This is a beautiful update worth reading over and over again. Obehid is just so good. Thank you for the daily updates. You're the best

Matina lives and Marcinus smiles...
Good update for the morning. obehiD you're doing well

Thanks for the update ObehiD... Please don't kill Marcinus later oh...

Beautiful, beautiful

Finally two friends are back together. Touching indeed.

Part 10
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War had a taste to it. It was in parts metallic, like the flavor of blood, and in parts, salty and sticky, like sweat. But there was also a sweetness to it. I tasted that sweetness in the air that surrounded us. It was not as sweet as fruits or candied delicacies, it was a sweetness closer to that of fermented fruit wine. With wine I could never tell if the liquid itself was sweet or if it was the headiness that accompanied imbibing it which gave the illusion of sweetness. That was how it felt to walk into war. The thrill of anticipation, the sound of battle, it was a sweetness to me, one that accompanied the blood and fear and gore.

I glanced at my companions and knew that we did not all feel the same way. Matina shivered. The uspec could not help it. It had survived our last fight, but I did not think that it could survive the real battle, the one that we’d come to Chiboga to fight. In all honesty, I did not think that even I could survive it. The numbers were not in our favor. And whatever advantage I would have had from spectra and the lit okun, I’d lost by fighting on the inter-port trail, where spectra could not be used. Marcinus walked in line with us this time. It stood to my left and it showed no fear. I envied Marcinus this, its calmness in the face of war. It was a calmness I would have felt if I did not have Nebula, my offspring who my death would make an orphan. And Juke and Matina. And Gamble and Matiu. My honoraria, uspecs I’d brought with me. I could not go into battle resigned, because I feared for them. Juke walked on my other side. It did not shiver as Matina, who walked beside it, did. But it did not look calm, and accepting in the face of death, as Marcinus was. Its tightened fists and ticking jaw where the only indications of its fears, but they were enough to let me know what the uspec felt.

We kept walking.

We could not make it to Chiboga in time to sneak in and then join the fight in the hangar. We would have to make our way across the plenum’s camp to reach an entrance into Chiboga that we could sneak through. The plenum’s camp would have the bulk of their soldiers, the ones at the rear of battle, the ones well rested and eager. Thousands, uspecs with arrows like Marcinus, and flying fighters like Juke. There would also most likely be irirakuns like me, who could affect emotions just as I could. We would be outnumbered and we would be killed before we could make it past. There was no point in even trying, not until the rear of the battle had advanced forward significantly enough for us to sneak into and out of their camp. If we waited for that, we could be waiting for days. None of us liked that prospect.

Which left us with only one alternative. To fight as Arexon had commanded its flying squads to. While the foot soldiers fought in the port, Arexon had commanded the flying squad to go into the inter-port trail and pick at the plenum’s flank. The flying squads did not have the numbers to overwhelm the plenum’s forces, but there was enough to distract the troops at the flank. The flying squad had an attack and retreat strategy that they were well versed in. They used pansophy, and appearance to attack and then vanish.

The plenum had samus and appearance identifiers. They would unleash the samus throughout the battle front to sap imps fighting with pansophy, and they would flare their appearance identifiers to find uspec’s without appearance. This was the new way of war that Marcinus had briefed us about. But the flying squads were better versed in pansophy than the regular plenum soldier. They had ways of evading this. We did not have the same options.

The wisest course would have been to sit the war out, to wait in an alley on the inter-port trail, until the plenum’s rear advanced far enough to sneak past. But by that point Arexon would have already suffered significant losses. We had to fight. We had to do our part.

Orange light from the daylight dots mixed with the red light from the clouds. The battle had already started. We should have been fighting in the hangar. I should have been there with my lit okun to improve the odds in Arexon’s favor. Instead I was stuck on the inter-port trail. We came across a group of flank scouts, thirty plenum soldiers marching around the perimeter of their camp. Marcinus shot an arrow which flew across the distance separating us, tore straight through the air, and landed into the neck of a soaru soldier. The others charged at us. We were in an alley, hidden from their view, but they followed the direction of the arrow and we cut them down, one uspec after the other. It was simple, the uspecs were foot soldiers with neither pansophy nor emotions.

We advanced closer towards the camp.

The plenum had set up their camp to completely surround the known entries to the Chiboga hangar. Because the entries were so far dispersed, the plenum’s camp was spread out, like the tentacles of a soaru. It would have been easy to sneak past if they were just accumulated in one block of area, but they were not.

The orange light of the daylight dots shone brighter and we continued on our path, sneaking around the edges of the camp and luring as many plenum soldiers as we could away from the camp. They came to us and we slaughtered them. But there were never more than thirty soldiers at a time, and the scouts were not sent out at a high enough frequency to really do damage. We slinked around the edges. Until we drew close enough that we could reach the borders of the camp without being noticed. We’d slaughtered all the scouts who could have heralded our arrival.

The sludge walls the plenum had constructed were tall. They were so tall that only a soarer could fly over the walls. Marcinus informed us that they had sentries on the other side, poised to shoot down any uspec’s that flew in. Plenum soldiers came in through the gates. One of the known entries to Chiboga was in an alley like the ones we’d spent the day creeping around. We drew close enough to that alley that we could watch the fight. Form had been removed from the front gates of the plenum’s camp and so hundreds of their soldiers marched toward the patch of wall on the alley, the known entrance to the Chiboga hangar. It was strange to see the war from this perspective. We saw no fighting, only armed plenum soldiers standing in line. The line advanced into the wall and then disappeared. Those soldiers had entered the hangar, were the real fight was.

We withdrew before any of the plenum soldiers saw us. We spent the rest of the day hiding in an alley, so close to the fight, yet so painfully far away. There were no more scouts we could lure and then kill. But there were so many plenum soldiers. They stood in their lines, with their metal helmets and their metal-mesh belts. They bore the cyan insignia of the plenum and all that we could do was watch.

“We need to sneak into their lines.” Marcinus spoke without inflection. It stood close enough that our arms brushed when it moved. “If we join them, we can enter into the hangar with them, instead of trying to sneak past them and look for the nearest quicksand hangar.”

“Is it not dangerous?” Matina’s voice trembled as it asked.

Juke’s jaw clenched. It took a deep breath and then it turned to face me. It smiled. The smile on its face was like the innocent smile of its childhood, mixed with the arrogance of its youth. “We need to return to Chiboga, sirga,” it said, “the sooner the better. I can’t let Gamble win our bet.”

I frowned at the uspec, completely at a loss. “What bet?”

“The plenum body count.” It replied, still grinning. There was a moment, just a tiny pause, where Juke’s jaw clenched, its hands tightened on the hilts of its swords and its gaze turned down. Its voice trembled in that moment, but the moment passed quickly. The uspec was putting up a brave face. I thought back on the first time I’d seen it kill when we’d been stopped by the plenum guards on our way to Chiboga. Juke had appeared so bloodthirsty then, and arrogant, laughing in the face of death. Now I wondered if that Juke had also been scared. If it had only been doing what it thought I expected it to. I saw now, just how much Juke sought to please me. Juke grinned and I pretended that I did not see the slight downturn of its lips and its nervous swallow before it beamed and spoke cheerfully. “I bet Gamble a halcyon’s epic that I would kill more plenum soldiers than it did in this Chiboga war. Please, do not let me lose that bet, sirgas. We must be where the fight is.”

The eyes on the left side of my face caught the eyes on Marcinus’ right. Neither one of us had bought Juke’s brave act, but the both of us pretended we did. I could not sit this fight out. I just could not. I knew that Marcinus would not either, it had Chiboga blood-debt to pay. It would not stop fighting for Arexon until it was dead or the war was over. Juke and Matina would follow me wherever I went. Even if I walked into certain death they would follow me. I looked back, at the empty space behind us, at the open alley beckoning to us. We could turn around and make our way to the Isle of Brio. We could wait out the war there, wait for Chuspecip to heal, wait for the founder to set things right. I could see my offspring again, play with it, spar with it, teach it want it meant to be an uspec. It was already five and I had only spent two months of its life with it. Only two months out of five years. I wanted more. The empty stretch of cloud road shimmered like a jewel with promises of my offspring. I wanted to be with Nebula. I wanted that so much, but I could not abandon Arexon. And there was Gamble, Matiu and Chike, still in Chiboga, fighting in the war I’d led them to.

I turned away from the empty alley behind us.

“Take Matina back to the Isle of Brio, Juke.”

Relief flashed in Matina’s face. Its features slackened, its eyes widened, and there was the beginning of a smile on its lips. It turned hopefully towards Juke, and then it turned back and shook its head. I’d been watching and so I saw each minute detail that crossed Matina’s face.

“I will fight with you sirga.” It said.

It was scared. The fool was terrified. Why did it not leave?

I turned to Juke. The uspec stared back at me. Its gaze was hard and it did not flinch when I frowned. I knew what it would say before it said it. “I fight with you, sirga.”

I shook my head. There was nothing I could say to make it change its mind, and Matina was just as safe in the middle of the battle as it would be journeying to the Isle of Brio by itself. Though I doubted that it would leave now. Matina was a funny one. It had agreed to leave once, and that was only after I’d guilted it into doing so. Now I could not say that it would be safer for Matina to travel back by itself. We’d run into plenum soldiers on our way here, and Matina would most likely run into them on the way back. It couldn’t soar the entire way bac to Lahooni, not when the cloud ceiling hardened and was lower in walking paths and other enclosures. Even soaring, it could be shot down. They would kill it. Whatever luck had preserved Matina this far would not last in the face of an assault between the unskilled uspec and more than one plenum soldier. At least with the uspec in my sight I could do my best to protect it. I prayed to Chuspecip that it would be enough.

“We should disguise ourselves with the plenum soldiers. That is our fastest way back to Chiboga.” I said.

Juke grinned, but its smile was not believable. There was nothing wrong with the wide smile, it was Juke’s eyes that gave it away. It smiled widely, but there was fear beneath the shimmer of its wet eyes. I nodded.

Once the decision was made, we planned our disguise and then waited for the tools to fall in place. We needed to be dressed as the plenum soldiers were. There were bannerets in the army. Luckily, bannerets got to wear full chest armor and so if we could find a banneret’s armor I could hide the easily identifiable scars on my chest. Matina and Juke claimed that duty. They went back to the alley we’d slaughtered the plenum troops on. There had been bannerets amongst them. Matina and Juke returned with four helmets, four metal belts, and a bannerets chest shield. We removed our belts and dressed quickly in the plenum soldiers’ garb. Juke had to tie the knots of the chest shield behind me. The metal was an extra weight on my body that I did not need. I had never fought with a helmet before. Uspec’s had several arrangements of eyes around their face. Matina and Juke had done their best to find helmets that fit, but the helmet they’d brought for me cut off half of my vision on two outer eyes. It was not worth the trouble of finding a better fit.

After we were as well garbed as we could be, we stood, hiding in an alley, waiting for the opportunity to slip into the plenum’s ranks.

As luck would have it, we did not need to wait too long.

There was a large contingent of plenum soldiers marching towards us. There were at least three hundred soldiers. They spread so far out that we could not see to the back of the march.

“What do you think it is?” I asked Marcinus. “Reinforcements?”

The uspec shook its head. It seemed at ease in the plenum soldiers’ garb. Its helmet did not move separate from its head when it shook, as mine did. “Reinforcements would come from within the camp.” Marcinus stated. “They must be escorting some dignitary.” It shrugged. “Whatever it is, it is our opportunity.” The uspec gripped its bow, pulled an arrow from is quiver and then drew the arrow back. The string dug into its fingers as it held the arrow in place. Then it released its hold and the arrow flew.

