The Games Begin
In the wake of a giant star, a system of 17 planets and 48 moons spun and revolved through the void. 40 light years from Earth and 35 from the Omega Dream's current location, this system was dominated by a powerful race that had originated there. Creatures who would tower over any human lived on every planet and moon orbiting that star. Their green, scaled skin protected them from the extreme solar winds that had been attacking their main world since long before they traveled to the stars. Despite their environment, radically different from that of humankind, they held a striking similarity to humans when one looked beyond their size and color.
Other races in the galaxy gave a wary eye to those creatures. The more advanced races, which had their own methods of travel and communication over the astronomical distances, were basing certain decisions off of the current Neopenti political state. The current Emperor was benign towards the rest of the galaxy, but whispers of rumors signaled a need for caution.
Emperor Veda Hydran smiled into the mirror as two servants decorated him with a regal coat. He had ordered it specially for this occasion - a dark green to match his scaled skin. He turned his head to look over his lovely wife, Ayana. She was powdering her nose, and her garments of Nerium silk glistened against the starlight. For millennia, the Emperor and Queen had attended the annual Games. It was their duty to sacrifice the strongest contestant of the Games to their people's deity. The Neopenti priests continued to perpetuate a great lie to their society's undesirables; the poor and lower class signed up in droves, hoping to win fame and a higher place in society.
The crowd began to roar as the pre-Games showing neared its conclusion. A handful of Neopenti lower-class brutes struggled against a team of four Leyarin beasts. It had been an intense fight that had brought the crowd to a hush, but as the final blows were struck to the animals, the people's cheers had the strength to destroy a small moon. It was during this din that the Emperor and his wife came out and took their seats, high above the rest of the crowd. The Emperor had his crown fitted upon his head, and thrust his fist high above him. The crowd was instantly silent.
"My people! We are gathered here today to conduct the annual Games! Today marks the 489th Rotation of our year, the day on which we are the closest to our star! The star has risen to its highest point in the sky! Let the Games begin!"
Emperor Veda let his hand fall, and the gates were flung open in the grand Coliseum below. The duels began almost at once. Queen Ayana looked down with obvious distaste and disapproval. Veda placed his arm around her and cuddled her a bit.
"It's hard to believe, isn't it, my dear? This has been going on for ages. We must give one of them to Pentos each year. It is the way."
"It's sickening...they fight without the Gifts of Pentos. I wonder what it's like, to be down there?"
"Come now, that's hardly a matter for a queen to worry about! Especially my queen. Let's just watch the trials of combat. They're bound to be enjoyable!"
"I find the whole thing horrid. I've grown weary of this game, year after year after year. I'm bored and sick with it."
Queen Ayana shut her eyes and cuddled into her husband's arms. Veda stroked her to sleep as he watched the Games with a blank stare. He hadn't told his wife, but he tired of it as well. Blood stained the grounds of the Coliseum, and it would soon stain his hands once again. Yet if the Games ended, and Pentos was not appeased, the people believed there would be famine and darkness. And so, Veda Hydran watched the Games, waiting until the winner was called to be passed into glory.
Thirty miles from the capital city's Coliseum, a shuttle shot through the atmosphere towards a makeshift landing site. It was a secret place that only a select few, including the shuttle's pilot, knew about. It was a small clearing, dug out of a great thicket by advanced precision tools, reachable only by air. There, in a weathering mound of rounded, asymmetric rock, a door had been disguised perfectly. Only those who knew where it was could possibly open it.
The shuttle landed smoothly in the center of the clearing. The pilot turned off all lights and motors, opened the door just ajar, and slipped out of the craft. He carried a black robe doubled over his arm to the mound of rock and felt around a small area for the handle to the door. After a few seconds, he pulled open a crevice in the rock. He stood before the opening and slipped his robe on. With the hood up, the robe covered him completely in shadow. Thus hidden, he entered the rock and shut the door behind him, leaving it seamless once again.
Veda nudged his wife in a semi-urgent manner. After a few irritated groans, she blinked her eyes open and sat up slowly. "Veda...why such urgency? I was dreaming."
"Look down there, darling. The Games are ending. Soon we will have to perform our duty in all this. We should get ready."
Veda pulled the ceremonial Kris from beneath his coat. He flicked it up so that it stabbed toward the heavens. Standing with the Kris held in both hands before his chest, he awaited the calling of judgement.
