THE NASTY

Chapter 4: Spirit Of A Dead King

Even with a crown on his head, a symbol of success and victory, Biko could still not keep the guilt and pain at bay. It gnawed at his guts relentlessly and threatened to shatter his sanity as the king was brought home and put on his bed.

Before his encounter with Nana, Biko had left the corpse behind with the Odinsin – the Medicine Man – and the Sage. He crossed the corridor rapidly to his mother's abode and opened it for the first time in his life without knocking.

He found her still wearing the long, white gown she had worn for his Crown Claim ceremony. She was sitting in front of her dressing-mirror. Her back was straight, her grey hair excellently coiffeured into a neat mass on her head, and her eyes were hard as she gazed at him through the mirror.

Biko's hands tightened into fists as he advanced slowly towards her.

"His last thought was the knowledge that you cheated on him in the worst way possible, and brought a bastard to the throne of Lade!" Biko said in a voice that was filled with revulsion.

The queen did not flinch.

"I meant him no pain," she said, her voice surprisingly retaining its usual strength. "What happened was regrettable."

The pain lanced through Biko's heart with such severity that for a horrible moment he was tempted to rip off his mother's head.

"And yet, you mourn not!" he said bitterly. "You're a disappointment to me, mother!"

"Perhaps, I am," she said calmly. "But I did my mourning many years ago. I lived through my pain several years ago, and what you see now is a woman drained of useless emotion. It was either him, or you and me, and the Sage."

"So, it is true the Sage birthed me!" Biko whispered with sudden tears in his eyes. "You're despicable, mother!"

"Not more than you, son, who held the man and watched him murdered!" she cried, and her voice was for once fierce with pain.

"I did it to save your cheating neck!" Biko cried with emotion.

"Hush!" the queen said fiercely and spun around to face him. "The walls do have ears, Biko!"

"And why should they not hear that you brought a bastard who had no royal line to the throne?"

"Stop being a fool!" she hissed. "You were born in the palace, by a queen, raised by a king. You're royal! This is your time to be a king, a leader of Lade, and you will listen to everything the Sage will tell you to do!"

"Why?" Biko whispered as his legs failed to support him, and he fell slowly to his knees as tears racked his body. "For the love of the spirits, why, mother?"

For a brief moment, he saw a flicker of sadness on her face, but she quickly composed herself again and spoke calmly.

"Queens of Lade are always chosen from the First Ebus Destiny family," she said softly as she raised a trembling hand to her hair. "I was destined to be Haman's wife from birth. I was raised to love his images, to dedicate my life to him, to worship and respect him. And that was my joy, Biko. It was a sacrilege for any other male to see me. I was born for the future king, and that was all that mattered to me!"

"And he married you, and loved you!" Biko cried angrily. "So, why did you bring this rock on my head?"

"Haman was a free spirit, my son," the queen said bitterly. "He roamed the Ebuses, just like his son is doing now. He met a girl at the Twentieth Ebus when he was sixteen. Her name was Esi, and he fell in love with her!"

"Which is hardly a sin!" Biko countered bitterly. "I have a partner selected in the First Ebus, but that has not stopped me from enjoying the thighs of other willing females!"

"Indeed, that is permissible, my son," the queen said and laced her fingers together on her laps. "But, when the time is right, and you marry Sinat, she will be all that you crave! Not so with your father! He did not want to marry me! He wanted to change the laws, and marry his Esi. It was a very humiliating time for me!"

Biko stared at her with sudden apprehension.

"He did?" he asked. "That must have been hard for you."

"It killed my soul," queen Abena said in a voice that shook a bit. "I cried and wanted to die, but I had to be brave and go ahead with it when, finally, he agreed to marry me. I went to his bed a virgin, but after ten years of marriage, I could not get pregnant for him. And all that while, he continued to see Esi. He met her in the special place he built for her in the forest, and he saw her continually. And it tore my intestines open, my son! It sure did!"

Biko stood up slowly and walked up to her and stood looking down at her with a calmer expression on his face.

