Part 2

Life was good for the new Commander. Iya fully stepped into her role and started rebuilding lost relationships with ally territories. Although Artemis was standing in as the Commander, he didn’t have the full powers. The Sagen army was operating at half strength. His focus after the betrayal of former Commander Gerok was to return the Sagen army to what it once was. The new generation of soldiers had to be trained differently. ‘More structure and discipline, betrayal of any level cannot happen like that ever again.’ Says Artemis. He completely revamped the structure and training courses for all the fourth borns who entered the army.

After Iya’s initiation, she was ready to get back into action. She wanted to inform the Star Council of the Twelve Queens, she was ready to take on big assignments or the ones that offered the most coin. That was another big purpose to the Sagen army. The army brought in a lot of revenue and trade goods from the planets they visited. Not just goods for trading but access to special and rare medicines that can only be found on certain planets. The people of Sage were looking forward to get back to an elite way of life.

For now, Iya’s campaigns are put on hold because it was time for Sage to take on another rare responsibility. Then current Star Lord Tyannitus was dying, his star light was fading and a new Star Lord has to take his place. King Jaron ordered a mass gathering of his people for he had an announcement to make. He proud to be the king that will have a hand in choosing the next ruler of the universe. The Sagen people looked forward to King Jaron’s speeches for he would broadcast them on large screens all around the world. All at once, everyone got the chance to hear what the king had to say.

Putting Iya’s campaign on hold did not settle well with her. There was no use in arguing with her father about it. Once the king’s mind is made up sometimes it’s hard to change it. Instead, Iya took the opportunity to change some much needed things around in regards to her army but first needed to speak with Artemis. He would know exactly what the grounding is about. Iya asked around to where she could find Artemis and someone pointed in the direction of the Communication Quarters. Artemis was standing behind one of the techs that has been investigation the communication jam on Corra. She knew something was up.

Iya approached the counter and leaned down looking at the computer, “Hey Artemis, I need to speak to you about the grounding thing. It doesn’t make sense that the army has to stay while they choose the next Star Lord. I’m beginning to sense that it’s about something else.”

Artemis stayed looking down at the computer screen as the tech kept typing away. He stopped and turned around to look at Artemis then back at Iya. Artemis looked down at the tech, “Keep going, we need all of this information.” He then looked up at Iya and let out a huge sigh, “Come walk with me.” Artemis and Iya walked out of the Communication Quarters down to the outside common area. Iya was getting anxious to what all the drama and secrets were about. “Ever since Corra, I haven’t been able to sleep at night wondering where we went wrong with Kahn. I put a team of techs together to comb through all of our communication systems to where that virus came from. We haven’t been able to come up with any trace of one. But there is something I do need to tell you.” Artemis stopped walking and turned to Iya. He placed his hands on her shoulders then looked around to see who was nearby. “I’m the one who told your father to ground the army…”

Iya looked at Artemis surprised and taken back. “Why would you do that?”

“Because we believe that someone here on Sage has been communicating with Gerok. The techs told me this morning that the communication jam didn’t come from Corra but here on Sage. Someone has been possibly sending Gerok breadcrumbs.”

“And you think it’s someone in my army? Who has any connection to Gerok? A very small number of soldiers would know how to work the computers in the Communication Quarters. Computers aren’t our thing.”

“I know that trust me… but we can’t take any chances. So I proposed that the king ground all traveling so we can figure out what exactly is going on. Trust me on this Iya, I feel like we’re going to be in for a real ride once we expose the truth.”

“I’ll do whatever you need me to do… Anything to find the traitors. There are still those who sympathize with the Saijerian way. What happened on Corra can’t happen again.” Iya looked at Artemis concerned but more pissed than anything. Thoughts started flooding her head wondering who in army could be betraying them. Not on my watch, she thought.

In the Royal Quarters...

King Jaron got up early that day. He stood at his bedroom window looking down at his kingdom, watching the sun rise. The king missed his queen deeply. Queen Shakiya took the offer in replacing a current member of the Star Council whose time is coming to an end. Of course he wasn’t mad at her just the opposite actually, he was proud of her.

