Starbreak (Rise to Omniscience Book 2)

by Aaron Oster

  While his eyes had flickered to her chest, she still couldn’t detect anything from him. No change in his heart rate, breathing, or posture to indicate as to whether he was attracted to her or not.

  This was all new territory to Katherine, as she’d never dealt with anyone that wasn’t susceptible to her charms. This aggravated her immensely, but, oddly enough, she felt something else as well.

  Could she possibly be intrigued? She’d never garnered much respect from anyone, despite her high station. Anyone she’d ever met eyed her with either desire or envy. That was why she’d spent so much time growing her ability and increasing in power. If she wasn’t given the respect she was due, she could simply destroy the offenders and be done with them.

  Now here was someone who seemed completely uninterested in her looks. Someone that she’d admittedly been hoping to be able to seduce and turn into a weapon. But now it seemed that she would need to persuade him with something other than her looks.

  “Why don’t you have a seat on the couch.” She motioned to the sofa she’d just been seated in. Her shoulders relaxed slightly and a much more natural smile played across her features.

  “Your friend should be along in the next hour or so. Then we can discuss why I’ve brought you here. In the meantime, can I offer you something to eat?”

  Morgan was a bit surprised at the sudden shift in attitude.

  He’d been expecting her to force whatever agenda she had onto him, under pain of death; but here she was, offering him food and agreeing to wait upon Sarah’s arrival. He still didn’t trust her, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to eat dinner as those assassins had come in before he’d gotten the opportunity.

  He nodded slowly, walking over to the indicated spot and taking a seat.

  “Some food would be nice,” he said once he’d taken his seat.

  “Is there anything, in particular, you’d like? I can have the chefs make just about anything.”

  Chefs? Of course, they would have chefs here, as he had no doubt that this was the royal palace in City One.

  “Meat,” Morgan said, not sure what else to ask for.

  “Just meat?” Katherine asked with a light laugh. “I offered you any meal and you just said meat, without specifying what type, what cut or how you would like it prepared. One would almost think that you grew up on the streets with such a request.”

  “But I did grow up on the streets,” he said, brows knitting together in confusion.

  For the first time since meeting her, he saw genuine surprise cross the Princess’ face. It was quickly replaced by a thoughtful expression as her mind raced to process this new information.

  If what he said was true, and she didn’t doubt that he was telling the truth, then it would explain a lot. If he grew up on the streets, then he was most likely an orphan. Orphans had it harder than anyone and most didn’t survive for very long on their own. It still didn’t explain his complete lack of interest though. She needed to get to the bottom of this and only knew of one way how.

  “That’s quite unexpected,” she finally said, walking over to a small rope hanging near an open slot in the wall. “You’ll have to tell me how an orphan child managed to befriend a city lord’s daughter, and manage to earn his ire; to the point where he’d try and have you killed.”

  Morgan gave no visible reaction when she said this, but inside, his mind was racing.

  How could she possibly have all this information on him? Arnold clearly didn’t know much about him, as she hadn’t known he’d grown up on the streets. So if she didn’t find out from him, then who?

  Katherine could see that he was momentarily distracted, so she quickly raised a hand to her ear, and reached out to the only person who could give her real answers.

  Vivian, I’m in my room with Morgan, but something’s wrong with him. I need you to do an examination. The back door is open, just slip in when you have a free moment. We’ll talk once he’s gone.

  She only had to wait for a few seconds before a response came through.

  Of course, Princess. I’ll be there shortly.

  She dropped her hand from her ear, just as a light chiming sound came from the dumbwaiter and a small flat board appeared in the open slot. On it, was a piece of paper and a pen, along with an inkwell. There was also a small pamphlet, held together by a piece of spiraling wire.

  Katherine reached in and took both, then walked back to the couch and seated herself near him.

  Now that he was a bit more relaxed, Morgan could smell something strange coming off the Princess.

  It wasn’t unpleasant, though. In fact, he found that he quite enjoyed it. It reminded him of something, though he couldn’t quite place it.

  Katherine shifted just a bit closer to him, bumping her hips into his and leaning over him. This afforded him a great view down her dress, but Morgan didn’t even take notice of this. His eyes were glued to the small pamphlet covered in writing.

  “What is that?” he asked, seeing all sorts of names he didn’t recognize covering the first page.

  “This is a menu sent up from the kitchens,” Katherine answered, flipping the menu open and leafing through a few pages.

  “Since you don’t know what you want, I hope you don’t mind if I order for you,” she said, turning to look at him.

  Despite her distracted appearance, she’d been keeping a careful eye on him as she’d leaned over. It looked as though her earlier hypothesis had been correct.

  Morgan hadn’t even taken the slightest interest in her, his attention being grabbed by a freaking menu, instead of the scantily clad woman pressing herself into him. She hoped Vivian would arrive soon, as she was dying to get to the bottom of this.

  Morgan nodded his acceptance, thinking that if anyone knew good food, it would have to be a princess.

