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Fabiana stopped beside me. “Did you really have me do that out of spite?” Its voice was low, trembling, weak. I eyed the uspec. For a second, I thought about ending its life. It had too much sympathy for imps, I feared that it would betray me. The thought chilled me. I cleared my throat and forced it out of my mind.

“No. We need a way into Permafrost. I had you take their appearance so that you can transfer it to us.”

Its eyes widened and then its head lifted and it smiled. I blinked. I felt no joy or happiness at Fabiana’s smile, just a momentary flash of surprise, the surprise waned, leaving me feeling just as empty as I had before.

“That is smart sirga. But one of the imps was being sapped by the samu, we will not be able to infiltrate with that imp’s appearance. It would be too suspicious.”

I nodded. I’d expected only the sapping imps appearance, and with that I would have snuck in and hid until I had the opportunity to strike, but the presence of the imps who’d stayed behind, attempting to heal it, gave two more appearances to use. “if only we had a bit of Musa’s appearance,” I mused.

Gamble cleared its throat. “I do. Why?”

I turned from Fabiana to the uspec. How did it have Musa’s appearance? It shrugged and then looked down at the ground. “Juke and I made a game out of stealing bits of people’s appearances without them knowing. It had stolen quite a bit of yours too, sirga.”

For a brief moment my chest tightened with grief and my heart swelled with pride. Juke had been so mischievous. But then the emotions faded, pulled at by the cursed road and willingly given by me. Emotions were nothing but a distraction to me now. If I allowed myself to feel, to really feel…I shivered at the thought. Just considering emotions brought back flashes of green body parts and a severed head placed at the base of a hail tree.

“Fabiana, do you have enough spectral energy to change our identities to imps?”

It nodded at me. There was a gleam in its eyes. I couldn’t interpret it. Was it hope? Joy? Suppressed tears? Whatever it was, I could not place it and it felt odd to gaze on it on the uspec’s face.

Clouds appeared around us. They surrounded us, four patches of red clouds for four uspecs. Once the red surrounded me, I closed my eyes and waited for pain that didn’t come. I remembered the soaru magic being painful, but I felt no pain this time. There were minor nuisances, pinches against my skin, light prods, inconveniences, but nothing that escalated to the point of pain. I thought of Nebula and kept its image in my head. I would die before I let anyone lay a hand on it. The image of a green head placed against a tree stirred something in me, something that thinking of Nebula had allowed slip. I pushed all the feelings and thoughts away. I knew what had to be done.

The clouds went away and I was a green imp in a heated cloak. Fabiana sent Matina and Gamble after the clothes that the imps had been wearing. I watched the two uspec-imps scurrying away as Fabiana approached me, that gleam still sparkling in its eyes. Matina and Gamble disappeared behind a drift of fogs.

“Which imp’s appearance should I give you?”

“The sapped one.”

It nodded. I shrugged of my heated cloak, giving Fabiana skin-to-skin contact with me. I only asked for the imp’s appearance, it was the only touch of pansophy I wanted, but I felt Fabiana trying to push thoughts into my head. I ignored it and focused on the pelting of the uncouth hail against my naked imp form. I was a male imp, we all were. The imp appearances we had belonged to male imps. Fabiana worked silently, even after the two younger ones returned with the clothes. They were stained with sludge. Matina nervously brushed away at the sludge stains on the clothing.

Fabiana finished with me and moved over to Gamble.

“You should take Musa’s appearance, Fabiana, you are the one most likely to pull it off.”

It nodded and went to work on transferring another imp appearance to Gamble. The clothing were all the same. Black trousers, black shirts, all made of leather, with black boots. I took off everything else I had on and stared at my brown skin. This shade was different from Musa’s, brown in a way that was closer to tan than black. I cared little for imp skins and imp clothes, but I found a pair that most closely fit, and put it on silently.

“We will wait until we come across a group of scouting imps then we will join them. The key to Permafrost is a tune that the imps whistle or sing. I do not know it, so we cannot gain entry ourselves…”

Matina cleared its throat. “I may know it.” Its voice was unsteady. It was not subject to Fabiana’s pansophy. I could not help but notice the way that its arms shook. “I’ve learnt many songs from your imps sirga.”

“Sing the ones you know, and I will tell you if you have the right tune.”

It did. One imp song after the other. I shook my head and it kept going. How could one brain hold so many different songs and tunes? Fabiana concluded its work on Matina and began to change its own appearance to match Musa’s. It must have taken the appearance from Gamble when it used its pansophy on it. I jumped.

“That’s it!”

Matina stopped singing and smiled at me.

My emotions slipped again. I felt, for a moment, pride, joy, happiness that Matina was the artist I had scolded it so many times for being. Its artist ear and artist tongue were going to give us smooth sailing into Permafrost, which would make our tale even more believable. Only imps were meant to know of this tune, only imps ought to have access. I smiled. We were going to waltz into that blasted headquarters and they weren’t even going to know they’d been invaded until the deed was done. The emotions started to slip and I let them. I let them go, I gifted them to the curse of Nefastu.

“Did you sap their thoughts too?” I asked.

Fabiana nodded.

“Then brief us on our identities.”

“Let me just give you the memories I sapped instead.” It countered.

I acquiesced, that was better. “We are going to walk right in, and they are going to welcome us with open arms.”

Gamble cheered. “Then we will burn that place to the ground.”

Its sentiments echoed mine exactly. I felt nothing but the slightest glimmer of appreciation. I jerked my head towards the uspec in the form of the imp and that gesture seemed to be enough. Fabiana touched me and an imp’s memories filled my head. I was named Sri, my ‘mother’ was a respected elder in the wrath, that was why they’d worked so hard to save me. Was that why they’d felt the need to take an uspec life in retribution? I pushed the thought away. I was not newly dead, but I had been sapped by my last owner. I’d only regrown from the sapping a year ago. My mother and I had died together, our umani lives ending at the same time. I had lust, I had offended my last master by refusing to make lust for it. I found the act of making lust in public revolting, especially when my mother was one of many slaves who attended to the master during the lust binge. Gamble’s name was Chang and Matina’s Li. They were older fighters in the wrath. I admired them. I was not supposed to have gone on this mission with them but I had snuck out before mother could stop me.

I cleared my throat. “Musa saved me,” I said, “it…” I cleared my throat again, “he found me and saved me.”

Fabiana, now appearing as Musa, smiled at me. “It was my duty and my pleasure. I came bearing urgent news, Chuspecip has returned. The invasion plan is in peril. We should abandon it before things get worse. This invasion was never the purpose of the wrath. It was not why I created it.” I grunted at Fabiana’s impersonation of Musa’s voice. It was good.

My voice was different, it sounded young and high pitched. I wondered if Fabiana had transferred the imp’s sound to me as well. “You will insist on being led to my offspring and you will take Li and Chang with you.” I turned to Gamble-Chang, “Once you have the location were Matiu and Nebula are being held, you will come and find me in the prayer coves. Remove your appearance and come to me. You should be prepared to teleport us to the location. As soon as you come, I will destroy the effigy and we will have to leave at once.”

Chang bowed.

“Keep Li with you.”

Musa nodded.

Li, Chang, Musa. Having the imp’s memory made it so much easier to stay in character. He’s not its. Li, Chang, Musa.

Li, Chang and I were dressed in the clothes we’d left Permafrost in. Musa wore Fabiana’s cloak, but we had nothing better, and I doubted it would be questioned. I picked up my belt and asked Fabiana, no Musa, to remove its appearance. Li and Chang did the same. Musa kept Fabiana’s belt but changed its appearance incase any of the imps remembered seeing it.

“No fear.” I stared pointedly at Li. “No hesitation, we are exactly the imps we say we are. Give me a few samus.” Musa dug into Fabiana’s belt and pulled out five of the creatures. I placed them into a pouch on my invisible belt. “Do not hesitate to release the samus if you need to.” This time I stared at Musa.

Then I took a deep breath and released it. “Take us home, Li.”

Li sang. It was strange to hear Li sing when I knew that the man didn’t actually have a melodious bone in his body. I remembered teasing Li about how bad his singing was. Li. Bad singing. “Don’t sing when we get in, Li.” Li nodded, without breaking its tune.

The ground underneath us softened and we were pulled into the hideout, a cave with hard sludge walls and soft sludge ground. We’d entered Permafrost. Li and Chang led the way down the cave, I walked behind them, and Musa brought up the rear.

Part 18
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“Nebula!” I screamed till my throat got hoarse. I forced the breath out of my lungs and felt it scratching against my throat, clawing itself out, and heard it echoed against the bitter path. Pellets of uncouth hail took the sound from my lips and bounced it around, but there was no response. Still I kept screaming, until the sound that came out of my lips was nothing more than wheezes of air devoid of words and structure.

I fell to my knees.

There was nothing, no one, just the constant stream of uncouth hail and drifting fogs. I heard footsteps behind me, but none of them approached me. They stayed back. I just stayed on my knees, broken. They’d taken my offspring. The imps from the wrath. They’d somehow found a way to manipulate fogs, or create fogs that did not take away life, or whatever it was that they’d done and they’d used it as a cover to kidnap my offspring. My innocent offspring who’d spent the night laughing. I looked out at the bleak place. A boulder of hail slammed into my face like a punch from the ether. It snapped my head to the side, forcing my gaze towards the single splash of color in the red environs. It was a hail tree, gleaming white. I looked away.

One fist following the other, I immersed my hands into the sludge ground of Nefastu, and pushed myself up, to my feet. I looked out into the scenery of falling hail and drifting fogs and felt a fire in my throat. It was sore from all my screaming. I turned around and stared at the faces gazing despondently back at me. Matina and Gamble carried two packs, one on each shoulder. Matina looked down, its feet shifted uncertainly and it fingers were tightened around its mbira. Gamble looked at me. Its lips drooped. It held its sword out in front of it, but it was too late. It was already too late. Fabiana caught my gaze and then looked away. Its hands tightened into fists by its side and then it turned back to face me. There was misery in the gaze it fixed on me. Pain that I was sure echoed the one in my eyes.

“We will get it back, sirga.” It swore. “If we have to burn Permafrost to the ground, we will get Ula back.”

I nodded. But I could not speak. My throat was too sore. I just clenched my jaw and jerked my head to the side. I pushed down my fears for Nebula’s safety, shoved it so far down that I convinced myself it didn’t exist. A cold flood of determination rose instead to take its place. Fabiana was right about one thing, Permafrost was going to burn to the ground, and every imp in that place would face my wrath if they so much as laid a finger on my offspring. I was just about to march ahead, when I heard a gasp. I turned to find Gamble pointing in the direction of the hail tree. I squinted, but I could not see what caused Gamble’s alarm. The uspec broke off at a trot and I found myself jogging behind it. It stopped a few feet in front of me and began digging into the ground.

I stopped short when I saw what it excavated. It was an uspec hand. A green hand. The blood on the wrist where it had been cut off was still fresh, fresh enough to show that it had been recently severed.

“Sirga!”

I turned to Matina. It pointed away from the hand towards another spot of green peeking out of an icy hail ground. I walked towards it. My stomach churned as I approached, and a sick feeling twisted in my gut. Matina dug out another body part with its sword. A green arm, the full arm this time, with the hand attached to it, severed at the shoulder with blood as fresh as that on the hand that Matina had found. The arm was large and muscular. Not the arm of a child. Nebula was not the only uspec who’d disappeared. Marcinus and Matiu had been taken as well. Matina dropped the hand and scurried away from it. Its eyes widened. It crawled away from me and threw up onto a patch of sludge close to the severed arm.

I walked only a little bit further and I saw more body parts. The rest of the green arm that the hand had been cut off from. Two sets of uspec ailerons. A leg with the feet pointing towards the hail tree. Bile rose from the pits of my stomach, up my already burning throat. I kept going and stumbled on the other severed leg. Then there was a chest. I was only a few feet away from the hail tree now, from the glow of that white stem.

My feet stopped moving. Perhaps I’d seen something, an image, a body part that cautioned against further exploration. Whatever it was glued my eyes shut on instinct. Darkness pervaded my senses. Darkness and overwhelming dread that made my skin crawl. Icy tendrils scraped against my spine. Uncouth hail pounded me with vigor. Small pellets, boulder pellets, the spartan fine pellet, they caroused my skin and drummed against the lightest parts of my body’s covering. Something was wrong. Something missing.

I heard trumpets. A group of them. The call of a herd of smoke bears. It wasn’t till that moment, with that sound tearing through the silence, that I realized that someone else was missing. Marc. They’d taken my smoke bear. My fingers dug into my palm and my teeth ground against each other. My eyes stayed shut. Had they dismembered Marc as they had this uspec?

I forced my eyes open and walked closer towards the base of that hail tree.

Soaru tentacles were spread from it like cyan roots of a pale white tree. I dropped to my knees in front of a severed head.

Marcinus’ blessed eye stared back at me.

Over the head, “Beware the wrath of Sada,” was written in blood. And below it, “for every imp life you end with the samu, we end one of yours with our blade.”

It was as if I couldn’t comprehend it. I blinked and my eyes took in the soaru tentacles and Marcinus’ severed head resting at the base of the hail tree, but I couldn’t really see it. I didn’t understand it. Why would they dismember an uspec? It made no sense. How could Marcinus be dead? I didn’t understand. How many imps would it take to kill a fighter like Marcinus? I shook my head. An uspec knelt to my right, another to my left. Matina threw up. It wretched for so long and so loudly that I would have been surprised if it had anything left in its stomach after it was done.

I realized, as I stared at Marcinus’ head resting on the base of the hail tree, that there was a point beyond rage. A point beyond grief and pain. A point beyond even fear for one’s own offspring. I reached that point then. I placed my hand against the blood letters that the imps’ had written onto the stem of the hail tree, and used that as a hold to hoist myself to my feet. Marcinus was dead. Juke was dead. Nebula, Marc and Matiu were captured. Something stirred in me, a distant twinge in my chest, a slight pang of pain. Whatever it was I did not think on it, or dwell on it.

“Fabiana, come with me. Gamble and Matina, bury the corpse.” I forced the words out. Through a sore throat. They sounded weak, and breathy, and each word burned as it made its way out. But I was beyond the point where pain affected me.

Fabiana followed.

I scoured the area, looking for flashes of brown or creamy white. I had only one mission now, and that was to get my people back. The imps would have fared better if they had not kidnapped my offspring, they would have fared so much better if they had not taken the life of an uspec I loved. I scanned the area, impervious to boulders of hail slamming against me with the force of ten fists. Fast drifting fogs swirled and encircled us, but we did not stop. We made our way through the blinding trails of spinning red. It took a while, but my gaze locked on what I’d been searching for. Two imps kneeling beside a third. The third was the one that had been sapped. I hadn’t expected three imps. I’d only expected the one, the sapped one, the one they’d claimed Marcinus’ life as retribution for. The imps had their hands on the sapping imps body. They were probably trying to infuse it with growth. The fact that they bothered with trying to heal it showed that the imp that had fallen was important to them.

“Release two samus.” I said to Fabiana. Its gaze snapped to mine. It stared into my eyes and then nodded. There was something of a grim resignation in the straightness of its features. It dug into its belt and released the samus. I stopped and watched as the creatures slithered their way towards the imps, who, impervious to our presence behind them, battled to save the life of their fallen friend. They used pansophy and the samu chased after the scent. I watched and waited and felt nothing when the samu bit into their flesh and feasted on it. The imps yelped. They turned around, and their empty eye sockets widened. One of them, with the samu latched onto a sapping arm, ran towards me. I struck out with my cutlass and cut its head off its body. Its head rolled about, as if searching for my face. The rest of its body continued moving aimlessly. Its sight was in its head. Without that head it was blind.

“Can you sap them?”

Fabiana gaped at me. “Sirga?”

“Can you sap them? As the wielders do?”

“Some.” Fabiana’s voice was small.

“Do it. I want their appearance.”

It looked at me. Its eyebrows turned inwards and its eyes stared at me, studying me as if I had grown into something it could not recognize.

“Now,” I snapped.

It exhaled and then placed its hand on the body of the headless imp. I watched dispassionately. The samu had already done most of the work. Fabiana knelt by each imp, one after the other, it placed its hand on their chest and drew lifeforms from them. The appearance was the first to go. Once the appearance was gone I saw nothing but the samus leeched to invisible skin. Fabiana did not like what I made it do. Its distaste was plain in the grimace it wore. But it did it. One imp after the other, till they were all invisible. It reclaimed the samus and put them back into pouches in its belt.

“It is done.” Fabiana said.

I nodded. We made our way back to the others. I ignored Fabiana’s glances at me. I ignored the way its eyes traveled over my body, its gaze lingering on me. I was beyond emotions in a hyperplane of existence were death and gore meant nothing to me. Nefastu made it easy to bury emotions. That was the curse of this road, I chose to use it to my benefit.

I sunk my covered feet into the hail-sludge and marched back towards the hail tree. When we arrived, there was nothing around that tree to speak of the horror that the imps had done to Marcinus. The words were still written on the stem of the tree. The imps took responsibility for the crime against me in those blood words. I would make them regret it.

I looked impassively at our little group. Gamble and Matina’s gloves were stained with the hail-sludge hybrid. There were no cut-off body parts exposed. Four uspecs. Three imps. I turned to Fabiana.

I looked at the uspecs I’d called and expected argument. None spoke, they just bowed their heads in silent acceptance. Finally. In the moment when I wished they’d put up a fight. I was in the kind of mood that required an outlet. An uspec’s skull perhaps, something soft and sturdy that I could pound against. I punched pointlessly into the air.

“I w-won’t l-leave y-you!”

My jaw clenched and my hands tightened into fists by my side. I turned slowly to stare into the face of the young uspec. My offspring. Older uspecs knew better than to question me in this mood. I glared at it. It met my gaze, but it was shaking. Again I wondered if its shaking was from fright or if it was a spasm.

I didn’t trust myself to face my offspring, so I walked instead to one of the sludge tables poking out of the wall and I pounded my fist into it. The sludge extrusion broke off. I picked it up and then flung it against the wall. Then I punched the wall, hard, once, twice, there was blood on the wall when I pulled my fist back the third time. My heart was beating slower, still fast, but not as erratically as it had before. My breath came slower too.

I walked back to Nebula. “What did you say?” My voice was low. Not gentle, just low.

Its single center eye widened. It had never seen me like this. I did not even know if I had ever seen myself like this. Anger, fear, the combination did not bring out the best in me.

“P-p-please.” Its lips quivered. “D-don’t s-s-send m-me aw-way.”

“No.”

It looked down at the ground but it did not repeat its previous outbursts. I turned back to Fabiana. “You will coat it with appearance identifiers so that if it does try to remove its appearance again you will know.” Nebula shrunk into itself. Fabiana jerked its head down in a terse nod.

I paced the room. I felt their eyes on me, boring into me. Gamble and Matina were the youngest in my honoraria, they stared apprehensively at me, as one would watch a caged predator.

“What are you waiting for?” I snapped at Fabiana. “Use quicksand. Go. Now!”

It nodded and walked over to Nebula. Gamble and Matiu followed warily behind it.

“P-please ma-mater. P-please.”

“Silence!” I snapped at it. How could it have been so stupid as to follow me here? Did it not understand the dangers that it faced? Did it not know what would happen to me if any harm came to it? I walked back to a wall and punched it. My fist was sore and spots of blood appeared on my knuckles.

“J-just th-the n-night. P-please ma-mater, l-let me st-t-t-tay the night.”

I whirled around, preparing to tell it, in no uncertain terms, that it was not going to spend another minute on this cursed road. But Fabiana was standing in front of me. I came very close to slamming my fist into its face before it could speak.

“This is my fault.” It said lowly. Its word were whispers delivered directly into my ears. “I accept the blame and I will take Ula back and I will make sure it doesn’t leave again.” My fists loosened a bit. It bowed. “This task of yours is dangerous sirga, and that is why we all came. If there is a chance, any chance that you could die here, then you owe Ula a farewell. Is this the last memory you want it to have of you?”

I glared at Fabiana.

It didn’t look up. “Just one night, sirga, give your offspring, your heir, one last night with its progenitor.”

I took a deep breath and then released it. Fabiana was right. I nodded.

“I have one more request, sirga.” I grunted when the uspec continued speaking.

“What is it?”

It rose its head. “Let me teleport Gamble, Matina and Ula back to the inter-port trail and return to fight with you.”

I glared at it.

“I am the only one who can use spectra and pansophy in this place. I know how to get past the curse of Nefastu to use my magic. You need me.”

I gritted my teeth. Fabiana was right again. It did know how to use magic here in ways I couldn’t. The curse of Nefastu was that my emotions were stunted here. It was harder for me to get through to my spectra. “Nebula’s safety is more important than my own.” I said. I didn’t need its protection, I needed the wrath to try to bargain with me.

Fabiana nodded. “If you die, sirga, then the entire existence will fall. How safe will Ula be in a world ruled by the other existences? It will become the last brio sirga. Five years old, and the entire world will know that it is the last brio and they will hunt it. Your safety guarantees your offspring’s.”

“Fine. But you will deliver it to the Isle of Brio before returning.” I wasn’t convinced I needed Fabiana, in fact, their presence here was starting to seem more like a liability. But as long as my offspring was safe in the Isle of Brio, I could accept the extra help. If I hadn’t already killed Fajahromo by then.

Fabiana bowed.

I walked away from it. Nebula watched me cautiously. Its eyes followed me. it remained hurdled into itself with its arms wrapped around its legs. The imprints my hands had left were still on its arms. Fabiana walked over to Marcinus it healed the uspec’s hand, the one that I’d broken. Marcinus said nothing to me and I said nothing to it. I continued to pace the room. The uspecs must have sensed my decision because they settled back. Matina, predictably, started playing its mbira, but the mood was still tense. I continued pacing. Nebula still watched me, sitting as it had been before. It was five and had more courage than many four times its age. It had followed me into Nefastu. It was a stupid decision that the uspec had made, but it was a brave one. It took me a while to realize that it had returned its appearance to itself here, in Nefastu, without showing much difficulty. Just how skilled was my offspring in pansophy and how much more skilled would it become? It continued watching me.

Matina’s plucked tune changed. The plucking went from a smooth melody to something that accompanied melodious chiming with striking notes that landed like thuds of a drum.

“When I hear the drum beat,” Matina sang in a way that was singing but also talking. Its voice was so melodious that it was hard sometimes to tell the difference.

Matiu chuckled.

“The rhyme and the melody.”

