** "The end of April marked a collective turning point for all of us. William, with the help of Sinclair, had found the focus he needed, as well as the peace of knowing that he actually *wasn't* going crazy. As a result, the visions began to back away from his conscious world and into the world of dreams, at the same time a safer and more dangerous place, as Brianna would later tell me. And under the tutelage of the powerful, purposeful F'hursna Sech Durhan, it began to come down to me to not only be watcher, but right hand, to what William was becoming.
And then, the gathering storm of chaos decided to reach out and touch us directly, in a way we had not been anticipating..." **
From: "Storm Crossing: The Shadow War, and Other Responsibilities."
* * *
Apr 30, 2259.
Things were going good...in fact, four months ago, he would have considered the present situation to be impossible, but why argue with the facts, Walther thought, as the reddish murk of hyperspace was replaced, quite suddenly, by the sparkling distant stars and nebulae of Euphrates Sector. Not *only* could he now afford quarters on Babylon 5, he could also hold onto an apartment on Earth, courtesy of his employers. Contacts he had, but the name of the Organization, if indeed, it had any name but that one, was kept from him within the higher circles of power.
Walther didn't care in the slightest. After being cast adrift with *those* two for weeks on end (and *that* Narn, as well) the current situation was a breath of fresh air.
And now...*now*, the Organization was allowing him to return to Babylon 5. The cargos travelling inbound, light as they had been, had produced great profits for all those concerned, according to Mr. Vendant...but that was finished with, for now. He was back where he belonged!...on the edge, dealing the deals that mattered, making enough hard currency to ensure himself a future, no matter *what* happened.
A distant thought passed across his mind, of William and Jennifer, warning him...of a short and bowed, barely understandable alien saying the same things. The thoughts passed across his mind...and thundered right on into the background. Insupportable and impossible!..after all, it might have been a mistake. The attacks...and he had never, after all, even *seen* those supposed 'evil' ships and their crews, or the mythical dark masters that controlled them.
Walther shook his head, and tried not to laugh. A load of superstitious nonsense, that's all it had been. Raiders, it must have been, that's what it was...
* * *
The Zocalo bustled around Corrolan, but he took no notice of the situation. There were far *more* important events going on, and his time was far too limited to allow himself to gaze upon these small creatures and their small dealings. Corrolan thought in bigger terms then that.
<zzt, zzot>
"Indeed, things are beginning to go exactly as we planned."
"Of course..." the Other replied, the ever present smile, as always, on his face. "The Centauri are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing, and Mollari, as I said he would, continues to be most agreeable to our..offers."
"He is merely the first, as I'm sure you know, we do not move alone."
"Yes...I have heard of this contact you have begun. A most interesting endeavour. I trust that it will, in time, produce results?"
"Undoubtedly. Do remember, of course, that the events that brought the businessman Gideon to this place were set in motion by your prior actions?"
A brief pause, and then a nod. "As you say."
"As *I* say. Gideon started small, but his...'wheelings and dealings' shall we say, are beginning to become quite noticable. The Organization on Earth gives him what he wants, and what we want, and so it continues."
"If things change, you will, of course, inform me?"
<zzzt, zot, zzzt>
"You will *all* be informed, I assure you, and *they* report to *you* in any case." Corrolan laughed. "Do you honestly believe that what we are doing will not result in the end we require?"
"No...of course not." The other rose. "I must go, now. You are about to have a visitor."
Corrolan nodded, and then, a moment later, Gideon emerged from the crowd in the Zocalo, and he rose, displaying, again, the easily found smile of the deceptor...
* * *
May 2nd, 2259. Minbar...the mountains north of Tuzanor.
The high rock ledge was eerily silent in the long shadows of late afternoon.
If one were to listen carefully, the faint hum of ground traffic and the occasional high whine of a flyer could be heard below, but that was about all. And then, the silence was abruptly broken, as an electromagnetic bolt fired up from below, quickly followed by two more. All three sent out arms over the rock face, and with a barely felt "Thnk" latched into the planetary field lines.
