Hey everyone! Here's the new chapter, I hope you like it. Reminder that this story is a continuation from the story Sins of a Future World. If you haven't read that yet, this might get confusing lol. Let me know what you think at purplejubilee17@gmail.com.
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The Rogue Archon Chapter 2
Ryn engaged his helmet almost instantly and Jace followed suit. As they did so, a strange hissing noise filled the air. To Jace's shock he saw a cloud of arrows arcing down toward them. The action from the riders had been so quick that he had not even seen them produce weapons, take aim, or fire. Frantically, he tried to pull Ryn back toward the shuttle but Ryn waved him off. The thread of thought that reached him was one of curiosity, not of concern or fear.
As the deadly projectiles began to land around them, Jace instinctively threw himself in front of Ryn, trying to cover him as much as possible, and fully prepared to die for him. He felt several soft pokes in his back, as if someone was gently prodding him with a finger. Turning in confusion, he watched an arrow strike his shoulder and then bounce off harmlessly as if it were made of plastic. The rain of darts left the sand around them looking like a pincushion, but neither of them had so much as a scratch.
Remembering Ryn's descriptions of the durable mesh jumpsuits, Jace looked down in surprise. Not only had they shielded them from the barbed ends, but they had absorbed almost the entire force of the impacts. Jace had hardly felt a thing.
He did not have much time to marvel at this though. With a war cry, the riders produced blades and waved them overhead as they charged their mounts down the sand dunes. Jace raised his weapon, but Ryn lifted a hand to stop him.
"No, Jace." He spoke quietly but reinforced his words with thoughts to be sure Jace `heard' him. "They cannot hurt us. We must not hurt them."
Regardless of Ryn's assurances, Jace kept his gun leveled at the oncoming riders, who swung their glinting swords around their heads. He didn't know how much the suit would protect against, but the idea of getting trampled was not appealing.
"Calae. Defensive perimeter. Four meters." Ryn said calmly.
"Understood, Archon." Suddenly, the shuttle emitted a high-pitched whine, and a shimmering transparent barrier with a blueish tint built its way from the ground upward in a dome around the small craft.
The riders saw the bubble appearing and had to pull hard on their reins to avoid running straight into it. The charging stampede came to a grinding halt just in front of the perimeter. One man in front brought his sword swinging down on the shining obstruction. The blade bounced off with a loud crack, and a sizable notch could be seen in the edge, as though he had struck a solid rock.
Ryn deactivated his helmet and stepped up close to the barrier. Despite seeing the shield in action against the sword blade, Jace did not like leaving Ryn so close to these obviously angry men. He stepped up behind him, keeping his gun trained.
When the men in front saw Ryn approach without his helmet, they seemed confused. Their swords gradually lowered, and their mounts stamped in the sand uncomfortably.
Jace saw that the beasts the men rode were not horses like one might have seen on Varros, or even camels. They appeared almost like some cross between a zebra and a gazelle, only much larger. The creatures were tall and powerful, with the coloration patterns of a zebra, and yet they were sleek and obviously agile, with long horns atop their heads.
The men that rode them were difficult to place. They wore flowing white garments that hid most of their features and left only their eyes visible. These eyes now all looked down at Ryn with a mixture of anger, suspicion, and even fear.
"We mean you no harm." Ryn did not speak loudly, but his voice was amplified, whether electronically or through the use of his gifts Jace did not know.
At the sound of his voice, the men all looked sharply at one another and began conversing in low tones. Jace could hear them clearly through the barrier but could not understand a word of what they are saying. The tone of the conversation was not immediately obvious either, as though the men outside were unsure what to make of the situation.
"Calae?" Ryn asked.
"Deciphering now, Archon." She responded. "It is not a language known to me, but I will do my best."
Ryn put his hands up, making sure that the mounted men could see them clearly and then took a hesitant step forward. The man who had struck the shield with his blade pointed his notched sword at Ryn and yelled something, then pointed it to Jace.
"Jace. Point the gun away. And take your helmet down." Ryn said calmly, without looking away from the group in front of them.
About to argue, Jace felt a quiet insistence coming from Ryn's mind that convinced him to follow through. He dropped his arm that had been keeping a bead on the hostile group, then pressed the button on his wrist link that retracted the helmet. The men outside the barrier flinched in surprise but soon stilled once more and peered at Jace curiously.
Ryn took another step forward and placed a hand gently on the smooth surface of the shield. It was an unmistakable gesture, Jace thought. These men had to know after seeing how ineffective their attacks had been, that they were outmatched.