I turned to find my offspring smiling. It was no longer looking at me but at Matina. It clapped in accord with Matina’s chimes. Gamble whistled. Matiu sang! Fabiana had told me once of this fluke occurrence, but I saw it then. Matiu sang, its voice was actually quite good, it had a deep bass that complemented the high notes of its sibling’s voice.

“When I hear the drum beat,
The rhyme and the melody
The sound makes my soul glow
Distinct notes but they flow.”

Everyone but myself and Marcinus joined in here.

“These beats make me purr like a kitten
I’m in love with the rhythm
Tell the player I am smitten.”

They all broke into rounds of laughter and the tension in the room dissolved. I stared at Matina and its mbira. That uspec had to survive all of this. I had seen fighters, hundreds of them, many skilled. I had seen magic, pansophy, emotions, spectra, uspecs who knew how to manipulate them all easily. But I had never seen an artist like Matina. One who could diffuse a room as tense as this had been with a few sung words and plucked tines. The agitation left me. I had this night with my offspring, I would make it last. I apologized to Marcinus for breaking its wrist and then I sat beside my offspring. I’d expected it to stay away, but it didn’t. It sidled towards me and wrapped its arms around me as if it could shield me from danger. It rested its little head against my chest. I wrapped my arms around it too.

“That doesn’t sound like an uspec song,” Marcinus said.

“It is not.” Matina replied. “An imp taught it to Ula and it was the first song Ula sang in an uspec tongue without stammering.”

“Ag-gain!”

Matina plucked its tines in that strange but audibly appealing combination of striking low notes and melodious higher notes. Matiu led the song this time and Matina joined in. My offspring jumped up and it began moving in a way that I assumed was a dance, though it looked like a standing convulsion. I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. It was hard to stay angry in the face of Nebula’s mirth. My laughter was strained, as Gamble had been earlier, tinted with grief, but it was laughter, and it had been a long time since I laughed. Nebula continued its ‘dancing’.

“When I hear the drum beat,
A force takes over my feet
I lose all my self-control
I feel it echo in my bones.”

This time I heard myself joining into the chorus. I could not sing though, but it didn’t matter. This part was belted out discordantly.

“These beats make me purr like a kitten
I’m in love with the rhythm
Tell the player I am smitten.”

I asked what it meant to ‘purr like a kitten’ and Gamble and Nebula spoke over themselves as they tried to explain. I had a feeling that neither of them truly understood, but my offspring was closer to explaining it in a way that made sense. Gamble contradicted itself. Apparently, a kitten was an umani creature, like our smoke bears, and they purred when they were happy. I asked why Matina did not just replace that line with something that made sense to uspecs, like ‘these beats make me happy’ and they all laughed as if I’d said either the funniest joke or the most ludicrous statement. Finally, Matina explained that the rhyme of kitten with rhythm and smitten was important for the song. I shrugged. Artistry was not my specialty. They explained why the song was sang in so many different uspec tongues. Matina was trying to maintain the rhyming scheme. I shook my head and my offspring teased me and jumped at me. It reminded me of the way we’d played when it was younger. We hadn’t had the time to play like that since my return. Nebula even spent some time speaking with Marcinus. Between Matina’s cheerful songs and Nebula’s playful mood, even Marcinus’ had a break from the apathy it usually wore on its face. It laughed. When we sang the song again Marcinus proved that it was not a bad singer itself. It sang the verse with Matiu and Matina and its singing voice was a complement to both. Matina described Marcinus’ voice as an alto. The trio sang other songs together.

I relaxed into my bed, with my squirming offspring beside me, listening to the music, and I was happy. There was still the ache in my chest from losing Juke. My eyes moved to an empty foam mat beside Gamble, where Juke would have slept if it was still alive, and I felt the pain of its loss. But it did not make me lose my breath as it had before. I was at peace.

I fell asleep at peace.

And when I woke, it was from a peaceful slumber. I’d had no dreams.

Fabiana removed the form from the dwelling after we’d broken our morning fast. Nebula clung to me, but it did not ask to stay. It had promised me during the night that it would stay in the Isle of Brio. Its visit had been good for me. It had done me good to see Nebula happy and able to inspire joy in one such as Marcinus. I wished that I could spend the rest of my life like this, surrounded by friends. Happy. I felt as if I’d had so very few moments of joy in my life. This was my reward. Not Fajahromo’s death, but this. My offspring, my friends. Their joy. A good, happy life. That was my reward. Fajahromo’s death was just a task I had to accomplish to safeguard my reward.

The light from the orange dots streamed in and the hail pelts raged. I hugged my offspring close to my chest and then I sent it towards Fabiana.

“Sirga!” A voice yelled.

Matiu pushed me down.

A small arrow jutted out of its back. There were tumultuous drifting fogs heading towards us. Where had the arrow come from? I shoved Nebula towards Fabiana screaming for Fabiana to teleport them away quickly. Someone else screamed for appearance identifiers another person yelled for samus to be released. I just wanted to make sure my offspring was gone.

The cold drifting fogs surrounded us. The hail here was sharper than others and these fogs were faster than any I’d ever encountered before. I felt hands reach for me. I reached for a dagger and stabbed at those hands. Hands fell away, others came. I heard the umani tongue. Imps! I cursed myself for not sending Nebula away sooner. I should have forced Fabiana to take it back when I’d wanted to. I shouldn’t have given in to the temptation to spend the night with it.

I fought savagely even if I couldn’t see through the drifting fog. I cut at arms that sought to grasp me. Some fell on me, but there was no pansophy used. No one tried to take away my appearance.

By the time the drifting fogs cleared, there were only four us left standing. Fabiana, Matina, Gamble and myself. The others were gone. It was as if the fogs had carried them away.

“Nebula!” I screamed. I ran after that fog, but it disintegrated, right before my eyes. It wasn’t a natural fog. It couldn’t have been. Natural fogs didn’t disappear like that. “Nebula!”

Part 17
---------

I rode past them, as if they were visions of smoke that I could not see. I gave Marc no leave to stop. In fact, if the pelting of the uncouth hail in Nefastu was not so vicious, I would have urged Marc to go faster, anything to lose the group of uspecs that had defied me. They called themselves my subjects, they swore loyalty, but they never obeyed the orders I gave. Now they trailed me like shadows.

Nefastu was as bleak as I remembered. The ground was a mixture of uncouth hail and sludge. The air was a pitiless red. It was midday, and so the orange hue of the daylight dots added some coloring that gave light to the surroundings. But I knew from experience that when those daylight dots went away, the area would become a deep red, a red so deep that it was impossible to see through. Uncouth hail fell on me. Every part of my body was covered. The headguard had sheer material over my eyes, but even this gave off heat. The padding of my coat severely weakened the force of the hail pelts. The journey was not as bad as it had been the first time around. This time I was properly dressed and had Marc’s warmth as an extra protection against the cold. But when the swirling fogs came, I was forced to revisit my conclusion. These fogs in Nefastu were miserable. They were fast drifting fogs that carried hail within them. Once they surrounded me, I couldn’t see anything. Uncouth hail pelted me from all directions and with high enough numbers that I could feel the force of the blows against my skin. I gritted my teeth and endured the pounding of the hail. Fog always drifted. Eventually, this one would drift away too. And eventually, it did. It drifted from me, taking its battering attack to the stubborn uspecs who’d defied me with their company. I grinned.

This was as far as my plan extended. I would come to Nefastu and the imps would come for me. I’d expected to be alone, which would have made me more enticing to approach. I expected that the imps would try to convince me to join them, as Fajahromo had tried to do so many times now. What would they offer the last brio to side with them against Chuspecip and other uspecs of my kind? There were not many uspecs I liked anymore. Most of those were dead. My chest tightened as images of a young Lahooni noble with a wide smile flashed through my mind. A boulder of uncouth hail slammed against my left shoulder. I gasped from the force of it. My mind clear, I returned to thoughts of the wrath. They would approach me and I had to trick them, make them believe that I was on their side, make them invite me to their home and give me free walk of Permafrost. Then I would go to the prayer coves and destroy the effigy. Then Fajahromo. Fajahromo was the price I claimed. I thought of how pleasing it would feel to finally end that smug uspec’s life. Another boulder of uncouth hail slammed into me.

My mind cleared for a moment and I looked ahead. Nefastu had thick fogs. The cursed road. It had thick fogs that made it harder to see and it was because of those thick fogs that travelling around at night was a complete waste of time. I did not know that I had been travelling that long, but when I looked around there were no more orange streams of light, just red. I’d hoped that we would have reached canopy trees by now, but there were no canopy trees that I could see, just a deep red. I couldn’t even see the green faces I’d tried to ignore trailing behind me. I felt Marc’s fur, but I couldn’t see it, or the deep black leather of my coat. It was time to stop.

I stopped the smoke bear and then jumped off its back.

I stroked Marc’s fur and cooed to it. The bear sat and I sat by its side, seeing by touch, aligning myself beside the warm mass of its flesh. I wondered if Marc felt any stirrings of home. I wondered if it remembered this place as the place it had come from.

Suddenly, the area around us exploded with light. A white light source hung from a brown ceiling revealing five green forms standing at several locations in the sludge dwelling. This dwelling, which seemed to have appeared from nowhere, was cylindrical. There were several hard sludge platforms extended from areas in the wall, and ten hard cloud beds erected in two rings around the center of the room, where I sat, beside Marc. I blinked dazedly, trying to come to terms with this new development. The room was hot, too hot. I had to take off my heated clothing. I stood to do just that. When I was done removing the garments, I remained standing, with my hands against my hips, and looked around the room.

The other uspecs stood too. They all looked at me.

“I left my offspring in your care Fabiana.”

Fabiana bowed to me. “Chike and Musa will take care of it.”

I clenched my jaw. “Chike and Musa are imps! I’m about to destroy their resistance group, do you really think that they would not seek to stop me any way they can?”

Fabiana shook its head. “They wouldn’t. And even if they could, the founder wouldn’t let them. No imp can leave the paradise. We saw it with our own eyes.”

“And so you all decided to defy me!”

Matiu nodded solemnly. “You did not kill us,” it stated simply.

In that moment, I was sorely tempted to. My gaze caught on the only non-Lahooni uspec. “Even you?” I demanded angrily.

Marcinus shrugged. Its emotionless mask cracked for a second, and in that second the corner of its lips tipped upward. “Perhaps this is the real reason why I felt a pull to follow you. Your mission is sacred, Nebud, given by the founder, from the founder’s own lips. I could not live with myself if I allowed you to undertake it by yourself.”

“Your deaths are on your own heads, not mine!” I screamed it out so loudly that my throat scratched from the effort. They just nodded in silent acceptance, before breaking away. I did not want this. Despite the words I’d spoken, I knew that the guilt of their deaths would lie with me. It did not matter what choice they made, I would blame myself for not being able to protect them, just as I blamed myself for Juke. The tightening in my chest returned. It was as if vines had wound their way around my heart and squeezed with all their might. I couldn’t breathe. I stumbled backwards and would have fallen if Marcinus and Fabiana did not appear by my side. They both placed their hands on my backs and shoulder and supported me towards a foam mat a few steps back from Marc. They sat me on it and sat on the sheet of hard clouds beside me, waiting and watching. It took a while for me to remember how to breathe again. Marcinus silently handed me a pouch. I uncorked it and gulped down the okun inside it. Then I heaved.

“We will be alright sirga,” Fabiana said softly, “we will be alright.”

I shook my head, but I could not find the words to say. I knew that it was wrong. I knew that they would all die and that their death would be on my conscience.

“What is this?” I said instead, once the tightening in my chest eased and I had enough breath in my lungs to form words. I still coughed and wheezed after the words were spoken. Marcinus wrapped its hand around my wrist and maneuvered the tip of the pouch back towards my lips. I guzzled more okun.

“Just a formless mobile dwelling sirga. We fed it a few form cards. We have enough to last us a month here, and enough food for a week. After that we’d need to send a few people back to Damejo to purchase more.”

“We won’t be here for a week.” I said.

No one argued.

Gamble approached us with a platter of sandwiches. The things were large, not the small portions that Marcinus, Juke and I had been forced to share in the plenum’s camp on the inter-port trail. I forced myself to keep breathing as I thought of Juke. It was easier to forget the uspec here, in this icy hell that it had never been to. It was easier to look at things and not instantly be reminded of its wide smile. But when I did remember it, it was a torture to breathe.

Tingles chimed and I didn’t need to look to know that Matina was playing the mbira that Arexon had gifted it. I picked up a sandwich and tore into it. The food was much better than the one I’d brought with me. I’d brought grains and dried meat. This sandwich had succulent meat and sweet buns. I took a gulp of okun and eyed Matina. The uspec baffled me. It knew nothing of fighting, all it knew was music and art. Yet every time I headed into danger it was eager to accompany me. It had taken a blade meant for me. I took another bite and listened to the rhythm of the tines it plucked. How did one make music like this? Matina was gifted, it was gifted beyond any other that I had ever heard. I found myself relaxing with the music, floating, drifting.

The atmosphere in the sludge dwelling relaxed with me. Uspecs laughed. They teased each other. There was a sad undertone to the jokes, a dearth in Gamble’s laughter. Gamble felt Juke’s loss as keenly as I did. I knew it, those two had been as kin. Matina’s music was like magic, perhaps it was magic, nothing else could explain the way I was starting to feel. The anger I’d felt at the uspecs drifted away. Perhaps Fabiana was right, maybe this time would be different, maybe this time no one would die. Maybe I needed them. I finished off the sandwich in my hand and took another from the platter. Matina sang a strange version of the Uspecipyte fight song. It used the same words that I was familiar with, but the rhythm was different. Matina’s version, sung from lips that barely parted, and accompanied by plucked mbira tines that chimed soft and sweet, didn’t sound like a fight song. It sounded like an homage to the founder. Not belligerent, but beseeching, a prayer instead of a call to arms. How could the same song sound so different?

Matiu was in rare form. It was not often that I saw the uspec this relaxed. It was usually grave and serious. Now it poked fun at Gamble. Gamble laughed but I found the same emptiness in its mirth that I had in mine. Our laughter was distorted by grief. It hurt, but Gamble continued anyway. It laughed even though the sound was an obvious wraith of what it ought to be. Matiu threw a piece of candy at Matina and…

“Who is there?” I yelled.

The candy Matiu threw at its younger stopped short. It hit a block of seemingly empty air, and then dropped to the ground. Which meant that there was someone or something there. Someone or something without appearance. Most likely an imp sent to attack us.

“Do we have appearance identifiers?” I jumped to my feet, with my hand on my belt, and approached Matina. “There is something without appearance in this room.”

“We brought appearance identifiers and samus.” Fabiana said. I hadn’t thought to bring samus. I wouldn’t have needed it if I was on my own. I wouldn’t have needed appearance identifiers either. I’d wanted the imps to find me. By myself, they had no choice but to bargain with me. The presence of my honoraria changed everything. I gritted my teeth. “Flare the appearance identifiers.” Fabiana gave the order.

Everyone jumped to their feet. Matina stopped playing the mbira and instead held the object in front of it as if it was a weapon. Gamble ran over to one of many satchel bags they’d brought with them. I suspected the appearance identifiers was in one of those. Matiu and Fabiana walked up to me and stood on either side of me, taking up similar poses, with their hands on the hilts of their weapons.

“Flaring the appearance identifiers!” Gamble screamed.

“W-w-wait.” A small, shaky, voice called out.

I stumbled backwards. I heard that voice and I knew who it belonged to, but I would not allow myself to believe it. I could not. One patch of green after the other, the owner of the voice was given form. Its appearance returned, showing a little uspec with smooth skin and a single eye on its face. It had no features, no outer eyes. Just a middle eye that fixed warily on me.

I had never been more enraged in my entire life.

I took a step towards it and it hopped back and then ran behind Marcinus of all people. It peeked at me from behind Marcinus’ body. My fists clenched and I ground my teeth as I plundered towards them. Marcinus’ eyes met mine, but it did not move away. It stretched out its hand to me instead. “Perhaps you should calm down firs…” I grabbed its hand and twisted before it could finish that sentence. Something broke in Marcinus’ hand, a wrist, fingers, I didn’t know. I didn’t care. I shoved the uspec aside and then grabbed my offspring and lifted it up by its upper arms.

“Have you lost your mind?” I bellowed at it.

It trembled. I couldn’t tell if it was shaking out of fright, or if it was having a spasm, or convulsing, in that moment I didn’t care.

“I-I’m s-s-sor-ry. I w-want-ted t-to p-prot-tect you!”

I shook it so hard that I was certain its little brain, if it even existed in the uspec’s head, would rattle.

“Sirga,” Fabiana placed a hand on my shoulder, “please, calm down.”

Calm down! My offspring was in Nefastu. And it was their fault. If Fabiana had stayed as I’d asked it to, my offspring wouldn’t be here. Nebula had copied them. It had removed its appearance and followed me just as they had. It was their fault! My hands tightened in rage and shook even more than they had before.

“You are hurting Ula sirga,” Fabiana whispered the words to me.

It was right. I was hurting it. My hands had tightened to the points that I could feel the uspec’s little bones underneath my hold. I forced myself to release it. It fell against a hard sludge ground and crawled away from me. It did not cry, but it hurdled into itself and rand its hands over the prints of my hand on its skin. The uspec did not look up at me. Its legs were folded up with its knees against its chest and its head bowed.

“This is your fault!” I growled at Fabiana. Then I shrugged its hand off my shoulder. I knew I was angry, but it wasn’t till I glanced at my offspring, still hurdled into itself, still stroking the marks on its skin which I’d given it, that I recognized the pounding of my heart and crawling underneath my skin. I was angry, but I was more afraid than enraged.

“You will take it back to the Isle of Brio.” I said to Fabiana. “You, Matina and Gamble, will take it back to the inter-port trail. And you will stay there!”

Gamble spat onto the okun pool that surrounded the stem of the canopy tree. “We have risked our lives in service to a weak god. Juke died in service to a weak god. I spit on Chu…”

“Hush.” Fabiana snapped at Gamble, silencing it with that single command. Gamble frowned. It stared belligerently at Fabiana, but it did not speak. “We are honored to be in a position to help our god after all that it has done for us. I will accompany you to Nefastu, sirga.”

“No.” I would not make the mistake that I had made before. This fight would be mine and mine alone.

“But I must,” Fabiana said, “no one knows Permafrost as well as I do.”

There was one who knew. Their firstborn. Would Musa accompany me on this mission? Would it rally to my side and fight with me as it had before? Was there a chance for the rift between us to be mended?

“No.” I said the words to Fabiana but I could not fight the chilling thought that I was saying it in response to my questions about Musa as well.

“Sirga, please, I cannot let you go alone.”

“I have made up my mind.”

“Sirga,” Matiu began, its tone grave and solemn, “we have sworn to protect you. The only way to keep us from going with you would be to lance your cutlass through our hearts.”

I stood up and walked over to the belt that Chuspecip had retrieved for me from the inter-port trail. The belt was resting against my hard fog coffer. I picked it up and strapped it around my waist. I had all the wealth I would need, wealth enough to buy supplies on the inter-port trail.

I turned to Matiu. “If you try to accompany me, I will kill you.” I glanced at all of them, direct gazes meant to pass on my sincerity. I would not lose another one of them. This battle was mine and mine alone. Fajahromo was the primus drogher. Fajahromo who’d been behind my first offspring’s death. Fajahromo who’d stolen my offspring’s affection and then stolen my sire’s ring, the proof of my legitimacy. Fajahromo who’d released a samu to bite Musa, back when Musa and I were as we’d been. That was when it all changed between us. When that samu bit my imp. Now Fajahromo had another crime to answer for, Juke’s death. It was always meant to end this way. The true battle had always been between me and Fajahromo.

I pulled aside a frond.

“Ma-mater! N-no! M-mater!”

I frowned. That voice appeared to be coming from within the canopy room. But how? Nebula wasn’t there. I turned back around and my offspring materialized from thin air before my startled eyes. It had taken away its appearance. I barely recalled Fabiana telling me that my offspring had grown skilled in appearance in my absence. I had not imagined it was this skilled though.

“P-please,” its lips trembled, “I a-am s-s-s-sorry,” it cried. It was only five. Had I known this much loss at five? I’d not known as much happiness as Nebula, but I had also not known loss. I had not had my life threatened by aspiring nobles at the tender age of five. “I I w-was wr-rong, b-b-bad, I sh-shou-uld not hav-ve b-blamed Ju-juke’s d-death on-n you. P-p-please ma-mater, p-please d-don’t l-leav-ve m-me ag-g-gain. P-please.” It wept as it spoke, and webs of saliva were suspended between its parted lips. Its nose ran with slime that mixed with its tears. It begged. It knew the reality of death now. Juke’s absence had taught it that I could leave and never come back.

I walked back into the room and knelt in front of Nebula. “This will be the last time, I promise. Once this is done, nothing will ever separate us again.” I pulled it into my arms and held it tight. Its mucus and tears and saliva rubbed against my chest. It wrapped its hands tightly around me as if it thought that by doing this it could force me to stay.

I pulled myself out of its embrace.

Nebula held tight. It grabbed onto its left wrist with its right arm, behind my back, and wrapped its young legs around my waist. It was locking itself to me with its limbs. “N-no!” It screamed. “N-no!!” It shrieked so loudly that my ears rung. I wasn’t surprised when I heard imp voices asking what was wrong. Chike asked questions. I even heard Musa. Fabiana told them this new development with the wrath and Fajahromo. It told them where I intended to go. Alone.

After trying unsuccessfully to free myself from my offspring gently, I did it forcefully. I exerted pressure on its arms until it was forced to release me, then I stepped back from its embrace. It shrieked for me to stay and ran back to me. It stammered its pleas but I kept it from wrapping itself around me again. Then its limbs lashed out. I thought that it was having another spasm, the first since I returned, but the motion of its limbs was too controlled for a spasm. It was throwing a tantrum. It scratched at me with its nails and clawed at me with its fingers. It was desperate not to let me leave.

I forced it to stop by holding its arms against its body. Then I picked it up and carried it over to Fabiana.

“I will return,” I said to them both. “I will be back. I will not leave you alone, precious one.”

My offspring continued thrashing. It yelled for me to stop as I turned my back on it and walked towards the nearest frond. Musa was no longer standing underneath the canopy tree. Chike followed me, the rest of the uspecs stared at me with angry gazes. Would they follow me? I went to the den with Chike trudging silently beside me.

“Let me accompany you,” it said, when we reached the den. I whistled and Marc came plodding out. “Let me accompany you master, I am imp, you need not fear my death.”

“You are an imp and my mission is to end a resistance group of imps. I trust you Chike, but if you push to accompany me any further, my trust for you will come to an abrupt end.”

