they were locked like solid steel around her neck.

“Simple. I do not wish to alert those clever weavers and lacers by killing all the crew members on this ship. It’d be bad for me if the grandmaster returned.”

“What do you want with me?”

“Hmmm ... you’ll see in a little while — if you’re still alive.”

Terrana was turning blue so Nashim lowered her to the floor and watched curiously as she inhaled deep breaths.

“But first, let’s wait for those industrious people outside to seal the Dream Walker’s prison, shall we?” He gestured to the window.

Terrana glanced out and saw the Imeldors and L-Masters floating in the In-Between, hovering around what appeared to be a large, shimmering canvas which reminded her of an oil-spill on the sea. Grandmaster Deitrux was out there with Eliksha, Quempa, Lakara, L-Master Hadrick and the others.

“I don’t un-understand,” she stammered. “I thought you wanted to —”

“— free the Dream Walker?” completed Nashim. “No my dear girl, that’s the last thing I wish to happen.”

“So why? Why did you have to kill the Imeldors and L-Masters when you could have asked them to seal the Dream Walker? Why?”

Terrana felt she was losing her mind. Nashim’s revelation didn’t make sense.

“Why, why, why. You ask too many questions which I’m not inclined to answer.” Nashim glanced at the members of the sealing team, who were still intent on their work. “They’re almost done. It’s time for us to go.”

“Go where?”

But Nashim had clearly grown tired of her questions. He grabbed her by the hair and dragged her towards the airlock at the far end of the bridge, which happened to be on the blind side of the sealing team. He shoved her into the airlock.

“Wait! We’re not going out, are we?” Fear sent adrenaline coursing through Terrana’s veins. Unlike Nashim, she wasn’t wearing a spacesuit. She watched in dawning horror as he activated his helmet. It came up over his head and locked into place. Then, he unlocked the second door.

Terrana panicked. She tried to dash past him and go back the way they had come. A hand smothered her face and shoved her hard against the far side of the airlock. She grunted in pain and crumpled to the cold floor. Nashim opened the second door, then reached for her. He dragged her over the first partition and then unlocked the third and final door. To Terrana, the sound of the door unlocking was the sound of doom.

“No,” she mumbled, struggling to clear her head. She managed to plant her feet firmly on the floor, providing her with some leverage to resist Nashim’s pull. Beyond the third door, death awaited. She would be sucked into the cold, dark vacuum of the In-Between where she would decompress and die slowly.

As though he could read her thoughts, Nashim grinned. “Have you ever seen someone’s intestines ripped through their orifices or the blood vessels in their eyes erupt? When exposed to the In-Between, death can seem like forever. Three minutes can seem like three years.”

Terrana screamed. Someone had to hear her. Someone had to come to her rescue. Nashim laughed. “Scream all you want, but no one’s coming. They can’t hear you.”

The last door opened and Terrana was ripped violently from the safety of the ship into the vastness of the In-Between.

Soundless terror.

Her screams went unheard as she flailed desperately, trying to propel herself back to the ship. As the seconds ticked away, Terrana felt the onset of bloating as the gases in her lungs and intestines expanded, threatening to rupture. She understood her body was rapidly decompressing due to the lack of external pressure in the In-Between, and she exhaled rapidly to release the life threatening gases.

In the darkness of the blanketing silence, Terrana drifted farther and farther away from the ship. She faced a losing battle and she knew it. The moisture in her eyes and mouth began to boil away, followed by a bloating of her limbs as the water evaporated from her muscles and tissues.

Pain consumed her as nitrogen bubbles formed in her blood; she knew she was racing towards an oxygen-starved state. Hypoxia was beginning to set in. In her desperation, she reached out to the one person she had wanted to avoid most in the world.

T2! Help me! Help me please! I don’t want to die like this.

The first onset of darkness rose in her and she was gripped by a new fear. She should have been afraid of dying alone in the In-Between, but against the mounting rage inside her, Terrana started to question her decision. She didn’t want to transform into the monster that she truly was; the monster she had promised Baneyon to keep subdued.

Thoughts of Kazu and the ice-phoenixes came to her then. They were feiyed, but they weren’t monsters. They didn’t run around in rampaging fits destroying everything around them. They could control their powers, and she felt safe with them. The question was, why couldn’t she?

I can’t save us, came the chilling reply. Terrana could have sworn she sensed fear in T2.

You can’t, or you won’t?

