Fire was spread across the Fehmadadi sky. There was panic on the streets. A young mother was frantically searching for her daughter, who was only four orbits old. The daughter’s point of interest, however, was the young soldier to whom she had run. His name was Darwhan. His tall stature at 10 dinthets set him several thets above his colleagues. In each of his three sets of arms, he held a rapid projectile launcher, making him a seemingly intimidating figure. However, the girl knew better. He was her uncle, a very kind man who would only hurt someone if it was truly called for. He normally didn't even use a weapon. He was a shield engineer, dedicated to preventing injury. But today, as the sky was burning with the blue flames that this foreign enemy's weapons caused upon impact with the Fehmadadi fighters' ships, he was being called to the infantry in case of a ground assault.

Darwhan stooped down and set his uppermost weapon in its holster on his back so he could pick up his niece. “Kahlisa, defri bara?” 'Kahlisa, what doing?' he asked.

“Kahlisa jibah felof Darwhan kired.” 'Kahlisa wanted see Uncle Darwhan.' she looked up into his face. His eyes were sad. “Defri perwha Darwhan kired?” 'What wrong, Uncle Darwhan?' This perfect example of innocence did not understand that the fire in the sky was an attack on the planet. Kahlisa only knew the joy of celebratory sky-fires. Darwhan smiled at his niece kindly, hoping at least she would survive this whole ordeal, but as he looked up at the first ship to reach below the clouds, he knew it would not be so.

The 50-plinthet-long ship was long and elliptical, much like a medicinal capsule, but with a bulbous aft. It was 10 plinthets in diameter along the length of the ship, and the bulb at the end was 20 plinthets in diameter. There were thousands upon thousands of massive ten-thet guns constantly raining fire upon the Fehmadadi Defense Force. The propulsion systems were a crude replica of a Fehmadadi Time Drive, but well-enough made that there were no apparent signs of singularity erosion. Just when Darwhan thought he had seen the worst these ships could dish out, he saw them. Emerging from a port in the back of the ship, thousands of smaller ships were pouring out like a blizzard of metal. They were as the darkness, silent but fearsome and deadly. Each smaller ship had two guns that fired hot plasma in small bursts at nearly 30 bursts per camth. They rained fire upon the Fehmadadi fighter ships. The Fehmadadi Defenses had quickly been withered down to a mere ground force.

“Sha filan jibah serai kalaha. Defri kha bara serai kalaha?” 'God didn't want such things. What devil does such things?' Darwhan's answer was to be soon at hand, for the enemy's smaller ships were returning to their larger ship. When Darwhan looked around for the savior that caused this retreat, however, he saw only several more of the enemy ships gathering up their small fighters. It was then that the voice burned down into his mind and those of his companions and niece. It spoke in the universal language of ideas.

'You came to our worlds and fired upon our convoy. It was then that we took it upon ourselves to fight back. When we disabled your great time ship, we studied its technology thoroughly until we were able to build our own ships even greater than yours so that we may destroy such a powerful enemy. You have been judged by the Great Monarch himself. He has demanded your demise. We assume this means you are the dreaded Murhans. You must now be destroyed.'

The larger ships retreated then into the sky, and the voice boomed through the Fehmadadis' minds again. This phrase was repeated over and over again: 'We are Thorlinthia. You are sin. We are justice. You will die.' It boomed through everyone's brains as if the entire civilization was screaming it at them at the same time. Everyone hit the ground screaming. Everyone did but Darwhan. He looked up now, Kahlisa screaming in his arms to make it stop, and he saw one more ship through the clouds. It was far up, possibly even still in space, but Darwhan knew it was these Thorlinthians' tool of supposed judgment. Whatever was about to happen, it was going to be painful. Darwhan then noticed that next to him was a strange looking creature. It was some sort of bipedal mammal. It stood tall, taller even than Darwhan. It looked over at Darwhan, calm and collected. It reached gently into his mind and silenced the shouting of the Thorlinthians. It then spoke coolly into his mind. 'I am sorry that this moment has come, but it has come nonetheless. I am Jil'hanr. I am a member of a group of students of the universe called the Kuli. You share some of our abilities.' A flash of strange incidents through Darwhan's early life where Darwhan had exhibited unknown talents flashed through his mind. He had learned to control these abilities at will, but rarely used them anymore. They seemed unnecessary at most times. 'You have potential to become Kuli, and our members are few now, so I cannot allow you to die today. Come with me.' A ship shimmered into appearance behind Jil'hanr.

