This is an excerpt from my story DarkLight. All comments and opinions are welcome.

Oknorube slowed down his travel when had reached a far enough distance away from earth. He looked at the planet and again felt himself drawn to the light that seemed to come from within and the darkness that seemed to bathe certain parts of the planet. Oknorube thought of what Omoro had told him. He had said that they never saw their Gods; yet they made their presence known throughout the earth.

What if the planet itself was a God? The thought seemed impossible, but there was no way to deny the destruction that took place while he was there was not all him. And according to Omoro that was an occurrence that happened fairly often, before Oknorube had ever arrived to the planet.

What did the inhabitants do to bring such punishment to themselves? Omoro, while intelligent seemed harmless along with the others that looked like him and he could not imagine what transgression would have to meet with so harsh a punishment.

It was a force stronger that he had ever imagined, when he was there he could feel and even as he tried to leave again he could feel the pull as if something did not want him to leave and Oknorube felt a twinge of fear. Fear was to him, he had never really had reason to be afraid. He had been worried, and there were times when he had been angry, but never had he been afraid, and the fact that his fear was caused by a force that he could not see or understand was unnerving to him.

The darkness, could that darkness be the transmitter of the dark shadows that seemed to be enveloping the universe, dimming the light that Oknorube and his army had spent millennia creating. It seemed that there was a threat to peace on the horizon and he felt the plane that he had just left had a lot to do with that. He hoped that he had given Omoro enough power. He wished that he could turn Omoro into light, but that was impossible, Oknorube could only create that which was of him and Omoro was nothing like him.

But even that seemed to not be true. There had been a few moments when he had felt as if Omoro’s emotions were linked to his own. He remembered that he could feel the grief and pain that Omoro felt at the loss of his family, and he wanted to separate himself from it. It was not that Oknorube was not in possession of emotions, but Omoro’s were different it was like he were somehow saturated with it, it seemed to invade every part of his light until for a brief second he felt as if he had lost all those that he cherished.

How could one live with such extremes of feeling? There was so much emotion it seemed to overwhelm ones thought process, how could you ever make a rational decision if your mind was always filled with tears, or heartache, or anger that fueled all those emotions at the same time. How did the people live without going insane?

Oknorube had no answers but he had been glad to leave the place and now all that he needed to do was return home to his realm to see with his own eyes what had been happening in his absence. He had become so absorbed with Omoro and the new planet that he had completely blocked out the voices of the other fathers. Oknorube surged at dizzying speeds, through planets, stars, suns, moons, and pieces of small planets that had been destroyed before Oknorube had come to awareness.

Soon Oknorube could see the large columns of light that signaled the entrance way to the light realm. The light grew brighter and brighter as he reached closer to the gates. He could see all of his children moving about quickly and stopping whenever they recognized him to show him respect, and to let him know that they were happy that he had returned.

Oknorube felt a calm washing over him. It always felt this way when he returned from his travels, upon entering into the world that he had created he felt a peace that comes from knowing he could rest. There was no darkness to fight, there was only light, there was nothing invisible, everything that he needed to see was in front of him. The soft golden color that he saw in all of his children that approached let him know beyond a doubt they were grateful for his return, and truly he had been missed in his absence.

He turned his senses towards the other fathers, and felt their concern. He moved closer to them as their thoughts became louder in his ears. The darkness that Oknorube had spoken of prior to his departure had finally been spotted by the warriors in battle. It seemed that their presence was an opposing force, and for the first time the army found itself fighting in the defense instead of the offense.

The High Lords who planned and executed the battles were alarmed by the fact that some a few warriors had nearly been lost, their light essence burned out. In fact there were a few that were still trying to recover, but it seemed that their lights had been forever dimmed. Oknorube stopped in front of Okembet.

“There is more that you are not telling me, please don’t hold back.”

“They don’t intend to stop; during one of the battles they told the High Lord Damascus that our presence had upset the balance between Light and Dark. They told Damascus that they will undo all that we have done and banish us from the universe if possible.”