Thirty feet below, Jennie and Brianna looked up the rock face with grim intent, as off to the side, Dreann nimbly moved up her monofilament rope, and over the edge. At the edge of vision, other groups of Rangers and Trainees were doing the same, far above. Muscles aching, she hauled herself up the final few feet, and onto the ledge.
Beside her, Brianna stretched, and then grimaced. "An exercise, he said...to bolster teamwork. Where, I asked?...on the far side of the mountains, he said. But *no one* said we were going *over* the mountains!!"
"Cease your complaining." Dreann suggested, her gaze knowing...sometimes Brianna seemed to complain just for the *sake* of complaining! "We are nearly to the top of this face, and on the far side, the slope leading down to the exercise site is nothing more then what I have heard you refer to as 'a stiff walk.'
Brianna kicked at the loose drifts of snow, already starting to melt in the growing heat of the day. "This is dangerous. Something's going to go wrong...I just *know* it."
Jennie did not answer, but with Dreann, prepared for the next stage of ascent, shooting her bolt up and over the final stage of the face. How Brianna could say that something might go wrong was strange enough...all three of them were tied together..if one fell, the other two could anchor, and save the one who had made the error. And the bolts were nearly foolproof, *this* particular technology had been in use for hundreds of years, if not thousands.
Halfway up the final pitch, however, a sudden shift in the breezes caught her attention, and she gazed up and over the ridge...and gasped. Brianna had been right...but not in the way she had thought.
The now low sun was beginning to fade from sight behind a quickly growing veil of cloud coming over the ridgeline. Beside her, Dreann sighed, and drew her hood over her head. "This was not supposed to happen. We must find shelter, and quickly."
Ten feet below, Brianna called out, "Would you care to explain...and soon?" Coming alongside, the telepath turned to her, eyes dark, and whispered, "There...you see? I told you *something* was going to happen."
"We do not doubt your prowess, telepath." Dreann replied, her voice a cutting knife, "But we must move *now*! An ice storm is coming over the ridge, and the wind will shortly be strong enough to blow us off this face...*move*, human!"
Without a pause, the Minbari Ranger reached into her gear and withdrew another bolt-and-rope combination, and anchored on the original still, launched the new one up and to the left. "There is a..what do you call it?...a cave a short distance above. There is no time, for now, for us to rejoin the others." As indication of her words, thick, sharp crystals of ice were starting to fall from the lowering clouds of the storm, and the wind was beginning to shift up from a breeze towards an icy howl.
A short time later, the three looked on the now shrouded valley from the relative protection of the cave. Another fifty feet of face stood above them still, but between the deadly falling slivers of ice and the now near-hurricane wind of the storm, they were certainly not going anywhere *soon*.
Outside and above the watching trio, a large crack quite suddenly appeared in the face, the stress snap going unnoticed in the wind.
* * *
"Thank you..." Sinclair finished, his gaze contemplative but concerned, as the shuddering gusts and thick flurries of ice swept over the Ranger compound. "We will be moving out to aid the exercise participants directly." After dispatching the waiting Rangers on their tasks, he turned towards a worried William, and together, they looked out into the storm. "Fear not, William...Jennifer and Brianna are not in danger. Even though they were not able to rejoin with the main group before the storm hit, Dreann has communicated with the others, and we know of their location. The matter is well in
hand."
"This is...unseasonable, is it not??"
"Indeed." Sinclair gazed again at the ice falling outside. "Most unusual, even for this location, to have an ice storm at this time of year, and the worst of luck." Sinclair nodded his thanks as another Minbari appraoched with his heavy cloak. "However it happened, we still have to act to make sure no one is injured due to the storm. I know you were working on the task I gave you when the storm hit, William...but your assistance during the recovery operation will be most welcome."
Will turned, and in one long grab, reached out and took hold of the cloak he had laid nearby. "After you, sir."
