In this scene from Bringer of Chaos: the Origin of Pietas, Pietas undergoes a ritual used on the planet Kaffir is summon spirits. "The blood of my enemies trickles into the pool of time," he proclaims.

My Enemies

Early on the first morning of the peace talks, Pietas entered his round bathing room. Starlight filtered through the portal overhead. Sleek silver walls reflected the cool light.

He remained at the door, content to savor its calming glow. Its beauty did not dispel the worry niggling at his mind. Not given to trusting premonitions and omens, he grounded himself with meditation. Once he centered himself and calmed his spirit, Pietas took a deep, purifying breath, and with slow deliberation, exhaled.

"Time to begin. Lights."

The room brightened.

He shed his silk robe and let it fall at his feet. Nude, his platinum hair streaming down his back and chest, he lifted his hands, palms up as if praying. On the planet Kaffir, warriors used this ritual to summon spirits. He used it to affirm his own superior strength and prowess.

Before a copper fire pit, he plucked one blond hair, and fed it to the fire. It singed and melted.

"As fire has victory over life, so I have victory over my enemies."

He passed a hand through the flame, and hissed at the searing heat, relishing the pain. He cupped his hand over the flame's source, and held it until the fire went out. The burns on his palm cooled and as he watched, the skin healed. Of all the elements, fire alone had power to linger on an Ultra's skin. He welcomed it as a symbol of victory.

"I am powerful, as fire is powerful."

Pietas thrust both hands forward, clutched his fists, and yanked them back. "I own the wind. I prevail over the breath of my enemies."

In the bathing area, he took six steps down into a waist-deep pool.

"Water submits to my presence the way enemies submit to my will." He cupped water in his hands, lifted it, and let it pour down his arms. "The blood of my enemies trickles into the pool of time, is absorbed, and forgotten."

He pushed wet fingers through his hair, and released it. "My mind is clear. I do not waver."

He submersed and rose, head thrown back, face lifted to the sparkle of stars above. "My body submits to my will. No pain defeats me. No fear touches me."

He swept his hands down his chest to his loins and the tops of his thighs. "My will is absolute."

A scratching sound alerted him to the presence of his silver-skinned android servant. The creature entered, and Pietas fixed him with a hard glare. "Why did you interrupt me?"

"Your guest is here, my lord, in the living area." He offered Pietas a towel.

"Leave it." He waved the android away.

After exiting the pool, Pietas brushed off the water and wrung out his hair. He pulled out a tray holding half a dozen clasps. He chose a silver dragon studded with six turquoise stones, twisted his wet hair, and fastened it up, out of the way.

He dried his face, gathered a brush, and picked up a pot of black face paint. Leaning in close to a freestanding mirror, he outlined a bandit's mask from beneath his eyes to over his dark eyebrows, and filled it with black.

He'd worn the mask in battle ever since defeating the First Division, a human special-ops group formed to fight Ultras. It came about because Pietas had slain an enemy, and blood splashed across his eyes. Thinking the blood belonged to Pietas, the Ultra troops had rallied to him and slaughtered the humans. The blood dried almost black.

Stories of how their "bandit king" had conquered the First Division filled the night. The name stuck. To his troops, he was First Conqueror, War Leader of the Ultras.

Pietas turned his head side to side, surveying the effect.

His body would reject foreign matter on his skin. The Ultra metabolism protected from every perceived attack, even harmless face paint. He closed his eyes and sprayed sealant over the mask to delay its disappearance by a few hours.

Satisfied with his looks, Pietas pulled on a pair of loose white lounging pants. With a deep, cleansing breath, he opened the door. Damp, shirtless, barefoot, he padded into the adjacent room.

---

Immortal Council member Pietas ap Lorectic, warrior leader of the Ultra race, wants nothing to do with faithless, lying humans.

The inferior race may have created his people, but they used them as slaves, not powerful beings with rights of their own. Upon discovering humans captured and tortured his people, Pietas declares humans deserve no offering of peace. They deserve conquest and elimination.

When the Ultra High Council agrees to peace talks, Pietas grudgingly complies. Arriving at the space station Enderium Six, he discovers his psychic gifts are diminished and suspects a trap. A deadly fight between Pietas and altered-humans of the Ghost Corps ensues. Cornered, out of options and with his beloved mother's life at stake, Pietas surrenders.

Now a captive of the people he loathes, Pietas is left for dead on the barren planet, Sempervia. Six, a member of the Ghost Corps abandoned with him, offers food and water. Is this altered human worthy of friendship? Or is the offer of shelter a ploy to gain his own protection?

Either way, Pietas must do the one thing he detests. Trust a human...