Abruptly one of the men swung down from his mount and stepped forward. The angry man who had accosted them first yelled something at him, but he paid no attention. Pulling off a leather glove, he tentatively reached out a hand. First with one finger, then the whole of his hand he touched the shield right over where Ryn's hand was pressed.
Jace saw Ryn close his luminous eyes. He knew that Ryn did not always have to be touching someone directly to act on them with his gifts. Ryn could cause intense sensation, both pleasant, or terribly painful, simply by willing it.
The man on the other side gasped in surprise before pulling his hand away and turning back to his companions. Suddenly he began shouting something. Obviously Jace had no idea what he was saying, but his tone was much different than the confused muttering and hostile confrontations of the other men. He sounded excited, almost beyond words. Continuing his shouting, he turned back to look at Jace and Ryn before abruptly dropping to one knee and bowing his head.
"What did you do to him?" Jace asked, impressed.
Ryn gave him a confused look. "Hardly anything. I gave him warmth, as a suggestion of safety."
"Can't you just get in their heads or something and talk to them that way?"
Sighing, Ryn shook his head. "You know it does not work like that. Besides even if it did, you remember how you reacted when you discovered we had bonded in that way."
"Right..." Jace admitted. Thinking back on it, the idea that Ryn was inside his head had at first not been an entirely welcome one. "How's that translation coming, Calae."
"It takes some time to catalogue and structure an entire language based only on context, Ambassador." It was always hard to tell with Calae, but there were times when Jace felt that she purposefully put inflection into her tone. With this response, the vibe he was getting was indignation.
Ryn had not taken his hand off of the shield and now two more of the men had dismounted and approached cautiously. One at a time they too touched their hands to the barrier against Ryn's smaller hand. These two did not have quite as strong a reaction as the first man, but still obviously felt the power coming from Ryn. The first one bowed his head and muttered something like a prayer before touching a closed fist to his forehead first and then to his lips in some kind of deliberate gesture. The second man gave a grunt of affirmation before looking Ryn in the eyes and mimicking that same gesture.
"I'm going to take down the shield." Ryn informed Jace.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Jace asked, keeping a tight grip on his weapon.
"They mean us no harm, Jace." Ryn replied reassuringly.
Jace eyed the armed men skeptically. "They just attacked us." He pointed out.
"They were scared." Ryn reminded him. "We are in their territory. Calae, deactivate the perimeter shield."
"Yes, Archon." Calae replied. The translucent wall immediately began to shimmer and fade. The men outside stepped backward in fright.
Soon their protection was gone. Ryn held his hands out by his sides in an open gesture. The men who had dismounted began to take hesitant steps forward. The first man, the one who had fallen to one knee, took the lead, mimicking Ryn's open-palmed gesture.
With one hand, this man reached up to pull aside the thick cloth that covered his face and protected him from the sand. When he did so, it revealed an angular young face of a man about Jace's age, with tanned skin and hazel eyes.
Ryn gave the man a welcoming smile and took a slow step forward of his own. As they drew closer, Ryn extended a hand cautiously. The man looked down at Ryn's small hand, then slowly put out his own.
When the two finally met, the young man grasped Ryn's hand gently as Ryn followed suit. Ryn closed his eyes and allowed his gifts to flow through their contact, giving warmth and a sense of comfort. The man's eyes closed as well, feeling the energy welling up inside him a broad smile creased his face and he retracted his hand. He began speaking excitedly to Ryn.
"To the best of my knowledge," Calae put in. "He believes you to be some sort of deity angelic being. Although it is early yet, and my interpretations could be flawed."
"That is what I feared." Ryn answered quietly.
"Why?" Jace asked. "Is that such a bad thing. It means they'd probably leave us alone."
Ryn gave him a scolding look. "The Light is the only truth, Jace. I am not one worthy of worship."
"I wouldn't mind spending some time worshiping you." Jace quipped, earning him a stern `not-the-time' look.
The young man, who had turned back to his companions, speaking quickly and gesturing from Ryn and Jace up to the sky, then turned back to Ryn. He repeated the closed fist to his forehead then to his mouth gesture that several of them had used before.
"Torun" The man pointed to himself then repeated the unfamiliar word. It took Jace a moment to realize that he was giving his name.
"Torun?" Ryn repeated questioningly, earning an eager nod from the young man. "Ryn." He put his palm to his chest.