* * *
The groan of rock was the first thing that caught her attention, turning her away from the great shards of ice piling up outside. What the...
Mouth beginning to open, Jennie looked down between her feet. The floor of the cave, which had been initially smooth upon their arrival only thirty minutes before, was now webbed with cracks....and the cracks were growing as she watched.
The mountain that had protected so well from the ice storm...now seemed to be falling apart at the seams!
"Oh hell!" She broke into a run, and almost collided with the other two, gathered around the portable heater unit, ten feet farther in. "We've got to go deeper. Part of this face...our arrival in the cave must have unbalanced it somehow. It's starting to break off of the mountain!"
At this pronouncement, Brianna's eyes went wide, while Dreann's swiftly ran over the passageway. Another groan and then a sudden snapping roar pushed them into sudden movement, as rather abruptly, six feet of the cave passage fell away from the mountain, and into the storm.
"I doubt, somehow, that our mass made that much of a difference." the Minbari muttered.
Without answering, Jennie moved deeper into the cave, her heart pounding, with the other two not far behind. Several more great chunks broke away, and cracks ran over her head, and deeper into the rock...
"In Valen's Name..." Brianna gasped, "First an ice storm, and now *this*?"
And then, it happened. A pulse of danger stronger then she had ever known before fired through her, and Jennie came to a sudden stop...and just, as it turned out, in time, as ahead and behind of the trio, two enormous, deadly chunks of rock came slamming down, closing off the passageway, and, it seemed, any further collapse.
And also, quite effectively, trapping them.
And it wasn't finished yet. She grimaced in sudden agony, and covered her face, as hundreds of tiny shards of rock thrown off by the collapse struck them all. Little spots of blood covered her hand when she took it away, and in the dim glow of the light sources they had, Jennie could see she was not alone in that.
A harsh string of words erupted behind her, and she turned towards the dim form of Dreann. "The transmitter has ceased functioning."
Brianna, eyes dark and forehand dappled with blood, cursed. "Mine's down, too. Must have been those slivers of rock."
"We are either luckier then we deserve, or..."
Or. Jennie quickly checked her own link, and nodded. Unbelievable...what a time for Murphy to lash out!
* * *
On the peak of the now once-more quiescent mountain, a shimmering form briefly came into view, and looked down through the storm on the haze of rock smoke wreathed about what it had wrought. It had come to this place, under orders from its masters, to continue the tests. The one being Tested thought that she acted solely on the side of Order...but the Servant and his Masters knew better. It was inevitable, of course, that the *other* would act to save the Trapped One, but *how* that happened was far more interesting a question to the Servant then why.
In time, the Servant's job would conclude, and, unseen, he would ascend to the stars and rejoin the rest....but for now, the work was far from over.
* * *
Evening.
The multi-flyer moved without haste through the now waning storm, its control surfaces only lightly touched with ice. William gazed up at the flyer as it passed over the mountaintop, and then returned his gaze to the cracked, pitted destruction that the face had become. His gaze was hard...his heart, agonizingly cold with fear. The Rangers who had taken shelter on the far side of the peak during the storm had lost communication with Jennie, Brianna and Dreann when the fall had happened. And now, he did not even know if his Love still lived.
Even though, in his heart, he could *not* believe she had died. It didn't *feel* that way.
Full of purpose, he strode to the edge, where a grim Sinclair looked out over the valley of Sorrows...truly named, this day, if the worst had come to pass. "The ground search has concluded, sir. Tashann and Viddal sent me to inform you; they believe, with near certainty, that Dreann and the rest were still within the cave when the face began to fail."
Sinclair nodded, and then turned to the east, where Minbar's larger moon was even now rising. "Quite likely, William. However, now that has been determined, it's far easier for us to take the next step."
William gazed up at the storm wrack, and nodded knowingly. Now, they needed to clear the face to uncover the cave remaining underneath. And for that job, the powers that be were more then willing to lend a hand...
