by Cara Violet
Nake’s grunt came loudly, Kaianan couldn’t move her head much to see him, but when Prince Addi illuminated in his aura again, he looked straight down at her and winked.
He was actually grinning at her. Kaianan’s mind reeled.
Then Xandou blocked her view. He was pulling her arms into the robe and immediately the fabric absorbed her blood.
With a bit of movement, the Prince finally came back into view. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. She tried to fight against Xandou. Instead her body slouched. She saw the prince manipulate his powerful aura, and send Nake spiralling through the air and into the dirt. He turned to her.
“Wait,” the Prince ran. Her gaze locked onto his glowing red eyes. Then, in blinding blue light, she was ‘ported out.
Kaianan stifled a groan. At the east river bypass, miles from the Manor and the melee, Xandou had her draped over his shoulder. He couldn’t see anything in front of him and the way Kaianan was swaying about on his shoulder you would suspect he didn’t know where he was going either. She let out another cry and in a swift frantic action he lay her against the nearest Miry tree.
Kaianan swallowed. Right now, all her senses were weakening. She wanted nothing more than to be at home in her bed and asleep. Perhaps a maiden will come fetch her. She was in no state to evaluate any type of fighting strategy and her best assessment of herself had her guessing her own burial. Bed seemed like a good idea. Possibly drifting off to the next life in warmth and woolly covers was better resignation than dying here. Hugging a tree. With Xandou in your face.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She didn’t want to mention the blood dripping down her body so she nodded in reply.
“You need time to heal.” He scanned left and right.
Kaianan’s gold chestplate had shrunk underneath his robe and lifting her arms seemed impossible. Yet even in her state, she was able to judge his uneasiness. “Where is my sister, Xandou?”
He took a moment to reply. “She’ll be fine, Kaianan. Metrix knows what needs to be done. She was evacuating Chituma to a safe lock.”
“You’re full of doubt, though? Where is she taking her?”
He applied pressure to her shoulder and watched her cringe in pain. “I’m not, Princess. Please use your energy and heal. Your shoulder wound is deep.”
“I want … her … with me … Xandou,” she pressed through gritted teeth.
“You would be putting her in extreme danger. Bounty hunters are tracking you. She is safer on her own. You already know this.”
Was she safer on her own? Kaianan made some calculations. Chituma was kind and agreeable. She would do anything she was told. She had no defiance in her. Not like Kaianan anyway. By now her sister could have been tracked and hunted by Necromancers or even pushed through a Vector against her will. For an instant, it crossed her mind she had been, but she put that down to her current life hanging in the balance—drawing to the worst possible conclusions as usual. In truth, she had no idea where her sister was. “I don’t trust Metrix … and you don’t either.”
Xandou bit his lip and gazed into the distance. “I trust her, and that means you should, too. She didn’t train for twelve years to be a Giliou Shielder to not take orders.”
“Then why are you second-guessing yourself?”
“Now is not the time,” he barked. “I am far from questioning my own people and the loyalty we pledge. We have always been there for the Gorgon.”
“Where are the Giliou Shielders now, Xandou?” she snapped, not sure who she was talking to. He was not the loyal, charismatic Shielder she knew. Unravelling all these lies and deceit about his Forsda dealings put light on a new man. A different man. A stranger even.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure. I must find out what the Queen is doing.” He clutched his sweaty neck. “Will you be okay waiting here for a short moment?”
Could she lay waiting in her bed? Under the sheets? The ideas ran away with her. “Yes, of course. I’m feeling much more mobile,” she lied.
“This is an order, Kaia. Do not leave,” he said, fixing himself up. “I bind you here. Please don’t cause a scene.” And with that, he ‘ported out. She held her energy in to follow him through his ‘port out, but she couldn’t muster the power and the blue light faded from his departure. She regarded her surroundings in hope of a nearby track to get her back to the Manor. She knew this place like the back of her hand. This was like a playground to her. Indeed, she could get herself to bed. Besides, someone must understand her need for comfort. This thought excited her. Whether she had the fortitude to get there was another matter. She spun her head left and right. Pain shot through her neck to her shoulder. She squinted. Across the river her eyes stopped –
Prince Addi stood alone; his black robe blowing about in the brisk wind.
