Eeva thrashed in her restraints as Outlanders spread her onto a metal table, hooking electrodes to her chest and scanning her body with machines that burred and glided over top of her.
She was in the ship which belonged to the man who kidnapped her. And she felt the ship descend to the east long ago, away from her people and friends as the battle had raged upon the shore.
Outlander scientists tried to poke her with needles which broke upon her skin, illustrating that her powers and revelation that she was a Six like her father before her was no fluke.
A green masked Outlander finally removed Eeva's gag and promptly left the room, as she lay on the cold metal table in the black and red glow of the research room, yelling for help.
Only one person remained. It was a woman who sat in the corner, her eyes frozen upon the ground, her clothes tattered and her feet bleeding. She would have been beautiful if not for her tattered hair and scared face. Her eyes were blue and hair as dark as the room.
"Who are you? Are you a prisoner?" Eeva asked her as she looked for something sharp to cut through her thick restraints. If she got her hands on anything sharp, nothing could stand in her way of escaping with her new found power.
The woman didn't respond. She just kept seated in the corner, silent.
"Please, help me get out. My friends, my people, they're in danger."
As the woman finally moved her head after seemingly being frozen the entire time, Eeva flinched. Her eyes met hers. And yet, the woman remained quiet. Eeva sensed anger in her eyes. But was it anger for her?
"What's your name?" Eeva pleaded, her eyes scanning the room as the room appeared to scan her.
The woman only raised her hands to Eeva, revealing cuffs of her own.
"Who are you? What does he want with you?"
Before the woman could answer, the man that kidnapped her walked in. He held two more people by the scruff of their neck, and gently sat them beside the woman, also in tattered clothing and cuffs of their own, who the kidnapper chained to the wall in a fashion identical to the woman. One was a man, and another was a woman but much younger than the original one, slender and with skin which matched the darkness of the room. The man prisoner looked frighteningly familiar to Eeva, but she couldn't put her finger on why it was so. Unlike the original woman, the two new prisoners had a different aura to them. Almost like they were glad to be in chains.
"Who are they? Who are you?" Eeva yelled at the man, who was now at a counter pouring himself a drink. "You're a Six, aren't you?"
He turned to Eeva with an eyebrow raised, and pointed to his three seemingly imprisoned people. "Them? You wouldn't believe me if I told you," The man said to her as he poured her a drink as well. It seemed strange he was pouring her alcohol, as if he was trying to make some sort of point. "Who am I, you ask?"
He seemed to glide his way over to her bedside, setting her drink on a black metallic counter and holding his in his hand. "I'm your father's cousin. We are family, you and I."
Eeva gasped. "Solan? Maeve's twin brother, Solan? But... my father said you were dead."
He bowed to her politely yet sinisterly, a bow that said, 'It is a pleasure to be of your acquaintance'. "No, I am not a Six," Solan added, seeming to enjoy the conversation he was having.
"Why are you doing all of this?" Eeva scowled and said, realizing he was the mastermind behind all of the pain and suffering of the entire planet in the recent weeks. "You blackmailed Lleyton into killing everyone, you... you kidnapped his son, and set Markus upon us like some crazed dog. You're killing thousands. Your own family."
The original woman appeared to stir uncomfortably in her seat and chains.
Solan nodded slowly, and said, "Yes, well, if you want to make an omelette you must break some eggs."
"You... you killed my people like they were nothing. Why get Lleyton to do your bidding when you have... whatever power you have?"
Solan tisked at Eeva as he undid her arm restraint, apparently unafraid of any attempt she would make to escape, placing the cold drink in her hand. "An Alva is smarter than that. Think, Eeva."
"You can't hurt me. You can't hurt Sixes. And Sixes can't hurt you," Eeva realized, remembering her sword disintegrating upon touching him. "It's why you needed Lleyton."
Solan winked at her as he took a swig, jumping up and sitting on the counter behind him.
"Then why kidnap me at all?"
Solan looked to the ceiling, and back to medical documents he had in his other hand, wondering why it was that no one ever seemed to know the answers to anything except for him. For this reason, he missed his twin sister. And to an extent, his uncle.
"Well, you see, Eeva, I had to take you for several reasons. I never plan things to get single rewards; these are bad investments. The first, most obvious reason I have taken you is that I need him. And I can assure you, he is coming."
Eeva blinked several times in confusion. "Who?"
Solan was disappointed with Eeva again. "The Wolf, of course. The way he threw himself to save you from Markus... love makes us do amazing things, doesn't it?" He smiled at her, seeming to know her truth.
This time, the other two prisoners stirred in their seat.
Eeva looked away from the terrible man as she remembered throwing herself at Markus when Luka was in peril. "You're wrong. He will stay, and fight. I've done terrible things to Luka. Things not even he could forgive me for."
Now that Solan revealed himself to her, the mastermind behind all of her people's suffering, guilt washed over her that she even went through with the trial to execute Luka. Luka likely minimized so much of her people's suffering as Solan enacted his dark plans. She didn't deserve him. And she hoped, and prayed, that he wouldn't follow her.
