4.

X.

Laughter.

I was a small boy again, looking up at my father. His face was twisted in pain. But he laughed, loud and hard. “Do you see, Xassin?” He said between short guffaws. “ His plan for us is magnificent!” I back away from him. “Who father?” He turns to me, eyes glinting...no, burning white. He was completely mad now. Too much of what ever was in that dimensional breach had entered him. He removed the shard, even after it warned him of the consequences. Father had always been too confident in his skills. He wanted more power and the shard provided that. But the procedure went terribly wrong, now the sky above our home world was a gaping eye, pouring out these horrible looking creatures. The shard, a glowing crimson crystal was floating in front of us, radiating power. Father killed everyone in the building, anyone that tried to put the shard back and close the breach.

“Why don’t I show you?” He walks towards me and takes me by the hand. His grip is painful and I twist my hand away from him. He turns around, clearly furious. “Xassin, follow me. Now” His tone leaves no room for protest and I start following him but the crash of breaking glass stops me. A red haired woman steps out and I immediately recognise her. “Mother!” I yell and run towards her. I hug her and she kneels down and hugs me properly. She places her palm on my neck and mutters something unintelligible. I feel a sharp burn on my neck  and yelp. She kisses my forehead. “ You have to leave, Xas, it’s not safe here” She has tears in her eyes. I’m confused. 

“Mother, you’re coming with me, right?” She seems to choke back tears. “No, my star child, I have to settle things with your father first” She stands and faces my father, eyes filled with a mixture of emotions. Hate, love, pity, sadness. “Ah Elranys dear , have you come to witness the great Ancient, Zoi?” Father breaks the silence, arms wide, just like the old times. “You’re not the man I bonded with anymore, you’re not my Kaymaer” She raises her hands and hundreds of runes appear around us..”Sowilo Magna” Miniature stars surround my father, seemingly incinerating him. “Mother!? What’s happened to father?” She turns away from the fight to say something but is stopped by single spike through her chest. 

“Mother!” I start running towards her when something drops from above. It was obsidian, and smoothly polished. It was as tall as a tree and had no facial features. It reached for me, and I scrambled back. I was backed up against the wall when it was covered in an orb. Mother was on the floor, with my father standing over her, unscathed. She flung the orb out of the building and she screams. 

“Run, Xassin!” Father notices me now, walking towards me with the mad glint in his eyes. “You must see him, boy, you must!” Mother struggles to her feet and looks desperate. She bites her finger and sprays her blood over the shard. It starts glowing  and the pain at the back of my neck returns with full force. The shard starts shaking violently and then fires through my chest. I'm pushed back into the wall. I start losing consciousness but I have enough time to see those monsters descend on her. She is screaming and this is the last thing i see before the shard activates a portal, dragging me through it. As I lose consciousness, the last thing I hear is my mother’s screams and above all, the mad throaty laughter of my father.

I wake up in a cold sweat. It’s seven in the morning. I’m having classes in the next hour. “Shit, I’m late.” It was strange, having this dream now, I normally don’t dream, especially not about my childhood. Seeing father again made me angry. I touch the back of my neck, feeling the warmth of the Index. “Morning, mother.” After bathing, I scramble to brush and dress up in my usual white and ash, I grab my school bag, lock up my room and head out. I look around, making sure no one is around when I turn invisible and take to the sky. It’s been two years since Tony got the shard and I had to resort to using the index, so I had enough time to learn enough spells, and formulate new ones for battle. The random attacks had reduced, as most of them realized I couldn’t be killed. Tony on the other hand, had grown in leaps and bounds. Granted, I won every fight we had, but I always had to get a bit serious. He’s become a true beast...

My lecture theatre comes into view and I check my phone. “Just in time.” I land behind a tree and turn visible again, throwing on my jacket and walking towards the lecture theatre. I buy my usual eggroll and diet coke before entering. I walk in and locate my favourite spot to sit, bring out a book and start reading. Tests were coming up soon and I’ve been busy with training Tony. Besides, human science fascinated me, hence why I am a three hundred level pharmacy student. I’m engrossed in the physiology textbook I’m reading, when I feel I light tap behind me. I turn around to face a pretty girl with pretty eyes to match. “Hey Cathy”  She’s wearing a white turtleneck, with an ash skirt to match our department’s rule of white and ash. “Xavier, hey.” Apparently, Xassin wasn’t a real name on earth, so I had to improvise. 

“You look good” She did look good. Dark skin, slim, yet curvy. Nice legs too. Her breasts were also eye candy.  I stood up and hugged her. Her perfume was scented jasmine. “You’re in class early...that’s new” She looks up at me and smiles. “I woke up early today, I’m not lazy all the time you know.”  I sit and scoot over to allow her sit beside me. Catherine was also another friend I made in school. I wasn’t a really social person and tended to stay away from people, even in my department. So I was surprised when I found myself asking for her number. We became good friends over the years, finding out we had a lot in common, like food and well...food. 