The imp’s mouth flopped open. It gaped speechlessly at me.

I climbed onto Marc’s bent back.

“Is there anything I can do?” Chike asked when we’d walked four canopy trees away from the den.

“You have your freedom Chike. You are free to go. But if you insist on staying, then take care of Nebula for me.” It was the same favor I had asked of Juke. Juke had called it an honor.

Chike bowed. “It will be my honor, master.”

I glared at the imps bent head. Why did it have to say the exact words that Juke had? These were the ghosts that haunted me. I would kill Fajahromo and the ghosts would leave me alone. They would have to.

Musa stood glowering by the exit to our paradise. For a split second, my chest swelled with hope. Musa wanted to accompany me. Then the hope came crashing down. I could never trust Musa to side with me against the imps that called it Firstborn. Not since Halima, not since that imp had taken Musa from me. There was no one else. Where were the uspecs? My honoraria. They had not even come to bid me farewell. Were they that upset that I would not let them accompany me? Even Marcinus? I shrugged. It was for the best.

“You cannot accompany me Musa.” I said to the imp.

It glared at me. “I know.” It spat out. I was taken aback by its tone. “Have I not rendered enough service to be trusted?” Its question sounded like an accusation.

I was at a loss.

Musa turned its back on me and walked towards the entrance, between the hail trees. The cyan fogs swallowed the imp up and then it rose from the ground back in the spot that I had seen it standing. My eyes widened. I did not have the power to do what I had just seen. It was Chuspecip. If Chuspecip was not willing to allow Musa leave, then…I frowned at the imp. “I am going to end the wrath.” I stated simply.

It frowned at me. A few seconds passed before that frown was smoothed off its face. “Please, end the invasion, but do not harm the imps. If I ever meant anything to you, do not cause more pain to those imps than they have already been forced to live through at the hands of uspecs.”

I stared at its empty eye sockets. It had not wanted to accompany me to protect me, but to protect its imps. I turned my gaze from it and urged Marc forward. Marc was the only one following me into battle. I did not have a plan, but I did not need one. The wrath would find me.

The journey along the inter-port trail reminded me of the journey back from Chiboga. Specters of Juke clung to the cloud walls and to the cloud grounds. I could not look at an alley without seeing Juke fighting in it, its body limber, its moves graceful, its sword darting through the air. Its body may have been stained with blood or fresh from a cleaning. It did not matter what it looked like, or if it fought in the air, clashing swords with other uspecs in flight, or if it fought on the ground. It always had a smile on its face. Its smile was wide, extending to the outer eyes.

The parts of the inter-port trail between Aboga and Hakute were deserted. The emptiness had a bad aura around it, as if it was a place where ill-luck clung to. Had Chuspecip cursed it? I found no other travelers. There’d been uspecs when we’d returned, dazed plenum soldiers, and bandits. I did not encounter any dazed soldiers on my way. The emptiness on the inter-port trail only made me think of Juke more. I rode Marc long and hard. I did not stop until we veered away from the plenum’s war route. Damejo bordered Chiboga and so I had to make the entire length of the journey through the empty haunted road. I was relieved to enter Damejo and have uspecs around. The uspecs that I met in the hangar were commoners. They spoke of the war in hushed tones, of Chuspecip’s wrath. An irira commoner stood in line with none of its features hidden and no one said anything to it.

The chasm had ended.

I envied these uspecs their knowledge of the war. They spoke of it as I would speak of the conflict between the Chus which had caused their rift and led to the creation of the existences. It was a lore to me, just as the chasm, and the war between Arexon and the plenum was a lore to these uspecs. They cleared a way for me, in my fake banneret neckcloth, and I walked to the front of the line. I had to wait. I had to listen to the whispers of Chuspecip’s might which trickled out from these uspecs’ lips. They told of the green fog and they knew details, the plenum deaths, the plenum pardons. But they did not know of the cyan swirls that had been used to decide who lived and who died. They spoke of the extended war that general Arexon had fought and the lives that had been lost. They counted in numbers. Numbers of the dead plenum soldiers. Numbers of the dead Chiboga soldiers. Numbers of years that Arexon had defied expectations and survived the war. Numbers. But they did not speak of the distinct uspec lives that had been lost. They did not talk of Animaon, of its loyalty to my line, a loyalty that had led it to its death. They did not speak of Moat who’d died to save a lust-addicted Marcinus. And they did not speak of Juke. My heart squeezed. They talked of the plenum Kaisers. The mighty Katan, but they did not know of Katan’s life polluted blade that I now carried. They had the incomplete knowledges of tales told. They could not taste the war on their tongues as I could. I remembered the metallic taste of it and I missed Juke.

An uspec questioned me. Nobody asked me ‘Tiyoseriwosin?’. The founder had returned and the chasm ended. I was given my tag and I entered Damejo. I went through the motions. I would need supplies. Food and drink. A heated cloak to survive the Damejo frost. I found what I needed where I’d found it the first time around, in the markets of the Tundra Vacuous Chambers. I bought my grains and dried nama meats. I bought my pouches of okun and my garments. I would be prepared this time. I bought a heated cloak, heated footwear, heated gloves and a headguard.

I paid to be teleported from the Tundra Vacuous Chambers to the boundary of the Labyrinths of Damejo.

Green fog swirled around me as I rode Marc into Nefastu. The fog did not cross the boundary.

But there was green waiting for me when I entered.

Five green faces. Two grinned at me. One looked somber. One emotionless. One apologetic.

I was going to kill them.

Part 16
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I slept fitfully that night. My visit with Chuspecip had played on a loop in my head, before I was swept away on the waves of torpor. If only the thoughts ended in my sleep. They did not. They invaded my unconsciousness, weaving themselves into delusions that my sleeping mind tortured me with. I dreamt of biting chill and pelting hail, of effigies and imps spitting on me. I saw Permafrost in my dreams and I saw a glimpse of something other. Another Chu, perhaps? A more powerful one than ours. Juke filtered into my dreams. At times it was my friend as it had been in life, fighting alongside me, running into battle undaunted, other times it was a bitter foe. It stood beside Fajahromo and snapped a whip into my stomach.

When I woke, I was soaked in sweat. Odd sensations crept over me. I blinked drowsily and stared up into the fronds of my canopy tree. I looked at those fronds and remembered my dream. I remembered Nefastu in all of its horror. I sat up and Nebula was nowhere to be found. It had been in the canopy room when I’d slept, but it was not here now that I had woken.

Placing my palms against the soft foam ground, I pushed myself up to my feet. My head spun and my eyes blinked dazedly. It was as if I was suffering from the effects of overindulging in liquor. But I’d had no fermented wines last night. I walked out of my canopy room and stared into the paradise that greeted me. The orange dots shone brightly. The red clouds hung low. The fine hail that stuck to my skin was instantly warmed by the drifting warm fogs. Somewhere off to the east I heard the blaring of a smoke bear’s trumpet. It reminded me that I had not been to see Marc since my return.

I let the large frond I’d been holding up fall. The air smelt good, clean and fresh, with a sweetness to it. But the sweetness of the air made my stomach churn and my head spin. I was feint after walking by only three canopy trees. Wheezing, I stopped to catch my breath. The weakness felt odd. I pushed myself to move forward when the temporary dizziness passed and my stomach did not feel quite so belligerent. The combination of light drifting fogs and fine falling hail was good for me. It wiped the sweat of my body.

I was walking underneath a purple fruit tree when I finally realized why I felt so weak. A branch of that tree hung low, so low that its red and yellow leaves tickled my neck as I walked by. The fruits on this tree where long and bulbous. They did not provide much sustenance, but they were sweet and so they were used largely in making wine. I plucked one of those fruits and took a bite. I chewed slowly, contemplating the last time I’d eaten. It had been two days ago, on the inter-port trail, when I’d been the plenum’s prisoner. Marcinus had forced me to eat a nama sandwich then. It was the only break I’d had in a six day forced fast. No wonder I was so weak. It was a shock to me that I’d even been strong enough to fight on the inter-port trail. It was desperation, pure and simple, which had driven me. I’d wanted to save my honoraria, to save Juke. Now Juke was dead. The sweet fruit burned my throat as it made its way down. My stomach was so empty that I thought I could hear it land in the sac.

I ate the fruit as I went.

There were not many people around. Paradise was quiet. I wondered where my offspring had gone. I thought of Nebula and I remembered its words of accusations. It blamed me for Juke’s death. I remembered the tears it had wept. Then it had run away from me. Would it ever forgive me? Could I ever forgive myself?

Guilt weighed me down like a metal sleeve. It coiled around my neck and ensnared me in its vicious hold.

The den was another canopy room. This one had a hard sludge ground. It was the largest canopy room I’d seen, there were five tree stems underneath it, five large canopy trees together. The fronds for all five fell together. There was no separation in this room, just a large space where the smoke bears ran together, and lived together, and slept together.

Marc’s trunk swung in the air as it blared a loud trumpet. It ran towards me, its hefty legs smashing against the hard ground as it bore on me. I just stood there, waiting for it. It stopped a few feet away and wrapped its warm trunk around me. I pulled myself closer to it and embraced it. Memories flooded my mind of how this bear had wrapped its trunk around Juke. Was there anywhere I could go that memories of Juke would not haunt me? I stroked Marc’s fur and tried to get lost in the bear’s warmth. For a few seconds I forgot it all. The mantle of responsibility that Chuspecip had placed on me fell lightly from my shoulders. The noose of Juke’s death uncoiled from around my neck. I could breathe and I drew in deep, shaky, breaths of smoke bear musk. But after a while, even Marc’s presence was not enough to quell the rioting feelings inside me. I pulled away from the smoke bear. It turned its head towards me and stared at me with eyes that held wisdom far beyond that that any animal could possess.

I buried my hand in its deep fur one last time, before turning to leave. Marc blared its farewell, then it turned around and ran back towards the company of its kind. The smoke bears formed around it, their snouts all pointed up and they all blared loud discordant sounds.

Two imps walked in with pails of okun just as I moved towards the exit to the den. They bowed to me and held the fronds apart with their bodies. I did not know these imps. I only knew three out of the twenty-two that remained. They knew they were free so why did they remain? Imps. Of course the moment I gave them freedom was when they decided to punish me with their persistent presence. There was just no satisfying them. I thought of one imp in particular, an imp I had journeyed with, laughed with, dined with, explored the spectral existence with. I stormed out of the den.

My mood was foul. I could not help it. Everything in this paradise filled my thoughts with memories I tried to forget. I glanced at fronds and remembered how Juke had termed them canopy rooms. I looked at empty spots and remembered how Juke had sparred with Gamble on my return. Every sight seemed to have a memory of Juke attached to it.

I pushed a wide frond aside with my body, exposing a large okun pond. The liquid was a darker shade of pink with white granules floating on the top. I jumped into the okun and tried to swim my troubles away. I’d hoped that the scalding of the salts would burn so completely that no thought remained but the bite of the okun against my flesh. It did not work. The bath salts burned, and I remembered Fajahromo’s torture. Bath salts walked across my skin and my stomach ached with the memory of healing around the salts. The burn, the biting pain, and then Katan. I slapped my hands against the surface of the water, heaved and pushed even when every cell in my body cried out in fatigue. I was too weak. I had to eat. But I had shared too many meals with Juke. How could I eat without remembering how the uspec had told me stories? In the end my fatigue won out. I climbed out of the cleaning pond and walked out of the cleaning canopy room. Canopy room. It was a term that Juke had coined.

The warm drifting fogs dried the drops of okun left on my skin from the bath and the hail cooled my heated flesh.

I walked back into my canopy room and found five uspec faces turned abruptly to stare apprehensively at me. I dipped my feet into the okun that wound around the edge of the canopy tree, cleaning the sludge off the soles. Nebula was not amongst them. Marcinus’ soaru tentacles reminded me of the uspec who’d betrayed us. Marina, Kaiser of Katsoaru now, rewarded for its duplicity when Juke was dead. Under the founder’s protection. The weak founder that needed an uspec to fight its battle. I spat into the okun as I climbed over it. They watched me without speaking. Someone had left a platter on my hard fog coffer. I ignored the uspecs standing close to the stem of the tree and walked over to the hard fog coffer. I picked up a piece of sky fowl. Juke had eating sky fowl with me on the inter-port trail. After it had kept fast with me when I refused to eat due to my offspring’s ailment. I took a bite of the sky fowl meat but it tasted like dirt in my mouth. Still, I forced myself to chew and swallow. I had made an important decision. I needed to eat. I ate half of the sky fowl and then scooped up a marinated grain meal with my fingers. I felt the weight of the silent eyes behind me, digging into the skin on my back. I took a gulp of fruit wine. It was made from the same purple fruit that I had eaten that morning.

I turned around and stared into the faces watching me. Matina, eyes wide, fingers drumming nervously against its thighs. Gamble, hands crossed over its chest, feet planted apart, jaw clenched. Matiu, somber. Fabiana, worried and Marcinus without emotion.

“I am leaving this place.” I said. It was the decision I’d made earlier, the decision that had given me the momentum to eat. I had to leave. I needed to fight, to kill. I needed to drown myself in something that could purge Juke’s ghost from crawling through my mind. Marina was in part responsible for Juke’s death. But so was Fajahromo. Fajahromo who was the primus drogher. Fajahromo who’d been working with the wrath of Sada from the very start. Juke died fighting for the sovereignty of this existence and every uspec’s way of living. Juke died because Fajahromo had kept us from entering Chiboga. Marina was protected by the founder, but Fajahromo was not. Fajahromo I could kill. Perhaps killing Fajahromo would earn me redemption, perhaps in some small way I could honor Juke with Fajahromo’s death. Our existence was still in trouble, by leaving this place, with its haunting memories of Juke, perhaps I could save the existence and myself. Maybe when I returned victorious, Nebula would look at me as it once had before. It would not run away from me again. It would not see me as a disappointment. Maybe or maybe I would die in the process. But I could not live like this.

Fabiana exhaled deeply, as if it had been holding its breath. It walked over to me and sat by my side. Then it leaned back against the coffer and it smiled. Its features relaxed.

“I knew you would not abandon Lahooni.” It said in a whisper of words.

I frowned at it. “I am not going to Lahooni.”

Fabiana started. Its eyes snapped open and it turned to stare at me. “Surely, sirga, you jest.”

I shook my head. The plenum’s reign was over. The plenum Kaiser that remained in Lahooni would die soon, whenever the founder chose to end its life. At least that was something the founder could actually do. The plenum troops that remained could continue to threaten the traitorous nobles in my port. They could keep them penned up and starving in the palace for all I cared. It was not as if they would accept my rule anyway, not without my sire’s ring, which graced Fajahromo’s finger. Fajahromo was my lifelong foe. It was the uspec that had grieved me the most and the time had finally come for me to face it. In a place where Juke had never been, in a frost plagued hell where memories of Juke would not follow me.

“Then where do you go?” it asked quietly, its eyebrows pulled down in confusion.

“To end the wrath.” I replied. I spoke in terse words, quick summaries of the visit I’d shared with Chuspecip. I tried to be kinder in my speaking of the founder than I was in my thoughts. I tried to pretend that I was not angry at it for granting Marina life and privilege when Juke was dead. I did not tell them how I had called the founder a coward. It had read my thoughts then. Did it read my thoughts now? There was a part of me that loved it. How could I not when it was my god, the first of my line? It was powerful, but it was so weak in the ways that truly mattered. It should have been strong enough to bring the dead back to life. It should have been strong enough to end the wrath of Sada as it had ended the plenum. For all that it should have been but wasn’t, I loathed it. I thought of how much I loathed and loved it, the two emotions warring within me, and then glanced nervously around me to see if there were green fogs in the air. My words would be a base cyan if they were colors. No matter how much I hated Chuspecip in that moment, my words would always be the loyal cyan. It was the first of my line. It was my god. It was weak.

When I was done speaking, the uspecs appeared somber. Fabiana stared thoughtfully into space. Matiu was as it always was, grave. Marcinus showed no emotion. It had no reaction to my words. Matina appeared at a loss.

“Then we are doomed,” Matina said, “the wrath has won.”

@OluwabuqqyYOLO I liked the way that you summarized the Juke Katan incident. I mean it really hurt me that Juke died, I keep wishing that it'll come back...it's soo sad. I'm glad you think it's going well

@tunjilomo thank you. Your question about the human part is very good, I'm happy you remember that. I'm not going to lie, the entire marked series has changed/become clearer as I've written this story. There are many things I didn't understand before about that whole incosem vs ancestry thing, that I'm starting to understand now. I think some of your questions will be answered by the end of this book. Though this story is not part of the marked series, the start and the end ties back into the marked series and it prepares us for what is to come in the human world.

@PToretto thank you and you are absolutely right about that part with Marcinus blessed eye. Thank you so much for pointing that out, I could definitely have handled that better

@cassbeat thank you for reading

@decoderdgenius Nebud is certainly not our typical hero. Nebud is very different. There are definitely better uspecs in this story, better skilled, better mannered, nicer, but there is something about Nebud that sucks you in a little. There are aspects to Nebud's character that I don't like, one of which is its attitude towards imps. I keep trying to counsel the uspec towards better behavior but it doesn't listen to me. And it tends to make some very rash decisions at times without thinking through to the consequences. But it still has some positive qualities which you've mentioned

@RealLordZeus there are a lot of details, but I think those details are necessary to really enhance the story. Plus, this is also where I'm learning to be a better writer. There are times when you can use a single word to describe what a character is seeing/feeling, but if you want the readers to feel it too then you need to do more. Anyway, my challenge now is to have the details in a way that does not point glaringly at the amount of details but just flows seamlessly. Thank you for pointing this out and you're right about the way of the story. It is meant to be Nebud's life story and in that it's different from others I've read (and written), in that it doesn't really follow a pattern of one big challenge that the protagonist has to overcome

@eROCK247 as in, I've seen a little to the future and I must say that I agree with you, it is a wonder that Nebud is still sane

@Fazemood I really do appreciate the criticism. I know how hard it is to give brutal feedback especially when it might not fully be appreciated/accepted by your audience. It's not always the easiest thing for me to read/hear but that makes me appreciate it even more. As long as you're giving constructive criticism, then that's an avenue for me to grow and get better, which is my ultimate goal. If I don't know how my plot and characters are failing, then I don't know how to improve them, and I need to know how to make it better so that I can create and write to the best of my ability. So, I really am very grateful to you for your honest criticism because I need it to succeed. Thank you

Chacip’s glower went away and my fear eased. My heart calmed and my body relaxed. It shook its head at me. “Only a few days ago you cursed Chumani for giving its umanis life after death. There is no pleasing you.” It tilted its head to the side and my legs were already moving before my brain interpreted the command in the gesture. It turned its back on me and stood with its hands held behind its back. It stared through the bubble. I walked over to it, stood by its side, and stared down. We hovered over the boundary between the Labyrinths and Nefastu. It took me a while to register the pressure being applied to the bubble. It felt as if the bubble was pushing against an obstruction.

“I cannot enter.” It stated flatly.

I stared into the red covered road of Nefastu and pieces began falling in place. I thought of the lack of animation I’d always felt as soon as I crossed the boundary into that road. The voice that had driven me to go to Lahooni and challenge Checha. That voice had been absent when I’d walked into Nefastu. I’d tried desperately to reach for it but it had been completely silent there. Chuspecip was the voice in my head. The voice that had gone silent in Nefastu. It had gone silent because it could not enter Nefastu. I turned to face it. It stared intently at that red road.

“What does that mean?” I asked. I felt chills on my back and tingles in my spine. The answer seemed like it should be obvious to me, but it wasn’t.

“I can’t stop the invasion.”

I laughed. I could not help it. This was the god that I had risked so much for. The one that I had pinned all of my hopes on. Once Chuspecip returned the war with the plenum would end. But it hadn’t. The founder had been too weak to come to Arexon’s aid. I’d had to go there. Juke had died in the process, because I’d pinned my hopes on Chuspecip. Because I’d sold the founder to them all. And after all of that, we were still doomed. The invasion could not be stopped. I laughed until my stomach hurt. I laughed because I did not know what else to do. When I stopped laughing Chuspecip was still not looking at me. It looked down at that red road.

“Perhaps we are better off with one of the other Chus invading and taking ownership of this existence. Following you hasn’t done us much good.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I wished I could take them back. The founder had done much for my line. Whatever else it was, it was my ancestor. It ran to my line’s aid whenever the request was made. That was how it had been trapped in the first place. And even if I didn’t respect it, I’d seen enough of its power on the inter-port trail to fear it. I knew how easily it could kill me.

“But you also know I won’t.” It turned to face me, and I expected a glower, but its face remained emotionless. There were no frown lines, no tilted eyebrows, or bent lips. Its eyes stared at me without feeling. “Up to a point, Nebud. You have done much for me and you are grieving, and so my mercy in this moment is boundless.”

I should have apologized, but I didn’t. I felt odd where Chuspecip was concerned. I feared it. I couldn’t not be afraid after I’d seen it take so many lives on the inter-port trail. There was a huge part of me that honored it. It was weak in this moment in time, but it had not always been so. In its strength it had founded my line and protected us. I was afraid and in awe, but I was also disgusted by its weakness. How could it have made this existence and allowed for a scenario like this, where its world could be invaded, and it was helpless to stop it?

“Did you know that Chumani gave all of itself in the creation of umanis?”

I nodded.

“It took that much power to create a species like the umanis. Capable of change of great weakness and also great strength. They multiply much faster than uspecs do, because they procreate on their own, without giving their lives to do so. Chumani and Churaya have that in common.” It stopped talking. It looked away and then its eyes rose back to mine. “I did not make this weakness, Chumani did when it made the umanis.”

“Yet you love the imps so much.”

Its lips twitched. “I admire Chumani. I often wonder if I could do what it did, give all of myself for uspecs, as it did for umanis.” It shook its head. This time when its eyes focused on me, I knew it was about to say something important. “I cannot stop the invasion,” it said, “but you can.”

I laughed again. This time the laughter was shorter. Perhaps I should have known this was what it was leading up to when it brought me. I had been hoping too much that the founder would be able to end the wrath the way it had the plenum.

“How?”

“Kill the primus drogher and destroy its effigy in Permafrost.” It replied without inflection.

Drogher. There was something about the word. I’d heard it before. I felt the synapses twitching. The dots were there so close, but I struggled to piece them together.

“I led you to Permafrost so that you could see that effigy. The wrath has several droghers, but the primus drogher is the one with its effigy in their prayer cove.” Chuspecip sighed at the confused look on my face. “Droghers are uspecs with my lifeform that the wrath has managed to turn to their side. They need a large number of droghers to complete their invasion.”

