The Citadel -Part Three of The SCI'ON Trilogy

The Citadel

Part three of the Sci’on trilogy

Nicola Rhodes

© copyright 2012 Nicola Rhodes

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Smashwords Edition

Prologue

And once more, in the dawn of time, the Undying stood blinking in the light of the new world and wondered …

* * *

All was silence. There was no sound, no light, no Jez and no world. And when Johnny, in sudden panic, tried to reach backward, and then forward in time, he realised the terrible truth. SCI’ON was gone! Everything was gone!

The fact was, Johnny had made a serious miscalculation in his plans. He had forgotten one very important element.

* * *

‘This is the beginning,’ thought Johnny, hearing a voice in his head that was not his own. ‘This is nothing, the nothing before the universe began. The real beginning.’

The world – for want of a better word – was just empty space, nothing but empty space – forever. It bore down on him, a great sucking void of infinite. Nothing had ever existed, and, from the point of view of the infinite, nothing would ever exist. Until it did.

There was no colour, but because humans do not think like that, a human would have seen it as pale blue. Johnny saw it as nothing. He was not entirely human.

Johnny grinned without amusement at the vast nothing. He was wondering where to put his thumb.

* * *

… Wondered where the world had gone … and why.

Johnny knew why. In a moment of hideous revelation, he realised that it was all over.

Born again in this new cycle of time, he, himself had finally fulfilled Talvas’s original and terrible design.

Nothing would ever exist. Until it did … unless …

There was a way to ensure it never did, and Johnny had seen it; as he now remembered with horrible clarity.

Had Johnny even considered his counterpart and the role assigned to him by Talvas the insane, he would probably have assumed that, as before, Jez (or rather Jez’s counterpart) would stop him in time. In fact, had he really thought about it, he would have anticipated being shuttled back to the beginning of time by his counterpart at some point in the early 21st century, several hundred years earlier. Here was the reason then for that unexpected and unexamined feeling of relief he had felt around that time. He saw it now – too late! But the fact was he had not thought about it, and the moment had passed un-regarded. If he had, the chances were that Jez herself (his own Jez) would have corrected such a dangerous and arrogant assumption anyway. Why should he assume that that Johnny Hammond would be born in the same century as he had been – oh, but he should have been. Yet clearly he had not. Why? But that no longer mattered, and he would never know now anyway. No assumptions had been made, however, just a grievous and ultimately devastating oversight.

Johnny, with the zeal of a true fanatic, obsessed by his new and worthier objectives, had forgotten the original purpose of his own existence, the reason why Talvas had engineered his coming into the world in the first place. The destruction of SCI‘ON.

Jez had turned that purpose aside once. But now it seemed his original destiny had finally been fulfilled. This time, there had been no Jez in Johnny’s life. She had obviously lived and died centuries before him.

The danger had never been from Talvas. The true danger, unforeseen until this moment, had always been himself.

* * *

The ranks of the Undying hung for a horrifying, petrifying moment in the void and then were swept away into the infinite, to Talvas’s final and immense satisfaction.

And Jonathan Matthew Hammond, most powerful among the Undying and truly now the ultimate Destroyer of Worlds, shrugged his shoulders, realised it was the end, and loosened his control to let himself be swept along after them.

Chapter One – At The World’s End

In the dark silence of a dead universe, Johnny Hammond hung, suspended in the formless void before time began. And watched …

When any decision is made the universe splits off , and both possible outcomes have their existence. So, when Johnny committed his wanton destruction of SCI’ON he also, and at the same moment, decided not to.

Because of Jez.

Because of Jez, a universe in which Johnny had not destroyed SCI’ON already had an existence. On the one hand, Johnny, alone and uninfluenced, destroyed everything. On the other, he had Jez by his side, and that changed his mind – changed everything!

Both now had already happened. No matter that, from Johnny’s point of view, these events occurred billions of years apart. For the universe, they occurred simultaneously. For SCI’ON is always at the beginning and the end, a fixed immutable point from which all time and all worlds flow and all time and all worlds eventually flow back into.

… Watched as the world rose like a giant sun in a starlit sky and time came rushing back to greet him.

It was SCI’ON of course, and the moment he saw it, it all became clear. Yet it was different now. The magnificent mountains were gone and in their place rising thousands of feet in the air, towering menacingly above the skyline and crowned with fire and lightning was the enormous Citadel he, himself had built.

Chapter Two – At the World’s Beginning

As SCI’ON was reborn, so was Johnny, and as he looked around him, he felt a deep wonder at his reprieve, and also at the beauty of a universe almost lost. But there was still something missing.

Without Jez, he felt, he would rather have been in the void after all.

