Ife-Osu oradains its Kazi at birth; if a person is able to wield the incredible magics of a Kazi, they exhibit extraordinary ability from a young age. Practitioners of Ife-Osu can learn some skills of the Kazi with intense practice and focus, but this usually takes so long that the practitioner barely has any life remaining to be Kazi. The Kazi are the face of Ife-Osu, proof of the gifts available to those who follow its rules that are concerned with one thing; respect for the everything and the nothing that make up all of existence. The Kazi are universal environmentalist, staunch supporters of maintaining the universe and everything therein in as pure a natural state as possible that allows for sustenance of everything within the system for the natural span of its existence. The Kazi believe that everything in the universe serves a purpose and they generally do not take the life of any being, not even for sustenance, though this is not a requirement of the Kazi.
Though they are loath to leave the comfort of their homeworld, there are Kazi all across the universe, spreading the Ife-Osu religion and protecting the natural state of the universe and the beings that it gave rise to. When off-planet, the Kazi can access their powers, but it is very difficult and taxing on the body. The Kazi believe that they draw their abilities from the Red Mountains, and if they are far away from Eel, they can only use the stores of power in their bodies, or draw it across space and time from the source; only a gifted Kazi is capable of wielding substantial powers off-planet.
On Eel, the followers of Ife-Osu have temples and churches that they run themselves, Kazi rarely give instruction to large crowds and prefer strong mentor-mentee bonds with a few students over their lifetime. The heads of these temples are generally referred to as Dokazi and they attain this position by demonstrating at least one of the abilities of the Kazi with mastery. Dokazi do not originate from a specific district of Eel like the Kazi, and there are a few alien Dokazi who have come to call Eel home.
The Kazi are believed to be a very primitive people because they seem to reject technology in their everyday lives; they do not own property individually and they don’t dress in modern fashions with pants and shirts but choose the simplicity of robes. In fact, the Kazi are the first of the Eeling to develop technology capable of interstellar travel, though the actual inventor is lost to history because the Kazi have no concept of individual achievement. They believe that their every action is fulfillment of Ife-Osu’s will.
1st Professor Nazrhul is shaken at the Kazi Master Dōjō. In all of his career, in all of his life, he has never been attacked by anyone, but on his way to the dōjō, he was almost shot off of his jet-bike.
There was considerable commotion in the streets below as the shots popped loudly all of a sudden; the streets of Eel are used for pedestrians and all vehicles hover in lanes above the street, separated by a durable translucent material that protected pedestrians in the event of crashes. Nazrhul thought that he was being followed before the shots started; there was a two passenger bike that seemed to make all of the same turns though they hung back at a distance, and when they were on a jetway that was relatively empty with no vehicles between them, the shots started and Nazrul revved the engine. His bike sped up and he changed his altitude up and down while he called Kazi Quail, the man he was traveling to meet, on his communicator. The security alarms sounded around Nazrul as he left the narrow jetways between the tall buildings of the city and out to the edges of the city.
He neared a park and crowds fled the area as the city security patrol arrived on their jet vehicles and Nazrul watched in horror as they were gunned down and fell to their deaths where the pools of violet blood were stark against the red ground. Nazrul was about to run again when the Kazi arrived, four of them, and they brought a rush of winds that pushed against the thrust of the attacker’s bikes, forcing them to stop midair. There were eight of them and they had killed at least twenty of the security patrol. One of the Kazi attended to Nazrhul who was shaken, but not hurt. The other Kazi approached the attackers who still hovered in the air. The Kazi floated and the attackers unloaded all of their firepower. Each of the Kazi extended their hands and the barrage of bullets stopped at the same place before them like a dark cloud. The Kazi in front lifted a hand and the cloud of bullets shifted up so the two groups could speak. The attackers wore helmets, but it was obvious that they were confused.
“Come with us. Kazi Quail has questions.” The Kazi waved a hand and a flurry of violet-blue energy, like ribbons exploded from his fingers and they wrapped the attackers to their bikes. Then the Kazi threw his hand back over his shoulder and the ribbons shot back to some unknown source and drug the attackers away.
When more security forces arrived, they tried to stop the Kazi from leaving, but the leader of the Kazi held them in place while they departed. As they all left with Nazrul, the Kazi said,
“You see what we did here today? We could have stopped this, but we aren’t welcome outside of our homeland. You have suffered enough today, we will take these criminals and find out their motives, then bring them to your prison for judgement. So says Kazi Quail.”
It was impressive and Nazrhul felt safe with the Kazi, even though the sight of his attackers, even in their restraints, made him uneasy.
He has been at the dōjō for a few days while Kazi Quail interrogates the attackers. He could sit in on the questioning, but he had preferred to calm his nerves and he spends most of his time on the soft floor of his private room in the dōjō sipping tea and eating beans from a bowl. The dōjō is a very calming place and even though he came here to discuss the recent attack at the Institute of Universal Knowledge, he finds himself in need of comfort and quiet.