A deep hum grew in the air, and quite suddenly, another, quite large Minbari aerial vehicle emerged from the clouds, and approached the face, coming to a hover slightly more then two hundred feet out.
A moment later, Tashann stood beside them. "The operators require space, Ambassador. Another vehicle is waiting to carry you down to the face..."
* * *
In the darkness, the three waited. Brianna in a corner of their prison, almost completely curled up, while Jennie and Dreann meditated. Her anger at events hours earlier had passed, and she wished Brianna could share her belief. A slight rumble vibrated down through the rock above...another Minbari flyer in the air above. Sooner or later, and probably sooner, Sinclair and William would act to save them...now, there was only the waiting to endure.
And then...the mountain jerked, and the rumbling she had heard the second before became a shattering hum. Dreann nodded, and rose to her feet. "It is as I said to you both, earlier on...we will now be freed."
Ten feet behind her, the tons of rock blocking the package jerked away, letting moonlight into the trap they had spent over five hours in, and then, supported by the purplish beam holding it, turned away and dropped into the valley with the vehicle carrying it, as another, smaller flyer edged towards the cave mouth.
"They made it look *so easy*!" Brianna exclaimed in the renewed high altitude wind of the cave mouth. "So what took so long?"
"Why hurry..." Dreann replied cryptically, "If there was truly nothing to fear? We were unhurt, we are Rangers and Rangers-to-be...that is all that matters."
Above them, the hatch on the flyer irised open, and a *very* relieved looking William, with Sinclair behind, appeared in the portal. "Good evening, ladies. Would you like a lift?"
Jennie felt her lips beginning to twist into a smile, and then couldn't restrain from indulging in the laugh that followed.
* * *
"So...a most unexpected outcome for the exercise."
"Unexpected and dangerous. Rathenn...it was my understanding that particular mountain was perfectly safe to conduct the exercise on. And now, that fall killed two innocent Minbari in the valley underneath the peak, and *almost* killed those we need the most. I don't like being lied to."
"We did *not* lie to you, Ambassador...this should not have happened, and those three, in particular, should not been endangered so."
"I want to know *why* it happened...and soon."
"It will be as you say."
* * *
Night had almost passed, and another day was dawning. But the Servant had no eyes for that dawning, only on the result of the Test just concluded. The results had been as he had expected...there had been no surprises. For now, however, he would disappear: too *many* accidents and mishaps, and the Rangers would begin to notice, and suspect interference.
But when the opportunity came again, the Servant would not refuse the chance...
RIMSTALKER: DESTINY'S CALL, PART 7
"IN VALEN'S NAME, IN DARKNESS TRUE" ACT II
**"There comes a moment in time when all you are and all you will be is consumed by an ideal. It may not be the correct ideal, but if one is able to accept advice, the ideal will, in time, become pure and self guiding. It was a great day when they stood before me again, and did not see what I had become, only the ideal that I stood for. And in return, I saw *them*...full of purpose, clothed as warrior missionaries in the name of Valen. They had, to my relief, fully accepted what life provides....
...It has been said that life can be measured in moments of transition, or moments of revelation. I do not deny these words, in context, they are the correct ones. But to that, I add that we live between one moment and the next forever searching for the correct path. Whether or not the path is painful or joyful is determined by us...but we always find what we need, or it finds us, and in so doing, we define the Universe around us..."**
- Remarks attributed to the Narn G'kael during the course of the Centauri occupation of Homeworld, during the Earth Year 2260
* * *
May 17, 2259.
The cold had passed at last, and Tuzanor had discovered the doorway into summer..or so it could be hoped. Clothed only in a charcoal tunic and matching black trousers, Jennie gazed somberly up at the dark scar visible against the ridgeline to the northwest. Again and again, she found her eyes drawn there...to relive in her mind the moments of strangeness that had occured on that peak. A test of companionship it had been, but also a test of faith. She craned her neck, and began to limber up in preparation for mediation. Others in the training groups now coming in below them seemed to have trouble with Minbari techniques, but as right-hand to a reborn Minbari warrior, it paid to know both the culture and the language..and so she had.