“That’s why they want me.” As the last brio, I was a link to all of Chuspecip’s lifeforms. Even if I did not know how this link was kindled, I had a feeling the wrath did. Just as the plenum seemed to have. I remembered the wrath’s attack on the inter-port trail. That was the night that my offspring had gotten sick and I’d feared that it would die. That was also the night that Musa had spoken to the wrath imps in the harsh tongue I could not hear. I remembered then where I’d heard the word ‘drogher’ the wrath had used it then. There had been an uspec with them. There was something else, something big.

“Remember the effigy.”

My memories scrambled from the command as if hastening to obey Chuspecip’s command. The knots in my memories loosened, unwound, and formed into straight lanes. I remembered the Labyrinths and the fight I’d had with Fajahromo in the Mausoleum. It was as if I was standing there, watching it. I remembered the fear that had gripped me when I thought Musa would die. I remembered the journey to Nefastu. It was as if I was feeling that cold again, walking under uncouth hail and being pelted by it. I remembered shivering and falling asleep underneath a canopy tree. Warmth invaded my senses. Marc. I remembered the bear and also the snow jackals. I remembered the bandits, Monica. I thought of Monica and my mind jumped from one cord to another. I was back in Permafrost refusing to be one of the uspecs who bowed to imps. I fought. Monica saved me. It took me to the prayer cove.

I was standing in front of a wall with a painted image of Musa. Imps knelt before it. They prayed to the firstborn.

“This is the tabernacle.” Monica whispered to me. “Our most sacred cove.”

There was darkness. The ground here was soft. It got softer and then there was light. There was something in the center of the cove. A statue. I peered at it. This cove had been roped off but imps knelt around the ropes. There was a figure hidden in the darkness. I moved closer. It was an uspec. No, I peered even closer. It was a statue, with the outline of ailerons. It had horns on its chest and a tail between its legs. My skin felt clammy. A slow buzz began to form in my belly. It burned through me. It crept up my spine and down my legs. It tickled my brain and made my tongue swell. My throat felt dry and my mouth dry. The effigy was a kute-boga crossbreed.

“With all due respect, drogher,” the imp began, speaking the kute tongue, “our mother…”

I was in a hard fog cell. An imp stood on the other side of that cell, with an uspec, a kute-boga crossbreed. The imp had been in Permafrost. It had spat on me. I’d wondered at the time what the uspec was doing with the imp. Then I heard another imp’s voice and I was standing in sludge.

Xavier stopped me. “No.” it said. “I cannot allow you to kill it…I can release your friend as I said I would, but I cannot allow Fajahromo to die.”

Fajahromo. The name came from everywhere. It crashed in on me from every side. I felt as if I was being hit in the face with the name. Fajahromo and Xavier in the pits of Hakute. Fajahromo having imps who fought and danced like the wrath. Xavier refusing to allow me to kill Fajahromo when I had the chance. Xavier who was part of the wrath. If it had known then that I was the last brio it would not have let me leave. Fajahromo in the effigy. As soon as I’d seen that effigy I had known that it reminded me of Fajahromo. Fajahromo in Lahooni, with another imp from the wrath. Fajahromo on the inter-port trail.

“The plenum has already decided to join with the wrath of Sada.” Marina’s words.

“When did the plenum decide?” I asked.

“They decided this morning and they sent the wrath’s envoy back with their decision and with sworn oaths of their intentions.” Marina’s response.

And right before then, Fajahromo had come to bid me farewell. Fajahromo had been the wrath’s envoy. All this time, Fajahromo had been working with the wrath of Sada to invade our existence. My fingers curled into fists by my sides.

I turned back to face Chuspecip and found that we were back in the paradise in the Isle of Brio, standing underneath the cyan light.

“You will do it.” It was not really a question. Chuspecip already knew that I had to. I could not bow to imps. Fajahromo being the primus drogher was only the icing on the cake.

“Where is it?”

Chuspecip’s eyes travelled over my face. “Permafrost, with the wrath.”

I smiled.

“I believe this is yours.”

I looked up and found my belt in Chuspecip’s hand. It held it out to me. The belt with my cutlass and my dagger.

“I found it on the inter-port trail.”

I took it with a nod of gratitude. There was an extra dagger in the belt. I pulled that dagger out and blanched at the black blade. It was Katan’s dagger. It was the one with polluted life.

“Destroy the effigy with that. It is the only thing that will end it. After the effigy is destroyed you will be able to use spectra and emotions easily, just as you would anywhere else. Once Fajahromo is dead, the effigy cannot be remade and whatever hold the other existences have on mine will be destroyed.” It paused and then its gaze bored into me. “You must destroy the effigy first. Once the effigy is dead, the rest will come easily.”

I nodded, frowning at its use of the word dead to describe a statue.

“This is risky,” It continued, “if they turn you to their cause then it could be the end of this existence as we know it.” I stared at Chuspecip, it looked at me though it felt like it was looking through me. Of course Chuspecip knew that there was no chance of the imps convincing me to join them. There was nothing I could stomach less than the thought of my existence being run by imps. The founder went on. “They need your cooperation to use you to locate the lifeforms. So, they will approach you, try to lure you in, try to convince you to join them. That is what we must use to our advantage. They will invite you to Permafrost. After they lead you into Permafrost, find a way to kill the effigy. Then the primus drogher.”

“Will you be able to enter Nefastu after that?”

It shook its head, its gaze haunted.

I turned my gaze back to Katan’s dagger. I’d watched Katan cut off Juke’s hand and fingers with this blade. I’d seen what happened once it stabbed the blade into Matina’s back. I placed the dagger back into the sheath it had come from, careful not to cut myself on the sharp black blade. When I turned my attention back to the clearing, the clearing was gone, as was Chuspecip. I was standing in the middle of my canopy room with Nebula sleeping soundly on the other side of the tree stem.

My jaw clenched. My grasp on the hard fog box tightened. The sharp corners poked at my flesh but I did not mind the pain. “Arrange a hunting party,” I said, “I will not let it get lost.”

“I will if you insist on it, but I would advise against it. Ula needs time sirga, it will return when it is ready. It would never run away and there is no one here that would do your offspring harm.” Fabiana’s scowl deepened. “Well there was no one before you brought the imperial Marcinus.”

I eyed it. Did Fabiana really believe that it sought to protect my offspring more than I did? I turned my back on the uspec and stormed off. It said nothing to detain me, and it made no moves to follow me.

I did not see many people outside. There were several imps. It did not seem as if any of the imps had left. Did Musa not tell them that they were freed? I’d left them with enough of a fortune to start new lives away from me.

I made my way back to the canopy tree that I shared with my offspring. Chike was standing off to the side when I lifted the fronds and walked in. There was a platter on my coffer and a jug of wine. I walked past the imp and went over to that coffer. Then I removed the contents, placed them on the cloud ground, and reached for the key to my coffer. I stared at the box for a long time before I was able to place it into the coffer and then remove the key, returning the form to the fog lid.

“I’m not hungry. You can take the food away.”

I walked over to the little pond around the stem of my tree and jumped into it. I bent a few times, submerging myself in the okun, before climbing out of it. There were better okuns in this paradise, ones with bathing salts. I would visit one later. I was suddenly feeling exhausted.

Chike was still standing there when I climbed out of the pool.

“You should eat master.”

Its eyes did not meet mine. It mourned too. Eight of us had left and Chike was the only one who honestly mourned all the ones who hadn’t returned. I felt bad for not mourning the imps more. They had died fighting for me. Just as so many others had now.

I sat on the hardened cloud flooring. It reminded me of the inter-port trail, and the inter-port trail of Juke. Would a time come when everything did not remind me of the uspec?

“You are free. You all are. Did Musa not tell them?”

Chike’s gaze rose to me. “It did. It gave us the money too. I am grateful. It is more money than I’ve ever had. Even before I died.”

I nodded at the imp. “I am grateful for your service Chike. Truly.”

It smiled. “I am not going anywhere master.”

I sighed. Imps. I spread myself out on the foam floor and turned my back on the imp. I stared at the stem of the tree. The pink okun danced in the periphery of my vision. I heard the rustle of fronds when the imp left and heaved a sigh of relief. I was finally on my own for the first time since I saw Juke’s corpse.

Do I please you sirga?

I closed my eyes, but visions of Juke filled my mind. I saw them, as if they were painted into the insides of my eyelids. I felt Juke’s presence around me. I carried the uspec in my heart. My offspring’s accusations battered me. They sounded in my ears. Nebula’s words were stamped into my brain. How many uspecs had died fighting for me? Most of them had been traitors, Lahooni traitors sent by Jukien, Juke’s progenitor. I remembered how angry and mistrustful I’d been of Juke. As if that uspec could ever betray me. Juke was guileless. It didn’t have a single scheming bone in its body.

Do I please you sirga?

Yes, I wanted to say to the uspec one more time, you please me.

I was tired, exhausted, but I couldn’t sleep. I kept playing the events over again in my head. I should have forced Juke to stay behind. But it wouldn’t have. None of them would have stayed. Fabiana only stayed because I left it with my offspring. I could not have forced Juke to wait for me here. Even Matina that had no fighting skill had thrust itself into battle with me, time after time. I thought of the inter-port trail, of the troops of plenum soldiers. We’d been so close to sneaking into Chiboga. I’d been so close to being able to protect them all with my lit okun. So close. But Fajahromo had gotten in my way. I realized that I had not really thought of Fajahromo since then. Where had the uspec gone? I had so many reasons already to want Fajahromo dead, this was just one more. I would find it. It had my progenitor’s ring. It carried the key to me reclaiming my port. I had to find it, and when I did it. I would kill it for all the uspec’s that died because of it.

Time passed and I did nothing but twist around on the foam. I got up when it was obvious that I could not sleep and then I walked out into a red night. It was late in the night, late enough that the clouds beamed red light untainted by orange hues. I walked over to a canopy I knew had okun underneath it. My stomach twisted and the scarred flesh twitched at the thought of bathing salts. I remembered Fajahromo’s torture, I remembered the bathing salts that it had forced my wounds to grow around and how badly they’d burned. Fajahromo was the oldest enemy I’d had. Every other enemy was dead, but not Fajahromo. The uspec had an annoying ability to escape death.

I stopped in front of the canopy tree when I heard voices beneath it. I recognized the uspecs. Fabiana and Matiu were discussing the war in Chiboga in more detail. Fabiana told Matiu that the news in Lahooni was still the same. The plenum troops that had invaded my port were still there, which meant that the last plenum Kaiser was still alive. I turned around and walked towards another canopy tree with an okun. I was not in the mood to discuss with Fabiana and Matiu. Chuspecip could end the war in Lahooni easier than it had ended the one on the inter-port trail. I was not ready to return to Lahooni. Why should I run to the rescue of nobles who plotted against me? Chuspecip could take its time going to Lahooni.

I heard laughter. The sound seemed odd on this day, in this place, after the somber silence that had pervaded the paradise since we returned with our news of Juke’s death. It was such an odd sound that I followed it. It came from the other side of an okun, behind thick drifting fogs. I followed and heard it emanating from behind a canopy tree. I kept going until at last, I found the source.

I took a step back.

My eyes had to be playing tricks on me. Or I could be dreaming. Perhaps I had never left the canopy room, maybe I had fallen asleep after all, on that soft foam ground. That was the only explanation for what I saw.

I’d found a meadow, with cyan light shining down on a center patch. Namas grazed on the grass. They walked around the pair in the middle, underneath the cyan light. One of those uspecs laughed. It was the sound of the laughter that drawn me here. It was my offspring. It sat opposite another and it laughed. I gaped at the uspec that sat across from it.

It was Juke.

It was Juke, alive and well, underneath the cyan light. An ache in my chest eased. My dark mood lightened. I smiled when I saw the wide smile on Juke’s face. it crept all the way up to its outer eyes. It was Juke’s special smile.

“Juke!” I stepped onto the grass. My steps were unsure. I stumbled and fell. But then I stood back up. Nebula had turned around to face me. It grinned at me. There were unshed tears in its eye, but it was smiling. It was happy. Juke was alive! I could not believe it. I made my way over to them, in the middle of the clearing. A nama ran into me. Its horn grazed my thigh. I moved it out of my way and kept walking. A sky fowl landed on my shoulder. I plucked the creature off me and then set it free back in the sky. The sky above this clearing was cloud-free. There were no red fogs here. No falling hail. This did not seem like any part of the paradise that I’d ever seen.

As soon as I reached them, Juke turned to face me.

It was Juke’s face. Juke’s smile. Juke’s voice. Juke’s body. But it was not Juke.

“Run along now, little one, I will visit you again.” Juke’s voice, but not Juke’s words.

Nebula rose. It walked away as though in a trance. The smile in its face did not waver. I realized then that it had not been smiling at me, when it turned. My own smile went away.

Juke’s body rose and Juke’s head turned. Juke’s eyes stared at me. I clenched my jaw and said nothing.

Juke’s smile went away and Juke’s voice sighed. The cyan light focused intensely on Juke. The beams shone so bright that I could no longer see the uspec within it. The light was blinding. It hurt to look into it. I closed my eyes and shielded my gaze with my hand when my eyelids proved an insufficient protection. Seconds passed before the blinding light went away. I dropped my hand and opened my eyes, but all I saw was a deep cyan. I blinked and waited for the cyan to fade from my gaze.

Chacip stood in front of me.

It was a few inches taller than I and several inches brawnier. It stared evenly at me. I wondered what it expected. Did it think that I would fall to my knees in front of it as I had in the standard existence? Did it think that I would call it ‘my god’ again? After it had freed Marina and left Juke to die?

“Juke was already dead, Nebud. I can do a lot of things, but even I cannot bring the dead back to life.”

I clenched my jaw and looked away. The namas continued their run. They grazed off the grass and bleated to themselves. The cyan light still shone from above. The sky overhead was a strange one. It had no orange dots that I could see, no clouds. There was nothing, so where did the cyan light come from?

“Why did you appear as Juke to my offspring? You will confuse it.” I said. I was scolding the founder. I was scolding my god and I did not care. I was too angry to care, too grieved. I did not look into its face as I spoke. I stared at the grass and the horns of the nama that grazed on it.

“It will remember it as a dream, nothing more.”

I did not respond.

“Come.”

I turned to look at the face of the form that it had taken, Chacip’s face. It was its face, an uspec life it had lived. My ancestor, the first of my line. Born directly of Chuspecip. Not even in my wildest imaginations could I have imagined that. It was not staring at me. Green fogs surrounded us. I got the feeling of being sucked in, as if I was being teleported with quicksand. Except there was no quicksand. Just green fogs. When the green fogs drifted away, I was standing in what looked like a crystal, transparent, bubble, hovering over a port with falling hail. I turned to my right and I saw several tall structures a few feet below me. I recognized the structures. I turned around and looked down on a port filled with mazes. There was only one place in the entire existence like this. It had to be the Labyrinths of Damejo. But how had we travelled from Hakute to Damejo without going along the inter-port trail?

I remembered who it was that I shared this bubble with. Chuspecip was still in the form of Chacip. It still stared evenly at me. I saw no anger in its face, but also saw no joy. There was no love for me, but it did not seem to despise me. Its eyebrows were straight. It had nothing on its green skin, and it had its hands crossed behind it. Chuspecip of course had the power to teleport without the inconvenience of the inter-port trail. It had ended the war with the plenum with the snap of a finger. But it had left Juke dead.

Chacip’s brows tilted down and its lips inverted. My heart pounded with fear. It was an unnatural amount of fear that felt completely natural. It was natural, it was my fear. I did not like it. I hated being afraid.

“I could not have saved Juke.” Its voice was low, and its words delivered coldly. I heard a warning in its tone. It could hear my thoughts then.

“The umani Chu found a way to deliver its own from death.” Even afraid, I could not help but retort.

Part 15
----------------------
The Isle of Brio
----------------------

I stood in front of the hail trees holding the hard fog box in my right hand. I thought about the smoothness of the object, of the sharp corners, of the loops etched into it and the fineness of the material. I thought about trivial things so that I wouldn’t think on what was inside the box.

Marcinus stepped forward. It was a slight motion, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye. Every time my gaze fell on Marcinus I cursed myself for allowing it to come along. I could not look at the uspec’s soaru tentacles without remembering Marina. There was a part of me that knew that the founder’s mercy had been just in some ways. Marina was, after all, just a child, easily manipulated. Its head had been filled with Manus’ lies. But Juke was dead because it betrayed us.

Marcinus’ center eye held mine. It was a blessed eye. We’d run across bandits while we travelled back on the inter-port trail. One of those bandits had stabbed its dagger into Marcinus’ center eye, and the bandit’s dagger had shattered. The blessed eye could not be pierced by any material in this existence. Further proof of Chuspecip’s power. The power that made the eye, the power that ended the plenum in a single breath, in a swarm of drifting fog. But Juke was still dead.

I tore my gaze from Marcinus. The area between the hail trees was empty. I thought of Nebula and there was an ache in my chest. My offspring had loved Juke. It was Juke’s name that Nebula had said first. I did not know how to tell my offspring that I had failed to protect Juke. The pain in my chest would not ease. It did not matter what I did, I could not relieve the ache, I could not lessen it or wish it away. My mood was gloom and my heart heavy and weary. I felt the organ in my chest, weighing me down.

I continued to stare at the space between the hail trees.

Matina, Gamble and Chike stood behind me. I heard feet shuffle. It was not Matiu’s or Marcinus’. They both stood beside me, where I could see them. I was the only one without a belt, without weapons. Mine had been lost on the inter-port trail and I’d been in no mood to try to search for them. It was over now though, no more fighting, no more wars. I had no more need for weapons.

I sighed. No amount of waiting would make the news any easier to deliver.

“Salve,” I breathed into the empty space. I imagined the words drifting in swirling loops from my mouth as the words had done when Chuspecip surrounded the battle on the inter-port trail. Would my words be the pro-founder cyan or the white and red of those uspecs against the founder? They were all dead now. All but Marina.

Cyan fog appeared between the hail trees. The fog parted and I caught a glimpse of paradise. It was Juke who’d named this place so. I walked in.

Red fogs surrounded me and fine hail fell on me. My feet sunk into sticky quicksand and sludge. The top of my scalp brushed against a humid cloud and I felt turtles slithering against my skin. We walked by a large okun with swans swimming across the surface. I wondered if jumping into that okun would purge me of the pain of losing Juke as it had for Binna. I’d cared for Binna, I’d cared a lot for it, but Juke was different. Something small and alive climbed allover my feet when I stepped into a large puddle of quicksand. The white, scaly head of a draco bobbed out of the brown surface. There were no clangs of metal to welcome me this time, as there had been when Musa and I returned from our trip to bring the founder back to its existence. Those clangs had been Juke and Gamble sparring. Juke had grown so different from the young uspec I left behind that I had been unable to recognize it. It had grown into a warrior. I thought of its bulk and of its grace. It had been an exceptionally skilled fighter. My thoughts were flooded with images of Juke from the inter-port trail, killing the first plenum soldiers we’d encountered and then laughing about it. I thought of the uspec in Chiboga, sparring with Gamble against Marcinus. Then back on the inter-port trail, fighting against more plenum soldiers. Protecting me. I thought about when we’d been taken hostage by the plenum. Katan’s torture. Katan had cut off Juke’s hand and the uspec had not shed a tear. It yelled out its misery, but it had not cried.

I don’t cry sirga. My progenitor beat it out of me.

I thought of Juke staring up at me under the canopy tree and saying
You did not cry either sirga, and I know you loved Binna as I did. Is my progenitor wrong to say noble’s should not cry?

I had not wept for Binna.

I had wept for Juke. The first time in my life that I shed a tear. I did not like to dwell on it. I’d always thought that tears made an uspec weak. I despised uspecs that cried. But I had cried at the sight of Juke’s corpse. I had cried when the life slipped from its smiling face. And every time since, every time I thought of Juke, I felt a sudden urge to weep. Moisture filled my eyes and blurred my vision, and my throat suddenly grew tight, so tight I had to swallow. As I did in that moment. Of all people, why did it have to be Juke? I knew it was bad to think it, but I would have happily traded anyone else in my honoraria for Juke. It was an ungrateful thought, they’d all risked their lives for me. I did not want to lose any of them, but it was so hard to live with the loss of Juke.

I think tears are a solace for the living not for the dead.

My eyes watered. Juke. My heart ached to see its wide smile shining at me once again. To walk beside it either as the young uspec it had been or the brawler it had grown into.

“Mater! Ma-mater! Fa-bi-biana m-m-m-m-my mater is b-b-back!”

A young green form crashed into me. It came running and then jumped up high enough for its arms to wrap around my neck. The warm skin of its smooth face stroked against my cheek and eyelids. I wrapped my arm around its body and just held it close to me. It smelt of innocence and cheer. There was a scent of fresh okun that clung to it and a musk of clean drifting fogs. It was smiling so wide that a portion of its lips was against my cheek. I closed my eyes and just held it in my arm. I had feared that I would never see it again. I had thought of many eventualities, but not this. Not that I would return without Juke. I held tightly to my offspring and stayed as I was, under falling hail, surrounded by drifting fogs. Everything in this paradise appeared pure. Everything but me.

“Salutations sirga. Welcome back.” Fabiana’s voice tickled against my ears. There was an innocence to that voice too, a lightness that I had not heard in a while. Even when we were at our cheeriest on the inter-port trail and in Chiboga, our voices and thoughts had been polluted by the knowledge of war and then later, by death. The plenum’s war against Chiboga was one that would live on forever in spectral existence history, but I would have been happy to have missed it. Juke. I’d led the uspec to its death.

I opened my eyes. Fabiana was not smiling. Whatever happiness I’d heard in its voice was gone now. It must have looked at the uspecs I returned with and come to the conclusion that my offspring was yet to reach. It bowed gravely to me. I wanted to speak, to call out greetings to it in return, but there was a lump in my throat. I could not speak around it. So, I just kept looking. I looked past Fabiana to the score of imps that stood behind it. They would have cause to mourn too. Juke was not the only fatality that we’d taken. Two of the imps who’d accompanied me were lost as well. My gaze fell on Musa. It was still here. Its hand was intertwined with another imp’s. Halima. That was all it took for an imp to break its word. The imp’s gaze caught mine. I clenched my jaw and looked away. Whatever we’d once shared was long gone.

“Ga-gamb-ble. Chike. Mat-tiu. Matina.” My offspring counted off the uspec’s names and then it stopped speaking. I knew the moment I’d been dreading had come.

Nebula pulled back, far enough that it could look me in the eye. Its center eye focused on mine and its eyebrow pulled down. “W-where is Juke?”

