Kyle2: The Anazari warriors

“I can’t believe this grandma. Why is the council having the meeting at this time? Aren’t everyone supposed to be sleeping now?” Kylie asked peevishly, because her headache was coming back with a vengeance.

Her grandmother gave her an austere look and said in a grim voice “Some people like us don’t have the luxury of sleeping when certain decisions need to be made. You are now going to start acting as the princess you were meant to be. No more of this whining Kylie. There is a war going on. As the head of the Jupiterian council the Jupiterian queen needs to be aware and alert of the developments Kylie.”

“I am not the Jupiterian queen. Why are you saying this now? You never asked me to sit in the council before. I have no interest at all in wars or politics. Save me the headache grandma, till I become queen in two years time.” She beseeched her grandmother.

Her grandmother gave her a forbidding look. “Kylie, are you even aware that a war is going on?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard. Who hasn’t? It’s all over the news. It’s the stupid war in Plutonia right? So what’s new? They are always fighting.” She said airily.

Her grandmother gave her an exasperated look and said “Have you not studied the history books properly Kylie? “Plutonians are always fighting” is a slogan we started. There is no truth to that at all. They haven’t been in any war over a hundred years. If they have been in war all the time wouldn’t we already hold the fugitive slaves we have so long tried to capture? No, Kylie. This war is new. The anazari has awakened and it’s them who are fighting the Plutonians.”

Kyle was blowing a bubble gum and it burst as she gasped in surprise “Did I hear you say anazari grandma? Are you serious? I thought the anazari died thousand years ago when the plutonians first escaped with the help of Prince Dymian.”

Her grandmother looked uncomfortable as she explained “The anazari were never dead. They were in a coma all this time. The state of coma was forced on them by a zalz warrior and prince Dymian’s niece, Ricca. The zalz warrior’s name was Theodris. Theodris was the most powerful zalz warrior at the time. He was a three headed dragon. I don’t know how he stunned the anazari and their leader Ezekeil. But, it is known that only the death of a zalz dragon from the line of Theodris and Ricca could awaken the anazari.”

“Wait grandma, I know this story. Remember, I got almost hundred in history. Something is wrong. The history books said that Avner was the last zalz three headed dragon and he died almost twenty years ago. If he was the last zalz dragon why wasn’t the anazari awakened twenty years ago?” Kylie asked curiously.

“That is what we have been thinking. There was a lot of talk at the time of death of Avner that he never died. He was still alive or maybe he already had a kid, who we had not known about. The second reason seems to be most probable. A lot of people had seen Avner’s burial. So it’s more likely that he had a kid. Still, considering he had a male lover, that doesn’t seem very likely either. It baffles me honestly Kylie.” She said in a bewildered tone.

“So, they had awakened somehow, because a zalz dragon is dead? Why didn’t the plutonians just kill the whole lot of them in the first place so that they wouldn’t have to deal with them again?” she asked.

“They couldn’t kill them at the time. The leader of the anazari, Ezekeil and Dymian were cousins. Dymian forbid Theodris from killing Ezekeil. And because Theodris loved Dymian’s niece, Ricca, whom he couldn’t marry without Dymian’s approval, he didn’t kill Ezekeil. He just stunned him into a deep coma. Ezekeil was connected by blood to a lot of anazari. Hence his coma induced a coma on the most powerful anazari. They never had a chance to fight. They were forced into a coma with Ezekeil. Later, when Dymian died the bodies of the anazari were burned even when the seers warned them that the anazari were still alive. Now they are awake and want revenge on all Plutonians. They want Plutonian’s enslaved again because as you must have heard, the anazari were the creators of the zalz, neferati, wolves and the lykos of Plutonia. They want their slaves back with a vengeance, Kylie and they want our help in it.”

“What?” she asked incredulously. “Is this council meeting about that?”