Somberly, she considered it a distinct possibility that none of her 'One' thought entirely in human contexts any longer...she had come *that* far from the Starfury pilot she had been, and there was still so much farther to go.
A shadow appeared across the stones from the sun behind her, and she half-turned, eyes lidded...and then, in an instant, came to full awareness. A lithe, but deadly looking Minbari Warrior stood on the landing below her, gaze slightly hostile...and knowing.
"I have heard it said the great F'hursna allowed a human female to touch one of *our* pikes." the warrior spoke, not in English, but in the Minbari Warrior tongue. "I did not at first credit that as the truth, but rumour runs before us in the darkness, and is then, to my dismay, proven as the truth. My return from the Perimeter should have been peaceful, but *this* cannot be ignored!"
She thought for a moment, and then replied...*now* the intense, daily, and hours long crash courses in the three dialects was to find its use at last. "Do you speak in terms of honour? I earned this right in combat with Sech Durhan *himself*. Do you argue *his* right to confer this weapon upon me?"
The Warrior's mouth tightened at her use of the Minbari language, and then twisted into a smile. "So be it, human. If you have the weapon upon you, as is right, you will either prove your worth with it *now*, or relenquish it to me as I stand!"
She sighed. Even now, some of the Warrior Caste could not credit the truth of what had occurred. So be it.
With one smooth movement, she vaulted onto her legs, and approached the Warrior. "Stand then, and know me. I am Jennifer Ariala Clifford...I wield this weapon." and with that, flicked her pike into hand from its hidden underarm pouch and extended it immediately, "Not through foolish beliefs or ambitions, but through tests of skill. Approach with honour, if you still so wish it."
The Warrior mockingly half bowed. "I stand, and answer. Know me...Alit Verkahn, Star Rider...and your prowess, as you say, shall *now* be determined." In an instant measured against Durhan's reflexes in speed, Verkahn extended his own pike, and combat was instantly joined.
Far back in the shadows of the nearby building, a cloaked and hooded figure sat calmly, and watched the match unfold. It would be determined, here and now, if the challenge issued to this human, weeks earlier, had succeeded in its final aim...
* * *
Narn.
The darkness around G'kael resolved into a brilliant light. He shielded his eyes from the light, and then...then saw what had come. Here, on the borderland of death, his father had come at last.
"G'kael" G'raldan intoned, his gaze stern, "Must I credit the rumours of you surrendering to the embrace of death? I will not allow myself to believe it...*cannot*."
Mouth tight with bitterness, G'kael extended his left arm, and gazed full upon the ruinous scars that lived there. One eye gone, arm and back burned...even if he *did* return to the living world, the sensation on his left side was gone forever. And that return would now, it seemed, be debated with a phantom...but who better to debate *with*? "You see before you the results of my belief in what I was doing, father. I stood for the cause, and was cut down."
"You stood for the *cause*, and it was the *right* cause, G'kael!...as a result of the beliefs of your Third, you live...for now. If you decide that giving up is easier, then so be it...I will not stop you. But the stand is *not* finished...there yet remains more to be done. I will *not* allow you to give up, my son...not now. By G'quan, it cannot be allowed!"
"Then give me a reason to live." A tickle of memory hung at the edge of his mind...what was he missing?
"As you wish." G'raldan waved his hand, and a vision came before G'kael's eyes...a vision of a young, dark-haired human woman in close combat with another...a warrior Minbari, by the look of it...a combat in which the woman, a human he knew all too well, was more then holding her own. G'kael felt his mouth twist upwards into a smile...a smile that stretched the burn tissue on the left side of his face, but a smile nontheless.
"By G'quan...they have succeeded?"