  After a few more minutes of rifling through the menu, she closed it with a satisfied click. Then she picked up the pen, dipped it in the inkwell and began to write.

  As the pen scratched over the paper, Morgan’s eyes began to wander around the room.

  The portal was still standing open a few feet away, but according to the princess, Sarah wouldn’t be arriving for a least another hour, if not more.

  His attention shifted back to her as she stood and walked back over to the opening in the wall. She placed both the menu and sheet of paper inside, then pulled the rope once again. After a few seconds, they both disappeared and Morgan could now make out a thin rope attached to it.

  How strange. An entire mechanism just for ferrying food up from the kitchens? The wealthy sure had it good.

  Katherine turned from the dumbwaiter and sauntered back over to him, sitting down on the couch and sliding up near him once more; the barely perceptible sound of a door opening, reaching her as she settled into the couch.

  Good, Vivian had arrived. Now she would get to the bottom of this mystery.

  Morgan frowned as Katherine pressed against his side.

  Why was she so touchy? Sarah always did the same thing though, so maybe all women acted this way.

  “The food should be ready in about twenty minutes. Your friend should be here in about forty-five, so that should give us plenty of time for our first date,” she said, flashing him a grin.

  At least he now had a time frame for when Sarah would be arriving.

  “What’s a date?” he asked, wondering just what kind of food she’d ordered.

  It would undoubtedly be the best he’d ever eaten if he was right, and this was indeed the palace.

  “Oh, well I suppose you wouldn’t know what one was,” she put a finger to her lips, thinking for a moment how best to explain it.

  “A date is when two people get to know one another better,” she finally said, “we can talk here until the food comes up, then we can continue over at the table. Does that sound agreeable to you?”

  Morgan shrugged.

  Why not? It wasn’t like he had anything to hide. She already knew his biggest secret. What more coul
d she really want to know?

  Katherine flashed him another one of her brilliant smiles, dropping her hand to cover one of his.

  “Excellent!”

  ***

  Six years ago…

  Morgan wove his way through the busy streets, hunching his shoulders and keeping his head down. He took a quick peek over his shoulder to make sure the strange girl wasn’t following him, then ducked down an alley and made his way to his most recent hiding spot. Squeezing between two buildings, he emerged into a small square with a few tattered rags bunched in one corner and a wooden crate sitting against a wall.

  He slumped down into it, fishing the moldy crust from his pocket and biting into it. It tasted disgusting, but he forced himself to finish every last bit; even going so far as to lick up the crumbs from his palm. He leaned back against the wall and stared up at the sky above.

  His mind then wandered over the last hour or so. The fight had been amazing, though even the memory of the feeling had already faded. He blew out a long breath and leaned further back against the wall.

  He felt nothing.

  It had been this way for the last three months; ever since he woke up in an alley with no memory of the last two and some odd years.

  He’d tried everything he could think of just to feel something, but the only thing that gave him joy was fighting. When he was fighting, the numbing cold would fade and he would feel. This led him to seek out fights wherever he could. It was like a drug, an addiction; and who could really blame him? It wasn’t that he just fought either; he would go looking for fights and try to drag them out for as long as possible, to prolong the feeling.

  The fight with the two boys had been a good example of this. He could have beaten them both fairly quickly, but he had purposely prolonged it, just to feel something other than the nothingness that haunted his every waking moment and even chased him into his dreams.

  He rolled off the crate and landed on the concrete floor, staring listlessly up at the sky. His mind then wandered to the strange girl who’d warned him of a sneak attack during his fight; then, for some inexplicable reason, had demanded to know his name. He snorted to himself, remembering the angry look on her face when he’d ignored her. He turned onto his side and tried to go to sleep, but the girl’s face kept popping into his mind for some reason.

  Finally giving up, he got to his feet and began running through the stances that were ingrained into him. He had no idea where he’d learned to fight the way he did, but assumed that someone must have taught him in the past few years, as he couldn’t remember knowing it before the memory lapse.

  He took up a stance and began running through the motions. Left… right… hook… uppercut… His fists flashed out in rapid succession, his body twisting and pivoting at the crucial moments, to lend extra power to the strikes.

  Once he was sufficiently warmed up, he began practicing more in-depth. Throwing a combination of punches, kicks, knees, and elbows, all while moving around; bobbing and weaving to dodge imaginary attacks.

  Morgan began to fall into a rhythm, leaving his mind free to wander once again. The girl’s face flashed through his mind immediately, her cheeks flushed as deep a red as her hair; the angry pouting expression on her face, the way she’d carried herself. As though she were the most important person in the world.

  What a strange girl, he thought, feeling something bubbling up inside him.

  Morgan snorted out a laugh; then froze midway through his most recent form. He had… laughed? The only time he laughed was when he was…

  He froze. Would training give him the same joy as actually fighting?

  He mulled that thought over for a few seconds, but eventually dismissed it. He’d trained plenty of times before, and it had never made him feel anything.