I can’t! T2 snarled. Can’t you feel it? It’s coming.

Don’t play games with me. If I die, you’ll die too!

I’m already dying. It won’t let me out. I can’t save us.

Silence. Terrana closed her eyes, willing T2 to appear.

Hey, where are you? T2! Help me! Come out!

But the voice in her head remained silent and as she drifted in the darkness, convulsing and twitching, Terrana truly believed she was going to die.

Nashim observed her for any signs of transformation and was slightly disappointed to see that she was just dying. Before she drifted too far away from him and into line of sight of the sealing team, he fired a single shot from his gun. A large capsule sped straight towards her, and when it was close enough it ruptured and expanded into four magnetised points that held her in place in the In-Between. With Terrana unable to drift anywhere, Nashim turned his attention to the sealing team.

Cocooned in the safety of a shield generated by the pendant, the members of the sealing team worked diligently, completely unaware of the events happening outside. While the weavers focused on reinforcing the strange, oily material which could only be the gate to the Dream Walker’s prison, the lacers created a recursion of commands that would bind the weaving in place for all eternity. A strangely shaped rock spun rapidly above them, perhaps a fragment of a passing asteroid that had been trapped by the gate’s energy.

Nashim had to admit, he was impressed that they had managed to derive the algorithm in the short time since they had first learned of the Dream Walker. This was a credit, he decided, that belonged to the grandmaster.

Using his finger, he drew a three-quarter circle on the side of the gun to adjust its settings before sneaking up on the sealing team. It was unlikely they would sense his approach; not before it was too late anyway.

Grandmaster Deitrux first noticed something wrong when he felt a disturbance in the shield. He glanced around, saw nothing unusual and put it down to the shield’s proximity to the gate. He was relieved that everything had gone according to plan. The members of his team had performed an excellent job, and the sealing was complete. All that was left was to de-activate the pendant and remove the shield.

“Good job, everyone,” he said, speaking into his microphone. “I’m bringing the shield down now and then we can return to the ship.”

It was the lack of relieved responses that warned him that something was terribly wrong. Glancing around sharply, he noticed that four members of the sealing team weren’t moving. Before he could even shout out a warning, the same four disintegrated before his eyes.

"No!” he shouted. He quickly spotted another lacer in imminent danger and reacted immediately. Using his qi, he dragged Eliksha Bakshur away just in time as an almost transparent beam flashed past her to strike the shield. The shield shimmered, but continued to hold. Grandmaster Deitrux pulled Eliksha towards him then placed himself between her and the unseen attacker.

“Nashim,” he whispered hoarsely, barely able to comprehend the sight of the Valpuri emerging from the darkness. “You should have died — I banished you to the void!”

Nashim smiled behind his helmet. “A small mistake, Grandmaster Deitrux. You banished me, but I still had Namasar’s pendant. Broken as it is, it is still capable of protecting me. But I must say, I never expected you to work with gravity. It is no wonder that you lead the Imeldors.”

Grandmaster Deitrux winced. He had not wanted to reveal this particular ability to the others. As far as he knew, no one else could tap into a planet’s energy and control its gravity, but, Grandmaster Deitrux could do something with it that was unheard of, and Nashim was about to reveal it.

“You control gravity?” blurted L-Master Hadrick in amazement, tearing his eyes away from Nashim for a second. There were only four others remaining of the sealing team; Lady Skiss, Eliksha, Lakara, and Quempa, and they were staring at Nashim in shock.

“Indeed he does,” said Nashim. “With his extraordinary ability, Grandmaster Deitrux created a single point in space-time to rid his world of me. He would have succeeded had I had not been carrying Namasar’s pendant.”

“Dartkala, you opened a wormhole?” gasped L-Master Hadrick, staring at Grandmaster Deitrux.

The grandmaster ignored his question and, instead, directed his next words to Nashim. “No doubt you used the pendant to escape.”

Nashim smirked. “Correct! You didn’t banish me far enough. Using the pendant, I was able to materialise at some point not far from Pa Gumpina’s orbit. There I waited, and it was only a matter of time before the Dark Star appeared. I hitched a ride with you. I concealed myself in the sleep sphere until one of your crew members kindly roused me from my slumber.”

For the grandmaster and Quempa, it was the worst news Nashim could have told them. Only they and Master Drummik knew that Terrana had been sleeping in the incubation room.

“What did you do with the crew?” growled Quempa.