"That might have been harrowing," he said.

"It was, my son," she said painfully. "After ten years of our marriage to the king I still wasn't able to give him a son, so the Kingmakers decided Lade needed an heir. They listened to the king and allowed him to bring Esi to live with us, to give him a son, heir to the throne!"

"No!" Biko cried with horror. "That was cruel."

The queen smiled tragically.

"It was forced on me so I agreed to it, but no one else in Lade had to know about it. So, they brought her here, as his second wife, in a ceremony attended by a few. I went mad with pain and jealousy and wanted to kill myself. But then, the Sage came to see me and told me if I wanted to, I could get pregnant, but not with the king. I told him I was brought up to be with the king only, and I possibly could not be unfaithful to him. He told me not to worry because there was a procedure. He would just take an egg from me and fertilize it with a male's sperm and put back the fertilized egg into my womb!"

"Preposterous!" Biko cried with revulsion and fury. "Whoever heard of such madness? That is absurd!"

She looked at him sadly.

"No, my son it is not!" she said calmly. "It is a procedure developed here in Lade, but alas, we cannot use it because it was meant for Earth, you see."

"Earth?" Biko asked, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Earth is another parallel universe in the Pentaverse, my son, and she has dealings with Lade," she said quickly. "The Sage will explain it all to you. There are so many things you do not know about, but which you will, now that you're going to be the king! So, that was how it was done, and how I was able to conceive you. I was sent down to the… well, they call it the Core, and it is a hidden place beneath the palace. The king was away for a celebration at the Lower Ebus with his w***e. So, I went through the process, and I became pregnant… with you!"

Biko stepped away from his mother with a cry of horror.

"Stop being such a witch!" he said angrily, bitterly, but there was an element of fear in his voice. "What are you telling me? That I don't have a father? What madness is this, mother? Stop lying! Tell me what I want to know!"

"She is not lying," came the deep voice of Sage Dusu from the doorway, and Biko turned to look at him as he closed the door and came forward with a cold expression on her face. "Your mother did not want to know where the sperm that fertilized you came from. So, the process of artificial insemination was performed on her. Luckily for Lade, Esi did not get pregnant in the first year of her marriage to the king. So, when we completed the process, your mother became the first wife to get pregnant."

"I don't understand!" Biko cried in agony. "Why are you lying to me? What diabolical process is this, and where was it done? Please, I'm going out of my mind! Make sense to me!"

"In a moment, I'll go and show you," the Sage said. "If you're done with your mother."

"Oh, nothing more to add," the queen said bitterly. "When I was sure the process was a success, I informed the king, and asked him to send Esi away, but he wouldn't. He was not even happy that I was pregnant and his precious Esi was not. However, when I gave birth to you, Esi also became pregnant. She died at childbirth, though, and they gave her son to me to raise too. That son is Nana."

"Oh, no, oh spirits!" Biko whispered with horror. "Nana is not your son? Not my brother?"

"No, Biko," the queen hissed with hatred etched on her face. "He's the spawn of the usurper! Oh, how I detested him! But, to make peace, and compensate for what I had done, I brought him up like mine, and the secret was kept! So, yes, I mourned my husband a long time ago, and there's nothing to mourn now."

"So, who is my real father then?" Biko shouted. "I need to know!"

"I don't know!" the queen said, her voice distressed. "I never wanted to know whose sperm was used!"

"Mine!" the Sage said softly. "Mine was used. You're my son, Biko."

The young man looked at his mother, whose head was bowed suddenly.

"Is she now knowing this atrocity?" Biko asked.

"No," Dusu said. "I told her about it when you were sixteen, and she had lost favour with the king because he no longer wanted to lie with her. I told her I provided the sperm that formed you. and since then, your mother and I have found happiness together."

"So, for four years now, you've been cheating on the king, a man that trusted both of you implicitly!" Biko stated in a voice laden with disgust.

