17th Generation

"Lower your eyes!" The command battered Kieran's mind, echoes of fury forcing his head to the lush, gold trimmed carpet below. His back ached at the strain, his ancient bones weathered by decades of serving their Holy masters. "You were given a simple task. The traitor was to be handed over to the Tizanki cohort and his contact's memories wiped. Instead, a cohort from Rik lies buried in your precious Hall of War and the traitor is long gone, taking my ship with him."

"Talassar was handed over to the Holy Celestial and its Messengers…" Kieran began hesitantly but the distinct translated voice of a Messenger interrupted him.

"The traitor was caged by Lady Thrallax herself but unholy works defeated our purpose and swept him clear of the Hall. My brethren are dead due to an evil plot and you dare to blame us!?"

"Not at all Holy Messenger." Kieran felt the pressure on his mind ease a little and looked up at the glowering Celestial. There was no way he would look at the looming purple eyes of the Guardian hiding in the rift before him. It would open him to scrutiny which had to be avoided. "I know not what schemes the dark forces have arrayed against us but their designs clash against our purpose time and again."

"Speak clearly human. I do not have time to deal with your twisted thoughts today." The Guardian's rumbling presence loomed with displeasure, and Kieran ducked his head once more.

"We think it was a Seeker device they used within the Hall. The energy readings are fragmented, but my best scientists are working to trace the power. They believe we can isolate the remnant signature with a temporal stasis and track it back to the Seeker who created it." [Whatever that means.]

"As if you humans have the ability to track a Seeker." The Messenger retorted, its disdain filling the room for a brief moment before it controlled itself and retracted its emotions. The Guardians hated the emotions of their servants. Most scriptures agreed it was because of the 'vassal races' corruption, but Kieran knew it was simply their disgust with the lesser beings they had to rely upon after the Concord.

"Better than you Tizanki can." Kieran snorted and cast a quick glance at the Tizanki Messenger, his hatred for the creatures loosening his tongue. [Well, since I've already opened my mouth I may as well muddy the waters a little. What's that old saying? In for a penny, in for a round?] "We gave you Talassar and your vaunted Celestial let him loose. We spend our time building for the Most Holy and you scurry like sewer rats in search of rotten flesh, feasting on the scraps of the great ones."

"Cursed beast." The Messenger's chittering rose to an ear-piercing screech, its tails weaving like angry serpents. "A few successes and you think you can surpass us? Your useless race will be destroyed, its pitiful remnants enslaved as they should have been, and you…"

"Enough." The Guardian barked, the psychic command sending Kieran and the Messenger back into the carpet. [Thank the Heavens my predecessors spent the effort to import this carpet, otherwise I'd be suffering bruises or carpet burns.] "There will be no Blood Rain C'Tz'Rik. You lost the traitor and your precautions were… inadequate." The Guardian's words hinted at retribution, and the Messenger's fur rose in fear.

"But the blame for the dreadnought lies with you, Hierophant." The title representing the Theocracy's most powerful leader was nothing but a distasteful necessity for the Guardian. The weave it used to accuse Kieran was laced with barely concealed hatred. "The traitor has escaped beyond my reach and with the Invincible his destruction will be a task beyond your means. Yet it must be done."

"With you to lead us Most Holy Thrallax, Talassar will be nothing but a minor blot on your glorious reign." Kieran cursed the traitorous Favoured for the problems he was causing. After the disaster with the Black Sun he should have had the dignity to end his miserable life and take his secrets into the grave, not threaten their people with his very existence. Even if he was now the most valuable human alive.

"I cannot." The Guardians voice came after a brief hesitation. Kieran wouldn't have caught the shift in Thrallax's behaviour if it wasn't for the many years he'd faced the great beings ire and demands. "My presence is required elsewhere and you will have to find the traitor on your own, but once you do, I will arrive. Rise and accept my decree."

Kieran groaned and rose to one knee, arms outstretched to accept the shimmering golden scroll materialising above them. The Messenger was similarly upright, ears perked in attention and tails curling around the decree.

"C'Tz'Rik will summon five cohorts of the Rik from Ve'Te'Ren and scour every inch of this sector. The Theocracy will deploy its fleets and open the Hall of Favoured to hunt the traitor. No expense is to be spared and the traitor's head is to be laid at my feet by the end of the annual. This is my decree and your utmost priority." Thrallax's scaled hand appeared through the rift, two of its seven fingers descending on the decrees to invest them with Holy Might.

