Reflections Of The Sun/Part 1

Rapacious Glory of Security was not glorious. He could be rapacious, during the Calibration festivals when all the sweetmeats were served. And how secure he was could be very questionable in the next few minutes…

Behind him, Singing Lark and Mailed Fury ran after him but he was the first to the tree. With a giggle, he leaped onto the bark and began to climb nimbly. He was only 6 and he was small for 6, but he had always been fast and strong for his size. His father was proud of him. In a little while, he might even be able to start to help his father out!

Glory came from a family of guard captains. His father was captain of the guard for their home town of Banebridge, a town far, far in the East. His father before him had been as well, and so on and so on. Glory knew that someday he would take his father’s place but that was a long time away. In the meantime, his father encouraged him to play as much as he wanted and to run as much as he could. And run he did.

So when Lark had challenged him to a tree climbing contest, he couldn’t say no, could he? Of course not! Not the son of the captain of the guard!

Glory’s face scrunched in concentration as his fingers dug for holds on the tree bark and his toes found purchase on the rough surface. Yes, he was scaling the tree faster than ever! For a time there was nothing but himself and the tree as he scaled the heights, climbing higher and higher, higher than he’d ever been before.

He looked down to see his two friends looking up at him from a long way away, way down there on the ground. They looked worried. Glory felt worried for a moment too, realizing he was really high up. And then he felt something else…

Glory’s body spasmed as a Power roared into him. Dark descending power overshadowed him in a moment, tearing his hold on himself away, tearing it away and sending it spiraling far away out of reach. Malevolent hands dug under his skin, pushing him deeper and deeper inside his body, deeper and deeper until he had nothing anymore, he was nothing. A prisoner inside his own body, his own mind…

He realized that it wasn’t just himself being shoved out of the way by the Power but that he was actually falling, really was falling. By the time his body reached the ground though, and the breath was blasted from his body, he wasn’t the one who felt it. He knew bones broke on impact, he knew his ribs buckled under the force of the landing, but someone else felt the pain.

Then strange power flooded his body, pushing the bones back together, pulling muscles back into place and shoving hurt aside. And the Power within him stirred and pulled his body up into a sitting position. The ancient presence within him rustled against him and he remained utterly motionless. Somehow, he knew that if he moved, if he let the Power know who he was, that it would turn its full attention upon him and push him so hard he wouldn’t have a body anymore at all.

So Glory hid. He hid as hard as he ever did anything in his life. And he didn’t do anything when his body rose to a stand and brushed aside Lark and Fury.

“Glory, you’re alright! How did you live through that fall?” Lark asked, tears on her face already drying with bright joy that her friend was alive.

“Destiny,” the Power replied. “And I am not alive, nor did I ‘survive’ the fall.”

“Huh? What are you talking about Glory?”

“I’m not Glory anymore. I am the Concealed Heraldry of Righteous Incandescence. An Age ago and more, I was a Lord of Creation. I was one of those that ruled the Realm and righteous was our rule. Until the bastard snake blood Terrestrial betrayed us. And the even more cunning Sidereal.”

The Power advanced upon the two children, who began to back away now, terror on their faces at the words pouring forth from their friend’s lips, once Glory’s lips but not anymore.

“Not that it matters now. More years than I can know have passed and now my revenge is here. That is all that matters now, all that is left to me. I WILL find the betrayer. Concluding Emollient will pay for his treachery. I will restore the Realm. And I will make absolutely certain that this time no one will ever be capable of treachery again.”

The Power frowned with his face. Glory could feel it yet the sensation was very distant, very far away.

“But the Sidereal are cunning and may be able to trace me even now. I watched the flows of power and made sure no insurrection ever arose. But I already underestimated a Sidereal once. I will not do it again.”

Six year-old fists bunched and struck out, hitting Fury with a suddenness the child did not expect. Strange magical power flowed through Glory’s young frame, lending unnatural strength to the blows and within a second, Fury’s body lay crumpled on the ground.

Lark turned and sped away, running as fast as she could. It didn’t help. Concealed Heraldry ran far faster than the girl possibly could. She turned back before he reached her and tried to hit him with her own fists. Glory felt his body twist in an odd way, catching Lark’s fist with a hand, pulling it forward while dodging to the side. A twist of the wrist and Lark went sailing to the ground.

“I’m sorry, mortal,” Glory’s body whispered as he pressed his knee against her back, his hands cradling her neck. “I do not condone unneeded death, but I cannot allow my presence to be traced yet. This body isn’t as strong as it will need to be. And so, it is necessary for you to die. And in a place like this, the chances of two children’s deaths being investigated by a Sidereal is nonexistent.” With a vicious twist, Glory’s body broke Lark’s neck.

Horror, absolute horror at his utter helplessness and what this thing was doing with this body jerked through him…and he couldn’t do anything at all. He began to scream…and stopped just as fast when the Power noticed. Intense scrutiny swept through and around Glory and, even with the emotional turmoil twisting inside, Glory…hid. As hard as he could concentrate, he remained utterly motionless, not thinking, not moving, not giving the Power any chance to notice him, to find him.

The Power within him ransacked his body, looking…but he didn’t see Glory. With that, it turned its attention back to the dead children. A faint frown creased Glory’s body’s lips as he looked at the bodies.

“A shame, children. If the Sidereal had not overthrown us, this would never have come to pass. You would have known a golden time of peace and prosperity still. I would have made sure of it. I would have rooted out the corruption that was overtaking my Solar brethren. I would have seen to it. But no. The Sidereal stepped beyond their place and seized power. And now you pay the price for my vengeance.”

Power flowed through the body of Glory, fueled by the unnatural being within him and he sped away from the village, moving far, far faster than he’d ever moved in his life. And as Glory passed the point of the farthest he’d ever been from home, he felt utter black despair sink into him.

His best friends dead, his body taken by some evil thing and now headed into the wilderness. And he couldn’t allow himself so much as a squeak or the Power would be onto him instantly. And after the unnatural power it had already shown, he knew that if it really noticed him and found him, he would in that moment die.

And so, as the miles dropped away behind them, Glory dropped further and further behind as well. And he waited and tried to concentrate on what he was seeing than the horrible, horrible images of his friends dying…