“Still alive but under a mind thrall. It would have been far easier to kill them, but that would have invited your attention — something I didn’t want. The weaver who had remained on board was trouble enough. He nearly killed me, but he had a problem — he worried too much about the girl.”

Everyone listening to Nashim knew he was talking about Master Drummik. He had been the only weaver on board.

“What did you do with Drummik and the girl?” demanded the grandmaster.

“Oh, a few things. None good, of course.”

“Enough of this!” snapped L-Master Hadrick. “I don’t understand why you’re even speaking with him, Deitrux, when we should obviously be disposing of him.”

Nashim snorted. “He’s not concerned about the girl. You didn’t tell them, Grandmaster?”

“Tell us what?” growled Hadrick.

“About Terrana of course. Why the grandmaster is so concerned about her. Didn’t you know he hid her in the sphere aboard your ship?”

He was mocking them, knowing too well that Grandmaster Deitrux would not have imparted information about Terrana so readily. The L-Masters glanced at the grandmaster, their expressions demanding an explanation.

“What aren’t you telling us, Grandmaster Deitrux?” asked Eliksha from behind him.

Grandmaster Deitrux clenched his fists, ignoring her question. He glared at Nashim. “What did you do with Terrana, Nashim?”

Nashim laughed. He turned to the others, clucking his tongue. “I guess he didn’t wish to share all that power and knowledge, so he kept the truth a secret. The young girl you’ve been travelling with, the reason why she was brought from Sector Thirteen to UWIB ... she’s feiyed.”

There was a stunned silence as the others tried to process this new information.

“Terrana is feiyed?” uttered L-Mater Hadrick. “That’s impossible! Only animals are feiyed!”

If what Nashim said was true, then Terrana’s existence would have far reaching ramifications; it was no secret that UWIB had been trying to capture a feiyed animal to study its powers. It irked the UWIB Council that the queen had passed a law in her sector to prevent anyone from capturing a faar. But if Terrana was truly feiyed, then all they had ever wanted was sitting right on their doorstep. The L-Masters could barely contain their excitement, combined with wrath that was aimed towards the grandmaster.

“Grandmaster Deitrux, please tell us that what he’s saying isn’t true,” said Eliksha.

Grandmaster Deitrux shut his eyes and sighed. “We didn’t know she was feiyed at the time. The Ancients of Olden Kartath told us.”

Eliksha sucked in her breath, stunned by this revelation.

“There’s more!” called out Nashim. “If the girl is allowed to mature to a ripe age, she’ll be the only person capable of destroying the Dream Walker.”

Again, shocked silence. L-Master Hadrick looked towards the grandmaster. “Terrana is capable of destroying the Dream Walker? Deitrux, do you realise what that means? You’ve been hiding a feiyed human girl with power beyond belief! Power that we’ve been trying to understand for years!”

The more L-Master Hadrick spoke, the angrier he became. He started shouting. “How dare you try to keep this information to yourself! I knew it! I knew you were hiding something, and that there was a reason for the girl’s presence aboard the ship! You will not get away with this! I will lodge a complaint with the UWIB Council of your deception. Consider this the end of your career!” L-Master Hadrick was too angry to pay any attention to Nashim. Compared to what he had just learned about Terrana, the Valpuri suddenly seemed insignificant.

“Is Terrana the reason why the Valpuri attacked Pa Gumpina?” asked Eliksha, feeling the same way as L-Master Hadrick. “Were they looking for her?”

“Yes,” answered Grandmaster Deitrux in a heavy voice.

“For what purpose?”

“To kill her. The Ancients of Olden Kartath told us that she would be our only hope if the Dream Walker ever broke free of his prison. Without her, there would be nothing to stand in his way.”

“So all that carnage and destruction — it was just for Terrana?” Eliksha could not believe what she was hearing. “And Baneyon, did he know?”

“Baneyon loved Terrana — he died protecting her. He died before he learnt the truth,” said Grandmaster Deitrux, “and I will not let his and the others’ deaths be in vain.” He could feel Eliksha trembling behind him. Grandmaster Deitrux sent a chilling look towards Nashim. “You are too late, Nashim! The door to the Dream Walker’s prison has been sealed. Not even the power of two pendants will help you free the Dream Walker. Now tell me, where is Terrana?”

When Nashim answered, his voice was heavy and cruel. “I flung her into the void. She should be floating about somewhere.”