Oknorube was stunned, he could not believe that the enemy that he had only sensed in shadows was now such a real threat that he and all of his children were in danger before they even had time to formulate a plan. He had not been gone long and it seemed that a lot had taken place. How had this slipped past his mind? While he was a way he had purposefully dulled the incoming of information that flowed in like a stream from his children. He had slowed it down and lessened the noise; however he had not made it so that he was deaf to all that was going on here in his home.

Again the thought occurred to Oknorube that perhaps the planet that he had just left was far more powerful than he had realized. He had been completely without knowledge of his children, of his leaders in his absence. That could never happen again. Never. But what of his link to Omoro? If he never returned to earth again then how would Omoro know to obey him? More important now that he was away from earth was he still able to maintain his link into Omoro’s consciousness?

Oknorube focused his mind on Omoro and instantaneously he was able to get a clear picture of what he was doing and how he was doing. Omoro appeared well rested and was searching through the new land that he had been placed. He was turning over rocks, picking up stones, looking around, everything that he needed to do to get the info that Oknorube sought. Good. Things with Omoro were going as intended.

But now matters in his realm needed to be dealt with. There was a threat to their peace that seemed imminent and it had to be dealt with. Omoro focused his energy on Damascus, one of his most trusted lords. Damascus was a one his most trusted high lords, he could always be counted on for his fast and accurate decisions, and ability to follow orders without question. “Damascus I need you to explain all that you know to me know”. Oknorube communicated this message to Damascus so that he would be aware of Oknorube invading him and reading his thoughts.

Damascus acknowledged Oknorube by becoming still, he could feel the presence of the light father invading his spirit, and he knew that he was being searched. It was common for the fathers to periodically search the high lords to get an accurate picture of what was going on in battle, to assess the conditions that they were fighting in, and also to calm and settle disputes that sometimes arose between the high lords and general. It was always Ashtu, Aknonton, and Okembet that did the searching it was never Oknorube.

Damascus knew that this meant that there was deep concern among the fathers regarding the loss of warriors in the last battle, and the increasing aggression and power found in their ever present enemy of darkness. Damascus was concerned and for the first time in his existence he had felt what he knew had to be fear.

The battles previously had never been a question of win or lose, it was more like a strategic game, trying to figure out where they would find the darkness, how they would ferret it out and vanquish it. It had always been a given that once the darkness was found, it was no match at all for the light. This last battle had been different. He knew for the first time what it felt like to be pursued. There were no battle plans in place to handle this turn of events, for the thousand years that Damascus had been a high lord the light army had never been pursued in battle before. The history that he had been taught as a warrior coming up in the ranks said that their father and creator had come into his existence knowing his purpose, knowing that he was destined to be the extinguisher of darkness in the universe. The centuries before the light had been created by Oknorube he had spent duplicating himself and destroying the darkness surrounding him bringing light to universe that had always been a washed in darkness and pain.

The history never once spoke of defeat. There was never a battle that had been lost. It had always been a search and destroy mission. In the worst case scenario the warriors were instructed to on what to do if the darkness proved to be particularly evasive. There was never any upfront aggression that had to be dealt with.

This last battle had taken place near the sun of the planet Paige. Paige was a cold planet. its inhabitants a quiet race of ice that regulated the temperature of the suns in their solar system with extreme cold that emanated from their planet. The Paige nets. Damascus and the other high lords had received a distress message from Aknonton, telling them that their presence was needed there as soon as possible. The Paige nets were reporting a huge dark spot on one of the suns in their orbit. It had started off as a very small hole that had grown increasingly larger over the past couple of months.

The black hole was sending shadows into their atmosphere and blocking the rays from the sun, the already freezing temperatures of their planet had dropped again and the people were dying. They needed the cold to survive, but the cold air had reached such a level that it seeme the very air itself was frozen. They were unable to see their enemy through the shadows and they were unable to communicate with their neighbors in neighboring planets.

