Walter D. Petrovic

“ He finally sat at the end of the couch that Lloyd was on, choosing the end closer to his wife. He stared at Dearborne, then at his other side, at Lloyd. His voice attained the quality of a seer. "The days pass too quickly, for one to hold-onto the precious moments in life, however trifle and few!" he stated with the strength of compassion, understanding and love, and in his ultimate wisdom, he imparted to those close to him a morbid idea. "We must all one day die — and may it be in peace, and with God!" When he finished, he saw a shiny tear trickle down Dearborne's flushed cheek. ”

“ Yet, with the several natural disasters that befell Pomperaque since the executions of Brook and
Dearborne; the earthquakes tidal waves, the three-day hail storm and the great fire of four years ago — that almost burned half of Phoride — before the rebuilding, the great city had always seemed to survive.
Cardinal Orren refused to believe in whatever the Benitar prophesy had to say. Like his father, years ago, he only believed and trusted in what he could see, feel, hear and smell, and touch. Anything that was beyond those senses were just illusions. ”

“ There was tension and there were wars and the people lost faith in those who governed them. Then came the final war. Those who were greedy and survived and those who were of great intellect, took command of the land. Both called themselves Kings, Queens and Lords. Both, to some extent, ruled with fear. We still have this, but there are some men that are sore from this dark heritage. Men like my father and your father."
"And I, also!" stated Boyce, his face lighting up with the spark of freedom that touched his spirit.
"We all learn, my friend," said Lloyd. ”

“ Orren came closer to him.
"So are the benefits of having no one above you to be afraid of, Your
Grace." he told Manguino.
He laughed and with wet eyes he continued to speak in a soft voice while he rubbed his groin.
"Power is beautiful. If I demanded to someone to kiss my scrotum, it would be done. If I commanded someone to rub my refuse over themselves, or even to eat my refuse, it would be done."
Manguino's tone of speaking was soft and had a pleasurable quality about it, as if the imagery that he was conveying to Orren was pleasing to himself. ”

“ That is why I must kill you. I have to avenge their deaths for him as I have avenged the death of my father, Cardinal Allen, by killing his murderer!"
He pointed down the road towards the Blue Mansion and the pole with
Lloyd's head on it.
"You prepare yourself to die, then!" announced Boyce. "I have to avenge deaths, as well. I must avenge the deaths of Brook and Dearborne and my friend, Lloyd!"
He threw his cross bow to the ground and drew his sabre from its scabbard.
"Senseless bloodshed is not the way to fight a war, Cardinal Orren. ”

“ The faces of women and children didn't reflect its brilliance, since no one had reverence for its good any more. It was a mindless disregard that was sustained and nurtured by the generations of man that survived. For almost a millennia they forced themselves into ignorance and then blamed it on the chaotic destructions that scorched the earth and that burned the human spirit. Nowhere, it seemed, was there anyone of power willing to point-out a way to betterment.
Trust knew not any man who was strong enough to deny the utter discontent that trembled in the hearts of men without freedom. ”

“ He believed that no man on Earth, in the past, present, or likely to in the future, felt as he does.
Dearborne was a vibrant woman, twenty-nine years of age, with beauty unsurpassed by any other in Phoride and the surrounding kingdoms. Her long brown hair ended in curly locks that fell in front of her and that decorated her creamy neck and shoulders, enhancing the fair, light smoothness of her bosom, which emerged from her low cut gown like the pinkish eggs of the great Kenttitian Eagle. ”

“ Lloyd, in his beautiful armour turned around when he heard the noise and he saw the cardinal dressed in his battle garb and Manguino in his robes.
Manguino didn't seem to be overly disturbed seeing that his wife and child were mutilated.
"Thank-you!" Manguino said to Lloyd. "I was getting tired of her, anyway!"
"May the true living God forgive me for murder but evil must be destroyed. In my life I served my God and I served my earthly king and friend, Boyce Loebh Scullion-Blue. In death I shall only serve my God!" stated Lloyd. ”