"No!” screamed Grandmaster Deitrux. His anguished cry took everyone by surprise, but they were even more shocked when he rocketed towards the ship without any warning. Nashim suddenly appeared in front of him. The demon fired his weapon and Grandmaster Deitrux barely avoided the blast. It flew past him to strike the shield.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Nashim snarled. He fired off a few more shots and the grandmaster realised he could not escape so easily.

Quempa!

I’m on it! Grandmaster Deitrux created an opening in the shield and Quempa slipped through it, speeding towards the ship. Eliksha followed him.

“Eliksha!” Quempa said in surprise. He noticed she carried a gun in her hand but, compared to the weapon that Nashim possessed, Eliksha’s seemed a mere toy.

“Is it true? Is Terrana really feiyed?”

“Yes, but the grandmaster was telling the truth when he said we only learned this from the Ancients. We believed Terrana was a human child with an unusual ability to control qi — that’s why we brought her to our world. There was no hidden agenda to her presence. We witnessed her feiyed power in Si Ren Da. Eliksha, her power is terrible. If she ever turns in your presence, the only thing you can do is run.”

“She can’t control it then.”

“No, she cannot.”

Quempa came to a sudden stop and his heart climbed into his throat when he spotted Terrana’s limp, bloated form floating in the void.

“Nooo!” he cried hoarsely. The propulsion jets on his boots flared up and he shot towards Terrana. Within seconds he was cradling her decompressed body, sobbing behind his helmet. “No, no, no, Terrana! You can’t die. You have to live!” Eliksha reached his side and he looked up at her with tearful eyes. “We’re too late. We’re too late.”

Eliksha took one look at Terrana and would have fallen had gravity existed in the In-Between. “How could he?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “How could he throw a defenceless child into the void?”

Quempa wailed his anguish, and his thoughts and emotions were projected through the void, where they reached the grandmaster. The leader of the Imeldors closed his eyes briefly, the only sign of his grief. As soon as Quempa had left, Grandmaster Deitrux and the others had begun attacking Nashim. They were all inside the shield because, within its walls, they could use their qi.

“I’m deactivating the shield!” Grandmaster Deitrux shouted.

“That would be to my favour!” Lakara shouted back.

Grandmaster Deitrux had to concur. Lakara was currently being incredible in her battle with Nashim, and with the shield removed, she would be able to use her unique suit to its full potential. She glided like a liquid knife in the In-Between, transforming into an iron butterfly to cut into the Valpuri with her wings and insectile legs.

The soundless blasts from Nashim’s gun glanced off her casophynite armour harmlessly, and it was becoming clear that he was no match against Lakara’s natural attacking form combined with her superior armoured suit. Grandmaster Deitrux glanced towards L-Master Hadrick and Lady Skiss, and was relieved to find them both alive. L-Master Hadrick had lost his right tentacle and part of his abdomen to Nashim, and would have died had not Lady Skiss transformed into her natural form, plastering herself like jelly over his open wounds.

Grandmaster Deitrux decided he needed to end this fight quickly. Without the shield, the others would not be able to weave or lace, but because he carried the pendant, that limitation did not apply to him. He deactivated the shield.

He focused on an area close to Nashim, but as he tried to draw on his qi, something felt very wrong. No matter how much he tried, he could not weave a gravitational singularity. Seconds ticked by before he came to the horrifying conclusion that his qi was being drained. He emitted a low groan and slumped forwards. The others watched in horror, before they, too, collapsed.

Down — they were all down and helpless. As the grandmaster lay floating on his side, he sensed Nashim approaching. “How?” he croaked when the demon finally reached him.

Nashim did not answer as he leant forwards to pry Skra’s pendant from the grandmaster’s fingers. Then, he hurled the pendant into the darkness, and Grandmaster Deitrux watched in disbelief as it sped away through the void. It would have continued forever had it not collided into the piece of asteroid that was spinning above the Dream Walker’s gate.

Grandmaster Deitrux forced his mouth to move. “I’ve told you already — there’s nothing you can do to free the Dream Walker. He’s sealed for all eternity.”

Although his face was hidden by his helmet, Grandmaster Deitrux felt the cold gaze the demon sent his way.

“I never said I wanted to free the Dream Walker. In fact, I allowed you to complete the sealing.” Nashim may as well have told the grandmaster that rocks were actually mushrooms. What he had just said did not make sense. Nashim smirked, clearly enjoying the grandmaster’s confusion.