The verdict she was going to pass upon Luka was something she couldn't forgive herself for, and truly hoped Luka couldn't forgive her for. She pleaded to him in her mind to stay where he was, to not fall straight into Solan's sinister scheming yet again.
"Are you sure about that?" Solan asked her. "Let me explain something to you. The words of each province, you realize, are not drawn from thin air. Wolves are intensely loyal, almost to a fault. The different strains of the virus selected for certain people. Not at random. Do you think this Wolf, with no family of his own, would not remain loyal to you, the pretty girl that accepted him into her home?"
How much did Solan truly plan? Did he program Luka to be shot and fall in the exact river the minute Eeva strolled by with her class, knowing it would force the noble and honorable Wolf into loving her and being indebted to her forever? What wasn't Solan's doing? It was dizzying and demoralizing to think of.
Eeva scoffed and knew better. Luka was also loyal to his friends, to her people, to Gaiathal. He wouldn't come. Please don't come.
Solan appeared to see this on Eeva's face, and smirked. "Believe me, girl. The stones want to return home with an equal tenacity as the Hosts want to save their precious leader. And an equal tenacity that Luka wants to save you."
"Which stones? Even if he comes, what use is he to you?" She asked him.
Solan smiled, knowing he was finally able to explain a large chunk of his scheming with Eeva, finally able to explain to an Alva his plans. "I needed the Hosts to find something for me. Five stones, scattered and lost across the continent. They are keys to opening a door, a door that belonged to our ancestors, keys to understanding truths of the Universe only I am destined to know. However, I need these stones to come, to where we are sailing, on their own. Not with coercion, not down the barrel of a gun."
Eeva watched Solan, barely understanding. A war was happening, a war he was leading, and he was worried about stones?
"I learned that the stones only reveal themselves after a Host realizes one of their family has died, a fellow Host. To ensure this, I blackmailed Lleyton into destroying each capital city while saving two Hosts within, all but guaranteeing their close kin would die. All but guaranteeing they'd find the stones."
Eeva grew cold as she realized the intellect behind his scheming was something out of a nightmare. The fact he had killed tens of thousands of people as part of some selfish treasure hunt chilled her to her bones.
Solan continued, "In truth, the trickiest part would be somehow getting all of the Hosts here, together, as part of a collective. As you are well aware, humans are tribal. So, the solution was obvious: construct a Host leader capable of leading all the other Hosts, Hosts that would follow their leader even to their deaths."
Solan smiled, and after a sip of his drink, added, "Even to me."
Eeva slowly closed her eyes as she began to see. She began to see what Luka was. Luka, a product and victim of Solan's will. She wished he would stop talking, but his admission of genius and evil spilled out of him. Finally having an audience to brag to.
"I framed Lleyton and the Wolves in the phony war, and killed all his people. But I spared Luka, the son of the bravest child I had ever encountered named Chrea Oddisy, knowing Lleyton would take him and train him as his own, creating a soldier and someone capable of earning the other Host's trust. Of course, it was only a matter of time until the brave heart and pure soul of Luka broke free from the Outlanders and Lleyton, and landed into your lovely hands."
Eeva's stomach continued to churn. She felt sick, and it wasn't from the rocking of the waves.
"With no family, with none of his people, no more tribal allegiance, the Wolf became my beacon to the others. A beacon of hope and a beacon to follow. And to my great joy, the Hosts have found the stones and the stones have found their Hosts. And count on it, they will follow after the Wolf."
Solan knew this when he walked the shore. When he slammed Tristan, Luka, Laplan, and Calysa to the dirt, he examined them for the stones, and to his delight they all wore theirs proudly. The stones clearly calling for their masters. While he didn't get a chance to examine one of the Bear Hosts for their stone, he knew it unlikely that they didn't have it if their fellow Hosts all did. And it was why he spared them, with calculated blows meant to scare but not kill, and why he didn't send his combined forces to wipe them all out.
Eeva grit her teeth. "You're wrong. They may have the stones, but they won't come here. They won't turn the keys for you."
Solan laughed and said, "Just like Luka, you believe they won't come? I think you underestimate the effect hope has on people."
"So you kidnapped me so my friends would bring you a bunch of keys. Congratulations, you're a pioneer," Eeva sneered at him, trying somehow to get beneath Solan's skin.
"Well there are other reasons of course, my dear. If I wanted Luka to chase me, I could have simply kidnapped that brave Orca girl who tried to chain me yesterday. Don't get so cozy thinking you're the only one with Luka's affection. What was her name, that girl...?" Solan smiled, doing the exact thing Eeva was trying to do to him.
She tried to hide her jealousy, but the more she did, the more obvious it was for Solan.
He patted her thigh and said, "Relax, I'm kidding. She of course is the Orca Host with the blue key stone. I couldn't kidnap her. No coercion, remember?"