Kieran clutched the completed decree, for once ignoring the radiant heat they held from the fragment of the Guardian's investiture. "Most Holy Lady, the rebels have spread accross our worlds and their…"

"I said utmost priority [Hierophant]!" The rift snapped shut and Kieran bowed quickly even though Thrallax's presence was gone. There was no telling how much she could sense from her throne and he couldn't show disrespect when she was so adamant. Compared to some of the previous Guardians who oversaw the Theocracy, Thrallax was considered mild mannered as far as the previous Hierophant's records were concerned, but a Guardian was after all only concerned with their 'Holy Duty' and the matters of humanity mattered little to them.

"One more word Kieran and I would have enjoyed disembowelling you." One of the Messenger's tails flicked the tip of its snout, a sure sign of its amusement. It ignored his bow and ordered a rift opened to the command deck of its star carrier, the unstable gate tearing deep rents in the walls and furniture.

Kieran cursed under his breath and pulled himself upright with great effort. He shuffled to his desk and dropped the decree into a cylindrical slot. With the push of a button the decree melted into the powerful communications array and was instantly transmitted across the Theocracy, reaching every Hall and Archon across the human worlds. It was one of the few pieces of Guardian technology granted to humanity; the right to use the great FTL comm relays sitting in the core of a star in every habitable system in Guardian space.

He settled into his comfortable chair and tapped a few keys on his personal console to bring up Talassar's file. [I've already read this a hundred times at least and there's nothing here that shows why Thrallax is so anxious to hunt down a simple traitor. I know his value to us, but the Guardians shouldn't know. It's not like this is the first time one of our Psions has gone rogue.]

"And not by design this time." A chuckle drifted from the door. "That boy's really done a number on us."

"Don't read my mind without permission, Andras." Kieran glowered at the tall man striding through the ruins of his office. With a ceremonial sword at his waist and fitted in an elegant suit, Andras was the perfect image of a Lord Protector.

Powerful, elegant and handsome.

Far too handsome for Kieran's liking.

"Why thank you." Andras grinned and executed a mock bow, lips twisting in further amusement at Kieran's increasing frustration. "And it's not like I enjoy reading your mind but as long as old seven fingers is hovering around the pair bond will protect you."

"Blaspheme on your own time." Kieran muttered. "And stop reminding me every time."

Andras shrugged. "You seem to forget at the drop of a hat and it's my duty as your Lord Protector to aid you in every way possible. Even if it involves reminding you at every turn." He hooked a chair with his ankle and dragged it before Kieran's table, plopping down after tossing his sword onto a nearby couch. "What's really on your mind? There's too much going on and I can't get a grip on the issue. While the rebels are and the loss of those fleets and planets are a concern, it's a minor insurrection at best."

Kieran leaned back and gestured at the projection of Talassar's file. "Thrallax wants Talassar dead now, not captured. Whatever he did has her… terrified. More than half the Theocracy slipping from her fingers."

"A scared Guardian? Is this some new sort of joke?" Andras flicked his fingers in dismissal and tapped his head. "I think you're finally losing it."

"I went back through Sark's notes." Kieran scratched his chin as he recalled the worn pages of the Theocracy's most well kept secret. "Thrallax was just an Intercessor during the folly. A minor agent of the Heavens, yet in the last few decades she's gained enough authority to try something as insane as build Invincible. That's not something that's possible without some sort of… leverage." He whispered the last word, letting his connection with Andras transfer some of his suspicions. The best way to keep a secret short of burying all those who knew it was to never speak of it.

"Madness." Andras barked. "Whatever it is won't help us. We can't blackmail a Guardian. She could just destroy our planets a few at a time and turn our people into slaves without any repercussions. You think any of the Angelic Choir would stand out for us against one of their own? Even this rebellion will just get her reassigned if the rebels take charge and a Guardian fleet will come and reinstall our people after glassing a few planets for shits and giggles."

"That's not quite what I meant." Kieran frowned at the thought of blackmail and genocide. While Thrallax herself might not be vulnerable, her cadre could be. He shook his head to clear the thought and pointed at a few innocuous lines on Talassar's profile. It was a code few within the Theocracy even knew existed.

"I thought the 17th generation was discontinued." Andras squinted and spoke slowly, decoding the text with significant effort. "There were some problems."