A soldier fell.

“Check the alleys!”

“Sound the alarm!”

“Halt the march!”

The march of soldiers stopped and about sixty of them broke off and ran towards us. Marcinus flew further down the alley and when it returned it did not have its bow and quiver of arrows.

We pressed our backs against the alley wall and then waited for the soldiers to run in.

The foam of the clouds was nice to dig into. An absurd thought filled my mind as we waited. I thought of the slum I’d grown up in, of the sludge that I’d slept in. Sludge was all I’d known at the time. If anyone had told me as a de trop in Hakute that this would be my life, I would have laughed in their face. Now I was standing beside an imperial and two Lahooni nobles who’d sworn their lives to me. I stared at the red light and the clouds they emerged from and waited until the soldiers poured in. We got lucky. They ran into the alley in disarray, and the four of us easily slipped in amongst them.

“Check the next one!” a soldier bellowed.

We retreated. Marcinus jogged in front of me. I lost sight of Juke and Matina in the chaos of running along the alleys. There were so many uspecs around us. The six uspecs standing closest to me all had soaru tentacles, like Marcinus. One of them turned, our eyes met. I could not read its face from behind the helmet, but I knew we were in trouble when the soldier stopped in front of me.

“What are you doing here?” it demanded in the soaru tongue.

I was at a loss for words. I did not understand what the question meant. There were more uspecs running past us. This one had stopped us on our way to entering the next alley we’d been ordered to search. I noticed for the first time that there were notches in the parts of the soldiers’ helmets that covered their shoulders. I did not know what those notches meant, but the uspec that blocked my path had more of them than the notches on the helmet I wore. There had been no time to study the plenum’s ranks and commands. Our simple plan was starting to seem like a foolish one.

“You should be at the back of the march, noble one, protecting the Kaiser. Leave the soldiering to the real soldiers.”

I had no appropriate answer and so I turned around. Other soldiers had heard. They watched me now.

“We will escort it sirga.” Marcinus barked out in a soaru tongue that sounded nothing like its own. It spoke a broken soaru.

“See that you do.” The soldier who’d stopped us turned its glare on Marcinus. Then it nodded in dismissal. Marcinus pounded its right fist onto its left shoulder-blade and bowed. Then it turned around and said, “come with me noble one.” Marcinus’ use of the morphed soaru tongue and the plenum’s salute pointed at one thing. This was not the first time that it had been under cover as a plenum soldier. It made sense, now that I thought of its job in the flying squad and the risks those soldiers took. I was grateful for its experience. Matina and Juke found us along the way and they just joined in beside us. The four of us marched past curious eyes. The soldiers stood at attention, but they did not have the discipline of Arexon’s soldiers. They stared after us, when Arexon’s soldiers would have kept their gaze in front. And Arexon’s soldiers wouldn’t have barged into the alley in scattered lines, they would have marched in, in order.

It was a long march to the end of the line. We all looked straight ahead, even Matina, who was so jumpy that the slightest bellow made it startle, even then, it kept its head fixed rigidly in place. I felt agitated. There were so many plenum soldiers and we were so close to the entrance of their camp that I did not like our odds of survival if they found out we were not one of them. It was Marcinus’ arrows that had saved us the last time we were so blatantly outnumbered. Marcinus had had to hide the bow because it was a Chiboga bow, it would have stuck out like a sore thumb amongst supposed plenum soldiers.

We kept marching under the weight of curious stares until finally we reached the back of the line. There were three canoes at the back of the march. Canoes unlike any I had ever seen. They were tall, like the army canoes that the Chiboga military used, and as wide as commercial trucking canoes, which transported produce along the inter-port trail, between ports. But those canoes were usually not covered. This one was. It was also sleek and well-decorated. A luxury trucking canoe. Once we drew close enough to see the canoes in closer detail. I froze in my tracks.

One of the canoes had form taken out from a slight portion of the covering around the passengers side, and there was a green head sticking out. The green head had all seven uspec eyes. Those eyes stared curiously out at the march in front of it.

My heart pounded.

I stared at the face. The uspec’s eyes moved from the line of soldiers in front of it, to the sides, travelling slowly towards me. I knew that I should move. Every self-preserving instinct in my body told me to move, before the uspec saw me. I had a helmet on, and armor to cover the distinguishable parts of my body. It would not recognize me, but it might be tempted to look closer if I remained as I was, fixed to this position. I should move.

But I could not. My hand sought the dagger in my metal belt and I knew all I would need to do was throw it. There was no spectra on the inter-port trail. Nothing the uspec could use to deflect my attack. All I had to do was throw my dagger and my enemy would be dead.

“Sirga?” Juke whispered into my ear. “Is something wrong?”

I watched Fajahromo as its eyes moved ever closer. The uspec had aged, since I’d last seen it, but it was still much as I remembered.

“Sirga?” Juke prompted again.

I could just throw my dagger. But if I did, Fajahromo would die, but so would we. I took a deep breath, released it, and then continued marching forward right when Fajahromo’s eyes swept past me. It did not spare me a second glance.

I followed Marcinus lead and stood in position at the back of the line. Juke stood behind me, and Matina in front of me. Marcinus stood in the line that was closest to Fajahromo’s canoe. The uspec still had its head stuck out.

“Banneret!”

The soaru tongue that called out to me was one that I was familiar with. It was not Fajahromo’s voice. I turned around and received my second shock of the day. Manus was standing before me. It had stepped down from the canoe beside Fajahromo’s. It wore a sleeveless mahogany robe, with gold threaded through it. The uspec wore footwear with soles and minimal top covering. Its arms showed all five golden bands of a Kaiser and it wore a cyan ring on its finger. That ring declared its association with the plenum.

When my gaze turned back to Manus’ face, I noticed that it was frowning. It had the displeased look of a superior who expected a courtesy. I remembered myself and, knelt on one knee before it. Hopefully there was not a different greeting now between Kaiser and banneret.

“Why the delay?” Manus barked the question out at me.

“A foot soldier was attacked, mighty one, we broke to search for it.” I tried my best to distort my voice, and the helmet helped a little with that. All I could do was hope it was enough.

Manus harrumphed and then it climbed back into its canoe and the form returned to the canoe. I stood up, turned around, and walked back into my place in the line, all while suppressing the urge to look at Fajahromo.

I did look at Marcinus when I returned. The uspec stood rigidly. It was the only one amongst us who hadn’t shown any signs of nervousness when we’d walked to join the back of the line. Now it stood rigid. Its hands were fisted by its side and its head did not move. We were both being forced to hide our revulsions of the uspecs in the canoes. I remembered that Manus had turned their progenitor over to Salin. It was Manus who’d handed Maraci over to its executioner.

We stood still.

Every second that passed seemed longer and drawn out. My back felt awfully exposed. I couldn’t help but wonder if Fajahromo’s head was still sticking out of the canoe, idly watching the soldiers. Had it seen me? Had it recognized my voice? What was it doing here with Manus? Fajahromo was a Hakute duke, from what I remembered. What was it doing with Manus? And why was it marching towards the plenum? The last time I’d seen Fajahromo it had declared itself as an enemy of the plenum. I had gladly shared this information which Checha. Now Fajahromo was here, marching to join the plenum’s camp. It made no sense. Unless Checha didn’t tell the other plenum Kaisers about Fajahromo’s shifting allegiances.

The alarm was sounded and orders came for the march to continue.

We moved forward.

My back itched. It felt exposed. I knew that Juke stood behind me and that the uspec would guard me, but I could not fight the itch. I wanted to turn around. I wanted to stare Fajahromo in the eye and see if there was any recognition. I wanted to kill it. It had been so long since I’d felt this. My heart thudded, my jaw went through spasmic cycles of clenching and releasing, my fists tightened around my cutlass in the odd, uncomfortable, metal belt I wore. Every cell in my body wanted to turn around, run towards Fajahromo, and cut its head off. There would be no better time to fight Fajahromo than on the inter-port trail, where it had no spectra. Fajahromo had no emotions, it was just an irira, not a kun. All it had was pansophy. In a sword fight between the two of us, if it did not get the opportunity to use its pansophy on me, I could kill it. I knew I could. But if I tried, Juke, Matina and Marcinus would die with me. Right here, marching along the inter-port trail.

So, I ignored the itching in my back and kept my gaze forward. The group was so large that we had to march in through the front gates, the one that lay close to the Chiboga hangar, the one that was sending soldiers into that hangar. All we had to do was get to that gate, then we could join the rank of plenum soldiers marching into Chiboga. If Fajahromo was stupid enough to join this fight, then I would have my chance to take its life. And if it did not join I would scour the existence for it, when the fight was over. If I survived. I had to. The uspec had my progenitor’s ring, my claim to Lahooni.

We were ten lines of soldiers away from the front gates when chaos broke out along the lines.

About twenty plenum soldiers fell.

There was no attack that I could see, just twenty dead soldiers, bleeding from their necks, or chest, or face.

“Flare the appearance identifier!” The order came. “Release the samus!”

It had to be one of Arexon’s flying squads.

The soldiers who were about to march into Chiboga pulled out their weapons and thrust it aimlessly into the air. Swords clashed and my ears filled with the sweet sound of metal clanging against metal. I could not see the metal. The samu was released but the fight continued. Fifty soldiers fell. Then pink droplets levitated in the air, and the fighting stopped. The invisible soldiers in Arexon’s flying squad were gone.

But the chaos gave us the perfect opportunity to jump from the line of the Kaiser’s escort to the plenum soldiers marching into Chiboga.

We broke off from the group veering left into the plenum camps, and joined the groups running around the corpses. We picked up bodies with other soldiers and threw them off to the side. Then when the order came for the lines to form back up, we made sure that we were as close to the front as we could be.

There was only one person in front of Matina. Marcinus stood to my left. Red cloud walls loomed ahead of us. The frontline of plenum soldiers unleashed their swords and stepped into the red clouds. They disappeared and the line advanced. Matina would enter next.

My heart beat a frantic rhythm. We were so close. The advance order was sounded with a whistle. Matina stepped into the cloud and it vanished. It was in the Chiboga hangar. I took a step forward. My heartbeat grew more frantic. I was seconds away from the hangar, away from being able to use my lit okun as I’d promised to do. It was the end of the day. The orange hue of the daylight dots were no longer visible. This was war so I knew it wouldn’t stop for rest, it wouldn’t follow the sleeping cycle dictated by the passage of the daylight dots. The soldiers would fight until a side won. There would be no breaks.

The whistle came.

There had never been a sweeter sound to my ears. I pulled my cutlass out of my sheath and then turned to Marcinus. Our eyes met for a moment, just a second in time, and then we advanced.

My head went through the clouds. I saw the hangar. I searched for Matina but I could not find the uspec in the fighting. There were shooters on both sides, hovering in the air, firing arrows into the other side. There were flying fighters whose flight fighting blocked any chances of an uspec flying across. Uspecs shifted around and I saw Matiu fighting beside Arexon.

I walked in to join the fight.

But there was an obstruction, some hindrance holding me back.

Marcinus had entered. It took off its helmet and turned to face me smiling. The smile fell from its face when it noticed that I was stuck.

“Such unique feathers you have, my friend.” The awful, familiar, voice, came from behind me, from the inter-port trail I’d thought I’d escaped.

“Sirga!” I heard Juke’s call. Juke was still on the inter-port trail.

The hangar was a fighting mess in front of me. Blood splattered. Uspecs dodged and docked and flew and jabbed. Uspecs fell and died and others trampled on their corpses.

