Kya - Palace Lari'Sota

"My Lords and Masters." Tyo said, bowing so low his forehead touched the floor in front of the Gods as they came into the Comm Chamber.

Kya was frozen, unable to move, and barely heard Tyo hiss 'Get her down, now!" She felt a guard briskly grab her and followed his movement until she bowed, terror in every fibre as she looked upon the face of the Gods themselves.

"My Lady, stay down, Do not look directly at them." The guard whispered into her ear, and Kya nodded numbly, glad to not be looking at the truly alien shapes that were now in front of her.

"Lord Helva, Lord Nysa, why are you here?" Tyo asked, still bowing deeply.

"Chak'zzz come. They are coming. The darkness swells. The eaters of light come. We will defend, you will defend. The Chak'zzz swarm around." Came the multi-tonal reply.

Kya now felt a terror beyond any she had ever felt. It was all through the room. Every Taran and Hablis in the room was afraid.

Chak'zzz. The very name was a nightmare told to keep children in bed and safe. They were very real, and the stuff of legend that filtered down from ages past. Chak'zzz were something from beyond the rim of the Galaxy. When they travelled through the galaxy they stopped at stars to refuel. When they left, any planets were molten husks, devoid of everything, even the air itself was gone, leaving a desiccated mantle glowing with the heat of desolation.

It was said they travelled in a cloud of pure darkness, and if the stars began to fade, then run, because the darkness consumes all.

That was almost as terrifying as the creatures in the room right now. Kya kept her head bowed to the floor, but she slightly turned to the guard. "Remove your glove." She whispered. He frowned, but quickly pulled off his glove. She grabbed his hand and pulled gently. She drew upon his sense of duty and his obedience to the Emperor itself to strengthen her own emotions against the terror she felt. Ensuring that she pushed a calming sensation into him so that he was not weakened, she applied a balance so they both retained enough sense to be calmer, even as the others around them swirled with frantic emotions of almost primal fear.

"We will defend the Confederacy against the Darkness, my Lords and Masters." Tyo said, still deeply bowing.

"We will withdraw. We will go rest. We will feed. We will remain. You will serve, Masilec. Provide us food, we will wait. We are hungry." The Gods said in their quiet sibilant voices that brooked no argument.

Tyo rose and bowed deeply to the two creatures in the room, then turned to one of the guards. "Do we have anybody in the cells?"

"Yes, my Emperor." Came the reply.

"Anybody on death sentence?" Tyo pressed.

"Yes, three who are to be executed in the morning." The guard confirmed.

"Good. Dope them with whatever you can. I want them awake, but not aware. I don't care if the dosage will kill them shortly. Just have them breathing for the next fifteen minutes, and bring them here." Tyo instructed. The guard bowed, then bowed deeply to the Gods, and quickly stepped out of the chamber.

"This one is interesting. Bring it to us. Bring it closer. We will examine it. We will explore it." The Gods intoned, and Kya began to tremble, realizing they were talking about her.

"No." Tyo said, and stepped directly in front of her. "This is Lari'Sota. She serves no purpose to you."

The Gods hissed and drew back, staring at Kya, and then at Tyo. "It is sex. It is not reproduction. It serves no function except pleasure. Why is it here? Remove it from our presence!"

Tyo nodded at the guard, and he briskly pulled Kya to her feet and escorted her from the chamber. Once they were around the corner and down the hall, Kya collapsed, and the guard hoisted her in his arms then prompty carried her to an anteroom to lay her on a couch.

She began to slow her breathing, noting the guard was looking at her with concern as he stood watch over her, and she sat up. There was a harried bunch of footfalls, and she saw a group of guards rapidly marching with three naked hablis, heads lolling in some stupor, down the hall, back towards the Comm chamber.

"What is going on?" She said.

"Trust me, the Lady does not want to know." The guard replied with a great deal of sadness emanating from him.

Kya stood, and walked over to the guard who had helped her.

"Thank you, Sergeant. I don't know what would have happened if you had not assisted me." She said, then leaned up on her toes to gently kiss him on the cheek.

He briefly smiled, then went back to his stoic position, she could sense no arousal or lust in him, so there would be no solace for her in that fashion right now. She sat down and looked at him, this was the same guard who had assisted her with the young Veritas Clansman some time ago.

"Those are our Gods?" She finally asked.

He nodded, "Yes, my Lady. Those are the Gods Nysa and Helva. If they have come, then the rest follow shortly. Our Gods are not a legend, Lady Kya. They do walk among us."

She looked at him. "How do you not panic when you see them. They are terrifying."

"Just as you are trained in many things, so are we, my Lady. We are trained in the shape and colour of them, so that if we do see them, we can still perform our duties." Came the reply.

"The Lord Emperor called me Lari'Sota, and they seemed to recoil. Do you know why?" Kya asked, but only got a curt shake of his head in reply.

Kya was snapped out of her reverie as they approached the end of the long stairwell, and she was roughly pulled against Ashelob so he could wrap her in his cloak to cover the fact that the dress really didn't cover anything. He then opened the concealed door and they both stepped into the light of the Tara suns.