After what seemed like a short for what should have been a longer venture, thanks to Arias’ disregard for the Intergalactic Space Travel Rule Enforcement, or ISTRE which everyone pretty much called “Is tray”. Arias had a jammer that was in his cruiser that gave delayed reading to their speed detection modules on their giant space stations that they spent their time in and would send unmanned drones out to take pictures of whatever sector the sensors thought you were heading in. But Arias’ Jammer would either send information of the cruiser going in the opposite direction or just a tad slower than what he was actually traveling so the drone would never quite get to where he was going. Arias could always be heard saying “If they want it, they’ll have to come get it from me” which every individual that knew Arias wondered how the hell he kept getting away with it.

  “Could you please. Slow down” Solomon said in a worried voice as he grabbed onto a handle that was attached to where the glass met the metal of the ship.

  “This is actually as slow as this thing can go” Arias lied

  “I wish you’d go faster,” Howard said to Solomon's horror as Arias lifted a panel in the cruiser to the left of him with 3 switches, one being red, one yellow and one turquoise.

  “Well alright Howard! I don’t usually do this, but for you, anything!” Arias said as he flipped the yellow switch and the Cruiser went at what Arias described as “on mach before “oh shit” speed.

  Solomon and Howard both screamed and Solomon ended up passing out.

  Arias pulled back onto the top of the Church of The Sparrow where he landed his ship in between two bigger ship so fast that Howard even mentioned to Arias

  “That’s a little too much…you always fly this cruiser like that?”

  Arias waved his hand kind of dismissing Howard acting like his concerned Dad that didn’t like his close relationship with his Cruiser. As arias flipped the switch for the glass cap to flip open Solomon flopped out the seat and was laying flat face on the metal roof of the Church.

  Arias dragged him, but Howard noticed his Arias’ struggle and just used whatever power he had to levitate Solomon behind them as Arias began to walk to the main Chamber of the church where he was going to give a debriefing of the recovery mission for Solomon and the Relic to Lord Viaduct. Arias was silently hoping that “Lord V” as he called was either out hunting for exotic space beast on a different planet or spending his time doing anything else other sitting behind the desk of his office or pacing around the Church giving outdated advice to the monks that they haven’t used in centuries because Lord V hadn’t been a working Monk since almost the inception of the church itself, unfortunately Lord V was an early adopter of the practices of the Library so he put into important roles very early on in his career as a Monk for the Library.

  And as Arias entered the last door on the left Chamber with Solomon and Howard. IT opened up into this huge Space with Giant bookshelves from floor to ceiling filled with large skin bound books and Giant easels with different maps of Solar Systems and in the middle of the Chamber set a half circle desk with a large chair where Lord V was sitting.

  “Yes?” Lord Viaduct said playing stupid to see what Arias was going to say

  Arias for some reason, even though he could in general speak clearly and even charismatically could talk to everyone else, there was some disconnect between him and the most important person in his organization. Many of his fellow monks blamed Arias' slow progression in the Church, still being a level 3 explorer when Arias had the experience of An Elder Professor, who would be able to teach Monks going into space exactly what to do and how to do it. Arias was the best at these things even if he constantly was negative about himself when speaking to others.

  “Yes? Do you need me to remind where we left off…or do you want a recap of everything Lord V”

  “What do you mean?” Viaduct said with his lips curled in and eyes slightly squinted.

  “What I mean is, I recovered Solomon and what I assume to be the relic”

  “You assume? I don’t pay you to assume” Lord Viaduct said confidently

  “You…you don’t pay me” Arias said deflated over having to talk to lord Viaduct.

  “Well, alright, the information I have if you care to hear it. I have Solomon here safe and sound, I have some possessed baby in a jar that was in the location Solomon was ordered to get on the permit of the Church, and we fought off two Space wraiths from the planet Zona”

  “WRAITHS?” Viaduct said as if it wasn’t an everyday thing.

  “Uh…yeah? Wraiths? You know the guys that dress in brown roots sacks and have round red goggles…?”

  “Yes Arias, I am aware of what you’re talking about, but that is dangerous and we should not be meddling with the wraiths!” Viaduct said as if he was straining every word that was coming out of his mouth.

  “Yeah. so anyway I have the relic…who is living and can talk. What…what is your direction sir?”

  Arias assumed it would be something along the lines of bringing Howard into the laboratory to study and begin writing information on him.

