Convergence: The Balance Wars, #2

By Robert C Littlewood

The Dorath Mar have been defeated and the Graaven people feel safe within their adopted home; the 'City'. But the defeat of their nemesis is not their hoped-for deliverance, instead, it has only served to reveal the true power behind the Dorath Mar's evil.

Menkh, last and greatest Graaven general, the symbiote Crixac and the adepts who guard the Balancepoint, will journey across the cosmos in order to defeat the enemy, lest chaos reign supreme.

 

While their quest continues, Tishan Dar, faces a new threat on the Graaven home world. The Xotic call for aid against new and brutal invaders and Tishan must deploy the might of the City to protect all the Graavens hold dear.

 

As the mission to reset cosmic balance goes on, events spiral towards their climactic conclusion in Convergence, the outstanding continuation of the Balance Wars. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Book Reality Experience
• Release date: Mar 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9781922670434

Book preview

Dedication

For

My good friend ‘Hursty’ whose creative talents have brought Menkh and Tishan to life.

The Balance Wars

Other Titles

Book 1 – Deviance

Book 3 – Equilibrium – Coming soon

GLOSSARY

PRINCIPAL GRAAVEN GODS BEFORE the FALL

GRAAVEN MEASURES of TIME and DISTANCE

GRAAVEN MILITARY STRUCTURE

GRAAVEN MILITARY STRUCTURE (cont.)

PROLOGUE

L

ike some monstrous bloated spider, it sat in a web of force spun from invisible threads of power. The threads reached across vast distances of space, connecting it to all its loathsome offspring.

Its insatiable hunger was fed by lines of energy that pulsed with life essence – essence that was drawn from numberless creatures, both sentient and non-sentient, and from the very earth of a thousand worlds that had fallen under its baleful dominion.

Deaf and blind, its consciousness nevertheless was attuned to the threads of power that extended from it. Not only did these threads act as conduits for its nourishment, but they also fed back details of the worlds where it manifested its power, absorbing the knowledge of the beings it fed upon.

For years beyond count its malignant influence had spread, draining the life force of countless living creatures and rendering entire verdant worlds barren, mere chunks of rock endlessly revolving in space. Its expansion of knowledge had not diminished its complete indifference to all other life. Instead, its ability to dominate, torture, and mutilate its victims using their own beliefs and fears against them grew a thousandfold. By the power of will alone, through its offspring, it could manipulate and refashion reality, creating creatures of nightmare to further its domination. The fate of entire systems was of no concern, provided that it continued to feed. Only the torment of other creatures gave it anything akin to pleasure.

Memory it did have, and the sum total of its existence was passed on to its offspring so that there was a connectedness between them. This was not a bond based on affection or love, but of need. Its voracious appetite and indifference to all other life was a trait that was passed on, so that each of its offspring sought to dominate and consume all that they encountered. In so doing, without conscious will or power to resist, each individual offspring sent out questing tendrils of energy that were drawn inexorably to their parent. No matter the distance between them, like sought like, till the bond was established and life-giving energy flowed to the parent. Inevitably, once the life essence of the world had been absorbed the offspring’s own essence was absorbed back into the parent, leaving yet another lifeless world to continue its lonely orbit.

Now the very world that had spawned the creature had succumbed to its malignancy and its poisonous form had spread across the entirety of that world, kept alive only by the energy that flowed along the strands of its web.

A disturbance.

A single, tenuous link, newly formed but burgeoning, had suddenly been extinguished. The creature turned its thoughts to the vanished link, stretching its consciousness out like a hunter following a barely traceable scent.

As its power had grown so, too, had a sense of disquiet. Its knowledge of the cosmos had expanded and it had slowly become aware that another power, beyond its ability to comprehend, had evoked a tenuous ‘feeling’ that was alien to it. The creature had no concept of what this vague feeling was but its knowledge base, absorbed from other beings, identified a word that gave it shape and form. That word was ‘fear’. This power posed a threat that could not be ignored.

It sat and picked at the threads of its acquired knowledge. Back and back in time it went until at last it recalled the alien explorers who had, so foolishly, landed on its world. Alone and feeble at the beginning, the creature had nevertheless overcome and consumed each of the explorers, absorbing their knowledge and delighting in their terror, finally allowing just one to leave and return to its home world, carrying the seed of the creature’s first offspring.

It began to stretch its consciousness beyond the mere satisfaction of endless hunger and to contemplate other possibilities.

An unexpected power. A force rarely encountered. Cloaked and guarded it was, but its vibrations showed that it had enough energy to eradicate the creature’s offspring such that no trace remained.

Rage.

Such an occurrence was impossible, could not occur, had never occurred, must not occur!

Only a vague sense of where the vanished link had emanated from was left, but enough for the creature to act.

One of its offspring had enslaved a race who occupied a world that could be the springboard for an expedition to exact revenge. Malevolent and without pity, this race had worshipped the offspring as some sort of god, willingly sacrificing their own kind in offerings. Their technology was advanced: certainly, enough to seek out this new power and destroy it.

A thought was formed and transmitted through its web of power. Acquiescence was not long in coming.

CHAPTER ONE

A

s quickly as Menkh had disappeared from the viewing room he reappeared moments later in another area of the Complex, one that was as unfamiliar to Crixac as it was to him. Moments later Tishan, looking slightly alarmed, also appeared. After exchanging looks they peered at their surroundings. It was a massive space filled with translucent columns of white crystal that soared upwards, disappearing through the ceiling high above where they stood.