I turned my neck around.

Two uspecs held onto the rim of my ailerons. They were uspecs without magic, I could kill them both and then enter the hangar. But they had Juke. Its helmet had been removed and Fajahromo held a sword to its throat.

“If you step into that hangar, I will cut off its head, my friend.” Fajahromo grinned at me.

Juke’s eyes were wide. It took me a while to notice how rigidly it stood. It appeared frozen, like a statue, like one without motion. I closed my eyes.

“Nebud!” Marcinus called out to me.

It was already in the hangar. It was back in Chiboga.

I withdrew to the inter-port trail.

I did not expect Marcinus to come running after me.

Fajahromo’s eyes widened at Marcinus. “Well what do we have here? Two wanted uspecs for the price of one. Seize them both.”

I could have fought, but what was the point? Marcinus had a sword to Juke’s neck, and Juke’s motion had been removed. Juke had pansophy itself, but Fajahromo’s grasp on the magic must have been greater than Juke’s. Now the uspec was defenseless. I dropped my cutlass and allowed myself to be forced to my knees. They removed my helmet and my body armor and Fajahromo’s smile widened. It nodded.

Cold steel dug into my wrists. Marcinus was suffering from the same treatment as me.

They bound our hands behind us and then pulled us up. Juke was restrained the same way and then its motion was returned. But Fajahromo kept Juke close to it while Marcinus and I trailed behind.

They marched us as prisoners into the plenum’s camp. I could not help but look back at the red cloud walls and think about how close we’d gotten to entering, to being back in Chiboga, to being free to fight the war we’d come here for.

If only Fajahromo hadn’t been in that retinue, we would have escaped, we would have made it back. I cursed Fajahromo.

thanks for this update.

I have been wondering where that slimy Fajahromo was.

Nebud has grown too soft!!!

This time Fajarhomo is not escaping death..... Make sure he dies Obehid.....

Fajahromo strikes again.

Farjahromo! Aargh!!!

Part 11
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There was a long stretch of cloud road, sandwiched between sludge walls. Soldiers stood on one side of us, in line, ready to take their place in the fight in the Chiboga hangar. Several of them turned to stare at us as we were marched past. There were ten uspecs between me and Fajahromo. I kept count. One of the soldiers in the line caught my gaze. Its eyes trailed over my body, rested on the scars on my chest for a moment and then it turned its gaze back to the head of the soldier in line in front of it. It was as if we walked in a tunnel, until at last we were out of the narrow space between the sludge walls. This was the heart of the plenum’s camp. They had sludge dwellings built in neat rows at the front.

The soldiers in the heart of the camp were not dressed for war as the ones in line in the tunnel had been. These ones wore no helmets or belts, they just ran around completing one mission or the other. There were imps. We walked by a dwelling where three imps were perched by the curtain entrance, polishing swords. A group of ten imps ran by balancing a large coffer.

I heard Marcinus’ heavy steps behind me. Its hands were still bound, which meant that the metal manacles where not made of pansophic metal. If they were, I was sure Marcinus would have taken the form away from them. We walked between more sludge dwellings. An imp ran out of one carrying a large pale filled with brownish-pink okun. The imp stopped itself before it ran into one of the ten soldiers separating Fajahromo and me. Juke glanced back. It walked beside Fajahromo, with Fajahromo’s sword pressed against its neck. I held its gaze and then its eyes dropped. Its head followed suite. It turned back around. Two plenum soldiers skulked between sludge buildings. They whistled a merry tune. A plenum soldier ran out of a sludge building to my right. It pulled out a chipped piece of value from its leather belt and threw it back into the building. Then it made to move forward, swayed and fell. Its head slammed against the sludge wall and it laughed. The curtains parted and swirls of white smoke came out of the building. Lust. I turned around. Marcinus had not seen, its gaze was set rigidly in front. Our eyes met and held. Then I turned back around. Another group of imps ran through us on an errand I could not imagine. More plenum soldiers marched about. Some obviously drunk, some obviously high, some obviously bored. We kept walking between the neat rows of sludge buildings.

An imp emerged from a sludge building with an armful of metal swords. It had a thick brown leather tarp underneath the load of swords. It wasn’t looking and so it ran into an uspec. This happened six soldiers in front of us. I felt the uspec’s pain. The plenum soldier was a brawler, an irritable one by the looks of it. It glared at the imp and slammed its fist into the back of the imp’s head. I felt the uspec’s anger. The imp muttered apologies and bent to pick up the sword it had dropped. The uspec trudged forward. It was now seven uspecs away from me. Then eight. I acted on instinct. I yanked its pain and anger and transferred them to the uspec walking behind Fajahromo. As soon as the polluted emotions filled the uspec, it pulled its sword out of its scabbard and began swinging it around like a wild beast. Fajahromo ducked a blow and the uspec’s sword bit into Juke’s shoulder.

Juke yelped.

The uspec darted back, but it had its hands bound behind it, it could not fight. I chastised myself for not thinking through the ramifications. I’d hoped the uspec would catch Fajahromo unawares. Polluted anger made an uspec insane. This uspec showed no skill in its fight. It lashed out at everyone. Fajahromo stabbed its cutlass into the uspec’s heart and then kicked its corpse away. Our march continued. Imps emerged right when I was about to walk by the uspec. The imps lifted the uspec’s corpse and carried it away. Blood trailed from the deep wound in Juke’s shoulder.

We kept walking between the sludge buildings. The scenery did not change much. Plenum soldiers milled about. Imps ran on errands. The clouds bathed us in red lights and our march inwards continued. After a long and silent march we emerged from the monotony of rows of sludge dwellings.

There was a short sludge wall blocking our path. That wall appeared as a fence, cordoning off the parts of the camp behind the wall from the portions of rows of sludge houses that we’d just walked through.

The form was removed from a section of the wall and we walked through.

The dwellings in this area were much different from the huts in the others. These dwellings were tall and appeared quite luxurious. I saw several three-story dwellings. A large okun pond drew and held my fascination. The pink liquid in it was clean. I narrowed my eyes at a peek of white skin. It looked like the head of a swan. But then it was gone, and it hadn’t lasted long enough for me to confirm that it had indeed been a swan that I’d seen. The uspecs that moved around this area wore light coats and had golden armbands on their arms. All uspecs without armbands were formerly dressed in the helmet and leather-mesh belt gear of the plenum foot soldiers.

An uspec emerged from a three-story building. My eyes widened. It was an irirakun of all five, just as Checha had been, as my offspring was. It flew and three uspecs followed behind it. My gaze travelled from the green dots in the air, to Juke and the sword that Fajahromo had on its neck. I looked longingly at the sky and then turned my gaze back around. Juke could not fly away without being cut down by Fajahromo’s blade. I heard a shrill sound, turned around and was punched in the face.

I lost consciousness.

When I woke, I was standing in a sludge room. My arms and legs were bound to a sludge post. I looked around the room. There was no other uspec, but there was furniture. There was a table, and on that table there were various implements. Knives, daggers, needles. I turned to a shelf on the other side. Whips hung from that shelf. The whips took me back in time to Chiboga. They had the same thorns that Sophian had had me whipped with. There were arrows on other shelves, but the arrows were shorter, they did not quite appear appropriate for battle. So what purpose did they have? I saw a glove, but the glove appeared to be made of metal and it only covered parts of a wearers fingers. I looked at the implements again and came to the conclusion that I was in a torture chamber.

There was nothing I could do but wait.

My stomach grumbled. It had been a full day since I’d last eaten. I’d spent longer without meals though, and I’d drank okun earlier, so I would be fine. I was not in danger of starving to death. I looked at the various implements of pain and I turned my gaze back to the empty wall in front of me. There was no entrance to the room that I could see. No curtains, just solid sludge walls. My stomach grumbled again. Inactivity had a way of bringing out the hunger. This was the first pause I’d had since Matiu had woken me up in my bed in Arexon’s Castle. I thought of the uspec and remembered the sight of it fighting beside Arexon in the hangar. I hadn’t seen Matina. After everything that the uspec had lived through, I really hoped that it had not met its end sneaking into that Chiboga hangar. I knew that it made it through, but I was not sure if it had made it to Arexon’s side of the fight. My wandering thoughts fell on Marcinus. Why had the uspec withdrawn? It had been safe, it had already made it into the Chiboga hangar. Why had it gone back to the inter-port trail after me? I thought of Juke and the careless injury I’d caused it. I’d been desperate. I looked around the torture room. I hoped Juke and Marcinus were fine and unharmed.

I heard the shuffling of feet against sludge ground. They’d tied me so firmly to the post that the only part of my body I could move was my head. I tossed my head from one side to the other, in order to get a good glance at the room behind me.

Four uspecs walked in.

Fajahromo, smiling, was amongst them.

Fajahromo wore a light robe with slits cut out in the arms to reveal the golden bands that declared it a duke. It walked around me and came to a stop in front of me, directly in my line of sight. It shook its head and tsked. “Why do you always have to be so difficult, my friend?” It smiled at me, the same sickening smile it had always had. I felt foolish for ever believing that its smile had been genuine, that it had been genuine. This was the same smile that it had given to me the day we met, and the same smile that had graced its face all the times I’d tried, unsuccessfully, to kill it. I loathed this uspec more than any other that lived.

“Now, my friend, I must warn you not to try any of that stunt with emotions that you tried before.” Fajahromo grinned as it spoke.

I had not thought that the uspec had suspected my role in that uspec’s insanity.

Fajahromo’s eyes widened. They gleamed and danced with suppressed mirth. “Did you think that after what you did to Domax in the pits of Hakute I would not learn all the signs of an uspec suffering from polluted emotions?”

I clenched my jaw and looked away.

Fajahromo continued tsking. “As I was saying, you should not bother with those stunts. Every uspec in this room has imbibed emotion blockers. You will not find our emotions so easy to steal.”

I continued to stare away from the uspec. As much I wished I didn’t, I knew Fajahromo well enough to know that the uspec would take its time blabbing before it spoke of anything important.

“You betrayed me Nebud, after all that I’ve done for you, after the offer of friendship I made you, you betrayed me to the plenum. Do you know how hard I had to work to get their trust back? Do you know what I endured because of you?”

I smiled. I was happy to know that the words I’d spoken to Checha before I killed it had been enough to cause Fajahromo trouble. But the uspec was here, back with the plenum. So how much damage had those words really done?

“I was very vexed when I found out that it was you who betrayed me. Very vexed. But I am a forgiving person, my friend, and if you tell me all I want to know, I will forgive you and I will befriend you again. At times like this, an uspec like you could really benefit from a friend like me. It is politics, my friend, and politics is all about connections. Have you learnt at least that much yet?”

I remained silent.

Fajahromo sighed, a long, drawn out, exhale of air. Then it tsked. “I am merciful, my friend, but even my mercy is not boundless. I want to befriend you, to protect you. It is all I’ve ever sought, even before I knew it was you I searched for. Right from when you were just a babe that my sibling, Takabat, brought into our home. Even then I sought to protect you. And what have I earned for my troubles?”

I rolled my eyes and continued to stare at the sludge wall. I stared so intently at it that I could make out the cracks in the wall. Those cracks branched out like veins.

“Was your mission successful? Has the founder returned? If it has, then why has it not joined the war? Where is it now?”

I continued to stare at the wall. The cracks formed a detour…

“I could use pansophy…” Fajahromo teased.

