Endworlds - Nicholas Read [74]
When Warujja asked Kriegmacher which president or king he trusted to unite the world today, the General found himself unable to answer with any conviction.
As his instruction continued late at night and in secret chambers, Kriegmacher found Warujja to be an excellent teacher and advisor. He learned of the merciless Builders who lay in wait to destroy the planet as it intersected with their own galaxy two years hence.
Eventually the Dae’mon volunteered an insight most intriguing. He spoke of the Scepter of Rule, a device of such power and authority that any who learned to wield it would become Defender of Earth, Lord of the Four Worlds, equal to the Builders. This, he was told, was the very device that lay at the heart of King Anu’s glorious rule, far more potent than even the Kirlian dagger that had first piqued Kriegmacher’s interest. The Scepter focused bosons, channeled dark matter. A person holding this could change reality at the photonic level, not by nanoscopic manipulation in the lab, but through the power of thought alone.
But only a wise man could command it. Only a pure man with the interests of his people at heart could serve as the focusing lens, free of cloud or distortion, unmarred by crack or schism. A heart with the clarity of crystal. A mind with the purity of fire. Such a person could have the universe flow through them, rearrange it at will, and see all matter from the smallest particle to the largest star move in obedience to their will.
But where could such be found?
Kriegmacher had never considered himself a covetous man, nor one of great ego. Naturally, he was confident, but this didn’t constitute pride. Any soldier whose steel had been tested and tempered in the fires of battle knew for a certainty of their own worth. His life had been one of service to his country.
Yet as Warujja told him of times past and of the struggles to come, he found himself understanding that his world’s entire history would be for naught if it allowed itself to be judged unjustly by the old outdated rules of those hostile Builders, and if it stood defenseless in its passage through the Rough Space that lay ahead.
Should the fate of Earth be dictated by greedy bankers and inbred nobles? Could the leader of any current nation be trusted with the fate of all? He found himself wondering. He had wondered about it from the start, hadn’t he?
Warujja had told Kriegmacher much more than the General shared with his superiors. Such knowledge would be dangerous in the wrong hands. He had no obligation other than to pass on insight that would advance the Project itself, and not this extracurricular wisdom.
Then one day he asked a question the Dae’mon had been patiently waiting for: “Where is the Scepter of Rule?”
Alas, that wondrous ‘reality beam’ had been lost Ages ago, along with King Anu. Both had fallen in battle and were lost to time.
Yet Warujja had heard that clues to the whereabouts of the Scepter may be in the custody of a group called the Cassandra Foundation, a cadre of meddlers he explained were even older than the banks and nobles funding GRID. Warujja could not say where members of this Foundation could be found, but he would start Kriegmacher on the right path if he was prepared to pay the price.
After hearing it, Kriegmacher knew he was willing. It occurred to him that his entire career had been leading irrevocably to this decision. A matter of fate.
The Dae’mon had only two requests for him.
A first requirement was for Kriegmacher to focus on techniques Warujja would school him in that would help polish the lens through which the Scepter would channel itself, that lens being the union of his own heart and mind.
The General would need to sculpt himself physically, emotionally and mentally to achieve balance. It would require meditation, exercise, proper nutrition and adequate rest for him to be centered, focused and energized.
He would explore physics and metaphysics to see how numbers and words underpinned the geometry of the universe. When he learned to see the connections between