by Emerson Fray
Chapter 10
Something had changed within Ren that she couldn’t quite comprehend. Her mood had been steadily lifting since her arrival on Novae, and for once it wasn’t because of Elian. In fact, he’d been around so little that she barely knew what he had been up to, and she was certain he must have been wondering about her too. She’d disappeared for so long at the festival, he of all people, must have noticed her absence…right?
She didn’t like thinking that he hadn’t. So to quell her worries, she set out in search of him, all while avoiding Garret as best she could. Sheridan followed loyally, and would occasionally grab her and hide around a corner should Garret or Naomi come into sight. She wanted to know how Sheridan always seemed to sense them before seeing them. It was an ability she wanted to learn—badly.
As they hugged yet another wall to avoid one of Maks’s foot soldiers, Ren wondered where exactly Elian had disappeared to. She wanted to give him a long speech about his sleeping habits, but again he wasn’t in his room.
“Abetha,” Ren said, “do you know where Elian might be?”
Abetha blushed hard, her crush on Elian still obvious. Ren sighed as the girl shook her head and said, “I do not know. That would be very—ah, inappropriate.”
“Right,” Ren replied. “Sheridan?”
“My path lies with you,” Sheridan said. It was one of those statements that she always said that made her sound so smart and completely washed away the overall threatening aura. Ren found it hard to hold back another sigh at the thought that everyone around her was so involved with her; it felt like Elian was easily forgotten. After she’d saved Abetha from the bite a few days ago nobody would give Elian a second glance.
“There,” Abetha said. “Isn’t that him?”
Ren followed Abetha’s finger towards the window and saw Elian standing in the rain. He stood hunched over a large piece of metal, while Ross held an umbrella over his head. Before she started heading outside Ren gave a hard look to Abetha. “You used a contraction.”
Like before with Sheridan, Ren found that when people let their guard down on Novae they would use a contraction. It felt strange to hear it aloud, since everyone she’d talked to before had used each word properly.
Abetha flinched and looked to Sheridan. “My apologies.”
“Why are you apologizing?” Ren questioned. “Why does everyone apologize when they do something—normal?”
Abetha seemed to be looking to Sheridan for permission, so Ren pressed the issue. “What’s going on?”
“It is just—before your arrival the Monarchy told us that using such words was looked down on,” Abetha explained.
Ren blanched. “Are you kidding me?”
Sheridan said, “They said we sounded too common.”
“Too normal,” Ren corrected. “Everyone talks like that,”—she groaned and covered her eyes—“just talk how you want. I—I’ll talk to Garret about it later.”
She started walking into the courtyard where she hoped she’d find Elian doing something ordinary. But she knew the chances of that were slim to none, and expected something insane; whatever he’d locked himself in his closet with, most likely. Abetha and Sheridan’s footsteps followed behind her, and something about them being so close was bothering her. It seemed she would never have a moment of peace.
They talked when she wasn’t around, too. Talked about her and her family. Everyone did, she understood that, but something about Abetha and Sheridan doing it made it feel worse. She told herself it was because she was starting to mistake them as friends, and not a Guide and Sotarian. Neither of them had even called her by name yet, and she anticipated they never would. But recently Ren began to think Sheridan might be the first to take that step towards friendship. Still, she didn’t get her hopes up.
It made Ren feel incredibly lonely, which was why she hurried her pace to meet Elian. As she reached the front doors Abetha tried to stop her from going out in the rain, but it was hardly a storm and she stepped into the drizzle. It was cold against her skin, but she didn’t take any time to rejoice in the new feeling. She approached Elian.
“What are you doing?” she asked, ignoring Abetha’s calls. Ross took a couple steps over and let her beneath the umbrella, getting his own suit wet in hopes of keeping her sheltered. She shoved his hand away. He put it right back and made sure the umbrella was over Ren’s head.
“I’m working on something,” Elian declared.
“But what?” she questioned. Elian hadn’t even looked up from the metal orb he tinkered with, and he, too, cared little about the weather.