I stopped following the cracks and turned my focus on Fajahromo. It smirked. “I could scrub your brain clean with pansophy. But then what would you learn? Nothing. You must learn my friend, you must learn what it means to cross me.” My eyes followed Fajahromo as the uspec withdrew. It stepped back and then nodded to another uspec. Half of my eyes sought out that uspec. I watched as it withdrew a whip from the shelf. Fajahromo nodded at another uspec. That one pulled out the metal knuckles. They both rounded on me.

What followed was an unending cycle of pain.

One uspec tore my already mangled flesh with the thorn-whip, while the other slammed the metal glove into my face, my sides, my bleeding stomach, any and every where it could. Occasionally, they would stop and Fajahromo would repeat the questions and I would ignore it. Then the beating would continue.

I’d felt pain like this before, I already knew that there was a limit to it, there was only so much my mind could take. And when the black void of oblivion came, I fell happily into it.

A torrent of cool liquid slapped me across my face. I woke and blinked. My eyes were swollen, but not so badly that I could not see through them. The green people swam in my gaze.

An uspec with a familiar face and sickening smile walked towards me. I tried to retreat but there was a solid wall behind me. I was bound to it. I could not move. The uspec’s fingers flashed before my eyes. There was a ring on one of those fingers. Sanity returned as I realized that it was my ring on the uspec’s finger. It wasn’t just any uspec, but Fajahromo. Fajahromo wore my sire’s ring, the one that it had left to me. I swore and spat blood mixed with spittle onto the uspec’s face. Fajahromo forced the rim of a wooden cup between my lips. Then it poured its contents down my throat. I did not want to drink but it hurt too much to resist.

“Growth pills,” Fajahromo said, “so that you last longer during the second round.” Then it laughed. It threw its head back, placed its hand with its fingers stretched out, fingers which bore my progenitor’s ring, and it laughed manically.

It really was a healing solution. I felt the cuts on my face begin to heal. Just when the wounds on my stomach began closing up, an uspec poured a pail of okun on my flesh. It was not just any okun, but okun with bathing salts in it. I screamed. I could not help it. The bathing salts dug into my wounds and they burned painfully. The growth pills did their job, they grew my skin around the bathing salts. I howled and my cries of pain were so loud that they drowned out Fajahromo’s laughing.

I was panting, and sweating feverishly, when the bathing salts lost their potency.

“Was your mission successful? Where is the founder now?” Fajahromo repeated its questions and I remained silent. It shrugged. “Round two.” It nodded and the pain began anew. The whip whistled as it tore through the air. Then the thorns bore into my skin. “You will learn,” Fajahromo promised. “Everyone breaks my friend, you are no exception. You will learn.” The uspec with the metal glove struck me across the face. The only pain that existed in the room was mine, and I could not transfer my pain to others. It was not the way of emotions. Lashes fell, punches landed, and I passed out.

Fajahromo had me woken and healed and then the torture began again.

I was scared that I would lose my mind. The longer it went on, the longer it took my brain to slip into oblivion. Every time I endured the pain for longer than I had the time before that, and every time my mind took longer to clear. My thoughts were scrambled. It always took too long to identify my ring and know that it was Fajahromo who wore it.

The torment lasted forever.

I was sure that at least a month had passed with me tied up and beaten. I knew that time was important. A month was bad. But I could not quite remember why. Why couldn’t I be tied and beaten for a month? What wouldn’t last a month? Why was I here? Why did I still live? Who was the founder? Why did the uspec with the dazzling ring smile mockingly at me? What did they want? Why didn’t the pain end?

I shivered. The growth pills had forced my skin to grow over the bathing salts again. It still burned, but it was not the worst pain. The worst pain was from the cuts, when they peeled off flaps of skin. That was the worst pain. That was worse than the whips and the thorns burying themselves in my flesh. The skinning was the worst. The burn of the bathing salts meant that I was healing.

“This has gone on for long enough.” The words were spoken in a fine mejo tongue.

For the first time, for as long as I could remember, the uspecs with the daggers, and the metal gloves, and the whips, and the knives, they pulled back. They walked away from me.

I panted.

There was no more pain and sanity slowly returned. I recognized Fajahromo. I remembered where I was and what Fajahromo wanted to know. But the uspec who’d spoken, the one who’d made the pain stop, I did not recognize its voice. It walked in front of me and perched on a table.

It was a kun of five, and it wore the cyan rings on its fingers that only the plenum Kaisers won.

Fajahromo was no longer smiling. It walked over to the Kaiser and bowed deeply. “Shall we use pansophy then, mighty one?” it asked.

This plenum Kaiser was younger than Checha had been. The horns on its head were curved, there were no straight horns like Checha’s. Its boga spikes shone, its cyan scales were folded upwards at the edges, revealing sharp ends, its soaru tentacles swept the floor and the double-point tips of its kute tail flapped. The Kaiser studied me without emotion.

“So, this is Calami’s offspring, heir to the mighty Calam?”

Fajahromo had turned into a sycophant. It had always disgusted me how easily Fajahromo went from being one person to another. The pride it had shown in teasing me had vanished. Now it stood with its shoulders bent and its neck bowed slightly towards the Kaiser.

“Yes, it is, mighty one.”

The Kaiser did not look away from me. “It will not tell you what you wish to know?” The uspec’s tone boomed with calm authority. It was the same kind of authority that Checha had appeared to be cloaked in. Its eyes roved calmly over my body. The uspec had bulk, but not as much as mine. It was tall though, taller even than I was.

“No, mighty one.” Fajahromo remained bowed to the plenum Kaiser.

Its eyes narrowed. “I hear that two uspecs accompanied it, a Lahooni majestic and a Katsoaru imperial?”

My jaw clenched.

Fajahromo nodded. “Yes, mighty one.”

“Bring the hooni one.” It ordered.

My hands fisted by my side.

“Do you know who I am, heir of Calam?” the Kaiser asked me.

I didn’t reply.

It rose up and lifted the table it had perched on at one end. The knives and other implements that had been on it, went tumbling down. I noticed for the first time that the other uspecs in the room were kneeling. Only Fajahromo and I stood. The implements crashed noisily against the hard sludge ground. The Kaiser put the table back down and then returned to its perching.

“You belong to the plenum now. You should answer my questions.” It spoke conversationally.

I ignored it.

“I am the Kaiser of Qatamejo.” It stated calmly. That would explain its authority. Since the death of my sire, and the disappearance of my line’s wealth from Lahooni, Qatamejo had grown to be the wealthiest port in the spectral existence. This Kaiser bankrolled most of the plenum’s war.

Feet shuffled in. I turned and found Juke being led forcefully towards the Kaiser. My jaw ticked.

“You do not say much, but your expressions speak for you. It was your expressions that told me to bring this one, and not the soaru imperial. It is your expressions that tell me that you will answer my questions. Bring it forward.”

Juke looked well. It did not look happy, but it did not look like it had been tortured as I was. I could not tell much about how it had fared from the way it looked. There were streaks of blood on its skin, the same streaks that had been there after we’d fought on the alley in the inter-port trail. There was also dirt on it. Both of these pointed to it not having cleaned in the time that we’d been captured. How much time had passed?

Juke fought against the uspec’s that pushed it forward, but its ankles and wrists were chained. I wondered if the uspecs that held it had pansophy too? As soon as it was close to the Kaiser, the uspec stretched out its hand and wrapped its fingers over Juke’s arm.

Juke stopped moving.

“I left motion in its head.” The Kaiser informed me. “Tas! Brim!” It barked.

An uspec led two leashed snow jackals into the room.

I frowned.

They growled at me.

Juke’s head turned. It stared at me. “Sirga,” I heard the grief in its voice, and I smiled to allay its concerns. It could not move any other part of its body. Just its head. I wondered how much knowledge of pansophy it took to force motion back down your body. Then I remembered one of the first lessons of pansophy that Musa had taught me. Pansophy was the transfer of lifeforces. Not the creation, but the transfer. Juke would have to move the motion from its head to somewhere else, it was standing alone now. No one touched it. It could not transfer motion from anyone else.

“What is the meaning of this?” I demanded of the plenum Kaiser.

Its head tilted to the side and it studied me while it petted the snow jackals. The creatures yipped and growled at it.

“Did you succeed in your mission to return the founder to this existence?” It asked.

I clenched my jaw and stared coldly at it.

The uspec drew out a dagger from its belt. The dagger had a short blade. It was so thoroughly polished that it glinted under the light. “This blade is poisoned with polluted life. Do you know what that means, heir of Calam?”

I stayed silent.

The uspec grabbed onto Juke’s manacled wrists and slammed its palm against the bare surface of the table. I yelled for it to stop, I wasn’t sure what it intended to do, but I yelled anyway.

The Kaiser cut off Juke’s left thumb.

I gaped at the severed appendage.

I could not believe that it had happened.

Juke’s eyes were wide. There was no blood on the table. It had not even cried out when the Kaiser sawed its thumb off. I wondered if it was shock that had kept it quiet. The Kaiser brought Juke’s thumb over to me and showed me the severed end. It was black.

“Polluted life, even with boga magic and growth and healers, you cannot regrow this thumb. You see how there’s no blood? Life can no longer exist there. It is poisoned. You would have to sap it down to its last sustainable bit and then give it growth to grow itself back. Have you seen an uspec who’s been sapped to its last bit before?” The Kaiser stared into my eyes.

I was too stunned by its barbarity against Juke to speak.

“Tas,” it called to its snow jackal and then tossed Juke’s finger in the air. The snow jackal caught the finger and ate it. That was when Juke screamed. Juke watched the snow jackal eating its finger and it screamed.

I reached for Juke’s pain. There was none.

Juke yelled. Its head swiveled from left to right as it screamed out. I’d been so focused on trying to find its pain that I missed the Kaiser cutting off two more of its fingers. I still could not find Juke’s pain. Even though it screamed. They must have fed it emotion blockers. The Kaiser threw these two newly severed fingers to its jackal and the same jackal caught it in the air and munched on it, as if it was a snack. Bile filled my mouth. It flooded my taste buds with its sour bitterness, and I wanted nothing more than to spit it out. But I could not vomit. I would not give this uspec the satisfaction. So, I swallowed the vomit, I pushed it back down my throat and managed not to choke on it.

“Answer my question, heir of Calam, have you seen an uspec who’s been sapped?”

I looked at Juke’s silent misery and I shook my head.

“I want to hear you.”

Juke’s left hand missed three fingers. This Kaiser had made Juke shun, incomplete. But there had to be a cure. There had to be.

“No, I have not seen a sapped uspec before.”

The Kaiser nodded. “When we sap uspecs it is as a punishment. We drain them to the last sustainable uspec bit, and then take that last sustainable bit and put it in a bottle with growth. Uspec’s with pansophy try to regrow themselves. Uspecs without, die in that bottle. No uspec with pansophy has ever successfully grown itself back to what it was before. There is always something not quite right. Have you seen one, great one?”

Fajahromo nodded. “Yes, mighty one. The Kaiser of my port has a few on display. Uspecs with horns growing out of their armpits and eyes on their waist.”

“An uspec is better off being left as shun than being made into that, wouldn’t you agree, great one?”

Fajahromo bowed. “Yes, mighty one.”

The Kaiser turned back to face me. “Did you succeed in your mission to return the founder to this existence?” It asked.

“Don’t say anything sirga,” Juke spoke bravely, “I am not scared to die.” But it was scared, its eyes were wide and its lips shook.

The Kaiser’s blade hovered threateningly over what was left of Juke’s left hand. I tried not to think of the Kaiser’s words, but how could I not. When body parts were cut off, they bled. This one did not bleed, it was blackened instead. Blackened at the point where it had been cut. Polluted life. I closed my eyes.

