the first Reaper.”
“So while Morrigunia was using the Reapers
for good, Raphian was making them for evil?”
“She realized Raphian had deliberately laid
plans to exterminate the human race by infecting them with His sperm. When
Morrigunia saw what Raphian had done, She set out to undo His evil. She could
not keep those infected with the parasite from changing but She could instill
human traits in them to hold at bay the evil Raphian had unleashed. It was my
people She granted Her benevolence. Our tribe is spread throughout the
megaverse on planets such as Theristes and we are not allowed to leave those
worlds. Morrigunia made it a law, a Greas, an obligation with which we must
abide.”
“Something else bothers me, Tariq. When you
were captured, people like the Burgon before Ryden Bakari saw the advantage in
having nearly invincible warriors and set out to make more like you.” She
frowned. “How did they know how to do that? Surely you didn’t tell them. I read
where you were tortured horribly but I can’t believe you would have given them
the means to make more Reapers.”
Tariq shook his head. “No, I did not. I
could not have told them because I didn’t know such a thing was possible until
the first prisoners were brought to the complex. Remember, children of my race
are born Reaper. We do not make them. When they took the first hellion from me,
when I realized what they were going to do, I cried for the first time in my
life. The only explanation I can give you for what happened on R-9 is that
Raphian was involved. He influenced the Alliance to create the hell that was
Riezell-Nine.”
“Why didn’t Morrigunia intercede?” she
asked. “Why didn’t She stop what was happening there?”
“I don’t know, Shanee, but there is a
legend that says She has a place somewhere in the megaverse where She breeds
Her own very special Reapers, sons of Her body called the guirt . We also
know She creates them in Her guise as the Triune Goddess coming to a dying
warrior on the battlefield.” He shook his head. “Why She does this, no one
knows, but I do know there are men like Gabriel Leveche who are Her creations.
If She is making men like him elsewhere in the megaverse, Her purpose cannot be
evil.”
Shanee let out a long breath. She was
reeling from the information Tariq had given her—far more than she had expected
him to impart. “No, I suppose not.”
“That is enough for you to think on for one
day,” he told her, taking one of the gold strips out of the bucket and over to
his workbench. He sat down. “Your man is well and he is relatively calm—at
least as calm as his Transition will allow him to be. When it is over, he will
be back in the beat of a heart. I would not put it past him to fly here on
wings his mind will create.”
“He can really do that?” she asked, her
eyes wide.
“If he so desires,” Tariq said with a
smile. “And it is a sight to behold.”
Chapter Six
Ailyn stared up at the smooth glasslike
wall of the lava tube. He was bone-tired, hungry for Sustenance and his body
was itching, on fire, for want of the tenerse waiting for him. He had chosen
this dark place, this makeshift containment cell, because when he was in
Transition, he could not scale the sheer walls nor could he spring up to the
top rim that was at least two hundred feet above him. He could—however—shift
into a raven at will and fly out of his self-imposed prison when the Transition
had run its course. At that moment though, he was too weary to rearrange his
molecules and make the change. He had to wait until he had a bit more energy
before he could shift.
He sat down on a low ledge and reached out
to touch the silica-rich lava flow from centuries earlier that constituted the
slick walls of the cone-shaped hole that was his prison cell. The solid sheet
of obsidian glass that encircled the room that was rich in iron and magnesium
had been formed when the molten lava had cooled too quickly to
“So while Morrigunia was using the Reapers
for good, Raphian was making them for evil?”
“She realized Raphian had deliberately laid
plans to exterminate the human race by infecting them with His sperm. When
Morrigunia saw what Raphian had done, She set out to undo His evil. She could
not keep those infected with the parasite from changing but She could instill
human traits in them to hold at bay the evil Raphian had unleashed. It was my
people She granted Her benevolence. Our tribe is spread throughout the
megaverse on planets such as Theristes and we are not allowed to leave those
worlds. Morrigunia made it a law, a Greas, an obligation with which we must
abide.”
“Something else bothers me, Tariq. When you
were captured, people like the Burgon before Ryden Bakari saw the advantage in
having nearly invincible warriors and set out to make more like you.” She
frowned. “How did they know how to do that? Surely you didn’t tell them. I read
where you were tortured horribly but I can’t believe you would have given them
the means to make more Reapers.”
Tariq shook his head. “No, I did not. I
could not have told them because I didn’t know such a thing was possible until
the first prisoners were brought to the complex. Remember, children of my race
are born Reaper. We do not make them. When they took the first hellion from me,
when I realized what they were going to do, I cried for the first time in my
life. The only explanation I can give you for what happened on R-9 is that
Raphian was involved. He influenced the Alliance to create the hell that was
Riezell-Nine.”
“Why didn’t Morrigunia intercede?” she
asked. “Why didn’t She stop what was happening there?”
“I don’t know, Shanee, but there is a
legend that says She has a place somewhere in the megaverse where She breeds
Her own very special Reapers, sons of Her body called the guirt . We also
know She creates them in Her guise as the Triune Goddess coming to a dying
warrior on the battlefield.” He shook his head. “Why She does this, no one
knows, but I do know there are men like Gabriel Leveche who are Her creations.
If She is making men like him elsewhere in the megaverse, Her purpose cannot be
evil.”
Shanee let out a long breath. She was
reeling from the information Tariq had given her—far more than she had expected
him to impart. “No, I suppose not.”
“That is enough for you to think on for one
day,” he told her, taking one of the gold strips out of the bucket and over to
his workbench. He sat down. “Your man is well and he is relatively calm—at
least as calm as his Transition will allow him to be. When it is over, he will
be back in the beat of a heart. I would not put it past him to fly here on
wings his mind will create.”
“He can really do that?” she asked, her
eyes wide.
“If he so desires,” Tariq said with a
smile. “And it is a sight to behold.”
Chapter Six
Ailyn stared up at the smooth glasslike
wall of the lava tube. He was bone-tired, hungry for Sustenance and his body
was itching, on fire, for want of the tenerse waiting for him. He had chosen
this dark place, this makeshift containment cell, because when he was in
Transition, he could not scale the sheer walls nor could he spring up to the
top rim that was at least two hundred feet above him. He could—however—shift
into a raven at will and fly out of his self-imposed prison when the Transition
had run its course. At that moment though, he was too weary to rearrange his
molecules and make the change. He had to wait until he had a bit more energy
before he could shift.
He sat down on a low ledge and reached out
to touch the silica-rich lava flow from centuries earlier that constituted the
slick walls of the cone-shaped hole that was his prison cell. The solid sheet
of obsidian glass that encircled the room that was rich in iron and magnesium
had been formed when the molten lava had cooled too quickly to
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