I could not speak. The lump in my throat had not cleared.

“M-mater, w-where is J-juke? W-where is Juke?”

I shook my head.

Nebula let out a high-pitched shriek. “W-where is Juke?”

I felt like a fool, standing there, carrying my offspring in my arm and staring at the pain that was slowly growing to take over its features. All I did was shake my head. All I could do was shake my head. No one spoke. Nebula continued to scream out its question and no one spoke. No one answered.

“P-please t-tell me. W-where i-i-is J-j-juke?”

I looked into Nebula’s eye. Juke called it Ula. Now several of the other uspecs called it the same name, but it was Juke who’d nicknamed it that first.

“Juke is dead.” I said.

“N-no! N-no!” Nebula screamed. It pushed against me but I held it tight. I held it tight when its sludge stained feet pulled up, lay against my chest and then pushed back. I held tight when it pushed so far that it felt as if it would wrench my arm right out of its socket. I held tight even when its hands rose up and clawed at my face. it scratched me and I held tight. “W-w-why di-didn’t you s-save it? Y-you di-di-didn’t p-prot-tect it! Y-you l-let it die!” Tears trailed down my offspring’s face as it spoke. Nebula twisted forcefully from side to side and my grasp on it loosened. Before I could tighten my hold the uspec was already on the ground. I moved towards it and it ran away. I watched it go. It ran fast. It darted around the fronds of a canopy tree, over a large sludge puddle, behind a low cloud. Its green form disappeared from view, hidden behind the low clouds and drifting fogs.

“What happened, sirga?” Fabiana asked.

I could not speak. I just stared in the direction that Nebula had run away. Its accusations played on a loop in my head. I should have protected Juke better. I should never have let it fight Katan. If only Chuspecip had come a few minutes earlier. If only we’d been able to slip back into Chiboga without Fajahromo identifying us. If only Juke had not left with Marcinus to find the plenum soldiers Sophi had met with. If only I’d refused to leave with Juke in the first place.

Matiu told Fabiana what had happened. While Matiu spoke, Fabiana glanced warily to the side. I’d forgotten about Marcinus being there. I continued to stare out into the space that Nebula had run to. It did not return. There were several loud sobs when Matiu was done speaking. They all came from imps. Juke had been loved. The uspec had been a light, it shone brightly everywhere it went. It had come into my life and changed me in ways that I could not even explain.

I walked away from the group of mourners.

I’d meant to go in search of my offspring, but I found myself in the canopy room that had belonged to Juke. I stared at the stem of the tree and remembered when Juke had stood close to it, begging me to spare its progenitor’s life. I looked around the foam flooring, at the white and patches of luminous red, I looked at the multicolored fronds that covered the perimeter. Juke had spent five years here.

I heard ruffling sounds and turned around.

Fabiana was standing beside me. It bowed. “Condolences on your loss, sirga, Juke was very dear to us all. It will be missed.” My mind chose that moment to note that Fabiana had not wept when it learnt of the news of Juke’s death. It had not fallen to its knees and cried as it had after its sibling was lost. No pink streaks stained Fabiana’s face and its voice did not shake.

“Where is my offspring?”

Fabiana rose. It frowned. Its pupils all moved towards the center of its face and then roved my body all at once, travelling together in the same direction. “There is no end to this place,” it said, once its gaze returned to my face, “none that we’ve found in the years that we’ve been here. And there are coves, tunnels, secret entrances and exits that only the identity of your line can open. Ula has found several. It could be anywhere.”

“Marina is the Kaiser of Katsoaru now.” Marcinus pleaded with me. “If Gamble attacks, our soldiers will be forced to defend their Kaiser. Hasn’t there been enough bloodshed already?”

I looked at Marcinus’ center eye. The founder had put that eye into Marcinus face. Eyes did not grow back, but the founder had made it possible. The founder had stopped the war in minutes. The founder had spared Marina and the Katsoaru soldiers for Marcinus. Could it not have brought Juke back to life for me?

I wanted to cut Marina’s head off its body. I wanted to be where Gamble stood, poised to attack. But I had watched the founder, I had seen its work in the green fogs. It was powerful. More powerful than even I could have imagined. In my mind, the founder was always an uspec. It was our founder, but it was still an uspec. I had called it my god, but it was still an uspec. What I’d seen on the inter-port trail was not the work of an uspec. It was a god, and it was back. It had spared Marina. I wanted that uspec dead, but killing it would not bring Juke back. Nothing could bring Juke back. I was not going to lose another uspec in my honoraria because of Marina.

“Gamble.”

It turned to me.

I shook my head. Its jaw clenched and its hand tightened on its sword. It did not move away. Its lips shook and pink drops fell from its eyes. Its sword remained where it had been. It turned away from me and pushed Marcinus aside with all of its might. Then it charged at Marina again. A soaru uspec threw a dagger. Matiu threw a dagger to deflect it. I ran to Gamble.

“Stop!” I yelled into Gamble’s face. “It is not the founder’s will for the uspec to die.”

Gamble’s lips shook. “I spit on the founder!” It yelled. Pink tears mixed with saliva were vaulted from the uspec’s mouth as it spoke. “Juke is dead! Juke is dead because of it!” Its shoulders shook and streams of pink liquid fell from its eyes. “Juke is dead!” It cried out in anguish.

Matiu took the sword from Gamble’s hand. The uspec did not put up a fight. It was too grieved to. It clung to me. It grasped me on the arms and its wet eyes stared into my face.

“Juke is dead, sirga.”

My eyes moistened and my lips shook. My vision was blurred by the excess of liquid in my eyes. I swallowed several times. Then I cleared my throat and I forced the tears back. It was Juke’s own words that helped me push the tide of grief down. I think tears are a solace for the living not for the dead. It had said that to me after Binna died, on our first night in the paradise on the Isle of Brio. I had not thought that this would happen. I’d thought that I would have to be dead as well for any harm to come to Juke. I’d thought that I would have been able to protect it, and that if I survived the war, then it would too. I had not thought that it would die. That its young promising life would end here, on the inter-port trail. It was meant to be a duke, my duke, one of the advisors I counted on most.

I turned Gamble around and forced the uspec back, away from Marina. It cried as we walked. Uspecs spoke, but I could not hear them. We walked to Juke’s corpse. Matina was kneeling on the ground beside it. It was weeping too. Matiu did not cry. I released Gamble and bent to pick Juke up. It had a brawler’s weight. It had built its bulk to please me.

“Do I please you imperial one?”

I remembered Juke grinning at me after I returned to our paradise after the years I had spent on the journey to return Chuspecip. I stared into the smile on its face. It wasn’t the uspec’s wide smile, not the smile that touched its outer eyes. Do I please you imperial one? Juke. Its lips didn’t move. Its eyes didn’t stare into mine. It was gone.

I barely heard Arexon’s voice. It wanted me to return with it to Chiboga. I needed to have my wounds seen to. I looked like I hadn’t eaten in days. I needed food. There would be a funeral for Juke in Chiboga. Arexon spoke more than I had ever heard it speak without anyone speaking back to it. Its chatter reminded me of Juke when it was younger. I remembered the stories it had told me. Its talks about fighting and tomes it had read. Its plays with my offspring. I felt the soft form underneath my feet. There were many green bodies wandering about aimlessly. These were the plenum soldiers that Chuspecip had dazed. Would it leave them dazed? Would they continue to wander about the inter-port trail as a sign to all of what had become of the uspecs who’d dared to side with the plenum against the founder?

We reached one of the entrances to the Chiboga hangar and Arexon stopped short. It turned around. My gaze remained on Juke’s smiling, lifeless, face. Arexon had mentioned wounds but I did not feel them.

Arexon cleared its throat and spoke. “I value you Marcinus, and you will always be free to come into my port at will. But not your junior cognate. And not its soldiers.”

“We will return to Katsoaru and await you, senior cognate.” I heard Marina’s voice and my jaw clenched. I kept my gaze locked on Juke’s face.

“Farewell, mighty one,” Marcinus responded.

It sounded as if it was bidding farewell to Arexon. I did not turn around. I was not angry at Marcinus. I did not blame it. It had fought for us and with us. It was its junior cognate I blamed. But the founder had spared its life, what was I to do in the face of that? I walked into a cloud wall and emerged in a hard fog room. We were back in the Chiboga hangar.

-----------------------------------------
The First Metropolis of Chiboga
-----------------------------------------

I’d been wrong, Marcinus had not left with its junior cognate. It was standing in the hangar, walking behind Arexon. I realized then that it was its junior cognate it had referred to as ‘mighty one’ and not Arexon. Marina, the uspec who’d betrayed us, it was Kaiser of Katsoaru now, with undazed soldiers to fight for it. Manus’ offspring was Kaiser and Juke was dead. It seemed somehow blatantly unjust.

The soldiers celebrated.

They could not help it and I honestly did not blame them. It was not their fault that Juke was dead. They had fought a hard war for five years and it was finally at an end. They’d won. They had every right to celebrate. I thought of Katan’s death and I felt a modicum of joy. Its death had been so painful that it had to put its own sword into its mouth to end the pain. It had killed itself. I thought that more pain should exist, that there should be a place for uspecs like Katan to go to so they could suffer even more, even after they were dead. Was that what the umani Chu had in mind when it created the umanis? It should have made a separate world for its dead umanis then, instead of sending them to ours. If I was the founder I would have kept Katan in endless pain. I did not know how it was possible, but I would have found a way. The founder was merciful. It spared over eighty percent of the plenum’s soldiers. It had left them in a daze but I knew the daze would not last forever. And it had spared Marina. Marina had betrayed us, and cursed the founder. But Chuspecip had spared it.

I got into a canoe.

The news of the victory had spread. It was evident because the hard fog streets were filled with uspecs celebrating. They bowed to us, probably because Arexon rode in the same canoe as we did. They called out praises to Arexon and to the Kuwor and to the Founder. We drove by them.

As soon as we reached the Castle, I knew that I had to leave. I did not want to be in this port with the uspecs celebrating. I was not in the mood to be around uspecs who were so cheerful and happy. Arexon talked me into putting Juke’s corpse down and I did. I placed it on a cyan table in my room where I could watch over it as Arexon’s retinue of pious healers trudged into and out of the room. Matiu, Matina, Gamble and Chike were in the room with me. They stared at Juke’s corpse as I did. Matina and Gamble had stopped crying somewhere between the hangar and the Castle. No one had any appetite when imps brought in trays of food.

Even the imps were happy.

I wanted to leave this port.

Arexon and Marcinus came in. Two imps accompanied them. The imps were soldiers. One of them was Zane, the imp from the mine of Aurelion.

Arexon paced the room.

“We should bury it, Nebud.” It said gently. “I can send for a cobra and give it a noble’s burial.”

A boga noble’s burial. I stormed out of the room. Two drunken soldiers almost collided into me. They lifted their cups in a slurred toast to the founder and then they laughed and continued walking along. They hummed the Uspecipyte fight song as they went on their way. All I wanted was silence, just a few minutes to myself, but everywhere I went, there were Chiboga soldiers drinking, celebrating, laughing loudly, telling riotous tales of the war, a few offered me the drinks in their own cups.

I went back to my room. Only Matina and Gamble remained. They stood on either side of Juke’s corpse. Matina sang a song. Their hands seemed to be doing something. I walked over to them and found them removing the scales from Juke’s neck. They polished the scales they’d removed and then placed them in a fine cyan hard fog box.

“What are you doing?”

Matina stopped singing. Its sad eyes dug into me. Gamble did not look up.

“When a Lahooni noble dies outside its port, it is customary to have a piece of the noble’s feature left to return to its line, so that they can inter it in quicksand with others of the line who’ve passed as well.” Gamble spoke without inflection. I remembered the words. I’d heard them before. “Hoonis also believe in passing on some of their scales to their loved ones, to be fashioned into protective weapons. That way the uspec who’s died is still able to protect the ones it left behind.”

I joined them. There was nothing else to do. I pulled out one of Juke’s scales and I polished it. Matina continued its singing. I remembered how relaxed Juke had been when Matina had begun singing on the alley in the inter-port trail. We removed all the scales and placed them all into the fog box. Gamble sniffed. Matina’s voice broke on a high note.

“Juke told me that, if it did not die protecting you, sirga, then it wished to die fighting in a great war. It died how it wished to, in your service.” Gamble’s words were spoken without inflection and I did not know how it expected me to take them. I was angry and sad and pained.

I reached into my anger. It was easy, I had a lot of it. I reached into the anger and brought out quicksand. It spread on the table underneath Juke and then sucked its corpse in. I interred Juke in the quicksand. Once the body was gone, I stared at the box of cyan scales.

“We are returning to the Isle of Brio.” I stated.

I picked up the box of scales and stared at it. This was all that was left of my Juke. Its scales. They were strong scales, sharp at the edges. Sturdy cyan scales. I extended the box to Gamble and then to Matina. They each took one scale. Then, I snapped the box shut and held it in my hand. My belt was gone. My dagger and my cutlass, both lost in the inter-port trail. I could make a new dagger from Juke’s scales. Whenever I fought, Juke would be there with me.

We did not have much to put together, but what little we had, we arranged. Every time my curtain flapped, notes of drunken revelry drifted from the port’s celebration into my room. The box was the only thing I had to carry. We’d only brought a few satchel bags. Matina and Gamble carried those. Chike and Matiu took scales from the box looking as grim as I felt.

“At least stay the night,” Arexon said, when I went to bid it farewell. “Just the night.”

I shook my head. I could not be around this celebration. I just could not.

It sighed. It walked over to me and placed its hands on my upper arm. “You will come back and visit me.” I almost smiled at the tone of Arexon’s voice. It was not making a request but giving an order.

“Yes, sirga. After things are settled, I will come back and visit you.”

Arexon smiled. “Make sure you bring Nebula. I’ll have an offspring of my own for it to play with then. And bring Musa. Tell the imp that I insist on its company.”

I swallowed and smiled, but the gesture felt off, somehow wrong on my face. “I will,” I promised.

Arexon nodded and its smile faded away in degrees. “Gratitude, my friend. If you had not come, we would all be dead.”

I shook my head. “It was the founder.”

“It was you.”

I was too tired to argue. “Farewell sirga.”

Its face was serious. It placed its palm against the side of my face, and it looked deeply into my eyes. “Farewell my friend.” It took its hand down.

Marcinus followed us.

I frowned when we reached one of the Castle’s docks and the uspec was still with us.

“I want to accompany you to the Isle of Brio before I return to Katsoaru.” It said.

I frowned at that. “Why?”

Its gaze dropped to the hard fog grounds. “I want to apologize to your offspring Nebud. I owe it at least that much.”

I nodded.

Part 14
----------

A vision of green filled my eyes.

Ma-mater.

Nebula.

Pieces fell into place like a puzzle being constructed. I remembered names and places and uspecs and feelings. Emotions flooded me. Pain, anger, joy, happiness, fear, sorrow, grief. I remembered Juke. I remembered Katan. The grief filled me, but the vision of green blinded me. I choked on green fumes and coughed. I felt suffocated. The green particles tickled my throat as they went in, sucked into my body by my large inhales. I wheezed.

Katan stared at me. Its lips moved but I could not hear a word it said.

The green swirled. It was as if the plenum’s camp had suddenly been infused with green fog. It took over everything. It made faces harder to see. The green swallowed up every inch.

Then the ground underneath my feet began to shake.

The ground trembled and every structure in the camp came crashing down.

Katan’s eyes widened.

The plenum soldiers looked around.

The other plenum Kaisers yelled something.

I read the word of their lips and tasted it in the swirling green fogs.

Chuspecip.

Katan faced me. It launched its dagger at me.

That was the last thing Katan did.

The dagger fell from its hands.

It screamed. Blood trailed out of its eyes, its ears, its noses. Its lips. Blood came out of it. Its eyes popped out of their sockets and the uspecs’ howls of pain grew deafening. It wept tears of blood from sockets without eyes. Then it lifted its own sword and stuck it into its mouth. It killed itself.

The plenum soldiers withdrew.

The entire camp was in ruble.

Every hard sludge dwelling was now nothing more than liquid sludge on the ground. There were no structures for as far out as the eye could see. Just thousands of soldiers in metal helmets and metal mesh belts, with their mouths hanging open and their eyes darting nervously around the camp.

The plenum Kaisers dropped to their knees. They spoke and I read the words off their lips and saw it swirling like white mist in the green fog. They begged for mercy. They begged for the founder’s forgiveness.

They died quick deaths.

This was route. I felt it. The life was taken from the Kaisers without anyone touching them and without red fog surrounding them. The form was taken from the sludge dwellings without anyone using pansophy to transfer it out. It was route. And if it was route, then the founder was here.

You awakened me. The voice that spoke was the founder’s within me. It was just as it had always been. From the first time that it called my name and declared that I was its, that I belonged to it. It spoke to me and I heard it as I would hear a memory.

The plenum soldiers looked around. The iriras that had surrounded Gamble sought to kill it. They died instead. All fifteen of them. The soldiers around Matiu and Matina withdrew.

The green fog thickened around Matina. I watched as Matina’s form seemed to leave it. It reminded me of what it had looked like when Musa was being sapped by the samu. Matina was being sapped. But it wasn’t sapped fully. Its form returned and the black gash that had been on its back was gone.

The green fogs thickened.

Plenum soldiers dropped. Not all, not many, but a few. I did not know how the ones that died were selected. I did not know what they’d done to earn the founder’s ire, but they fell, as the Kaisers had fallen. None of their deaths was as horrific as Katan’s.

Was that not your wish?

It felt oddly good to speak to the founder again. It was not in me, as it had been once. I did not feel its power, or any link to its self. I just heard it. I heard it as a whisper in my ear, and a bellow in my mind.

When the green fog lightened, my surroundings were different. I was still on the inter-port trail, still standing in the decomposed plenum’s camp, but now Arexon and the full Chiboga forces stood beside and behind me. Arexon’s sword was bloodied. It stared around with its lips parted. Its mouth hung open. I did not think I had ever seen Arexon look so shocked.

“It is done.”

The voice that spoke was loud and chiding. It bellowed and I was certain that every person there heard it as I heard it. In my mind, in my body, echoing within my skull, reverberating in my ears. It was as if the green fog had been given a voice and it spoke to us in that voice. In loud tones, in jarring whispers. It was a voice filled with contradictions. It was at once comforting and scolding. It appeared to come from outside but at the same time I felt it within me, as if I had birthed the sounds myself.

“It is done.”

And just like that, it was. Years of fighting, thousands of corpses, a bitter chasm, five Kaisers’ thirst for power, the founder’s absence. It was all done. It was all over. In a snap of Chuspecip’s finger. And I was grateful. And I loathed it. If it was so easy to end the war then why could it not have ended sooner, just moments before? Why was Juke dead? Why couldn’t the founder have awakened before Juke had to die?

The plenum soldiers left standing dropped their swords and knelt. They begged for mercy as the last Kaisers had. I did not hear their voices, but I saw the words. I watched the sound drift out of their mouths and swirl in loops in the green fog. The loops had different colors. Most of it was cyan. But there were a few that were a darker shade, like blue mixed with red. Then there were a few whose words came out in white swirls from their lips. Those ones died in the green fogs that surrounded us. More plenum soldiers killed.

The ones that remained begged more earnestly. More loops of words drifted out of their mouths and spun themselves in colors within the green fogs. The colors that drifted out of the uspecs’ mouths were ninety percent cyan. The last ten percent were killed, with only one exception. There was something in these colors, emotions perhaps, sincerity, I did not know. But the founder did.

The exception was a young uspec without features or outer eyes.

The green fogs seemed to be thickest around where Juke’s corpse had been. I could not see through them to the body I knew lay beneath. But I could see the others. My eyes locked on Marcinus. It lived. It was standing close to me, closer than I remembered it being before. In an odd way, I felt as if every uspec was standing close to me. I thought of an uspec and I saw it standing beside me. Not Juke though. The green fogs persisted around Juke.

“You have been spared by my mercy. But you are forever marked by the crimes you committed against me in this place.” These words were spoken selectively. The plenum soldiers heard it, the Chiboga soldiers did not. The plenum soldiers spoke in response, they cried in gratitude, they begged for mercy, they released endless loops of cyan words strung together in the vapor that wove around the green fogs.

The young uspec, the notable exception, its words were white and red. I did not know what those colors meant, but I knew that every other plenum soldier who’d released words like this was dead. I wanted to kill it. If not for this traitor, my Juke would still be alive. I wanted to reach for my sword and cut its little head off its body just as carelessly as Arexon had done to Sophi. I wanted to make sure that its traitor tongue would never wag again, and that its traitor eye would never see. I wanted to end its life just as Juke’s life was ended. I saw its center eye and remembered its age and my own offspring. It was so young, but I did not care. I wanted it dead.

Green fogs coated Marcinus. The uspec’s outer eyes widened. Then it fell to its knees and cyan words poured out of its mouth. “My god,” was all it said. I did not hear the words, I saw them. I saw the calmness in them, the resignation, acceptance and the faith. Even after all that Marcinus had been through, it was an Uspecipyte to the core.

“For your faith.” The founder’s words this time were heard by all but directed solely at Marcinus. “I will return what you lent me.”

Thick green fog surrounded it and it was impossible to see the uspec within them. I could not see its green form or the pink bow it had carried on its shoulder. When the fog lightened and drifted away, Marcinus had an eye in the center of its face. It had an eye to replace the soaru eye that I had taken from it. It spoke its eternal gratitude and devotion to the founder in swirls of cyan.

Then thick fogs formed around the last plenum supporter to remain.

Marina.

The young traitor. I wanted to kill it myself, but I was not fool enough to question the founder.

Marcinus was.

It begged. It begged in emphatic cyan swirls. It begged even as Marina continued to spew white and red disavowals of the founder. Marcinus begged in cyan and the thick fog around Marina thickened until the uspec was blocked out. I knew, even before the fog lightened, I knew that the founder would not kill it. I did not know why. Perhaps for Marcinus, in gratitude for Marcinus’ service. Or perhaps because Marina was still so young and impressionable. I did not know why, I only knew that the founder meant to spare it. The green fogs only grew thick around uspecs that the founder meant to touch.

I tasted hatred, bitter and acidic as bile, in the back of my mouth. I wanted the uspec to die.

One day, Nebud, you will learn the merits of mercy.

These were words the founder shared only with me, in my head, in my thoughts, in my memories. Yet I did not feel it as I had before. I felt no link to the founder’s lifeforce.