“No,” I said, “I did not succeed.”

I heard Juke’s screams and my eyes snapped open.

One finger was cut off.

There was just one left on that hand.

“Stop!” I yelled.

The last finger was cut off.

“I answered your question!” I yelled. Juke’s cries of pain almost drowned out my words.

The Kaiser fed Juke’s fingers to the same jackal.

“You lied.” It stated calmly. Then it turned back to Juke.

“No!” I begged. “Stop. Please!”

It cut off Juke’s left hand at the wrist.

Juke passed out. Its head dropped, but its body had no motion, it remained standing as the Kaiser had positioned it.

There was only blackness at Juke’s wrist. A black stub.

My chest hurt. I felt as if someone had reached in and twisted spiked wire around my heart. I could not look away from Juke’s stub. I told myself that I would fix it. I did not care about what this Kaiser said about sapping as the only cure, I did not care, I would find a way and I would give Juke’s back its hand. It was the only thought I could think which didn’t send me sinking into despair. I would fix this. For Juke. I had to fix it.

“If you already know the answer, then why did you ask?” My voice was shaky. I had seen many things, but never this.

The Kaiser threw Juke’s palm at its jackal. The creature munched on Juke’s palm. The bile came up my throat again, this time it was more. I swallowed it down. It burned as it travelled down my throat, and it disgusted me. But I could not give this Kaiser the satisfaction of seeing me throw up.

Its jackal, the one that had eaten Juke’s hand, let out a pained howl and then it fell on its side. Black grew over its previously, porcelain, white skin.

“What is poisonous to us is poisonous to it too.” It flicked its fingers and an uspec carried the dying snow jackal away. “Did you succeed in your mission to return the founder to this existence?” Calm eyes stared into mine. The Kaiser did not look like a monster. It did not look or sound insane. How could it do what I had just watched it do?

“You already know the answer.” I said.

It shrugged. “Perhaps, but I want you to tell it to me anyway.”

It stared at me and I stared back at it. Then it sighed and turned back towards Juke. “I think I’ll cut off the right hand too, and then I’ll have it sapped and leave it in a bottle with growth. In a week we will see what the young Lahooni majestic grows itself into.” It stretched out its dagger.

“Stop!” I screamed. “Please.” I begged. “Yes, I succeeded! I succeeded.”

The Kaiser’s dagger was a hairsbreadth away from Juke’s wrist. I just kept screaming, “I succeeded,” as loud as I could. I screamed it till my throat was hoarse from yelling. Juke’s head hung unconscious and its black stub stared me in the face. Few things had caused me pain like this before. Very few things. It was one thing for an uspec to hurt me, but another entirely for it to hurt Juke. Of all the uspecs in the world, why Juke? The young uspec that had shadowed me on the inter-port trail, filling my cup and bringing me food. The youth it had grown into that was still desperate to please me. The one whose smiles made me smile. Why? I would kill this Kaiser. I would cut off its head with that dagger of its and feed its head to its snow jackal. No, death would be too good. I wanted to show it the pain that it had showed me. I wanted to hurt it as it had hurt me. I wanted to kill one that it loved in front of its eyes and watch its anguish. “I succeeded!” I continued to scream, until finally, the uspec’s blade went away. My throat chafed. I would kill this Kaiser. I could not sink to its level, I could not harm another just to cause it pain. But I would make its death as painful as an uspec death could be. For doing this to Juke, I would invent pain just for it. Images of Juke fighting flashed through my mind. Juke fought with two swords, it fought with both hands. It would never be able to fight like that again. I stared into the Kaiser’s face and I looked into its eyes and swore in my head the death I would deliver to it.

“Where is the founder now?” it asked.

“In the Isle of Brio.”

It nodded. “And why is it not here? Running to the aid of the ones that fought us at its behest?”

My lips shook. I did not want to say. Then my gaze locked on Juke. Innocent Juke who I’d dragged into all of this. Juke who was now shun, who would not fight as beautifully as it had before. There had to be a cure for this polluted life. There had to be a way. I would find it for Juke. I would find it. But was there a cure for it being sapped and then re-growing abnormally? If this Kaiser threatened to do it, it would. It would do it, knowing that it had another hostage that it could torture. It had Marcinus.

“It is too weak.”

“How long will it take for it to recuperate?”

I did not know. “At least three weeks.” I said. It was a lie. I did not know, but even then, I did not think it would take the founder three weeks to recover. A week maybe, two at most, certainly not three. The longer the plenum thought they had, the more time I had to fix this. I did not know how, but I had to. If the plenum joined the wrath, as Arexon had said they might, then all would be lost. I could not let that happen. But I could not let Juke die either.

“I could have used pansophy on you, heir of Calam, do you know why I did not?” The Kaiser asked.

I lifted my head and stared into its eyes. “No, I do not.” If it was so good at reading my reactions, then it could read its death in my face. It could read that it had just ended its own life.

“I want you to know that you belong to the plenum. I want you to know it so deeply that you may forget everything else, you could even forget your own name, but you will never forget who you belong to.” The Kaiser turned to Fajahromo. “We should talk.”

Fajahromo bowed. “Yes, mighty one.”

“Take Calam’s heir and its follower back to their suite. It will not be a problem anymore.” The Kaiser gave the order and then walked out of the dwelling with Fajahromo heeling it just as its snow jackal did.

They removed the chains binding me and took me and the unconscious Juke out of the torture chamber.

Part 12
---------

Two plenum foot soldiers stood guard outside a sludge bungalow. As soon as they sighted us, they pulled batons out of their belts and placed them against the sludge wall. The form was removed from that section of the sludge wall. All I saw in the dwelling revealed was more sludge. There was a faint yellow light in the room. An uspec shoved me in and then they pushed Juke in after me. It was still unconscious. One of them tossed a cyan jade into the room after us. The jade was a disk, about an inch wider in diameter than money. It clinked against the ground and then rolled around in circles before reaching a stop. It fell with its flat side hitting the ground. The room was empty. There was no furniture, just sludge ground. The light source hung from the roof from chains that creaked.

“That is the motion that the mighty one took from it.” The guard who’d tossed the disk in said. Then it withdrew. They all did. They stepped back and sealed the wall up behind them. There were no more holes in the wall. We were locked in.

I walked over to the disk and picked it up. I held it in my hand. I had pansophy now, I wasn’t sure what I expected from the disk, but I could not tell if there was indeed motion in it. I felt nothing. Still, the Kaiser had no reason not to return Juke’s motion, so I chose to believe that the disk did indeed contain the motion that the Kaiser had taken from the uspec.

I made my way over to Juke. It was still unconscious. I tried to put it into a more relaxing position. I lay it down and spread it out, but it was hard to find comfort on a hard sludge ground. There were no beds in this room. Just hard ground and a light source. I sat beside Juke, with my back against the wall.

Juke’s left wrist was now a black stub. My gaze dug into that black, poisoned, flesh and I thought back on the torture. I had not known that this would happen, that this would be the end. Pain to me was one thing, but pain to another in my name…I clenched my hand around the jade disk. It dug into my flesh and I welcomed the pain. I could not help replaying the torture. It was night now, I’d seen that from the red of the clouds’ lighting as we’d been led from the torture room to this prison. It was night but I did not know how many nights had passed. The war was still on. That much was clear. There was no festivity in the plenum’s camp, just the hard drudgery of soldiers marching to orders. If the war was at an end, the camp would not look as it had. I could not have been tortured for months then. Arexon’s army could not survive months, and the founder would have been healed in months. It had to have been days. Days filled with the unending cycle of pain, unconsciousness and healing. This was the climax. Juke’s dismemberment.

I closed my eyes and tried not to think of the bile that I’d forced back down my throat. I had dismembered uspec’s before, but never with poison that could not be healed, and never as torture. Never for another’s benefit. It should not have affected me as much as it did. But it was the whole tableau of it. The Kaiser feeding Juke’s body parts to a jackal as if it was a treat. The jackal eating and then dying because it was poisoned. The Kaiser threatening to sap Juke down to its last sustainable uspec bit. Imps were different, they could be sapped to a last sustainable bit and heal normally, it was the way their lifeforces stuck together. Ours did not. Our lifeforces separated when sapped. An uspec could lose all its memory and still have enough form to continue being sapped. I had never heard of uspec sapping, but I had read of how uspec’s lifeforces altered from imps.

Was the only cure really to have Juke sapped?

I did not want to despair.

Red light streamed into the sludge dwelling. It was a sign that the form had been removed from a section of it. I opened my eyes and my focus turned to that entrance.

Two uspecs stood with their sides to me. One was Marcinus, the other was an infant, a young uspec that could not be more than a year older than my own offspring.

“Think on it, senior cognate,” the young uspec said, “The plenum only wants the last brio and Chiboga, it does not desire you. Pater has been instrumental to their war, if you pledge it your allegiance, then it can plead with the plenum on your behalf. I want the rift between you two to be bridged.” The young uspec’s head bent and it cast its gaze down. Its feet moved nervously on the ground. “I have missed you, senior cognate.”

Marcinus sighed. It turned around and our eyes met. Its eyes widened and the corners of its lips tilted upwards slightly. It appeared relieved to see me. “You should return to your pater, Marina. Do not worry about me.” Marcinus squeezed the young uspec’s shoulder and then it entered into the bare dwelling.

The sludge wall hardened behind it.

The uspec’s gaze traveled down my body and then turned to Juke. It stopped abruptly and its jaw clenched. It had seen Juke’s stub.

“How long has it been?” I asked. My voice sounded weak to my ears.

“Four days.” Marcinus replied. Its voice was strong. It walked over to me and pointed at the disk in my hand. “What is that?”

I loosened my hold and stretched my hand out slightly. “Juke’s motion. The Kaiser of Qatamejo took it from Juke before it cut off its hand. One finger at a time.”

Marcinus plucked the disk from my hand. It walked over to Juke’s other side and sat beside the uspec. Then it repositioned Juke so that its head was in its lap. It held the disk in one hand and stroked Juke’s scalp with the other.

“I still remember it as the young uspec who ran around that compound on the inter-port trail. Did you know it spat at me once? It came to my room to yell at me for giving lust to ‘Ula’ and then it spat at me.” Marcinus continued stroking Juke’s scalp.

Sadness clawed at me. It flowed inside me like okun along a canal, and wrapped itself in coils within me, like a soaru’s tentacles. It choked me and I was struggling to draw air in.

Marcinus tossed the disk. “It is done, I have transferred its motion back.”

Juke’s right arm twitched, but it did not wake.

“Is there a cure?” I asked.

Marcinus picked up Juke’s left arm and stared at the black stub. “It looks like polluted life.” I nodded. “It’ll have to be sapped and then regrown, but the sapping would have to be done carefully and all of its essential lifeforces preserved. The same thing goes for the regrowing. It cannot be allowed to grow itself back, that will be disastrous. There are pious healers who specialize in things like this, but even they are not perfect. There will be memories lost in the process and some lifeforces may be mis-placed, but it will be better than if the uspec was sapped by another and regrew itself.” Then the Kaiser had been right. Its words had not been said solely to taunt me. If it did indeed sap Juke and give Juke growth, then Juke would regrow itself abnormally. “You could leave it as shun,” Marcinus added. “It is not a death sentence, and all of its thoughts and lifeforces will remain as they are.”

