Rilex didn’t know where they were going. He hadn’t paid close enough attention the first time that they made their way through the tunnels to be able to move through them with confidence and he had to follow along with Severine closely to make sure that he stayed in her path and didn’t lose her. He knew all too well that these tunnels were complex and confusing, some of them turning on themselves many times and others leading into dead-ends that seemed to swallow the people who went down them. He knew in the back of his mind that there were things about these tunnels that only very few knew and understood. Even he knew only that there were mysterious elements of the tunnels, sections that were not created or run by Ryan and his Valdicians. He didn’t know where these sections were or how they worked. Those were details that Malan never got to share with him.
A heaviness settled in Rilex’s heart and stomach as he thought about his best friend. It had been so long since he had seen him. Years for him, a lifetime for Malan. Rilex could still feel the fear and panic that he had felt when he first realized that he was on Earth countless years after the time of Malan and had no way to return. He had moved through a portal that he didn’t know existed and had no knowledge of any other portals on Earth that would bring him back to his time, with the exception of one. There was one portal on Earth to his knowledge, a single one that would instantly bring him back to his stream, but that portal had long-ago been sealed, closed off so that it couldn’t be used.
Of course, now he knew that he had been wrong. That portal was not just a connection to his stream. A particularly complex portal, that one branched to several different streams, bringing the user to a different place depending on how they used the engraved key. Though he knew that in his time the portal that would have connected him back to his stream was sealed, many years after he came to be on Earth he met Galadriel and soon learned that she was able to travel through that portal. It was that event, the twist of fate of Galadriel contacting him about the HM-1313 wall, that set off the series of events that brought Rilex here now. He still wished that he knew about the portals that were hidden throughout this planet and why they were there. Not just so that he could feel a stronger link to his kind and the world that he had left behind to carry on the responsibilities he took on from Malan, but also so that he could feel safer now as they made their way hastily through the tunnels. Even though Severine said that she knew these tunnels well, the sections with the portals were beyond those, yet seemed very much like them. This meant that a single turn that she didn’t realize that they were taking, or a moment of confusion, could send them to a place that they didn’t know without knowledge of how they could possibly return.
The screaming continued, growing louder and clearer as they wove their way through the tunnels. Suddenly it fell silent and Severine paused in front of him.
“Where did it go?” she asked through labored breath. “What happened?”
Rilex shook his head.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t hear it anymore.”
Severine took a few more steps down the tunnel and then started running again, Rilex falling into step behind her. Ahead of him, he could see the darkness of the tunnel lessening and soon he could feel air brushing across his face as they approached an exit. He tucked the lightstick that he held in his hand back into the small pouch on his hip, not wanting to draw any additional attention to them if they were walking into a conflict. As they started up the steep incline that led out of the tunnel he realized that they were walking out into what looked like a deep pit of stone. It took him a few moments to realize that they were in a quarry, apparently where they had sourced the stones to build the compound. He could only imagine that horrific conditions that those who cut the stones and carried them on their backs experienced as they built up the buildings that would become their prison.
Across from them, Rilex noticed movement and he braced himself, reaching out to grasp Severine’s arm to prevent her from going any further if she hadn’t noticed the movement. A second later, however, he saw a man step out of the ground, followed closely by Maxim, who cradled a tiny bundle in his arms, and a woman Rilex didn’t recognize. Maxim stood cradling the bundle until the woman came up behind him. He turned and rested the bundle in her arms, revealing the tiny head of a baby. She held the baby for only a few seconds before the peaceful quiet was broken by the sound of a man’s voice shouting from across the quarry.
Rilex turned to look toward the voice, but his eyes quickly turned back toward the man who had stepped out in front of Maxim. He didn’t know if he could trust his eyes and he quickly diverted them back to the sound of the man shouting for Maxim. At the edge of the quarry he saw the figure of a man appear, the glow of a lightstick around him, and Rilex quickly recognized him as Aegeus. He paused and stared into the quarry, the expression on his face indecipherable. Rilex looked back at the small group across the quarry, wanting to see their reaction. Maxim turned and took the baby from the woman’s arms and Rilex saw that her face was pale, her eyes wide, and he realized that this must be Maxim’s mother.
Severine started across the quarry toward Maxim and Rilex followed. Hearing their approach, Maxim turned and saw them, his lips breaking into a smile.
“Maxim,” Severine said as she stepped up to him, reaching to touch her hand to the baby’s head. “Who is this?”
Maxim smiled as he looked down at the baby in his arms.
“This is my daughter,” he said.
“Your daughter?” she gasped.
He nodded and Rilex could see the overpowering love in the young man’s eyes.
“She was just born,” he said. “Ivy is resting in the tunnels.”
Rilex and Severine had never met Ivy, but they had heard Maxim talk about his partner frequently. He hadn’t mentioned, however, that she was preparing to give birth.
“We didn’t know,” Severine said.
“No one did,” Maxim admitted.
“Why would you keep something so wonderful from all of us?” she asked.