The ceiling itself appeared to be made of huge metallic plates that shimmered in a cold blue glow flowing from the columns. Through their feet Menkh and Tishan felt a strong vibration. There was also, at the very edge of hearing, a muffled sound that could not be described, yet evoked a feeling of enormous power. Menkh turned his thoughts inwards to Crixac.

responded Crixac.

The voice of the Shard entered the minds of Menkh and Tishan.

<To what end?> Crixac was concerned.

Menkh asked.

said the Shard.

Tishan sought clarification.

Menkh asked.

Quiet laughter echoed in Menkh’s mind.

Tishan said with a tone of wry humour.

said Crixac resignedly. They all were familiar with the Shard’s habit of understatement.

Once again, they disappeared, leaving the room and its eerily glowing columns. They reappeared in the viewing room.

Peering at the walls around her, Tishan observed several strange, silvery craft that appeared to hang motionless in space. Her thoughts, expressed to the Shard, also entered Menkh’s mind, conveying deep concern.

The Shard’s voice echoed in their minds.

Menkh formed a thought.

The Shard’s tone was measured.

Menkh’s mind echoed with outrage.

said Tishan.

corrected the Shard.

Crixac replied.

asked Menkh.

Crixac asked.

said Menkh.

added Tishan.

answered the Shard.

Crixac said.

responded the Shard.

asked Tishan.

Tishan said.

The Shard’s voice was ominous.

sighed Crixac.

Menkh recognised the Shard’s humour.

Menkh said drily.

said Tishan.

the Shard said.

No sooner had the Shard spoken than a panel opened in the wall behind them; one which Menkh remembered well from when he first came to the City. This time a glowing green crystal sat in a small depression inside it.

Tishan asked.

The Shard spoke deliberately.

Tishan shrank back involuntarily with horror and Menkh’s skin crawled at the mere thought of having to touch it.

said Crixac, no less dismayed than the others.

Menkh again discerned a tinge of humour in the Shard’s voice.

he said.

Menkh shied away from the implications of the Shard’s comment and instead, with Crixac’s assistance, assumed the form that had replaced his Graaven body when he bonded with the Shard in what seemed a lifetime ago.

Tishan watched Menkh’s body shimmer, divesting itself of the image of the Zaltec who was universally loved by all Graavens. An alien-looking form, covered in glowing red skin, stood in its place. It still made her uncomfortable even though she had seen the transformation before.

commanded the Shard.

Menkh reached his right hand out, gasping the crystal with three long, tapering fingers and two thumb-like appendages. Unbearably bright green light flared for a moment and then subsided to a gentle pulse. He held the crystal over an aperture on the belt he habitually wore. It abruptly vanished and, in its place, a faint greenish glow could be seen from where the crystal was now safely housed in the belt.

asked Menkh.

As Menkh focused, he noticed that both the room and Tishan, who stood alongside him, seemed to fade, becoming ghostlike and transparent. A beam of light flowed around him, lifting him so that he floated gently above the ground. Suddenly Tishan, the Complex, and the entire City were left behind as he accelerated upwards, passing through walls that had lost their power to contain him. He felt no physical sense of movement, but as before when he travelled the between, he was suspended in a beam of light. Tarvuli lay underneath him and rapidly diminished. His attention was drawn away from his home world to centre on Barask, which was rapidly approaching.

As he drew nearer to the moon’s surface features began to resolve themselves. He saw vast mountain ranges and wide plains, intersected by what might once have been riverbeds. The light of the two suns reflected brightly off the plains, which seemed to be composed of some white-coloured material that glinted, mirror-like. As he floated gently down to the surface, he formed a thought to Crixac.

Crixac responded.

Menkh drank in the image of Tarvuli, its distinctive violet atmosphere aglow with the light of the two suns. He was viewing its myriad lakes and mountain ranges from a vantage that just a few short sem’chaal ago he would have deemed impossible. More surprisingly, he could also discern a huge body of water that occupied a large part of the planet’s surface. Its existence, hinted at by the Xotic, was now confirmed with his own eyes and he wondered at the depth of his ignorance of his own world.

he thought.

said Crixac,

said the Shard.

Menkh surveyed the terrain around him. Like glittering crystal, Barask shone in the light of the suns. Everything around him was covered in ice and although he felt no cold and was impervious to extremes of temperature, he could discern the intensity of the coldness around him and the almost complete lack of atmosphere.

Crixac said.

agreed Menkh.

said the Shard.

Menkh’s curiosity was aroused.

The Shard’s voice faded.

said Crixac.

Menkh focused his attention on their surroundings. Nothing stirred around him and he was enveloped in a frigid and total silence.

Menkh said.

Crixac spoke quietly.

They walked forward. Menkh held the staff before him, using it to focus his thoughts and probe the area around them. It was difficult to measure the passage of time as they walked. It felt like everything was but a dream. Only Tarvuli, visible above them, gave reassurance that this experience was real and not something imagined. Suddenly Menkh detected something.

They climbed up an eminence that stretched to left and right in a long curve. After reaching the top they climbed down its gently sloping sides until they stood in the base of a huge crater. It was relatively flat, but intensely bright. The walls of the crater rose all around them and seemed to focus the light of the suns. Menkh placed the bottom of the staff firmly on the ground and focused all his will into it. Snaking lines of red energy pulsed out, flowing like water and splitting into many separate lines. Abruptly the lines flowed upwards, rapidly illuminating a tracery of towering structures, vague and indistinct at first but rapidly coalescing into solid reality.

The towers, of which there were several, were like the trunks of huge, crystalline trees that appeared to have grown out of the ground. They gradually grew narrower until, before reaching their majestic height several spahn above, they were pointed like needles.

Menkh sent out a questing thought.

Menkh asked.

It