‘Johnny?’

Johnny froze; he hardly dared breathe in his sudden hope, let alone turn around.

He closed his eyes and held his breath as he felt a hand slip into his. ‘It’s okay Johnny, we made it.’

He opened his eyes to see Jez’s amused face just inches from his own.

‘We all made it,’ she added, gesturing to the Citadel dominating the skyline behind her.

‘How?’ he asked stupidly, unable to take it all in.

Jez grinned at him. ‘You’re asking me?’ she said.

But Johnny just shook his head in bewilderment. ‘It all ended,’ he said, ‘and then …’

‘And then it didn’t.’ Jez finished for him. ‘Just like Talvas. You can’t destroy it. Not if there’s even a sliver of a chance that you might not.’

Johnny nodded. He understood. He had had his one chance to destroy SCI’ON forever the first time around, and because of Jez, he had not done it. That chance would never – could never – come again, because there would now always be that other choice. The choice he had made the first time around.

‘But why is it so different this time?’ he wondered.

‘Because this is our SCI’ON,’ said Jez. ‘You know this stuff Johnny. You told me! We are the gods now, and that is your Citadel, your first creation in the new world beyond the old circles of time.’

‘How do you know all this?’ he asked.

‘You know it too,’ she told him. And he realized that she was right. He did know it, had always known it. And even more than that – he realized that she and he and the other new gods had always been here, and always would be.

He drew away from her and surveyed her with something approaching awe. She looked taller somehow, and glowed from within; her hair shone like burnished copper. She was dressed in a long, flowing gown of what appeared to be liquid pewter that clung to her every curve. On her head was a crown of stars. It made Johnny weak at the knees to look at her.

Jez tapped her foot impatiently. ‘So,’ she said, ‘are you going to kiss me or what?’

* * *

When Talvas found himself back on SCI’ON and still very much a part of the living world, his fury was unhinged, and his bitterness threatened to overturn his mind. He realised, of course, what must have happened.

But he also realised that things were different now. He understood that he was, somehow, a god and he even realised that this meant that he would, eventually, in his turn, become as the previous gods had done, obsolete. He understood the cycle now, just as Johnny did, and the other new gods. He wondered if his father had once been of the Undying, and had also had this revelation at the beginning of a new cycle of time – but he knew he would never know.

So, a god? As he calmed down and began to accept the situation, he took stock of his surroundings. SCI’ON was different this time, he noted. His magnificent mountain was not there, but he was hardly chagrined by this. Mountains were small fry compared to the powers he now possessed. He could find he was glad that his plan had failed. This was how it was supposed to be. For a time, he would reign supreme and then, and only then, would he find the oblivion he had long sought. He had often wondered at the apparent resignation of the gods as to their fate. How they, knowing they were doomed to come to an ignoble end had accepted it so calmly, had never fought to survive. But he understood it now. He wished he had known it before.

He thought about all his plotting, all his scheming and vain attempts to destroy the worlds, and later, the entire universe. What a monumental waste of time! It could never be destroyed, at least, not for long. He realized that he could destroy SCI’ON right now, and yet another would spring into being the moment he did so – based on the possibility that he may not have done it. Finally, Talvas understood how it worked. So had it been when he had destroyed the worlds, but not, until now, had he realised that the same principle applied to the beginning, the end, to the entire universe – to SCI’ON itself – all the way up the line. There was no escape, no breaking the pattern. He would just have to wait until his time had come.

But the magnificent, towering Citadel dominating the skyline intrigued him. Where had that come from?

Someone, clearly, had already been busy here. He wondered who it could possibly be.

* * *

Johnny gaped at Jez. ‘Did she mean it? Had he finally won her?’ Just before the end he had thought he saw – in her eyes … but it had been the end of time, he had not been sure, so many things had been going on, and Jez … well she had been shocked by his final revelation, maybe …

‘Oh I see,’ said Jez caustically. ‘It’s fine to tell me that you love me when it’s the end of time, but now that you might have to actually follow up on it after all, you’ve changed your mind?’

‘What?’ Johnny was horrified for a moment, but Jez was laughing at him.

The sun came out, literally, where before a dark cloud had been threatening. A bright rainbow appeared and under his feet, flowers began springing up. A barren tree blossomed suddenly.

‘Okay, okay, Johnny, cool it. Don’t turn the landscape into Disneyland.’

‘I didn’t mean to,’ he objected. But Jez had had enough. She kissed him. There were fireworks.

From the top tower of the Citadel, Ryan and Kai looked at each other and smiled.

‘It’s about time,’ said Kai. ‘I don’t know what he was dragging his feet about.’

