Assassination
Honour guard Danyk stood, resplendent in his newly earned ceremonial attire. His deep red cape over one shoulder, great staff in the other. The metal of his gilded armour shone in the palace lights, highlighting intricate traceries of blue and gold that played across his breastplate. A high metal collar plate and long white boots with gold trimmings completed the image. He would stand out anywhere were he not in the magnificent splendour of the great Imperial Palace. He had attained a position of much power and privilege, working long and hard and sacrificing so much to get where he was today. To be within mere feet of the Emperor Ismth, the eighth of his grand line was an honour many Valdari would gladly give their lives for. Dakyn knew that he, and the few others in the honour guard were some of the most trusted men in the entire empire, and the most privileged. He thought back on all he had done to get here, the extensive training and character tests, the endless social climbing and favours he had to do. All to get here, the pinnacle of social standing that was possible for a low-born such as himself to achieve. Yet now he was prepared to throw it all away for one righteous act of revenge.
As a low-born, basically anyone who was not a noble, he had seen first hand the plight of his people. This entire golden city was a wretched monument to the immorality and corruption of the Empire. Most here in this great palace city had never left it's walls, safe in their comfortable lives while outside entire planets starved. His own family were victims of the noble-born's greed, all but himself and his sister had survived from a family of almost 20. The rest had starved long ago. He thought back on all that had been sacrificed to get him here, calming his nerves and hardening his heart for what he knew had to be done. As he had travelled with the Imperial army to many of the worlds in the Valdari sphere he saw for himself what life was like on the fringes of the empire. If the famine on Valdar was bad, it was many times worse on the outer planets. The things he saw out there were what first made him sure of his cause, the first thing that broke all the conditioning and propaganda he had been exposed to as a child. The final blow came to him at the knowledge of his family's death after they had been relocated to the colonies. After that it was just him, his beloved sister and her young brood. The thought of them almost showed on his face, but he restrained himself and gripped his great staff tighter.
He remembered visiting his sister's home for the final time, only a few days ago though it felt like a lifetime away... He walked up to the humble shack that his sister now lived in, one of the many that clung to the walls of the great palace city for some semblance of extra shelter. His back felt impossibly heavy on ihs back, despite it's light contents. After their family had been relocated, this was all the two of them were left with. After he was admitted to the palace guard, he lived in barracks but often came to bring his sister and her family his daily rations. He composed himself and knocked on the door, the gauntlets producing a loud bang of metal on metal. He heard a commotion inside the house, his sister hiding the children no doubt. They must think he was an official because of his new attire. He spoke, his voice easily carrying through the thin metal door. "Lin, do not worry. It's Danyk. Still getting used to the new uniform is all." The commotion stopped and the metal door scraped part way open, the suspicious gaze of his sister searching through the small opening.
Her gaze softened instantly when she recognized him, opening the door fully and pulling him into a tight embrace. He pushed her away a little, "Lin, not while I am in uniform." He hurriedly stepped into the living/sleeping area of the small one floor shack. He noticed her hurt expression and softened a little, "I'm sorry Lin, I just have to be careful now." He stepped forward and held her to him as best he could in his clunky guard's armour. She leaned into him, pressing her scaled face to his chest and speaking quietly as she always did. "I should apologize Danyk. I did not mean to endanger your position, it's just been so long since you last came. The children and I were worried" "I know, and I brought something to make up for it." He motioned to the pack it his side. "It cost me a months wages and selling some of my rations, but it was worth for my family to eat well on this night." Lin looked at the pack, then at Danyk. "You mean meat, don't you. Where did you get it? How?" His smile broadened, "In the palace they have many treasures to buy. I thought the children deserved to taste meat at least once in their lives."
Lin looked up at him, her face a mixture of gratitude and disbelief. "Oh my, the children. Let me fetch them." She hurriedly let go of her brother and ran to the only other room in the house, the kitchen and bathroom space. Danyk heard her slide the panel of some secret hiding space back and the excited talk of the two young ones of her brood. "Rom, Cildi, come and see your uncle. He has brought a most generous gift for us." When she said this, it was all Danyk could do to hold back a cry, he fought hard to compose himself again and appear happy. He needed them all to be at ease for this to work. The firstborn son, Rom was first to approach him. He bowed deeply to him, then waited for his younger sister Cildi to approach and do the same. Danyk returned the bow, then smiled and bent down to hug the children, taking their small bodies in each of his strong arms. They laughed, delighted at this unusual display of affection from their usually stoic unkle and hugged him back. "Rom, my you are fast becoming a man. Soon I will not be able to lift you. And Cildi, how beautiful you look, just like your mother." Rom grinned and Cildi smiled warmly at him as they both spoke in unison. "We thank you honour guard Danyk." He gave each of them another squeeze. "Please, just call me uncle tonight."