'May Darwhan take Kahlisa with?' Darwhan asked. 'Kahlisa has exhibited the same mind-speak ability Darwhan has, and Darwhan feels that more abilities are beginning to show.'

'Only if, on your command, she is able to shut away the pain the Thorlinthians are inflicting on her. You must be quick, however. Time is not on our side.' Jil'hanr stepped toward his ship, seeming anxious to leave.

Darwhan reached into Kahlisa's mind and told her to shut off the pain and follow him. She asked how, and he told her that she would just have to know how to do it herself. She immediately lifted her head and stopped screaming, drying her own tears and said, “Kahlisa berof.” 'Kahlisa is ready.' Darwhan walked into the ship.

Jil'hanr closed the door. It stepped towards the main console in the center of the entry room, which seemed to be the only room. 'The Thorlinthians have mistaken your race for mine, I'm afraid. They have been brainwashed, it seems, to wish revenge for being lunged into a new universe. We don't know what has happened in the past few star-cries, but your race seems to have reopened the Galaxy Tear, and provoked the aggression of the now bitter Thorlinthians. We should leave now.' When its phalanges touched the console, the walls lit up into a piloting display more advanced than Darwhan had ever seen.

The ship quickly and silently rose up into the upper atmosphere, where Darwhan could better see the Thorlinthians' Armada. There were at least 200 of the large ships. When Darwhan saw this, he gasped. Jil'hanr spoke again, 'The Kuli fleet was once a hundred times larger, but when the Galaxy Tear first opened, its trembling in space-time destroyed most of it. Only a few ships remain, and we are not in a position where we can yet expand our fleet once more. We are rebuilding our numbers once more, but we are not yet enough to stand up to the Thorlinthians. They were once a peaceful civilization billions of years ahead of your technology, but the Galaxy Tear destroyed their star system's equilibrium. No one could have predicted that the peaceful Linthians would become these bloodthirsty scavengers.'

Darwhan had a hard time believing these devils were once a peaceful people. He then saw the judgment ship again. It had a bright red orb hovering directly above it. As soon as Darwhan thought that it might just explode, and his people would be saved, Jil'hanr turned to him, shook its head, and said, 'Watch.'

Darwhan watched as the orb descended into the ship, pressing into a disk of light. The ship then began to spin rapidly, causing the disk to expand. Darwhan noticed that another disk was expanding on the other side of his homeworld. When the disk had expanded beyond the breadth of the planet, the ship passed through the disk. The disk then fell like cloth around the planet, covering an entire hemisphere. The other disk covered the second hemisphere. When the light faded away, all signs of the planet having borne life at any point were gone. Its oceans had been frozen into two icecaps, its green terrain had turned red due to oxidation, and the great buildings that had once stood tall in the cities had turned to dust.

'This is a power of the Deceiver, an opponent of the Kuli that has existed since our rise to power. They had been killed by the Galaxy Tear but for one student who had only just learned this ability, which they call Glascing. It is only one of their powers. Its destructive power is great, but it comes at an even greater price. Every Thorlinthian on those two ships is now in a comatose state and will die in eight days.' Jil'hanr's face expressed what Darwhan could only describe as an avid disgust. The expression was only there for a moment, but it was as intense as Darwhan's newly-founded nausea for this Deceiver. Then it was gone. Jil'hanr spoke. 'We are about to enter worm-space. It is a bit more turbulence-ridden than your Time Drives, but it is faster, and it does not involve damaging the universal balances. You will learn about those in your studies. Brace yourselves.'

