Chapter 26 - Prophecies of the Elders
The hot muggy day become overcast during the early hours of the night. Vapour clouds, thick and heavy with moisture, blotted out the stars; they heralded major atmospheric upheavals.
Guards patrolling the estate grounds felt the electric charge in the humid air and waited for the storm to break. The last lingerers on the terrace moved inside and the lighted windows in all the buildings turned dark one by one.
By midnight only the guards moved on their rounds, and all of them jerked involuntarily when the first brilliant lightning fork and deafening crack of thunder occurred simultaneously.
In that brief flash of light, the guard patrolling the Royal Court saw a child sized figure step out of a ground floor door. For a short time, the guard’s night vision goggles were useless, and his eyes were full of glare. When he could see again, the child was gone.
He called the shift leader and while a check was made of the children inside, the guards began to search the grounds.
In their separate sleeping chambers, Tymos and Kryslie woke from deep sleep. They heard the dying rumble of the thunder, and saw flashes of light through the opaque window panels.
With the instinctive awareness they had of each other, they emerged into the main room of the High King’s suite and moved together. From a side room, they heard Llaimos begin to wail. Tanya emerged with their brother, and seemed relieved to see them awake.
Kryslie went over and took Llaimos so that Tanya could arrange for the nurse to bring a bottle of infant food for him. As it always seemed, Llaimos quietened as soon as she held him.
“What’s the fuss little brother?” Kryslie asked in a confidential whisper. “Did you hear the thunder too?”
The dark blue eyes seemed to focus on her face, even though Tanya had said he was still too young to do that.
Tymos touched his brother’s head with its fine down of red hair. “You are safe here, we promise.”
Llaimos gave the start of a cry, and then stopped. Several brilliant flashes in quick succession lit the window panel. Kryslie moved over to it and adjusted it to be clear. She watched as lightning flickered from cloud to cloud. Llaimos gurgled as if delighting in the flashes of light. Tymos joined her, as did Tanya, but she only stayed until the nurse returned. Then she deftly retrieved Llaimos for his feed. He began to grizzle softly.
“He has been unsettled all evening,” Tanya commented. “It is almost like he is reacting to the unsettled weather.”
“I know the feeling,” Kryslie agreed.
A chime from the door startled them. Donni, the young man who relieved Aldiv as Tymoros’s attendant, emerged from a small room near the door to answer the chime.
“Gianni,” Tanya greeted the palace steward.
“Just a quick check, Mam,” Gianni said in a low voice. “I needed to be sure your two older children were here. We have had a sighting of a child going outside.”
“You can see that we are,” Tymos assured him.
“You have checked the nursery and the dormitories?” Kryslie asked.
“Yes, that was done first. None of the children who sleep there are missing. We think the child went back inside, but we must be sure. Sorry to bother you.”
Tanya went into another room with Llaimos, and Tymos glanced at his sister.
“I wonder where father is. I doubt that he could have slept through that thunder.”
Kryslie shrugged and returned to the window to watch the lightning.
Later, when Tanya re-emerged, she joined them. “Llaimos is asleep. Why don’t you go back to bed? You don’t want to be falling asleep at your lessons.”
“We’ll go,” Kryslie assured her. “Where’s Father?”
Their foster mother’s expression turned sad. “He and his brothers were called to Dira. His father is very ill and not expected to last the night.”
“I would have liked to meet him,” Tymos realised.
“He has not been able to have visitors,” Tanya explained. “And you could not go to him until you have passed level delta.”
Tanya went back to bed, but neither Tymos nor Kryslie were ready to go back to sleep. The lightning outside still held their attention as it flitted from cloud to cloud. Yet when Tanya came out briefly a short time later, they were no longer at the window.
Tymoros arrived back at the palace, and went to his sanctum. He was not yet ready for sleep and was in no mood to sit quietly. He felt he needed to pace and had no wish to disturb his consort. Aldiv, who had been in Dira with him, brought him a drink of mulled wine, before going off to his own room to sleep. He thanked his attendant, out of habit, for his mind was unsettled. His face betrayed the grief he felt, at the passing of his father. His mind was on the prophecy his father had spoken in the few lucid moments before life had left him. The words were impressed in his memory, had been spoken with the force of such sacred visions – but Tymoros doubted that his father had known which of his grandchildren the words referred too. His mind, for years, had been stuck in the past. He had seemed to have forgotten that five of his grandchildren were dead. He had never met Tymos and Kryslie, and possibly did not even remember knowing of them.
