To Where the Sun Rises (Part 2 of 'A Tale of People and Apples' Trilogy)

Chapter 18: An Orca's Revenge

"I am under no illusion threats were coming for us anyways. But you seem to be under the illusion that you haven't minimized them considerably."

"But Mikkael, Calysa. I led him right into Markus' hands, into the Labyrinth. Led him there and threw him into Markus' arms myself."

A flash of guilt stuck into him so strongly he had to brace himself on the bed with his hands as he said the boy's name again. He realized he had the exact solution at his waist to kill Markus earlier. Instead, he sacrificed a child to prolong the Orcas survival, when another solution was an arm's length away. He felt like puking.

She shook her head indignantly at him. "Mistakes do not warrant a death sentence. Mikkael... was a tough call, Luka. If you didn't push him into that tunnel, we'd probably all be dead. Hundreds of Orcas the same age as Mikkael would have been dead. But maybe we deserve to be if we sacrifice younglings... I don't know. I don't know, Luka. I don't know."

As she stood to exit and let the Wolf ponder to himself privately, she said to him, "What I do know is you need to learn to stop blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. To start believing in yourself, the same way we all believe in you. Eeva knew this too, even though she didn't always show it. We know mistakes will be made along the way. No one has been able to have a practice run at Armageddon. So no, Luka. This thing you ask of me, I cannot promise."

As she left him in her wake, he thoughtfully and painfully and shakily sipped on his mug and weighed her words. Her words were like Laplan's when he scolded him, only kinder and more delicate.

Luka finally unwrapped himself of his silver sheets after finishing the small meal Calysa brought him, and pulled on the Orca uniform Eeva had provided him, smoothing his hair and tightening his boots. He ran his fingers along the cool steel of his Orca Leader lapel as he looked at himself in a dusty mirror. The trinket looked silly now that he was stripped of the role because of the trial and his remaining at the Eastern Outpost, yet he would continue to wear the badge proudly. He would wear it until he heard the words from Eeva herself that they didn't want him to lead.

He rolled away his chamber door and walked to the main cavern.

All of the non-Orca citizens were now outside, hunting or lounging or breathing the fresh air, while half of the Orca citizens remained within. The main gate was wide open, sentries on the perimeter of the people in case the battered Outlanders who licked their wounds foolishly returned, as the beautiful rising sunlight crept into the cavern but first bounced off the trees.

Luka uneasily walked through the people, their eyes glued to him, as he looked for his friends on the outside.

When his boots reached the green grass after scaling the metal steps, he was overjoyed to see his friends sitting with each other, a picnic blanket beneath them and foods that each province had brought spread amongst it. He saw Signey squeal as Talia gave her a Tiger delicacy that tasted so strange to the Bear, while Tristan and Laplan were playing a slapping game which ended in Tristan losing each time, clearly a game from New Felix.

When his friends spotted him at the opening, they saluted giddily, with drinks in their hands and their arms around each other, waving for him to join them, the picnic blanket forming a mosaic of all the cultures of Gaiathal except for the Orcas and Wolves.

Before he could, the marching of metal steps echoed behind him, an army of feet stampeding out from the cavern. Luka turned towards it.

And it was an army. It was the Orca army, the talented New Gen soldiers at the front, and at the front of them, a smiling Julien, donned in his beautiful blue armour.

"You thought this was over? Arrest him," Julien said, soldiers obeying and putting Luka's hands behind his back, Luka not resisting.

Luka recognized one of the soldiers now putting his hand behind his back. She had seen Luka kill Markus with her own eyes, yet she did what was commanded. And Luka couldn't even hate her. The mounting guilts for the things he had done, both intentionally and unintentionally, began to melt away at the thought that he didn't deserve this. Mikkael's little face flashed in his mind every so often, reminding him that he did indeed deserve a noose.