Postby Ryoko » Wed Feb 09, 2005 12:41 pm
Let me know if you like it. This is the first chapter.
3915 AD
A shadow crept through the room as the candle light grew dim and expired. The heat of day sank away and shriveled into the chill of night. A sickening dampness settled in the air as darkness arose like the coming of war. The sensation was sharp enough to cut a man to the core of his being. Its grotesque feeling was not right. There was something evil in the air this night that had not been there before. The air was crying to be heard, to be cleansed of past misdeeds. It was saturated with the blood of thousands slain and called out to a single soul for repentance.
The 20-year-old girl raised her head and look out the window. The last shred of sunlight was barely visible through the reinforced glass. She bowed her head once more and realized that her actions had accomplished nothing. She had been crouching here on her throne all day. Her legs had cramped from strain of sitting in one position too long and her black pants and tank top were wrinkled. Her cape fluttered around her as a draft wisped through the throne room.
She raised her head and gazed at the high arched ceiling, popping her neck to relieve built up tension. She stared for a few moments as the room became darker. She could barely make out the lines and curves as she sat wondering about her fate. She moved her head to glance around the room. It was devoid of any form of light. Black was its theme. The cold stone walls were such a contrast to the metal platted floor, a union of two eras, and yet, they both seemed to tell the same haunting story about innocent blood and deep depression. A bitter malicious harmony rang forth from the battlements perfectly in tune within its parts. The dreadful melody that resounded from inside came from the woman’s own soul.
Kayura leapt from her throne of cast-iron and black velvet, her cape billowing behind her. The night came on gradually, sneaking in like a cobra poised to attack, as she walked to the center of the throne room. Insanity tugged at the back of her mind tempting her to loose control. She stopped and closed her emerald green eyes as the darkness of the room pressed around her. Pulling her hair from her face as the menacing moment passed, she opened her eyes and slowly moved around the throne room wondering why she felt so defeated. Her empire was complete. Her power was all she needed.
She struggled to think about what to do and where she was going. The entire galaxy is under my control. My life’s goal is fulfilled. What’s wrong with me? Why does it seem like I can’t go on?! What am I missing? Insanity called to her once again and she fought it with all her might. She fell to her knees and grasped her head between her hands and started to weep. Images of the past came to her and flashes. All the things she had shut out for so long came over her in a flood. She stood and leaned against a pillar only for a moment to rest. Her breath came out in ragged gasps.
She began to walk down into the hall in a drunken sort of daze brought on only by tears and deep misery. It was bright here. The lights kept the halls and corridors easy to see into. A wail escaped her throat as she struggled to stay conscious. The room was like ice, but she was hot with fever. She was soaked through with sweat.
She wandered around the palace taking in her surroundings and thinking, her footsteps echoing on the cold metallic floor. Her palace was death. It held a macabre allure that was beyond mortal comprehension. The darkness that possessed it was brought on by more than just the pitch blacks and deep burgundies of the walls and floors. It was a reflection of her soul.
She stopped roaming and sighed at the sight of the lighting's glare on the floor. She had reached her chambers. Once inside, she lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, hoping to get some sleep. A single thought floated past her mind before sleep and memories overcame her.
"There are times in life that we all go through difficult experiences that shape who we become. These experiences become ingrained in our subconscious minds and cause us to grow stronger and wiser or force us into foolishness and weakness. From these experiences, we learn to love life or to hate it.
She smiled weakly at the thought and prepared her mind for the deluge of memories it would undergo while she slept. She fell asleep with it at the forefront of her brain.
"From these times, we learn to love life or to hate it."
Then the memories came...
3899 AD
"Kyrio wait up!" 4-year-old Kayura shouted stumbling over various rocks by the stream.
"You're too slow. Come on, Mother is waiting for us." Kyrio stopped walking and waited for his twin sister to catch up. They had left their mother's side to play beside the small stream. The time had passed quickly and they suddenly realized that it was getting dark. They had decided to go back to their mother. They eventually found their way back to her and together they went back to the palace.