Lin spoke again, sounding slightly surprised at her brothers affectionate actions. This was not like him at all, but then again this whole evening was seeming pretty special. "Children, go and clean yourselves for dinner. Uncle Danyk has brought us a special meal." After the children left to the water pump outside the house, Lin turned to her brother. "You are acting differently today, is something the matter?" As she spoke Danyk yearned to tell her everything, about his plan and his ideas. He wanted to tell her to run, take the children and get as far away from the empire as possible. His voice cracked fractionally as he lied to her. "Nothing is the matter, it has been a long time since I was with my family. Please sit down, I will prepare the meal."
Not giving her time to answer he walked into the other room and took his bag off his shoulder. He took out a brown packet and carefully unwrapped it. Inside were a few small cuts of fish and some rice loaf. He divided the loaf and the fish into three equal portions. He took a deep breath and with a shaking hand brought out the final item from the bag. The small blue vial twinkled in the dim light of the shack, it contents stirred by his shaking hand. He heard the children come back inside, his sister beckoning them to sit by her. He put his hand to his mouth, trying to force back a wave of despair that was contorting his face to a grimace. He bit down on his hand, hoping the pain would bring his mind back into focus. He snapped the top off the vial and placed a drop of the thin blue liquid on each of the pieces of fish. One drop, that should be enough. He promised himself a long time ago that he would protect his family from all pain and suffering. Now that he had his mission, this was his only option.
He walked into the dining room, placed the fish and bread in front of his sister and her children, forcing a smile as he did so. He sat down in the only empty chair left, took one of the childrens hands in his own and watched his sister do the same. He spoke low, trying to hide his feeling from his voice. "We give thanks to the Emperor and to the Empire for the food we are fortunate to receive. All praise to the Emperor". He felt odd, somehow dishonest that he was praising the man he planned to kill. His sister looked at him questioningly. "Dear brother, where is your food?" He looked at her beautiful, innocent face. And at the same faces of his niece and nephew. He almost sobbed. "I....I am not hungry. My dear family, please eat while the meat is fresh." He watched as they started to eat their meal, faces full of gratitude. Subtly their movements started to slow, as if they were falling asleep or fatigued. The children were the first to lay their heads back, closing their eyes and falling still. He moved to his sister, walking to her at first then falling on his knees. He felt as if he too had been poisoned, he could hear his heart hammering in his ears and his breathing was ragged with despair. He knelt before his sister, prostrating himself before her. Her eyes still just able to focus on him. He spoke through ragged sobs. "Dear sister....Please, forgive this terrible thing I have done. As you die here today my soul dies with you, it will be your servant in the afterlife." Her mouth seemed to be forming words, he heard her whisper. "Why? "I must, to spare you pain as a result of my future actions. I will avenge our family, I will kill the Emperor for what he and others like him are doing to the people of Valdar. The moment I succeed I will most likely be killed, I can only pray for that." He stroked her head as he watched her eyes close and heard her breathing become more shallow. "They would have come for you, hurt you and hurt the children. I....I could never allow that to happen." He sobbed again as he heard his beloved sister take her last breath. All his strength seemed to leave his body at that point. He did not know for how long he had lain there.
He took a deep breath, the time for grief had past. All of his sadness was gone. All that was left within him was anger, an anger that needed to be given substance. He was painfully aware that to show any emotion now would make all that he had lost meaningless. He heard the herald of the emperor step forwards, the great blaring and crashing of drums soon followed. He straightened, standing at full attention as the Emperor's entourage came into view. At it's head was the emperor himself, standing tall above all his staff and wearing his golden robes and crown of state. He was flanked by two high priests and was deep in conversation with one of them. In his hand rested the stave of office, looking like a more elaborate but smaller version of his own great staff. The Emperor's golden robes flowed about him and parted to reveal his white gold armour, crafted to perfectly match his body. The rest of the staff were unimportant to Danyk, he only watched the Emperor as his guard troop fell in to flank the group. Their staffs formed a fence around the Emperor, shielding and enclosing him from any perceived threat.
The walked as a group down a long gilded corridor to the great balcony halfway up the palace tower. It looked out onto a great courtyard where the Emperor was due to address his people. The guard troop marched in unison out onto the balcony, forming a wedge with the Emperor at it's head. Danyk was now mere steps away from his target. He felt as if he were dreaming, the cheering of the people from the courtyard below seemed to echo around his head. Time seemed to be slowing and he became acutely aware of the smallest details; The breathing of the other guards, their faces set in admiration as the Emperor started to speak, the threads of the Emperor's robes as they bristled in the slight breeze. He could see all of it, but it was meaningless to him.