  He sat down then, folding his legs up and beginning a few deep breathing exercises. His mind was always calm, even in the middle of a fight, but doing this always seemed to center him. It helped him think; helped him process all the information he’d collected that day, and sort them into the correct places. Now, however, he was using it to try and figure out the odd slip in his behavior.

  He took in a deep, slow breath, feeling the air fill his lungs to capacity, before slowly releasing it. His mind whirled through the myriad of possibilities until it finally landed on the only logical conclusion.

  As far as he could tell, there was only one thing that was different between today and any other day. The girl. She’d done something to him, something to make him laugh.

  His eyes snapped open then, and he rose from his position on the ground.

  He needed to find her.

  10

  Morgan told Katherine all about growing up on the streets of City Four. About how he’d met Sarah by chance one day while she was out in the city.

  That was one of his fondest memories, the day he’d first met Sarah; though she often told him that it was both the best and worst day of her life.

  Katherine in turn, told him of her life, growing up as the Crown Princess, and how she’d worked hard to improve her abilities and fighting skills.

  He was shocked to learn, that despite her ridiculously high rank of 48, Katherine was only twenty-four years old.

  When he’d asked her how she’d gotten to such a high level of power when it took most people hundreds of years to get there, she’d laughed and gestured to the room around them.

  “It’s really not that hard to rank up when you have enough money to purchase all the cores you’ll need. The hard part was resisting the temptation to max out my rank right way.”

  Morgan nodded at that, agreeing wholeheartedly with her.

  Despite their differences in rank and social standing, he was really beginning to warm to the princess. She appeared to have a lot of the same interests as him, including an almost manic love of fighting.

  Their food came up at a certain point and they moved over to the table to eat. Katherine carried two silver domed trays over to the table, setting one down before him. She then walked back to the dumbwaiter and came back with a clear bottle of amber colored liquid, as well as two glasses.

  Morgan had already pulled the top off the tray by the time she arrived back and was looking down at the savory dish before him, practically drooling at the heavenly aroma wafting up from it.

  Katherine hid a smile as she sat down across from him and set the bottle and glasses down.

  At least I’d found something that he would drool over, she thought as she watched him.

  “What kind of meat it this?” Morgan asked, reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the food.

  “It’s bison; a delicacy normally only found in the West Kingdom. I won’t go into the details on how it was prepared, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.”

  She unstopped the bottle of amber liquid and poured each of them a glass. Morgan stared as the liquid frothed and bubbled as it was poured.

  He’d never seen a drink do that before.

  Katherine noticed him staring and slid one of the glasses over to him.

  “Go on then. Don’t wait on my account.”

  She didn’t have to tell him twice.

  Morgan picked up the fork and knife, cutting off a huge chunk of the bison, and stuffing it into his mouth. The explosion of flavor that assaulted his senses when the soft and juicy meat entered his mouth, was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes.

  He’d never once imagined that food could taste so good. It was both soft and tender, and the meat seemed to almost be falling apart in his mouth.

  Morgan finally swallowed his first bite and flashed Katherine a wide smile.

  “You were right! I’ve never tasted meat this good in my entire life!”

  “I’m glad you’re enjoying it, but you should try the sparkling cider as well. It pairs very nicely with the bison,” she said, returning the smile.

  Morgan nodded, reaching for the glass and wrapping his fist around the stem.

  Katherine laughed when she saw this
and was quick to correct him on the proper way to hold a glass.

  Morgan nodded his thanks, then took a sip of the cider. His eyes widened a touch when the liquid hit his tongue. It tasted of apples and honey, and the feeling of the bubbles popping in his mouth was wonderful.

  The meal continued on in silence, something which Morgan was more than grateful for.

  Sarah always tried to talk to him while he was eating and it was very distracting.

  It only took him a few minutes to polish off his entire plate and he sat back with a sigh of contentment.

  That was the best meal he’d had in his entire life. It easily outstripped anything else he’d ever eaten.

  There was a sudden loud buzzing sound and Katherine let out a sigh of regret.

  “It looks like your friend will be arriving momentarily.”

  Morgan’s head turned to the portal, which had suddenly begun glowing a bright red and a few seconds later, Sarah stepped through.

  ***

  Sarah stumbled as she stepped out of the portal, feeling that awful sense of vertigo she so detested. It took her a few seconds to orient herself and once she did, she wasn’t entirely sure if she were dreaming or not.

  Morgan was sitting at a table not ten feet away. Sitting across from him was Princess Katherine, dressed in a gown that made her feel both inadequate and envious at the same time.

  Just what the hell was going on here?

  She blinked a few times, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

  Nope, they were still there.

  “Hey Sarah, glad to see you’re finally here,” Morgan said, waving at her from the table.

  The sight was so outrageous, so completely unexpected, that Sarah just blurted out the first thing that came into her mind.

  “What the hell is going on here, Morgan?!” she yelled.

  Then her face went pale, as she processed who she was standing before.

  The Princess of the North Kingdom, and one of the most dangerous people alive. She still had nightmares from the way she’d destroyed that group of guards back at the academy.