The Elemancer

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Jaul-ket stood before a demonic beast. It was filled with such vitriol, Jaul-ket thought the dragon could see through him. This dragon was captured from the Valley, was it here to end Jaul-ket’s life? What other way could this story end?

Rauchen-ket blinked rapidly as he regained consciousness. The light beaming down from the binary star system in the sky above was blinding. He had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there. He wasn't even quite sure who he was for that matter; his mind felt clouded and strange. Looking around, he saw he was in a small clearing in what appeared to be some variant of a coniferous forest, but as he tried to move, he found that he was buried up to his mid-torso in soft, loamy soil. “I must have fallen from a ship or something,” he thought to himself. As he extricated himself from the dirt, an enormous emerald lion, constructed completely of hard-light, sauntered from behind one of the larger conifers and approached him.

“Ah, you are well, or at least in one piece!” exclaimed a voice in Rauchen-ket's mind. It was his hard-light animus, Leo, speaking in his thoughts. “We were jettisoned from a space vessel several miles up, but you instructed me to assist in powering our hard-light shielding as we entered the atmosphere, so I don't remember anything after that,” said Leo. He continued, “I assumed my usual form as soon as the suit's generator had replenished, then I monitored the area and waited for you to wake up.” Leo was quick, cunning, and intelligent; values Rauchen-ket was glad to have found in his lifelong companion.

“Thank you, Leo,” said Rauchen-ket, and he wrapped his arms around the huge lion's neck and mane, enclosing him in a tight hug, “I don't know what happened, but I'm glad we're both okay.” Leo purred loudly in response. Rauchen-ket looked down at his hard-light suit. The generator had a few dents and scuffs, but the suit was still functional and was projecting a white, military-style jacket and gray slacks; an Edian officer's uniform. “So, I'm an Edian, from the looks of it,” he thought. It was strange, he could remember his own name and Leo's, but beyond that were only fragments of memories. Then his eye caught a glint of metal protruding from the disturbed earth around the crater he had created during his fall. With a sense of apprehension, he slowly reached down and began to extract the pieces of metal from the earth.

Before long, he had retrieved all the fragments and reassembled them on the ground in the clearing. There before him, resting on the soft, blue grass of this unknown world, lay the shattered remnants of his Edian mind-control crown. He stared down at it for a while, every second bringing his thoughts closer to the ultimate conclusion that he was now broken. He could never go back to Edia; not that he remembered much of it at the moment. Not only that, but the psychic link with the Edian Hive Mind that the crown had provided had been so profoundly interwoven with his psyche that almost all of his memories had been fractured. They existed now as fragments of thoughts; brief flashes of images, sensations, and smells. Not all of his memories; no, the most profound had persisted. His name, his bond with his animus, his musings and meditations; the things he had sought hardest to keep private from the Hive Mind. Edian's were not permitted much freedom of thought, but Rauchen-ket had been afforded more than most in his role as an officer and by virtue of his status as a Ket. He and Leo sat for a time, looking at the broken crown as if it somehow represented the sundering of their former life; a life they could barely remember.

When Rauchen-ket finally broke from his thoughts, the twin suns of the mysterious planet were just beginning to dip below the horizon. “We'd better get a fire going,” he said to Leo, “you might not need it, but I'd rather not push my suit's generator very hard until I get a chance to have it looked at. We took quite a fall from the looks of it and I've got no idea how cold it's going to get on this planet when those suns go down.” He picked up the pieces of the shattered crown and stuffed them in a small satchel while Leo began to dig a pit for the fire. With the pit completed, Leo went off in search of some rocks to contain the blaze. Rauchen-ket walked off into the forest a short distance, telling Leo he was going to gather some wood for the fire.

While he did need to gather some wood, it was more of an excuse to be alone for a moment. Rauchen-ket loved Leo, perhaps more than any other being in the galaxy, but he believed there were some problems which could only be solved through solitude. Having a large portion of your mind shattered into pieces was certainly one of those kinds of problems. He wandered for a time, gathering small sticks as he went, but not particularly intent on the task at hand. His mind was swimming with ideas and emotions; it was threatening to overwhelm his sanity. As he came over the crest of a small hill, he saw before him a small pond with a little stream feeding into it. The stream bubbled and churned in a most soothing fashion, and soon Rauchen-ket had positioned himself on a flat boulder resting up against the bank of the pond where the stream flowed into it.