A short time later, Donni knocked and entered. “Sire, I am sorry to disturb you, but Armon is here. He says you need to come outside.”
“What is it?” Tymoros asked. At that moment, the weight of his position seemed too much.
“Your children are outside,” Donni told him, as he gathered the cape Tymoros had just discarded. He helped place it back around the King’s shoulders.
Out in the main room of the suite, Tymoros asked, “Where are they?”
“Out on the terrace, Your Majesty,” Armon reported. “My men challenged them, but they do not seem to be aware of us.”
“Donni, take me outside,” Tymoros requested.
Tymos and Kryslie were staring intently skyward, towards where the unstable air masses seemed to be at war. The lightning, flicking from cloud to cloud in fiery flashes, was like some kind of telegraphed message. The rumble of thunder was nearly continuous, and the ground seemed to be trembling.
Tymoros was aware of the power in the storm. He felt it as a vibration in his body. He walked to where his children seemed rooted to the ground, and noticed the silent ring of guards around them. He spoke their names in a voice just audible over the thunder, but they did not react to him. They were alive, he knew, because Kryslie brushed a lock of hair off her face and Tymos half-raised one arm.
Armon, staying next to the King, heard him say, “Bring them to Tanya’s solarium. We can watch the storm from there.” The guard leader directed two guards, via the wireless headsets, to bring the children inside.
The other guards in the protective ring, dispersed to return to their patrols.
In the solarium, the children moved from the beam in point to the window, to keep observing the storm. Inside, the thunder was muted and Tymoros could speak in a normal voice. Their actions concerned him, as did their lack of reaction to the guards and to himself. He put an arm around each of them, but they were like statues.
“The season is changing, and the days are growing shorter. These storms herald the start of the season of white, when the moisture in the air freezes and settles to the ground.”
Tymoros sighed. His children, though physically beside him, seemed to be part of the tumult outside.
“I can understand your fascination. The storm is a symbol of the wild untameable power of the universe that gave us life and of the creator who created it.”
He fell silent, considering what was affecting his children. His father’s words, had suggested the reason.
“The storm is unusually violent,” Tymos stated abruptly. “There are alien influences at work. The world is protesting.”
Tymoros felt the same power in his son’s words, as he had in those of his father. This was a true prophecy - wisdom from the Guardians of Peace.
Outside, the lightning increased in frequency and brilliance. Tymos and Kryslie still seemed to be seeing messages in the lightning. They answered using an ancient gesture – they opened their arms high and wide and seemed to encompass the storm. In that moment, the tumult outside ceased utterly. Rain began to fall.
Tymoros felt the weight of a heavy burden upon him. His father, Tymori, in the last few moments of his life, had prophesized that these children, and it had to be these two, still young and vulnerable as they were now, would one day be the greatest of the Great Ones of history. It was his task to guide them into wisdom, to keep them safe until they were ready to take up their destiny.
With a quiet word to Donni, Tymoros directed, “Have their attendants come and help them back to bed.”
Armon bowed to Tymoros. “Your majesty, I reported this event to His Excellency and he will leave you to deal with them. Though, if I may ask, are they all right? They look like sleepwalkers.”
“They will be fine, Armon. It is their first experience with our storms. And perhaps sleep walking is what they are doing.”
He believed that the Guardians of Peace had spoken to his children, but it was not yet the time for that to be known. He stayed in the solarium until Delia and Morov had gone off with their charges. Then he nodded to Donni to take him back to his suite.
Tymoros was awake early, and sitting having breakfast when his children emerged from their rooms. He studied them carefully and decided they showed no signs of a disturbed night. In fact, he decided they looked more rested than he felt, and better than they had been looking since Llaimos was born.
“Did the storm disturb you last night?” Tymoros asked casually.
“We woke,” Tymos admitted. “And watched it from here for a bit. I don’t recall going back to bed, though. How is your father? Tanya said he was dying.”