“Yes Kylie. Two of the most powerful anazari has visited me and asked for a council meeting. They are asking us for help. They don’t want any of the Neptunians, Saturnians, Uranians, Jupiterians or the Venutians to help any plutonian who is fleeing from them. As a rule the royalists should help the anazari because it was the royalists who started this whole nightmare in the first place. The anazari are all royalists and they are strongly related to the thrones of all the planets in this system. We owe them allegiance Kylie.” She said gravely.

“Owe them grandma? What are you talking about?” she asked.

“Kylie. It was the royalists, who made the anazari and appointed them to supervise the building of Plutonia. Plutonia was not a place that was made for the fugitives. It was another place built for humans to live in because at the time the Jupiterians thought the human population was growing too fast again. We had the same crisis we had in 2290 in earth. So, plans for Plutonia were made. The most powerful of the zalz, neferati, wolves and lykos were sent to Plutonia to build the place working under the supervision of the anazari and the shaxtris. The shaxtris survived because before the mutiny that killed the anazari, all shaxtris were asked to come back to Jupiteria to look after the slaves in Jupiteria. But as you’ve learned in history, Dymian who was there with his anazari leader cousin, fell in love with a lycos woman and started the whole freedom movement of the plutonians. He set very powerful slaves free. Slaves such as Argemion, Theodris, Zainus, Lexian and Viett, who were never meant to be free of their chains even for a second. You know the rest of the story about how they freed their other work mates and killed a lot of the anazari and stunned their leaders into a coma before declaring Plutonia their own place.”

Kylie nodded uneasily. “So you are saying the anazari died in Plutonia because of a decision by the Royalist council and because of that we can’t give our back to them now?”

She nodded at that and said “They don’t need us to back them really. But, they want us to back them and perhaps it is in our best interest to back them because, it is very unlikely that the plutonians would win against the anazari without a three headed dragon and the descendants of Dymian working together. The anazari know that they have nothing to fear. They have already killed 56 of the 120 ilumini warriors of plutonia in two week’s time. You know the ilumini warriors are their best warriors and now, two days ago we got the information that all the plutonian warriors had retreated into a secret underground place they had built in case of a contingency situation like what they are facing now. They cannot hide forever Kylie. They would all be killed or enslaved.”

“What about Armedien? He is the elita. He can kill the anazari.” She said.

“No. The elita had always been Jupiterian, except Armedien. We still don’t understand how he could have been this millenium’s elita. But the main point is all previous elitas were jupiterian and also they were all anazari. Armedien couldn’t resist the pull on his elita spirit that forces him to work for the anazari. But from what I have gathered, he is still resisting fighting his own people. The Anazari have locked him in his own tower it seems and he would be locked in there till he consents. That is till he is enslaved by Ezekeil into his service.” She said.

“My god. What a nightmare for the Plutonians. I feel sympathy for them. We can’t add fuel to fire grandma. We can’t annihilate a whole race of humans. It’s called genocide isn’t it?” she said now, very worried that she might have to be part of a mass murder plan that leads to a genocide and slavery.

“That is why I am taking you to the council today. You are fresh blood to the council. They have nothing to black mail you with. You can end this nightmare. I can’t. From my point of view I have no choice but to back them. You have to understand this Kylie. Once you get into the game there is no way out of it. I really didn’t want this to be your first meeting. I intended to make it easy on you but now I have no choice, forgive me.”

Kylie saw the flying bolter was landing and her grandmother got up from her seat. Kyle followed her outside. There were two people waiting outside the white balcony of the pristine white council building. A red carpet was spread on the floor directing it to a hallway that ended in a big black Onyx doorway.

“It’s not going very well, Queen Lenore.” One man told her as they came near talking distance.

Just then a man came bursting out from the main conference room muttering “I will not participate in this mass murder. Go to hell.” He yelled back at the room.

“Drakus, that is no way to talk to the council members.” The queen admonished as the angry young man passed by her.

He stopped then and looked at her “Do you know what they have decided? They have decided that they are going to help that murderer kill and enslave people. I can’t believe it. You know what? I am not heading the army. I am saying quits now. I don’t want to sit in an insane council that decides to kill people.”

