Agra’s words had travelled farther then she knew. They echoed unseen through the vast shifting kaleidoscope of gas and dust swirling at the galactic edge. Her voice found an audience within the relatively tiny speck of an enormous syncline vessel languishing alone in the nebular haze. Soot streaked the tarnished bronze hull of this battered and bruised derelict. Lifeless as it appeared Agra’s voice was still heard.

  “Do not worry. My divine wraith will be just.”

  A pair of red eyes, like teardrops of sapphire, awakened with sudden urgency. They belonged to a shapeless wraith haunting the unseen fringes of the kindred stars. She had sensed the unusually raw and unfiltered panic of the loathsome sisters she observed. Once as powerful as them she was now the Matriarch of nothing.

  “Impossible,” she blurted out with her exiled voice. Luckily her sisters were too preoccupied with the yellow eyed figure taunting them to notice her presence. The Matriarch beheld this figure as it mocked them with the shape of an impure race. She called herself Agra Anson. Somehow Agra wore the crown of divinity atop her head, a lost symbol recognized by the Matriarch with stunned disbelief. This interloper who claimed with little subtlety kinship with the startled Matriarch vanished before she could get a better look. Though the name Agra Anson meant little to her or her enraged sisters she did understand the nature of this yellow eyed demon.

  “FIND HER!” they cried out in unison as they extended their omnipotent sight through the sparkling fabric of the galaxy. Her vision unclouded by the burden of subjects the Matriarch found Agra before the others.

  “I will save you,” she whispered cupping the small white sphere of Altaire IV in her formless hands. This time her sisters heard her. She was gone by the time they looked in her direction. Aboard her derelict the Matriarch awoke with a new sense of purpose. The portent of doom foretold by the edicts had appeared and she was her lost heir.

  The red feathered Syncline carefully manipulating the star charts projected into the domed navigation chamber had no names. The Navigators wordlessly studied holographic course projections with learned confidence, their titles enough to give them purpose. All but one however was satisfied with the challenges of navigating safely through the chaotic debris choked nebula. Several generations younger than the rest, this navigator preened his shiny red feathers nervously as he ignored his duties to peruse the catalog of other star charts stored in the ships memory. He’d served with distinction all his life, earned the silver collar necklace that marked him as a navigator, and yet had never traveled beyond the nebula where his Matriarch was forced to hide. He longed to travel the stars though a tragedy had condemned him and his people to a small forgotten corner of the galaxy.

  His Divine mother had died shortly after his birth. The Matriarchs only heir had vanished into oblivion. Without her everything collapsed and nothing could stop her sisters from seizing everything. Being sent away to train with the Matriarchs navigators had spared him the fate of the rest of his siblings. Only the aged Matriarch and her closest vassals had escaped destruction to await death in exile. The young navigator was the last of his bloodline doomed to outlive his fellow navigators. One day even the Matriarch would succumb to the ravages of time and he would be alone, the last of his people. That inevitability was a freedom the Navigator didn’t like to think about.

  “There is hope yet.”

  This sudden intrusive voice caused the Navigator to flinch. He looked up from his navigation charts to make sure none of his fellow Navigators had been the one to address him. They went about their work as though nothing had happened.

  “Meet me in my chamber Navigator.”

  The Navigator winced. He’d refused to believe the Matriarch would bother watching someone as insignificant as him, but evidently she had. Now she wanted to see him. He had no choice but to oblige her. He quietly turned away from his navigation charts and willed himself towards the arched entryway. What could the Divine One want with him he wondered fearfully?

  It was hot and humid within the Divine Ones domed chamber; the heavy air clouded by frothing clouds of opaque steam. Small blue orbs embedded along the sloping walls illuminated the dimly lit rotunda. Gilded mosaics gleamed in the shadowy fringes of the large cavernous room. The intricate paneling depicted a parade of divine figures marching in profile through a jewel encrusted facsimile of the firmament. The Navigator crept forward carefully. Moisture collected on his smooth oval face, the wet collar of feathery down pressed against his back, chest, and arms.

  “There is no need to be afraid my dearest navigator,” a sultry voice hissed in the divine clicking tones of the sacred tongue. A pair of hungry red eyes flashed in the depths of the steam clouded darkness. The Navigator approached cautiously. Still a part of him was elated to actually hear her voice, not some distant echo of at the back of his mind. As he got closer to her voice he heard the bubbling of hot water. The Navigator froze as he beheld the silvery figure reclining in the simmering bath. Her exquisite red feathery down waved in the water as she rested her silver head lazily against the side the circular pool. She tapped the tiled floor with her long-sharpened claws as she gave him a bemused look. The Navigator winced as the Matriarch studied him, his feathery down ruffled with nervousness.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Am I not what you expected?” she asked with a sort of bemused cackle.

  “You are as divine as I imagined,” the navigator replied quickly.

  “I’m old, that’s what I am,” his Matriarch said bluntly. Her frank self-depreciation caught the Navigator off guard and he struggled to form any meaningful response. When she asked him to come closer he complied without a word. Her age didn’t make her predatory red gaze any less threatening.

  “You’re free to speak Navigator,” she clicked seductively; “You wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t interested in what you think. I crave conversation.”

  “May I ask why you summoned me Divine one?” The navigator managed with a submissive bow.