Sitting there, with the soft burble of the stream soothing his mind and the placid surface of the pond reflecting the brilliant oranges and reds of the binary sunset, Rauchen-ket was overcome with a sense of peace and serenity he had never known before. He felt free for the first time in his life. It was as though his mind were a swirling vortex of chaotic sound and light, but he stood resolute in the center of it all, fully experiencing his own existence free of the Hive Mind's influence. His memories were broken, so he clung to what he knew to be true. He loved Leo, of that he was certain. He looked at his hands and from the vortex of his memories came flashes of them soaked in blood; sorrow overwhelmed him as the screams of children echoed through the spaces of his mind. He shuddered and closed his eyes. “I may never fully remember what I have done, but I choose now to seek to atone for it,” he thought, and in that moment, he decided to walk the path of peace. “Peace and love,” he thought, “what more could any sentient being ask for?”

As Rauchen-ket focused his awareness on these universal truths, he felt the chaos in his mind begin to lessen. The storm of broken memories was subsiding as he became more accustomed to existing as an individual; his whole life had been spent in the collective Edian Hive Mind. He retrieved the broken pieces of the mind-control crown from his satchel and held them in his hands. “I am broken,” he thought, “but I am free.” Then he spoke the words, “I am broken, but I am free.” And then he shouted to them, sending birds scattering from the trees around the pond, “I AM BROKEN, BUT I AM FREE!” A sudden quiet descended upon the area, seeming all the more profound after the ferocity of his bellow. He looked once more at the shattered crown, then in a quiet, but determined voice, said, “I am Edian no longer.” As he finished speaking, he hurled the pieces into the center of the pond and watched until the ripples disappeared and the pond stood still and peaceful once more.

He tapped a few buttons on the hard-light projected pda of his suit, and the Edian officer's uniform he had been wearing shimmered and shifted into a set of plain brown robes with a deep hooded cowl. He examined his reflection in the surface of the pond, not really recognizing the man that looked back up at him. His hair was getting long, as was his beard. He looked as though he had been held captive somewhere for a time; the clean-cut style of a military officer had begun to fade. He looked at his eyes, a dark shade of brown, and noted the deep sorrow that seemed to dwell within them. He stood, turning his gaze from the water, and breathed deep of the fresh forest air. “I am Rauchen,” he thought to himself as he turned from the pond, drew his cowl over his head, and made his way back to Leo and their makeshift camp, making sure to gather some firewood along the way.

Darkness was rapidly enveloping the clearing as Rauchen finally made his way back out of the forest. He could see Leo lying curled up by the completed fire pit, lazily licking one of his paws. The lion tensed as he noticed the robed figure walking towards him carrying a large bundle of wood. His hard-light fur stood on end as he rose to face the figure, baring his teeth and letting forth a long, low growl. The figure stopped, placed the wood on the ground, and pulled back his cowl. Leo stopped growling and relaxed slightly.

“Relax, Leo, it's just me,” said Rauchen, somewhat surprised by the reaction of his animus. He expected Leo to recognize him despite his change of clothing, but it seemed their break from the Hive Mind had temporarily weakened their sense of one another. He moved to the pit and constructed a small pile of kindling, then he set it ablaze with a brief flash of hard-light from his suit. Soon, a roaring fire filled the pit, and he and Leo sat side by side staring into its crackling depths. The way the fire twisted and flickered reminded Rauchen of the way his broken memories seemed to assail his consciousness.

The two sat in silence for a time, until Leo spoke in Rauchen's thoughts, “Are you okay, Rauchen-ket? You smell... different.”

“It's just Rauchen now, Leo,” said Rauchen in a stern tone, “we are Edian no more.”

The emerald lion turned his large head towards Rauchen, looking him straight in the eye and trying to assess the state of the man he loved most dearly. Leo was more than just artificial intelligence, he had once been a real, living lion. His own consciousness was blended with an AI system to improve his intellect and faculties, but his mind and his instincts were still his own, and they were still that of a big cat. As he stared at Rauchen, he saw more of the small boy he had once met, back when he was still a beast of flesh and blood. He felt the sense of peace and love that Rauchen had exuded to him all those years ago in greater measure than he had felt in years. Though he saw much pain and confusion in his eyes, Leo was certain that this was still his friend; perhaps even more so than before today's events. “Rauchen it is then,” said Leo, breaking his gaze.