The fog lightened and the young uspec came back into focus. It blinked dazedly and then it turned its eye on me, then Marcinus and then it looked down and to the side. I followed the direction of Marina’s gaze and found Manus’ corpse as one of the many plenum affiliates who the founder had not chosen to spare. Marina’s gaze drifted back to Marcinus, then to me. When it spoke, the words that came out of its mouth were cyan, the color of the faithful.

The green fogs lifted.

The plenum soldiers still outnumbered us.

“What if they choose to fight again?” I asked. My lips did not move. No sound came from me and no swirls of color drifted from my lips.

They will not. Your lack of faith grieves me, Nebud.

Lack of faith! I wanted to yell at it. Juke was dead! Juke was dead because of how much faith I had in it. If I didn’t have faith in the founder, I wouldn’t have gone on this mission in the first place. I wouldn’t have taken my honoraria from Lahooni to the inter-port trail. Juke would still have been a Lahooni noble in its port, safe from the ravages of Katan’s demented mind. But I had brought Juke here, to this end, for what, for myself? I had done it for this war, this chasm between the plenum and the founder. Because it had been too weak to come to Arexon’s aid. I was tired. Perhaps the founder was right, perhaps I had no faith anymore. The war was over. Juke’s corpse was revealed to me. It lay on its back on the cloud flooring as it had been before. Its eyes were still open and staring off into the ether, its lips still frozen in a smile.

Juke.

The green was completely gone from the inter-port trail.

There were so many sounds. Chiboga uspecs were the loudest. They cried and sang and rejoiced and celebrated their victory. The bulk of the plenum’s soldiers shuffled around aimlessly. They looked as Cantonia had after the imp had it dazed. Several Chiboga soldiers slaughtered a good many of them. The founder did not return to gainsay them. I stared blankly at it all. The plenum soldiers, the ones that appeared dazed, they did not put up a fight. They just walked around like brainless uspecs incapable of lifting a sword. Was this what Chuspecip meant when it said they would be marked by the part they’d played in the war? I didn’t know. Things went a little hairy when a Chiboga soldier attacked a soaru plenum soldier who did not appear to be dazed as the others were. There were at least five hundred of these undazed plenum soaru uspecs. I wondered why Chuspecip had left them undazed.

“They are Katsoaru uspecs, sirga,” I heard Marcinus say to Arexon. “Please, hold your soldiers back.”

Arexon barked out an order and the Chiboga soldiers fell into line. They stopped their slaughter and their attack on the undazed soaru soldiers. Katsoaru uspecs. Chuspecip had left the Katsoaru uspecs undazed. For Marcinus of course. Just as it had kept Marina alive for Marcinus.

Metals clanged loudly against each other.

I turned.

Gamble had a sword close to Marina’s neck. Marcinus had stopped the blade with its bow.

“Get out of my way,” Gamble shoved at Marcinus but Marcinus did not budge.

Marina’s wide eye darted from Marcinus to Gamble and then back to Marcinus.

“Nebud,” Marcinus called entreatingly to me. It expected me to order Gamble back as Arexon had ordered its soldiers back from fighting with the Katsoaru contingent of the plenum’s forces. That contingent pulled closer to Gamble with their swords pointing out.

Fazemood:
Honestly Obehid...i sincerely do not see your constant desire for Nebud's tortures and lack of concrete achievements.

Why kill Uspecs who matter so much and let less important ones stay. You could have chosen another uspec not Juke. It doesn't hurt me so much that it died. I am just not seeing your reason for its death. Maybe to unleash a different Nebud, but what can it do? It will still be weak and too emotional uspec.

This updates keeps repeating itself. Next Matiu will die, matina too and everybody. Only a weak and indecisive Nebud will be left.

People are dying for nothing. Adding too many emotional part is not necessary. From action to another bout of punishment and captivity . For what gain?

If this tales keep coming in this format, sorry to say it's not worth all the time given it.

Thank you for the feedback, as always, I really appreciate it. I understand if it's gotten to the point where you feel like moving on from the story, I totally understand and I'm just happy for the following so far. I will definitely keep your plot critiques in mind, not for this one, since it's already done, but in the future. Thanks again, I really appreciate the honest, constructive, criticism

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Part 11
----------

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.

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.

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.

“Closer to the plenum’s camp.” Juke turned its head towards me, and our eyes met. “We cannot return to Chiboga in time to fight at the start of the war in the hangar, with the mighty Arexon, sirga. It is not possible.”

I sighed. I’d thought as much. I closed my eyes and I saw flashes of Nebula’s face floating threw my head. It was different having an offspring. I’d had one before but I had never been a mater, I had not been recipient to the unconditional love of one’s child. Before Nebula it would not have bothered me to see Sophi beheaded. I would not have cared that an uspec without outer eyes had been recruited by the plenum. None of it would have bothered me. But now I had Nebula, an infant, and I kept wondering if I’d been the one to take the life of the young plenum soldier. I gulped down some more of the warm okun.

Drops trailed down the edges of my mouth.

Sounds filled our alley. Soft, melodious notes followed by sharper ones. The shrill of metal on metal was altered against the thud of metal on wood. And then the sounds of the instrument was complemented by a whistled tune. Juke smiled. It closed its eyes, hung its head back and it smiled. It looked at peace.

Marcinus turned around. It’d had its back to us, but as soon as the music started, it turned. Its gaze fell on me and I saw sorrow etched into every feature on its face. Its lips were turned down, its eyes lowered, even its head was slightly bowed. Then its lips firmed up back into a straight line and it turned sharply, putting its back to us again.

I looked at Matina.

The uspec’s eyes were closed and its lips drawn together. It hummed and whistled, as it plucked at the mbira tines with its fingers. Why was I not surprised that the uspec had brought the instrument with it here? This strange uspec that wept after killing one that would have killed it.

Matina’s music was beautiful. I stared into the wall opposite me and I saw nothing but the outlines of hardened clouds. I thought of Matina shaking at the prospect of war, but still running eagerly towards it. It had retrieved Marcinus’ arrows and it had lived. An uspec had sought to kill it, but it had lived. The music was even more beautiful to me now because it came from an uspec who’d defied death. I had not thought that Matina would live as long as it had. Its talent deserved to live on. I thought of the Isle of Brio and my offspring and Fabiana, and I stopped my mind before it filled with pictures of the imp who’d chosen to stay behind. By the time Matina’s song ended, I felt relaxed. It was strange, this thing that Matina’s music could do.

“You have been standing there for hours, sirga, allow Matina and I to relieve you.” Juke rose to its feet as it said the words. Matina quickly followed. Juke’s gaze travelled from me to Marcinus and then back to me in a pointed manner that confused me. If there was a message in Juke’s look, it was one I could not decipher.

The two younger uspecs left and Marcinus walked sluggishly towards me. When at last it stopped, it sat about six feet away. It did not look at me. But it sat stiffly, with its body tightened, as if it was uncomfortable. I watched its throat move several times, as it swallowed. Then it relaxed a little and retrieved an arrow from its quiver. It pulled out a cloth and began to clean the arrow. It polished the weapon so thoroughly that all spots of red were gone by the time it was through. After the first arrow, it relaxed even further. Its legs widened and the back of its head rested against the wall. It cleaned another arrow, and then another. Then it stopped abruptly, its left hand was coiled around the arrow’s shaft and its right hand with the cloth, poised right above the arrowhead.

Its head jerked to the right and its eyes fixed on me.

I had seen many versions of Marcinus. It was the first thought I’d had when the uspec revealed itself as the imperial commander in the hangar. It was a thought I had often whenever I stared at Marcinus now and I watched the golden earrings sway on its ears. I had seen many versions of this uspec, and I was familiar with all but the soldier. I realized in that moment, as Marcinus’ eyes bored into mine, with its hands suspended in the process of cleaning its arrow, that I had no idea who this version of Marcinus was. And in that moment, in the look that Marcinus gave me, I saw how lost it was and I realized that I was not the only one struggling with placing the uspec’s identity.

Matina hummed a tune that took me back in time. Back to the night before. Back to Arexon’s eating room. Back to Juke and Gamble’s challenge against Marcinus. Back to the cold aloofness in the uspec’s gaze as it fought and won. Back to the song that Matina had sang at the time. Back to the lyrics that flooded my head as I looked into Marcinus’ eyes.

I hear it begging to crawl from the shadows
Asking the Lord for some light
Its life has been spent by the gallows
Now it wants them out of its sight

Matina’s humming continued and it was as if Arexon was seated beside me as it had been that night, whispering into my ear, ‘Marcinus has not been the same since it brought Moat’s corpse to me.’ Why did I care?

“How long have you been without lust?” I asked the question calmly.

Marcinus’ eyes widened. All six of them widened at once, startled. Its pupils moved around, studying the areas around it, as if it would find the answer to my question inscribed in the air. It was the most emotion I had seen from Marcinus since the first time I saw it in its soldier’s garb. Its eyes turned back to me and then it looked away. It went back to polishing its arrows.

First arrow.

Matina continued its humming.

Second arrow.

Juke glanced around. The uspec’s eyes were too bright, they gleamed with mischief. It whispered something to Matina and the uspec turned around as well. It glanced at me and then turned back around and began playing the mbira. The tune it played was soft and haunting, like a funeral hymn.

“Five years, two weeks and three days.”

I had not expected Marcinus to respond.

It did not look away from the arrow it polished.

“How is Nebula?”

My jaw clenched. Marcinus did not deserve to speak my offspring’s name. I looked away.

“How is Nebula?” Marcinus repeated the question. Its voice was low, barely above a whisper. There was a tremor in it. “Is it dead? Did I kill it?”

My gaze on the wall narrowed. I was so angry that I almost missed the pain that wafted out from the uspec. My fists clenched.

“I see it in my dreams, but I am not sure whose offspring I see, yours or mine. I see them all. All the lives lost because of me. I see them all. Is it yours or mine? Which child haunts me Nebud? Is it yours or mine?”

I glared at the wall. I could not look at Marcinus. I could not acknowledge the pain I heard in its voice. I could not give it what it so desperately needed.

“I thought I would die when I joined Arexon’s army. I joined to die. But the founder laughs at me. It will not let me die. So many are dead because of me, but it will not let me die. Why does the founder keep me alive, Nebud? Why does it mock me?”

I stared so intently at the hardened clouds that I could make out the loops of the edges of individual clouds. I had not noticed this before, but hardened clouds had a crystal structure to them. There was the soft foam of clouds, but there was also a crystal, glasslike hardness beneath.

“Moat died saving me.”

How was it that Marcinus was suddenly unable to keep its mouth shut? It had been silent for the entire time we’d been together now it couldn’t stop the words from spurting out.

“I was high on lust. So drugged that I ran right into the troop of plenum soldiers in front of Katsoaru. Moat yelled at me to stop. It yelled at me and ordered soldiers to hold me back, but I fought to be free and my fighting alerted the plenum to our presence. Ninety-six soldiers died in that one place. Ninety-six, because I was high on lust. I returned to Arexon with Moat’s corpse and only four of the hundred soldiers it had given me. Ninety-six dead because of my addiction to lust. Or is it ninety-seven? Tell me Nebud, does Nebula live? Does it live? Is it your offspring’s face that haunts me?”

I turned away from the wall.

Marcinus was no longer staring into the arrow it polished. It was staring at me, with pink moisture suspended in its eyes.

“Please, Nebud,” its lips shook, “does it live?”

I clenched my jaw and nodded. “It lives.”

Marcinus exhaled. It exhaled and several pink drops fell down its face. It cried silently.

“It has pansophy now,” I said, “Fabiana has taught it how to move its spasms inside, so it can fight. Fabiana sings its praises. It stutters when its speaks the uspec tongues but not the umani ones. I think one day its stuttering on the uspec tongues will stop too. You did not do permanent harm, Marcinus.” I had not expected to say the words until I’d said them, and I was angry at myself for the release that the words had given Marcinus. It exhaled in relief, but it still cried silent tears.

“I did not mean to take it with me. I did not know that it had followed me. You must believe me Nebud, I would never do that to an innocent. No matter what I thought of you, I would never do that to an innocent.” There was a moment of silence where I contemplated the uspec’s words. “I should have known it followed me. If I had not been driven by lust I would have known. But I did not lead it there deliberately.”

I nodded but I did not say anymore.

Marcinus turned back to its arrows. “Gratitude, Nebud, you have given me a small release.”

Then there was silence. Neither one of us spoke and Matina’s mbira stopped playing. I turned back to the wall and I saw the crystals underneath it. I looked at the clouds and I remembered others. I remembered my time in Katsoaru. I thought of Maraci and I recalled that Marcinus had had an offspring of its own. I thought of the uspec who’d befriended me in Katsoauru and the joy that I had felt for its friendship. Marcinus was the first uspec to show me what friendship meant, what it was for an uspec to be loyal to you. I had paid back its loyalty by taking its center eye.

“I could have taken you with me. I should have.” I said the words with my gaze still on the walls.

Marcinus said nothing.

“I knew that Manus cared more for power than for anyone in its line. You were my first friend Marcinus, I should not have abandoned you in that port.”

I heard a sudden, jerky, gasp. “You did all that you could.”

I shook my head. “I did the barest minimum. I took your eye and then I ran away, like a coward. I sent you down this road.”

“No, Nebud, you were on the founder’s path. Arexon told me much about you, it told me of how the founder has used you. You are not responsible for anything that happened to me after you left. But I am responsible for what happened to your offspring.” Marcinus paused, but I could hear a shakiness in its exhale. “Could you ever forgive me Nebud? Is such a thing even possible?”

My mind wandered back to Katsoaru, to the night that I had taken Marcinus’ eye. I had made up a tale about needing to return to the port I claimed to hale from, to save the supposed Kaiser who’d made me its banneret. Marcinus had wished to come with me and I remembered right then the words that it had said.

You are no longer alone Nebud. As long as I live, you will always have a friend in me.

Marcinus was the first uspec who’d given me its allegiance. I had been nothing but a banneret to it, but it had called me friend. I thought of the lust, of my offspring, and then I thought of Maraci and the offspring Marcinus had lost. I blamed Fabiana for my offspring’s death because it had died out of loyalty to it. Maraci, Marcinus’ mater, was dead because of its connection to my line. Marcinus’ offspring was dead because I had left it weak and ashamed. But my offspring had spasms…my offspring lived. I turned to face Marcinus.

“You should loathe me.” I said.

The uspec shook its head. There were no more tears, but there was something different about its face. It did not look quite as cold as it had before.

I sighed. “Perhaps we are fated to hate each other.”

“I do not hate you Nebud.” Marcinus said. “I do not blame you for anything.”

“Then you are a fool.”

Marcinus almost smiled. Its lips almost formed into a bow.

“I must be a fool too,” I said, “because I find myself unable to not forgive you. I see Nebula’s spasms but then I think of Maricus in its death bed and the pain that must have caused you. I see why you needed lust Marcinus, and I forgive you for it. I should not, but I do. We are both fools.”

Marcinus smiled.

‘It stopped chasing its lust, but it also stopped chasing happiness. I haven’t seen it smile since. There’s just emptiness now.’ Arexon had said. If Arexon could be believed, then this was the first time that Marcinus had smiled in five years.

“Matina!” Juke squealed. “They have reconciled! It worked! They have reconciled!”

A tear fell from Marcinus’ outer eye.

Part 9
---------

It happened slowly.

The uspec latched onto Matina’s arm when Matina tried to wrest free, but the uspec’s hold was too strong. It spun Matina around and then it stabbed the uspec in the side with its sword.

I blinked.

No, it didn’t stab Matina, Matina somehow managed to evade the blow. It bent so far to the side that the sword only grazed its skin. It left a red line in its wake, but that line was a little wound. Then, Matina used the plenum soldier’s hold to force its attacker closer and it stabbed an arrow into the uspec’s chest, between the iron spikes around its heart.

The uspec coughed blood and then it fell back. It clutched at the arrow shaft and gazed at Matina. Another vomit of blood came spewing from its lips. Then it slipped on its foot and fell. It died with its eyes open, right as I finally reached them, landing beside a kneeling Matina.

Matina knelt beside the uspec it had killed, and it wept. Pink drops of liquid fell from its eyes and landed on the foam flooring of the inter-port trail road.

Juke and Marcinus were not far behind me. I felt the impression of their feet against the foam ground when they landed. Marcinus walked away without speaking. It retreated back towards the pile of bodies we’d dropped. I watched as it silently pulled its arrows from the uspecs they’d been stuck in.

Marcinus looked like a specter floating amidst a field of bodies. Green and red over a light red flooring. The red light that fell on us now was at its darkest shade. It was the deep red of late night. The red that accompanied sleep. Soon there would be orange to dilute the severity of this bleak red. Red and green, blood and bodies. I felt nothing now when I stared at these corpses. Marcinus had been right, there had been over a hundred. And we’d killed them all, because we’d all fought with everything we had. Marcinus had fired arrows so accurately that none of those arrows missed their marks. Then there’d been Matina. Shivering, scared, Matina, had darted through the battlefield, retrieving arrows and giving them back to Marcinus so that it could shoot some more. We would have died if we had not had Marcinus and its arrows. If we had not had Matina and its courage to retrieve those arrows and ensure that Marcinus’ quiver was never empty.

I knelt beside Matina.

The uspec had not stopped weeping. It was bent so far forward that its forehead grazed the corpse of the uspec it had felled. It wept onto that uspec’s neck. I could not understand this. I did not know why Matina wept over the corpse of an enemy. When I’d taken my first life it had been from an uspec who would have killed me if I hadn’t killed it. I had felt no sorrow for its death. I did not understand Matina. But there was much about this uspec I did not understand. An artist who came to a warzone to fight. It was unskilled in arms, but it had done its best to aid our fight, and it had done so well, and with enough courage to stun me.

I placed a hand on the uspec’s shoulder and I squeezed. Before I’d tightened my fingers arounds its shoulder, I had felt its shaking, the sobs that came out of it were so forceful that they racked the uspec’s form. It stopped shaking after I squeezed. Pink drops trailed down its green face. I did not mean to, but I felt the uspec’s pain. I felt the anguished emotion.

“Forgive me sirga,” It stuttered through quivering lips, “forgive me for being such a disappointment.” The words were twisted and malformed by the tears that accompanied them. They were hiccupped out between breaths of air and puffed out with sniffles. “Forgive me,” it begged.

Why did it grieve as such for the life of an enemy it had not known? Why? I did not understand it. A part of me wanted to strike it to stop its tears. But Matina had unlocked a sympathy in me that I had felt for few others. I did not know how the uspec managed it. I pulled my hand away from it, disgusted with it and with myself. It should not be crying and I should not be sympathetic. What was happening to me?

“You are not a disappointment.” The words were meant to offer comfort but I was so disgusted that they emerged from my lips as harsh and cold. For a moment Matina stopped its weeping and it looked up at me. Then it bowed and looked down. I rose.

Juke’s expression was grim. It watched Matina with half of its eyes and me with the other half. Juke’s bearing appeared conflicted. The eyes that stared at Matina looked longing, while the ones that stared on me appeared apprehensive. Its body was bent towards Matina, but its toes pointed the other way, towards me. It had one hand suspended in the air towards Matina’s prone form, and another hand clenched to a fist by its side.

It smiled at me, but its smile was tight. “It was a good battle, sirga,” it said, “well fought.”

I smiled back at the uspec and then patted it on the shoulder. “Your skill pleases me more than I could say, Juke.” My smile widened when I thought of the little uspec from five years ago. “I am proud.”

Juke’s eyes widened. It was as soaked in blood as I was, but it had taken a moment to wipe most of the blood off its face. Now there was only caking blood over some of the cyan scales on its neck, and in patches and streaks across its body. It smiled. Whatever conflicts it had born seemed to fade away. Its indecision was gone. All of its eyes moved to me, and its body joined its toes in pointing in my direction.

“Gratitude sirga,” it bowed.

I smiled at it and nodded before walking away.

Juke followed. “This is the first life Matina has taken. The first one is always the hardest.”

I stopped walking and turned to face the uspec. “Is it?” I asked, and I heard in my voice a desperation I had not known I felt. The first life I’d taken had been easy. Not easy to take the life, as that battle had been very difficult and only won with emotions, but easy in the taking of the life, in the destruction of another’s living. It had meant nothing to me, but I suddenly wanted to know what it meant to others.

Juke swallowed and looked away. It smiled, but its smile was not the wide one that touched its outer eyes. It was slight. “I should say that the first life I took was easy for me, I think that would please you.”

I frowned. Would it? I did not know. I could not help but think of Nebula at that moment. What would it feel when it took its first life? Would it weep as Matina did? Had Juke wept too? Did all uspecs weep when they killed another for the first time? Was I the only exception? I shook my head. It did not matter.

“Sirga,” Juke said with a sigh, “I do not weep and so I did not shed a tear when I took my first life. But it was not easy, and I did not like it. Things changed after the war in Lahooni intensified. Since then, whenever I take a plenum life, I look on it as vengeance for the Lahooni lives they’ve taken. That makes it easier for me sirga.”

The road was silent. I wondered if there would be more plenum soldiers sent after these ones. Matina hiccupped and my attention pulled back to the artist. I turned to find Juke’s concerned look scouring over my face. I had taken many lives and I needed nothing to make the deaths easier. It was easy for me. I did not lose sleep thinking of the dead I’d killed.

“See to Matina.” I said.

“Sirga…” Juke called out. It stretched its hand out to me and I stared at that open green palm. There were calluses on its hand. I thought of my own hand then. The bleeding had stopped. Juke nodded. “Yes sirga.”

I smiled at it. I could not look on its face without seeing the young uspec from five years ago. I did not think that I would ever tire of fighting, but I was tired of the war. I was tired of the fear that gripped me whenever I thought of what was left of my honoraria and how close they came to death whenever we fought the plenum. To be imperial meant to have their lives in my hands and it was a burden I did not like. I wanted the war to end so that I could see them safely back. I’d already lost too many of them already. I turned my back on Juke and joined Marcinus as one more specter moving amongst the dead. I put all of my thoughts and attention into searching for my dagger and my cutlass.

My eyes caught on an uspec amongst the dead, one with only a center eye on its face. I was startled to see an uspec so young amongst the plenum soldiers. I stared at the uspec and I saw another face, a head that Arexon had unceremoniously parted from its body. This uspec appeared older than Sophi had been, but they were both still so young. I could not think of uspecs like these, the ones with only a single center eye on their face, and not be reminded of my offspring Nebula. I thought of Nebula and my heart ached for my offspring. There was a wound on the dead uspec’s neck, a single line tear along the side of its body. I blinked and the young corpse swayed underneath my gaze. The rip on its neck grew longer and longer until it wound all the way around its neck. Then that single center eye blinked. The pupil turned to stare right at me. I was looking at my offspring. Would Nebula die as this uspec had? What life awaited an imperial without its progenitor?