"Ken-haii, Ryn!" The young man declared excitedly.
Ryn gestured toward Jace and stated his name as well.
"Ken-haii, Jace!" Torun repeated with a now friendly smile. Jace finally attached his weapon to the belt of his jumpsuit and held out a hand. When Torun accepted it, Jace felt a familiar warm tingle run between them. At first, he thought it was coming from the young stranger, but soon he realized that it was Ryn working through him.
"I didn't know you could do that." Jace remarked to Ryn when Torun withdrew his hand.
"We're connected, Jace." Ryn told him as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I can use that channel, to a point."
"Well that's weird." Jace looked at his hand, then to Ryn suspiciously.
Ryn gave a long-suffering sigh but said nothing. Torun, oblivious to the context of the conversation had returned to talking to the other men and encouraged them to come forward to greet Ryn and Jace as well.
One by one, the men in the formerly ferocious party gave that same gesture of a hand to forehead then mouth and repeated the phrase "Ken-haii, Ryn." or "Ken-haii, Jace."
Ryn took on a far away expression as he continued to greet the procession of natives.
"Ken-haii..." He mused aloud. "It is... familiar..." Suddenly his face lit up. "Calae, does the Light have records of who initially explored this system?"
"Researching." Calae replied and paused for a moment. "The records of this star system come from a time when the Light's history was not as well documented. However, I have found mention of an Archon Gyren Moreal in conjunction with the recorded exploration of this system. It is possible that your own database may serve you better than I can in this instance. My apologies, Archon."
"I thought so." Ryn murmured softly before closing his eyes and drawing in a long slow breath.
"What does that mean?" Jace asked curiously.
Ryn didn't respond immediately. Jace could see his eyes moving underneath his shut eyelids as though he was having a waking dream. Several seconds passed before he opened them again.
"It means that I know their language. Or at least a dialect of it."
This, Jace now remembered, was a part of what being an Archon meant. In addition to Ryn's psionic gifts, he had knowledge passed down from the Archons of the past. He had not known that it could be so specific however.
"Give me your hand, Jace." Ryn instructed and Jace complied, feeling the familiar touch of Ryn's mind against his. "Let me in." This time it was not Ryn's voice that spoke the words but rather a silent message of thought. Jace slowly allowed his mind to open to Ryn fully. It was not something that they did often, but it always felt strange. A nice sort of strange, as though he and Ryn had fused into a single person.
Suddenly Jace's mind was filled with lessons on grammar, conjugations, and pronunciations of this strange new language. It was almost as if he had been there himself, learning the language of these people all those years ago. When finally, Ryn withdrew from the contact, Jace found himself with a working knowledge of a language he had never even heard only minutes before.
"That's... Amazing..." Jace exclaimed. Torun and his companions stopped what they were doing and looked at him in surprise. Jace realized that without even intending to, he had spoken aloud in the language he had just learned.
"People of Terana!" Ryn raised his voice using his new knowledge. "I am Archon Ryn Embara of the Harmonious Light, and this is Jace Marron of Varros. We are but humble travelers to your world." His speech was halted, and his pronunciations were labored, but the meaning was clear.
"You know our tongue?" Torun was clearly shocked as were many of the others. "This is truly a blessed day for the Taigari!" The other's joined him in a chorus of agreement.
"The Taigari?" Ryn asked. "That is what your people call yourselves?"
"Yes, Holy One. We are the last of the tribes of Terana."
Ryn winced at being called `Holy One' but did not address it. "Why are you the last?" He asked curiously.
Torun looked surprised. "Surely that is why you are here, is it not? You have come to rid us of the Red Demons."
A picture began to form in Jace's mind. "Ryn." He switched back to the common language. "That ship in orbit. Someone else must be here."
Ryn looked at him and nodded solemnly. "Tell us of these Red Demons." He instructed Torun.
"Monsters!" One of the other men called from the group. "Evil to look on." A ripple of angry agreement swept through the men.
"They are made of metal." Another put in. "They kill women and children. They steal them."
Torun nodded to all of these statements. "Dallo is the only one of us here that has seen them closely and lived."
The formerly angry-looking man who had damaged his sword on the perimeter shield stepped forward. He performed what Jace was beginning to understand was a Taigari greeting gesture then genuflected before Ryn. "Forgive me, Holiness, for my aggression." He pulled aside his own face wrap to reveal a badly scared bearded man approximately in his late thirties. "Your magic is like that of the Demons, but to look upon you is to see that you are not of their kind."