Rauchen smiled and turned his eyes back to the fire. “What do we do now?” he said, his voice lighter and more optimistic than before. “I suppose we should try to figure out where we are,” he continued, “but I need to get some sleep first. Will you keep watch, my friend?” Leo purred in response.

“Rest now, Rauchen, there will be time enough tomorrow to design our future,” said Leo in Rauchen's mind, and the lion rose and padded off softly into the night to patrol the perimeter of the clearing.

Rauchen grabbed his satchel, rested it against the mound of dirt his crash landing had created, and laid his head down upon it. His mind was racing with broken memories; the flashes of images and sensations had not ceased, but he was so exhausted that they felt distant and removed from his conscious mind. With the crackle of the fire and the soft chirping of some alien insect in the distance, he soon fell into an uneasy sleep; perhaps his dreams might make better sense than his thoughts.

Edian society was broken down into a rigid caste system. The elite of the society was designated Kul and they were afforded a great deal of freedom and power within the Hive Mind; none but the Emperor could circumvent their will. The next level comprised a large portion of the Edian population. Known as Ket, they were permitted freedom of thought in most situations and were free to pursue whatever ventures they desired, as long as their actions were congruent with the will of the Hive Mind. Ket tended to either enlist in the officer training programs of the Edian military or find work in research facilities and trading companies throughout Gos-Goa. The largest portion of the Edian population was comprised of drones known as Din. The Din were by no means mindless, but they received only basic education, were permitted few luxuries, and tended to be employed as miners or laborers of some nature.

All Edian children born outside of the elite Kul caste were considered to be Din until they had proven themselves capable of being more. They received a basic education in the classic studies, with a heavy focus on mathematics and physics; artistry and creative pursuits were reserved for those of Ket status or above. At age 14, each child went through an assessment process, testing their intellect, their instincts, and their obedience to the Hive Mind. Those that excelled were offered the chance to become Ket.

The advancement to the Ket level of Edian society also entailed the selection of a hard-light suit of the child's choice. Some chose blue suits specialized in teleportation; a useful ability for a soldier or a traveling merchant. Others chose black, specializing in a life of clandestine operations by virtue of invisibility and advanced shielding. Then there were those who chose green, the path of the Anima. Those who desired a permanent companion chose the darkest, emerald green suits. Designed to host and amplify the consciousness of any living creature and project its hard-light body into the world, these emerald hard-light suits were among Edia's best-kept secrets.

Hard-light animi were rare outside of Edia due to the great difficulty of getting artificial intelligence software to behave with the instincts of the organic creature it was programmed to embody. The Edians had solved this problem by modifying their mind-control crown technology to quantify the actual consciousness of a creature and blend it with an AI to create a fully autonomous, hard-light beast. All the intelligence of a computer, all the instincts of an animal; the Edian animi were a rare and extremely powerful hard-light adaptation, albeit a very hazardous one in some cases.

Of the children who chose to adopt the path of the Anima, some chose to meld with docile creatures like rabbits, birds, deer, and the like, but others sought to tame more intelligent and dangerous creatures. The more ferocious and deadly the creature, the more powerful the resulting hard-light animus would be as a companion. Few chose to attempt this process; creatures like tigers and bears were just as likely to maul their would-be masters as they were to meld with their hard-light suits. Only the brave or stupid chose this path; there were few that could earn the respect of such creatures and succeed in taming them as hard-light animi. But there was a most dangerous creature, captured and pulled from another land — the forked tongue dragon.

If there was one thing every class of Edian society loved, it was a good, bloody show, so once a year, the children attempting to tame vicious creatures into hard-light animi were allowed their chance to do so in a grand public spectacle known as the Anima Galta. No expense was spared in the production of this show. The Kalthyon, the great coliseum of Edia, would be lit with brilliant green hard-light beacons streaming into the sky, and its marble walls would be draped in emerald banners emblazoned with images of all manner of ferocious beasts from across the known worlds of Gos-Goa. Every year the crowds craved violence, and every year the floor of the Kalthyon ran red with the blood of the participants. But the real reason the crowds could not stay away was because of the fire-eyed reptile with wings that blotted out the sky.