‘That’s men for you,’ said Ryan. ‘Even gods apparently.’

‘I never …’ Kai began.

‘Oh come on Kai. If I hadn’t seduced you, you’d never have got up the nerve, and you know it.’

‘That was a lifetime ago,’ he said. ‘You can’t expect me to remember that far back.’

‘Several lifetimes,’ corrected Ryan. ‘And I don’t see why not. I remember it.’

Kai shrugged and gave up. He would never win this one, and he knew it. It did not really matter very much anyway, he supposed.

Kai’s situation was a little different to that of the others. He was not a god as such. As befitted his family history, he had become an avatar – the avatar of Justice, in fact. Because of this, he would be able to walk the many worlds and move forward with humanity, in a way that the gods could not. In some respects then, his situation had not really changed as much as theirs had. Except that he was now immortal on his own terms, and had the power to administer justice on a larger scale than ever before.

To Ryan, at least, this seemed extremely fitting. She knew of no one else in all of time and creation better suited for the job. He had been training for this for many lifetimes.

She herself had stepped naturally into her mother’s shoes, to become the goddess of the seasons – a job she could do standing on her head, she felt. But this event had reminded her that she was not the only Undying likely to have been re-incarnated as a god. Talvas was out there too, the god of fire no doubt. It was a troubling thought.

Kai read her thoughts. ‘Johnny will deal with him,’ he said. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’

But Ryan was not so sure. As gods, Johnny’s power would necessarily have diminished from the tremendous power he had wielded before, from the Citadel, and Talvas’s would have grown. If they met now, it would be as equals. And Talvas was insane, and by far the more cruel and ruthless of the two. Johnny could no longer hide in his Citadel. It was here, but it was no longer outside of time, it had become a part of the world, and that, she felt, was a great advantage lost.

Johnny himself was now the god of time. Jez related him, therefore, to the Greek Titan Cronus, and assumed that this made him more powerful than the other gods; this feeling was augmented by the fact that he had been the most powerful of the Undying. But Johnny, himself was not so sure that this was the case. Besides, he pointed out. The Titans were defeated by the gods in the end.

Jez had not become a volcano goddess as her heart had desired. This power, over the fires of the earth, had been reserved for Talvas of course. Her power, as it had been as an Undying, was more subtle. She was now the goddess of Mind and Spirit. But to mortals she was to become, forever and always, the goddess of Love.

And what of Cesare and Valentina, who had never been of the Undying breed and boasted no gods as ancestors?

Yet they too had lived the life of the immortals, within the Citadel, and Cesare at least, had the blood of the Undying through Talvas Firebrand himself.

When time ended, they too had been carried beyond the circles of time, within the Citadel, and they too were here again, at the beginning. What of them?

Perhaps gods are what we make of them. At first, there seemed little change in them. They were as they had always been. But in time, Valentina, having lived many lives, as a powerful witch with a strong destiny (had she not once been the great and revered Sȗla?) became to mankind, the goddess of magic.

And Cesare? Well, he was to have an altogether darker destiny.

* * *

Now Talvas greeted his fellow gods. Nicodemus, Aöeven, Naia, and Petragan and Jáco – now one being, the two headed god of the sea. A circumstance that Talvas found uproariously amusing, knowing as he did, of their antipathy for each other.

All had been startled by this new turn of events, and wondered that they had never, in all their long lives, considered this as a possibility.

But they looked to the Citadel too, and, like Talvas, they wondered about it.

‘It would seem,’ said Naia, now the goddess of lakes and rivers, ‘that there are other gods here, perhaps reborn out of other Undying, and should we not go and greet them?’

Opinion was divided on this. Nicodemus, retaining his sly and secretive nature, was against it: he was not interested and had no desire to show himself to the strangers in their midst. Aöeven was for it, her curiosity being insatiable as ever about such things. Jáco, was indifferent and Petragan, interested but cautious and Talvas mysteriously afraid. Although he was careful to hide this.

He did this by assuming an indifference, which no one truly believed in. However, they deemed it unwise to offend Talvas, remembering what he was, and how he had always been, not to mention, as fire god, he was the most powerful of them all.

Or was he? Who was the builder of the Citadel anyway?

‘Could it be Ryan?’ asked Petragan. ‘She is not with us, I notice.’

‘Hmmm,’ Talvas was thoughtful. ‘Such ostentation seems unlike her, and yet … who can say what goes on in the secret hearts of people?’

‘It is not Ryan,’ said a voice from behind them. They turned to see a stranger, at least to most of them. But Talvas knew him.

‘Mica,’ he acknowledged. ‘Well met.’

