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He knew the stories well, having been told them many times in his childhood. Great masses of mist had descended upon the world and, as they touched ground, the slaughter began. This, though, was before he was born and he did not know the true extent of the destruction; he did not understand the abstract things, like freedom, that no longer existed, he just knew he had to fight the injustices he saw. His mission for now was to do what he could, but his fondest wish was to destroy those who had destroyed his world.
They were the reason he had to hide within the Cause. He was a Sen, and the Sen, those who could reach through to the other plane, the Sai, and manipulated the real plane, were captured and forced into the conquerors' armies. Those who the Cause did not find before their abilities manifested themselves were captured by the invaders. He had been one of the lucky ones.
These thoughts danced through his head as he watched the invaders' army approached; rarely was there a variation in them and he had thought the very same ideas before every mission he went on as far back as he could remember. Now, though, the time to attack was approaching and he had to focus on his job. He watched for the signal, and saw it, one of his comrades atop a dilapidated building throwing a gleaming steel wheel into the air. Quickly, he reached through the mist separating his mind from the Sai.
Once there, he could see the army advancing towards him, but not in the same way. He saw the Sen-metal transport the army was standing on, but not the army itself, and the spheres on either side of the transport, two circles of the same material melted together to divide the spheres into quarters, the occupants of which he could see. Inside the spheres were Sen, one in each, who were just like him; his mission was to distract them so they could not raise a shield to protect the army, nor could they speed the transport on its way before much damage was done. He would have to trust his comrades to protect his body in the physical plane during the battle, as he was completely disconnected from it here, where only he, the buildings, the world and the other two Sen existed.
She sighed, staring ahead as she focused on splitting her mind between the real plane, where she saw the people and things she could run into, and the Sai, where she moved the Sen-metal transport. At her back, two bat-like creatures, created by the Iket invaders for the sole purpose of supervising the missions of Sen, chattered away. Both of them carried sticks that were charged with electricity that, when they touched her, would shock her and her family, the best way the Iket had thought up to keep captive Sen in line thus far. They accomplished this by putting collars on her and other Sen they forced into their service; these collars were linked to similar ones on their family members, so that pain would be transmitted from the Sen to their parents, siblings and non-Sen children. In addition, if the Sen left their sphere on a mission, unauthorized, death for all of them would be immediate. Therefore, if their own health weren't enough to make them behave properly, the lives of family probably would be. She thought to herself that death might be preferable to the conditions she last saw her parents and three younger siblings were in. That had been years ago, after she had completed her training as a Sen. She didn't even know if the Iket had lied to her and killed them since then, not telling her so that keeping up the charade of the collars would still be effective and so she wouldn't defy orders.
As she had been musing over this, she missed any warning signals she might have gotten of an attack. All she knew was the realization of a wall of earth coming up in the Sai as a wall of Sen-energy did the same in the real plane. It caused the spheres and transport to tip over, the majority of the army being crushed beneath its incredible weight; but she didn't see this as her sphere tumbled away from it, sending her world and her now-screaming captors spiraling.
She felt three things happen at once before she blacked out in the midst of the chaos. First, she felt her collar snap as she hit the Sen-metal of the sphere, as the Sen-metal didn't give at all to the much weaker silver. Next, she heard and saw the shield that held her inside the frame of the sphere thus far crackle as it was banished to the back of her mind, that being one of the least of her worries now. Without that to keep her inside, she felt out of the sphere as it kept rolling, and it eventually ran into the wall of a run-down building, causing it and the surrounding edifices to shake. Finally, she felt the shield of one of the fallen warriors of the army hit her in the head, knocking her flat. She realized she was blacking out as the pain in every fiber of her being began to fade, her mind started to slow and shut down, but not before she realized that the shield that had hit her was now covering her, hiding her from anything outside that would harm her, leaving it safe for her to simply let go of consciousness and let blissful darkness enfold her.
He screamed a warning to his partner in both the real plane and the Sai, but she did not hear him, nor see the signs. He could not focus on her any longer, though, because he had to extricate himself from the Sai and focus on his physical body. Unlike his unfortunate partner, he was able to loosen the shield around the sphere and slip through the frame without damage to his person, though his two "supervisors" were not so lucky. Immediately, he darted for the transport, grabbing the sword from the hand of a dying warrior. He knew it was not much use against the hundred or so rebels. Suddenly, he froze in shock momentarily as he realized he should be dead. He reached up to his throat, only then realizing the weight of the collar was gone. Somehow, the lock had been snapped off underneath the rolling sphere, the mechanism inside, which would have triggered his death, smashed.