Rauchen shifted in his uneasy sleep as his dreams became more tangible. Suddenly, he was standing in a stone hallway. Gathered together in the dimly lit hallway were roughly two dozen boys and girls, all about 14 years old. The soft glow of the hard-light lanterns set into the ceiling reflected off the polished marble of the floors and walls and created an eerie feeling in the space, which the apprehension of the children did little to counteract. At the end of the hall stood an opaque hard-light gate inscribed with images of ferocious beasts. He remembered this place, and he knew that beyond that gate lay the floor of the Kalthyon.

Rauchen could hear the cheers of the crowd in the tiered seating above; a muffled announcer’s voice echoed over the noise, but he couldn't make out what was being said. He looked down the row of children. Their faces struck chords in his memory, but his mind was so fractured by the destruction of his mind-control crown that he could not recall their names. Some of the children fidgeted nervously, others were deep in meditation trying to prepare themselves for the coming trial. At the front of the line was a boisterous young man bragging about how easily he would complete the trial and tame his animus. Rauchen looked at him for a moment and his memory flashed; Jaul-din, that was the boy's name.

“Yup, I'm about to tame a Kurgal, boys,” Jaul-din bragged loudly to the surrounding children, “shouldn't take me more than a minute or two to get the sucker under my control.” Several of the kids looked on in awe, while others seemed slightly confused. “What, you've never heard a Kurgal?” said Jaul-din with a condescending chuckle. “Ferocious beast, the Kurgal,” he said, ”looks kinda like a lizard, but way bigger. Lightning-fast reflexes, a killer instinct; I can't think of a better creature to have eviscerate my enemies!” He began to laugh and a few other boys nervously joined in; somehow Jaul-din's nonchalant attitude about his potential death seemed to have lightened the mood in the hall.

Hard-light screens flashed to life along the walls of the tunnel; cameras were showing the floor and bleachers of the Kalthyon from multiple angles. There were so many more people in attendance than Rauchen remembered. As he watched, the crowd grew silent and the announcer’s voice came over the screen; he could hear it echoing through the seats above. “Greetings, one and all, and welcome to this year's Anima Galta!” cried the announcer; trumpets sounded as the crowd roared its approval. “We've got an absolutely fantastic show this year,” he continued,” lots of promising youngsters facing off against the body and will of some of the galaxy's most ferocious and spectacular creatures! Now let's get started, shall we? Please welcome our first participant, Jaul-Ket!” Jaul-ket smiled, it was the first time he had been allowed to use his newly acquired title since his examinations. The hard-light gate at the end of the hallway flashed and disappeared allowing sunlight to flood the previously dim space. The children all blinked as their eyes adjusted to the light. Jaul-ket gave a passing look back towards the other children, a proud smirk on his face, then he stepped out onto the sand-covered floor of the arena.

Just before the hard-light gate reappeared, Rauchen caught sight of a familiar young boy hidden among the group of children. He looked down at the scrawny little kid he had once been and realized how strange it felt to suddenly be aware that he was watching his own memory from an external point of view. This was clearly some compilation of memories from the Hive Mind; an event so profound in his life that his subconscious had gathered the experiences of other Edians and constructed a full depiction of the events of that day. His shattered mind was grasping at whatever it could in his dream state, and it seemed that it had drawn him into one of his most powerful memories as an outside observer.

The walls of the tunnel seemed to shimmer and fade, and before he knew it, Rauchen found himself sitting high in the bleachers of the Kalthyon. Looking down at the floor of the arena, he could see Jaul-ket standing near the center of the area in a ready position. The announcer’s voice echoed through the stadium, “Jaul-ket, are you ready?” The crowd grew silent as they awaited a response.

“I am!” said Jaul-ket in a voice he hoped sounded brave and mighty. Rauchen watched as a terrifying beast and its two handlers teleported onto the floor of the arena. The Kurgal was enormous, perhaps 12 feet long from the tip of its fang-lined maw to the end of its barbed tail. The creature stood on all fours, with a long neck and a head surrounded by a frill of bright red barbs; a row of similar barbs descended along its spine. The handlers looked incredibly uncomfortable even with the Kurgal inside a hard-light containment cage, and quickly teleported back out of the arena.