I stared at Marcinus and my gaze fell on the center eye that I had taken from it. I had made it shun by taking that eye. The eye was the only part of an uspec’s body that could not be regrown. Marcinus no longer stroked Juke’s scalp but it left Juke’s head in its lap.

“You said it was the Kaiser of Qatamejo that did this?”

I nodded. My gaze turned to the walls. Over the past days I had done this more than anything else. Stare at walls.

“Katan is its name. Why would it do this?”

“It wanted to know about Chuspecip’s whereabouts.”

There was silence. It was a heavy silence one that was satiated with unspoken words.

“I told it.”

The silence continued. I told it. My own words echoed in my brain. I had told it. I had lied to it about how long it would take Chuspecip to heal, but I had told it where Chuspecip was. I was not worried about giving Chuspecip’s location. Even if I gave them the location of the Isle of Brio, I did not know where in it chuspecip was, and wherever it was, it was in a place that the identity of my line was needed to enter. Just as Nebula was. If I’d thought they could break in and harm my offspring…what? I did not know what. What about when they asked me for more on Chuspecip’s location. When they sent soldiers and found out that they needed my identity? Would I give them my identity, fight with them, to save Juke’s life? What of my offspring’s life? If I gave them my identity then they could reach Nebula.

“We have to break out of here.”

Marcinus remained silent.

“Who was that uspec?”

It faced me. “Manus’s offspring, Marina. It was born a few weeks after you left Katsoaru. Manus had no time for an infant, so I raised it as my own and with my own, when Maricus was born. It grieved Maricus as I did.”

“Can it aid our escape?” I asked.

Marcinus lips pressed together. “I will not ask it to.”

I nodded. I could understand that. “Can you remove the form from these walls?”

Marcinus shook its head. “It needs the baton key.”

I nodded and dozed off thinking of an escape plan. I woke up to find Fajahromo bent to a squat in front of me. There were ten soldiers crammed into the sludge dwelling. Juke sat, alert beside me, and Marcinus beside it. The soldiers had their hands on their cutlasses, ready to pull them out and do battle if we fought. I thought of charging at Fajahromo, of knocking it down and then escaping through the now opened hole in the wall. There were too many soldiers. We wouldn’t get very far without an escape route planned out.

“I am sorry about what happened to your friend, Nebud.” Fajahromo’s face was straight. “Truly, I am.” Its gaze turned to Juke. I felt Juke stiffen beside me. “You are too stubborn, I told you that before, and now you’ve seen the consequences.”

I glared at it.

It tsked. “We are friends again, Nebud, you should not look so severe. The plenum will take care of you for me, and in a few weeks, I will return and give you, and your friends, your freedom. Any prisoners that survive the wars in Lahooni and Chiboga that you want freed, I will free them for you. I’m willing to do so much for you my friend, why are you so unwilling to accept my aid?”

In Fajahromo’s mind, it was already the victor. I heard it in the smug tones of the words that came out of it and saw it in the gleam in its eyes. Its lips were not pulled up in a smile but the smile was contained in its eyes. It was trying to pass on a humble, beseeching, visage, but it failed, because it could not keep the smugness out of its eyes. It truly believed that the plenum had won, or that they would win in a few weeks. If four days had passed since we’d been locked in here, then it had been at least six days since Chuspecip returned. In weeks the plenum would be dead. But what of Juke? And Nebula? For some absurd reason the plenum was set on keeping me whole and alive. But not the others. How much pain would come to the ones I cared for, before Chuspecip was fully healed? I hated not knowing. After all that I had sacrificed to bring the founder back, after everything that we had all given. I sighed. We had to escape. I had to make it back to the hangar. Once I reached the Chiboga hangar I could help. And I wouldn’t have to worry about the plenum ever laying another finger on Juke.

Fajahromo stood. “Shall I bring you back a gift?” it asked condescendingly, as if it was speaking to a child. “If you are good in my absence, I will bring you back a wonderful gift! Farewell, my friend, we will be together soon enough.”

It turned around and walked out. I watched it go. The light that streamed in through the hole was an orange tinted red. It was day again. The daylight dots had emerged. The form was returned to the wall and the three of us were sealed in again. How could we escape if we could not get the key? Would they always take such precautions whenever they removed the form from the walls?

“Forgive me sirga, I failed you.” Juke’s voice was heavy.

I turned to the uspec and gazed into its eyes. “You did not fail me, I failed you.” There was so much more I wanted to say. So much blame which I wanted to take. It was shun now, because of me. My throat was heavy, as if there was a lump in it. “I will give you your hand back.” I swore.

It shook its head. “It cannot be done…”

“The founder can do it.” It was Marcinus who said the words. Even after all this time, after everything that had happened to it, Marcinus still had faith in the founder.

Hope filled Juke’s eyes. I nodded. If Chuspecip could do it, then I would ask. But how? My link to the founder was gone. I no longer felt it inside of me. I shook off the indecision. I would find the founder, even if I had to search every hidden cove in the Isle of Brio. I would find it. Why had it not come to our aid though? How much longer did it need to heal?

The form was removed from the walls again.

This time an imp walked in, carrying a heavy tray and a young uspec walked in behind it. The young uspec paid one of the guards a piece of merit. I assumed that was a bribe. The young uspec was the same one that I had seen the previous night, Marcinus’ junior cognate, Marina. The beginnings of an escape plan began to form in my head. It involved Marina and a great deal of wealth.

Marcinus stood up, walked over to the imp and took the tray from its hands. It placed the tray on the ground and then lifted the imp up in a bear hug. The imp laughed. The imp appeared somewhat familiar.

“Put me down Master,” the imp scolded.

Marcinus lips formed into what, for this version of Marcinus, could be considered as a smile. The corners of its lips crept upwards a miniscule fraction.

“It is good to see you Tammy.”

The imp beamed. It wore a simple tunic and had hair braided as the imp Musa clung to had.

Marcinus turned to the tray and then turned back to Marina. “What is that?”

“It is my meal, senior cognate. I thought you,” the little uspec broke off and its gaze darted briefly towards Juke. “I thought you both needed it more than I do.” It reminded me of my offspring in too many ways. I doubted I would ever look at a young uspec again and not be immediately reminded of my offspring. I thought of it on the Isle of Brio with Fabiana and I hoped that they were both doing well. The time would come when the plenum asked me to lead them to the Isle of Brio. They would want my identity, they would ask me to betray Chuspecip. For Juke. I looked at the uspec seated beside me. It was so sad. It held its dismembered arm to its chest and it just looked at the black stub. Its lips trembled. It tried to look away but its eyes kept going back to the stub.

Marcinus brought the tray to me. “You should eat, Nebud.” It took the covering off the tray. It was simple fare. There was a platter with buns, nama meat, and smoked jeja.

My gaze turned from the food to the uspec who offered it, then to the imp who’d brought it in, and finally to the little uspec who stared warily at me with its center eye. I looked at the wall. How much longer would Nebula be safe? Where was the founder? Six days had passed. Six days. Arexon had held on for six days. How much longer did it have to hold on? How much longer till the plenum Kaiser, Katan, I reminded myself, how much longer till it asked more questions?

Marcinus made a sandwich out of nama and bun and gave it to Juke. It reminded me of how Juke had made sandwiches for me. Back when Juke was still that young uspec in our special compound on the inter-port trail. Back when the uspec had both hands. It took the meal from Marcinus with its single remaining hand, bowed a gratitude to the uspec, and bit into it. A slice of nama fell out of the sandwich. On instinct, Juke reached to grab it with its left hand, but the slice of meat fell on its stub. Juke froze in that position. It just stared down at the slice of meat on its wrist. The brown edge of the meat fell over and touched the black stub, where its palm should have been. Juke continued to stare at it.

The young uspec came forward. It picked the slice of meat off Juke’s wrist and placed it back into its sandwich.

“Gratitude,” Juke croaked. It cleared its throat, but it did not take another bite of the sandwich.

“I will fix it.” I swore to Juke. “I will.”

The uspec’s gaze rose to me. It smiled. “It is nothing sirga,” its voice still croaked, as if there was an obstruction lodged in its throat, preventing it from speaking clearly. “I will adjust. It is nothing.” It tried harder to smile. Its lips tipped further up, but its eyes gave it away, just as Fajahromo’s had earlier. It looked away and shoved the sandwich back into its mouth.

Marcinus made another nama-bun sandwich and handed it to me. I did not want to eat anything that came from the plenum. I didn’t think it was poisoned. If one thing was obvious, it was that the plenum did not want to kill me. Not yet at least. It was my pride. My pride chafed at being fed by the uspecs who’d done this to Juke. But I needed to eat. I hadn’t eaten in days. I needed the strength. I took the sandwich from Marcinus and ate.

“How have you fared in my absence Tammy?” Marcinus asked the imp.

The imp’s eyelids pulled together. “Master Manus was kind enough to give me to master Marina, I have been well.”

Marcinus nodded. It picked at the smoked jeja. “And you Marina?”

The young uspec sat beside Marcinus. It gazed up adoringly at it. “I have missed you, senior cognate, just as pater has missed you.”

Marcinus’ jaw clenched. “Does your pater miss its pater too?”

Marina’s gaze fell. “It did not know that Salin would kill it. It was filial to its progenitor, it would never have handed my sire over to Salin if it had known the uspec’s intention. It is not my pater’s fault that my sire is dead.”

Marcinus scoffed.

I knew they were speaking of Maraci’s death at Salin’s hand. I listened to the conversation and pondered on ways to use Marina to get us out. The plenum soldiers could be bribed, that was the key.

“Please, senior cognate, I beg of you, return to us. We are family,” the uspec’s gaze dropped as it squeaked, “don’t you miss us?”

Marcinus chucked its junior cognate under its chin. “You know how much I care for you, Marina, but I cannot join the plenum. It would be an insult to the founder.”

Marina drew away from Marcinus. “I spit on Chuspecip!” It declared. “It is a weak god! What have you gotten for your faith? The plenum has already decided to join with the wrath of Sada. Once the war in Chiboga is over, which is only a few more days away, at best, they will join their troops with the wrath’s. The plenum chased Chuspecip away like the weakling it is. What do you think the wrath and the plenum together will do to Chuspecip? Please senior cognate, I beg of you, return to your family.”

Marcinus stared impassively at Marina.

“When did the plenum decide?” I asked.

The young uspec stared daggers at me. It may have brought us food, but it did it for its senior cognate, not for me. I found that interesting. It spat on the ground by my feet. “I do not speak to you, last brio.” I laughed at its insult and stared at the bubbles on the spittle by my feet. Such vigor. I missed Nebula.

“If you cannot speak to Nebud without being rude, then you should leave.” Marcinus’ voice was calm. It looked evenly at Marina, even when the uspec pouted and muttered that I was the source of all of Marcinus’ misfortunes. It wasn’t wrong.

“Fine,” it spat out. “They decided this morning and they sent the wrath’s envoy back with their decision and with sworn oaths of their intentions. It has been sworn with their identity now. It cannot be undone.” The young uspec said all of this without looking at me.

“I am displeased Marina,” Marcinus voice was still level. “I do not remember you being so hostile and rude.”

Marina’s gaze fell to the floor. “If not for the last brio you would not be here.” It sulked. “That’s what pater says. Pater says that you both loved each other and were inseparable until the last brio came to Katsoaru. Then it set the both of you against each other. Pater says that my sire died because of the last brio.”