Not surprisingly, black blades were snug in his hands. He scrutinised every inch of her. If Kaianan didn’t know any better, her nightmare of dying hugging a tree was about to come true. She then realised she had stopped functioning. She swallowed her breath to work her lungs. After a few seconds of her revelation and the heartbreaking knowledge she may never see her bed again, the night in front of her suddenly exploded into blue flashes of light.
Blood trickled down her right arm. Kaianan managed to use her left arm to prop herself into a standing position where Xandou had left her. Weighing up her options, it was either death by Necromancer Prince and decomposing against this tree or making some type of weapon out of herself to perhaps take him down with her. She hoped for the latter, strengthening her hold on her blade. If there was a time to do something reckless and defiant this was it. But honestly, who was she kidding, she was reckless and defiant all the time. And with that thought she realised he was gone. Not only had her ability to survey the situation nosedived, she also felt fear creeping up within her and irrationally demanded: “show yourself!”
Her eyes bounced around the perpetual darkness. Before she had any time to react, she felt hands lock her arms from behind her, splitting open her shoulder. Her blade fell to the ground and she found herself muttering a quick prayer. Having to assent to the tree being her last place of rest, she sighed, although she may have heard a sniff of a laugh during that.
His breath was heavy on the back of her neck and not in a good way. Her skin was prickled in panic and she could feel the heat coming off of him. After a long night, he was definitely warm from activity. She couldn’t help but measure his rate of breathing as he pressed closer to her spine, concluding his heart rate was in fact extremely high.
“You don’t waste any time,” Kaianan barely breathed out.
“Shhh …” he whispered while the smell of fresh blood rose into the air. He pressed her wounded shoulder tight between his fingers and she doubled over in the process. Then a bright red glow thrust from his fingertips and she yowled in pain, hoping he would leave her in a nice spot against the tree when he was done.
Abruptly, she felt her body snap, like the bones were somehow shifting in her shoulder. “What is this … slow torture?” she wheezed out.
He remained silent and let go of her. “You must leave Layos,” he said hurriedly, wiping his hands. “You understand?”
“What?” She inhaled and exhaled with ease. “Who are you?” She clutched her shoulder, running her fingertips over the now enclosed hole that was in her chest. All she felt was smooth skin.
“Just listen to me,” he commanded, looking away from her. “We haven’t much time. Get to your safe lock and stay isolated. The price for your life has tripled since your change. Please remember when you return to this planet, Layos will no longer be yours.”
“Why am I not dead?” She turned to make eye contact with him, his resonating red eyes large.
“All will be explained to you in due time,” he stalked off in the opposite direction.
She tracked his brooding figure, angrily. “Tell me who you are,” she demanded.
“No-one that is of any concern t
o you.”
“You are the Prince. You’re the Necromancer Prince!”
He stopped walking and turned back to study her. His grey hair fell over his forehead and cheeks, down to his shoulders. Kaianan regarded his brazen face inquisitively. She lingered over his mouth for several seconds, as if in a daydream. Perhaps letting him kill her wouldn’t have been so bad? Most of her would welcome further touching. She withdrew that thought as quick as it came, not sure why it even entered her head at all.
“You don’t miss a thing, do you?” He readjusted his armour and fidgeted with his black tunic.
“I don’t understand,” she said, “explain the reasoning, the justification. We are natural enemies.”
Prince Addi looked down, away from her. She studied his silent face. Was he nervous? “There is no explanation,” he said. “I had an obligation to a mentor, and I’ve fulfilled it.” He stalked off in haste. “Now stop being erratic and go wait for your Guardian.”
“I know what you are, I saw your aura, you can use the Silkri,” she admitted.
He stopped again, his body swivelling round. “You don’t know what you saw, you were dying.”
“I felt it, the movement in the Siliou, it’s different, I know the feeling.”
“I’m sure you do.” He was gone again, pacing off.
“Where are you going?! I ….” she was yelling to his departing back. She heard him chuckle in the distance which was overshadowed by the sparking sound of a ‘port and hurriedly spinning round, Kaianan regarded the blue mist of Xandou appearing in the distance.