Damascus and the other lords had wasted no time in assembling warriors to fight off the threat. They were not at all prepared for what happened when they arrived to Paige. Half the planet was covered in darkness and the other half was covered with shadows that seemed to grow darker with each passing second. The high lord Dante brought Damascus’s attention to the huge dark spot on the sun that was closet to Paige. Lord Dante had been adamant that they needed to direct their attention to that area. Damascus could clearly see that the black hole was the where the shadows were coming from, but he was hesitant to proceed. They had erased black holes from the suns of planets before, but never from one that was so large. To Damascus it looked as if the hole was larger enough to swallow the entire planet of Paige, along with all warriors that they had.

The shadows that were shooting out from the whole made Damascus even wearier; this was something that they had never encountered before.

“I don’t think we that is the answer, we have never dealt with a hole that large and we don’t know what is inside that hole that is pushing out the shadows, we need to focus our attention on Paige and fighting off the enemy that we are familiar with, before we attempt to take what we don’t know about.”

Lord Dante essence had turned a fiery red color.

“What are you saying Damascus, if we go to Paige no matter how much of the darkness we eliminate more will come. We need to take it down at the source and remove the entire thereat!!”

Damascus turned his essence towards the other lords; he was met with colors of red and the calm blue colors of agreement. The blue light essence coming from Lord Kera and Delia. The red essence came from Lord Dante, Lord Pac, and Lord Demos. The warriors were all in one mass formation creating the appearance of a huge fireball of light ready and able to conquer all any threat of darkness. It was the strength of that light that allowed Damascus to go back on his decision.

Ultimately it was his call. Damascus was the most favored and trusted High Lord among the light fathers. It was a place that he had earned by following orders, being a strong leader, and always taking into account the opinions and thoughts of the other high lords. Damascus was also respected as a fair leader because he led the warriors with respect, and kept the lines of communication open with his generals, so he was always well aware of what was going on in the ranks, he knew the attitudes of his soldiers from the highest ranking general, down to the new recruits of light.

The fathers appreciated this in Damascus because his attention to detail made their job so much easier. It was known among all the lords the place that Damascus held with the fathers, but it was also known that Damascus did not use that position to exercise authority over them. They all worked as a team, but it times of disagreement Damascus was the final authority.

“Going directly to that source is the wrong approach, this is new to us. I believe that we need to turn our attention ton Paige and its people first. They did not ask us to destroy the black hole, they asked us to rescue their people and eliminate the darkness that has invaded their planet. I trust the strength of our warriors, and I trust them to remove the threat, but we cannot waste any time, eliminate and destroy all that you can quickie and return with the warriors so we can complete our given mission Lord Dante.”

Lord Dante’s essence quickly cooled into the blue light of agreement.

“Take the first 80 formations with you, and leave the last 40, in case we have to go to paige before you return.”

“We will return quickly to complete our given mission at.”

Lord Dante rose above the formation and called for the first 80 formations to fall in line with him. There was a separation of the huge fireball of light that made up the warriors that stood in the formation, the largest ball of light moved in quickly behind lord Dante, and at high speed Damascus watched as the light advanced into the large gaping black hole that was still pushing out thick dark shadows that found their way quickly to planet Paige that was quickly growing darker as the time passed.

Everything happened so quickly after that that it hard for Damascus to really accurately recall what he had seen. He watched as the formation appeared to go into the black hole in the sun, then all at once the formation turned a bright yellow color. It was a color that Damascus rarely saw, and never in battle. It was fear, something that he witnessed only in the newest of recruits, and even then it was for fleeting moments.

At that moment Damascus knew that his own light essence was changing color to match that of the formation which had turned back and was racing back towards him and the other warriors. As he watched a long rope of darkness swirled out form the black hole as the formation picked up it speed that band reached out further and swung out towards the formation of light, Damascus watched in horror as the tail end of the formation was caught in the blow, the light essence of the warriors went dimmed and then appeared to go into a dull flicker before fading completely.

“What just happened?”

It had not dawned on him that he had just witnessed the demise of a handful of warriors from the light army. It was hard enough for his mind to grasp that the warriors were wounded or that worse they were retreating from the scene of a battle. Without thinking Damascus rushed the formation used the powers bestowed upon his as the highest Lord to envelop the formation in an impenetrable bubble of protective light.