“You’re always reading, this boy” She grabs the textbook from my hand, putting it on the desk. “We have tests like next week na...I have to read” I say trying and failing to get the book back from her. “You’ll teach me later sha”, She says, still holding the book out of reach. I resort to tickling her, her ultimate weakness and collect my book back. “That’s not fair!” She folds her hands and turns away. The lecturer walks in, causing the class to fall silent. “I’ll treat you to ice cream later, okay?” I whisper and turn forward. The lecturer was very strict and could send me out if he caught me talking, especially if the person I was talking to was a girl. “Fine” She softens up at the mention of ice-cream, smiling a bit. I smile, satisfied and pay attention to the lecture.

“I know you’ll be late tomorrow” I bring the tray over, with two ice cream bowls, chocolate for her and I. Classes were over and I had to live up to my promise. “I will not, have some faith” She says as she takes her bowl off the tray and attacks the ice-cream. “Sure, like the last time I was held up, and needed you to sign attendance for me...you hadn’t even bathed!” She laughs, holding her hand over her mouth. Damn, even the laugh is cute. “I was tired, from reading all night, not my fault” She takes another spoon. “You never actually told me what kept you from coming to class that day”

“I was sick actually...dizzy and a bad migraine” I lie casually. Truth is , I was attacked by fairies. I remember when their king wanted to add the solar system to his dimension. I had to beat him to ensure he stayed away. I’m pretty sure he heard that I lost my shard and thought it was time for payback. He sent his best fighters to kill me, since he couldn’t do it himself, due to the contract I bound on him, which kept him away from earth. I beat them, but the fight happened while I was going to class, so I had to call her to help. “It’s getting late, we should go” I glance at my phone, it’s past eight. “I’ll walk you home, those boys at your lodge always look somehow to me” She smiles and stands “I’ll be fine, X”  I stand and take her hand. “I know you will, because I’ll be walking you home”

“You worry way too much” she slides her fingers into mine. “Fine, let’s go”, she was says dragging me out of the restaurant and into the night. The walk through her dark lonely Street is filled with the booth of us making noise and laughing. We finally reach her lodge and the turns to face me. “Thanks for today.” 

“And the ice-cream” I add. She laughs and hugs me. “And the ice-cream” I hold her, taking in the jasmine scent again for the last time today. “See you tomorrow?” She disengages from me and nods. “Goodnight then” She goes in and I wait for her to enter the building before I turn around. “Come out Zeus, stealth isn’t your forte.” Lighting flashes and there he stands, he’s in a different form from the last time I saw him, he’s younger now, around my age in human years. “She’s cute” he grins and his eyes flash a bright blue. He didn’t even bother hiding his features. White long hair, blue eyes, looks like he wasn’t planning on staying long. “What do you want, Zeus? What is the King of Olympus doing here?” 

Grandfather sent me to get you... apparently it’s Arch-mage business.” Something or someone attacked Le'uthara two cycles ago. The carnage was massive, a lot of Gentry were slaughtered. The remaining ones are too far gone to tell what happened. They’re either mad or comatose.” He paused, gauging my reaction, seeing nothing, he continued. “The council is assembling all Arch-mages to be on guard. They suspect the attacker will be back for whatever it came for. M’gethir, that sly bastard won’t open up about their projects, but we have a good idea what he’s doing. “The mind of Ente” I finally speak, “He reached the mind.” Le'uthara was a planet belonging to the Gentry empire. While I was a soldier, I heard the stories of the experiments carried out on that planet, trying to find the heart of the multiverse, the mind of Ente. M’gethir , emperor of the Gentry was fascinated with the mind. He wanted it because he knew it had omniscient capabilities. Looks like they succeeded, and now someone wants that power. Or was it something else...

“As expected, you’re already in the loop. So when can we expect you?” I guess it was time to face the Gentry, I couldn’t stay away forever, after all. “I’ll have to make preparations, I’ll be at Le'uthara in 14 cycles.” Zeus looked pleased at the news, grinning again. “Splendid, I’ll relay the news to Grandfather” He turned and paused. “Oh and Xassin... welcome back” Lightning flashed again and he was gone.

I turn invisible and fly off, then I bring out my phone and text Tony.  We’re leaving Earth tomorrow, 10pm sharp. The usual place. Be ready. I put the phone in my pocket as I reach my house. I open the door and fall on my bed. “Great, back to being Arch-mage” I said as I stared at the ceiling, trying to sleep. I kept thinking about the Gentry and what could have destroyed some of most powerful mages in the universe. I’ll find out when I get there. My phone buzzed and I pick it up. It’s a message from Catherine. Hey, you home yet? I text back. Yeah, just did.  I text her a bit more until I sleep off.