“Princess Kaianan!” her Guardian called out in distress. “Are you not weakened? Are you alone?”
She looked back to the Prince, but saw only darkness. “I am, Xandou,” she replied flatly, still absorbed by the night.
He reached her swiftly. “Kaia, are you alright?” he asked, touching her shoulders and facing her. She nodded blankly and he raised his eyebrows. “Are you sure?”
She broke free from his hold. “Yes, I am fine,” she said harshly.
He did not press further on the matter, which was unlike him, but she had embarrassed him already today so it was probably wise he let it go. “Your family are safe, but the Necromancers lay claim to Layos.”
“Where are they?” she asked, trying to act as if she paying attention to him.
“At the ruins that run the outskirts of Middle Forsda. They await your arrival.”
She nodded slowly, feeling anything but certain.
“Is everything okay, Kaia?”
“I said I’m fine,” the lie was convincing enough. Xandou didn’t look to her again.
Deep inside of her was a feeling of misalignment and defeat. A stabbing feeling jutting deep in her heart. A night of transformation had turned into an ambush. The Necromancers had taken over her land and her home. They had tried to do this once before, twelve years ago but the Giliou stepped in unlike tonight. Was this about trade? Or was it about her? About the fact they hated she was the Rivalex Mark their beloved Defeated King wrote about in a plaque? And what would they get out of killing her? Her mouth was dry just thinking about it, thinking about all the dead –
No, she wouldn’t think about it.
But what of the Prince?
That thought plagued her. Her heart beat at a quickened pace imaging that face of his, staring down at her. What of Prince Addi? He had saved her from Nake and healed her from dying. What was going on? He was the damn Necromancer Prince, what did he owe a mentor by doing this? She was drenched with an obsessive curiosity about him. Emotions consumed her, dragging her toward a sworn enemy and she fought within herself, trying to not focus on him. She hurriedly followed Xandou in the direction of Forsda, turning her attention to her now destitute family.
Chapter Seven: Returning Home
Sentimentality, Dersji hated it. The Felrin System Dersji had awoken in did that to him. The planet in which the Homo sapiens migrated to, the planet the Siliou was first discovered, the planet that the Universal Order elected as leaders; this was his abandoned Felrin homeland. He stared out the glass window. Felrin City, the dynamic capital of ever-changing rivers and fluid sail-like buildings of glass and steel, was home to several million Felrin—and a few hundred thousand Shiek warriors. Known for its majestic garden of architectural art, the city’s luscious appeal mimicked the significance of the most advanced species in the remote universe.
Dersji’s mind was washed in a river of nostalgic waves. He was back in the Congress Hall of the Felrin Congress Estate, back under the infamous burning sun star. He looked up at streaks of purple sun rays from the high glass roof and walls ricochet off the tile-work he knelt under—white and purple mosaics spiralled out from the centre of the round room.
Damn this forsaken place. It was eighteen years since he was last in the infamous Spiral Room. Eighteen years: not long enough. Ironically, his head was thumping, nonetheless he could still recall the encounter with Sachindra and the tight grasp he had her in, to not know the extent of how he ended up unconscious for the second time, left him puzzled—particularly at the Felrin Congress for finally enforcing policy. Perhaps they were getting a bit more governed? Nonsense. Dumb luck.
The Felrin were always spreading themselves thin; forbidding spaceship travel, promoting elections, controlling feuding planets, making demands of the Conductors. The list was endless. Aside from the Fulcrum churning out Siliou-absorbing-smoke daily, they made executive orders whenever they felt like it; breaking apart galaxy and star system disorder with any means necessary, clearing out plagues with, again, any means necessary.
They never governed systematically. They’d tampered in Rivalex’s dealing on more than one occasion, resulting in drastic death and the reawakening of the Silkri aura that spawned the birth of the Defeated King. Dersji had learnt a holom of a lot more about the Felrin by living on Rivalex and learning their history.
These small interferences by the Felrin, even if they were all well and good for the survival of the universe and for progression, the question stood: where was the line drawn if there were no more planets for people to occupy, or no more people at all?
