The Celestial Way

Chapter 10.4 - Guardians of the Way

Magus frowned at Mentoria. "Why are you here, on Terra Para?" he asked her.

The exotic Coastlander made a relaxed, teasing gesture, casually displaying her robed figure to advantage. "Oh, Magus, you know very well how long we have traveled among the stars. You first decided to settle down, creating this quaint little organization." She smiled down on the gathered Radiant Knights. "I, on the other hand, journeyed for a little while longer. Yet already I too feel tired discovering new horizons in the endless ocean of the Great Cosmos. I need some respite. Thus I sought temporary refuge on this convenient world."

"I had told you to stay away from the Order, Mentoria."

"And if I had done so, none of them would be alive now, and Ferrtau would stand unchallenged in his mad crusade."

"We will discuss this further at a later time," Magus warned. "What does Ferrtau want from you? I have made the Shield impossible to disable."

"There is an artifact that can do so under the right circumstances, my dear," Mentoria said, tossing her dark crimson hair.

"My starblade," Magus said. He frowned. "Ferrtau made his own a century ago. Why does he need a second one?"

Mentoria smiled coldly. "He needs his as a catalyst for the Singularity he threatens all of us with. I cheated him out of his solution, and now the once-hero of the galaxy is on a mad crusade to retrieve the only light that can help him."

"And what are all of you doing about it?"

Everyone stared at Airo. He stared right back at them.

"Ferrtau is out there, searching for a way to annihilate the entire galaxy, as you said. So what are you doing about it?" he repeated.

"We can't do anything," Lylana snapped. Then, her exasperation vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. "We can't do anything," she said tiredly, her expression defeated. "The Radiant Order is almost wiped out. The Consortium and the Union are unwilling to help. The Lightbringer is too powerful. So our only course of action is to stall."

"Stall? Until Ferrtau wins?" Airo demanded.

"Until he loses," Lylana said, her tone hardening. She met the questioning gazes in the room, and continued, "The Radiant Knights never give up. Never. When we activated the Shield to cut off the Lightbringer from the Shard, it failed to contain the rift he had torn open into reality itself. Now this rift slowly expands across Terra Para, bringing warpstorms and oblivion to the entire paraworld. And sooner or later, the rift will engulf the planet. But it will also destroy the Shard." Lylana narrowed her eyes. "Everyone – including the innocent – will pay the price with their lives, but if that means the Lightbringer will be denied his madness, then we will hold him off long enough for this to happen."

"What if Ferrtau goes to another Shard?" Airo asked.

"The only other known Shard in the galaxy is on Utopia Draconis," Glawlrhain said, clicking his claws on the floor. "Even in his current highly potent state, Ferrtau cannot hope to overcome the thousands of my kind who call that world their home."

"What if he finds a third Shard on an unknown world somewhere?"

Airo's question was met with silence, as the others considered the ramifications of such a scenario.

Finally, Mentoria snorted, "If that was possible, Ferrtau would have left the moment his access to the Shard was cut. He needs to be here, on this particular world, whatever the reason."

"Indeed," Magus mused. He glanced at Veralla. "And we might be able to glean his motives by examining recent events more closely."

"Can you clarify, sir?" Lylana asked. She and Glawlrhain seemed intrigued by the old Knight's words.