“ Inside this cabinet Brook kept, what he liked to call, "his gadgets." There were rows of buttons glowing like coloured embers. Brook applied pressure to several of the buttons.
Quickly, long drapes on the far wall rolled away and revealed a blank, white, wall that soon began to produce pictures that moved like life itself.
The images were of fire and of raging destruction. There were scenes of huge cities that stood majestically on the horizon one moment, then falling into mountainous piles of rubble, the next. More pictures showed fat people, conspiracies, death and misunderstandings. ”

“ Hartford, the young man with so many years ahead of him, was no longer alive, in the normal sense of the word. He did breath and occasionally twitched, and tears periodically migrated in a clean path down his face. Yet, this unfortunate young man lacked the spirit of life found residing in every human.
The men held back their tears, looking-on at Hartford with pity and remorse.
"At this time we cannot lose our wits," Brook told Miel and Cassta. "for there are only two people in all of Phoride that could be responsible for this." he glared at the men with cold, angry eyes. ”

“ Let us behave as civilized people. Do not let war shatter our tiny planet for the benefit of just a few, who would profit from it — become rich and powerful from the death of those weaker than themselves. Let us seek a world unity — a brotherhood of love — before it is too late ... before we give our all, for nothing!"
Lloyd sighed. ”

“ Manguino replied in a hostile voice, then continued. "But, you can tell me something, Seer. Are the two men from Besten, Boyce Loebh and that Lloyd friend of his, part of that prophesy?"
"I am not here to inform one someone, or to falsely accuse another." answered Jessuum. "I am here to tell you that you will soon answer for your life and for all those things which you have done throughout it. Be warned and prepare yourself!" ”

“ Dearborne admits. "It's only what he had said to me when I was drinking my rose wine ... how a woman is hot-blooded towards her lover if she drinks from the rose." she continued to cry while she held on to Brook as if he was a cliff and beneath her was a bottomless void. "Now I cannot enjoy wine, and my mind is frightened of him!"
Lloyd was quiet. He watched Brook's attempts to sedate his Lady. Through Lady Dearborne's words and actions, Lloyd now grasped the full meaning of the struggle and pains in the hearts of those who saved his life. ”

“ To almost every man, innately loomed a feeling of utter hopelessness.
In a dark room of the Blue Mountain, atop Bimini Hill, sat a middle-aged man of high station. He was a man richly endowed with great wealth, majesty and power, and he held the people's respect. This man had taken pride in his accomplishments but he had become saddened by his inability to present himself to the citizens in the way that they revered him; as living strength.
Brook had long since known the problems of the noble land in which he lived and reigned. ”

“ Brook walked about the room and motioned to Lloyd, with his glass if he would like some more wine, and he accepted. He took Lloyd's glass and poured himself and his guest some more wine. He glanced at Dearborne's glass, but she hadn't yet taken a single swallow from it.
"I don't blame them, my love. The devil — the evil — is in all of them. They discover it during their transitions. Some of these mischievous children discover their good and their evil, and some find it to their advantage, that evil is of more benefit to them. So turns the world." ”

“ The entire sky was filled with birds, most of them white in colour and they shimmered when their flapping wings caught the remaining twilight and hurled it back towards Phoride, and Pomperaque.
Boyce flew by a tall building and set down on the flat roof of another nearby. He looked over the ghastly empty city and announced his mind to it.
"PHORIDENES! Come out and fight for peace! Come out and fight for the memory of your beloved Brook Scullion-Blue! Come out and fight, for me — his son!" ”

“ Lloyd and Boyce were quiet while the leper hunters took them into the heart of Palatka.
Hung in discomfort, they heard the sounds of life get louder until they saw buildings and people pass them on each side while they were carried deeper into the heart of the city. ”