The darkness covered the protective globe until it was covered. The darkness screamed into the globe the sound deafening as well as foreign. The light essence of the warriors never changed. The yellow color of fear only seemed to intensify.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know, as soon as we approached the hole it began to scream, we were all blown back by the sound, even if we wanted to advance we could because of the sound, we were forced to flee, I don’t know what happened Damascus. This is more than what we have seen before, much more, I don’t even know that it even makes sense for us now to even go to Paige Damascus, we need to head back to our realm at once and inform the light fathers of what has happened.

There as a rush of agreement for the other warriors, but before Damascus could respond, the screams from the darkness seem to find their way inside him and now he could make out language. It was a guttural, low dripping growl that he had never heard before, but as with all language he only had to hear the first few words spoken and the language and its meaning was ingrained in him. He could feel the anger and hatred that radiated within the voice and he was afraid for his warriors, but he refused to move.

“Damascus son of Oknorube, you and your warriors have caused an imbalance in this universe, you cast out the darkness and invaded a space which is not your own. This universe was designed to contain darkness; the screams that used to ring the foundations of this cosmos belonged to us. Your light army has come through and destroyed many of our brothers; you have taken over the planets and given the cosmos to the most unworthy. You and your army will be punished, and vanquished from this universe. Tell Oknorube that his time in the Dark cosmos runs short.”

After the last words were spoken the darkness lifted from the globe and moved back into the black hole. The darkness that had surrounded Paige also lifted as Damascus and the other warriors watched the planet began to look normal again. The screams were gone and there was nothing in its place except light. The yellow light that made the formation changed very slowly to the recognizable blue color of trust and calm. The warriors were calm again, and at the moment Paige seemed to be stable.

“What are we to do with that Damascus?”

This was spoken by Kera, a high lord who fell in ranking behind Lord Dante.

“I don’t know what it all means but we need to get this information back to the fathers at once. I am sure that they already have a good grasp of what is happening anyway, but they need to hear it from me. Paige seems stable for now, but we live 20 formations here just to give the people security that there is somewhere here, and that way we will be well aware if the threat should ever return.”

“Do you think that 20 formations is enough to provide security, after what just happened whatever that was had the power to send a formation of 80 warriors scrambling for cover, and we have yet to take survey to see how many were lost, I fear that we may have lost at least one hundred warriors in that battle Damascus, I don’t want to risk losing anymore I think that we should have all the warriors return with us, until the fathers can give a better picture of what they want us to do.”

Damascus could hear the concern in Kera and he could see that her blue light was beginning to have some swirls of red in it. Nothing that spoke of aggression, but the slow rise of the color said that she was felt strongly about what she was saying. She was right.

“Lord Kera, we cannot abandon the people of Paige. No matter what has happened, we are bound by orders to protect Paige and its inhabitants. We cannot just leave them here. We have to provide them with security to do less would be us shrugging off our responsibilities.”

“Damascus we just lost hundreds of our warriors to an enemy that we have never encountered before. We lost these warriors while we were fleeing; we have never fled from anything prior to this day. We have never lost a soldier prior to this day. I know that were given a mission to protect Paige but we need to return and report this to the fathers at once. We have no idea when they plan to return, and at the moment Paige is safe. What if we leave a few formations here and they return?”

Damascus thought of that and realized that Kera did have a point, if the darkness returned the formations that he was leaving behind would not be able to fight off the darkness in its current state. But still there was no way for him just to leave the people without some small once of security.

“We will return, but I am requesting that one lord remain here on Paige, not as a guard, but as link between our realm and that planet of Paige. I would stay myself, but you all know that the fathers will be expecting a full report from me about what has happened, they will want to do a full sweep.”

“I will stay Lord Damascus”

It was Lord Pac. He moved forward in front of Damascus and his light essence went from a gentle blue color to deep dark royal blue, the color of courage and determination. Damascus was relieved and proud at the decision that Lord Pac had made without question of hesitation. Lord Pac had always been that way ready to step forth and do whatever was necessary to see a mission through to completion in the best possible way.

“So it has written and now it is to be done.”