"Do not judge me!" the queen screamed and got to her feet. "I've known only pain in my role as queen! I knew no happiness! I felt used and betrayed, worst than a used tissue! The Sage has brought me a whisper of happiness, and I do not regret anything that has happened! It is unfortunate the king died, Biko! We did not foresee what happened, but if he had lived, the three of us would have been killed! But now, we have a shot at happiness, my son! A chance to ran Lade as she should be run, and reform it in an amazing way! This is the time to be happy, the three of us! So, listen to your father and let's get rid of Nana… and you will be remembered as the greatest king of Lade!"

With hands trembling, Biko sat down slowly on the edge of his mother's bed.

"You will drive me mad, both of you," he said tremulously.

"Indeed, you're entitled to feel anger and bitterness, my son," the Sage said gently. "Even hatred, to some extent, but know that what the three of us have done – and achieved – is punishable by death. But the job is only half done, my son. Today, when Prince Nana comes to view the body of his father, the two of you – either one of you – must hit him in feigned anger, and accuse him of killing the king. I'm going to tell you exactly how that can be done so that we can get rid of him too!"

***

Prince Nana heard the calm, soothing voice of his father from a long way off.

"Come with me, Nana," the king was saying. "We don't have much time! Come, son, come!"

It was persistent but gentle, drawing nearer and clearer until Nana opened his eyes with a gasp and saw his father dressed in resplendent golden clothes sitting beside him. It was the ceremonial robes a king wore when he first ascended to the Lade throne.

There was a glittering quality about his father, something almost holy, as if he was shrouded with a halo, beautiful but strangely without depth, and it made the young prince's heart quail within him.

"No, my son, do not be afraid," the king said gently with a little sad smile. "This is the time to be brave because darkness threatens our dear Lade. Come, rise with me, son."

Nana found himself floating upwards beside his father and this was exhilarating for a moment, blissful and profound, a moment that made him feel peaceful and free from the turmoil raging within him.

He reached out to hold his father's hand, as he had done so many times in the past, but his hand just went through his father's, as if they were formless and depthless, the hands of a ghost, and that was what gave the prince his first rude shock!

He gasped and looked down at his hands quickly and saw they were formless, transparent, unreal! He looked down and saw the dungeons of the palace shimmering below him! His body was lying on a concrete stone inside one of the dungeons, and Commander Atorku was standing guard.

Nana felt a dizzying spell and seemed to plummet towards the ground, but he felt his father floating around him suddenly, steadying him and making him feel warm and safe.

"Do not be afraid, my son," the king's voice sounded in Nana's ears.

The horror of what had happened earlier suddenly slammed into Nana, and he gasped with the horror of it and looked desperately at his father's shining presence.

"Father!" Nana cried in agony. "The Crown Claim… I was not there! You died, and my heart broke! Tell me it is all a dream! I can't stand the pain, my father!"

"There is nothing that the true prince of Lade cannot stand!" the king said soothingly. "Alas, I caused you grievous harm, my son, by not letting you know the story of your life before my passing! But, do pardon me for that error! Stay with me and garner truth."

"Your passing?" Nana asked with horror. "Oh, father, don't tell me you're dead!"

"That, indeed, is the sad occurrence, my son," the king said calmly. "But do not despair. I have been granted this moment of farewell, to show you what you need to know."

The despair was returning as Nana looked at him.

"Does it mean I am… dreaming all this?"

"No, my son," the king said gently. "You will remember it as a dream, mayhaps, when your soul returns to your body, but this is actually an out-of-body experience. First, you must know the truth about the people you know as your mother and brother; they are not! You must know too that the person you used to trust, Sage Dusu, is your worst enemy!"

"Father!" Nana cried with despair. "You frighten me!"

"As you should be, son, because it is frightening!" the king said, and his voice was a bit steely now. "Listen to this story I have kept from you all your life, and a part I just got to know before I was betrayed and murdered. Let your guts be steel, my dear son!"

And, as they soared higher and higher into the night, the king told his son the horrible tale that Biko had heard earlier from his mother and the father he did not know existed.