To be recognized as a potential replacement of any of the current Twelve Queens on the Star Council is a great honor. Usually before any of the king’s speeches, Queen Shakiya would tell his maids how to dress her handsome husband. He missed how his queen would sit in their dressing area watching their maids get her king ready. She would smile and compliment them for the wonderful job they did.

King Jaron turned around and looked at his queen’s favorite chair. He pictured Queen Shakiya sitting on her legs smiling back at him. King Jaron loved his queen’s thick and curvy body. She loved to wear beautiful long dresses and walked around barefoot. Her long black silky hair fell down her back. The gold jewelry Shakiya wore the bracelets, the earrings and necklaces made her light caramel skin glow and glisten. King Jaron loved his queen so much. The chair was empty and started collecting dust, looking at the chair made him miss her more.

The king’s maids gathered his formal attire together and helped him get dressed. The king wore long beautiful and colorful robes that draped down to his feet. The colors for the royal family were red, black and gold. King Jaron’s custom-made no sleeve robe was red with black buttons. There were gold flowers stitched down the robe from head to toe. Beautiful patterns of different types of Sagen flowers. His long black locked braids were twisted into a half ponytail, allowing the lower half to fall down his back. The king’s crown sat perfectly on top of his braids. The last pieces to his attire were loosely fit black silky pants and his favorite black leather sandals. The king was ready to make his appearance. All four of his children Prince Jaron Jr., Princess Patrisha, Prince Jayce and Princess Iya all dressed for the occasion. Iya of course wore her armor. King Jaron could hear his people talking and stirring as they waited down below in the common court area in front of the palace.

When the Sagen King made his way on to the high up balcony, his people roared and cheered. Hundreds of people gathered all clapping at once, they looked forward to hearing the announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen! My people of Sage, thank you for gathering together to hear my grand announcement. I gathered you all here today because the time for Sage to truly be on the map has come. We all know the Star Lord Origin story. The story of our beloved Fore Father King Methodius and the first Commander Princess Ezris.” King Jaron paused to allow his people to finish clapping, “When the Star Lord came to Sage five hundred years ago he was beginning his journey as a young Lord. He needed help carrying out his plans for peace and unity. He had seek out the most respected and noble Twelve Queens from ever corner of universe and made his Star Council. Habitants all over throughout every galaxy did not know the stars we see in the night sky were alive. They could hear and see the cries of innocent people and creatures suffering at the hands of ruthless barbarians. Clans of barbarians traveled long distances from the out skirt planets trying to conquer as many planets they could get their hands on… You all know the story!” The crowd cheered and clapped. Others whistled in the air for what King Jaron was about to say. “But when they got to Sage following the Star Lord here, King Methodius would NOT allow us to be another victim. The senseless, murderous, savage Barbarians came to Sage to kill Star Lord Tyannitus. They wanted to stop him from completely his work of peace and unity to all who lived in the galaxies. King Methodius asked his youngest sister Princess Ezris to gather what little of an army they had to fight back. To make it known that the Sagens are not to be MESSED WITH!” King Jaron raised his hands, egging the people on to cheer and get excited. “The Sagens saved the Star Lord’s life and in return, he gave King Methodius an offer of a life time. Wealth and prosperity…”

King Jaron broke down his message a little further giving the recognition his people deserved, “King Methodius had already established our way of life by separating the work through the number of sibling you were. The first borns…” King Jaron raised one hand saluting to the people who were born first in their family, they all cheered and whistled as their king spoke, “They are the leaders of the public, the teachers and healers. They hold on to the old traditions of Sage and keep them alive. The second borns!..” King Jaron then raised his other hand acknowledging the people who were the second sibling in the crowd. “My second borns are our farmers, horticulture experts, and our agriculture field workers. They run all the stores in the market. They make sure Sagen all over are all fed. Together they are always coming up with new ideas to keep up with the growing population on our planet.” King Jaron put his hands together like he was praying and bowed to the crowd, saluting the first and second born people for all of their hard work. “My third borns, our financial keepers, our architects and builders. They work together in developing new machinery and other technology advancements. They are the super smart ones. Without all three working together as one, Sage could not be as elite and wealthy. Lastly, we know them as the rowdiest group of the siblings, my fourth borns or the members of our Sagen Military. Families who applied to have their fourth born are chosen every Warriors Solstices. We honor those families who give their youngest child to the military. We fight for the Star Lord and his council, in return we are rewarded greatly.” All the fourth borns in the crowd gave there oorahs. Repeatedly chanting ‘Iya the Great’ over and over until King Jaron put up his hands.