  “So polite and willing to serve,” the Matriarch commented with amusement as another figure emerged from the shadows. “I told you this one would be of use to us.”

  Her Familiars red eyes flashed jealously as he stepped between the Navigator and his mistress. He was an imposing specimen of a male though long past his prime. He still towered over the Navigator despite his thin hunched over form. The Familiars gaze narrowed as he scrutinized the Navigator, turning back to give the Matriarch a skeptical look. The Navigator couldn’t help but sense the wordless exchange taking place between them. They shared a mind after all and didn’t need to speak to understand each other. His Matriarchs' assurances were apparently not enough put the Familiar at ease.

  “Would he fly us into the heart of a star if we ordered him to?” the familiar growled. He meant for the Navigator to hear him.

  “Divine one?” The Navigator frowned.

  “I told you this one was different dearest,” the Matriarch scoffed. “He is not blindly obedient like the rest. He is fiercely loyal but willing to trust his own judgment even if it means defying us. Only he can be trusted with this task.”

  “I am worthy of any task you may have for me,” The Navigator exclaimed boldly. The weight of the Matriarch and her Familiar’s scrutiny had caused something to stir within him. The Navigators confident exclamation caused his Matriarch to splash with elation. Steam coiled around her towering form as she rose from her bath.

  “Come with me, I want to show you something,” she beckoned. The Navigator followed her to a spot on the wall. Her eyes shimmered intensely in the dark as she directed the Navigators gaze upward. Here the gilded mosaic depicted a figure with outstretched arms, an inverted sickle hanging above its crowned head. Its yellow gem encrusted eyes seemed to flicker in the dim misty light as though the legendary figure still lived. The Navigator bowed his head in reverence while his Matriarch just scoffed.

  “Our bloodline was once a devoted servant of the Divine One, our holiest mother, and still we were forsaken,” she hissed with barely contained hatred, “Were we not worthy of her good graces? For millennia we faithfully kept to her edicts and prepared our bloodline for her rebirth. Now we are forced to hide reduced to less than nothing. Remember this well Navigator: there is no punishment we haven’t endured, no humiliation we haven’t suffered. We are free to defy her.”

  The Matriarch sighed serenely as she voiced her epiphany. A strange luminous glow shone in her crazed stare as the Navigator took a fearful step back. It startled him to realize the true cost of the Matriarchs heresy. She was right though. No matter what they did they were damned regardless.

  “Why are you telling me this?” the Navigator asked as her Familiar penned him in.

  “Fate has decided that you shall play a part in what’s to come. The one who shall avenge our fall has appeared. My sisters fear her and what she could do. She resides on a distant planet, a devil sent in the place of the Divine One who so unjustly condemned us. You will help her save us all.”

  “A Devil? You don’t mean the Devil prophesized to destroy our people?” The Navigator whimpered. He recalled what little was said of her in the edicts. They warned of an unholy monster wielding the power of the Divine One, a harbinger of death and chaos. “Aren’t we duty bound to destroy her when and if she ever appeared?”

  “What the edicts claim are of no concern to me anymore,” His Matriarch spat dismissively. “What matters is that the Devil who finally revealed herself wore my crown and shares our blood. She is my heir, and her life is more important than anything proselytized in the ancient texts. Her power is ours.”

  “An heir?” The Navigator choked. “How is that possible?”

  “You doubt the stars?” the Matriarch replied forcefully. They didn’t have time for questions anymore. The others were on the move.

  “No, Divine One,” the Navigator apologized.

  “Good then take my ship. I believe it can still make the journey. Retrieve her before my sisters can harm her. Escort her back to me.”

  The Navigator whimpered to himself as the Familiar escorted him down a long dark empty hallway. The brooding figure said nothing to ease the Navigators misgivings about the mission he had been entrusted with. The Navigator tugged at the collar necklace that now strangled him. The responsibility made him feel sick. He hadn’t yet fully comprehended all that the Matriarch had confided in him. To defy the edicts was one thing but to do so in support of the shadowy enemy spoken of by his people for millennia chilled his blood. An heir? His mind raced. Was his blood so spoiled that one of his own siblings had become a vessel for an ancient evil? He’d have to dwell on this question as he made the trip. He and the Familiar had arrived in the empty cavernous hanger.

  Bright lights illuminated the bronze faceted sides of a flat windowless pyramid shaped craft hanging from the arched ceiling. Dozens could be stored here, though now there was just one. The Navigator knew the ship to be both fast and maneuverable from the little experience he had with it. This one hadn’t been used in years, not since the Navigator had been given a brief piloting lesson. The Matriarch kept it as one last escape option. Risking it was just one indication of her certainty and resolve. The Familiar tapped instructions into a nearby panel and watched as the vessel rotated down horizontally for boarding. The Navigator could only wonder what he was thinking.

  “I eagerly await your return,” the Familiar said voicing the Matriarchs will as a small ramp unfurled from the flat belly of the ship. He presented a navigation sphere containing the location of the Matriarchs prize. The Navigator accepted it with a bow then proceeded up the ramp with his destination projected in his hand. He warily studied the small icy world as he rushed toward the control room. The Matriarch watched his departure with bated breath, her ruddy gaze fixed on the Kindred stars.