This shock was shoved from the fore in his mind as he saw nearly two hundred rebel berserkers, well trained in battle and wild with hate, converging on himself and the remnants of the army. Swiftly, he held up his sword, too tired to create a shield from the Sai and lacking the time he needed to do so. This was in vain as it took all his remaining strength simply to hold it up. Try as he might, he couldn't defend himself from the unbridled fury of the berserkers. Seeing he might be of use, the first of them able to, grabbed him, hauling him back to an area shielded by a dome of Sen-metal. There, seated on a cushion, was another Sen, this one clothed in the soft brown robes of the rebel Sen, a sword at his side and a slingshot at the other.
Now it was his turn to attack with blind fury. He lunged at the man, this scum who was the cause of his partner's death, his partner, who he had known since the day they both were taken to the palace of the Iket when their powers had manifested and who he had trained with, perfecting every technique known to the Iket Sen. The partner he had loved with all that he was.
And this man, not an arm's length away, had done the heinous deed. He pulled forth the sword he had taken, his rage giving him the strength to lift it up in an attempt to smite his enemy.
The two who had brought him there grabbed him, securing his arms behind his back. They would kill him now, as he was too dangerous in their eyes to be worth the information he had.
Suddenly, the other Sen spoke, "Relax." His eyes opened slowly, hauntingly. "She lives."
Fridwulf watched the other Sen's face as relief and surprise flashed across briefly before he swiftly masked his emotions. It did no good; he had his answer: that the Sen he sensed was indeed working with the invaders. He stood, brushing off his robes, and gazed at the other man, his enemy, with his piercing blue eyes. He turned to the rebel officers holding their prisoner, gave them an order to hold him there and restrain him if necessary, and walked off in the direction in which he had sensed the other Sen.
The battle between the berserkers and the invaders' army raged on farther back from where he was going and he had no fear of any who might lurk behind the great mounds of dirt that had been pushed up by the fallen transport. He had his Sword, which he knew better than himself, and his friend, Kay, trailed only a few feet behind him, guarding his back.
Fridwulf saw the Sen-metal structure she had fallen out of and the deep tracks it had left in the dirt and dust. He followed the path, passing by the two guards of hers who had been caught beneath the weight of the metal, their bodies crushed and mangled. He began to wonder if she could have gotten away when he saw something stirring in the shadow of a pile of dirt.
Fridwulf ran over, fumbling with the pouches on his belt. She began to rise as he opened a light blue leather pouch and collected some of the white powder in it. She lurched forward and into a cloud of the powder he threw in her face. Immediately, she collapsed into his arms.
"Kay," he shouted, "help me!"
Kay rushed over to his side and took the woman in the flowing black robes from his frailer companion. He looked into her face and the sight of it took his breath away. Fridwulf peered at her face for a moment, lacking the appreciation for elegance his friend had, before hastily checking her vital signs. "She's fine. With a dose like that, she'll sleep until we get back to the base," he mumbled apathetically.
Fridwulf gathered up his robes and began to pick his way through the destruction and ruin. He constantly glanced back to make sure Kay found the clear path through the rubble. While doing one of these checks, he barely turned around before a blur of black robes flew past him, darting for Kay and the woman. He called out a warning before slipping into the Sai. There, he couldn't see what Kay was doing but he could see the two other Sen. Swiftly, he raised the ground to cradle the woman so his companion could fight without her in his arms. Next, he turned his attention to the man who dared attack his only remaining loved one.
Drazic broke away from the guards holding him when he saw the other Sen approaching with his ape of a companion carrying Vivian. He rushed at him, unlocking the chains that held him while half in the Sai. He passed the other Sen, the one obviously in charge of the rebel operation that had resulted in all this turmoil where the army was destroyed and he and Vivian captured. He continued at the larger one. Drazic pulled his dagger from his boot and lunged for the other man's throat; he stopped short when he realized Vivian now floated between them, supported only by energy from the Sai, and that the larger warrior was free to use his sword to defend himself. The odds, which had moments before been in his favor, now turned against the Sen, who, though agile and quick, was no match for the skill and brute strength of the rebel warrior, a berserker, that now opposed him.
Yet the enemy in front of him did not attack. Drazic began to advance on him again, thinking his courage had fled him for a time, when he felt something grasp him around the waist. He knew what it was without looking back at the cause. The other Sen had reached out with his arms in both planes and extended them to wrap around Drazic in the Sai, effectively holding him in place wherever he sought refuge from the iron grip.
Drazic smirked and slipped effortlessly into the mental plane. He, too, reached out with his arms, molding one into a mallet, the other into a mace. He swung both at his opponent who dove out of their way, pulling up stone from the ground to put around his body as a shield.