“Allow me to explain. All I wanted, besides the tonien and the pendant, was the girl. For a while, it suited my purpose that she remained at the school while I searched for the two things that would take me through the Voron Cloud. But, as you know, things didn’t go exactly to plan, and so I had to improvise along the way. You acquired both the pendant and the tonien, and I needed to bring the girl into the void. When you believed that I was trying to kill her, I was actually attempting to kidnap her. Eventually, I sent Meldogan to fetch her. If he failed to acquire her, I expected he would probably scare you into removing Terrana from Pa Gumpina. And that’s what happened. You played right into my hands. ”

“For what reason, Nashim?” gasped Grandmaster Deitrux. He was struggling against the invisible force that was draining his qi, but no matter what he did, it seemed to have the upper hand. Grandmaster Deitrux was helpless. “If you didn’t want the Dream Walker free, why did you assassinate all those Imeldors and L-Masters? What is your reason for bringing Terrana here other than to awaken him?”

Nashim sighed and flew back several paces. “Several reasons. Had you discovered what my plan was, then, without a doubt, you would have organised the L-Masters and Imeldors to capture me. By eliminating the top ranks, I reduced potential headaches.

“Secondly, the unravelling of the Dream Walker’s prison was really a problem. I had to drop clues here and there so that you would learn of the Dream Walker’s existence and his disintegrating prison. Killing off Imeldors and L-Masters was just a way of gaining your attention quickly, and it forced you to look deeper into the real history of UWIB.

“Was I worried that I was killing off the only people capable of sealing the Dream Walker? No. The ten people who sealed the Dream Walker five thousand years ago weren’t Imeldors or L-Masters — they were just ordinary weavers and lacers who understood their powers well. Basically, anyone could have done the job – they don’t need a special ranking to qualify.”

Grandmaster Deitrux still couldn’t make sense of what Nashim was telling him. “If you needed help sealing the Dream Walker’s prison, why didn’t you just tell us?”

Nashim laughed. “You are so naïve, Grandmaster Deitrux. Why didn’t I tell you indeed? I did tell you, just not in the manner you would have expected. The Valpuri have a history with the citizens of UWIB — a violent one. We’ve always been the masters, and you the slaves. I merely used you to get what I wanted.”

“You, used us?”

“That’s right. I used you. All this time you believed you were chasing us, trying to stop us from retrieving the pendant to free the Dream Walker, but what you didn’t realise was that you were my backup team. If I failed to capture Terrana, your team would have been the next one to enter the arena. If you succeeded, then I merely had to take the prize off you.”

Nashim leaned forwards. “Do you understand now? When we were fighting back in the city, you took the tonien from me. The truth was, I let you take it from me.”

Grandmaster Deitrux felt as though he was in a dream — he couldn’t believe that Nashim was telling the truth.

Nashim saw his expression and laughed. “Oh come now, Grandmaster Deitrux! How stupid do you think I am? Of course I knew the tonien was locked, and never in a million years would the Ancients of Olden Kartath have revealed the code to me. I am a Valpuri, and the Valpuri and Ancients are old enemies. The return of the Valpuri scared the Ancients — they truly believed I intended to free the Dream Walker and so —”

“— they gave me the code for the tonien and I led you here,” finished the grandmaster, his voice sounding hollow. “But I still don’t understand why you don’t want the Dream Walker free. The Valpuri have a history with him too.”

Nashim snorted and when he answered, his voice was full of disdain. “That’s true — we have a history with him. A most unpleasant one. Because of the Dream Walker, we were banished from the Thirteen Sectors, forbidden to wander their realms.”

Grandmaster Deitrux frowned. “I don’t recall the Ancients mentioning anything about the Valpuri race being banished. You just disappeared. Did Skra’s power also extend to you when she sealed the Dream Walker?”

“It’s logical to think that, but no. Skra didn’t banish us. Neither did the Ancients. I can see you are dying to know more, but you will not learn anything about the Valpuris’ history from me.” Nashim seemed determined not to speak, and the grandmaster, scared that he would stop talking completely, changed the subject.

“Then, what about Terrana? Why did you go through all the trouble of bringing her here, only to kill her?”

Nashim leaned back and sighed. “Ahh Terrana. Yeah, unfortunately, she was one of the things that went wrong very early. You see, I was trying to hide her existence from you and the Imeldors, the L-Masters, and those fat Council members. Because of that, I decided to go after her first in Sector Thirteen, before embarking on my search for the pendant and the tonien.”