I stumbled and fell. The back of my head slammed against a soft padding with ribs underneath it. I blinked and the red light from the cloud roof poured into my pupils, blinding me, and there was darkness, only a black bleak emptiness. It swallowed me, like a carnivore devouring my flesh. It made me shiver as though I were in Nefastu again, being pelted by uncouth hail. The darkness burned like a crimson inferno made from mejo magic. It dug into my skin like bathing salts in an okun pool. My thoughts blurred until nothing made sense, and nothing was as evident as the darkness.

When the darkness finally cleared, the red light from the clouds was bright. The late night had past, it was early morning.

I blinked and tried to rise, but I felt dizzy. My brain seemed to be tilting on an axis in my skull.

“Sirga?” the tentative voice belonged to Juke. Even with my eyes closed I could recognize Juke’s voice. I smiled at it.

I blinked several more times and bit by bit I started to see more than red light. I saw a dark form bent over me, peering into my eyes. That dark, stationary form, began to move slightly, and then the black became green, and I saw cyan neck scales and the fronts of ailerons. I blinked one more time and my eyes swept over a wide smile that made the corners of the owner’s lips graze low outer eyes on its face.

“Sirga!” Juke was so close to me that when it exhaled its warm breath tickled my face. “You are alive! Imperial one!”

“Of course it is alive, it was only blood loss Juke.” This voice was harder to place. It was soft, and my brain associated it with singing and a sweet melody of chiming tines. The owner of the voice knelt beside me. “The imperial one fed you some growth pills sirga, you had lost a lot of blood.”

I nodded. Matina. The battle came back to me. For a moment I felt fear unlike any I had ever known. I grabbed onto Juke’s arms and stared widely into the uspec’s face. My heart raced and my tongue felt too swollen for words.

“Nebula?”

Juke frowned. “Sirga?”

“Nebula!” I screamed.

Then the moment passed and I remembered that the young uspec corpse I had seen belonged to a plenum soldier and not to my offspring. My offspring was safe in the Isle of Brio, being watched over by Fabiana, an uspec who would give its life for Nebula’s many times over. My grip on Juke’s arm loosened.

The dizziness had faded enough for me to look around. We were in an alley. My back rested against soft cloud walls. Matina hovered to my right, and Juke remained bent over, in front of me. I looked to the left and saw Marcinus standing several feet away. There was a bow and a quiver of arrows on the ground by its feet. Those arrows had saved our lives. The sight of Marcinus’ weapons reminded me of my own. I’d gone in search of my cutlass. Matina moved closer and its knees brushed against something hard resting against my thighs. I looked down. Someone had returned my dagger and my cutlass to their sheaths on my belt.

“Okun,” I croaked. Now that I had no fear driving me, I found my throat dry. And I was weak. Why was I so weak? Blood loss. I’d forgotten about that. I looked down on myself. The wounds were healed. Matina had mentioned a growth pill, pansophy medicine for uninfected wounds. My mind struggled to connect dots. I thought of the pill and remembered how it worked, how it used pansophy to send growth to the parts of the body that most needed it, but I also remembered that it needed the person using it to already have the magic of pansophy. My mind searched for more, but my throat itched feverishly. “Get me okun.” I swallowed to moisten my throat.

Juke stepped back. It nodded and then headed in Marcinus’ direction.

I looked around the alley. This was not where we’d fought. For one, there were no bodies, just an alley not even wide enough to take my fully sprawled length. There was an end to the alley on my right, not a natural end, but a gate that led to some other section of the inter-port trail. The only entry to the lane was to the left, where Marcinus stood guard.

Juke returned with a brown pouch. I took it gratefully from the uspec’s hand and poured some of its contents down my throat. The okun was warm, as natural okun from a pond is. It was not special, but it felt good against my throat.

Juke sat to my left. It leaned back against the wall beside me and stretched its legs out. I noticed for the first time that it appeared cleaner. There were still red spots on its skin, remnants of the blood of the soldiers it had killed, but it was no longer coated in it. Neither was Marcinus for that matter.

“Where are we?”

I listened close and I could hear them too. The sounds I heard were a mixture between shuffling and stomping. I could not tell the number, but I could hear the movements. There were clinking sounds that accompanied the noise of moving feet. Those clinking sounds were of metal, probably from the swords they carried. My gaze was still fixed on Matina. It looked back at me and swallowed.

“You will assist me Matina.” Marcinus said.

Matina and I turned to the uspec. Marcinus looked at neither of us. All six of its outer eyes somehow managed to stare blankly at the empty space between me and Matina.

“I only have twenty arrows in my quiver. If you can retrieve the arrows I’ve shot, you can soar and hand them to me in flight. Do you think you can do that?”

Matina nodded eagerly. “Yes, imperial one!”

Marcinus nodded. It was a simple affair, a simple downwards pull of its head, just that one jerk and then it was done. Matina was still nodding when Marcinus turned back around.

“We should move forward,” Marcinus said, “it will be better if we take them by surprise.”

I agreed.

The walk that followed was much calmer than the one that preceded it. I knew now where the danger was coming from and so I was not nearly as jumpy as I’d been before. I did not look about once, I kept my gaze fixed ahead. The plenum soldiers would be merging onto our path from one of the lanes that fed into this one.

As soon as I heard the cry of alarm, I knew that the battle was about to start. The cry had come from a plenum scout who’d sighted us.

Marcinus nodded to Matina and the uspec dashed into the air, soaring so high that I had to narrow my eyes to catch glimpses of its green flesh amongst the red clouds. That soaring height would be the safest place for it.

When my gaze dropped back down to the ground level, I found myself the subject of six intense eyes. Marcinus’ lips were straight, its jaw relaxed, but it looked at me with a sadness that I could not describe. Its eyes appeared pained, but its lips made no movements, no gestures of sound. Twenty plenum soldiers fell on us, and Marcinus’ sad eyes remained fixed on me. Juke drew its swords out of their scabbards and the shrill sound which accompanied this movement boomed like a clarion call to arms. The ringing of several other metallic arms drawn against sheaths followed the sound of Juke’s blades.

The soldiers fell on us. What was twenty became thirty and then fifty. I could not look away from Marcinus’ sad eyes. Then a cyan blade appeared beside Marcinus neck, and the uspec drew out a dagger and stabbed it into its attacker’s center eye. The uspec’s cries of pain were the first to be heard that night. They were quickly followed by the death howls of two uspecs Juke slaughtered. Marcinus looked away from me and then it flew, darting into the sky in a single fluid move, that saw it poised horizontally, with its bow and three arrowheads resting against the hard fog grip. The arrows flew and more uspecs died.

I pulled out my cutlass, dodged an attack and then cut off an uspec’s head.

The fight had started.

I did not think of much as we fought. An uspec lanced me in the side with its sword while three others swatted at me with soaru tentacles. Arrows flew and uspec tentacles were severed from their owners waists. I had not time to look to the sky at the source of my salvation. All I could do was fight. Matina flew low to gather an arrow and three uspecs approached it. Juke dashed into the air on my other side. It fought savagely against the uspecs that rose in the air to challenge it.

Matina squealed.

Five uspecs surrounded me. Two of them were hooni, three were mejo. I heard Matina’s cries of pain and tried to tune the uspec out. I dodged a blow, threw my dagger at another and then rose my head quickly enough to see that one uspec had knocked Matina’s sword away, while another was about to stab its sword into Matina’s heart.

I did something foolish.

I had only my cutlass to throw, and so I did. I threw my cutlass into the uspec’s heart before it could harm Matina. It left me without a weapon to defend myself. I should have thrown a scale instead. I would have laughed at my stupidity if my attackers gave me time. They herded me. I reached for their emotions. In times of despair, I could always fall back on emotions. It took me a long time to find an uspec with pain. That was the thing with soldiers, they rarely fought with any anger. They fought to kill either because they were paid to, or because it thrilled them to do so. They were like me in that regard. But I found one with pain, an uspec close to death’s door. I snatched that uspec’s pain and then transferred it to two of the uspec’s who surrounded me. They immediately yelled out and then stumbled.

One swung its sword so carelessly that it stabbed another plenum soldier in the thigh.

Another soldier came at me. It was slight. I measured the amount of force it could have and decided to risk it. It swung its sword at me and I caught the sharp edge with my hand. The wound that left in my palm was deep. The sword went in all the way to my bones. But pain was nothing to me in the heat of battle. I wrapped my fingers around the sword’s edge, further piercing myself with sharp steel, and then wrenched the weapon from the shocked hand of the uspec who’d wielded it. Its lips parted and its wide eyes went from my bleeding hand to my face. I turned the sword around so that I could place my bleeding palm against the hilt. Then I cut of the head of the uspec who’d once owned the sword. It died with the absurd look of shock still etched into its features.

There were more attacks. More gangs of uspecs. They surrounded me so thoroughly that I could not see much beyond my fight. Thankfully these soldiers were commoners. They had no pansophy or emotions. They barely even knew how to use their features to fight. I killed many and for each uspec I killed another came forward to take its place.

Every so often I would incline my head to the roof of the inter-port trail and I would see a green dot darting above. I told myself that it was Matina and I continued to fight without fear for the uspec’s wellbeing. I used emotions and skill. My fist butted with as many heads as I could find. I was exhausted. There were cuts all over my body, and I was feint from the blood loss. But I was also excited. There was a thrill to this battle. It was simple and blood flowed freely. In the time that I was surrounded by the soldiers I was so thoroughly blocked that I could not see through to Juke or Marcinus and so for that time it was as if I fought alone. I had no worries, no thoughts save of my own survival.

Then the battle began to turn. More and more holes formed around the circle of plenum soldiers surrounding me. Then a red-green form hovered in the air above me. It descended and fought by my side. It fought with a bow in one hand a sword in another. I had never seen an uspec fight with a bow as if it was a sword. The deadly tip of its bow, stabbed into an uspec’s heart, had the same efficiency as the point of a sword. Another red-green form appeared by my other side. This one fought with two swords.

Twenty plenum soldiers dwindled to ten and then there was four.

I’d just stabbed into an uspec’s neck when I saw the last plenum soldier grab onto Matina’s leg and pull it down to the ground. The uspec was standing on the other side of us, across from a ridge of bodies. As soon as I saw this I let my wings flap. Matina just had to survive the night, then it would be back to the Isle of Brio, back to safety. I flew towards them.

I was too late.

Part 8
--------------------------------
On the Inter-port Trail
--------------------------------

Matina walked with its hands held behind its back. Its fingers were intertwined, resting just below the bottom edge of its sword belt. The corners of its lips were bent low and its shoulders drooped forward, but it held its head up, its chin jutting out to the path in front of it. My eyes trailed from the pursed lips, to the tight jaw, and the fingers digging into each other and the backs of the hands they lay on. Every once in a while the uspec’s arms would shake, then it would push its fingers deeper into its skin and the shaking would stop. Every time this happened, the eyes on the side of the uspec’s face closer to me, glanced my way warily, before quickly darting back, as if to check if I had seen the telltale signs of its agitation. But despite its fear, the uspec walked forward, along the narrow lane, within the walls of clouds, drawing further towards the troop of plenum soldiers we knew we would encounter.

I could not help glancing around, at the red clouds beneath my feet, and the red clouds beside me. I peered into those clouds, searching for traces of green hidden beneath the red. My hand rested firmly on the hilt of my cutlass, ready to pull the weapon out at a moment’s notice.

Juke was to my left. The uspec had both of its hands wound tightly around the hilts of its double swords. Every time we heard a stray sound, the uspec jumped and then its pupils flew from one corner of its eye to the other, and its head swiveled. When it was assured that there was no one behind us, and no uspecs, sprung from the walls, ready to surround us, its shoulders dropped slightly and it exhaled. Its gaze turned to me and it smiled the wide smile of its childhood, the one that sent the corners of its lips so far up that they grazed the periphery of its outer eyes. I smiled back at that.

We proceeded along the narrow lane in this vane. The only one who did not show the least signs of agitation, was Marcinus. The uspec walked calmly in front of us. It did not jump at the slightest sound, or look back when a change in lighting signaled at the emergence of a shadow from behind us. It had its bow slung around one shoulder, its quiver around the other, and its belt around its waist. Its hand did not rest close to its sword as mine did, they were by its side.

We walked for what felt like an hour on a narrow lane that seemed to have no end. In the time that we walked, Marcinus did not turn around once. The distance that separated us was a small one, a few feet, the length of an uspec’s longest finger. But somehow that distance was like a gulf and the aloof uspec that walked before us was a stranger to me. I stared at the back of its head and I could not help but see it in all the versions that I’d known. The kind imperial who I’d met in the inn in Katsoaru. The warrior who’d fought me and laughed in an expensive gym in a Kaiser’s palace. The charge I’d rescued from an inn of hired killers. The friend who’d spent a day in search of me. My eyes trailed from the green scalp, to the ailerons, and then the tentacles that hung from its waist. As my gaze reversed its direction I saw the version of Marcinus that had laughed hysterically on the inter-port trail. The one that had introduced my offspring to lust. The one that had blackmailed me, using my offspring’s wellbeing as a bargaining chip for more lust. Red light glinted off the golden bars on its earrings.

Those earrings swayed, tilting from left to right as the uspec marched. It was the only movement attached to Marcinus’ head that did not appear methodical. The uspec’s head was rigid, but the earring swayed autonomously. Until they stopped.

I knew that there was something wrong as soon as those earrings stopped swinging. Marcinus had stopped moving. It turned around and its turn seemed to be made in slow motion. It was the kind of soldier’s swivel that I had never been able to learn. One feet remained behind, while the other one was placed a few inches forward. Its arms did not flail, they remained firmly at its side as its body twisted, perfectly, like a spinning doll. When it was turned, it pulled the backward leg forward. I wondered if the uspec even thought about that turn before it had executed it. I knew what this turn meant, and so for the second before Marcinus spoke, when the lane we stood on was still silent, Matina’s arms did not shake, and Juke did not squeeze the hilts of its swords, for that second, I thought of Marcinus’ form and how well it had executed that turn. Marcinus the soldier.

“It is time.” Marcinus said.

I frowned.

The lane had gradually widened as we walked. Now we stood on a track wide enough to take ten uspecs standing side by side. In the distance ahead of us, I saw an end to the lane, but it was the type of end that led to a resting place. If there was a resting place in front, then there were bound to be offshoots as well, places were other lanes merged into this one.

“What do you hear sirga?” Juke asked.

It looked around and frowned. I was frowning too, in confusion. Both at Marcinus’ words and the posing of Juke’s question.

“They are a few minutes away.” Marcinus stated.

Marcinus had developed the eerie quality of looking through an uspec. It was the strangest feeling, but when I looked into Marcinus eyes, I got the feeling that the uspec was not looking back at me. Its pupils were always just a little bit shifted. It looked a hairsbreadth to the right of where I stood. So close that one could arrive at the mistaken conclusion that the uspec was actually looking at me. But it wasn’t. Those haunted eyes looked past me.

“How do you know?”

For a moment, Marcinus’ eyes moved a fraction towards me, and then it truly was looking at me. Then the gaze shifted by that same fraction, away.

“My hearing is boosted.” It responded without emotion. Pansophy. In the time I had been away, Marcinus must have gained the magic too. “They will be on us in twenty minutes. Prepare yourselves.”

Juke was ready. Its hands were poised by its swords and it looked calmly into the horizon. Its breath was steady now. We knew were the danger was coming from, there was no more cause to be jumpy. It had truly grown into a warrior. I was proud. I was worried for its safety, but I was also proud.

Matina trembled like a leaf under drifting fogs.

“You should stay behind Matina,” I said. As I said the words, I thought of ways that it could sneak past the fight. “Soar!” As soon as the answer came, I smiled, and relaxed a little. I turned to the shaking uspec and said calmly, “soar over the fight.” It soared when it flew. It could fly so high that none of the other uspecs would be able to catch it.

Matina held its hands together and then forced them behind it. Its arms were now hidden so I could not see their trembling. “I will fight, sirga.” It stated.

I shook my head. The uspec had acquiesced to my desire for it to return to the Isle of Brio. Just this evening, it had told me that it would do this. A few more hours and it would have been safe, back in our paradise. Just a few more hours. If Juke and Gamble hadn’t gone off with Marcinus. If the pious one with the key hadn’t gone through the quicksand hangar before we could. Two ill lucks and Matina’s life was back in jeopardy. I wanted to argue, but what was the point? “You will die,” I stated, resignedly. “If you try to fight, you will die. There are too few of us for me to guard you.”

Its shoulders shook, but it still held its hands behind it, to hide their shaking. Its sword shook though, as did its legs. “Then I will die.”

The words were spoken without heat. Matina did not question its fate.

“I can hear them now,” Juke said.

I could not look away from Matina. I did not like this uspec much, but I respected its courage. It had the courage and spirit of a warrior without any of the skill.

“How many do you think?” I asked the question with my gaze still rooted on Matina.

“At least a hundred.” It was Marcinus who replied. “From the stomping I hear, at least a hundred.”

The fog in this darkness was as the thick crimson fogs that surrounded the dwelling. My skin crawled at being surrounded by it. I knew that it was my imagination, but I felt a bit as if those fogs had formed hands that reached for me and drew me in, pulling me into the tunnel. It was not possible, but I could not fight the eerie feeling, and the prickling sensation in my back.

There were no walls that I could feel in this darkness. Once I walked in, all sound was gone. The soles of my feet brushed against solid ground, with a coolness that I had only found emanating from hard fogs. I felt the thick, clammy, fogs drifting around me and enveloping me in their warmth. My eyes appeared painted black. I could not see through to any solid forms. And I could not hear any sounds. There were others with me, this I knew, but I could not hear them. Fear was the emotion associated with fog, it was the emotion of the boga spectrums. Walking in this dark, foggy, tunnel, I had cause to feel the link between the emotion and the soul of the spectrum. My skin crawled and my heart pounded, but I forged ahead.

There was red light at the end of the tunnel.

I saw silhouettes, red forms in the red fog with red light illuminating them. They appeared as if they were built from the fog.

I walked into that fog and was pulled in, as one would be sucked in by quicksand. It wasn’t till I found myself standing on the inter-port trail that I finally understood what the quicksand hangars were. The fog I’d just walked through was one. It was quicksand with a changed appearance which had to lead, through the Acropolis hangar, to the inter-port trail.

I had never seen this in any other port. I did not know if this was something that Arexon had created for this war, to give its uspecs an extra edge to creep into the inter-port trail, but there were reasons why other Kaisers refrained from doing so. Any door leading out could be used to bring uspecs in. If there were more quicksand hangars like this throughout the Acropolis then Chiboga could be invaded.

I finally understood the extent of Sophi’s betrayal.

“Nebud!” Marcinus yelled.

The sudden call of my name startled me, especially as it was coming from a familiar voice that had not spoken a single personal word to me since my return to Chiboga. The startling was good. It forced me to look around and that allowed me to see the dagger that a plenum soldier had thrown at my head. I twisted to the right, caught the dagger by the handle and threw it back at the soldier. It stabbed into the hooni soldier’s chest and killed it.

Ten swords were unsheathed all at the same time.

I looked around me. Gamble somehow emerged from the quicksand hangar behind me. I thought about how the dark tunnel had not appeared narrow and understood how it could be possible that Gamble who’d left before me arrived after. Matiu, Matina and Chike, followed close behind.

The first thing I did was look for Juke. The uspec was still alive. Its limbs had been tied together, but it fought against the restrictions and whimpered. It banged its head against the foam ground. Luckily, the hardened cloud flooring of the inter-port trail would not do much damage to the uspec’s head.

The plenum soldiers rushed towards us.

Marcinus had no weapons on it, but it fought well with its hands. None of the soldiers attacked Juke. The ones not fighting Marcinus lurched at us. We fought back. I kept waiting to hear my uspecs crying out with polluted emotions, but no such cries came. Whoever the irirakun was, who’d infected Chike, Gamble and Juke, it was gone. I sliced at an uspec’s neck and then stabbed my cutlass into the back of a soaru uspec who’d been parrying with Matiu. I glanced down at the corpses and noticed for the first time a tail emerging from the back of the hooni uspec I’d thrown the dagger at first. The first uspec I’d killed was the irirakun. I looked up and saw Marcinus’ vicious fighting, why had it allowed them to be taken to the inter-port trail. I glanced back at the irirakun, Gamble said that it had forced Marcinus to take them to the quicksand hangar, but how? It must have had something to do with the irirakun, because once I killed it, Marcinus started fighting. I heard the swoosh of a blade, a sharp sound reminding me that the middle of a battle was no place for deep analysis.

I side-stepped an uspec’s dagger. Another uspec was about to lance Matina from behind. I grabbed onto Matina’s arm and held it behind me as I caught the worst of the uspec’s blade as a graze against my skin. The pointed end of the sword lodged into the hard cloud walls. I stabbed my cutlass into its neck when it tarried in trying to pull its weapon out of the wall. I kept Matina behind me as I forced my way towards Marcinus and the bound Juke.

“No!” Marcinus screamed. “Gamble stop!”

I frowned at Marcinus.

Gamble fought against the last plenum soldier left standing. The uspec wore a fraise, probably the pious one that they had mentioned. At the moment Marcinus yelled, Gamble had its arm around the uspec’s neck. It held the uspec’s neck in a vice, but the pious one lurched backwards. It pushed Gamble back and the uspec and Gamble fell into a hard cloud wall. Matiu and Chike, who’d also been standing beside the wall, were pulled into the wall as well, as quicksand pulls at one standing on it. All four uspecs vanished.

Marcinus ran towards the wall. It ran its hand over that hard cloud wall, but nothing happened, its hand just brushed over the wall’s surface. The uspec pulled its hand back, fisted it and then slammed its fist into the wall. It did this several more times before it kicked uselessly at the boundary.

I frowned at it.

Marcinus turned back around. Its earrings dangled from its ears and the red of the clouds bounced off the gold on the armbands it wore.

“The pious one had the key. We cannot return through this entrance.” It pronounced.

I forgot about Matina until the uspec sighed at Marcinus’ words. I released my hold on the uspec and turned my attention to the afflicted Juke. It was still on its belly with its arms and legs bound. I reached for the polluted emotions in it and transferred those emotions to a dying plenum soldier. I slit the uspec’s throat to end its suffering quickly.

“Sirga?” Juke blinked dazedly. I bent to a squat beside the uspec and cut off the bindings around its limbs. When it was free, the uspec jumped to its feet, rubbing at the rope marks printed into its green skin.