The brown-eyed Sen swung his weapons at the wall. He hit every inch he could touch; looking for a weakness he could use to destroy the barrier, he did this to all sides of the box save the bottom which he could not reach. This problem he solved by lifting up the ground beneath the edges of the box. To his surprise, the rebel Sen had thought of that as well.
He screamed in rage at his frustration. He saw no way to hurt the other Sen fatally at the moment. Suddenly, an idea came to him. He attacked his adversary's still-exposed arms; he smiled in satisfaction at the howls of agony issued from inside the box. The wounds inflicted by his mace and mallet would hurt not only the Sen's body within the Sai but his body in the physical plane without as well.
The throbbing injuries clouded his enemy's mind so as to make him drop his guard and the arms that had previously bound him.
He took advantage of this opportune moment to attack.
Just then, though, his mind became a disorganized muddle. His world, to his eyes, crumbled and fell apart. First, the colors of everything inverted themselves then became shades of black, white and gray that were indistinguishable from each other in the swirling confusion. Suddenly, his vision in his mind's eye literally turned upside-down before everything went black. All his senses went dead except for a strange buzzing noise that continued a few minutes more before that, too, faded away and Drazic floated senselessly in blissful and frustrating unconsciousness.
Kay waited, watching the two Sen stand motionlessly in place. They barely breathed while they fought for their sanity, the only thing truly put at risk in a battle in the Sai. Despite the fact he couldn't be harmed outside the battle, it was still agony to be blocked out of it.
It was impossible to tell if either of them was winning unless wounds began to appear. He couldn't kill the enemy Sen, as he was needed for the information he undoubtedly had. He also couldn't risk using the knockout powder, as there was a chance it could drive him mad if used while the Sen was in the Sai. Only if Fridwulf's physical body began to show injuries would he resort to that.
Fridwulf couldn't leave the Sai either. If he did, their captive would be released from whatever hold he had on him. The invaders' Sen were very dangerous as they could exist with their minds half in the Sai and could see the physical realm at the same time, something the rebel Sen had yet to accomplish. Kay dared not take his eyes from the battle because the enemy Sen could still kill him from the Sai if Fridwulf slipped and he could see him.
Kay glanced at his friend just as thin red lines appeared across his arms from nowhere, little beads of the warm liquid forming and sliding down his arms. He rushed forward and snatched the bag of knockout powder from Fridwulf's belt. Scooping up a handful of the white substance, he blew the small dust-like particles into the other Sen's face. It took mere moments for it to take effect but when it did, he collapsed to the ground in a heap of black cloth. It was over now, all battles of the day were done and all that remained was to wake Fridwulf somehow.
Vivian groaned as light painfully penetrated her awareness. She realized she was staring up at a light set in the ceiling when her senses returned to her more. Next, she realized she was in a cell, a prisoner, and that she was no longer a prisoner of the Iket invaders who would not have put her on a bed as she was now. She took in her surroundings: four walls, a floor, a ceiling, a light, a bed, and two doors. Carefully she sat up, finding she had not been drugged in order that she couldn't move, and took in her surroundings again from a new perspective.
She opened her mind, reaching for the Sai, but found a thick, impenetrable barrier between it and her. The barrier, though, she could tell, was made by three Sen, one who was nearly her equal, another who was stronger but old and fading slowly, and a third who was ancient beyond the lifespan of any known Sen, and remarkably powerful. She sighed at the realization that she could not enter the Sai, the only place she had control of her environment and her life.
She got up from the bed and examined the two doors. They were on the two walls perpendicular to her bed and parallel to each other. She walked to the one on her right and turned the handle, finding it unlocked. To her disappointment but not surprise, it led only to a bathroom. She turned and tried the other door. Locked. She cursed softly under her breath.
There were no clocks, windows or any other indication of what day it was or what time. It was like she was isolated from the world outside. She wondered briefly if this were a cell forced upon her mind in the Sai by one of the three Sen she felt. She then wondered if it was self-imposed and she had forced this upon herself because of a traumatic experience, but she doubted that because everything felt too real, not with the usual field around them that they did in the Sai.
While she was still pondering this, the door leading outside opened, the heavy metal scraping against the floor. The Sen who had ambushed them and drugged her, one of the three she felt, stood in the doorway with the friend who had accompanied him. The latter's face, she remembered, had dominated the earliest of her drug-induced dreams.
