THE KEEPERS RISE

Chapter 9 - Lesser of Two - Part 1

*Remember to click the play button to listen to the soundtrack as you read!*

The morning began like any other. Velda woke up, got dressed, and met Will'ym and Ozul in the bridge of the Stargazer. They were sparring, using a few tricks learned from the previous day's lessons. She sat down to watch, then took Ozul's place when he got tired. The rest of the Keepers slowly gathered, and at 0900 hours, they headed out for the day.

Will'ym looked strangely pensive on the walk to the teleportation building. "Is something wrong?" Velda said, jogging forward to join him in stride as best she could with her shorter legs.

"We're to meet with the Tarrephaene Council today, so they can check on our progress."

Cha, you called it, Velda thought.

Indeed, the vaya replied.

Velda had a flashback to more than a year before when she had first met the Myusarian Council. "Are we going to be tested?" she asked.

Will'ym shrugged. "Who knows," he replied nervously.

"But, isn't your father in the Council?" Velda asked. "Why would he keep you in the dark?"

"She. It's my mother that's a Councilor."

"Oh."

Well, at least I was mostly right, Cha said playfully.

"And she hardly ever tells me anything," Will'ym added with a small, wistful smile.

When they entered the teleportation building, the clerk had already set out the clearance card that Will'ym typically took. She pushed it across the counter to meet them, but Will'ym pushed it back, shaking his head. "No, we're going to Ko'rech today."

The woman nodded, impressed, and shuffled around for a bit behind the counter before handing him a clearance card with a gold band. "Getting to business, are we?" she teased good-naturedly.

"We'll see," he replied.

Ko'rech's teleportation bay was much bigger than the one for the Rhoqareh training grounds. Each of the magical lines on the floor split into three just to cover the walls and floor evenly, and a few were woven into more complex shapes on the floor and ceiling.

The room teleported them to another underground building. At least, Velda assumed so from the complex architecture around them. Their teleportation bay was one of many leading into a hall of identical teleportation bay semicircles. In between the openings were intricate metal sculptures set into the walls, similar to paintings. They each perfectly illustrated a certain unfamiliar, rocky landscape, and the sheen of the material made the scene look vivid and realistic. I wonder if this place actually exists, Cha thought.

Well, the tarrephaene have so many planets in their Empire that it's bound to be somewhere, Velda remarked wryly.

At the very end of the hallway, a tarrephaene-sized door with a giant metal engraving of a tree on it blocked their way. Two armored guards stood on either side of it, armed with shields and swords. Will'ym led the group towards the doors, and the guards silently let them pass. The doors opened of their own accord, although they swung on bulky hinges instead of sliding like most of the doors Velda had seen on Khar'tohan.

They entered a monstrous room, flanked with more guards along the edges. The rounded walls and towering ceiling were covered with a perfect, life-size depiction of a tarrephaene forest. Though it was made entirely of worked metal, the forest looked alive through the various colors of metal used. The treetops were faintly green, the sky bright blue, and the ground brown and shadowy, but rays of sunlight still shone through and presented themselves as golden spots on the radiantly smooth red floor. Beneath the glassy surface, leaves were etched in the continuing metal artwork.