Moonrise ✔ [Complete]

02 Alliance (Part 2)

Maeyune waited until Master Jorin Toru had ascended the steps to meet her.

Jorin was a man of average height with a narrow but strong build. He favored the temple's gray day robes, and maintained his long gray hair in a queue. With a mouth turned downward in his usual frown, his face bore evident lines of continuous scowling.

Before retiring at the end of the dragon-alien war, he was known as General Jorin Toru. He had been a loyal advisor to Chiyan's father, the former king.

When news had spread that a baby girl possessed the life force of the Moon God, the king had instructed Jorin to raise her into a warrior. She was to eventually lead his armies and fight for Suolan. And from the first days when Maeyune could walk, Jorin had trained her to prepare for an unforeseeable future.

Despite all her youthful years of bearing hate toward him and her pre-determined destiny, he was the only father she had ever known.

"What happened?" he asked when he reached her.

"The Iron Prophet attacked, but we were able to subdue them, Master," she answered, frowning. "However, they were carrying poison pills. We could not stop them."

The scowl on his face deepened. "Hmph," was all he muttered, but Maeyune knew he was churning through his thoughts. Time and experience had taught her well not to use her power to read private thoughts. At some point in her recent years, honor had finally pushed out temptation.

"His Majesty is requiring our presence inside, Master," she said.

Jorin nodded. "Very well then. Let us not keep our new king waiting."

The rest of her Aegis Team and the temple guardians remained outside while she and Jorin entered the palace. They traveled into the throne room and through various halls before they encountered a small group of palace guards outside Chiyan's library. The guards allowed them entry.

Before they entered the large room, they heard Chiyan's loud, but controlled voice. "How were those automechs overtaken?" he asked.

General Loni and Deiyu sat on either side of him at the longest of the library's tables. In the center of the table sat a small, flat disk. It was a transmission device that emitted a large holographic screen. On the screen was an older man Maeyune recognized, the king's master of government, Master Den.

They all turned as Maeyune and Jorin entered the room.

"Maeyune, thank you for the speed that you demonstrated against the enemy," Chiyan said, gesturing for them to sit. "Without your presence, there is no doubt Suolan would have suffered a fate similar to Nomenia's."

She bowed her head to accept his words. She formally bowed to Master Den on the holographic screen before taking a seat beside the general.

Her brow furrowed in consternation as she offered her observance. "Those were Nomenian drones, Your Majesty."

"Yes," he replied, folding his hands on the table. "After killing the Nomenian king, the Iron Prophet has confiscated most of Nomenian weaponry and technology. It is only a matter of time before the rebels can fight no more.

"It is a terrible misfortune for the world," the new king continued, "to witness the birth of a new terror shortly after the Dragon-Wobeck war."

While they discussed the matter of the overridden automechs and their concerns for the Nomenian technology, Maeyune's thoughts ventured off.

The Wobeck. They were the race that had travelled from another world.

Many temple guardians were the first to have learned their name, whispered to them in their visions from the dragon gods. After the war, the planet of Vaius experienced a new era, one where temple guardians were no longer alone in bearing magic.