“His passing was peaceful, and he spoke before he died,” Tymoros said. He saw that his children did not understand. “He spoke a prophecy.”
“I have heard that the final prophecies of an Elder are important?” Kryslie remarked.
“The Guardians of Peace bring the visions, and so we consider the words of prophecy carefully,” Tymoros explained. “All the Elders that are able, will be coming here to meditate on my father’s final words. I will be keeping you out of lessons today, so that you may be part of the gathering. You have yet to meet most of the Elders, and they wish to meet you.”
The Elders came from the cities all over the large inhabited continent of Tymorea. They travelled by the long-range beams from city to city, until they arrived at the palace. Most of the Elders were very old, but they all had great depths of wisdom.
They were coming together to meditate on the prophecies of Tymori. His final prophecy foretold momentous events and the coming into power of the new custodians of the Tymorean Trust.
On the highest level of President’s Palace, in a room enclosed by a transparent dome and known as the Room of Stars, Tymos and Kryslie waited with Gann Reslic. From there, the Elders who were congregating the Great Hall of the Royal Estate would summon them. Gann, son of President-Governor Jono Reslic, had recently graduated from Level Alpha and he was to join the Elders for time to learn from them the wisdom of the Great Ages of Tymorea.
Gann had brought the High King’s children there to wait. From the room’s clear windows, they could view the lands outside the estate for great distance in all directions. He used the waiting time to allow Tymos and Kryslie to realise how their power had increased their range of visual perception – a previously unexplored facet of their second stage abilities.
An attendant summoned Gann and he left the High King’s children alone and went to take his place amongst the Elders. Tymos and Kryslie waited in silence as they looked out on the world far beyond the confines of the extensive Royal Estate. They felt the first stirrings of an inner knowledge of where their destiny lay and wondered if they were ready to face it.
Tymoros came to escort them though he did not take them to the Great Hall but to the Room of the Seven Ages. This room was in the High King’s Palace, on the level below the observatory - with walls filled with micro-murals depicting the history of their world.
Within the room were seats able to be moved to face whichever section of the wall that was of interest to the viewer. Kryslie examined the exquisitely depicted images in one section of the wall until a group of Elders arrived.
Tymoros introduced each of the Elders to his children. Tymos and Kryslie bowed to each of them in the precisely correct degree of respect for these men of high rank. The Elders bowed slightly in return, and seemed to sum them up in a glance, before smiling warmly – expressing their delight in meeting them.
The first group stayed only a short while before returning to the Great Hall. More groups of Elders arrived to meet Tymoros’s heirs, until all who had not met them before had been introduced.
Tymoros then took his children down to the Great Hall and left them in the company of the Elders, free to mingle amongst them.
Eighty-seven silver haired men and women attended the meeting. With them were a handful of others still betraying the hair colour of their family line: President Reslic and his son, the blond of the warrior line, Professor Xyron and his two eldest sons, the dark hair of the scientist and philosopher line and the High King with the red hair of the statesman line.
The Elders were wise and gentle people and they had long awaited the chance to welcome these children of the High King. Each knew that the children had been born on Earth and knew with a quiet certainty they were rightfully of the Royal line. They shared with Tymos and Kryslie their belief that the Guardians of Peace had directed their birth under such strange and alien circumstances.
Tymos and Kryslie found a quiet place to observe the mingling of Elders. Although they knew they were welcome to join them, they did not feel comfortable in interrupting any of them. Noticing this, a stately silver haired man approached them.
“Elder Timenon,” Tymos greeted.
The man smiled. “It is a pleasure to realise that you remember my name amongst so many new faces.”
Kryslie had no trouble smiling back. “Father has taught us ways to remember. He says it is an important part of statesmanship.”
“Then you have learnt well, as your father did from me. Ty is my nephew – did you know that?”
Kryslie shook her head.
“It is not unexpected. When becoming an Elder, one no longer claims to belong to any one line of descent. So, I am your Great Uncle and I came to share with you what I learnt of you from my late brother, Tymori. He knew of you many years ago.”
“How is that possible?” Tymos asked. He thought that no one had known of them until shortly before he and Kryslie had come to Tymoros.
“The Guardians knew. I believe they intervened on our behalf, after Isana and Manon died when a trader shuttle crashed. Timenon was still in shock from the news, but he had a vision and shared it with me. I think he knew the moment of your conception, even though it was far from here.”
