The First Kaiaru (36 page)

T
his woman had skin as black as night and solid white hair. Her only clothes were a loincloth, a strip of sheer fabric across her breasts, and a charcoal cloak. Anklets and bracelets of bone clinked and clacked as she sauntered forward, while silver tattoos of snakes on her forearms shimmered and seemed to writhe. But above all, there was one feature that stood out: a diamond-shaped kavaru, orange-red in color, embedded in her forehead.

“Nalsyrra,” Turesobei blurted out in recognition.

Once again, a bit of Chonda Lu’s memories had popped out from his kavaru. Though in this case, Turesobei had heard her name before, in a dream. Nalsyrra was the one who had told Chonda Lu about the Council of Nine’s plans. She was the one who had set everything into motion.

And oddly, he had just seen her orange-red kavaru—the first one ever used—in Nal’s hands.

Nal…and Nalsyrra…could they be the same person? He glanced back and forth between the ghostly woman and Gyoroe’s sister, trying to find some resemblance, but there wasn’t any.

“Yes, that is me, Captain Nal Syrra,” she announced proudly, as she gazed at her original self. “I never forgot this moment. How could I? But I had forgotten what I looked like back then. I was beautiful…if a bit ordinary.”

“Yes, you were,” Turesobei replied.

She raised an eyebrow.

“Beautiful, I mean. I don’t think you were ordinary.”

She smiled. “How kind of you, Turesobei.”

At least she didn’t think he was Chonda Lu, like most Kaiaru did upon meeting him.

Nalsyrra looked down at her brother and sighed. “Poor Gyo. His head wound was severe, and our medical tools were lost in the crash, which was just as well since none of our technology could function here. When the others arrived, we treated him as best as we could. But he was never quite right afterward. The exposure to the energies while his brain was damaged…it changed him in ways that even I still do not fully understand.”

The Blood King hadn’t noticed Nalsyrra’s presence. “Shouldn’t he be surprised you are here?”

“I pulled you slightly out of phase, so we could talk in private.”

“You’re the one who gave us the last boost of energy, aren’t you?”

“I did not want to, but he was going to succeed with another attempt. All he needed to do was sacrifice a few souls.”

That was exactly what Turesobei had feared the Blood King would do next.

“How are you here, and how were you able to help us?”

“I am channeling myself over a great distance using Hannya’s connection to you. It is a difficult procedure, but there are advantages to being me. After all, I did design the principles of magic.”

This woman…this Kaiaru…had created the art of magic?!

“How…how’s that even possible?”

“I wielded the first kavaru, a stone unlike any of the others, so I do not see why this should surprise you.”

“I…I suppose it shouldn’t.”

“Even with the master stone, I was almost delirious by the time the others crash-landed. Otherwise, I am sure I would have created a better system. Of course, after I kicked things off, the system evolved on its own, becoming less rational with each passing century.”

“So you’re here to help me stop him?”

“If possible.”

“I don’t trust you,” Turesobei said.

Her sly smile made him shiver. “I see Lu Bei has told you about me.”

“I know you convinced Chonda Lu to kill the Council of Nine. I saw it in a dream.”

“I simply told Lu what the Council was doing. We shared a mutual interest in preventing others from discovering our origins.”

“Why didn’t you help him?”

“I wanted to remain hidden behind the scenes. I prefer to operate that way when possible. And Chonda Lu was more than able to handle it on his own. Of course, I did not know that Gyo was behind the Council of Nine. Their quest to uncover the origins of the Kaiaru was his idea. Though I am sure through their stones they felt drawn to this moment as well.”

“I find it hard to believe that you didn’t know he was involved.” Turesobei pointed to the channeling stones lying on the ground. “Since the nine kavaru belonging to the council members were the same nine stones you first brought to Gyoroe.”

“Until they were stolen from Chonda Lu, I did not make that connection. I see much that others cannot, and I can predict future events with surprising accuracy. But I have a blind spot when it comes to my brother and his schemes. And it had been nearly fifteen thousand years since I had brought him those kavaru. My memory is not perfect.”