Pain, anger and bitterness rose in Nana's heart as he listened to his father.

"Oh, that is so dense!" he cried with horror. "Such horrible people! Biko did this to you? Oh, father, they must be punished!"

"Their acts of betrayal, cumulatively, is pale in significance to what they plan to do, my son!" the king said sadly. "In pursuing his dream of ruling over Lade, Sage Dusu is going to expose our dear planet to the worst sort of scourge that can obliterate us, but he does not know it! That is why you must be strong and rise above this to claim your throne and restore peace and balance to Lade!"

"Forgive me, father, but I do not fully understand your words!"

"You would, in a moment, son," the king said with gentle understanding. "Now, look around you. Especially, look beneath you!"

Nana looked…

It was beautiful!

He was surrounded by the beauty of the night sky!

Stars were as close as he had ever been to them, glittering with a sublime and mesmerizing beauty that made him want to stay like this forever, just with his father in the inky blackness of the sky surrounded by so many gems!

And when he looked down, he was enthralled!

Suspended beneath him, arranged in a sloping sphere and joined by a hauntingly beautiful bridge of many colours, were five globules of circular nature, a sight of such infinite mystery and beauty that Nana stared, agog.

"What is that?" he asked in a whisper.

"That, my son, is the Pentaverse," the king said warmly.

"The five parallel worlds?" Nana asked with awe. "They really exist? Ah, father, I asked about them, in my studies, and you were vague!"

"Indeed, I was, my son, but as it were, I felt you were wasting your youth on garnering information that only helped to make you drift farther apart from the rest of us, and I did not want that to happen."

"Dearest spirits!" Prince Nana whispered with awe. "The Pentaverse! Five universes! Oh, this is awesome, father! Is Lade a part of this?"

"Indeed she is, my son, indeed she is," the king said. "There, the sloping down, the bluish one!"

"Oh!" Nana breathed, awed. "She is beautiful! The rest… do they also have… inhabitants?"

"Well, three of them do, my son, and we're all connected!" the king said. "The huge one at the top, the red one, that is Wyna, the mother universe from which we all came from. The story is that when Wyna became too full, four factions were created to have a life too, all of them linked and dependent, in a way, on one another. The orange planet is Halo. Then the one directly opposite Lade is Omran, and the one beneath Lade, the dense one, is Earth."

"Wyna, Halo, Omran, Lade, Earth," Nana said with wonder. "They form the W.H.O.L.E… whole!"

"You're bright, son," the king said. "Yes, the Pentaverse is the Whole. We have the Wynans, the supreme beings, then the Halowans, Omranins, Ladeans and Earthlings."

"But, Omran and Earth seem… a bit different," Nana noted.

"How different, son?"

"Omran is so grey, father, surrounded by a mist-like fog… and earth, it is becoming grey too, with two strange shadows around it!"

"You're observant, my son," the king said sadly. "Indeed, it is so. Omran ceased to exist because the Omranins sought to grow beyond that which they had been assigned to, and wanted to topple Wyna. In the end, the planet self-destructed in a horrible way. Earth is also divided into many groups called countries that war against each other. It has been rocked by two deadly wars already, and there is the fear that a third could obliterate it, like Omran."

"Oh, that's horrible," Nana said softly. "Very horrible!"

"Indeed, it is," the king said sadly. "That is why, when Lade was formed, our leaders chose peace over development, just like Halo whose leaders chose peace. Earth and Omran chose development. You see, the peace Halo and Lade enjoyed comes at a cost. Halo was chosen to serve Omran, and Lade was chosen to serve Earth. We developed amazing technologies in Lade, in a beautiful city hidden beneath our palace called the Core. Come closer to Earth! Come, son, tell me what you see!"

They floated closer to Earth, and Nana looked down with a gasp.

"Oh, what's all that?" he exclaimed with wonder. "Oh, she's beautiful! Look at all that! Huge… buildings, moving things, flying things, lights, screens! Oh, Earth is grand!"