It was then that Darwhan realized Kahlisa had been listening as well. She had also located securing mounts on one side of the room and positioned herself into one. Before Darwhan could do the same, Jil'hanr lifted one set of phalanges up into the air, curled them into a ball, and plunged it into the console. The console began to rapidly wrap itself up around its arm like a vine. Once it had wrapped itself sufficiently around Jil'hanr's arm, it hardened again, and the ship imploded.

Or at least it felt like it. It had actually entered another field of space-time. Darwhan had not been prepared for this and was now being thrown violently around the ship as it wove its way through what seemed to be a sort of asteroid field. 'This is worm-space. Space correlates randomly to each of these gateways. Only by using the mind-feel ability that all Kuli are trained to use can one navigate worm-space. Flying in worm-space prevents enemies from following us. We are almost there.' Upon these words, the ship flew straight into one of the asteroids and imploded again.

The first thing Darwhan noticed was that it was very bright. Then he realized that he was not being tossed around anymore. After that, he noticed that he was on a sort of bedding-like nest that was very comfortable. He looked around for Kahlisa. He didn't have to look for long. She was in the nest next to him, sleeping. He then looked for Jil'hanr. It was standing behind him, talking to another member of his species in a very aggressive manner. They were not using the mind-speak, so Darwhan had no idea what the topic of their discussion was, but it was apparent that they did not agree at all.

“I don't care what was about to happen to their planet; the members of that planet aren't ready to be taken in for Kuli training! These creatures are not advanced enough in their development. Now if they fail the Entry Carbint, they will have nowhere to go.” These were the sounds coming from the creature, but Darwhan had no idea what they meant.

“I think the larger one is ready, and the little one would not make a bad Soretto for him. We used to be protectors of the Great Galaxy, but now that our own handiwork has been turned on others, we aren't going to clean up after ourselves?! We helped create the Thorlinthians, and we should help destroy them!” Jil'hanr was adamant about whatever they were talking about.

Darwhan attempted to communicate with Jil'hanr's conversation partner, “Garf'kan, Jil'hanr farjin Darwhan.” 'Excuse me, Jil'hanr saved us and we have no home left – we must stay.' Upon this apparently unexpected use of the mind-speak, the creature turned to Darwhan surprised and said, 'My friend, that is exactly the problem here. I am afraid your people were not yet advanced enough to be brought here and the initiation required to stay may kill you. If you do not go through the training, then you will surely die as this is only a monitoring station with limited facilities – making the training a requirement if you stay.' Darwhan was saddened with this creature’s lack of hope for them.

Darwhan said, 'My people don't believe in fear in the face of ultimate choices. If the choice is mortal danger or death, we choose mortal danger.' Darwhan was quite adamant at this point. After seeing his planet turned to rust, he had nowhere to go. The entire Fehmadadi fleet had been brought back to Fehmadad to stand up to those Thorlinthians, whose aggression was apparently due to these Kuli. 'The other members of my race are all dead because of your people, and I ask that we be given the chance to live!'

Now Jil'hanr spoke. 'Darwhan, you have every right, in my opinion, to become Kuli, as does your niece.’ Jil’hanr proceeded to speak to the other, “I will administer the Entry Carbint myself. There is no need to worry about either of them failing.” It nodded, now willing.

As the creature walked away, Jil’hanr turned to Darwhan and said, ‘The Watcher is very strict, but he will remain true to his word. You’ll be given your chance to live.’ As the Watcher entered his private chamber, he grinned. His son acted and thought exactly as he, J’Homria, did at that age. Exasperated, he began to chuckle. This Darwhan was indeed from a wise race. It was a shame his niece would be the only Fehmadadi Kuli.