It warmed Rilex’s heart to hear her interacting with Maxim so comfortably and confidently, and referring to herself as a part of the unit that was forming on the planet. He knew that she had had difficulty seeing herself in that way, perceiving herself as less than the rest of them. It took her identification of herself as part of what she called the Others that helped her to embrace this difference in a way that allowed her to assimilate into the rest.
“She’s a gift, Maxim,” Rilex said.
He thought of Hallow, the vulnerable baby boy he had embraced as his son. He wished that he had been there the moment of his birth so that he could have seen his first breath.
Maxim nodded.
“She is.”
“Mhavrych.”
Rilex looked up and saw the young man whose face was burned in his mind, pricking in his thoughts the same way as the Valdicians when he first saw them, rushing across the quarry toward Aegeus. That was enough of a confirmation. Rilex knew what he was seeing, who he was seeing, and he struggled with everything inside of him to hold back against the compulsion to run after him. Aegeus gathered the man in his arms in a tight embrace and Mhavrych pounded on the older man’s back affectionately. They pulled back and looked at each other, both smiling in the way that only those who were looking through the haze of many years could smile.
“What is it?” Severine asked from beside him.
Rilex looked down at her and shook his head.
“Nothing,” he said, not yet ready to tell her what he had just seen. He looked at Maxim. “Is that your mother?” he asked.
Maxim nodded, looking toward his parents. Tears sprung to his eyes and he pulled his tiny daughter up closer to him as though she would help him control his emotions.
“This is the first time that they’ve seen each other,” he said.
“You should be with them,” Rilex said. “Your family needs each other.” He touched the little girl’s head. “Especially now.”
&
nbsp; Maxim looked at him as though the gravity of the situation that was unfolding in front of him had barely registered, as though he knew what he was seeing but couldn’t truly believe that it was happening and didn’t know how to respond to it. As though Rilex’s words had gotten through to him, Maxim stepped down from the stone where he stood and crossed the quarry toward his parents.
“Aegeus was in the lab,” Severine said as if she was reminding herself of what she had learned since her rescue from the facility.
“Yes,” Rilex said. “He’s Maxim’s father. Ryan used him in his experiments, but now he’s after Maxim and Kyven.”
“Why is this the first time that Aegeus and she have seen each other?” Severine asked.
“He spent decades in that lab.”
“But she never came for him. In all that time. In all the time that he has been right here. She never came for him.”
“She didn’t know,” Rilex said.
“Know what?” Severine asked.
“That he was alive.”
Chapter Nineteen
Aegeus held his lightstick in front of him so that he could see the footsteps in the sand. There had been only one set when he came out of the ship and started following them, sure that it was Maxim who had created them. He hadn’t been able to sleep after returning to his passenger pod and had gone to find his son, wanting to talk to him about what he had experienced when he was in the containment unit. In all the chaos and constant activity that had been happening since the group had freed him from the laboratory, the ship seemed to be offering him a few moments of quiet and peace in which he could think. He finally felt that he was ready to sit down with Maxim and tell him what he had gone through, what had brought him to this place with him. He wanted his son to know that he had never forgotten him and that he never stopped thinking of life outside of the lab.
When he arrived at Maxim’s pod, however, he found it empty. Aegeus had begun to scan through the ship, but then noticed that the keypad beside the front door of the ship indicated that it had recently been opened, the pattern of the lights blinking on the locks changing according to how long it had been since Maxim released the locks, left the ship, and then engaged the locks again. The thought of going out into the desert alone, completely vulnerable to those who had held him prisoner and aided in his torture for so long, should have been terrifying, but he hadn’t considered it even for a moment. His son was out there, and that meant that he needed to be there with him. There had been too many days when he hadn’t been able to be there for Maxim or for Kyven and hadn’t been able to protect them when they were in danger. He knew that this wouldn’t change that. He wouldn’t be able to make up for all the hurts that he hadn’t been able to soothe, the nightmares that he hadn’t been able to chase away, and the tears that he hadn’t been able to dry. His son was an adult now, fully grown and preparing to become a father himself. But that didn’t change his compulsion to protect him and ensure that he was there to support him and help him in any way that he could. This was the same compulsion that had brought him to the entrance of the compound where he insisted that he join Maxim and Avery on their mission.
The footsteps that he found when he got out of the ship confirmed to Aegeus that he had been right about Maxim leaving the ship. He used the glow of his lightstick to illuminate these footsteps, unafraid of anyone else on the planet detecting him through the light. There was nothing that they could do now that would scare him enough to dissuade him from following Maxim through the desert. He followed the footsteps as quickly as he could without stepping into them. He needed to preserve them, to keep them from getting damaged in any way so that he could follow them back if necessary. He saw only one set of footsteps for some time, then suddenly the sand changed. Instead of a direct path, there was a chaotic jumble of steps, divots, and smoothed paths. It was a disquieting scene that told Aegeus something had happened here.
Aegeus swept the light over the sand again, creating a larger swathe in hopes of seeing something more that might indicate what had happened here. He saw a darkening of the sand several feet away and knew instantly that it was blood absorbed into the grains. Hope lifted in his chest slightly when he looked further and saw that there were two sets of footprints leading away from the apparent scuffle and that neither appeared hesitant or irregular as if one of the people were being dragged or forced forward in any way. Aegeus stood in between the two sets of prints and followed them, keeping his light directed toward the sand as he went.