The chanting of Iya’s name made her feel powerful and invincible. She turned and looked behind her to find her captain. Kal was already looking at Iya before she turned to look at him. He winked at her as she gave Kal a big smile. The king continued, “All four groups come together and we all function as one. There is one more set of special children that we are blessed to also call Sagens, the Children of the Stars.”

The people in the crowd clapped and cheered as the king flagged down the palace guards to bring out the these special children. The crowd gasped and whispered as four young people came out from behind the curtains on to the balcony. All four lined up alongside the king’s children. These special people wore all white clothes, a white blouse and white pants. The balcony was big enough for a large group of people and then some. A few priest who were also dressed in all white came out and stood behind them as the king made his introductions.

Once a ‘Star Child’ is born, they come into their world with bright glowing white eyes, which eventually fade away. That is the only way anyone can know who the Star Children are. Once the doctors and mother see this special child, the mother is treated with special care. According to the legend, once a planet is chosen to produce the next Star Lord a group of Stars must volunteer to become what’s called the ‘Fallen’. Meaning a certain number of Stars fall down to the planet, assimilate by changing their appearance to local inhabitants.

Once the ‘Fallen Star’ take the form of the current inhabitants, they have the ability to mate with them. When a star child is born, the special child has the ability to speak and hear the stars. With these abilities their sole purpose is to carry out their agenda. To unite all habitants together as one. The Star Lord could also see and hear those who were suffering and he knew where help was needed.

One of the Star Children named Cashius was really good friends with Iya. They had known each other ever since they were small children. Cashius looked over at Iya who standing beside her sister at the time. Iya watched the special group of people line up side by side next her siblings. When she saw Cashius she waved and gave him a smile she was happy to see him, now it was his time to shine. Cashius was tall well-built handsome young man. His dark caramel color skin and dark brown eyes made him stand out. Cashius liked cutting his hair into a fade, he didn’t care for the long locked braids.

King Jaron was finishing up his speech and was about to announce the process of how the next Star Lord would be chosen. “After it was all said and done, Star Lord Tyannitus was so pleased with King Methodius for wanting to join his cause and fight for him. He told King Methodius that the next Star Lord will come from Sagen blood. Not only will be the Sagens be known throughout the universe but a Sagen will be the next overseer and keeper of the peace. The keeper over everything. We were blessed with four Star Children and they stand behind me.” King Jaron turned half way stretching out his arm introducing the four teenagers that stood behind him, “Some of you may already know who they are for they are still our brothers and sisters. We have Angel, Trent, Kendle and Cashius. It was a hard decision for the Sagen council and I to make in to how we were going to choose between the four. All four are amazing candidates. Throughout their lives the Star Children have had a special upbringing. Volunteers from each group among the siblings took on the role of being their priests. The priests raised and trained these four children since they were four, unlike any of you in the crowd. We wanted to make sure before our Sagen Star Lord leaves this planet he or she would be elite all on their own. So, the council and I have come up with a series of tests to determine which Star Child comes out on top. At the very end, there will be a trial by combat.” The crowd below gasped and whispered.

The news was no surprise to the four Star Children though. Throughout their lives they were told they were special and one day they would see why. That time has come and all were ready to begin their trials. Cashius was determine to win that spot out of his ‘star’ siblings. Honestly, Cashius cared none about his competition. All he thought about was if he became Star Lord nothing would stop him from having what he really wanted… Princess Iya.