“It’s a thing,” he said cryptically, too involved in his work. He was always like this; if he got working on something he couldn’t form proper sentences. Ren rolled her eyes and crossed her arms against the cold.
“A thing that does what?”
“A thing,” he replied, waving a wrench towards the sky. “It’ll make things less seeable.”
“You mean it’s a cloaking device,” Ren theorized. Elian nodded. “You’re aware those were already invented, right?”
“That didn’t stop me from building a spaceship at ten, did it?” He finally looked up to give his sister a grin. She couldn’t help but smile back.
“You’re working on cloaking the planet then or something?” she asked.
“Absolutely,” Elian declared, straightening. He stretched his arms overhead, almost knocking the umbrella from Ross’s hands. “Nobody in Mahendra knew anything about this stuff, so I thought I would look into it. I mean, something had the planet hidden, right? It’s not like it was in a black hole or anything.”
“Maybe it was,” Ren guessed. “Nobody knows much about those things yet.”
“Yet,” Elian agreed.
Ren looked over her shoulder to see that Abetha hadn’t followed her out, but Sheridan had. She stood obediently in the rain, and soon Abetha came running out of the manor with another umbrella. She popped it over Ren’s head as Ross moved away. “Thanks,” Ren said reluctantly.
“Or,” Elian went on, rubbing at the small amount of stubble on his chin, “when the Absolution crashed it thrust the planet into an alternate dimension, and that’s where the prophet came from! So when the planet came back into our space the prophet stayed in his own universe?”
Ren arched a brow. “I guess it’s possible, if parallel universes are real. That’s assuming a lot though.”
“Parallel universe?” Ross asked. Ren was surprised at how deep his voice was, since she’d never actually heard it before. For someone so lean she expected it to sound a bit more like Elian’s, not nearly as…threatening.
“They’re like universes beside ours,” Elian explained, “only a little shift to the left or right. But—that’s probably not what happened. When the Absolution crashed, cloaking technology had just been experimental—all theory—maybe they figured something out here.”
“So you’re trying to cloak the planet now?” Ren asked. “Shouldn’t you talk to Maks about that first?”
Elian waved her away. “He’d just tell me to work on something else. I feel like I’m missing out on everything since they still haven’t given me my research from home yet.”
“I haven’t gotten anything either.”
“Yes, but my work is so much more important,” Elian argued with a sigh. “I work in the future while you do—boring stuff.”
Ren growled, “What I do is just as important. Without analyzing the past we can’t look to the future!”
“Uh, yes we can.” Elian laughed, but it was more playful than vindictive. “Anyway, you’re distracting me. I need to get this done.” He moved a few more wires around, set the power chip in place, and the orb lit up.
“Okay, let’s see what this sexy little thing can do,” Elian mumbled, clapping his hands together hard enough to make Abetha flinch. Not that it was difficult to make Abetha flinch.
Elian pressed h
is finger on a small silver button, and the orb flew a few feet into the air. “Ross, step back and let me know if it works.”
Ross nodded and handed Abetha the umbrella. As he moved further away Elian shouted, “Monica, conceal!”
The orb lit up a little brighter, and Ren caught a flash of a yellow wall pour around them. Sheridan moved closer to her, ready to defend her should something happen. Ren thought she should have been awestruck by the field, since she looked at every other piece of Monarchy technology with such wonder. Instead she almost looked bored, but the distinct tightening in her muscles told Ren she was ready for a fight. Ren shook her head.
“Prince Elian?” Ross questioned, stepping forward. As he did he passed the barrier, and his eyes widened. “You vanished!”
“It worked,” Elian cried. “Monica, expand!”
The orb flew a little higher before it’s light started to dim. Ren watched the glimmer of the barrier expand but it quickly fell apart as the orb fell to the ground. It cracked open with a harsh grinding sound, and Elian groaned.
“What happened?” Abetha asked.
