Page 84 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

Protectorate; it “prepared them for life outside the confines of the Order”. Unlike many
belief systems; The Order did not automatically take you in to permanent servitude after
your training, you could choose to leave the Order and become a free agent. Younger
Acolytes might choose to take a “sabbatical” before returning to the Order at a later date;
that too was also approved. So Josiah and Morgana soon fitted into the way of things. They
quickly settled into their “temporary” new life.

The Ancient

Aurelius was the oldest known Nephel; he
had been around since the Dark Lord first entered
the galaxy from his own dimension. He had been
privy to many secrets, actions and miscreant
diversions. He was virtually a living fossil record of
the Dark Empire. His great knowledge was asked
upon by all and sundry. To that end; he had chosen
to have his entire memory downloaded into a new
device that would become a form of A.I. entity
version of him. He was on Terra Prime on this occasion and the being before him was a
Force Officer of high rank, from the “gangster” world of Kelgar. He listened to the words it
said and the questions it asked. He was so old now he couldn’t distinguish between the
sexes anymore. Ah; it said it was a male that was that sorted.

“Great Aurelius, having told you of what we now believe, could I please ask if you know of
any other Lucerne family line?” Lomax asked

“Let me think; there was one other family line, an illegitimate or bastard line if you will.
They went by a slightly different spelling of that surname… Lusern I believe, though many of
them were short lived, a genetic flaw. The last one I heard of was a Josiah Lusern from
Barbarossa a planet in the Gildar system on the border between the Empire and the Unity. I
thought he’d died when undergoing genetic re-sequencing. The process was tricky and
unstable back then.” Aurelius answered, walking as they talked.

“Could he have survived in any way?” Lomax queried

“I’m not sure, and my memory of those days is muddled, we were undergoing an attack by
the Gantrax Advance Horde so, you’ll forgive me if my memory is sketchy about those times.
I had to concentrate hard on keeping the sector together. Infighting and rivalries were
difficult for the Nephel under my command to handle without bloodshed on a massive
scale. We were under orders to maintain the Empire. It was around the time that Baal had
his son Lucifer when the two family lines split. If the boy Josiah did survive he’d be middle
aged by now. He’d be a misguided child at best; or a twisted cynical individual more likely.”
The aged Nephel replied.

“A lot of the records were lost or destroyed around the time of our Syndicate Turf War of
’99. Though what you have told me has given me hope that we might track down this