As if his arms acted without his brain telling them to, he found himself lowering his staff. The act seemed to take an age and he started to dash forwards. He heard a cry, like it came from very far away. The other guards moved to block his path, thinking he meant to run the Emperor through with it. They swept at him with their own staffs, that being their only weapons as no one was allowed to be armed in the presence of the Emperor. They were wrong, that was not his plan. As he got to within a few feet of the Emperor, he twisted the bottom of the staff sharply. This caused the carefully concealed alien made explosive package in the tip of the staff to detonate. The blast sent shrapnel and force out in a cone from the tip of the staff, with the now horrified looking Emperor at it's center. The shrapnel impacted on his face and chest, tearing through scaled flesh and wounding him badly. However the true effect of the weapon came moments after. The shockwave from the powerful alien explosives lifted the Emperor bodily and hurled him over the side of the balcony, arms flailing like a rag doll.
Danyk had little time or desire to glory in his victory or recover from the blast. He barely registered a roar of rage to his left before he was struck down by a great force applied to the back of his head. The last thing he heard as his consciousness faded was the raspy voice of the high priest. "Don't kill him, secure him for now then bring him to...." Everything rapidly went dark and muted.
Danyk became aware of a sensation, just at the fringes of his awareness but getting stronger alarmingly fast. The sensation was pain, in his head, ears and limbs. Slowly his thoughts reorganized themselves and the previous events returned to him. His eyes snapped open, taking in his surroundings. He was in a gloomy and damp cell, his leg was secured to the floor by a hefty chain. He tried to speak, but all that came out was a questioning croaking noise. "Wondering why you are still alive, Traitor?" A high and raspy voice, filled with venom cut through the dank silence like a razor. He turned sharply to the direction of the voice and made out a frail looking figure in the gloom. "Don't worry," the voice said mockingly. "After you have seen what I am about to show you, I will watch you hang from the skin frame myself." The figure stepped closer and he recognized it as the high priest the Emperor had been speaking to. He was dressed in the dark thin robes of high ceremony.
"Why...What is it you want to show me?" Danyk managed to stand and gasp out those few words. The priest sneered, that cruel face sent shivers down Danyk's spine. "You think that you've ended our great Empire, don't you, traitor? I want you to see, to see just how wrong you are." Danyk shook his head, what the priest was saying made no sense. He felt the chain detach from his leg and hit the ground with a clang. Instantly he felt an uncomfortable tingling as the blood returned to it. "You will follow me now. And don't think of trying anything or I will simply render you unconscious until we arrive at our destination then revive you again." The priest smiled evilly. "It will be easier for both of us if you simply follow."
Danyk considered his options, he did not doubt the priest had some invisible form of protection, most likely a field of some kind. Not that it mattered, his soul was already dead and the priest probably only wished to gloat or goad him further as he was lead to his death. He stood, unsteadily at first then as he felt his balance return more confidently. The metal door to his cell swung open and he stepped out into the dark hallway. He guessed he must be somewhere very near the central spire of the palace. Without a word the priest set off down the corridor at a slow pace. Danyk, having nowhere else to go, followed him. They walked for some time in silence, the only sound the muffled echo of their footsteps. After a time Danyk thought he could hear, no feel something ahead of them. It was somewhere between a vibration and a low hum. Gradually the sounds became more defined, Danyk was sure he could make out the thrumming of many great machines interspersed with what sounded like the chant of many voices.
They came to a great metal door, many times higher than a man. Here the priest stopped and turned to Danyk, a twisted look of triumph on his face. "Behold traitor, as what you thought was your final victory is actually your greatest defeat! You think the Empire is over, in fact it is only just beginning!" Just as the priest finished speaking the doors snapped open like an eyelid. Danyk was instantly overcome by a wall of sound. It was a low, rolling sound like thunder. It was accompanied by great crashes of metal and the sounds of many voices all at once. He threw his hands up to cover his ears, brought to his knees by the sheer force of the sound. It broke over him like a wave, at first pushing him back then dragging him forwards to it's source. As he started to recover again he caught his first glimpse of the room where all the sound was coming from. It was vast, like looking at the inside of a mountain or into a great bowl of metal. It defied belief that there was this much space unsupported. It slowly dawned on him where he was, under the great tower itself. He could see how the roof seemed to slope upwards, it was the same shape as the great tower of the palace. This was the great temple of the Emperor, he never thought he would ever see it for himself.
