PART 1
"Again, Dad, again."
"Well, but this is the last time. It's already bedtime," Eliot said, tired yet happy to see his little Nicole jumping with excitement.
Taking the book in his hands, Eliot lay back on the couch with his daughter in his arms. She laughed and kicked nonstop.
"Somewhere in the vast universe, whose name time itself has forgotten, there was a being. He was called a god by many and a devil by others. With his perfect body and enchanting words, he tempted countless beings, from whom he demanded favors and later tortured. This being was known as Lucifer. Then a race challenged him; they told him he was no god, for only God could create. Lucifer laughed at them, saying there were as many gods as stars in the universe, and since he was a superior entity, he could not be less than those individuals, for he was the son of one above all, whom he called the Great Creator.
>>"Even so, that forgotten race mocked him, saying it was a stupid excuse to justify his inability, which greatly offended the Lightbringer. With his wounded pride, he withdrew and defiled the soul of a world to create his champion. His experiment went so well that he decided to do the same with thousands more, and when he showed them to those who had challenged him, his warriors slaughtered them all."
"All of them, Dad?" Nicole asked, sad and angry, as if she had never heard that story whose worn pages were already falling from the book's spine.
"Ah, yes, it was terrifying, but the story didn't end there."
>>"Thus, the Great Creator, seeing the corruption of his work, took the most beautiful of beings and chained him to Hell, where he serves the ultimate penance: to watch and suffer the torment of all sins born from his act of corruption. Unfortunately for the rest of the universe, the echoes of his sin persisted: the Zardorian. At first, even though Lucifer annihilated them to hide his shame, a residue of his soul remained. It began devouring small beings, then rocks and stones, later mountains and lakes, until it fed on the stars." Nicole clung to her father's torso, making frightened gestures; the Zardorian always terrified her, but because of them came her favorite part of the story.
>>"And then many races that fled their planets gathered in a single place, so far away that they believed they could fight the Zardorian from anywhere in the universe. But the shadow of these demons did not tire, did not retreat, and never diminished, so they resigned themselves to an eternal life of war… until a soul deceived by Lucifer found them.
>>Seeking to free himself from his suffering, he revealed to them the secret to defeating that shadow: the answer was light—the light of billions of stars in the body of a single man to reach something close to divinity. So, creating a machine that would determine the value and will of each man, woman, or child, they set out to find the chosen one.
>>In the end, Xhar Vex, a man of noble birth and prodigious strength, was chosen for his radiant form, which with his mere presence made the sun grow pale; thus he was transformed into…"
"THE KING OF THE STARS!"
Rubbing Nicole's little head, Eliot laughed. He adored his daughter's enthusiasm.
"What was that noise?!" shouted a woman who had been sleeping a few meters away from Eliot and Nicole.
"Mom, don't interrupt! Dad was getting to the best part."
Sara glared at her daughter. Even if Nicole meant no harm, it reminded her whom the little girl preferred.
"No, Nicole, don't say things like that to Mom. She works hard at the clinic for you to treat her that way," Eliot said after seeing the emotion on his wife's face.
"But Dad, you work too, and you're never that tired."
A vein began to throb on Sara's temple.
She approached her little girl, placed her knuckles on her head, and rubbed them playfully, careful not to hurt her. The two burst into laughter.
"And why do you want to hear that story again? You already know the King of the Stars used all his shajar to stop the shadow of the Zardorian, banishing them to a tiny corner of the universe, and traveled from world to world healing everyone harmed by that power."
Nicole began to pout. She loved the story of the King of the Stars: her parents had seen him, her grandparents had once eaten with him, aliens walked the streets and bought things in the markets. What she loved most was that it was a real story—the story of the greatest hero in the universe and how he was betrayed by the very people he swore to protect.
"But Mom, you can't summarize it like that! The King of the Stars deserves more. Dad didn't even get to the part where the twelve demons fought him, or when he was sealed, or…"
Sara hugged her. She knew Nicole was obsessed with the story, like the rest of the world that had never witnessed the King's greatness. But unlike other children, Nicole's case was special: Eliot had been the King's most beloved bodyguard, at least on that planet.
Eliot never hid anything. When he and Sara were young, he promised to give her the best future possible, and Sara's father hit him, saying, "If you want my little girl, you'll need the blessing of the King of the Stars." So Eliot traveled for months, training and training until he awakened his shajar. Then he stood before the King's ship and asked for an audience. At first the guards laughed and beat him, but he persisted day after day for two years, becoming friends with them, training with them, until the King himself recognized him. Upon hearing his request, the King went straight to Eliot's village, presented himself to Sara's father, and declared that he blessed their union, for a man willing to give everything for love deserved no less.
Years later, Eliot and Sara returned to the King's ship, where Eliot was given a job as another warrior. Little by little he rose until he stood at the King's left side. One day, the King told him that when his ship set out again, Eliot should bring a thousand inhabitants of the planet to accompany them to their next destination.
It was a dream. Eliot took his wife and visited his in-laws, asking them to come. He took the urn containing his parents and gathered a thousand people. But when he returned to the ship, it was in ruins, and only eleven individuals stood guard over an egg of immeasurable power—an egg that contained the King.
Eliot fought with everything he had, but although he had the strength to defeat two or three of them, those eleven had defeated the King. He had no choice but to use his special technique, buying time to run, find the people he had chosen, and form a small settlement while waiting for the King to free himself from the seal.
With the years, Eliot and Sara formed a family: little Nicole, her younger brother Alexander, and the baby, Arthur. Of all of them, Nicole was the only one old enough to understand what a king was, her father's role, and the greatness of his station. She often grew frustrated, but Eliot hoped that would change with time, teaching his daughter the goodness of the world and the reason to live. If he could not see the King of the Stars again, he hoped his children would someday—and be strong enough to follow him, or free him if necessary.