Fourth circle of the Empire
Avoria
The beast's fury mingled with my pain to the point that, inside us, there was nothing but chaos to wreak havoc. I might have not been in control, but I couldn't say it wasn't my fault when the fevino's teeth flew toward Donecea. At least, when I heard the sound of the gunshot behind those layers of beast and power, I remembered that I couldn't stay hiding, or else what happened before would keep happening, and I finally exploded beyond the beast, stealing back the control. I had been too weak for too long... And I was tired of it.
How much could I blame Donecea for that disaster?
No more than myself.
When a call from Korrok flashed on the Hasta panel I answered it only to send him to hell. But he said before:
"I need a favor."
"No." And, before I could hang up:
"Wait! Don't tell me you are angry after what you did for us... You should be proud!" From the joy in his tone, I guessed that the rebels had managed to take the Blood District. At least for now.
"I will no longer help the rebellion."
"How many times have you said that? And there's always been a next time..." I opened my mouth to retort, but he cut me off: "Maybe it's because you know we're right. And, deep down, you want the same thing as us...
"No. It's because you pay well."
Korrok let out a ragged laugh.
"And this time it won't be different."
The bastard always knew what to say.
I thought about what I'd told Donecea a few noxdiems ago, in the rage at having been tricked into committing an act of war far greater than I'd been expecting. I had promised to get involved in her plans to destroy that war, but I didn't know how much I was really willing to fight for a cause I barely knew, while the revolution was so much clearer... Not to mention that they paid right away. All I knew was that, between being Donecea's and Korrok's puppet, I earned more by helping the vorrampe.
"What do you want?" I muttered.
"I'll send the coordinates."
• • • ֍ • • •
"We'll have to land." I told Donecea and didn't stay for conversation. Still, she followed me.
"Do we need to refuel?"
"No. I have work to do..." I mumbled in my chair and altered the Hasta's route away from the galaxy's core, which Donecea must have taken like a stab.
"For the rebels?" She crossed her arms. "Helping them won't solve anything. Only what's in the galaxy's core will."
But what was there? And if I asked, would she answer? I turned to Donecea and stared into her eyes of frustration and honey. I had to know, or else I couldn't get any closer. Not from the core, not from her.
"What's there?"
She faced the ship's route, so far from her destination, and let out a cornered sigh. The route would never go back where she wanted to if she didn't at least give me some answers, especially now that I had to choose between ending that war and helping the rebellion to continue it.
After an eternity of silence, she finally whispered:
"The Queen is there... Infecting the Empire..." Queen? Infecting? Why did her answers only bring me even more questions? "And I need to resolve this..."
"But how?"
"You'll have to take me there to find out."
"Well... The galaxy's core isn't going anywhere..." I smiled a little. "We can take a detour... And, if you give me an answer, maybe we can go back to it..."
She leaned over and braced a hand on the chair behind me, bringing her face close to mine in such a way that my only response was to flinch.
"You're digging your own grave, Arkadi..." She hissed, and my name never sounded so dangerous. "Be careful not to slip inside."
Then she turned her back on me and disappeared into the other area of the ship.
• • • ֍ • • •
We entered the atmosphere of Avoria, a world that did not yet belong to the Empire. It was forbidden the contact between the species of Itopis and those who had not yet received the Artifact, but when had the rebellion obeyed the rules?
We hovered above the lavender tops of the trees that dominated the surface of that world and landed in a clearing at the coordinates Korrok had sent me. I landed the Hasta in a field of purple grass, and when I opened the doors, a floral wind hit me and filled my lungs. It had been a long time since I had set foot in a world so... Untouched. I descended the stairs and walked across the countryside as if there were no worries in the world, until I saw Korrok, as lethal and cynical as ever. But now he had a new scar in his collection, which took up the entire third eye and made him even more intimidating. What dangerous creature had he faced this time?
"Good to know I can always count on you, Phaga." He greeted me with a toothy smile.
"As long as I can count on my starstones..."
"This is an investment, friend." His claws gripped my shoulder in imitation of a human greeting. "You will still help me to regain our Empire."
"I hope not today." Donecea replied, appearing behind me. Korrok flew his eyes at her and that sharp smile he carried was suddenly gone.
"I didn't think this one would last..."
"She's blackmailing me." I clarified. "Because everyone wants a piece of me, apparently." Korrok laughed.
"I wonder what part of you she wants..."
"My ship." The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but then I sent a look to Donecea over my shoulder. "As far as I know..."
"What are we here for anyway?!" Donecea growled, changing the subject at the speed of light. So was there a ground beneath her feet that I could take off? Good to know.
"I need you to distract the columbas, while I rescue my soldiers."
"And what were your soldiers doing here, in their world, in the first place?" I crossed my arms.
"Calls for the revolution." He said as if it were simple; or right. "Their leader is not among the Aulics yet. Then she can be ours." For him that had long since stopped being just for justice and gained a touch of pride. He could no longer lose.
