State of Mind (8)
Eclipse Meets the Coming Storm
Housekeeping: There are only two chapters left in Volume 1: Children of Ozan. After this volume, I will be taking a break from this world to focus on other projects. The finale (Chapter 10) will certainly conclude the volume’s arc and should feel like an appropriate end to the story. However, I have outlined and written several chapters for Volume 2: Masons which I hope to begin releasing a few months after the finale.
There is one (major) secret that has been hinted at throughout but will not be revealed by the end of this volume. If anyone is able to guess this twist to come, there is a prize so send me any theories. I think I hid it pretty well :)
If you’re a fan of massive sprawling narratives like this one and want more, check out my ‘Popcorn Land’ series that just started up. It’s a lot lighter and funnier than SoM but not as fully fleshed out just yet.
Thanks as always for reading and enjoy chapter 8!!! (oh and also a map of Ozan at the end. More maps to come.)
8. Sunset Secrets
Year C-53, Quarter 2
(39 years ago)
Edrick was a bright child. He was popular and funny. In a class of fifteen he performed in fifth for academics. His mother wished he was a better student, but Ed was fine with who he was. Ironically, it was his true identity that would be his downfall. Different people have different accounts of the weeks when the rumors began. The taboo rumor that Edrick Swann’s true father was the Sunset King himself. Some imagined Edrick discovered it on his own, while others believed he was blindsided by a ridiculous theory that he couldn’t let go of. One way or another, he demanded the truth from his mother.
“It’s false.” Servia Swann announced triumphantly in her dismissive response.
“I looked through the books. Talked to the elders. It’s not even a well kept secret.”
“A lie, an attempt to defame us.”
“I understand why you didn’t tell me. But could you just be honest with me for one moment of my entire life?”
“You don’t.”
“What?”
“You don’t understand why I didn’t tell you.”
“Oh?”
“Edrick, I... I’m... Sorry my son. I never wanted this. But this is the only way.”
Servia began to cry uncontrollably. Ed moved closer to her and shook her for information.
“Mom, what do you mean?”
“You’ll be safe, I swear it. But… you can never return.”
“Wha- mom, what’s going on?” Men in black robes came for Edrick and grabbed him. He yelled and cried for help as they dragged him away. “Mom!” The boy screamed through his tears. “MOM!”
When the screams died out, Nylon Gray walked out of the shadows and put his arm over the distraught Master’s shoulder. She wiped the few tears from her eyes.
“Are you certain of this, Servia?”
“I must be.”
“At least now, he’s out of the grasp of our enemies.”
“And into the unknown.”
“He’ll survive, Servia. Maybe one day, he’ll find his way back.”
“You have a lot of faith in the boy.”
Nylon’s voice creaked as he firmly stated, “He’s my son.”
Servia sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds. “Romeo will escort him to Blankin Escra. He’ll be fed and cared for, there.”
“All I can think is that we just made the biggest mistake of our lives.”
“We didn’t, Ny. We’re protecting everyone. Maybe one day he’ll see that, too.”
Year C-92, Quarter 1
(Present Day)
“Good evening people of Ozan,” The king announced from the royal stage. He looked tired in his eyes and posture. He appeared so weak, one teenage commoner pointed out, that his blood red robes had to hold his weight to stand him up. His voice sounded energetic and the slightest bit tortured. “It is with great despair that I appear before you today.” the old man with a spotlight on him looked down at the edge of his shadow and sighed. “It appears now that war is inevitable...”
The citizens of the Silent Kingdom were for the most part, going about their day during this speech until they heard the screaming. After that came gunfire, and then harrowing silence. The majority of folks went home to their families and safety. But there was a large group of people that took advantage of the chaos. They overran the security force in mere minutes and stormed the compound.
A group of men with makeshift weapons such as canes and shivs burst into the Bank of Ozan on 39, Westhall, forcing the one security guard to surrender his gun as the dozen or so folks in the building scrambled to throw their money at these men. Shou, a woman with a brown blazer and piercing blue eyes, looked at the face of the man robbing her. It was her nephew, holding the security guard’s gun to her temple.
