by M. Arcturus
He did as she instructed, and with disgusted apprehension, she took the leather bag from him. Underestimating the weight of the bag, she almost dropped it. Her strength had not yet returned to her, and the thought of having to put this new situation to rest drove her mind into fatigue. Before she turned to leave, she gave him a thought to ponder. “I know you are trying your best to impress me. I have been given sound advice from an individual I trust. They told me to give you a chance, but keep in mind that there is another who is pursuing my heart, which means, you have high competition! Next time you decide to do anything for me, please understand that killing cannot be involved unless I’m in danger.” Like the lady she was, she kissed the top of his head and left for the palace to talk to her father, and if given time, she hoped to slip into a new set of clothes. The tattered dress look was starting to get on her nerves.
Once Pandora left, Giséi utilized the moment to exit the brush and express her thoughts to the humbled wolf. “I would have been honored if you would have done something like that for me. She’s not the only woman out there, you know. Although I do hate to admit it, she had a point. There are not many unicorns left.”
Sorbek was a little startled by her presence, but not enough to pull his sword. He stood up gruffly and stared at the young girl. He did find her attractive, but he kept his focus. “She may not be the only woman out there, but marrying her is my duty and obligation.”
He started to walk away in his jerky wolf-like stride. Giséi couldn’t help it, she had to know. “What’s your name?”
“Sorbek,” the way he said it over his shoulder and the tone in his voice was very recognizable. It was a tone she had used all too often. To chase after him and try to continue the conversation would have been futile. He was through with talking, and his personal barriers had gone back up. All he knew was his obligations. She knew about duties and obligation all too well.
The walk seemed to take longer heading back toward the palace than it did leaving for the gardens. Her exhaustion told the guards as she passed that she needed help. She was reluctant to take them up on their offer. Through their insistence, she allowed one of them to escort her. Winding her way down the stairs to the lower levels, she came face to face with the Council room doors.
Her father’s voice could be heard louder than anyone else’s. It was evident that he had an open link to the Galactic Council, trying to fill them in on the situation. They had graciously allowed their members to attend Atlantis’s Council meeting, and they were wondering why their members had not returned. Oberon really needed the members to stay longer, but he was losing the argument with them and was getting nowhere fast. His only hope was to use the time-defying effect Atlantis produced to give them more time instead of dealing with another uproar from the Galactic Council, which wanted its members back promptly. Frustration seeped into his words as he spoke with them, and Pandora was thankful for her timing when she heard the conversation end. She could tell that he still wasn’t alone, but it was now or never.
With one swift kick to the door, it burst open to reveal her presence. Her father looked up from the table where he sat, and the standing audience that surrounded him turned to stare in her direction with surprise and annoyance.
“What is the meaning of this?” Oberon’s anger was deep and pure.
“Oh, I just wanted to show you the cute little trinket that your chosen suitor picked up for me in the marketplace,” she stated sarcastically with confidence as she practically threw the bag at him.
The bag hit the table with a loud heavy thud. Oberon was a little apprehensive about opening it. Even though he was annoyed at his daughter’s outburst and lack of respect, he figured whatever was in the bag had spurred her current attitude. He stood up to untie the knots in the thick rope, which held the leather bag closed. He didn’t think he opened it up so widely that everyone could see, but the gasp from the onlookers was loud and just as horrifying as the bloody display before them. Oberon sat back down in his seat with exasperated force.
“He decided to cut off its head when it didn’t obey him. Though in a way, it was innocent; he just wanted me to have the horn,” Pandora explained. When her father didn’t respond, she continued, “You may not like Seth, but he’s not that barbaric. Your pet can’t even say that he’s interested in me or has feelings for me. I just thought you should know that I don’t approve of your dog-man’s actions.”
Pandora left quietly, and Oberon watched her leave after staring unbelievingly at the unicorn’s head in front of him. He was bewildered that someone in town would sell unicorns, let alone his right-hand man cut off its head. His work would never be done at this rate. He rubbed his eyes with his hand.
One of the two elves standing far behind him was finally brave enough to speak up. “We can take care of the unicorn milord. It shouldn’t be that difficult to return that of which has been stolen. We will do our best to mend the wrongful death. Once all is well, we can look into who sold the unicorn in the first place.”
After pulling out a handkerchief to hide the sour expression on his face, he tied the bag up with one hand, using the other to hold the handkerchief to his mouth to keep from puking. Though he remained strong when handing the heavy bag over to the two elves, he couldn’t hold it in much longer. A third elf ran from the shadows to Oberon’s side with a bucket. When Lord Oberon looked down into the bucket and saw iced fish staring back up at him, he had no choice but to spew forth his bottled-up disgust.
When he was done, he used the handkerchief to wipe off his mouth and sat back down calmly in his seat. He looked around at the others and noticed that his audience had lost themselves in the moment as well and had puked all over the Council room floor. Oberon snapped his fingers and ordered the guards to find someone to clean the mess up. As he gave a sigh of relief, he directed his attention to the elven guard who had brought him the bucket.