His eyes were drawn to the center of the great space. It was a trick of the architecture of the place. All the features; every wall and line, every machine and podium pointed to that space. The eye could not help but be drawn to it. As he looked down there he realised they were moving again. The floor where he was standing was, seemingly of it's own accord, sliding down the wall towards the center of the great space. As Danyk neared the center he saw thousands of other priests, all standing at mechanical looking altars. They seemed to be in some sort of trance, their hands were busy at the controls but their eyes were focused on the centre of the room. They continued their relentless, thunderous chanting as if they were unaware of anything else.
As the priest and Danyk came closer still to the center of the room, a podium rose smoothly from the floor where the priest was standing. It was similar to the others in the room, supported by the thick cylinders that joined smoothly into one before flattening out into the top of the podium The priest, now entirely ignoring Danyk as if in his own trance, stepped up to the podium and laid his hands on the flat surface. Instantly it came alive with lines and patterns that seemed to flow around the priest's scaled hands. Danyk heard a higher pitched hum, like there was a huge amount of electrical power flowing very close to him. The priest added his own voice to chant, sounding lower and more powerful than Danyk would have thought possible from the elderly reptile.
The platform they were on came to a sudden stop and for the first time Danyk had a clear view of what was at the centre of the room. There were three complex looking machines, massive robotic arms that tapered to very fine looking tools at their ends. They were focusing their activities on one comparatively small form in the exact centre of the room. As Danyk looked harder, struggling to focus above all the noise, he realised what the figure was. The Emperor, lying at the centre of all that electrical power and machine activity. But he had died, Danyk had watched him wounded then fall from a great height. How was it possible that he was here looking mostly unharmed? As he looked more carefully at the Emperor he realised that the machines were healing him, replacing what was damaged with metal and power. He could see a tracery of metal wires and lines all over the Emperor's body, and large patches of his skin were being replaced with dull silver plates.
The robotic arms seemed to finish their work for they rapidly withdrew, sliding back away from the body as the hum of electric power increased. They change in the low hum was accompanied by a change of chant by the priests, Danyk could just about make out what they were saying. It was "Rise." But in the old language, the language of the priesthood. As they chanted rise the still limp body of the Emperor was lifted, borne up on a mass of cable and wires all crackling with electricity. The priests chanted faster, their tempo increasing as they changed to a second word. "Praehtor...Preahtor." While this was happening he high priest started to convulse and shudder, his hands flashing over the podium impossibly fast. The second word of the chant reached its crescendo and a great roaring sound seemed to emanate from the very walls of the temple. Danyk watched like the billions of other Valdari, stunned into religious awe and reverence by what he was seeing. A great gout of white flame formed twisting in the air, as if it had been summoned from nowhere. The flame convulsed and twitched like it was alive, before forming itself into a shape above the inert body of the Emperor. It was the ancient Valdari rune for Praehtor, the ancestor guardian.
Some of the priests, led by the high priest next to Danyk started sing out a different word. As the two chantes fell in and out of sync the flame twisted out of any recognizable shape and thrashed about in the air above the Emperor. As more priests took up the chant for the third and final word, Danyk looked up at the twisting mass of fire. It had formed into a final rune, the one meaning Immortality. The priests increased the speed of the chant again, more and more of them starting to shudder like the high priest was doing. The speed of the chant was such that it was percussive, it was like they were drumming with their voices. It beat on his ears and stirred memories within him, memories older than he was of tribal ceremonies, hunting and warring. This was an ancestor memory, something much deeper and older than he could understand. The torrent of fire was moving, slowly at first then much faster. It formed a vortex around the Emperor's body before totally enveloping it and hiding it from view. The fire flowed around his body, then seemed to flow into it. The vortex became smaller until it was gone entirely apart from behind the Emperor's head. There the flame seemed to solidify into a great crest, like a halo that radiated light about the Emperor's face. It was not the only thing that had changed. All the metal on his body that had been silver, was now the brightest gold. His entire body seemed to radiate heat and light and power. Danyk fell to his knees and grovelled before the new figure, simply overcome with religious fervor. He looked up through tear stained eyes as the Emperor rose from his throne of wires. When he spoke, it was as though a thousand voices all spoke at once. The voice was not shouting, it simply had incredible power and volume behind it. It washed over Danyk, the priests and all others who were watching the transmission of the Emperor's resurrection. "I am the Immortal Emperor, your eternal ruler and salvation." The priests roared in triumph, and Danyk found himself roaring with them. Gone were his doubts, his anger and his grief. Gone was his desire to see the Empire ended, for now he was that it could never end. Whatever he believed before was irrelevant, this was all he wanted to believe now. He knew in his heart that he loved the Immortal Emperor, that he would follow him and would gladly die for him. He almost wept with joy as the priests took up a new chant and he started to sing it with them, a chant that would be heard across the universe and carry the will of the Empire with it. "Aye'an Lactah Praeh." All praise the Immortal Emperor.