"Why did you called me here for this? Wasn't it easier to call another one of your soldiers?"
"That's what mercenaries are for, Phaga." He laughed. "We pay you to do jobs so that my vorrampes don't have to." I rolled my eyes. He wanted to save his losses; and humans were easy to discard.
I looked at Donecea and shrugged.
I had done worse jobs before.
And then we headed to the city of the columbas.
• • • ֍ • • •
We walked through the lavender forest, and Donecea was being extremely careful, even though nothing in that paradise seemed capable of harming us. She was too used to unforgivable worlds to understand how there could be any that weren't... But knowing that vorrampes had been trapped there was perhaps a good reason to remain alert.
I was a few meters ahead of Donecea and Korrok, away from those who might ask questions I wouldn't answer, but I heard them talking:
"Won't you apologize for attacking me, sapiens?" Attack?
"No. Because I would love to do it again." Korrok laughed at her courage; or at the inconsequence behind it. But I had my doubts that Donecea didn't always have a plan behind every mistake she might make.
"What is your name?" He asked, with a genuine curiosity that reminded me of when, a long time ago, he was genuine to me.
"Donecea Gaxy."
"Gaxy?" He savored the word. "Wow..."
I turned back to the conversation.
"'Wow'? Why 'wow'?"
"Gaxy was Earth's Aulic. And I didn't know she had a daughter..."
I stared at Donecea.
"When were you going to tell me that you are the daughter of an Aulic?"
"Was..." She corrected, and by her expression I had the impression that her mother was no more. "Besides, that was already in my name. Gaxy. How did you not notice?"
And there were the questions I didn't want to answer.
"I haven't stepped on Earth in a long time..." I muttered and exchanged a look with Korrok that made him save me, before she asked anything else:
"I believe this is the part where I should kill her, then?" The vorrampe joked. Or not. "Any creature linked to the Aulics is my enemy.
"Do not worry. I am no longer linked to them."
"And why not?"
"Because I have my own plans."
Korrok laughed as if she were a child.
"But she is still the daughter of one of them. And, if humans are already the worst, I wonder what it's like to be the daughter of the worst of them..."
I didn't want to know that answer.
When we reached a particular tree, the conversation faded. Its crown flowed in amethyst chains, supported by a thick pillar of black trunk where a vertical crack extended from the base to the point where the branches emerged. That opening hid a deep darkness within itself, as if it had stolen it from the entire forest to protect the beings that lived in it from what once lived in similar night.
"The city of the columbas is on the other side of the crack." Korrok warned. "Good luck!" And then he disappeared through the trees, leaving us with so many questions and no answers.
I sent a look to Donecea. She was mesmerized by the mystery on the other side and slid across the grass into the crack, as if we were brave enough... Maybe she was, but I wasn't so sure about myself. Still, I followed her into the trunk, where only narrow beams of light squeezed through the wood to reach us.
Suddenly her feet stopped and Donecea turned to me, bumping into my chest. She took a step back, but the narrow space didn't allow her to go far.
"We don't have a plan..." She whispered, finally realizing. "They arrested vorrampes! What can they do to beings like us? Do you have a gun at least? We don't..."
When my fingers landed on her arm in an attempt to calm her down, she fell silent. Her eyes lifted to me, as surprised by the touch as I was, and I pulled away immediately.
"I always have a gun. But our mission is just to distract them... And, being from another world, I don't think this will be difficult."
Donecea was silent for a moment, studying me. I wanted to tell her that, in reality, I was just a guy lost on the universe and on life, but I didn't think she would understand... Because she wasn't the kind of person that used to get lost.
"Do you really believe in this cause that you're helping?" She whispered.
"Not everything is about "causes", Donecea." She cocked her head, as if that had never crossed her mind. "Some things are about survival."
"Ironic that to survive you put yourself in so much danger." She opened a knowing little smile. "This is the kind of thing you do for a "cause"..."
"Would it be so bad if I were helping the revolution?"
"It would be a waste." Donecea shrugged, staring at me from behind her lashes as if she knew everything. "Because once we get to the core, there won't be a reason for the rebellion to exist anymore... And everything will be resolved."
I couldn't help but smile.
"How are you so sure? Wars and beings are more complex than that." She came a little closer, to confess a secret that only she and the universe seemed to know, and I was hit by that scent of her... Petrichor, as if I were a farmer facing the first rain in a long time... Desperate to plant.
"It's all biology, Kadi..." I hardly bothered with that name. "There is nothing between the worlds and the stars that cannot be understood enough to master."
And then she turned and walked out of the darkness, creating space between us.
Maybe I was just wasting time with that rebellion, when a better Empire awaited us in the galaxy's core, but I couldn't have as much confidence in it as Donecea...
Still, I followed her into the light.