"Excessive zeal." Kieran interjected.

"Mindless Guardian worshippers." Andras remarked. "Still younger than our 4th generation despite their failures, but I don't see the problem." Kieran and Andras both winced in pain at the reminder of their purpose, their bond resonating and amplifying the emotion.

The pair bond was both a boon and a curse.

One of mankind's experiments with psionic ability: two powerful Psions were bound together artificially, one serving as a host for the other, granting him his power, essence and life force while gaining powerful computational abilities instead. Every Lord Protector and Hierophant for the last three thousand years was descended from the 4th generation template. The Protector served as sword and shield, their powerful abilities shielding the minds of the Hierophant from the Guardians themselves while the Hierophant charted humanity's path underneath their master's boots.

"Niobys resurrected the 17th generation. Ten were incubated." Kieran pulled out some sheets of paper he'd prepared beforehand. Only the most dangerous secrets were still kept on paper, when both a persons mind and his computers memory weren't safe enough. "He proposed certain tweaks to reduce that aspect of their behaviour and strengthen their core abilities."

"Which are?" Andras prompted, leaning forwards in anticipation.

Kieran hesitated, shuffling the papers around on the table. Everything he was saying was simply conjecture. Niobys was dead, and he'd taken most of his research with him in his absurd keys. "Essence devouring is the main one. I know Andras." Kieran forestalled his partners outburst. "Dealing with the Shroud isn't pleasant, but it was a failure as far as every one of Niobys' records indicate. He ended up with a weak group of Psions who could barely become Acolytes and in whom the indoctrination took strange paths."

"I'm guessing insanity and Shroud based sub talents were the only outcomes." Kieran nodded to confirm the theory. "You said they could barely become Acolytes. Except for Talassar who somehow not only became a Favoured but betrayed the Guardian's and bypassed the indoctrination."

"A powerful Favoured by all indications and titled the Ravager by the Choir. Niobys even took him on as a protege of sorts and called in enough favours to assign him to Invincible. After which Talassar betrayed the Guardians he'd served his entire life without a fraction of doubt. Andras this is someone who purged an entire planet of our people at their orders without hesitation."

"These are all suspicions Kieran, and it's not like a Favoured has much choice in using their powers." Andras pulled on a loose lock of hair, twisting it unconsciously and biting his lip.

"True. But Niobys mentioned in his final notes on the project that he'd managed to discover a surprise. It was in the margin of one of his papers and I would have missed it if I wasn't searching so carefully now." Kieran took a deep breath. "I think Niobys succeeded in a way he didn't intend. If I'm right Talassar has the ability to directly tap the Shroud."

"Well shit." Andras breathed. "If he's treading on the Guardian's domain, it's no wonder they want him dead, but that's not something one can detect. The only reason they discovered Sark was because he was betrayed. We can't afford to let him die if you're right, but if we defy Thrallax's order…"

"Then humanity is finished and Sark's descendants will vanish like the forerunners. I'm not sure whether Thrallax discovered his abilities and is somehow threatened by it personally or if there's something else between them." Kieran finished. "It matters little to our response though. I've already contacted the Council, and we've voted to release some of the strictures. Elements from the Raiders and Blood Legion will be at your command. Your orders are simple. Bring Talassar back alive before the Guardians or the Tizanki can find him. You're free to explain our purpose and Sark's legacy to make him amenable."

"And if he doesn't want to cooperate?"

"A team of Raptor medics will be one jump behind you and you're authorised to find out his secrets by any means necessary."

Andras nodded and left quickly, surprise weakening his control of the bond. Kieran sensed the cold blooded purpose and distaste at the task he'd been assigned. They both knew Talassar would not cooperate. The Council was too well hidden, and any Favoured would consider it some Guardian plot to weaken his guard. It wasn't the first time something similar was attempted, and it usually ended with the unfortunate human cut open on a Raptor's table or brought before a Guardian and vaporised.

Kieran rubbed his temples briefly, caressing the worn paper in his hands.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, letting the bond pull more of his energy to support Andras. He could feel his partner's sadness as his skin withered visibly, and flesh melted until the bones were visible under his skin. Gaunt, feverish eyes seemed to pierce through the sky, searching for salvation and redemption.

"Glory to Mankind." He whispered, falling into a deep slumber to recover.