“His experiment failed,” Ren said, and turned to Elian. “You couldn’t even get it to the manor; how are you going to get it to cover the planet?”
“I just need a power source,” Elian whined. “There’s nothing here that gives enough juice.” He knelt beside his failed project, picking up the sharp pieces. Ross took the umbrella back from Abetha and approached his master.
“I do not understand,” Ross said, “how did you disappear?”
“It’s an EM field,” Elian explained. “It messes with what you see.”
Abetha looked to Ren. “Do you know how they work?”
Ren gave a weary shrug. “Sort of. An electromagnetic field is one of the four fundamental forces and spans across the universe. To use it as a cloaking device, or to protect a ship from enemy blasts, it has to give off the right frequency.” Ren thought a moment about how she could see the shimmer. “It’s pretty shoddy work if you can actually see it though. Normally you can only see it when it’s hit with something.”
“You could only see it from the inside,” Elian defended, shooting her a glare over his shoulder. “Ross couldn’t see a thing.”
“No, I could not,” Ross agreed nervously. He pulled at the collar of his shirt. Ren wasn’t sure if that meant he was afraid of the technology, or he was actually lying.
“And this can cover an entire planet?” Abetha asked.
“Not that the Monarchy has found,” Ren said. “That’s just one of many theories they have.”
“It is,” Elian said, “and I’ll prove it.” He stood, the crumbling pieces of his device cradled in his arms.
As he started towards the house Ren wondered why he was so determined to do this. It seemed more than his usual drive, and she thought it might have something to do with being around Maks. She hoped it wasn’t Garret asking him to figure out how a planet had been lost for so long. Surely the Monarchy had people other than Elian to work on that. Yet Ren hadn’t seen anyone from the Monarchy come to Novae in the weeks since their arrival. It was just the Argent family as well as a few scow members that Maks kept around. And Garret only kept saying that the Monarchy would take care of things—so far they hadn’t done much. At least…nothing that Ren could see. They hadn’t even brought the vaccinations they’d promised.
As Ren turned to walk out of the rain she took a moment to appreciate it, only to have it interrupted by the last person she wanted to talk to.
Garret.
“Princess,” he called from the door, “you shouldn’t be outside so soon after your incident.”
Begrudgingly Ren walked inside, more from the cold than his calling. They stood beneath the marble pillars, and Ren ignored any attempt Garret made at getting her inside the manor. “Did you need something?” she asked. Rain began to fall in larger drops, hitting the ground with loud splashes.
“I wanted to let you know there has been a delay in gathering your things from Earth—the officers collecting it seemed to have been confused over the list you gave me.”
“What?” she questioned. “Everything from my apartment was confusing?”
“Well, there are quite a lot of things,” Garret explained, still with his never vanishing grin. “And His Grace has been having some quandaries with other members of the Monarchy; requesting things and what not.”
Ren huffed. “Like medicine so people don’t die?”
“Yes, that,” Garret said, clasping his hands together. “The Monarchy would like Maks to focus on other things at the moment; I suppose you aren’t aware that the rebels are getting worse.”
“What have they done?” Ren asked, much more worried than before. Had they attempted some kind of assassination on Maks?
“No need for details,” Garret went on. “I’m just worried that if Maks is busy working to get medicine and,”—he cleared his throat—“books, he might overlook some things. But I’m sure he can handle it. If you’ll excuse me, Princess.”
Garret walked away before Ren could ask any more questions. Just how stupid did he think she was? It was obvious to Ren that Garret was trying to manipulate her, but she couldn’t help herself as the worry sank in. What if they stopped attacking her family and started for their followers in Mahendra? The Sotarians might not be enough protection for hundreds of people.
“He’s very manipulative,” Sheridan murmured, watching with Ren as Garret left.
“I know,” Ren agreed. “And despite that, I need to talk to Maks.”
Garret was getting exactly what Ren knew he wanted, yet her feet didn’t listen to her as she told them to stop.
She needed to know what Maks was doing about the rebels.