‘Ha!’ said Mica. ‘Shall I call you well met, Talvas? You scum. Did you not imprison me for a thousand years? I believe you forgot me when you left me in that dank and noisome place. You had bigger fish to fry, did you not? But you never knew who I was, did you? But now I have the knowledge you seek. I know who built that Citadel.’

‘And who …?

Why should I tell you? Answer me that. I know too, why you will not find Ryan here. But why should I tell you that either?’

‘Much has changed,’ said Talvas, ‘since that time I found you waiting by the cave mouth, a little boy. I knew you were Undying, but it seemed you were not the one I sought. I only sent you to SCI’ON to discover the truth about you.’

‘But you never did, did you Talvas?’ Mica sneered. ‘Even I never knew the truth, until now.’

‘We are gods now, Mica,’ said Talvas. ‘Put your anger and bitterness behind you. We are all in the same boat here, and must try to live in peace – until the end comes.’

‘Save your pretty words, Talvas,’ snapped Mica, ‘and keep your forked tongue behind your teeth. Your pointless platitudes are wasted on me. I will never trust you. I know you better than you can possibly imagine.’ He glared around the company. ‘I know all of you better than you can possibly imagine.’

And with that, he strode off in the direction of the Citadel, leaving the dumbfounded gods in his wake.

Naia recovered first and ran after him. Nicodemus started to follow her, but Talvas stopped him. ‘Let her go,’ he said. ‘She may find out much that is useful if she can gain his trust.’

‘But she will only do so under a promise of secrecy,’ said Nicodemus. ‘And you know, as I do, that Naia would never break her word on such a matter.’

‘That may be so,’ said Talvas. But he smiled secretly as he said it, and would say no more.

Nicodemus shrugged. It was Talvas’s affair, he implied.

Naia caught up with Mica by a ridge of land, just beyond the view of the other gods. It almost seemed as if Mica had planned it that way, for as she approached, he put a finger to his lips and beckoned her towards him.

‘I will tell you if you make me one promise,’ he said. ‘Come to the Citadel with me, and do not return to the other gods. If you refuse, I can’t tell you. Talvas is not to be trusted, and he will get it out of you – one way or another. He will find out someday in any case, but the longer it takes for him to learn the truth, the better.’

‘How do you know you can trust me?’ she asked. ‘Who are you, how do you know me? For I sense that, somehow, you do.’

‘Give me your word,’ said Mica. ‘And you shall know everything. Including how I know I can trust you.’

‘But can I trust you?’ she said warily, looking apprehensively at the Citadel.

‘I think you know the answer to that,’ said Mica catching her gaze and holding it.

As Naia looked into his eyes, her own widened in wonder. She nodded briefly. ‘You have my word,’ she said.

Talvas was more perturbed by the encounter with Mica than he wanted to show. There was something hauntingly familiar in the venomous attitude he had displayed. Something he knew all too well, but somehow, could not quite grasp. He had met Mica before, of course, and the child had hardly been friendly toward him, but somehow Talvas did not think that was it. He had hardly met Mica really before shipping him off to SCI’ON. But this felt … as if he knew the man, knew him intimately and had known him for many years. A clear impossibility.

He shrugged it off as a temporarily unsolvable conundrum. All would become clear to him in time, he was sure.

Mica took Naia by the shoulders. ‘It’s me Naia,’ he said. ‘It’s Ryan.’

Naia blinked. ‘Impossible,’ she said, but her eyes belied her words.

Mica only grinned. ‘I have her spirit in me – her powers,’ he said. ‘My mother’s last gift to me. Do you want to hear the story?’

First you have to understand the cycles of time, and where the Citadel came from,’ Mica told her. ‘But before that, do you know what Talvas planned, about his heir, Johnny and the destruction of SCI’ON?’

Wide eyed, Naia listened, and discovered more than she had ever wanted to know about Talvas and his evil, and more about the universe than she had ever dreamt possible.

‘Johnny built the Citadel,’ Mica told her, ‘and it was there that I was born. That is how I know so much, but Johnny knows more. He is there now, I can feel it.

‘As for me, I was born a mortal. My mother was Ryan and my father was Kai, and they lived in the Citadel for many years, beyond the circles of time. But I left them and decided to live a mortal life. When my life within the worlds was coming to a close, my mother came to me and passed her immortality to me. She gave me her powers and also her memories.’

‘And something of her personality I deem,’ added Naia, laughing.

‘It may be so,’ said Mica with a smile. ‘But my hatred of Talvas does not depend on my mother’s spirit. I have my own reasons, and what he did to her, is not the worst of it.’

‘And Ryan, she was no longer Undying when the world ended?’ asked Naia. ‘That is why she is not here now? You are here in her place.’