“And where did you get this bucket from?”
“The section where the Talethians sit, they use the buckets to keep the fish they eat fresh. It’s a known fact that they have to eat at least one fish every few minutes.”
Oberon sat back in his chair placing his elbow on the chair’s arm and rubbed his eyes again, trying to hide his disbelief regarding his newfound luck since returning to Atlantis. “I suggest you clean that out and replace the fish. The last thing we want is a war on our hands, especially with our closest galactic neighbors.” The elf scuttled off, and Oberon tried his best to take the reins and pull his meeting together.
It had been about an hour and a half since holding the initial trial had been attempted, and there were still ships coming and going. Selené was very reluctant to stay within the palace walls. The last she knew, a lot of the Council members had to contact their home worlds to inform their regimes of the situation. The Council members were all expecting to make their grand appearance, deliver their messages or write their reports, and be dismissed. Now with this bombshell that had exploded on them, they were contacting their headquarters for either clearance to stay or to send a replacement if that was at all possible. One thing she knew for sure, Oberon had his hands full. Between the conflicts with those who were able to stay and helping Seth look for answers, she was stressed out and happy to be away from it all, standing in the gardens.
After taking a long shower, getting into cleaner clothes and out of her bandages, she now walked the gardens, feeling the wind and occasionally picking some of the flowers. She came to a small clearing in which the other side looked almost identical to where she stood. The only difference was she was about to step onto holy ground. She walked deeper into the silence of the holy ground and knelt before the cold, vertical stone slab lit by the pink and golden rays of the day’s last bit of sunlight. The name Calista was carved in a beautiful font, but the stone bore the name with a lot of weight. Only glancing at the words, she placed her handpicked flowers on the grave. Through the rays of sunse
t, a figure shadowed the tombstone.
“You know she’s not there,” said a familiar voice.
Selené looked over her shoulder and saw Pandora. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her lucid green eyes stared deeply at her friend. No longer in the green flowing tattered gown, she sported a fitted reddish-brown leather corset with pants and boots to match.
“I’m not mourning a loss. The sea creatures reminded me that I still love my mom very much—always will—and that I still haven’t forgotten one detail of her face or the caring nature of her touch. The sparkle in her eyes, the way she walked and talked—I still remember as if it was yesterday. Death is just a passage that we all take. You were right when you said that she’s not here. Even this tombstone doesn’t mark where my mother rests; it’s just a reminder that she existed. I just felt like giving my mother flowers, and this is the only way I knew how.” Remembering how wonderful it was to talk to her friend she added, “Thank you for being concerned and for following me into the depths of despair. I had no clue that things would get so out of hand. I’m just glad you’re okay and that Juron is in a controlled environment. I see you’re doing much better. You still have bruises, but the cuts have all been healed. Did your father say anything about your torn dress?”
When Selené turned from the grave and sat facing the sun, Pandora sat down beside her. Pandora replied, “No, I don’t think he had time to notice.” Pandora massaged her wrists, which still ached from being bound. “Yeah, all of this technology and yet the medics still can’t heal bruising.”
Selené suddenly grabbed Pandora by the lower arm almost in hysterics, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God! I completely forgot about them; please tell me they’re gone!”
“Sel, get a grip—other than your grip on my arm. Would you mind letting go? You’re freaking me out!” Pandora looked at Selené with a little bit of confusion and disgust. When she noticed that Selené really was panicked, she asked, “What are you talking about? Who or what’s gone?”
Selené moved her hair out of the way and showed Pandora her neck. “The holes in the side of my neck, can you see them?”
“What holes?”
“The holes from the sea creature’s fingers!”
“Sel, there are no holes. Your neck looks just fine. What are you even talking about?”
“The sea creatures punctured Juron’s neck with their fingers. I didn’t even think to look at his neck while the trial was going on.”
“Sel, please breathe! Were the sea creatures singing when you saw it happen?”
“I-I think so.”
“Then it didn’t happen. They’re great illusionists, and they use their singing to hypnotize people. They must have tried to scare you into cooperating.”
“Well, it worked!”
“Well, it must have worked pretty well on Juron, too,” Pandora chuckled. “He was getting quite creepy there toward the end, wasn’t he? The sea creatures must have tripped him out!” They gave each other a faint smile even though it was more out of disbelief than out of joy. “One thing is for sure, when it comes to following you into the depths of despair, if I could do it all over again, I would have done the same thing.”
Selené leaned up against the tombstone and sighed relief. For a moment, she sat there quietly, taking in her surroundings.
“There aren’t many who have died on Atlantis,” Pandora went on. “How, or should I ask why, is your mother among them?”