Finally, ahead of him, he saw a change in the sand and then a quarry opened in the ground. He knew of this place. He had heard Ryan talk about the quarries on the planet and been taunted by stories of his great-grandfather forcing the prisoners that he held to quarry the stone that they then had to use to build the compound. As he approached the deep pit he saw that there were figures inside. It took a moment for him to realize that Maxim was standing on one of the large stones beside a man whose back was to him.
“Maxim!” he shouted to him.
He both wanted to get his son’s attention and alert the man he was standing with that there was someone else around, hoping to distract him in the event that he did pose some sort of danger to his son. Maxim didn’t seem to notice that he was there. That was when Aegeus noticed that there was someone else standing behind him.
“Maxim!” he shouted again.
He rushed to the edge of the quarry and stared down. Maxim looked up at him and for a moment their eyes locked, but then Aegeus’s moved to the side, falling for the first time in seemingly endless years on his wife. Aegeus didn’t know how to process what he was seeing. It was as though the thoughts and memories that he had kept fresh in his mind, reliving over and over again to keep him alive, had finally been brought into reality purely by merit of his devotion and commitment. She stood there on the rocks, her hair tumbling around her, the skirt of her long dress catching in the slight wind. Her arms cradled something and Aegeus realized that it was a baby.
His breath caught in his throat and he felt as though he was going to faint as more emotion and relief crashed down on him than he felt that he could handle. Aegeus knew that the little child that Ellora held in her arms was Maxim’s baby, but in his mind, he saw her holding Maxim himself, and then Kyven. She had never been more beautiful than in the moments when she had held their newborn sons, radiant and filled with the sense of strength and pure, abounding love that came from the delivery. He saw her that way now, standing in the moonlight with her eyes cutting through the darkness to link with his.
Maxim reached over into his mother’s arms and took the baby into his own, but Ellora barely seemed to notice. She was as drawn into his presence there at the edge of the quarry as Aegeus was with hers and she took a small, almost hesitant step toward him. Aegeus could understand the hesitation that she felt. He didn’t know what to do in that moment. Even though he had longed for and dreamed of her for years, he found himself afraid to move, afraid to go toward Ellora, worried that she might disappear if he tried to approach her. He had been fooled before. Though only a very few of the most powerful of the Klimnu were able to accomplish it, he had seen the gruesome creatures take on the appearance of other beings to manipulate and control those around them. These were the furthest mutated from the original Mikana, the most destroyed by their own personal greed and ruthlessness, and were at the top of the Klimnus’ own twisted hierarchy. That was a state that Ryan had always hoped that Aegeus would achieve. He put him through indescribable tests and torment to push Aegeus further and further into the changes that the mutations brought into his mind as much as to his body, hoping that he would crack and become one of the most fearsome of the Klimnu. Perhaps then he would be able to isolate the essence of those creatures and imbue his weapons with the insurmountable defense of being able to change their appearance at whim. This would not only enable them to move undetected through any group that they pleased but would also give them access to the minds of those around them, allowin
g them to embody exactly what another person wanted to see, or what they were afraid of, so that the Klimnu could tailor their behavior to specifically what they wanted.
Aegeus felt like everything around him fell away and he could only see Ellora in front of him. As he stared at her, he knew in the deepest corners of his heart and the depths of his very existence that it was her. Soon he was moving toward her. He felt like he should be running, should be getting across the short distance between them as fast as possible, but his body wouldn’t allow him to. They moved toward each other slowly for several feet and then she stopped, waiting for him to get to her. Aegeus approached Ellora reverently, wanting to kneel at her feet and wrap himself around her. Instead, he reached out and touched his fingertips to her face.
She did the same, gliding her soft fingertips along his roughened skin as if feeling for the face that she had always known. He could see the years that were etched into her skin and the vibrancy of her hair had somewhat faded. Her lips looked as though they had rarely smiled in some time. But her eyes. When Aegeus looked into Ellora’s eyes, beyond the tears, beyond the veil of sorrow that was falling away even as he looked at her, he could see the eyes that he loved. Those were his wife’s eyes, the eyes that had caught his attention the first time that he had seen her, and the eyes that had held him blissfully in place throughout their wedding ceremony. They were the eyes that she had given to their son.
Aegeus had been so afraid of the moment when he would see his wife again. Thoughts of her had carried him through his imprisonment, but he had known those thoughts were memories, glimpses into a time when they were inseparable and the only time that they spent apart was when he went to battle. They were not thoughts of her in the future because he didn’t know what might be waiting for him in the future with her. He had been so worried that Ellora wasn’t going to be able to love him anymore once they were reunited. Though Maxim had reassured him that Ellora still loved him deeply and that she had never brought another man into their lives to replace him as a father to Maxim and Kyven and as a husband to her, there had still been a tremendous sense of hesitation and concern. It was difficult enough for him when he was in the laboratory and was separated from her by force. The thought of her making the willful choice that they could no longer be together and having to know that they were both living out their lives but not as one sounded unbearable, and Aegeus didn’t know if he would be able to survive.
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