"Very nearly. It is a great thing to see, is it not? Those you have started on the path this close to greatness. But there will come a time when you will be needed, injured or not. The stand is not yet done."
"I...understand." If he was to help them yet, then death must be put away for a while yet. G'kael had searched for a reason to live...he now had one, it seemed.
"Then live, my son!" G'raldan dissolved into a blaze of light...a light that resolved into a reddish-panelled ceiling...and the face of an astonished N'rothak.
G'kael blinked. "Back away, my Third...I do wish to see something *other* then your admittedly welcome face."
"Wha...Ka'shael!! Come, he is awake!!" N'rothak drew close. "It has been long, G'kael. How do you feel?" N'rothak looked *quite* relieved, in fact, G'kael was relieved himself. A reason to live!
* * *
Eyes wide, Verkahn broke combat, and stood back. Astonishing...but the One who had brought him here had spoke truthfully.
* * *
Verkahn bowed, and then once more met her gaze. "I regret my previous statements. You have stood, and proven your worth truthfully. You wield the Denn'bok, human, like a Warrior.
She smiled, and returned the favour. "It was a honour to prove my worth to you, Alit Verkahn. Perhaps we will have another chance to meet thus...in due course."
Verkahn nodded. "Perhaps. But for now, I must leave you. Valen watch over you, in all the places you must walk."
"And you." The Warrior departed, it seemed, in haste, and with the slightest of pressures, she retracted her pike, and returned it to its storing place. An interesting encounter...perhaps *now* they would believe.
"You have come far. Farther then I could have suspected." She turned in mid-stride, and (oh damn) bowed deeply. Before her, a Satai of the Grey Council stood...from his stance, the *same* Satai who had embarrassed her into this course of action, all those weeks before...a course that had resulted in much honour, for her.
"You started me on this path, Satai. My belief in the right of it took me the rest of the way."
"Valen has smiled on your course, young one. I approve." The Satai turned away, and with measured walk, dissapeared from view. Once again alone in the growing heat of the day, Jennie stood alone, and wondered. She appeared to have passed another test...and, it seemed, a large one.
* * *
May 23, 2259.
"The time has come..." Sinclair commented, sipping deeply of his steaming drink, "To talk of endings, and of beginnings. And finally, of the course upon which you travel."
William looked carefully from face to face...Rathenn and Sinclair, both present for this talk...and, mysteriously enough, the Vorlon, Ulkesh. "We have come to this place, and this time, sir, through intent, patience and dedication. For you, for the cause, for what must be, we have stood, and learned what must be learnt. We stand ready."
"Then you will, in one week's time, be given what you seek." Sinclair rose. "In one week's time, the training will conclude...and the real tests will begin."
"You will," Rathenn commented, his eyes kind, "Be kept together, for that is the way of things. All elements are in place, and were we to break your One, only disaster would result. This you already understand, and the others have accepted what is to be. A strength exists here that had never been found before in the Anla'shok of the present. It is more then useful...it is a basis for what is yet to come!"
Sinclair nodded. "The others that follow you see your example...and learn the meaning. And thus, we proceed, faster then we could have hoped." He rose. "Go now. Make your preparations, learn what remains to be learnt."
William nodded, rose, and bowed. "Entil'zha veni. In Valen's Name...we will."
And then, Ulkesh spoke...##The Name of the First...the name of the middle...the name of the last. You will serve all, and none. You will see the Darkness, and the Fire. You will endure the pain, and the brilliance...and in the End, you will find the Other...and live between the moments.##"
Eyes narrow, William met Sinclair's eyes one last time, and nodded. There was no deceiphering the meaning of Ulkesh's words...not now. The meaning would come, in due course.
* * *
May 27th, 2259. Babylon 5.
Thoughtfully, Gideon balanced the tiny package on one hand. It had come in from the Rim, through the persona of Vendant, and was now on its way inbound. He shook his head, gazing through the crystal lattice to the tiny black object within. Whatever it was, he didn't deserve to know, and yet...