“My mother used to take me on long trips to Tyre. She had family there. Plus, she wanted me to age a little bit physically without having to use an aging pod,” she began to explain. A smile crept across her face and then shortly vanished. “Every time we went back, there were fewer and fewer relatives still alive. The last trip we took, she contracted tuberculosis. She died before the ship came to take us back here to Atlantis. I lit her pyre and had intentions of bringing the ashes back here to bury them. Instead, I ended up tossing her ashes out across the oceans.” Silence filled the space between them as Selené went deep into thought. “I always wondered why my mother never used the physics of Atlantis to travel back in time to save my father’s life. Then one day it hit me. He was from Atlantis. I don’t think there’s a way to go back in time to Atlantis itself. I don’t even know if my father has family here or if this was just another stopping place for him. Being alone doesn’t bother me anymore—it hasn’t since after the first few hundred years.” The rest of her smile evaded her face. “Solitude is the least of my worries now.”
A small chuckle left Selené’s lips, and Pandora couldn’t help but ask. “What is it?”
“I know there are going to be more people this time around than there was earlier today,” Selené said. “Juron is going to be awake, and pressure will be on. And out of everything going on today, there are too many triangles and not enough love.”
“I’m not quite sure I’m following you.”
“While you were knocked out cold, I think I saw your father’s suitor. Not quite sure what you will think of him, but he seems to follow your father’s orders to a T. Not to mention that I’ve found myself in my own love triangle.” Selené was hoping that her last statement would cause Pandora to be curious and ask about her new love intrigue, but she just sat there and released a heavy sigh.
After a long moment, Pandora spoke up. “I did meet my father’s suitor just a little while ago,” she said.
“What happened? What did your father say?”
“He wasn’t there when his suitor approached me…with the head of a unicorn!” Anger and tears welled up in Pandora’s eyes.
“What!?!”
“I don’t think he meant any harm, but it was terribly shocking and made me sick to my stomach.”
“What was he thinking? How could he do that?”
“He’s a soldier,” Pandora stated flatly. “I can’t speak about all soldiers from every civilization, but from what I’ve observed on Avalon, our soldiers go through extensive training, which seems to desensitize them. Just like all of the other soldiers I’ve met, life and death doesn’t seem to hold any bearing for him. It takes years of therapy for one of our soldiers to lose the kill or be killed mentality and feel comfortable living a civilian life. If he was a warrior like Seth, he would understand the significance of live and let live unless it’s for safety. Warriors don’t get paid to fight. They don’t always have to follow orders, and most of the time they get to pick and choose their battles. In many cultures, they fight from the heart, not just following orders from their leaders.”
“Even Seth seems to have problems with that every once in a while. He doesn’t always think before he acts.”
“Yes, he grew up in a culture that honored warriors. They knew there was life in every living thing and they cherished those life forces. They took time to connect with their planet by meditating and participated in celebration rituals. Then he chose to become a soldier. When he came here to Atlantis, he started to embrace the old ways of his people again. He’s starting to remember the life he had as a child, and he’s slowly adjusting to civilian life. I’m sure that process takes a while though. He’s come a long way since the first time we met. I think it also helps that Seth has a spiritual belief system, where this suitor doesn’t seem to have a spiritual bone in his body. He just appears to be hollow.” Pandora paused in thought, then added, “Talking about your love life, I think I know whom you are talking about. Is he the tall, dark, handsome one that all of the nurses were gossiping about? Or the scrawny one that I was stuck in the medical room with?” Pandora’s eyebrow arched with intrigue.
At first, Selené was shocked that Pandora knew who they were, or at least had heard about them. Like a sharp knife, hurt settled in her heart when she realized that she had competition with the dark-haired one and then complete disgust and embarrassment when her thoughts drifted toward Icarus. Figuring that Icarus was
wounded in love, she asked, “Was he talking about me?”
“Whining was more like it. Mooning over his lost Angel! Frankly, it made me sick, and there was more than once that I wished he would just shut up! So, tell me about the dark-haired one. He was very nice for the brief moment I saw him while waiting to be seen by a medic, and he sounds much more intriguing.”
“There’s not much to tell, and now knowing that there is competition, there’s not going to be. Especially if I play it smart. Like I said, solitude has been the least of my worries. Dealing with emotional interests is beyond me.”
“You can’t tell me that you’re just going to give this one up. You deserve to be with someone.”
“No, it’s not like that. I’m already tired of the triangle, and I refuse to play. You’re already too involved with your love affair. I don’t want to deal with that. I’m going to play it cool, calm, and take it one step at a time. I won’t let myself to fall too hard or too fast. Personally, if it’s meant to be, I know love will happen slowly and passionately without all of the commotion.”
“Whatever you’re on, I would like some!”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You got one thing right. The passionate part of it, but come on Sel! You think love will move slowly, the way you want it to? Love does whatever it wants. It’s not controllable, and those who believe it is will eventually have the ride of their lifetime, which is right off a cliff and into a quick, abrupt reality check. Believe what you will, I’m sure you’re right about taking it one day at a time, but love will move however it wants to, and most of the time, there’s a lot of commotion.”