‘I never said she was not here,’ said Mica. ‘She is in the Citadel, as she always was. ‘But … she is a different Ryan to the one you knew.’

‘Your mother?’ said Naia. ‘But she was the one who gave up her immortality. The Ryan I knew was …’

They are the same,’ said Mica. ‘At least, they are the same now. At the end of time, they became the same person – the only Ryan. It happened on SCI’ON before with a girl called Jezebel. She was not Undying until the end came and she became the only Jezebel left in the universe. And there had been an undying version of her – somewhere, as was the case with Ryan. Had my mother not given her immortality to me, there might have been two Ryans here now, and no Mica. But fate, it seems is whimsical. My mother gave me a great gift.’

‘And yet, lost nothing by the transaction it would appear,’ said Naia. ‘Do you think she knew this would happen?’

‘Yes, she knew – she told me it would happen. How else could I know it?’

‘The greatest irony here,’ said Naia, ‘is that none of us knew our immortality could be given away in this manner. Had Talvas but known it …’

‘It would never have worked for him,’ said Mica sagely. ‘My mother made this gift out of love. ‘And what does Talvas know of love?’

* * *

The Citadel was different now, Johnny noted. No longer did it look out upon the whole of time and give views of the many worlds. There were no worlds to look upon yet. Time had only just begun. Now the Citadel was rooted to the world, and no longer did it face many directions in time and space, as it had done from the void outside of time. Now it was just a building. Johnny had indeed lost a great advantage.

Jez said she preferred it this way.

But it was home, and in a way, Johnny was glad to be back. Perhaps, he thought, it was no longer his place, or his responsibility to watch the worlds unfold, or worry about Talvas. Perhaps he now had other responsibilities – as a god.

Did gods, he wondered, eat bacon sandwiches? He suddenly realized that, despite his new standing in the world, and the glory that had descended upon him, he was starving!

So, this was it – a new era. An era of peace. He had Jez – finally, and the Citadel was now no more than the (rather magnificent it had to be said) home of the gods. Johnny smiled.

‘That’s right,’ said Jez. ‘Time to put your feet up and relax for a few centuries. You earned it.’

‘We all did,’ said Johnny, ‘but I have a feeling it’s not going to be that simple.’

‘Ha!.’ snorted Jez. ‘That’s called wishful thinking. I know you Johnny. You’re just not happy unless you’re interfering. But this time, you can just forget it. It’s over.’

Johnny sighed. ‘Maybe you’re right,’ he said. But he did not look convinced.

Talvas was here – he knew it. And where Talvas was, there could never be peace. Jez, of all people, ought to have known that.

But now Ryan was here to greet him, and Kai, Valentina and Cesare followed her. Johnny gasped at the sight of them.

‘Wow,’ he said, ‘you all look so … so … glamorous.’

‘You should see yourself,’ said Kai, with a grin. He was looking dashing in silver armour and helmet, accessorised by a long and shining broadsword; behind him, Ryan was resplendent in bronze and gold with touches of emerald green. With her golden hair scattered with green and amber jewels, falling about her like a cloak, she looked, to Johnny anyway, like a summer’s eve.

Valentina, looked lovely and mysterious in midnight blue with a sprinkling of diamonds over her dark hair and velvet cloak, she glowed like a starry night. Only Cesare looked much as he had always done, but then, he had always been handsome and flamboyant.

‘I feel a bit …’ Kai began.

‘Overdressed,’ supplied Ryan wryly. ‘I suppose we’ll get used to it.’ She shrugged.

‘What do I look like then?’ demanded Johnny.

Jez surveyed him quizzically, taking in the new Johnny properly for the first time. He looked older and was wearing a golden beard that was new (Jez thought it rather suited him), his hair was longer too, it made him look venerable. But the long, black leather (was it leather?) high collared coat and buckled breastplate gave him the look of a Hell’s Angel – the beard somehow enhanced this idea. But it was the large feathered wings that were a real surprise. They were definitely new. The wings of time, she thought whimsically. It made sense she supposed.

‘Scary,’ she told him, in answer to his question.

‘Oh! Well, that’s all right then,’ he said.

Jez grinned.

‘A feast,’ said Kai suddenly to divert attention from the conundrum of their attire.

‘Brilliant idea,’ said Johnny enthusiastically. ‘I’m starving!’

* * *

Talvas being Talvas, his fellow gods fully expected him to immediately begin work on a Citadel of his own to rival the one already in place. Something, no doubt, larger, grander and far more imposing. But he did not do this. He seemed, in fact, completely indifferent to the Citadel and to the possibility of other gods