Jace could tell that Ryn was uncomfortable with being addressed as a praiseworthy figure but did not know how to correct it or explain who they really were.
"You were only protecting your people." Jace jumped in, sparing Ryn some awkwardness.
Dallo turned his attention to Jace for the first time and Jace could see the enormous pain, both physical and emotional, etched into the man's weathered face. He gave an affirmative nod before continuing. "But I could not protect them. Not from those creatures." Dallo shuddered visibly and Jace could not imagine what kind of horror could so thoroughly shake the resolve of a man who seemed to be a hardened warrior. "They are half again as tall as any man." Dallo continued eventually. "Made almost entirely of red metal. The magic of their weapons, heat and light, kill easily and with great pain."
The man pulled open his tunic to reveal the unmistakable blotchy red and white burn of a plasma wound. Jace, having a rudimentary knowledge of plasma-bolt weapons, could tell that a burn like that would have to be generated by a weapon at great distance, or by a bolt that had already traveled through something else. He feared the later.
Sympathy was etched deeply into Ryn's face. "How did you escape?"
Dallo's face turned to a dark scowl. "Taigari do not escape." His tone was sharp. "Taigari win, or we die. It is our way." The air suddenly went out of him and he bowed his head. "There were two of them. Over a hundred fighting Taigari warriors in the village, and our families. And only two of these Demons. They killed all of the men first. Our weapons did nothing to them." He gestured down at the ruined sword on his hip. "I was ordered to ensure the safety of the women and the children. And I failed." Dallo's voice shook with emotion. "Where were you, Holy One?" His tone was not accusatory but filled with such genuine pleading as he tried in vain to keep from crying. "Where were you when they slew my wife and daughter? They pulled her apart with their metal hands and laughed while she screamed. They left me broken in the ashes. I wish I were of a weaker tribe that I might have died there. Instead their laughter follows me every hour of every day. Why? Why did you wait so long to come to us?" By the time he finished, Dallo was practically sobbing. Torun had stepped forward to place a hand on his shoulder.
Ryn bit his lip as two tears leaked out of his eyes and rolled down his face. Suddenly, his luminous eyes hardened to stone. Jace had seen this happen before. This was when Ryn, the sensitive and caring boy, disappeared, and Ryn Embara, the Archon, took his place with all the authority that his title carried.
"Calae." He spoke in a voice teeming with righteous anger. "Does Radiance have the long-range signal strength to reach the nearest Light satellite?"
"Unclear, Archon." Calae replied regretfully. "The composition of this planet's core and soil are dampening my sensors. I have been calibrating since we landed but it is unlikely I will be able to operate at full capacity while we are here. As such, I can say that the nearest Light satellite is approximately 6.8 light years away. This would be at the very edge of Radiance's broadcast range in optimal conditions. I am sorry Archon."
"So we are alone." Ryn spoke solemnly. "Send out the call, regardless." He instructed. "These fiends must face justice."
Ryn had changed languages when he spoke to Calae and the natives were suitably intimidated by his drastic change in demeanor and by the disembodied voice that he conversed with.
"Are you all that is left?" Ryn asked Torun looking around at the mob of several dozen warriors.
Torun shook his head. "No. When we saw you falling from the sky, we feared the worst. Our women and children, and a second detachment of warriors, remain at the Taigari camp."
"What do we do?" Jace asked Ryn in their own language. "We can't fight a colonizing army by ourselves."
"The readings off of their ship suggested that their technology was not up to Light standards or even those of the Coalition." Ryn told him. "It is possible that a show of force could cause them to abandon their claims to the planet."
Jace frown skeptically. The brutality Dallo had just described did not seem to be a trait of a group that would be easily intimidated.
"If the signal gets out, and if the Light chooses to come to our aid then we may have reinforcements soon to put weight to our threat." Ryn told him, sensing his wariness.
"If they choose to come?" Jace questioned. "Why wouldn't they? You're an Archon and these people need help."
Ryn sighed and nodded. "True. Though I do not imagine I am held in very high esteem at the moment with the councils of the Light. After all, I defected from my post and disappeared with an outsider." He looked guiltily at Jace.
"And the fact that you discovered the technology that will save your people in the long run doesn't count for anything?" Jace put out incredulously.
With a shrug, Ryn frowned. "I do not know. Possibly. Only time will tell." He returned his attention to the Taigari. "Torun, will you take us to your camp? I would like to address your people."
Torun bowed deeply. "Of course, Holy One."