It did not surprise me that Manus would lie to its offspring. It was obvious that Marcinus and Marina were close, of course Manus would use that closeness to turn the uspec against me. It would never willingly come to my aid. I clenched my jaw. Perhaps our best option was to wait until Katan sent for me. It would only have a few soldiers come to get me. If we could overpower them and then take their helmets. Then maybe we could march right out of the camp. I’d have to do something about my feathers though. I smiled. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was the best we could do for now. I hated the idea of waiting and I could not help but wonder how long we’d have to wait.

It turned out that the wait time was much shorter than I’d expected.

The form was removed from the wall around our dwelling and four plenum soldiers marched in. One of those soldiers was an imp. It seemed the plenum was following Arexon’s lead in using imp soldiers. At first, I praised my luck, then I cursed it. It was too soon. I hadn’t had time to plan with Marcinus and Juke. Hopefully they would take their lead from me. I couldn’t answer any more plenum questions and I couldn’t let harm come to Juke. I jumped to my feet. Marcinus and Juke did the same. One of the plenum soldiers carried a baton that looked very similar to the one that had been used to remove the form from the wall. Was that they key?

I jumped at the uspec with the baton, and knocked it so soundly that it fell to the floor. Its helmet came off.

I stepped back.

The uspec I’d felled stared dazedly at me. It blinked and then it smiled. “I hadn’t expected gratitude, sirga, but I also hadn’t expected to get punched for coming to break you out.”

I smiled. It was Gamble who’d spoken. Gamble who I’d knocked down.

I turned around.

Matiu, Matina and Chike were the three other ‘plenum soldiers’ who’d accompanied Gamble. They’d all taken off their helmets.

I grinned. Then I bent and stretched out my hand to help Gamble up. It grasped that arm smiling madly. Then it pulled back and bowed. Its gaze turned to Marina and the imp Tammy. It measured them up. “Can we speak freely sirga?”

“This is my junior cognate and my imp. They brought us this food. They are loyal to me. You can speak freely.” Marcinus said.

Gamble nodded and grinned. It turned its attention back to me. “Forgive us for being so late, sirga, it took some time to find Matina in the chaos of the battle. Once we found it, we had to find you and then plan an extrication strategy.” Gamble explained.

I turned around and nodded at the others.

“Juke, you lucky bastard! Matina told us about the battle on the alley. Why did the two of you get the honor of defending our imperial when I was forced back into Chiboga?” Gamble grinned as it made its way around me. Then it stopped short. “Juke,” this time, its tone was less animated. “What happened?”

Juke held the black stub up. It shrugged. “I was careless in a fight.” It said. I frowned at that. “It’s just my luck that the uspec had to have a sword poisoned with polluted life.” It grinned at Gamble. “How many plenum bastards have you killed? Don’t think because I’m down a hand it’ll be easier for you to win our bet.”

“Juke…” I called out.

The uspec glanced at me and it pleaded with its eyes for me to say nothing. Why? Was this the story it wanted told about its stub? I could not understand why it would want to lie. But I acquiesced and I said nothing to contradict it.

“What is the escape plan?”

“We have two of the general’s flying squads without appearance, outside. One of them has a pious one skilled with appearance. It will give you the appearance of plenum soldiers we killed and they will escort us out. It will all go smoothly sirga.” Matiu assured.

It was a better escape plan than any I could have come up with. I was grateful, and relieved.

“I’ll get the pious one,” Matina said, “then we can return the form to the walls while it works.”

Matina moved towards the hole in the wall at the same time that Marina did.

I did not think anything of it, until I heard in a shrill, child’s voice. “Flare the appearance identifiers! They’re trying to escape!” It was Marina. It ran out of the dwelling and yelled at the top of its voice. “Flare the appearance identifiers! The last brio is trying to escape!”

All hell broke loose after that.

Oh shit. I knew it won't be that easy. Marcinus should keep marina's mouth shut by cutting its head for betraying it.
Thank you Obehid

Oh, where is Arexon when you need him?!

Shi... I knew that stupid child would talk. How stupid could Marcinus and Nebud have been not to somehow incapacitate the child, nothing to cause harm.
I try to imagine, and fail to, what will come next.
Unbelievable.
Like someone above me said, when is Arexon when you need him.

What's keeping the founder tho??

Wonderful story

How difficult is it to understand that Marina is loyal to its pater and hates Nebud? Why didn't Marcinus make it unconscious or something?

Thanks for the update obehid, it's been long since I last commented but it is well, I think Marcinus is a betrayer

Part 13
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“Flare the appearance identifiers!”

My eyes widened. There was a brief moment where everything stopped, and the moment seemed to stretch out into an eternity. Everything was still. Everyone was silent. My eyes widened, my heart thudded, and my gaze flew first to the uspec who’d betrayed us, and then to Marcinus, the uspec’s cognate. Marcinus’ hands stretched out, as if to reach for Marina, but the young uspec was already gone. It had dashed out of the dwelling. My teeth pressed together and my eyes continued their perusal. Juke’s smile fell. Matina paled. Chike drew in a loud breath. Matiu’s hand fisted around the hilt of its sword.

“The last brio is trying to escape!”

“Sirga!” Matiu was the first to snap out of its shock. “Quick sirga, we must alter your appearance!” It ran towards me and wrapped its hands around my upper arms. It began moving and by its actions I saw that it meant to physically drag me from the room. I extricated myself from its grasp in time to step out of the dwelling without its skin against mine.

It was already too late.

The appearance identifiers had been flared.

Arexon’s invisible flying squads were now pink forms with aerosols stuck to their skin.

An alarm sounded. It sounded like a mixture between a horn, a trumpet and a bell. Uspecs came pouring in. One of the pink forms came towards me. It stretched its hand towards me, but I pulled away.

“I can still give you the appearance of a plenum soldier, sirga,” the pink form said. This had to be the pious one who’d come to change our appearances. “You can still leave here. The general has commanded your return.”

I shook my head. It was already too late. The pious one could remove my appearance and I could sneak past, but if that happened, then I would be leaving alone. We did not have the time for everyone’s appearance to be changed. Plenum soldiers had already rushed out of their dwellings. They were already armed and racing towards us. I could not leave without the rest of my honoraria, without the uspecs who’d risked so much to try to save me. I would not do it.

The plenum soldiers reached us.

The pink forms pulled out their swords and began fighting. This was Arexon’s flying squad. Some had come prepared with bows and arrows. Marcinus emerged from the dwelling. It took a bow and quiver from one of the pink forms and it began firing arrows into the space.

“We will fight our way out!” Marcinus declared.

Several other pink forms flapped their wings, pulled pink bows, and fired pink arrows.

Two plenum soldiers converged on me. Matiu cut them both down before they could reach me. I pulled out their swords.

Juke was behind me. Even now, with its left hand gone, it was still at my back, eager to protect me. I would fix that hand. I swore it by every Chu that existed. I had to win this battle, we had to fight free of the plenum’s camp, because I had to get Juke back to the founder, I had to beg the founder to heal Juke.

I turned around and held both swords up. Juke’s eyes stared at those two swords and its gaze dropped. I realized that by holding both swords up I had reminded it of how it used to fight, with two cutlasses. It had lost a hand, it could not do that anymore.

“I will fix it.” I swore to the uspec.

It smiled at me. “I know you will sirga.” It took one of the swords from my hands. “As long as I can hold a sword, I will fight alongside you.”

I gripped the other sword in my hand and we moved forward.

More plenum soldiers came running in with their swords in hand.

I cut one down and parried with another. The uspec I fought against had bulk and a height to match mine. It swung with skill and strength. I dodged a blow to my right side, stepped back to lure the uspec in closer and then I struck it in the side with my empty fist. It had not expected that. It stabbed in the direction that I had attacked it, leaving its other side open, and I stuck my sword into its side.

We were encircled. There were at least six plenum soldiers for each uspec we had. For each plenum soldier we killed more ran in. It was like a tide of soldiers. They never stopped coming. I fought hard. I was weak from lack of food, and weak from the plenum’s torture, but I fought as hard as I could. I dodged attacks that came at me and swung my blade at every enemy I saw. It was easy to distinguish the plenum soldiers from ours. I knew every uspec in my honoraria, and the soldiers in the flying squad who I didn’t know, were coated pink with the aerosols from the appearance identifiers. Any strange green face that appeared in front of me was one that I immediately cut down. Five more plenum soldiers ran towards me. Pink arrows shot four of them down before they could reach me. The last I took care of myself. A green form flew above the bodies, pulling the arrows out of them as it moved. It was Matina. The uspec retrieved the arrows and then soared before any of the uspecs on the ground could attack it. More plenum soldiers came towards me and I pushed their blades with mine. The sounds of metal clanging echoed. I was starting to lose count of all the times that I had gone against plenum soldiers.

I stabbed my sword into the eye of a mejo and took a deep gash in my side from a soaru who was killed by Chike. Juke beheaded an uspec without armor and then hovered in the air and thrust its sword into a boga’s exposed eye. Even with one hand Juke fought savagely. Matiu threw a dagger into an uspec’s chest, one who’d been flying towards it. That uspec dropped and two more converged on Matiu.

A cyan metal flashed by my neck, so close that it scraped against my neck scales. I tilted my head to the side and then swung out with my tail. I paralyzed the uspec with my venom and then I ended its life with a sword to its heart. Soaru uspecs rose tentacles at Gamble. The uspec twirled with its sword stretched out before it. It spun and as it did, tentacles fell. Then it leapt from one foot into the air, flew over the heads of its attackers, somersaulted, and then dove back towards them with its sword outstretched. It threw a cyan scale at one soldier’s neck. The hooni scale was the sharpest weapon that existed. It cut through the soldier’s armor and lodged itself in the uspec’s throat. Gamble cut through another soaru attacker while Juke finished off the last. They both smiled at each other and then turned to continue fighting.

I watched this out of the corner of my side eyes while I parried with more plenum soldiers.

Arrows continued to fly.

Marcinus led Arexon’s flying squads. They shot their arrows and then stabbed their bows at uspecs who sought to attack them in flight.

We were making our way towards the inner gates, the ones that separated this part of the plenum’s camp from the outer parts, the area with the neat rows of single-floor sludge dwellings.

We continued to fight. A pink form fell. Red liquid flowed over the pink aerosols on its body. Blood. The uspec was dead.

We pushed forward.

Juke and Gamble were surrounded by seven plenum soldiers. Five on foot, two in the air. Four uspecs encircled me before I could reach them. Four swords darted out at me all at the same time. I must have picked up something from watching Juke, Gamble and Marcinus’ flight fighting, because I immediately flapped my wings. Two swords pierced into my ailerons and were lodged there. I wasn’t able to escape, but I had removed some of their weapons. I stabbed at one uspec’s chest before it could pull its weapon out. Two of them were kutes. Tails came towards me. I slashed the tails off at their tips. A sword sliced at my side. I turned around and cut off the arm of the uspec who’d stabbed me. A pink arrow fired into one of the kute soldiers. I killed the other.

We continued moving towards the gate.

My chest swelled with hope when we got close enough that I could see the gates.

A line of iriras blocked our path.

I was suddenly incredibly grateful for emotion blockers. If I could not reach the uspecs’ emotions, then these iriras could not either. They pulled out their swords and advanced on us. More foot soldiers poured in from the gates, running behind the line of iriras.

The plenum’s alarm kept sounding.

Black arrows fired into the sky. Several pink forms spun in the air, like a spool of thread being unwound. They spun so quickly that I would have gone dizzy if I’d stared. There were iriras charging at me though, fighting. I did not have the time to focus on the spinning of Arexon’s flying squad. But the black arrows fell. They struck the spinning pink forms and fell harmlessly to the cloud grounds. Those pink forms stopped spinning and started firing arrows back. Some of the arrows they fired were black. I could not even begin to imagine how the spinning flying squad soldiers had managed to seize some the black arrows fired by the plenum soldiers and then deflect the rest. I was baffled by their skill.