“Emmett?” Her hands shook and she dropped the cards of money on the ground, which the kid picked up without lifting the handgun’s sights on his aunt. His lips pushed upwards and his mouth quivered. His eyes were blocked by the shadow of his hood, but Shou knew it was him. His square jaw was identical to his father’s— Shou’s younger brother. Rand finally moved the gun from his aunt’s face and pointed it at a young couple, demanding the same from them. Shou was in complete shock for the remainder of the robbery, all of two minutes. Shou tuned out the yelling with a ringing in her ear and by the time she could even place herself in reality, the robbers, including her nephew were gone.
The king continued his announcement, “While it is written in the Blood Codes that we must never interfere with the universe beyond our kingdom, it is also written to defy any code for the objective and unanimous purpose of defending our people from an external threat. The largest nation in this universe, the Systems of Tertia know our location and are hunting us. Children of Ozan, their invasion force is nothing to be reckoned with. It will take a massive defensive effort to hold them off and protect our homeland, but if there’s anyone in the universe, I believe, it is our people, our era and our legend that will be told.”
After concluding his decree, Nylon breathed in and walked half asleep toward the elevator. At least sixteen guards and four drones surrounded him. He held in a tear as the elevator descended. It felt faster than usual, but the king couldn’t quite pin it. Perhaps his paranoia was getting to him. When they arrived on the palace floor, the guards took their place carefully protecting the one entrance to Nylon Gray’s room. The king walked inside and shut the doors. He sighed as the lights turned on automatically and he collapsed into his bed.
In the depths of the mountains, the kids were convening.
“A universal war?” Minghuang was shocked, “do we take his word for it?”
“Why would he lie about that?” Tyra asked genuinely.
“Control. Power. There’s like a million reasons, Ty.” Sal laughed to herself. Jace was in deep thought while Ray was in his usual state of quiet focus.
“But how’d we get dragged into it?”
“The trade.” Minghuang responded quickly. “With Multi-World.”
“So he sold them what, a superweapon? What exactly are these ‘Silent Defenders’? And what did we get in return?”
“Silent Defenders…” Minghuang recalled her books, “frequency weapons. Can kill every single being capable of hearing in a given area… or one specific person to silently collapse in a massive crowd. It’s a defensive weapon, obviously, I mean it was built that way at first, but with that technology…”
“Multi-World could challenge Tertia.” Tyra concluded, nervously.
“Whoa.” Even Sal showed a level of concern.
“And it’s all because of us.” Jace muttered quietly. Sal asked him to repeat it and he shouted, “It’s all because of him! He put a target on all of our backs, on this place, on these people. When the dust is settled and a nation prevails, why not conquer the Silent Kingdom? We aren’t ‘Silent’ anymore. We’re just another pack of warlords clawing for power.”
Everyone was shocked at Jace’s outburst. He closed his eyes and took some deep breaths. There was a minute of silence where everyone reflected.
“I still don’t understand why… What did he trade the defenders for?”
“Nobody knows for sure.” Ming explained. “But there is something you should all see.”
Minghuang took them into a closet that nobody else had thought to open. The crew was astonished and impressed to see that Ming had converted it into a cozy office for herself with a computer set up and everything. The five of them all tried to squeeze in until Ming projected her monitor onto the hallway wall. She up what appeared to be a detailed diagram of Easthall. More specifically, the bottom few floors labeled ‘sewage.’
“We were right that Southall still exists. What we didn’t know is it’s a prison.”
“A prison?” Tyra crossed her arms. “Isn’t there an active prison a Westhall?”
“Yes. However, this specialized deep underground one holds a single prisoner. A very powerful man.”
“The Eclipse…” Jace realized before the rest of them.
“They hold him there. All alone.” Minghuang sounded quite sorry for the old man she’d never met.
“He has to know about my grandmother. And my father.” Tyra exclaimed excitedly. “We must speak with him.”
Sal grimaced and loudly exhaled, then explained proudly,
“Getting into an off-limits secret prison through the sewer halls? I think I could help you out.”