The crowd was hushed. The final two victorious warriors, Glandul and Drugat, remained in the arena. This was the final matching of the day. They battled fiercely for their lives. Glandul lunged for Drugat's head and pulled back just in time to avoid the counter-attack. Drugat sliced wildly upward in a circle with his rapier to clear the way for a downward tackle. Sensing this, Glandul jumped high in the air and came down for a spinning dive-bomb on his opponent. Drugat neatly sidestepped this attack and brought his rapier down into Glandul's flesh. Glandul screamed in pain and drew blood across both Drugat's ankles. He pulled the rapier out from himself in one concentrated move and jumped up and backwards. Drugat, sensing a weakened enemy, moved in for the kill. Though he bled from his ankles and found moving his feet painful, he fought Glandul blow for blow. Both were slowing somewhat. Glandul's blood spilled like a fountain from the wound in his back, and he crouched to lessen the loss and prevent himself from becoming dizzy. He thrust in whenever he had the chance, and the fighters performed the dance of the devil, locked in mortal combat. At last, the moment of truth came. When both fighters stood as statues, each watching the other with the intensity of a thousand suns, Glandul made a mistaken lunge that resulted in Drugat's blade piercing his heart. Drugat pulled his blade clear and thrust his enemy's lifeless corpse to the ground. He faced the crowd and thrust his arms high in victory, the blood on his rapier dripping slowly into the dust. The crowd cheered triumphantly.
Emperor Veda nodded to his high priests, and they filed into a well-adorned room below the Coliseum. Veda walked down each step of the great stadium to meet the conquerer, Drugat, followed closely by Ayana. Drugat stared in awe and reverence at the Emperor for every moment of the descent. After a mere minute's time, Veda stood face to face with Drugat, and the crowd was once again struck into a lull chord.
"Drugat, you have proven yourself for valor, strength, and resourcefulness. Your victory is a monument to Neopenti society. You are a hero, Drugat, a hero whose name will be told throughout the centuries, a hero who will inspire the young of the future!"
Veda pulled forth a shining medal from his coat. It displayed an intricate pattern, engraved in the rarest rock on their entire world. "You have earned this medal of glory and position! Wear it proudly, powerfully, as the Emperor's High Advisor!"
Veda placed the medal around Drugat's neck, which happily and gratefully received it. Veda took Drugat under his arm and spoke to him under the noise of the crowd. Ayana went ahead of them into the sacrifice room, and Veda continued the ruse until he had brought their champion prize inside the door. He closed it and locked it behind him.
Drugat, following his understanding of the induction ceremony, lay on the great table. The priests began chanting in the old religious language of their people while Ayana and Veda joined hands with them and each other, completing the circle around the table. Each participant of the ceremony spoke in turn. Drugat dimly began to sense danger, and he started to try and get up. But he could not - his head struck a wall he could not see. He tried to move to the side, but found himself entirely caged by a powerful gripping force. Excruciating pain racked his entire body, and he opened his mouth to scream, but no sound escaped the power. Veda held the Kris high above Drugat and brought it down immediately into his heart. Veda's crown pulsated with red energy as he chanted with a power that traveled through him into the blade and into Drugat. Drugat's body disintegrated completely into energy. The priests chanted the name of Pentos, louder and louder, and the energy warped and struck against the cage in a blinding fury of light. As the priests continued chanting, the energy slowed its movements and came to a stop. It was soon drawn out of the force cage, and a blankness greater than the physical void of space remained.
In a realm of the void at the center of seven stars, the passage of light was stopped by a great black cloud. Dark matter was distorting like a racking bridge in a windstorm. The light traveled over the edges of the cloud, flashing tiny veins across the ever-changing distortions. A stream of energy from a world far away rushed screaming into the cloud. The distortions grew larger and more rapid, and energy began to swirl about the darkness. All the energy was focused at once into the cloud's center, and it created a massive explosion. The cloud dispersed itself throughout the realm of the seven stars, and in its place was a stable mass of dark matter. It took shape and began to move from the realm of the seven stars out into the galaxy.
Veda and Ayana headed back to the imperial palace arm in arm when they were stopped by a strange Neopenti who stepped off the roadside abruptly and faced them. He stared in Ayana's eyes and read from the bottom of her soul. She could do nothing while this was going on but stare blankly back at him. Veda became alarmed and interrupted the gaze of this stranger. Once the line was broken, Ayana fell to the ground, unconscious. Veda yelled her name at her and tried to wake her up. He did not succeed. The stranger had already turned his back and run off by the time Veda looked up in his direction again. A black robe was all that Veda could associate with the attacker.
Veda hurriedly carried Ayana inside the palace and laid her down on their bed. He sat next to her, watching over her and yelling to his servants, "Get a physician! Get some salts! Get a damned jug of water!"
Ayana fluttered her eyes slowly and kept them closed as she wildly reached out for Veda. Veda held her hands and tried to calm her down. She continued to thrash about until she ran out of energy and lay calmly and quietly. Then, she opened her eyes and sat up as if nothing had happened. Seeing Veda's expression, she became worried. "Veda? What's wrong?"
"AYANA! What in the name of Pentos just happened to you!?"
"Well...I woke up, and - "
"No, no no no. You don't remember, do you? You passed out! Some stranger did something to you, looked in your eyes, and you passed out!"
"Hmm. Now that you mention it, I DO remember something...a strange, pulsating light, and then waking up. Veda - what do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, Ayana. I don't know."