Beacons in The Dark

Chapter 31 - Departure

"Break your chains and free your soul, be not two, but be whole." - The Mother's Pray of Solemnity

Anrus was begging him not to go, practically on his knees.

"You cannot know the peril, one such as you, we cannot lose you or else all would be lost; certainly you know that!" his pinched dark face had a sheen of perspiration cascading down it as he heard the words of the Autonomous Emperor and what he had decided must be done.

"Anree." said the Emperor, shaking his chromium head, taking the warm humanoid hands into his own cold ones, holding them there for a few moments as he brought a face upon his blank mask. It was one of gratitude and thankfulness.

"You have done well in your job, and I will return, this you must know." his toned electronic voice said, somehow carrying the human capacity for warmth within it as well.

There was an envoy of course, and a gigantic crowd that pressed and milled around the Emperor's entourage, merely trying to gain a glimpse of him, as if just looking upon him would bless their own lives in ways unimagined.

The stars shined brightly on Onlaad this night, and the moons were exceptionally visible, their pockmarked and icy visages bright to the eye. Many tears were shed, for the rumors had passed through Ando Five, the capital city.

The rumor said that the Emperor was leaving, by himself, to go and fix some great wrong.

Other than that, he would give no other explanation, not even to his closest advisor, though Anrus Anree had tried and tried again to dissuade him from his path or to pull out somemore knowledge about the details of his quest.

But the Autonomous Emperor would only shake his head, and his face would take on the mask of a wan smile, "I cannot, but you can be Warden while I am gone." was all he would reply.

"I know not how to run an Empire!" Anrus would complain, his dark complexion unable to hide the redness rising in his face, of anger, of sadness, of the shoes that he could not fill. How could he reign over trillions?

How could he hope to grasp a single structure that the Emperor had his innumerable hands upon. But the machineman would hear no other input.

So on that night on Onlaad, the Autonomous Emperor boarded a single person warpcraft and lifted into the air, zipping into the unknown.