Tyra rolled her eyes and tried to hold in a snort. “Then we’ll go tonight.”
Ray finally appeared to tune in when she said the word ‘tonight’ and his stomach dropped. He pulled on his sister’s shirt, his heart beating rapidly.
The sweat dripped off Tyra’s face and onto the metal she crawled through.
“How much longer? I think I might boil to death in this vent.” She muttered haplessly toward Minghuang and Sal, inching in front of her.
“Not much longer, I think.” Sal responded. “Just keep your cool a bit longer, alright? Look at your brother, he’s doing fine.”
The small boy, quiet as ever, had almost no trouble at all fitting himself through the cramped and dusty vent.
“Did you really have to knock out those guards?” Tyra changed the subject to avoid thinking about how hot it was getting.
“I don’t recall you having a better plan.” Sal didn’t turn around. She just kept crawling. “Alright we’re here. Through this one.” Sal knocked out the vent shaft below them and fell down into the hall. Jace, Ming, Sal and Ray followed close behind her. They were shocked to see the shape of a man locked in a giant, empty cell.
“Malcolm Jade…” Minghuang muttered in disbelief on the other side of his bars.
The Eclipse didn’t move. He sat, meditating, facing the wall in his cell and away from the kids.
“Wake up, old man! You’ve got company.” Sal called out at the long bearded burnt up man dressed in rags. After a few minutes, any sense of relaxation left his body and he turned around, a menacing look across his face.
“Can we ask you some questions?” Minghuang was the only one even able to speak.
“Yes.” The emaciated elderly man released in a rasp. As if it was the first word he’d spoken on years.
“Why does Nylon keep you here?”
“Nylon…” There was a chuckle alongside that name, “…doesn’t.”
“Then… who put you here?”
“Swann.”
The group turned to face Tyra. Even Ray was instinctively looking up at his sister when he heard the name.
“Master Servia Swann?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To protect her secret. You, I’m presuming.” He too, looked at Tyra.
“Why… would I be a secret?”
“Your father, Edrick is the son of the Sunset King. Nylon Gray. That’s the secret.”
“No…” Ray muttered. “Dad never knew his father…”
“Of course he did. But he also bore no fault. They were terrified of a child. They were afraid he was a Mason.”
“A Swann and a Gray…” Minghuang recalled her books. Ray and Tyra looked down at the concrete floor, attempting to make sense of all this new information.
“Historically, she was right to fear him. But she didn’t understand how it truly worked. See, the blood of a Mason skips a generation. It runs not in Edrick’s veins. He passed it on to his children. And then she brought you here. The irony.”
“What does that mean?” Ray was looking at the back of his hand with a newfound sense of wonder. “Mason?”
“It means, kid, you’re the most powerful weapon in this whole place, maybe even in the universe.”
The beeping from the monitor began to blend in with the rest of the warning sounds that echoed throughout the two hollowed mountains. As Nylon expected, Ohma came bursting through his palace doors, demanding answers.
“Why are we getting hostile invader warnings for Romeo Martin’s ship?” Her anger was outweighed by her reverence at the sight of the king bowing his head.
“Because Romeo is not in control on the Montus Apside. He’s never off schedule and we’re smack in the middle of a quarter. There are no outstanding children to be ferrying.”
“If it isn’t Romeo, then… who is it?” Ohma asked as if she didn’t already know the answer.
“My sons.” The king softly whispered into the cold artificial air. The red and golden colors draping the walls blurred from the tears built up in his eyes. "Deploy our Defenders. And Reggie’s team. Tell Herri to have the rest of the guard on standby. And for goddsakes, find me Safe Henny. It’s time to prove her worth.”
“It will be done, my king.”
“Ohma?”
“Yes?”
“I didn’t… I wasn’t trying to hurt them. I never thought they’d return. I was just trying to protect everyone here. I made harsh choices. But for the right reasons… ”
“Yes well,” Councilwoman Ohma sighed and turned to the door. “Let’s go see where that got us.”
Map of Ozan, The Silent Kingdom:
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