“ The Thought prompted into Its Being the struggle to survive in the harshness of its new awareness and substance.
Flesh came from the earth. Blood coalesced from the dew of morning and eyes that could see the new wonder were carved from the Sun's own rays. Intelligence sprang from the swiftness of the clouds covered by the veins and hair, born from earthly grass and breathing with the life of the wind's own spirit. Each substance could feel and find meaning for its life. The flesh heard, the eyes saw and the souls could smell the life to its fullest beauty. ”

“ Lloyd screamed down to him. "Will you die as easily by my hand, as did your father?"
Orren's eyes studied the two men's battle garb and he saw Boyce's feather-like, black onyx epaulettes. His attention, however, quickly focused upon Lloyd. An instant hatred overtook him at Lloyd's admission of killing the Cardinal Allen, his father.
"You will die, whoever you are and whatever devil had sent you here!"
"It is obvious that you are a progeny of a whore and a mad dog,
Orren!" Lloyd screamed down at him. "Get on your knees before the
son of Brook Scullion-Blue." ”

“ Millennia passed, witnessing countless struggles between the intelligent human beings who warred over arid and barren parcels of land which could be traversed by foot in a fraction of a day.
Love was locked out of the hearts of men, and hate was to ravage the civilized. Hate and greed tempted all whom were alive to hurt their own kind, and to hurt their stellar home, as well. Through six thousand years, minds and souls searched for truth but turned their hearts away, from the few which had come to help them. ”

“ Dearborne thought that Brook was going insane and she prayed to her fullest ability that she was wrong, and that she was just entertaining foolish and childish ideas.
On the streets were the sounds of people; talking, laughing, buying and selling, and going about their daily routine; which, in more cases than not, was just trying to survive. In the distance, from the direction of the Cathedral, came the horrific buzzing sounds of the Monastic Guard's electrophoric weapons. ”

“ He saw that someone did not want a noble life, a great civilization, to die and be forgotten forever. How, to him, the book began to take-on an almost holy aura that drew him deeper and deeper into the words' strength, until a tear issued from his eye and slowly meandered down his fleshy cheek.
He wiped the tear from his cheek, in one motion of the back of his hand. Boyce rumbled into the den carrying a tray of food and drink, and quietly set it on the table by Lloyd. ”

“ Then Brook sighed and put his hand on Lloyd's shoulder. He spoke calmly.
"Young men should not be made to fight and die for the discontent and hate of the old men in power; who create a war, in the name of God, Love or Freedom. It's all an excuse to them. Can't you see that?
Lloyd didn't answer.
"Most of the ancient wars were fought because of the dislikes between the men in power. Many of the wars, in our times, were the same. Countless numbers of young men died without knowing what they were fighting for. ”

“ Gallant gentlemen as they were, self-taught in the presentation to those who are royal, they both went down upon one knee as they bowed to Mas Trephor.
"Stand!" Trephor's voice cut like a blunt knife through old leather, and although it had an underlying female quality, its hoarseness made both Lloyd and Boyce assume that the voice was practised into being more masculine over the years.
They rose and faced Trephor, still remaining quiet.
"You are handsome men. We welcome you to our court of Sedara. We ask you stay and rest with us before you continue on your journey." ”

“ Only if diplomacy fails, is war necessary!" Brook explained his view to Lloyd, who was in agreement but again illustrated the futility of talk. "Always, my Lord, there is diplomacy that may prevent war, but always there are many who don't care to listen, because it may be hurtful to their own interests! To them, wealth and gain is put high above love and life!" ”

“ Jessuum told him. "You are good and have fought, not for your own gains, but for the gains of the entire world."
Boyce listened with anticipation and Lilith was amazed, as if she was living through a dream. ”

“ Lloyd shrugged off these things feeling them to unnecessary to his knowledge, but Boy absorbed every word that Brook said, as if those very words were his life-giving air.
Brook finalized what he thought to be the most important things for him to convey.
"Boyce ... my son. Learn whatever you can at the Alugean Library. Know the truths about the past then return to Phoride. You will inherit this land from me, and you will become a great man." ”