  “What relic?” Lord V said in an annoyed way

  Arias looked around and all he could see was Solomon laying in the most uncomfortable L position up against a stone pillar.

  “Well…I’m sure he’s around here.” Arias walked around the Library to see an out of place sight…4 books on the ground a Baby in a Jar on a shelf…

  “H…howard?” Arias said cautiously. Howard opened his pupiless yellow eyes and stared at Arias and shook his head side to side very slowly

  “He seems like an Asshole” Howard probed into Arias mind

  “Yeah Howard…tell me something I don’t already know” Arias said half laughing.

  “Fine. But hold me in your arms, I don’t want him knowing I can float or anything”

  Howards blue glow snuffed out like a candle being put out with a gust of air and his eyes shut tight. Arias reached out and grabbed the jar and brought it over to the

  Lord V

  “Alrighty..here it is.” Arias held the Jar up like he just caught a Fish he was super proud of.

  “Okay, and?” Lord V said.

  “Please excuse me my Lord, I must use the restroom” Arias said in a very quaint way as he shuffled out of the study of the lord and into the main chamber. Arias set the jar down very nicely on a chair that was meant for guests when they were waiting for consultations or guidance from one of the monks. Arias looked at the beautiful tapestries in the chamber that he helped bring to display all the wonders of the galaxies. He then punched a pillar that looked like it was patched a thousand times and he visibly broke his right hand. Then after him talking himself down and pacing back and forth. He put some paste on his hands that healed them at a disturbing rate. He went over and grabbed Howard and decided he was going to give it a second go talking to the brick wall.

  “My Liege. My Lord, My superior. I am going to take the relic in the Laboratory and write up notes into the database for Monks under the “relics of the galaxy” section and I will heal Solomon in our infirmary until he is fully recovered from his contracted work.” Arias said in a plain robotic tone that sounded nothing like him

  “See! That’s all you had to do, was tell me what you were going to do”

  “Yeah” Arias walked out with Howard tucked under his arm and dragging Solomon by the hood of his jacket out of the dusty study of Lord V.

  As soon as Arias closed the door behind a bright blue flash from the jar occurred and Howard ceased his act of being just preserved matter.

  “Wow…I thought this was a Church not a corporation?” Howard said

  “Wow you really are ancient, they outlawed corporations 2500 years ago because the Galactic Space Governing Crisis Committee (GSGCC) because they thought it was the root to all starvation of the less fortunate”

  “I don’t know, I wasn’t that involved being a baby and everything” Howard said trying to make another joke that didn’t land because no one could be sure if he was joking with his monotone

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  “Well it’s funny truthfully, because the GSGCC was dissolved after the never ending space war on account of…pretty much everything except a few handful of plants not being completely scorched campaigned by two or three different planet governments trying to play the good guys”

  “Who ended up being the good guys?” Howard pressed for information.

  “No one. Everyone lost” Arias said in a deflated sullen tone.

  _____

  *drip* *drip* *drip* Solomon woke up with a giant gasp of air after Arias used the same water horn to drip water onto him.

  “SLOW DOWN” Solomon screamed as his last memory was being in the Cruiser with Arias.

  “It’s okay buddy…we’re back at the Church” Arias said walking away to grab a damp cloth and a cup of root tea for Solomon. Solomon sat up in the bed that was laid up against a stone wall. Solomon being caught off guard by the cold stone wall on his back he asked

  “Why is some walls stone and some walls metal”

  “We built onto an existing stone library from when the church was just 3 or 4 monk explorers going out on excursions to gather information of universe”

  “Oh…alright..where’s that baby in a jar” Solomon asked

  Another very bright light engulfed the infirmary room and brought Arias down to his knees and almost made Solomon pass out again.

  “HOWARD. MY NAME IS HOWARD”

  “Okay okay okay Howard, where are you?”

  The light immediately went away and Howard waited instinctively to let their eyes adjust.

  “I’m up here, look up. I can do flips” Howard said as his little Jar went summer salting at a slow pace across the infirmary nearly 10 feet in the air. Solomon slowly blinked, locking eyes with Arias as though trying to get a reaction out of Arias. Arias shrugged his shoulders and brought over the famous Monk Root Tea over to Solomon to drink to help make him feel better.