Dersji himself couldn’t comprehend it.
However, from living on Rivalex, an unstable planet concerned with resource allocation and conflicting beliefs, to the trigger happy, political powerhouse of the Felrin Congress, even to the training with Kaianan, he’d never felt so drained, and keenly aware his karma for wanting to hide away from the universe had come back to bite him, again.
He hoped it wasn’t hard.
With General Aradar at his side and his hands tied in aura destabiliser bounds, Dersji assessed the bench in front of him—full of faces he didn’t want to regard.
The bench was occupied by the three elected Principals of the Universal Order—Ree, Prudence and Aige—Felrin Liege Shieks who to Dersji’s dismay sat like conceited Mugadeers in their white chestplates and robes.
The last time he saw this lot, he was in fact slaying Mugadeers. That brown, volatile shit-spraying animal he sliced up on Deloit when he was on a covert mission to scope out the Crucibals. Congress had told him they were ransacking junk yard cruisers and rebuilding them. Dersji, irritably, found out it was all a lie, but the experience of hearing the high-pitched wail and redundant smell of the Mugadeer, who would eat its own faeces, was a highlight.
Dersji’s eyes tugged downward. There were another five individuals sitting at the lower white stoned guest bench—a blue skinned Aquamorph with an atrocity of blue hair, three ordinary-looking preforms, one definitely a Kinsmen Ranger from Valendean, and the last Dersji recognised as Queen Maya Atronix of the Giliou, in a pink monstrosity of an outfit.
He’d met three out of the five races before. The Aquamorphs were a Homo captiosus species, crossed with deep-water surviving Archaea cells. The Aquamorphs could live above or below land because of the gills that sat behind their ears and the webbed feet and fingers that could allow them to swim through the wate
r with ease. Their home planet, Whidal, in the Hyravane System, was a huge ball of water and ice and the Aquamorph skin colour lightened or darkened depending on the warmth or cold of the water.
This Aquamorph had light skin. Dersji had never met him before, but he knew Felrin kept Whidal close. This was the one race that could get elected over them at the Universal Election a thousand years ago. They say to keep your enemies close …
The Kinsmen Ranger, also another of the Felrin’s closest allies, was from Valendean in the Dowaric System. Kinsmen were a Homo captiosus species who had not changed in physical transformation when they arrived on their rich forestation planet but were a race of many trained aura users. The Kinsmen were in the millions, Kinsmen Rangers were in the hundreds of thousands. Felrin would never want an army of that size on the wrong side of them.
And the last of the three, the woman he knew personally; Maya Atronix reigned over Forsda, the city to the east in Rivalex. The Giliou, those not from Felderin anyway, did not partake in the Universal Order usually. So Dersji was slightly confused why the costume-wearing woman was here.
On closer inspection of her, Dersji noticed the pink feathers protruding from the shoulder pads of her long-sleeved dress, under an extravagant pink wig flowing straight down around her chest, had her gleaming at him like a circus freak. He knew she lacked any sort of authority and had little sway in Forsda—the race of baby-faced blondes admired swordsmanship, and she had no skill with the blade—getting attention via her outlandish garb possibly was her vain attempt of seeking the same respect. He snorted at the ludicrousness of the woman.
“Dersji Brikin, the dismal quality you possess to break Felrin regulations and statutes is astonishing and quite beyond our comprehension,” Principal Ree pronounced, “and now you fall into our territory again and continue the absurdity.”
Dersji looked up at long brown hair and a porcelain face siting at the stone bench above the guests. If he couldn’t speak Vernacular, Ree would have been branded a ghost—his cheek bones were the only prominent thing on his face. Dersji had always loathed the man. Ree, who had previously interrogated Brikin on the bonding of his Menial, Kaianan, had taken a well-known disliking to Dersji. Not that he cared. In truth, Ree was a cold-hearted scumbag, cunningly calculated at abusing his power. It bothered Dersji more that Ree was a Liege and was in some way associated with him. Unlike Ree, the other two Principals had constantly sought for Dersji to be placed on Congress as a succession Principal—something that gave him great pleasure to refuse each time he was asked.