“But you are the protector, Drakus. You can’t just say quits.” Queen Lenore said with consternation.

“But I am saying quits. That bastard is not black mailing me to do his bidding.” he said shrugging as he started walking away.

“That doesn’t look very good grandma. What the hell am I getting into grandma?” she asked her.

She just looked at her anxiously as she looked at the open door to the conference room and said “You’d do fine child.”

Kylie looked nervously at the beautiful Conference room. She had been here before. She looked at the members sitting around the round mahogany conference table. She had expected council members to be old. But, surprisingly most of the members of the council were very young. She knew some of them graduated only a few years ago and there was the Alexandriov clan. Zeus didn’t give away any expression. Some of the other Alexandriovs weren’t as stoical as Zeus. Ari Alexandriov was scowling at somebody and Niall Alexandriov had a skeptic look on his face. The others looked very serious. As she entered, everyone looked at her expectantly.

“Welcome to the council, Princess Kylie.” A man she knew as Gerald greeted her.

She nodded regally to him and said “Thank you.”

Another woman who was sitting near the head of the table said coldly in a bored voice “Now let us start where we stopped. What are you going to vote for? Is it going to be to support us or not to support us?”

Bewildered, Kylie looked at her grandmother who had taken the seat at the head and said cautiously “I didn’t know I was coming here for a voting straight away.”

The woman gave a look at her grandmother and another man said directly behind her “Yeah, you came here for an important vote. It’s almost a tie. The council supports us 60 to 40. We just need your 10% of the vote to make this universally accepted.”

She laughed nervously as she turned and looked at the man who was a foot taller than her. He had very disturbing, deeply set electric blue eyes. She could feel he was probing right into her mind. This man was a creep, she thought with instant distrust. “If I was brought here to approve the war you are very wrong. I will not approve the war. So there is my vote.”

“You will not decide such a significant decision so rashly, Princess.” He said with a twist to the last word.

Kyle looked up at him haughtily and said “I think I have decided.”

“No. You haven’t” he said almost as if he was trying to hypnotize her, all the time, maintaining eye contact with her. “Me and Maria would like to talk to you, alone.” He said touching her shoulders and enunciating the last word.

She squirmed and Zeus said coldly from where he was sitting “Don’t touch her. She is my fiancée.”

That made the man release her shoulders as he looked at him and then laughed “Are you sure, Zeus that she is not cheating on you? I smell a man on her, but believe me, that man is not you.”

A silence fell over the council and Kylie looked at Zeus for his reaction. He just gave a look at her and said “Don’t make accusations you can’t prove, Azirios. You might find out one day that your head is no longer sitting on your shoulders.”

He laughed at that as he looked amused at Kylie. Kylie felt her skin crawl. This wasn’t going well at all. She heard the woman’s voice in her head “If you don’t want us to expose you in public, step into the Queens chamber now with us for a solitary talk.”

Kylie looked appalled at the woman. The man had a smirk on his face as he said in a bored voice. “Princess, we are waiting.”

“Yes. Yes. I’d like to talk with you alone.” She said.

Her grandmother gave her an incredulous look as she stepped into the queen’s chamber, with the woman and the man named Azirios. Talk about fresh blood being immune from black mail!

“Who the hell do you think you are, trying to black mail me?” she blasted at them.

“My name is Maria Ryder and this is Azirios Nicho Copernicus. I think you might have heard of us, if you have even done a little bit of history. As I have researched well on you, I know you are an intelligent girl doing excellently with your studies. I hope you show some intelligence tonight by accepting our offer. It’s very simple. Don’t harbour any Plutonians in your planets and lend us the Jupiterian army. As you know our army was decimated during the war. So we want a little help. But mind you, we don’t need your help. We can do fine on our own, but if that were the case Azekeil would be seriously pissed off and believe me, Azekeil is not a man you’d like as your enemy.” She said calmly.

“That is assuming you people and your Azekeil would survive the war with the plutonians. They kicked your high and mighty butts once; they sure can do it again.” She said looking at the both of them.