The palace was a grand sight in the days of Ritrio. The ancient paintings hung from the walls, the colors unfaded by the test of time. The carpeted floor was a deep burgundy in color. The chandelier, primitive in style with candles amidst the ironwork, gave the palace a mystical look. The navy, emerald, and purple silk curtains hung from the lofty ceiling to the cobblestone floor. Kayura loved to watch the curtains flutter in the evening wind as they did that very night. She allowed a small sigh to escape her lips as she gazed upon their simple beauty.
Her mother touched her arm gently and led her down the dimly lit hall. After Kyrio had been put to bed, Kayura found herself being lifted into her mother's arms and carried to her room. The four-year-old girl fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. She never realized that it would be the last time she would see her mother alive.
3915 AD
Kayura awoke suddenly from her deep sleep. This first memory was of the night her mother had been killed. She dripped with sweat wishing this first memory had been only a nightmare. She got up and splashed water on her face letting the coolness comfort her. She remembered the morning after her adventure by the stream all too well. The guards awakened her early and rushed her out of the room, trying to explain things as they went, the guard tried to tell her what had happened but Kayura's child-like brain couldn't comprehend that her mother was gone. She couldn't comprehend that her mother had bled to death because someone shot her in the neck. Kayura had been confused for most of her childhood as to why someone would do something so cruel.
She and her brother had been sent to a stronghold on an asteroid to be safe while an investigation was being held. Years later, she would conduct her own investigation and uncover the truth. Kayura's anger surfaced as she threw anything she could get her hands on around the bathroom. She clenched the broken pieces of a vase in her hand and watched as blood ran through her fingers. She fell to the ground with tears streaming down her face. She shook uncontrollably knowing that this was not the end of the memories. This was not the end of the pain she would feel before the night was through.
In this night, she would face her past, her present, her fears, her choices, and her demons. She knew that even if she forced herself to stay awake, eventually, she would fall asleep and succumb to this attack of remembrances. She stood in a hap-hazardous sort of way and walked out into the hall in the direction of the dungeon. She was no longer in control of herself. As she strode to the dungeon, delirium overcame her. She stumbled on a sort of drunken despair, wailing and weeping and falling over herself as the corridor swirled and buckled around her. She leaned against the wall as she went, going farther deeper into the dungeon. Her sub-conscious mind had a plan to bring her from her pain and infamy. It knew what must be done. It knew the truth.
Kayura groaned as she unknowingly punched a code into a number pad near a door that led to the most important prisoner kept. The door led to her closest friend and her deadliest enemy, the one that knew her best. The door opened and she stumbled inside. The person in the room turned to her with a sad look.
"What tortures have you come to lay upon me now, My Kiri?" he asked. A closer look told him that Kayura was not herself. She collapsed on the floor hitting the control panel on her way down, closing the door behind her. The man rushed to her and gathered her in his arms. He attempted to calm her, but her sobs resounded from the walls.
"Hush, My Kiri," he whispered.
"Kamlyn?" she managed to say one last time before she passed out in his arms from exhaustion and emotional strain.
"I'm here," he whispered to her unconscious form as she lay limp in his arms.
Kayura did not hear his comment to her as she was drifting off into memories once again. This time she would not awaken until the entire course of her life had been replayed before her mind.
"There are times in life..."
Five-year-old Kayura walked down the long corridor to her father's room.
"That we all go through..."
She knocked on the door before her, but there was no answer. Her father refused to see her.
"Difficult experiences..."
He had decided.
"That shape who we become."
She would leave the next day for the academy.
"From these experiences...
What was left unsaid was a deep hatred of a female heir.
"We learn..."
He wished for her brother to inherit the throne at any cost.
"To love life..."
Even at the cost of his only daughter's life.
"Or, to hate it."
Thus begins the life story of Kayura Amane Leone Rene Triast, Empress of the galaxy Kirasha.