Cantral The Entra

I'll get her back one day.

Fendan nods. "Leave," he says to only Ramet, she releases an angry sigh and slips outside. "I want the truth. Don't say it's because you'll miss me, or you want to help me succeed, we both see the lie."

"I care about you—"

Fendan laughs. "You cared about Haroc."

"Well, it didn't take long for you to throw that at me." I lean forwards. "Are you scared Fendan? But why would you be? You're nothing like Haroc, right?"

Fendan stares at me unabashed by my words or posture. "I am nothing like Haroc. I am nothing like him. You ... don't trust me, do you? That's why you wish to join me."

"I don't trust you."

Fendan looks down at his hands and nods his head sadly. "I suppose I deserve that. Though ... I had thought our relationship had improved since arriving here." He reaches across the table and his hand takes mine. "I love you, I would be happy to have you as my second and I will prove you can trust me."

His sudden shift takes me aback, my anger slips away, and my hand grips his. "Your second? I will be replacing Shazna? She won't be pleased."

Fendan chuckles. "She'll be furious, but there is no other position I'd rather you take. I want you at the helm next to me, it's your rightful place, as my daughter, as Haroc's killer."

"And we'll be making the universe a better place?"

Fendan stands he leans over the table and kisses my forehead. "Absolutely." He smiles and walks to the stairs. "Cantral," he pauses, "I expect you to keep Ramet under control, she needs to know her place and if you can't keep her there, I will."

***

I stand on the precipice of a new day as I dress in uniform, in the yellow bathroom in Haari's house. The same uniform that was stripped from my body when I first arrived. My hair is smoothed back into a neat bun, and I stare at myself in the mirror, at the adult I've become. My face is serious, my black lips hold no smile.

Haroc's voice flows through my head, why do you think your blood is black? Your lips, your mouth? Why do you think your skin is so grey? He says, and I stare harder at my reflection. Could there be truth in his words? Did his delusions hold remnants of reality? Once again, I'm trapped between fiction and fact. But regardless, the truth of my heritage only holds the key for understanding myself better, nothing else. Maybe my parents are out there, or maybe they're dead, killed by Haroc, the man who loved me. Whatever the truth is, I'm not ready for it.

There's a knock on the door and I turn from my reflection. I open the door, Ramet's stood before me, and she pushes me inside with a kiss. Her arms wrap around me, and we stand together, silently.

"Fendan's made me his second and I'll command my own fleet, Jaxa will have her own ship," I say, and despite Zafira's words ringing in my head, despite the doubt, I continue. "Will you be my second?"

"Of course, I'll be anything you want me to be." She steps away. "Leaving here, it's not going to change me, I'm not going back to the person I was. I love you, we love each other and that will be enough. We'll get through everything, together."

I nod, my doubts are no longer guiding me, something else is. Something I don't really understand.

We exit the washroom to find Fendan and Haari sat at the table. But no Zafira. They stand as we approach.

"We had better go," Fendan says, and he heads to the door with Haari by his side.

As we exit the house the sun parts from behind grey clouds and floods the garden. Is it a sign? Is it the Universe's way of telling me I'm making the right decision? A dewy mist rises from the grass and lingers in the air around us. I'll miss this freshness, I'll miss everything about Oneera.