The man named Azirios narrowed his eyes at her and said “Don’t try to be a smart mouth. They never even came close to us. They were all cowards. How could the slaves win over the masters? Now, listen here girly. We didn’t come here to chat with you. We can do you serious damage if you are not going to comply with us.” He threatened.

“Ooh..I am so scared.” She said. Actually, she was scared but for some reason she couldn’t understand she behaves like a smart mouth when she gets scared or nervous.

“You should be.” The man said calmly. “You are unbelievably sassy for a royalist woman. If I were you, I wouldn’t dare try to cheat on that Alexandriov boy. But I suppose it’s in your royalist blood to cheat. We can expose you quite nicely to them. We can actually show them your memory of what happened. What a convenient recorder is the memory! You were thinking about him. His name was Avett, right? I wonder what they would do to your lover boy if we expose you.”

The woman tsk-tsked “Your lover boy could be electrocuted to death or he might get a prison sentence for four hundred years. Now that would be harsh considering the poor boy only wanted to show you how much he loved you and what about the scandal it would cause?”

“No. You are just bluffing.” She said she said nervously. “You can’t just tap into my memory.”

The man laughed maliciously “Oh, we can do more than just tap into your memory. Haven’t you heard that the anazari are the strongest seers and mediums? All of us are extremely powerful psychics, Princess. Everyone knows a medium has the power to recreate memories from the mind of the host and play it out for the others to see. That is accepted as evidence even in courts, nowadays. Do you want a demonstration?”

Kylie looked horrified as the events of the night unfolded before her own eyes as she had seen it. “Stop it.” She exclaimed truly scared now.

“Ah, I didn’t know the boy was zalz.” The man said distractedly.

“He is human Azirios.” The woman said.

“No. He has atleast a parent who is zalz. I have just tied into his mind. Oh, he is a difficult one to read. But I can tell you what he is thinking. He is thinking why you did it to him. He’s got a lot of questions about you and what had happened and also he is worried his mother would catch him coming home so late at night. A mama’s good boy he is, isn’t he. Now let’s see if I can connect to his mother. There she is, sleeping so peacefully.” He mused.

“How do you do that?” Kylie asked him with surprise.

“The human mind is like an electrical conductor. It makes connections with other people’s minds through strong feelings and memories. I hunt down those memories until I find the connection that would get me into the mind of the other. We can keep doing that forever. Now, to show you something more interesting..”

He made a movement with his hands like clutching something and Avett’s mother started struggling to breath.

“What are you doing?” She asked him horrified.

“Just showing you what we can do. A demo, for your entertainment.” He said calmly without batting an eye.

“No. Stop it.” She screamed.

The man just cocked his head and Avett’s mother started screaming. Sebastian, Jon and Aline came running into her room. Sebastian was asking her what was wrong.

The woman named Maria said calmly “Hello, Rebecca. Sorry for interrupting your sleep but we are trying to make the princess accept something. As soon as she agrees we’ll let you sleep in peace.”

“No. Princess, please stop it. Stop it.” Avett’s mother was screaming.

“She is too weak. She is not trained. She is going mad princess. In a while I would fry all the nerves in her brain. You better agree fast if you want her to live.” The man named Azirios said calmly looking at the vision.

“Yes. Yes. I agree. Just let her go.” She said urgently grabbing his arm and squeezing it.

The man let her go. She saw her go unconscious in the vision as the vision dimmed and faded to nothing. “Now, let’s go and announce the happy news.” He said cheerfully taking her arm.

Kylie jerked her arm away. She felt chilled and scared. This wasn’t at all what she had wanted. There must be someway she could get out of this. She felt like her grandmother had brought her to literally feed her to the sharks. As she came out she saw the expectant looks on everyone’s faces.

“Princess, they want to hear the good news.” Maria Ryder told her giving her a look.

“Um, I think we should proceed with the war.” She said swallowing hard, but gave a cold hard look at the both of them as she muttered under her breath “and I wish with all my heart that the Plutonians win.”