  “So I’ll bite Howard, how are your telekinetic, physic abilities so powerful?” Arias said

  “Well truthfully, I’m not sure. I am wise because of how old I am, but I am unlearned because of how young I’ve been” Howard said like he was giving a riddle to Arias.

  “Oookay” Arias said, already annoyed by the vagueness of Lord V’s encounter earlier. Arias decided that he’d just interrogated Howard in the Laboratory tomorrow when he also drank some Root tea and slept in his own bed for a night.

  ____

  The next morning Arias, Solomon and Howard all went down to the Churches cafeteria where all the Monks and Hired contractors were permitted to eat while they were staying at the Church between missions and excursions. Missions were short time based outings when excursions were reserved for Monks with plenty of experience as it was nearly a death sentence depending on where the church needed them to go to probe or dig up for information. There were nearly 300 tables that sat about 10 people at a time, just in case all 800 monks and contractors came to eat at the same time, which never happened except like two or three times a year on holidays. This morning was particularly slow for the cafeteria, every monk in the Church could have had their own table if needed for that morning. But Solomon, Arias and Howard all sat at the same table eating Roasted Root, A Biscuit and a Small leg from a bird they raised on Masart.

  Howard obviously did not get anything to eat…because he did not eat

  “You sure you don’t want…like…we can unscrew your jar and put a biscuit in there for you? Solomon said genuinely worried Howard wouldn't eat.

  “If you unscrew the lid to this Jar, you will be what I eat. Fire head” Howard said, unsure to the other two if he was joking or completely serious.

  “So you can see the color of my hair?” Solomon asked about having a long red ponytail with shaved sides, because of his goggles that would rub the hair of the sides of his head anyway for how often he was on missions for the Church. And from his days as a soldier for the Sugen military.

  “Yeah. I have eyes imbecile” Howard said

  Both Arias and Solomon just ate their food without another word wondering what Howard was so angry about.

  _____

  Arias walked into his personal study with Howard floating behind; it was situated in the same Chamber on the opposite side of Lord Viaduct's main study, Arias preferred it that way so he could hear the distinct dragging footsteps of Lord V if he accidently wanted to come and talk to Arias about something.

  Arias’ study was not dissimilar to Lord V’s except it looked like someone was in there on the verge of a breakthrough discovery. There were completely floor to ceiling bookshelves on both walls, but the main difference was that Arias’ desk was butted up to a Giant window overlooking the courtyard of the Church. The study had piles of books stacked up to waist height, piles of papers and notebooks Arias had been writing his notes in for years and a lot of empty cups of Root tea from the cafeteria. Even though Arias was younger than most of the other Monks he had been there longer than most of them currently in the Church, Arias was rescued by the church when he was a young teenager. It was a point of contention for a lot of the higher ranking Monks that Arias had one of the main studies, but he was very adamant that since he did the most exploring and breakthroughs for the research database that it was well earned to keep him in his study.

  “Alright Howard, go ahead and uh…take a seat?”

  “I’ll park it here for the moment” Howard slid a few books onto the floor and rested the jar on Arias’ main desk. Arias pulled out a new skin bound book and a wooden pen that he would dunk the tip into a small vial of ink.

  “Okay, Howard when were you born”

  “I think I was put into the jar in the year of the new millenia..I remember the never ending war, I’m guessing by how you would consider it…year 5?”

  “Year 5?”

  “Yes I was born with very powerful gifts so the government of wherever I was…it’s lost to me now..It’s been so long. I was preserved in this liquid and sealed and I was left in some place of spectacle..where you found me.”

  “What gifts?”

  “I’m unsure of how to describe them to someone as simple as you, I speak into your mind, I can levitate and I can move things with my mind. Among other horrible things I do not wish to disclose.”

  “Okay..erm..So you don’t know anything? What is the liquid you’re preserved in?”

  “I am not sure.”

  “But why did they put you into the jar”

  “I was dangerous. I was 3 months old. I didn't have the thousands of years to hone my skills. I think they may have had the idea of taking me out sometime but I spent most of my time on that shelf. I maybe started understanding my surroundings when I became a century old. But the place they held became deserted and I spent most of my time making flowers grow and creating a garden of healing.”

  “Oh okay, and…why did you leave there so easily to join us then? If it was your own personal sanctuary.”