But we were outnumbered. It was the heart of the plenum’s camp. They had soldiers all around. It did not matter how many we fought, more came.

“Sirga!”

I turned around.

Another troop of iriras ran towards us. This troop was led by an irira of all five spectrums. Katan. It held its dagger in one hand and a sword in the other. That dagger was the same one that it had sliced off Juke’s fingers with. That was the dagger poisoned with polluted lust.

Juke froze.

I stepped back and interrupted a sword that had been aimed at Juke’s head. I struck the sword away with mine and then stabbed the wielder in its heart.

Juke still wasn’t moving.

I stared into the uspec’s face. Its eyes were wide. Its gaze was fixed on Katan as if it had been enchanted by the uspec. Its lips parted.

“Juke!” I yelled at the uspec.

Gamble threw its sword at an uspec who’d approached Juke from the other side.

Juke still wasn’t moving.

The plenum soldiers sought to take advantage of Gamble’s weaponless state. Six of them attacked it at once. It did its best dodging them, but it needed help. I threw my sword at one of the uspec’s armored heads. The sword bit through the armor and felled the uspec. Gamble retrieved the sword from the metal and parried.

“Sirga!” This yell was in Matiu’s voice. “Behind you!”

I had turned my back on Katan and the iriras it approached with. I heard the wisp of a sword tearing through air towards me.

Juke moved.

It shoved me to the side and deflected the sword with its own.

Blades reached for me.

I grabbed one by the sharp edge and pried it from its owner’s hand. I deflected more blades as I rose.

The uspec I’d taken the sword from reached for the horns on its head. It tried to stab me with those horns and I cut it down instead. The iriras did not wear armor as the foot soldiers did.

I parried a blade and then turned around.

My eyes widened.

I completed my turn and brought an uspec down. Two more took its place.

I turned back around to confirm what I had seen before.

An uspec came at me. I shoved my sword into its neck before its soaru tentacles could latch onto my arm.

Arrows felled uspecs who I hadn’t seen, approaching me from behind.

It didn’t matter anymore. I wasn’t concentrated on the uspecs behind me, or the uspecs attacking me. There was only one uspec who had my focus, the uspec Juke was fighting with.

Katan.

I darted into the air and two plenum soldiers followed me. They attacked me in the air. I tried to parry as I had seen so many other fighting soldiers do, but I could not. I could not fly and fight at the same time. I just did not have the skill. An uspec’s blade dug into my side.

Gamble stabbed the uspec in the back before it could push its sword deeper into me.

I dropped back to the ground.

An uspec came at me and I shoved it aside with my free hand.

I ran towards Juke.

The uspec was holding its own in its fight against Katan.

Another irira soldier got in my way before I could reach them. It forced me to parry. Our swords clashed. It dug a horn out of its head and sent its tail towards me. I dug a scale out of my neck and tossed it at the uspec’s exposed neck. The uspec fell.

I was finally beside Juke.

Katan swept forward with its tentacles. It latched onto Juke’s legs and forced the uspec to its knees. I struck out with my sword, but there was an irira soldier’s blade to deflect mine before I could lance Katan’s chest.

I slammed my elbow into the soldier’s head and then shoved my sword into its neck.

Juke cut off Katan’s tentacles.

Katan stabbed its poisoned dagger into Juke’s right arm, the one that still had the hand attached to it.

Juke’s eyes widened.

I ran towards it.

Katan thrust its sword into Juke’s heart.

A blade slashed at my arm. I did not even feel it.

Katan pulled its sword out.

Two uspecs appeared before me. They swung their swords in my direction. I took both of their heads off in a single swing.

Juke fell.

My sword slipped out of my grasp.

Blood pooled in the uspec’s mouth.

I dropped to my knees by Juke.

It coughed the blood out.

“No.” I pulled the uspec into my arms. “No. You must live Juke.” I couldn’t tell if I was whispering or shouting. “You must live. I will fix your hand.” I said. “You must live! You must live!” Its head turned to me and its eyes locked on mine. It smiled. Its blood red lips parted slightly, as if it wished to speak, and then those lips pulled back together. Its gaze fell away. “No!” Liquid drops trailed down my face. I did not know what they were or where they came from. But I felt them crawling down my face.

Juke was no longer breathing.

A sharp pain tore through my chest.

Liquid drops kept crawling on my face. I felt them on my cheeks and tasted salt in my mouth. Pink drops fell onto Juke’s lifeless chest.

A ringing sound filled my ears. It was as if a bell was being run in my ear canals. I heard nothing but that sound and felt nothing but the pain in my chest and saw nothing but Juke’s body in my arms.

It had died with its eyes open and a smile on its face.

It took me a while to register the heavy weight on my back.

As soon as I registered that weight, other things became evident. My ears cleared and I heard the ringing of swords in battle. I heard several voices calling out “sirga” one called “Nebud” and another called “Matina”. The weight on my back had texture to it. It was warm.

“Sirga,” a melodic voice chimed in my ear.

Matina. The uspec’s arms were folded around my body as if to protect me.

My gaze turned back to Juke’s smiling face.

I felt as if my heart was ripping as I released my hold on the uspec and placed it gently back onto the ground. There had to be arrows in me, arrows shooting into my chest and ripping at the flesh within. Because the pain I felt could not be imagined, it had to be real. The internal rips that formed and grew within me had to have been caused by something.

Juke was dead.

I howled.

I pushed myself up.

Matina rolled off me.

The uspec had a wound on its back. The wound was a rip, a black rip. Matiu was dueling with Katan behind me. I glanced at Matina’s wound and the dagger in Katan’s hand and I knew that Katan had stabbed Matina with its poisoned dagger. Had Katan meant to stab me? Was that why Matina had been spread over me? Had it shielded my back with its own?

I picked up the closest sword to Juke’s body and shoved Matiu out of my way.

Katan thrust its poisoned dagger forward. I dodged it.

Ten iriras fell on Matiu, five hovered in the air above it.

There were more soldiers surrounding us than there’d been before.

Two other plenum Kaisers had joined the battle and with the Kaisers more irira soldiers, and much more plenum soldiers. Only two pink forms flew in the air. There was no green form flying. Had Marcinus fallen too? Gamble hovered in the air, surrounded by five plenum soldiers, five more hovered above it and five stood below. It parried their blades, but they outnumbered it, they deflected its blows.

A flying pink form fell.

More black arrows flew into the sky and the last flying pink form fell.

Matina wheezed on the floor beside Marcinus’ body. Soldiers surrounded it.

“Put the sword down and I will let the rest of your honoraria live.” Katan said.

A young uspec walked up to Katan and stood by its side. I recognized it, it was the uspec that had betrayed us. Marina, Marcinus’ junior cognate. It stared daggers at me. Where was Marcinus?

“Put the sword down, heir of Calam.”

I stared into Katan’s face. It did not smile. There was only calm acceptance in its gaze.

My eyes darted to Juke’s corpse.

I roared. The sound that emerged from my throat was not uspec. It was base and guttural.

Juke’s smile had been so wide. When it smiled the corners of its lips touched its outer eyes. It was as if its eyes had positioned themselves thusly, so that whenever it smiled its lips met its eyes. The eyes at the helm of the lip corners completed that smile. The smile on Juke’s corpse was not a smile like that. It was not wide. It was not like the grins that Juke gave me which brought me mirth.

The sound that came out of me just kept coming. It poured out of me. It scratched at my throat as it emerged from me. It burned at my insides and heated my chest.

“I say we should all subscribe to the Fabricates theory! Let us fight as if in creation of an epic. Fight like legends I say!”

Juke’s voice filled my head. I saw its face as the young uspec with only the single outer eye and then as the youth, as the brawler who’d welcomed me back into our paradise. As the young uspec who’d played with my offspring and as the brawler who’d beaten me in a spar with its double swords.

The sound that came out of me did not end.

It was too painful to think of Juke. It was too painful to think of this battle and the loss that we’d taken. It was too painful to think of the plenum and the treasure they’d stolen from me. It was all too painful. I wanted to forget. I needed the pain to go away. But the pain was tied to the memories. As I continued to yell, the memories left me. One after the other, they fleeted away. The sounds came from my mouth and the memories left with them, carried on the tide of anguish that burned through my chest and the despair that scratched at my throat. The memories mixed with the sounds and were spewed out from my mouth.

I forgot about the battle. I forgot about the torture. I forgot about the plenum. I forgot about places. Hakute. The slum. The uspecs who’d shared my early life with me. The noble who’d taken me away. The pits of Hakute. The pious one who’d lied about befriending me. Chiboga. The Kaiser I’d killed. Katsoaru the power-hungry imperial I’d served. Damejo. The cold. Nefastu. Lahooni. The inter-port trail. The honoraria who’d betrayed me. So much betrayal. I forgot it all. I forgot Auxa’s betrayal. I forgot Marina’s. I thought of how the plenum got family to turn against each other and even that I forgot. The people were the last to go. Fajahromo, my sworn enemy. My loyal honoraria. Matina, the artist, who’d taken a blade meant for me. Matiu who rushed to protect me. Gamble, suspended in the air. Fabiana. Marcinus. Arexon. Musa. Memories of a young Lahooni noble clung stubbornly to me, like suckers stuck to my heart. But my desire to be free of the pain was too great. I let Juke and the memories of it go. My offspring was the hardest. Little Nebula, but it had to go too.

Everything had to go.

The people, the burdens, the destinies, the lives, twists and twists of fate, always endlessly woven together and intricately connected to me, sown into the fiber of my being. By letting them go, I freed myself. I broke myself and healed myself. I forgot myself.

An uspec stared at me.

I had never seen it before.

“Put the sword down, Nebud.”

I frowned. Nebud? Who was this Nebud? Who was this uspec who stared so intently at me? Why did it have a sword pointed at me? Why did I have a sword in my hand?

There was something left in me. A smoldering ember of self. I had no identity, but I had that thing. That voice, a stream of words, pushing past my subconscious waiting to be heard. Eager to be heard. I did not know if I ought to stifle it. But it was strong. It burst forth from somewhere inside me and seeped into every nerve of my being.

I want you to know it so deeply that you may forget everything else, you could even forget your own name, but you will never forget who you belong to.

The words went away, just as everything else in me had. I was empty. I had no recognition. But I did know one thing.

I knew who I belonged to.

Off with his head!!! Full circle, as his pater killed Marcinus offspring with lust... hope he gets his ( Where is Arexon when you need him)

Whenever Nebud is reseting chuspecip is always around the corner.

obehiD:


Iwant you to know it so deeply that you may forget everything else, you could even forget your own name, but you will never forget who you belong to.[/i]

The words went away, just as everything else in me had. I was empty. I had no recognition. But I did know one thing.

I knew who I belonged to.

Chuspecip Is back!!!!!!!! ��
Ahh finally, ��
After our Nebud has done fasting and praying, the spirit of chu is finally upon him,

That Marina suppose collect oo,,
And jukes death *sobbing* mehn !! I almost watched it as I was reading,,, the smiling part touch me die ,,,

Chaiii and oga fahjarom no dey for complex as all the hell the break loose, him for collect him own share too

Who does he belong to? The plenum or Chuscecip?

Last fight!!!

But obehiD you nor try. I can forgive you for all the other deaths but Juke...haba mana! Juke has gone through a lot. Do well to keep Matina safe Biko.