Angry tears formed in Eeva's eyes. They were losing. All of Gaiathal was losing to this single, sinister man. How could they get an upper hand on such a being? She prayed Maeve was okay, that Goddard had reached her, that she had some plan to defeat her twin brother.
"Ah yes, you asked why else that I kidnapped you," Solan remarked, sipping his drink, watching as Eeva did not sip hers. "Of course, you are a Six now, and while I am confident no one will find out how to defeat the Dark, it pains me to think that after the Dark kills everyone, you'll be all alone. Just you, and me, and my Outlanders."
Eeva knew better than to believe what he just said. She knew that just like her father and her aunts and uncles, she was a threat to defeating the Dark in Solan's eyes. Still the main reason he blackmailed Lleyton into killing all of the Sixes, because they were a threat to his goals. And as long as she was away from the Dark, she couldn't help anyone back home. But her eyes widened at his last words. "What do you mean, your Outlanders?"
"Oh, you don't know?" Solan said with a smirk. "While you Gifted think you're oh so gifted, it turns out the Outlanders have the greatest Gift of all: immunity from the Dark."
Eeva's skin went cold. Why have an army with such a power?
"What are your plans, what are your plans after you use the keys, after the Dark kills us all, you monster," Eeva said quietly.
Solan shrugged his shoulders and swirled his drink. "It depends what I find out within the Chamber of Truth, what the key stones will open and reveal to me."
He leaned forward, his eyes still dark in the dim glow of the room. "But if it is what I think it is..." His words trailed off as he smiled, unable to hide his happiness from his prisoners.
As he re-restrained Eeva, her drink untouched which he collected, he turned to exit the room but turned around once more. She wished he hadn't.
"There are two more reasons I have captured you. I will tell you the second-to-last for free, but you will have to earn my answer to the last reason."
Leave me alone, She pleaded within her mind.
"As you know, I am a Scientist, quite versed in medicine, believe it or not. When one grows a cancer, you cut it out from you. The cancer is not intending to kill you, but you cut it out all the same. You, Eeva, are a cancer. And once my men bring me back the dagger, the dagger that your lover killed Markus the Six with, I will use it to do the same to you. And Lleyton, of course, when he resurfaces."
"I... what have I ever done to you?" She said to him, his face still as stone. Why did he appear to hate her so much, a girl he had never met?
"You took her from me."
"Who?" Eeva begged, bewildered.
"Your mother," Solan said.
Eeva gasped and tears formed in her eyes. The blame he pushed onto her for her own mother Thaia's death, and his threat, a threat that he meant and a threat he would likely carry out, made her gasp for anxious air.
"Before Aimos took her from me, and in another lifetime, I loved her, your mother. And then you took her from me. I am sorry, Eeva. But you must be extinguished from this world."
Eeva, through sobs, apologized to Solan. Apologized for her mother dying and giving birth to her. And even apologized to her mother, Thaia, if she could hear her. The other prisoners watched on uncomfortably, no doubt tormented by Solan as well in a similar fashion.
This evil man ensuring she felt guilt for something that wasn't her fault.
"Tell me girl, and I will tell you the final reason I have you in chains. Why did you not drink the drink I provided you? You are an Orca, so this hesitancy to refuse a host's beverage seems... rather rude."
Eeva couldn't answer as she continued to cry, her eyes tightly closed, shaking her head, wanting to wake from her nightmare.
"I mean, Orcas cannot be poisoned, after all, as one of their cardinal Gifts. In fact, did you know if a Six were to be with child, and you fed the Six poison, that their fetus would die? Yet the fetus of an Orca would survive poisons because of their incredible metabolism?"
Don't say it, she pleaded in her mind. Please, no.
Solan saw the anguish and torment grip Eeva, his words like a twisting dagger, and he continued, "Take you, for example. With Thaia's blood, and your Six blood, a hypothetical fetus would be invincible. Until, that is, you were to give birth, a Six not gaining their powers until their teenage years and sometimes in their adult years, as you now know. A newborn babe, though, very much vulnerable. So, why refuse my drink?"
Please leave me alone. Don't say it. Please don't say it.
"That's right, Eeva," Solan said as he looked at the medical documents of her scan yet again. "You have an abomination, and potentially a Six, growing inside you."
Tears streamed down Eeva's face. Wake up. Wake up. Wake up from this nightmare, Eeva.
"You're pregnant. And as I've said, we must cut out cancers from this world. When they bring me the Golden Dagger, I will make it quick for you both, I promise. And if they don't, I promise I will keep you close until you give birth. Because remember, Eeva, a newborn babe is always, always, vulnerable."
"No," Eeva mumbled in utter anguish. "No, no, no, no, no."
Just before Solan walked out of the doorway, he turned and smiled to Eeva again, a final insult to her ultimate wound. "I wonder what the Loyal Luka would do for his newborn child?"
Just as Eeva's world stopped moving, so too did the ship she was aboard.
They arrived at the Lost Continent.
THANKS FOR READING!