Chapter 19:
Andromeda shines!
Emperor Egher lives in me. It is either a blessing or a curse. I have fond memories of his long life yet I also have his memories, and I can compare. More than that, it requires a great responsibility and control not to be tempted to relive the pleasures of these memories. My mind can travel back in time and recall scenes that never happened to me, yet they are there as if they were my own memories. Each memory is as clear as a wonderful morning. I can live the rest of life reliving these memories. But within these memories are warnings - its advantages and disadvantages. But I can use all of these memories to my advantage. Which is why my father and my other ancestors insists on not passing these memories until they were certain that the vessel of these memories begins to die. The Memory Scepter is not a magical device, but most of my subjects think it is. A staff nearly two meters long shimmers with the lightest touch of rays from Dannowrdan. It is perfectly smooth, except that the tip is like a metallic cube standing on one of its corners.
To all my subjects, the staff I received from my father symbolized the authority of the Emperor. The idea of the staff as a symbol of authority goes far beyond even the first memory of my ancestor. From what I can recall from within, it represents a guide and defense of the herder for the flock. In those pre-Great Departure times, the herder rules and commands the flock, and the simplest device to order them into submission, defend them or guide them is a long wooden stick. A stick was very much available at that time, all they need to do is break a branch of a living tree, smooth the sides and out comes a device that is the extension of the user's limb.
Yet the idea of the scepter itself advanced into other symbols of power. As a weapon, it became a sword, used much to poke the eye of Life. As a cane, it is used as the eye of those without eyes, and as a baton, it commands an entire assembly of musicians playing their mastered musical instrument. A Memory Scepter combines all of these and more. So much more that it is not just an extension of the user's hand, it is the extension of our life and history.
The Scepter was invented almost a hundred thousand years ago. It is one of the keys of our unchallenged rule over this galaxy. As part of our mystique, it is the visible symbol of our minor victory over Ignorance and Death.
I am the undisputed Leader of a vast Galactic kingdom, the one I inherited from my father. We have been the ruler of this kingdom for almost one hundred thousand years as well, as long as the earliest memory crystal invented.
Officially, they call me Emperor Emmer Xai, Ruler of Trillion Souls. What a lofty name! A name attributed only to a god. A hundred thousand years ago, who would have ever thought that we can live for a thousand years? Much more seven-thousand years? Indeed, we have attained the godhood that man sought for thousands of years. Which is why we are called the Gods of the Andromeda.