  “I feel a deep sense…a time of reckoning. Someone or something wants to use my powers. I could feel some force trying to work their way in…I knew I wouldn’t be safe there too much longer”

  Arias thumbed through the old Skin bound that held vague information from a dissolved civilization about Howard, it spoke of a young baby who had the power to tear down buildings with his cries and could make people explode like fruit being thrown at a wall. They thought they had ended the life of the child and were preserving it to do a later autopsy on it. But the baby still had the physick abilities so they locked it away in a government facility. Arias assumes after the never ending war the tomb, or ruin or whatever Howard was in was forgotten.

  “Alright Howard…How did you come by that name?”

  Howard blinked his yellow eyes

  “I named myself that, I read it in a book”

  “You’re a reader?”

  “Something like that” Howard said, beginning to grow tired of the interrogation.

  “Well okay Howard, do you know anything about Planet Zona? The Wraiths that were trying to come into your tomb.”

  “Yeah, they would come often. They never could actually find me though. I would often see them floating circles around the lake as if they were waiting for it to dry up so they could cross. The leader of The Church of the Engulfed has wanted to enslave me for a very long time”

  “What? What are you talking about? Leader?”

  “Yes? Do you think the wraiths get the goggles from their mommy and get dressed in sacks because they enjoy dressing up?”

  Arias remained silent hoping Howard would elaborate on his own.

  “I don’t know their name, I don't know what they look like. But I know they possess a strong power that they send messages to me telepathically like I do to you, but they’re able to do it over solar systems and galaxies.”

  Arias closed his journal and put the pen down.

  “So..was there more stuff from your old government and planet that would give us more information?”

  “Oh yeah!” howard said

  “There is a Chamber in my tomb that was filled with old drives of electronic data detailing the rise and fall of my people”

  Arias’ face scrunched up knowing that they would have to go back and try to recover at least some of that data.

  “Alright. I’m tired I’m going to turn in for the night” Howard floated out of Arias’ study.

  Arias feeling anxiety from the information about something from the Church of the Eternal Engulfed wanting to enslave Howard, So he read books into the night in his study until he succumbed to his own exhaustion.

  Sometime in the night Arias heard a knock on the window in front of him. Which was creepy since his Study was on the third floor of the church. Arias jerked up and saw 4 pairs of red goggles and floating brown hooded robes right outside of his window. Arias was stunned with fear, but the Wraiths floated away into the sky after a long period of having a stare off with Arias.

  Arias sprung up and went and shook Solomon awake and grabbed Howard out of Arias room off the Shelf that howard seemed to like to be perched on.

  “W…what?” Solomon said in a groggy tone

  “The wraiths…they know Howards here…they were watching me from my study”

  “We have to get out of here…lead the Wraiths away from here, the Wraiths will destroy the Library if given the chance…”

  Arias grabbed his backpack and put Howard under his arm since Howard was apparently a very heavy sleeper. Solomon grabbed his satchel and the three of them headed up to the roof to get to Arias’ cruiser so they could put some distance between Howard and the wraiths. As they were about 30 feet away from Arias’ cruiser the 4 wraiths floated out from behind his cruiser.

  “Oh shit oh shit” Solomon said under his breath.

  One wraith quickly came up to Arias and pushed him down with some force and then he could the wraith's invisible hands trying to pry Howard out of Arias arms. Solomon ran behind the wraith, ripped the cloak off the Wraith and grabbed the goggles from behind and he pulled the wraith off of Arias and then the other 3 wraiths pushed Solomon and began to make him levitate. Solomon then moved a free hand and was able to pull the goggles of the uncloaked wraith and rip them off with his telekinetic ability and he flung the goggles against a bigger passenger ship and they shattered into several pieces. The remaining three wraiths became more aggressive at the loss of their comrade. Arias pulled out his energy knife and charged at one wraith and smashed the goggles in mid air and the cloak burst into flames as the energy knife touched it.

  “Huh..?” Howard’s Jar started to glow and his eyes snapped open.

  Howard’s jar began to shine even brighter and he levitated out from under Arias’ arm. The two remaining wraith stopped and their goggles began to finally crack until they exploded in mid air and the cloaks fell on the metal runway they were fighting on.

  “Thank you Howard!” Arias out of breath said as loud he could make his voice.

  “We need to warn the Church and we need to leave.” Solomon said

  Arias pulled out his Tablet and sent an encrypted message to Viaduct and several of the other high ranking Monks.

  They wasted no time after Arias sent that message and then the three of them piled back into Arias’ cruiser, not knowing when they’d back.