The Dark Between The Stars

SEVENTY-EIGHT
OSIRA’H

Even though Osira’h and her siblings could not feel the same affinity with the worldforest as a green priest did, they knew their mother took great solace among the trees. Because Nira longed to help poor Gale’nh, she asked him to meet her in the lush greenhouse on top of the Prism Palace. She wanted to see if the verdani could help.

Osira’h accompanied her brother, leading him up the glowing corridors to the rooftop. Gale’nh seemed so empty and fragile, as if the depths of the shadow remained inside him. Osira’h shared her own thoughts with her brother, whatever energy she could dredge up from her mind, but Gale’nh’s close connection with his halfbreed siblings had been damaged. Nevertheless, alone he had found an inner strength, a way of propping himself up so that he could move through the days.

The grove of tall worldtrees in the rooftop garden stood invigorated by the seven Ildiran suns. The treelings, planted there many years ago, now served as the point of contact for green priests with the rest of the Spiral Arm. The worldtree fronds whispered together.

Nira waited for them by the trees, her skin a bright, rich green. She smiled, but Osira’h could see the concern hidden just beneath the expression. Her fingertips touched the gold-scaled bark of the nearest tree. Nira closed her eyes briefly and let her thoughts flow into the verdani mind, then she sighed and reached out to take Gale’nh’s hand, drawing him close, as if completing a circuit.

“I will help you in any way I can,” she said.

Gale’nh held her hand, but remained unmoved, clearly feeling nothing from the green priest’s contact. “If I knew a way you could help, Mother, I would accept it.” He released her grip, ran his own hand over the trunk of the tree, but he didn’t seem to find what he was looking for.

Osira’h took her brother’s hand and grasped her mother’s, trying harder. As she concentrated, she did feel the innate power of the worldtrees, a presence that connected the vast forest across the entire Spiral Arm.

“Sometimes we can share strength,” Gale’nh said, “and sometimes we’re all alone. I was there all alone aboard the Kolpraxa. My entire crew included hundreds of Ildirans woven together with their thism—but that didn’t give them enough strength to stand against the shadow cloud.”

His entire body shuddered. Osira’h squeezed his hand harder. Nira’s eyes widened as if she caught a hint of what he was seeing inside his mind.

“The blackness didn’t understand us either,” Gale’nh continued, as if the memories were growing sharper in his mind. “It engulfed us, devoured us—and found all of my crew wanting. I watched Rememberer Ko’sh standing in terror, shouting that it was the Shana Rei. He raised his fist, howled for them to go back to the void—and then he disappeared. Uncreated.” His voice hitched. “I used everything I had, gathering those closest to me. I tried to protect them, tried to hold on to them, but I felt them fade, as if they were bled down to nothing.” He blinked at Nira. “I want to say that I was stronger than the others, Mother… but I think I was just different. I could feel the thism being torn up all around me. The mental threads snapped. There was nothing I could do.” He hung his head.

“You survived,” Nira said. “You came back to us. You’re still here.”

Osira’h added her encouragement as well. “You’re the only one who has touched the Shana Rei. You’ll remember something. You know something.”

Gale’nh shook his head. “What if I brought back some residue with me? When Rememberer Ko’sh told the stories, I thought he was just trying to frighten my crew, but maybe he wanted to prepare them for what was out there. He couldn’t prepare them enough.”

Neither Osira’h nor Nira had an answer for him.

“While I was alone in the dark on the Kolpraxa, swallowed up by that suffocating nothingness, I remembered the planet Orryx and Tal Bria’nh.” He turned his reddened gaze to his sister. “Now I know the story is true.”

“Orryx?” Nira asked.

Osira’h said, “It was the first Ildiran planet to succumb to the Shana Rei, ages ago, a fertile place with a strong population, but the Shana Rei spread out from dark nebulae and covered the entire planet with a black shroud that absorbed all light. When Mage-Imperator Xiba’h sensed Orryx being engulfed, he rushed a septa of warliners to fight for them.”

Gale’nh interrupted his sister’s story. “They vanished into the blackness.”

“The Mage-Imperator commanded his engineers and scientists to develop new weapons. A brave military commander named Tal Bria’nh rushed to Orryx with even more warliners and a hundred new sun bombs, which produced as much purifying brightness as a star. They burned the Shana Rei like acid, searing away the black shroud that surrounded the planet, but even the light from a hundred sun bombs eventually dwindled. The Shana Rei attacked again. They swallowed up Tal Bria’nh’s entire cohort, painted the whole world black.

“When more Ildiran ships arrived, they found all the warliners wrapped in cocoons of shadow. Tal Bria’nh and his brave crew were literally smothered in darkness.”

“Like the Kolpraxa,” Nira whispered.

Gale’nh said, “I can imagine their last moments, Tal Bria’nh alone on the command nucleus, suffocating in the dark. That was all I could think of as I drifted and waited. How long did he survive before his own soulfire was extinguished?”

Nira held on to the worldtree, closing her eyes, listening to Gale’nh speak and moving her lips as she repeated his words into the verdani network. “I’m so sorry. I wish I could have been there to help you.”

Gale’nh hardened. “No, Mother. No one should have been there. I encountered the Shana Rei, I lost my crew. I lost a fundamental part of myself, and I can’t even remember it.” Gale’nh’s eyes widened, and he turned abruptly to her. “Wait…” He let the word trail off.

Osira’h pressed closer. “Did you remember something?”

The worldtrees stirred, their fronds rustling.

Gale’nh seemed surprised by what he had just realized. “The Shana Rei came back, not because they wanted war, not because they wish to attack us.” He shook his head as if trying to grasp an intangible thing just beyond his reach. “The Shana Rei are afraid.”