Turesobei had his doubts, but decided it wasn’t worth voicing them.

“I spent decades trying to track down Gyo after the theft, but I could not find him. Centuries later, after Chonda Lu rediscovered Okoro, I immediately set sail. Of course, Gyo would want to return to the point of our origin. I would have looked here sooner but, like everyone else, I believed that
all
of Okoro had sunk into the ocean.

“Once I reached Okoro, I encountered legends about the defeated Blood King who had wielded nine kavaru. The Shogakami refused to divulge their secrets, leaving me and Lu to search for answers on our own. Luckily, I…stumbled upon…Fangthorn, and Hannya told me everything that had happened.”

“I didn’t see you in her memories.”

“She kept our secret well then.”

“She must have been angry about you leaving her in the sword.”

“She was not pleased, but she understood why I did it.” Nalsyrra shook her head. “You were a fool to release her.”

“I was mislead,” he replied, wondering if Nalsyrra was deceiving him, too. “Does Hannya know you are using her link to communicate with me?”

“She sent me a message after you entered the Nexus, and so I watched and waited for this moment, knowing you would risk helping Gyo rather than seeing your companions suffer, assuming you could defeat all the guardians.”

“How could Hannya send you a message from the Nexus?”

“I created a special telepathic link between us. I had a hunch that, despite me leaving her trapped in the sword, she might one day find her way here. Hannya was never satisfied with her first betrayal of Gyo. She wants more than revenge. She wants atonement. That is where you come in.” Nalsyrra sighed. “Hannya has never made good decisions.”

“But Hannya hasn’t betrayed the Blood King. She betrayed us!”

“Do not be foolish. You are smarter than that. Hannya made the only play she could once you were in the Nexus. And I suspect she has protected you in ways you have neither seen nor understood. She will fight with you when the time comes, because you are the road to what she sees as her redemption.”

Hannya hadn’t betrayed them after all? Turesobei had to admit that it made sense, given what he knew of her past, but he did not have time to think it all through. There was so much he needed to know and, he suspected, a limited amount of time to learn it.

“So what did you do after you found out about the Blood King?” he asked.

“I did what I could to strengthen the spells trapping Gyo in the Nexus, hoping he would remain imprisoned there.”

“If you are as powerful as you claim, why didn’t you defeat the guardians and destroy the stones,” Turesobei asked. “That could have prevented this.”

“Defeat the guardians? That I could do easily. Destroy the stones? That I cannot. Gyo is my weakness. I am unable to counter his magic. I tried many times in the past, and always I failed.”

“You designed the way magic works, yet you cannot use it to defeat your brother?”

“Not directly,” she replied. “I did, however, create a rather ingenious failsafe that could be used against him. Only I doubt it has yet gained enough strength to be as effective as I had hoped. To be honest, it is a long shot at best.”

“And that failsafe is…?”

“A secret.”

Turesobei groaned. “Don’t you think I should know what it is?”

“No, and for good reason.”

“Fine,” Turesobei snapped. “Explain to me how it is that Gyoroe is immortal, when as far as I can tell, he isn’t a Kaiaru at all.”

“Gyo is basically a living kavaru.”

“How is that possible?”

“The only channeling stones to be found on this planet, the very stones we needed to survive, were within walking distance of our crash site. And in the cache of kavaru I uncovered, there was one stone for every person who survived the journey here—
except
Gyo. So how is it possible that he thrived without a stone when others could not? It is simply one of the many mysteries I cannot answer, despite fifteen thousand years of contemplation.”

“So if you didn’t keep up with Gyoroe, I’m guessing the two of you didn’t get along.”

“Gyo was highly unstable, and he resented my attempts to control him. If it came to blows, I could not defeat him, so in the end, there was nothing I could do but let him go.”

“The other Kaiaru didn’t help you keep tabs on him?”

“Early on, they did. But as the population soared and people spread across the planet, the Kaiaru became deeply involved in their own affairs and lost track of him. Gyo’s moods turned dark. He would wander off and not be seen for centuries. Each time he emerged, he had a new personality and appearance. Those changes took such a toll on his memory that, long before the Dawning, he had forgotten himself, and by extension, me as well.”