Kryslie felt a moment of shock. Their father had already suggested that the Guardians had a role in their creation, but it seemed so fantastic. “Uncle, is it because of that link that so much is expected of us?”
“Not at all,” Timenon assured her. “We can all clearly see your potential, and we honour the Guardians by helping all our children to be their best.”
Tymos sighed. “Our duty right now is to learn as fast as we can, or so we are told. And that is because the Guardians might, at any time, give us a task.”
“But we still have so much to learn,” Kryslie echoed her brother’s sigh. “And we have yet to be allowed much responsibility.”
“Surely that is a boon,” Timenon suggested. “It gives you more time for your study.”
“There is that,” Tymos agreed. “We cannot be much use to the Guardians yet, if we are not even allowed to leave the estate.”
“That won’t always be the case. If the Guardians set you a task, they would not expect the impossible from you. I am sure that when the time comes for you to face your destiny, you will be ready.”
“What is to be our destiny?” Tymos asked.
Timenon inclined his head briefly, and spoke quietly. “We have been given our power to serve them. When they need us to act, they reveal that need to us. Often we identify the need from the words of prophecy granted to those of us who are Elders, or those who are closest to the need. We speculate and meditate on the signs they reveal to us. That is why we have gathered today to hear my brother’s final words.”
“I would like to hear Tymori’s prophecy,” Tymos said honestly. “But we might not understand it yet. I am told prophecies can be enigmatic and we have years more learning we need to do. It will be a long time before we are ready to join you.”
Timenon bowed slightly, as if agreeing with what Tymos said. He knew though, that there would not be years of peace for Tymos and his sister to grow into wisdom. Yet he believed that Tymori had spoken truly. These two children, two of three, were chosen by the Guardians of Peace to take over the safekeeping of the Tymorean Trust. Having met them, he now believed, in his innermost soul, that they would not fail. He realised though, that at this time, these young people must not be discouraged by the magnitude of the fight that lay in their future.
And if, for now, they were kept ignorant of their future, it was for their safety and serenity of mind. Their ignorance of any other way, enabled them to learn very quickly. In their training so far, they had never been told that something was beyond their level of skill. In trusting their teachers, they achieved because they believed they could.
Timenon bowed slightly and moved away. Other Elders came in ones and twos, and spoke informally with Tymoros’s children. Tymos and Kryslie spoke little, but listened to the wisdom offered by the Elders, remembering everything for later meditation. They felt accepted by the Elders and that was encouraging and steadying – a kind of benediction and a mainstay of solid support.
It fortified them when listening to the prophecy of Tymori. The words were a prediction of dire events, of a war so destructive that all Tymoreans needed to work together to protect the world from Armageddon. When mention was made of those who would safeguard the Tymorean Trust, they did not realise that they were to be two of those. “Three would emerge,” was what their father said when speaking of the prophecy.
All the Elders took that as a promise, and it stilled their fear. That they saw two already amongst them was proof of the promise made to the Tymorean people by the Guardians of Peace. In time, the identity of the third would be revealed.
Tymos and Kryslie kept all they had heard in their memory, for it was not yet to be shared beyond the Council of Elders. They returned to lessons the next day with a sense of urgency – the need to learn all they could as fast as they could. They knew the Elders were still discussing the prophecy during the next five days, and from their discussions, plans were made. Tymorean scientists of all disciplines, with access to the sciences of a thousand worlds, had begun to implement the necessary defences. These were of no concern to the students.
On the seventh day after the Elders congregated, they gave their benediction to Llaimos. Tymos and Kryslie attended that rite of blessing, and accepted their role to protect their brother. They had heard, unintentionally, the candid comments of two Elders, who spoke of their thankfulness that they need not fear the safety of Llaimos. He had, they said, siblings who had grown safely to adolescence on a distant world, and were strong enough, stubborn enough and worldly enough to survive any attempt by traitors to kill them.
Kryslie thought back to the intruders, and their leader, and wondered if they were part of the dire things to come. She mentally promised the Guardians that no one would harm Llaimos. Tymos, sharing her thought, vowed that no traitor or enemy would make their father suffer the loss of any more children.