“Begin!” shouted the announcer, and the cage surrounding the Kurgal vanished. The creature stretched its neck upwards, extending its legs as well; it seemed as though it had been in that cage for quite a while. It flicked a bright red, forked tongue from its reptilian mouth, tasting the air and familiarizing itself with its surroundings. With alarming quickness, the beast snapped its head towards Jaul-ket and focused its gaze on him. In order to tame the beast, Jaul-ket needed to prove his worth to it. For something like a wolf, a simple show of force and a commanding tone were often enough to succeed in taming it, but for something like a Kurgal, Jaul-ket would need to make a dramatic impact.

The Kurgal lunged at Jaul-ket, its cavernous maw snapping towards the boy, but missing its mark as Jaul-ket rapidly sidestepped the attack. As he dodged its head, the beast lashed at him with its barbed tail. Again, Jaul-ket was able to avoid the attack, but it forced him to make an awkward turn which put him off his footing. He stumbled back from the beast a few steps and regained his balance. The Kurgal was basically a lizard, albeit a horrifying one, so taming it meant one thing, give it nowhere to run and beat it in a fight; if I cannot fight and it cannot flee, it must submit. Jaul-ket feigned a charge at the Kurgal and the creature fell for the ruse, launching its head forward and snapping at the spot where it expected the boy to be. Jaul-ket used the opportunity to genuinely charge the creature; if he could get behind its head, he might have a chance of wrestling it to the ground. He had trained for this, he had the strength to pin the creature, but he needed the cunning and the luck to get it into the right position.

Jaul-ket rushed alongside the creature's serpentine neck towards where it joined with its reptilian body, but as he was about to jump up onto its back, one of the beast's clawed feet swatted him from the air and pinned him to the ground. Jaul-ket struggled against the strength of the Kurgal's forelimb, but try as he might, he couldn't free his body from its grip. The creature raised its head, murderous intent fueled by rage, confusion, and adrenaline caused its muscles to quiver. The head descended like a bolt of lightning, as the Kurgal tried to rip out the boy's throat. Just as the beast's maw was about to end his life, Jaul-ket reached up and caught its head by the spikes on its neck frill. The sudden force threw the Kurgal off balance and Jaul-ket was able to get free of its claws. He got back on his feet and managed to maintain his grip on the beast's frill. He looked it straight in the eyes as he held it's head immobile.

The Kurgal thrashed its tail and gnashed its teeth at the boy, but it was unable to reach him and it was unable to move its head. All of a sudden, the beast ceased its struggle. The two combatants stood still; man and beast locked eye to eye in a battle of wills. Jaul-ket had bested the Kurgal's body, now he need to master its mind. The crowd was completely silent, looking on in awe at the spectacle taking place on the sand below them. Time seemed to slow down as the beast and the man fought their silent battle. Rauchen watched with amazement, he had witnessed this on the screens in the tunnel in the past, but seeing it from this perspective in the stands was unreal. Jaul-ket's eyes rolled back in his head, his chin tilted upward toward the sky, and in a strange hissing voice that was not his own he said simply, “yesss.”

The center of Jaul-ket's chest began to glow as a dark green beam of hard-light issued forth from his suit. It struck the Kurgal squarely between the eyes and began to spread around the creature, completely coating it in a shield of shimmering emerald hard-light. The creature seemed to fade before their eyes as every atom and molecule that constituted its being was scanned, cataloged, and disassembled.; a growing mound of dust was forming at the feet of the hard-light structure.

As the last molecules of the Kurgal collapsed into the pile of dust, the hard-light structure that had coated its body flashed away and then reappeared as an exact hard-light copy of the beast. The hard-light Kurgal moved around and stretched its new neck and legs, then it settled itself on the ground to the right of where Jaul-ket was standing, much like a dog protecting its master. The crowd exploded into applause and exuberant cheers. He had done it, Jaul-ket had tamed a Kurgal.

But the victory was short lived. The earth shook as thunderous footsteps from invisible force echoed from behind the walls. The crowd grew silent. And then, as the great beast pushed its head through the gate, gasps filled the arena and Jaul-ket stood before the door. His hands were shivering as the red-eyed, fork-tongued dragon stood over him, its eyes like fire penetrating his soul