The Sen took a step into the room and Vivian felt the Barriers guarding her mind collapse. Panic overtook her as she scrambled to reconstruct them but the blockade was still between her and the Sai. Without shields and barriers, she was defenseless against this stranger Sen. He could take over her mind, destroy it completely or damage it beyond repair, driving her insane.
But he didn't. He had torn down all her defenses, left her mind, her memories, her every thought open to attack, examination or modification. All of this yet he did nothing else. Vivian looked up at him in shock, asking, "Who are you?"
Fridwulf stepped into the room and watched as horror and shock took over the girl's expression. His commander, the only rebel Sen ranking above himself, had ordered him to interrogate her, verbally first, collecting information she would voluntarily give. He was, of course, to search the fleeting thoughts that would tell him if she were lying or failing to tell the whole truth; she had already been searched fro post-hypnotic suggestions and none seemed to be present in her. Other than these things, tampering with her mind was forbidden, for now, until they knew if she would join them willingly or not at all. The reasoning was that it was better to be patient for a time than to drive her mad and lose a possible ally.
When she asked her question, he hesitated. It was he who was supposed to be questioning, not the prisoner. He saw no harm in it, though, and answered, "my name is Fridwulf, and I am the second highest ranking rebel Sen." He saw her look toward his left hand where most Sen had a small, implanted computer and screen that allowed them to send reports back to their superiors and orders to their commanders. He held up his right hand. "Other hand. It's off so I'll tell you what else you can know rather than you trying to learn anything from that. For now, you are a prisoner of the rebel forces, as you should have realized, and you were last conscious three days, two hours, forty minutes ago. We know your name is Vivian, you worked for the Iket, and you and Drazic were on you way to destroy a rebel base that we made up to lure you into our trap. The Iket army isn't as big as you've been made to believe. That attack took out enough of their minions that we'll have to hunt them down for some time. They won't be strong enough again for several months; until then, they'll only be sniffing around to see what we'll do next, and probably what's happened to you and your partner."
She stared at him then asked, "Why are you telling me this? What's going to happen to me?"
Fridwulf took a deep breath to think of how to phrase his response. He let it out slowly before replying. "It's very rare that we capture a Sen already fully trained, mostly sane, and alive. When we do, we give them the option to leave and be free to do what they want, or to stay and join us against the Iket. If you leave and reconsider, you're always welcome back. If you stay, you can leave later with some benefits like relative safety." He knew she would only leave alive if she gave them all the information she knew. Otherwise, she hadn't been worth the effort and was a waste of their time and effort.
Vivian looked down at her hands. "When I left the sphere, they would have killed my family. Not even quickly. They would have made it so that they couldn't survive for more than a few days and probably killed them hours later. I want to stop that from happening to someone else."
"Then welcome to the rebel forces, Sen Vivian."
She walked through the halls and listened to the absolute silence that accompanied her. Unlike humans, unless they wanted to make sound in this plane, the Iket absorbed the sound. If they didn't absorb the sounds they did not want to make, they could make none, not even their own voices, when they wanted to, and she was one of the few who knew for certain why. The Dreamer had told her.
The Dreamer was as real as the humans but she lived in the Sai. She was the Sai. She created that and then she created the Iket. Between them, there had been a mutual bond of love that had lasted through the first generation of the Iket. When the second generation came to the fore, she disappeared. The Dreamer had left, though, not of her own volition but because the humans didn't see her greatness and had locked her away when she told them of the Sai and the Iket.
The Iket found out and elected a leader, a King, to lead them into battle against the humans who had taken the Dreamer from them and to take her back. It was not what the Dreamer had wanted them to do and so that her real people, the humans, had a chance, she began to train some who had the ability in how to use the Sai like she had, but none could use it like the Dreamer, not even the Iket who came from it.
These humans who could reach the Sai and manipulate it, these Sen, were to the plane of the Sai what the Iket were to the human plane, the "real" plane. Each was native to one plane where they were "real" and "whole," totally there in every way they could be. In the other plane, the one they crossed over into, they were energy, with no true, "real" physical form, and they had to conserve the energy that was the Self, that which crossed over and that which is Eternal, so as not to burn it out and be no more.
The Dreamer had not taught this to the Sen, but would wait for the four to join the one, she who is of the Iket but against the Iket, so that all parts may come together at once for the plan of the Dreamer.
The Dreamer's plan would not be simple, though, because she who is of but against the Iket is the daughter of the King. The King had begun with good intentions, but the greed of power had seized him and the King wanted control of the Sai and all who could use it.
All she could do now was wait for the four. She knew how she would be of use in the five and it would take time for them to find their places in the five. She could be patient; she would be. She must be, for the good of the five and the Dreamer.
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