"Indeed, she is beautiful!" the king said softly. "That's advancement in technology, son. They have vehicles and aeroplanes… those moving and flying things you say. They have cities, systems, beautiful and great things, but they're not at peace. Now, most of the technology you see on Earth were developed in Lade, in the Core City beneath the palace, and handed over to Earth to make her grow!"

"Really?" Nana whispered. "But why? Why can't Lade use these technologies and be as grand and beautiful as Earth is?"

"Peace, my son, peace and tranquillity!" the king said. "It is the price our leaders chose to pay to ensure our survival as Ladeans, and enshrine our happiness. You see, Lade is simple and happy. Our people enjoy the happiness of being united, and for that, we sustain Earth, my son. It is a balance. Remember, Omran grew, sustained by Halo, until its greed made it self-destruct. Earth has been rocked by two horrible wars already, from their bickerings and greed and urges for supremacy because they have been divided into countries who seek pole alpha positions! They have many tongues, come from different places, and because of that the races and countries seek supremacy over the others. But, we of Lade have a common language and an urge for peace. What is the use of developing like that, my son, if Lade would also be divided up, cut up, war with each other, and eventually pollute the very land we live in, or worse obliterate it as Omran self-destructed?"

"Oh!" Nana said with dawning wonder. "Indeed, it is not worth it, father."

"Exactly, and that was the simplicity of the life our founding fathers chose and stayed with – peace and happiness with moderate development. A simple life which has been the bane of Lade till now, and we still stand. So, in order to make Earth exist on a balance, Lade creates technologies for her, helping the countries rely on each other and be afraid of each other, and holding each other in respect. This has prevented the destruction of Earth. But, the whole of that planet is threatened if Sage Dusu takes control of Lade."

"What do they plan to do?" Nana asked with horror.

"Dusu wants total control of the Core, my son," the king said in a pained voice. "They want to use the technologies we produce inside the Core. They want to turn Lade into what Earth looks like now and more! They want to bargain with Earth, and sell advancement only to the highest bidder, ignoring the balance! And you know what will happen on Earth if one faction – one of the superpowers – gets access to technology that could help them totally destroy other countries and have absolute supremacy over earth. If that happens, Earth will cease to exist because that planet cannot survive a third global war!"

"Oh, dear spirits!" Nana whispered with horror. "That cannot be allowed to happen! Life itself on Earth is threatened!"

"And that won't be the only repercussion," the king said sadly. "As I told you, the mother planet, Wyna, is the most powerful and helps keep everything in balance. They oversee all the rest. When the insurgency mounted on Omran, Wyna withdrew her support and held back as Omran burned down. If Lade flouts the agreement, and begins to use technologies meant for Earth, or hold the Earthling leaders to ransom by negotiating prices and power in exchange for ultimate weapons, I'm afraid Wyna would be forced to take a stance against Lade, and our planet would be in danger!"

"Then, Sage Dusu and his son Biko must not be allowed to usurp the agreements our leaders made with Wyna and the rest of the Pentaverse! Don't they understand the terrible import of their actions, should they proceed on this path?"

"You see the light, my dear son," the king said with a twinge of pride in his voice. "But Dusu and Biko and, alas, the queen, do not want to see this. Their greed and thirst for power do not allow them to see beyond their myopic scopes. And that is why it now falls on you to deliver Lade, our dear planet, from the hands of these usurpers."

"How can I?" Nana cried plaintively. "They accuse me of murdering you, father! I do not know what evil plots they have cooked up. I did not train to be a warrior, and so I'm weak and powerless! Why should I be given such a responsibility, father?"

"Because you're the real prince of Lade and the Heir Apparent. Find a way to end this, son!"

"I can't, father!" Nana cried plaintively, his voice filled with helplessness. "You know I am not a violent man! I feel so powerless, helpless and inadequate, father! Please help me!"

"Do not have fear!" the king exploded. "Do not have fear, Nana! I cannot help you now, but you know what you should know. Come, let me show you the Core of Lade. Just have faith, my son. What will be, will be!"