Curiousity always got the better of the cat, and in this case, it was no different. Gideon did not (he insisted to himself) *care* about what these were and where they were going, the end result was always the same. His riches and stature continued to grow, that was not going to change anytime soon. And yet...
One finger found a tiny hole in the lattice, and snuck in.
And a flash of brilliant pain entered his mind...and he saw a vision of what was.
<A man stood alone in a room, wood panelled, with shutters drawn. Two other men stood before him. "All is going as planned. The shipments continue to arrive thorugh our man on Babylon 5. It will be only a matter of time before the construction of the advanced prototypes can begin."
"Excellent. The Organization we have constructed will serve us well in what is to come. Our associates came through before, and the bargain continues. I am most pleased with your results. Let it continue."
"The power will be ours."
"I am quite willing to drink to that." The man in charge smiled a dark smile, and raised a glass of smoky liquid. The others did the same...>
Walther blinked, and the vision faded. With eyes wide, he gazed at the object on his hand again. What *was* this thing? What did it all mean?
His mouth tightened. He had seen a vision of those he worked for. An interesting technology... but irrevelant to his needs. Only the money mattered.
At the back of his mind, a tiny yammering voice begged to be heard, and was silenced.
* * *
May 30th, 2259. The final Night.
Tuzanor was well into the warm season now, and still a chill entered the Night air. Brianna sat alone, on her bunk, in a full lotus, and let her mind range across the void around her. Snippets of voices vibrated into her senses and out again as she ranged around. How powerful was she now?? Unknown...P8? No, she had to be at *least* a P10, now....or was it more??
A familiar voice entered into her conscious world. A low voice, a singing voice. She turned around, and nodded calmly to the bulk of Ambassador Ulkesh, dimly visible at the end of the hallway. The voice sung to her. <Time.>
<I understand. I am needed?>
<Needed. Come. The final night is upon us. Conferrence necessary.>
She rose to her feet, eyes gleaming in the darkness. <I come.>
* * *
May 31, 2259. Six Hours Before...
Together, as they were so rarely, the moons of Minbar, ocher and silver, sank to the western horizon together, and overhead, the stars were already fading into the glow of dawn. Together, hand in hand, William and Jennie continued their mediation on the now so familiar stone outview upon the valley they had called home for almost three months now...months in which they had changed forever. The age of their Innonence was passing..the age of Readiness was now upon them both. Jennie shifted her body slightly to feel the light mass of the warrior pike riding against her ribs, in the place she had earned for it from now until the end of her days. That was one change...and far-reaching. Today... today was the culmination of all they had sought so badly...today, everything changed.
* * *
In the forests north of the Compound, the Servant flickered briefly into view, and gazed sharply at the two figures reclined in peace so high above. No further chance had arrived that it had seen, and frustration colored its thoughts. It's Masters would consider this partially a failure, but the Servant knew better, and could convince them as such.
Yes, those he had been sent to test were now, it seemed, fully committed to Order. But there would be other worlds, other chances...and other times. The Servant turned to depart. Especially, other *times*.
* * *
Thirty minutes before.
"You are prepared?" Rathenn inquired, as Sinclair drew his light brown robe about him.
Sinclair rose. "More then prepared. This is something I've waited three months for, Rathenn...and it will be more then a pleasure to give those three what they have been seeking after for so long. The battlelines are beginning to be drawn...a line unseen across the stars above us. and those three will stand in the Vanguard...a beacon for those who follow to gaze upon."
"I pray that they and the others will be enough."
"At first, I had my doubts. But *now*?" Sinclair smiled, as the two made for the doorway. "Now, we will see at last the truth of what we have begun here."
Rathenn only nodded.
* * *
Next: The beginning is over, and the training has concluded...and once again, the Rimstalker and his now stalwart companions are about to be unleashed upon a unknowing Galaxy, and a *nearly* unsuspecting Enemy.."The Most Honorable Words", coming soon.