“If you can remember the origins of the Kaiaru, despite the Dawning, why didn’t you just tell him and save everyone from the suffering he caused searching for it?”

“Knowledge is power, and for Gyo, this particular knowledge would represent unlimited power.”

“How? He can’t even recognize himself.”

“All the kavaru are connected. That is why, even though few of them remember how, all Kaiaru are capable of short-range telepathic communication without the use of magical techniques. But the connection runs far, far deeper than that.”

“So if all the kavaru are connected,” Turesobei said, “and Gyoroe is basically a kavaru himself, that means all the kavaru are deeply connected to him.”

“Correct.”

“But I don’t see how that would give him unlimited power.”

“Once Gyo fully understands the buzzing and the unbound flows of kenja he is seeing here, he will realize magic is an artificial system. He will figure out how he connects to the kavaru. And then, he will be able to rewrite the laws of magic and energy to suit his whims. He will gain control over every kavaru that exists, as well as every monster and spirit. He will become not
a
god but
the
god of this world.”

Nalsyrra frowned at her brother, tears welling in her eyes. “Before the injury, Gyo was a good and brilliant man. Now he alternates between cruel and whimsical, kind and withdrawn. As a god he would be a terrible plague upon the world.”

“You can’t rewrite the laws of magic
you
created, but he can?”

“I am bound to the rules more than other Kaiaru
because
I created them. But with his deep connection to other kavaru and his massive power, Gyo could change the rules however he wished.”

Turesobei took a deep breath and looked around at the streams of brightly-colored energy weaving between the pieces of wreckage. He tried to quickly think through all the implications of what he had learned.

“Chonda Lu saw the origin of the Kaiaru and chose to erase it from his memory,” Turesobei said.

“He understood the danger of anyone, including himself, knowing how we came to be. The knowledge would have haunted him for centuries. And eventually, he would have used it to somehow further his own aims. And then…”

“You would have killed him.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I am starting to understand how dangerous this knowledge must be. And how important it is for you to maintain the secret.”

“You are not wrong. Ages ago in Korooka, two others figured out our origins. I killed them and dumped their kavaru into the sea.”

“So you’re going to kill me when this is over?”

“I do not plan on doing so.”

“I would expect you to say that regardless of your intentions.”

“That proves you are not an idiot,” she said. “But I trust that you know what to do with the knowledge when this is all said and done.”

“Despite my special destiny?”

“Your special destiny is why I am trusting you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Turesobei groaned and rubbed his temples. All this knowledge was overwhelming him. But he knew one thing. If Gyoroe could not only restore the Kaiaru but rewrite the actual laws of magic, then the stakes were far, far higher than Turesobei had realized.

“Okay, I will stall him and endure as much torture as I can, while you ready your failsafe and gather allies. That way, once he gets free, you will be prepared to…” She was shaking her head. “I won’t have a choice, will I?”

“Once he masters his new powers, he will be able to easily control you, or any other wizard or Kaiaru, except perhaps me.”

“I wish Hannya had told me the truth. I would never have come here.”

“As I said, Hannya does not make good decisions.”

“So what do we do?”

“It will take at least a few weeks for Gyo to figure everything out and master manipulating other kavaru. That should give you enough time.”

“To do what?”

“To defeat him.”

He almost laughed at her. “He defeated me easily before, and now, he has even more power. I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Not in a direct confrontation, no.”

“I assume you have a plan….”

“The heart stones are the greatest source of Gyo’s power. If you were to break even one of them and escape,
with all of your companions
, you would cripple his plans. At a minimum, it would take centuries for him to break free, and he might end up trapped there forever since the stones, separated from their realms, will slowly diminish in power.”

“Obviously, I plan on getting out with everyone, but why is that essential?”

“Gyo has an enormous collection of kavaru that he can call back to life. He only needs—”

“Hosts,” Turesobei said. “Okay, so how could I break one of the cylinders?”