The Entelechy of Zuun

         Long ago, many Wise Ones were determined to stop the bloody wars of the Dynasty. Lives indeterminate were lost in those horrible times. It seemed to spread out into infinity and the Wise Ones were no closer to ending the terror.

         Until one day when there came a lysei, one of births, who knew no fear and yearned for the light and the beauty of order.

         The lursos, ones of destruction, scorned the lysei and tossed her aside, only to listen to their own greed. They spurned her ways and took her to be placed at the pleasure of the Myakon, the Dynasty Lords. The Lords decided that since her words were threatening to them they would execute her immediately.

         Before they could, however, the son of one of the Myakon, Jaarah, had fallen in love with her. He came to her room and stole her away, placing her into a space pod and sending her to Krrsez. There she would be safe among the other lysei and kept away from the Myakon, for the planet is only a place of married women.

         But the father of Jaarah was furious and vowed to hunt down the lysei and the one that helped her escape, for he feared her words so greatly.

         And so an order was issued throughout the territories of Zannza. The lysei was to be brought back to him or no one would be safe. Many were in fear and turned in others they thought would make the Myakon happy only to be whipped or even executed when it was not the lysei that was wanted.

         Meanwhile, Jaarah and the lysei were living happily on Krrsez. In the sun cycles that followed, they had fallen in love and married and the lysei bore Jaarah a son.

         "Keloong, shall we name him. For he was born of both wisdom and power." Jaarah proclaimed.

         It was unfortunate that their joy would not last long. For soon after the birth of his son, Jaarah was called away from Krrsez by his father. He did not realize that his father had found out about the young lysei that Jaarah had kept there and suspected that it was the same as the one that had slipped away and that the Myakon had hunted.

         As Jaarah bid his wife goodbye and left her, an agent from the Myakon stole the lysei and her child away and brought them to the Dynasty Lords. As she stood in front of them, she did not tremble in fear. She merely raised herself proudly and proclaimed that all beings had the same rights as the Lords themselves.

         This caused a stirring in the minds of the lesser nobles present and they began rumbling in confusion. Some of the braver ones began to speak lowly against the Lords themselves.

         But the words only served to infuriate the Myakon. They had the lysei taken through the town to the execution hill.

         As they walked through the streets, though, the young lysei, still cradling her infant son, began to proclaim loudly all her words!

         Speech such as these had never been heard before in the Dynasty. No one had ever seen life as a precious thing or that it meant anything to be kind to each other. Kindness was a weakness, one that had to be stomped out.

         "I don't weep for myself. I weep for you." She lamented. "There is so much that you don't know. That you don't understand. Life is so much more than just serving a master and bowing. You should be happy and honorable. Not trudging along, waiting for the next kick from the Myakon!"

         "Enough!" Shouted the father of Jaarah. "You'll not speak in such a manner, lysei!" He spat the last word contepuously.

         But the crowd had heard enough and the grumbling grew strong. Many were the generations of slavery and pain, the torture that many of the poor and downtrodden were forced to endure. All their lives they had yearned for something, anything, to pull them up just a little. They were even willing to sell their own family to move up just a step and keep living another hour.

         "Freedom is a right!" The lysei called. "It should be allowed to EVERYONE!"

         The murmuring in the crowd had now become a loud rolling wave.

         "But freedom has a high cost, one of blood sometimes! Will you stand by while your freedom slips away? Will you not even try?"

         The shouting of the people came like a thunder clap, shattering the calm and climbing to the rooftops. The Myakon realized that they had lost control. The lysei's words had poisoned the people against them long before this one had come along. All it took was one little stone to fall away to create an avalanche.

         But Jaarah's father wasn't about to give up so easily. He took his strong club and moved quickly to the lysei, hoping to kill her with one stroke and stop the wave of unrest before it became too strong.

         He never made it for as he was starting his charge, the people around him were too and they met together in the middle of the street. Jaarah's father was killed by the crushing press and the savage blows of the weapons of the people. The other Myakon fell quickly in the same way.

         Many looked around for the lysei then but she was nowhere to be found. Later, it was discovered that Jaarah had been among the townsmen and had spirited her away to save her from the crush of the lursos.

         When they found her, the lursos of the town apologized to the her for their unkindness to her and the other lysei. When she forgave them, she did the unheard of!

         She told them her name. It was Zuun.


         Many sun cycles later, Keloong carefully set his ship in the grassy lawn, drawing quite a crowd of the two legged beings.

         Taking one last deep breath, he opened the hatch and stepped out to meet, with respect and pride, the creatures known as humans.