Damascus spoke the words that bonded lights men to orders at all times. The people of the light realm did have a form of writing which could see over the gates upon entry in to the light realm. These writings were visible only to fathers of the light realm, and served as a record for missions completed and missions ordered. It served as a record of agreements that had been reached with natives from other planets, other stars, when Father Oknorube traveled throughout the cosmos, looking for possible threats and seeking to be relationships with the many inhabitants of the cosmos.

After speaking those final words Damascus‘s light essence began to swirl and the globe that they were encased in moved forward, somewhat slow at first, and then it began to take off quickly. They were soon looking a t the shining white gates of light that marked the entrance into the light realm.

This battle scene and the words that were spoken were all of what Oknorube took in from Damascus. Damascus had remained still, it had been difficult, and all those around him could see that with each scene that Oknorube went through, Damascus was forced to relive the experience over again as if it was happening at that very moment.

The ever-changing Kaleidoscope of colors that made Oknorube for the first time that anyone could remember had traces of yellow. When the other fathers saw this, their colors changed instantly to yellow to. Oknorube had never known fear. The emotion was so foreign to him that the first time that he saw the color in one of the newer warrior recruits he questioned what it was.

Now to see him displaying that color himself was more than alarming. The battle scene itself had been alarming. The other father s had restrained themselves from showing fear until Oknorube had returned because they felt that he would be able to calm whatever was raging, and let them all know what needed to be done.

Now it seemed that that Oknorube was just as much in doubt as they all had been. The loss of warriors had been a hard blow. It was something they had never prepared for. There was no plan in place for failure because from the beginning there had never been failure. Now in one battle that had all changed, and they found themselves on the defensive.

Oknorube spoke first. “This is the same darkness that I was speaking of before my departure, I saw the shadows lurking about after battles, but I was the only one that was aware of the shadows it seems. I believe now that my awareness of their presence was meant to be a warning. A warning that I failed to heed.”

Aknonton spoke: “Oknorube how were you to perceive what you saw as a warning when we have never before been confronted with such an enemy before. We have never been placed in a position where we were on the defensive; there was no way for you, or for any of us to know of the danger that lay ahead of us.”

“I know that it was a warning now because I could feel the unease that crept up in my very core. I knew that there was something wrong about the shadows that I was seeing, and I am surprised that none of you were able to sense my unease before now.”

“We did Oknorube.” This from Ashtu. “We did sense your unease, that is the reason that we suggested that you take some time away, what we did not sense was the root of your unease.”

Oknorube considered that for a second. That was odd as well. There was hardly ever a time when his thoughts were not open to the other fathers. Oknorube often thought of them as exertions of himself, it was often hard to separate his thoughts from there’s. So it was odd that they would not be able to sense the cause of his mood. Just as it was odd that he was the only one that could see the shadows. This was the reason that there had been a fleeting thought inside of him that perhaps the shadows that he was seeing was a sign of his own fading light.

After sweeping through Damascus’s mind Oknorube found that his mind again went to that thought, perhaps the shadows were a sign of his own fading light, but not in the way that he had originally thought, it was a sign of his own fading prowess in this universe, perhaps his time and the time of his people were coming to an end.

But Oknorube was not ready to concede defeat. He was not ready to just give in; he focused his mind on the warning that had been given to Damascus. They had called him by name. It was not a new enemy, they knew who he was. Their words suggested that they had been around for a long time.

Why were they deciding to come about now? Why had they never shown there strength before. Oknorube thought of the battles over the millennia, he could see now that they were not truly battles, they were never on the defense, his armies came and the strength of their light had always been enough to vanquish the darkness, there was never any resistance.

This was the reason that his armies had been so unprepared the first time that they were ever put on the defensive they did not know what to do. Oknorube himself did not really know what to do. He was the creator of his race and yet he had never had to be on the defensive for who he was. He was used to being respected, and needed everywhere that he went. NO one ever resisted him or his armies.

“We will find a way to deal with this. We need more info from Paige about that black hole so we can figure out how to deal with it. Inform the Lords that they must make all the generals aware of what is happening, everyone down to the smallest in rank must be aware of the danger that we now face. We all must play a part in keeping the light realm safe and protecting the universe from harm.”