Grandmaster Deitrux tried to raise his head and failed. Instead, he spoke in a calm, confident voice, as though he were in control of all his faculties and sitting in a meeting room, instead of being paralysed and floating in the In-Between. “But you failed miserably, didn’t you? You didn’t know that Terrana was appearing to us in her dreams. That’s how we discovered her, and sent someone to fetch her.”

For the first time in the conversation, Grandmaster Deitrux sensed a change in Nashim’s mood. He could have been wrong, but he thought he had detected a flicker of fear. Grandmaster Deitrux found that most odd, and, determined to capitalise on the demon’s uncertainty, he empowered his mind to do what it did best — analyse.

The cogs turned in his brain and the first conclusion Grandmaster Deitrux came to was that Nashim had known that Terrana was feiyed long before the Imeldors had discovered her. If that was truly the case, why hadn’t he taken her from Sector Thirteen sooner? Grandmaster Deitrux decided to work on a hunch.

“You knew where she was all along, but you couldn’t take her, could you?” he said. “Were you responsible for the fire that killed her family? Powerful Valpuri such as yourself had no need to resort that low to take her. You murdered them all — innocent people.”

Nashim’s shoulders straightened and the grandmaster felt the Valpuri’s anger seep through his spacesuit.

“Our instructions were to take her at all costs!” hissed Nashim. “We didn’t realise how hard —” He snapped his mouth shut, realising he had said too much.

Instructions. Grandmaster Deitrux had suspected as much. It had only been logical to assume that this Valpuri was working for the greater glory of his race, commanded by his own people to infiltrate the United Worlds of the In-Between. But, Grandmaster Deitrux felt the barest flicker of fear in Nashim again, and paused to reorganise his thoughts. Something didn’t seem quite right.

Nashim was clearly afraid of something, and Grandmaster Deitrux didn’t think it was fear of his own people. If Nashim was really acting under orders from his government or leaders, then there was no reason to hide it. But, it was clear that Nashim had blurted out something he had not intended to reveal. This led the Imeldor to believe that Nashim was scared of a particular person.

“Your intellect, without a doubt, is highly admirable,” said Nashim, watching the grandmaster closely. “That is why you must die. The same applied to the queen. Her power and intellect, combined with her incredible knack for searching out the truth, made her far too dangerous to be left alone. Her death was a stroke of luck for us since we failed to kill her the first time.”

Grandmaster Deitrux did his best to remain calm in the face of provocation. He needed to find the truth — the reasons behind Nashim’s actions.

“So, you admit you had trouble taking Terrana from Sector Thirteen?” he said, picking up on Nashim’s unfinished sentence. “I mean, you may as well tell me — I only have a few more minutes to live.”

“Persistent, aren’t you? Fine, since you are going to die anyway, I see no harm in it. Yes, taking Terrana from her home was an issue. I had no idea she had a guardian — we never saw him, we never heard him, we didn’t feel him. But after three failed attempts to snatch her, Meldogan and I realised that Terrana had someone protecting her. The harder we tried to abduct her, the stronger the guardian became. I fear that we actually awoke it. Whoever her guardian was, he or she created a powerful barrier that prevented us from reaching her. We couldn’t set foot anywhere on the ground. So, we spent days trying to create a gap in that barrier, and we succeeded. This gap would give us a small window in which we could swoop in and grab Terrana, but, she would have to run out of the house before we could touch her.

“We started the fire, expecting her to run out of the house but, instead, she nearly died that day. The stupid girl would not abandon her dead brother!

“But, luckily, your Imeldor, Baneyon, arrived. For some unknown reason, he was able to walk into the house to save her. Although I had not wanted Terrana to end up in your hands, I decided that perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea after all. I could trust you to protect her while I chased after the pendant. ”

"Then why, Nashim? Why did you go through all that trouble of capturing her only to kill her?” shouted Grandmaster Deitrux. The truth was within his clutches. Everything was becoming clearer now — Nashim had deliberately drawn their attentions to the Dream Walker to hide his true purpose. Grandmaster Deitrux didn’t know what it was yet, but he was close to finding out.

Nashim glanced down at the paralysed Imeldor, his eyes glowing brightly behind his helmet.

“Have you ever witnessed the power of a true born feiyed beast? And I’m not referring to those silly faars either.”