Just as he is settled, there is a commotion; he hears doors opening and people shuffling around excitedly. He hears some exclaiming loudly with happiness, some applauding. And then he sees a crowd of the Kazi, like a sea of robes, surrounding something, or someone as they move into the large main room of the dōjō. Nazrhul follows the crowd, curious about the commotion, and when he is at the entrance to the main room, he sees Kazi Quail at the front of the room, and every other Kazi, bowing low with their heads on the floor to a creature that he has never laid eyes on. It is bald except for the fur on its head, and it has long, skinny limbs in a tight fitting spacesuit. The Kazi all rise to one knee and the creature helps Kazi Quail to his knees, he refuses to stand.
“You are finally here,” Quail says as Nazrul stares. He doesn’t understand why beings as powerful as the Kazi would be so deferential to a creature so frail.
“The Alia has arrived,” Quail says, “and Hyperion is near.”
– – –
“What is your name Earthling?”
Kazi Lograt and Alia were in a small ship headed for the planet Eel. The journey from the location of the IP to Eel is about a month RET, but Lograt used his abilities to cut the journey to just a third of that time. Before they boarded, he covered the ship with a violet-blue glow and it helped to draw the ship to Eel faster than the ship’s engine could manage on its own.
“My name is Alia,” she said.
The inside of the ship was designed for two people and Lograt sat behind the controls. Alia’s seat was comfortable and it could be adjusted back into a bed. There was enough space around the pilot and passenger’s seat to stand and move a little, and there were storage compartments, at least one was refrigerated.
“Yes, you are the Alia, but what is your name? What name did your mother and father give you?”
Alia shook her head. “I never knew my mother. Or my father. My name is Alia, it’s on my birth certificate.”
“Oh forgive me,” Lograt chuckled and apologized. “I guess it is fitting that you would be called Alia. You are the one to bring Hyperion, the last one I guess.”
“The last what?”
“The last Alia.”
Alia shook her head. “There are probably other people with the name.”
“It isn’t just a name, it is a purpose, a distinction. I am Kazi Lograt. Lograt is my name, Kazi is my purpose. The Kazi of Eel are servants of the Ife-Osu, the everything and the nothing. The Red Mountains of Eel know that existence as we all enjoy it, is threatened. They speak of conflict stirring in the universe, a threat from your Earth, and the only way to resist it is to bring about the Hyperion. And that can only happen when the being of our existence speaks with Ife-Osu. Only the Alia can do that.”
“What is the Hyperion?” Alia asked, though she had an idea. She and Par-Cell 77 had realized during their talks that transpired deep within in her memory of an aeon of existence that had occured in a nearly inconceivable past, that the influence of Quinspace beings enacting Par-Cell’s recommendation to remove the Ascendant from the start of existence was widespread across the universe and that beings of sentient civilizations around the universe would be necessary for Alia to remove the Ascendant from the past and reset reality as she knew it. It seemed that the Hyperion was how Eelings, specifically the Kazi, understood the goal of the Ascendant. Alia understood what the Eeling concept of Hyperion would do to reality as she knew it, but she wondered if this furry man fully understood what would happen.
“The Hyperion will bathe the universe in a healing light that will increase the number of Kazi, giving those unable to defend themselves against inevitable darkness, defenders who will champion life. The Hyperion will usher in a brighter universe.”
The Kazi are unaware that the Quinspace beings of Eel are the true source of their incredible powers; they do not interact with them directly and they have all been unwitting participants in the Par-Cell recommendation since the 140 first arrived to Quinspace Eel. Par-Cell’s 140 had managed to attract Quinspace beings to Eel where they could receive all of the attention they hungered for from the sentient Red Mountains, and as a result, the Mountains themselves direct the combined powers of nearly all Quinspace beings on Eel. The Red Mountains, the Quinspace beings, the Kazi, none are fully aware of the machinations of the Ascendant. But the Ascendant had communicated with the Mountains in the Quinspace and made them aware of Earth and the threat that could originate there and the savior who could be found there as well. The savior who would be capable of things that even the Kazi could not achieve; namely, direct communion with the creators of everything. This savior would be the Alia of her time, a name that the 140 pulled from history.
“Would you give your life to bring the Hyperion?” Alia asked gravely. She had been grappling with the reality that if she completed Par-Cell’s plan, she would suddenly become aware in a completely new existence that would wipe out everything she had achieved, every relationship she had formed despite the difficulties of her life. Would she really trade all that for a chance at something else that she wouldn’t be able to set back if she didn’t like it?
“I have, I do everyday of life. The story of the Hyperion is enduring in the history of the Kazi, and we are born to bring it about. The time has come, the time is now and I would gladly give my life.”
The trip to Eel went quickly. Alia enjoyed speaking with Lograt and he loved talking about his homeworld. She was eager to see it as the predominantly red ball emerged in the field of space before the ship. It was mostly red and there were spots of deep blue that Lograt explained were bodies of water that collected in the mountains, and there were also other spots of blue that were different varieties of mountains.
This is how it starts, she thought. I’m almost on Eel. It seemed best to do as Par-Cell had painstakingly planned so long ago, but Alia knew that would be resetting the existence of everyone in the universe and it was possible that some could cease to exist all together as a result.
They landed in a clear, flat strip of what looked like a giant plateau of a mountain. There was a large structure in the distance that Lograt called the Kazi Master Dōjō. Alia inhaled deeply, and let it go slowly as she followed Lograt to an uncertain future.
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