Next morning, I quickly bathe and dress up, wearing my normal hoodie and jeans. I put on my Crocs and head out. If I’m going to face them, I’d rather be comfortable doing this. When I came to Enugu, I stashed all my magic tech in Arrath, my pocket dimension in case I ever needed it. I head towards the stadium, just opposite my school. Tony is waiting for me, wearing this usual jacket and a tee with jeans. “Finally, I was gonna call you again” he looks impatient, folding his arms and frowning. “Sorry man”, I say as I fist bump him. “I slept late” I catch him looking mischievously at me “Her again huh?” 

“Huh? Who?” I feign ignorance. “Cathy..” he drawls and grins. “You’re not gonna tell her how you feel? The two of you are perfect!” I ignore him. He noticed I had feelings for her and hasn’t let me rest ever since then, always shipping us. “Can we focus on just leaving earth?” I place a sigil on the floor and we are covered in an illusory wall, making us invisible. The I open the portal to Arrath and create another sigil. ‘Come forth, Ko'vren” Ko'vren was my standard Gentry spaceship, when I was still a soldier. It was capable of faster than light travel and thus perfect for reaching Le'uthara by the next cycle. 

“Whoa, you never told me you had this...” he paused, eyeing me “Wait, why are we using a ship? Normally we’d just portal in” The ship was completely out of the portal now. It was black with several runes on the sides. I touch it’s sleek side and the runes glow white. The sides open, revealing stairs. We both start walking up the stairs. “Le’uthara belongs to the Gentry system, it has a spell  around it that warps space, it is never in the same reality as ours, and it is always changing position. Makes me wonder how the intruder got in and out.” The inside of the ship lights up as we walk in. A female voice chimes.

“Welcome back Arch-mage Xassin” Everything seems to be working fine. I check the warp drive, and it seems okay. “Thank you Ko'vren, it’s not really good to be back, but oh well.” 

“Where are you headed?” the voice asks monotonously. A 3-D projection of the milky way is shown, showing my current location on earth. “Set course for the Gentry system, Ko'vren.” Tony sits down and relaxes on a chair. I stand and go to a cupboard, finding it empty. “Great, didn’t bring any food” Tony raises his hand and a blue glow surrounds it.

“Good thing I came prepared” a wormhole appears and a bag floats out. “How long have you been stashing this for?” I rummage through the bag and take out four sausage rolls with the usual diet coke. “Ever since I learned how to create pocket dimensions, I’ve been saving food there, for rainy days” 

“You’re a lifesaver, man”, I say over a full mouth. Ko'vren chimes in again. “Travel route: calculated. Distance to Gentry system: calculated. Estimated time of arrival: half cycle” I look at my watch. It’s past eleven. The body doubles I crafted should be fully functional now, they would serve as our substitutes until we returned. I sit at the command deck and inhale. It’s time. “Ko'vren, prepare the warp drive.” There is a low hum and I turn to Tony. “You might want to strap in” I say as the ship lifts off the ground. “Drive engaged. Power levels stable. Initiating warp sequence.”

“And away we go...” The space around us stretches and we enter hyperspace. “Hyperspace transit complete. We are en route to the Gentry system” I stretch in the chair and relax, as Tony comes to the command deck. “How long will this take?” I slap away his hand from the runes on the deck.

“Anytime now...” I say, checking my watch. Hyperspace starts collapsing around us and the Gentry system comes into view. Its sheer size always seems to overwhelm me, even from this distance. It spanned the size of a dozen solar systems, as the Gentry were conquerors, colonizing planets and adding them to its empire. “Destination reached. Entering cruising speed now. Engaging artificial gravity and inertial dampeners”

“Whoa” Tony had surprise written all over his face. I had never taken him to the Gentry system before, so this was new. “I know, I know.” I stand up and grab another sausage roll. “Post one, this is Arch-mage Xassin, requesting permission to portal dock.” I send a signal to the docking bay at the first post, but I only get static. “Strange, is this broken? They always reply.” I bend down to look at the signalling machine for faults.

“X? Is that normal?” I turn around to see what he’s talking about, probably the black hole they have contained in the centre of the system. I was totally wrong. The first post was totally wrecked, and the rampage of what ever did this stretched as far as my eyes could see. Whole battle planets were reduced to chunks. I saw the trail of destruction was headed towards Le’uthara. 

“Ko'vren, forget the docking, head to Le’uthara... now!” The enemy had begun attacking again, this time on a higher scale. This was all out war. Someone decided to pick a fight with the Gentry.

And by Fos, they were winning.