“Where is the nearest entrance back into Chiboga?” I asked Marcinus.

The uspec stared at me. Its lips were sat in a grim line. “On the other side of the plenum’s camp.”

I exhaled loudly. Then I sheathed my dagger and cutlass and studied the two uspecs in my honoraria who’d been trapped on the inter-port trail with me. Juke seemed to be coming back to its wits, now that the polluted emotions were gone. Matina stared fixatedly at the wall that its sibling had disappeared through. I took my attention back to Marcinus. The uspec stared calmly back at me. Its lips were relaxed now and its gaze appeared as emotionless as it had in Chiboga.

“How long will it take to get there?”

“At least a day if we try to go around the plenum’s camp.”

I shook my head. “That’s too long.”

“I’m more worried about the uspecs heading over here now. The pious one sent a missive with the location of this quicksand hangar. There will be soldiers on their way, and we will have to make it past them.” After saying that, Marcinus began rifling through the corpses. It retrieved a bow and a quiver of arrows as well as a sword belt. “We should probably leave. It will be better to face them on a more open path.” It did not wait for a response it just walked past us.

We were on a narrow road. I knew that Marcinus was right, we had to leave. I looked from Juke to Matina and then nodded.

We followed Marcinus.

Part 7
--------

Matina soared. I realized that it was the first time I had ever actively watched the uspec’s flight. Usually it flew behind me, but as it led our excursion, I had ample opportunity to watch it. Matina flew higher than most uspecs could. Uspecs that could fly consistently at that altitude were soarers. It was an interesting thing to note about the uspec, but my mind kept returning to troubling thoughts of Juke and Gamble. I’d assured myself that during the battle I would be by their side and so I could rush to their aid if needed. But this was a danger I had not anticipated.

Matina led us to a part of the Acropolis that I had not had reason to visit before. It was the Gold Capons’ Lodge. On a night like this, before the final battle, we found that most of the Acropolis was quiet. The guards standing on duty outside the Gold Capon’s Lodge recognized me and so they granted us access without asking any questions. We flew over hundreds of elegant dwellings, and a continuous path of black fog walls. Chiboga was a fog port, and so we had to fly low to see through to our final destination.

The itinerary suite was a solitary dwelling surrounded by wisps of drifting red fog. The fog that floated around this dwelling was a deeper shade of red than most, a crimson as rich as blood. It was that thought that crawled through my mind as we made our descent. The red fog extended towards us and it engulfed us, swallowing us so fully that it was impossible for me to see the other uspecs.

My skin prickled.

The itinerary dwelling was an odd structure. I’d seen before we’d landed that it was a dwelling with large holes cut out of the outer walls. I pushed my hand forward like a blind uspec feeling my way through the dark. The fog in Chiboga was thick, but it was not normally this thick. My nostrils twitched at the smell of blood. I could not tell if it was truly blood I smelled or if it was the crimson of the fogs playing tricks with my mind. The prickling which had started in my back, crawled all over my body, as if lines were being drawn on my skin with sharp needlepoints.

I heard sounds. I could not be sure if the noises I heard were voices or just my own thoughts amplified. There was something very strange about this fog. I was relieved when at last my hands felt out a hard surface. I ran my fingers across until I found one of the many gaps in the dwelling’s outer wall. I pushed the curtains aside without seeing them, and made my way in.

The fog had had me so on edge that my ears were keen enough to pick up the swoosh of a blade tearing through the air. I swung and pulled my cutlass out of its sheath. I was just able to dodge the blade aimed at my neck. I forced my attacker back without seeing the attacker’s face. But when I turned, and found my attacker rushing towards me, I froze.

My legs suddenly seemed unable to move and in that moment my heart stopped beating. The brown face of my attacker was one that I was familiar with, one that I trusted. In my stun, Chike would have cut my head off if Matiu hadn’t appeared at that moment to parry Chike’s attacks.

I didn’t even have the time to process all of this because I heard a shocked wail. I turned around and found Gamble advancing on Matina. It was insane. Matina, for its part, dodged the blows surprisingly spryly. It ducked when Gamble swung with both hands wrapped around its hilt, a blow forceful enough to chip the hard fog walls. Gamble retrieved its sword and continued its attack on Matina while Chike battered at Matiu’s blade.

Something was very wrong.

I felt for their emotions.

Chike and Gamble were so filled with polluted anger that I was surprised that they were able to attack with as much skill as they showed. Thanks to Chuspecip, and the time that the founder had spent inside of me, I knew how to fix this problem without having to transfer the emotions to others. I reached for my spectra and emotions at the same time. Emotions I knew well. It was easy to talk to their polluted anger through mine. It took a bit more effort to convince the quicksand to emerge. When I’d forced the quicksand out, I deposited their polluted emotions into the quicksand, the spectrum soul of anger.

Chike and Gamble both stopped attacking at the same moment. Their swords dropped, letting out a shrill sound as the sharp edges scraped against the hard fog grounds. They panted, and beads of sweat filled their faces. Chike’s shirt was soaked through, and Gamble appeared so dazed that it took the uspec a long time to register our presence. As soon as its sanity returned, it said, “Juke.”

There was something about the way that the uspec called Juke’s name that made my skin tingle all over again. It felt as if little etku creatures had entered into my body and were crawling underneath my skin.

“Where is Juke?” I asked, alarmed.

Chike sighed and Gamble’s eyes watered.

No. I shook my head and stumbled backwards. My chest tightened. It was as if someone had reached into my chest and had squeezed my heart. I could not breathe.

“Sirga?” Matiu appeared by my side.

I had to force myself to take slow breaths, but no matter how hard I tried, the ache in my chest did not loosen. I gripped the hilt of my cutlass so hard that it dug deeply into my skin.

“Juke!” I bellowed the uspec’s name.

“It is gone.” Chike stated with its gaze turned down.

“No. NO! JUKE!”

“They took it.” Gamble’s voice shook. “They took it.”

Veins in my head throbbed. The throbbing was so emphatic that I heard a sharp ringing sound echoing in my brain. I took air in slowly and let it out just as slow as it had entered. After a while the ringing sound dampened and the tightening in my chest eased. ‘They took it’ which meant it was still alive. It could still be saved.

I cast my gaze from the hard fog walls and flooring, to the roofless top. The area we stood in was circular with paths leading inwards to hidden chambers within the dwelling. The room was clear of fog, as if there was some sort of invisible covering which prevented the crimson fogs from drifting in through the coverless ceiling. Red light from the clouds streamed in in blinding proportions.

I was steady now, calmer. I turned my gaze on Gamble. “Who took it?”

Gamble’s looked down at the ground and Chike’s head was bent. “There was a pious one, sirga, and an irirakun, a kute-hooni crossbreed. The kun filled Juke with polluted emotions and they forced the imperial Marcinus to lead them to the quicksand hangar.”

“Where?” I demanded.

Neither Gamble nor Chike rose their heads. “This way,” Chike tipped its head to the side. “I’m sorry master, I should have done a better job protecting it.”

Chike pushed at a solid fog wall. I narrowed my eyes at the imp, wondering all the while if there were still remnants of polluted anger in it, making it act insane. But the imp just kept pushing, until Gamble joined it. They pushed at an unmoving wall, until a part of the wall fractured, and darkness was revealed. Crimson red fog wafted from that darkness.

“This way sirga,” Gamble called, right before dashing into the tunnel they had revealed. As soon as it entered, it was swallowed by the darkness.

I followed behind it.

Smooth278:
Wow, wow, wow.. good job ObehiD, I'm liking Arexon more and more... In wartime no time for sentiments... When a head needs cutting you cut!!!

Ps: sent you a mail

Thanks for letting me know! I've read it and sent a reply!!

I stared at the uspec. “I thought you had no skill in pansophy.”

It shrugged. “It does not take much skill to move a lifeform into one’s self. It is moving the lifeform into something else that is a feat.” It rose its hand up, and in its right palm I saw the appearance of a parchment with words scribbled on it. The words were in the umani tongue I understood. It talked of a meeting with Auxa at a location that I did not know.

“This was very brave of you.” I said.

Matina looked at me. “It does not take much courage to copy a missive when the one it belongs to has left the room.”

I scoffed and took the uspec back to Arexon. Arexon studied Matina’s hand closely. Then it placed its hand on Matina’s and moments later the appearance of the missive was gone. Aexon transferred the appearance to an empty parchment. It stared at the words for a long time. Then its gaze rose to mine.

It smiled sadly. “You must have thought I was a fool when you saw Sophi dining with us.”

I did not respond. I did not think of Arexon as a fool, but I did think it had been unwise of the uspec to trust Sophi. The plenum had killed my line and I detested them for it. We had killed Sophi’s line. It was true that the uspecs of that line had not been particularly good people, but they’d been Sophi’s line. Of course, it would seek vengeance.

“I thought that if I took Sophi from Auxa and raised it myself then it could grow to be the kind of uspec that I’d hoped Sophian was. I had been raised as a serf under Sophila’s command. Sophila imprisoned my progenitor and stole my port, but I had still been willing to give it my loyalty. If it had not kept deferring the end date of my serfdom I would gladly have treated it as family. I hoped that if I raised Sophi as an imperial, it would grow to be a fair Kaiser. I had no intention of procreating. I meant to make Sophi my heir. I told it this. I told it.” Arexon’s jaw clenched. It stared down at the war map. No one else in the room spoke. I watched Arexon’s hands tighten around the parchment. After a while Arexon picked up a stone piece on its war map and crumbled it to dust. Then it gave the parchment to Marcinus. “Deal with it.” It ordered.

Marcinus nodded. “Do I have time to return to the barracks and retrieve a squad?”

Arexon shook its head.

“I will go with you!” Juke and Gamble both offered at the same time. Then they looked at each other and began laughing.

“Shouldn’t you ask our imperial for permission first?” Matiu asked.

They both turned to me with wide eyes.

“It is a low risk mission, Nebud.” Arexon said.

I nodded at the over eager youths. They left with Marcinus and two other golden capons. After that, Arexon had difficulty discussing the rest of its strategy. It spoke but the animation in its voice was gone. There would be several contingents of the regular army in the Acropolis. It would lead the first contingent and they would be fighting in the frontlines, in the hangar. The second and third were posted on reserve in the camps neighboring the hangar. There were two more contingents posted in the barracks and a last contingent stationed in the Castle. Arexon delivered the happy news that I was to lead that contingent. I turned the uspec down.

Its eyes fastened on me.

“I came here to fight not to wait the fight out in the Castle. You need me, sirga, remember my lit okun. I will significantly reduce the plenum’s numbers in your favor.”

Arexon nodded. “You are right.” Its gaze turned to Matiu. “I assume the honoraria would like to be stationed with your imperial.”

Matiu bowed. “Yes sirga.”

“Matina will be returning to the Isle of Brio.” I stated. “If you can spare an escort, sirga.”

Arexon appeared startled, but it was not as surprised as Matiu.

“Tina?” Matiu demanded.

Matina could not look its older sibling in the eye. “I am a hindrance here, sib, I cannot allow my wellbeing to distract the imperial one.”

Matiu’s jaw clenched. It looked away.

“I will send it with an escort of four. They will leave in the morning after the battle starts. The fighting will distract the plenum enough for them to sneak past.”

“Gratitude sirga.”

Arexon nodded. After that it went through some more strategies and it fired questions about the troop readiness at its capons, but everyone could see that it was distracted. Sophi’s betrayal weighed heavily on it. It came as a relief to all when Juke returned with word that Marcinus and the rest of the uspecs awaited Arexon in the Castle’s hall.

We left the library.

I found that every place in the Castle had memories for me. The hall was no different. Sophian had hosted a final banquet in this hall the night before its supposed war with the plenum. It was the same night that I’d killed Sophila and that Arexon had killed Sophian.

This time the hall was bare. There were no benches, just a group of uspecs standing in the middle. Marcinus and Gamble had blood streaks on their bodies, but they were the only ones.

Sophi stood between Marcinus and another golden capon. Beams of hatred gushed out from its young eye. It spat on the ground by Arexon’s feet.

“Two plenum soldiers escaped.” Marcinus said.

Arexon said nothing. It struck out and had its hand wrapped around Sophi’s neck before anyone knew what it intended to do. Sophi’s little fingers pulled at Arexon’s much bigger ones which were wrapped around its neck. Its legs swung in the air and its body writhed from side to side, but its struggling got it nowhere.

After a few minutes, Arexon released the uspec.

“Sophi gave them the location of our itinerary suite as well as a key to the quicksand hangars.” There were several loud inhales at Arexon’s announcement. I realized then that when it had held Sophi it had done so to use its pansophy on the uspec. Arexon turned to Marcinus. “Stop them.” It ordered. “They must not reveal the location of our quicksand hangars and that key cannot be allowed to leave this port.”

Marcinus nodded. It saluted and then rushed out of the hall.

I was still trying to decipher what the itinerary suite and quicksand hangars were when I saw Arexon pull out its sword.

There was no preamble. It said nothing, spoke no moving words or chiding criticism. It asked no questions. It simply separated Sophi’s head from its body, and then returned the bloodied sword to its scabbard. Sophi’s head made a loud thud when it hit the ground and it rolled for a while before coming to rest at my feet. I did not know if there was an omen to this.

“Get some rest,” Arexon ordered, “once the fighting starts tomorrow, there will be no rest until this war with the plenum reaches its conclusion. One way or the other.”

Arexon did not even spare a glance at Sophi’s head before it walked out of the hall.

I found myself unable to look away from the little green head. Sophi had just been a child. It had been a traitor, but a child. How could Arexon behead a child? I stared at that head and I could not bring myself to look away. The uspec had died with its eye open wide. The fear it had felt was suspended in its gaze. It had not seen its death coming any more than I had. Arexon had told me once that this was the only way to deal with traitors, to cut off their head. But Sophi was not just a traitor, it was a young uspec who’d grown up idolizing Arexon even when Arexon had only been a serf.

“Sirga?” Matiu called out to me.

I blinked. It was hard to pry my gaze from Sophi’s head. Why had the head rolled to my feet? Of all places for it to roll to, why me?

I forced myself to look away. Chike, Matiu and Matina were the only people left in the room. “Where are Juke and Gamble?” I asked.

Matiu shook its head while Matina explained that they’d left with Marcinus. Those two were so eager to fight. I chuckled, but I could not keep my gaze from wandering back to Sophi’s head. It was only three years older than my offspring. Maybe with time it could have grown into the uspec that Arexon wished for it to be. Maybe if Arexon had arrested it, instead of killing it. I refused to think like that. I would not start questioning Arexon now for Sophi’s sake. The young uspec had colluded with the plenum.

When I closed my eyes that night, images of Sophi’s head filled my thoughts. I thought of its head when it had still been attached to its body. I thought of the little uspec that had walked around the barracks with a tome in its hands. I thought of how it had quoted Arexon. I thought of the uspec as it had trained in pansophy and then as it had been with me, providing me with tomes to learn about spectra. I had never had much fondess for Sophi, but it had always been an innocent in my eyes. Now it was dead and I saw its head unceremoniously parted from its body and then rolling to a stop by my feet.

That was the last thing I saw before I fell asleep.

Matiu woke me up what felt like only a few hours later. “Juke and Gamble have not returned sirga. I sent Chike after them with a speed canoe an hour ago, but the imp is yet to return.”

I sat up in my bed.

Matina stood beside its sibling.

“Do you know where they went?” I asked.

“Itinerary suite.” Matina said.

“Do you know where it is?”

Matiu shook its head. Matina nodded.

I jumped out of my bed and strapped my belt around my waist.

“Let’s go.” I ordered.

Matina bowed and led the way. Matiu followed behind me.

“That’s enough.” A green hand clamped onto my right wrist as I was about to deal another blow to the foolish uspec. There was only one uspec who would dare to stop me. I turned and found Arexon glaring at me.

Matina dropped to its knees. Its cheeks were swollen, its nose was broken, and I saw several cuts on its face. There were other lacerations over its body, thin lines drawn by the edge of my cutlass when I’d struck the uspec with it, and bruises from my fist.

“Is this how you will protect me?” I yelled at it.

Its shoulders shook. It placed its hands in its laps. Its back was bent, its head was bowed, and I saw pink drops fall from its face. It was crying. I was disgusted. I was disgusted with the uspec and its sibling and myself. I pulled my hand free of Arexon’s hold and stabbed my cutlass back into its sheath.

I turned to my left. Juke stared at me with wide, frightened, eyes. It gulped when our eyes met and looked away. Gamble was glaring at me, but the uspec wisely chose to avert its gaze before I could decide whether or not to get even more annoyed. Chike stared at Matina. Matiu stood to my left. Its expressionless gaze went from its beaten, weeping, sibling to me and then to the ground. It said nothing. I looked around and all I saw were silent faces. Most appeared baffled, only Arexon looked annoyed. Marcinus stood by the entrance with golden bands on its arms and golden bars on its earrings. It showed no emotion. Its gaze met mine and I found my eyes rivetted on the blackness of the empty eye socket in the middle of its face. When I pulled my focus from that center eye, the rest of its eyes were turned away.

The silence in the gym was deafening.

Arexon broke it. It called out to an uspec with a don’s insignia and a pious one’s fraise and told the uspec to see to Matina’s wounds.

Sophi rushed over. It extended its hand and helped Matina up. “You can see to it in my suite, pious one,” Sophi offered. The child stared up at me with a look of hatred mingled with intense distaste as it walked by, supporting a wounded Matina.

Arexon shook its head at me after they left the gym. It scoffed. “Was that necessary?”

“I want it to return to the Isle of Brio.” I said, unapologetically.

Arexon’s only response was a short round of dry laughter.

“It will not leave you, sirga. None of us will.” Gamble’s voice was steady when it spoke. The uspec met my gaze and tipped its chin upwards. “It does not matter what you do to us. We will not leave you.”

I clenched my jaw and took a step towards the younger uspec. Arexon restrained me with a hand on my shoulder.

I turned from Gamble to Juke, and the pleading I saw in the uspec’s eyes knocked the anger right out of me.

“Please sirga,” Juke begged, “please do not ask us to abandon you. We cannot.” It looked down at the ground as it muttered, “we cannot.”

What had I done to make these uspecs decide that my life was worth theirs? What could any uspec do to make another willingly give up their lives for them? I thought of Arexon and I derided myself. I was doing the same thing for Arexon. I, Nebud, was willing to sacrifice my life in a fight I could not win, because I could not abandon Arexon. But Arexon had earned my loyalty. It had risked its life countless times for me. What had I done for these uspecs to make them give me the loyalty that I gave Arexon? I did not understand it, but I knew that I could not force them to leave any more than Arexon could force me. If Matiu could watch me do what I just did to its sibling and still remain with me, then there was nothing I could do to force them to return. I walked over to Juke and clasped my hand around the back of its neck.

“I will not ask you to leave again,” I promised. Even as I said the words, I could not understand why I made the promise. I just knew that something eased in my chest when Juke’s head rose and it smiled at me.

“Gratitude sirga,” it replied, “we will not disappoint you. I swear it!”

The spot in my chest that had eased, tightened as I thought of the fight ahead. I could not lose this uspec. I just could not. But I could not send it away. I shook my head. “You are a fool for showing me this much loyalty.”

Juke grinned. “No sirga, I am not.”

I did not understand it. What did this young uspec find worthy of adulation in me? I smiled back, because I could not refrain from smiling in the face of Juke’s happiness. I released my hold on the uspec’s neck and turned back to face Matiu. I thought of apologizing for what I’d done to its sibling, but I did not. Of all the uspecs that had come with me, it was Matina I was most worried about. Its death would haunt me. And I knew it would die. It would die in the first battle it fought, and I would be haunted because that skilled artist would have died in my name. If I thought there was anything I could do to force the uspec back, I would do it. No, I did not apologize to Matiu for what I’d done. I could not help but despise the uspec a little for the bind it had placed me in. What use was Matina in a war when it could not fight?

I jerked my gaze away from Matiu’s solemn one and followed Arexon when it beckoned. Others came along with us. Chike and the other uspecs in my honoraria followed. As did Marcinus and several other high-ranking golden capons. Arexon led us to the library. It felt strange to walk into this room. I remembered the last time I’d been in this great library had been when I’d exposed Arexon’s pansophy to Sophian. We walked between tall hard fog shelves packed with tomes. There was a clearing in the middle. I remembered this clearing. It was where Sophian had stood when Arexon, Yakubo and I returned from Aurelion. There was a hard fog table in the middle. The table had the appearance of the stem of a hail tree. It was pure white and had lines etched into its sides. The top was covered with pieces and had portions of the inter-port trail and the Chiboga Acropolis etched into it. It was a war map.

I stood opposite Arexon and listened as it went into deployment details and the troop mobilization. It started with the flying squad. For that it focused its orders on Marcinus, who was apparently the highest commanding golden capon in charge of Arexon’s special flight fighters. At some point during Arexon’s detailed battle commands I turned and found Gamble and Chike standing behind me, Juke stood to my right and Matiu to my left. They had put themselves in position to surround me. Even here, where there were no enemies, they still sought to protect me. I took my attention back to Arexon. It spent a great deal of time firing questions at Marcinus and some other golden capons in the flying squad.

“Sirga,” a soft voice whispered urgently behind me.

I twisted my neck.

It was Matina.

The healer had done a good job. There was no sign of the beating Matina had taken left on its body. I wondered about the amount of growth that had been spent in the process.

“Sirga, may I speak with you in private?” It asked.

Matiu turned to its sibling. It rose an eyebrow in question, but Matina’s gaze was fixed on me. I wove my way away from the group of uspecs convened around Arexon’s war map, and followed Matina to the back of the library. We walked far enough away to be out of eyeshot of any other uspec. Matina stepped in front of me. I watched the uspec closely. Its head was bowed, it could not meet my gaze.

“Apologies sirga, I do not mean to be a disappointment.” It said. I heard the defeat in its voice, and I felt an uncomfortable stirring of guilt and pity. I did not like weak uspecs. I liked them even less when they placed their lives in my hand in the name of protecting me. So why did I feel guilty for beating it?

“You will die in this war Matina. If you do not want to disappoint me, then return to the Isle of Brio.” The uspec rose its head and I saw the pain in its tear-filled eyes. Its lips trembled.

Matina’s gaze dropped. “I am grateful for the time you spent training me in the gym.” It said, and I scoffed at its use of ‘training’. “I will learn sirga, I swear. But I cannot abandon you. I swore an oath to protect you. I cannot break it. My oath is my life.”

“You will be protecting me if you go back to the Isle of Brio.” I responded harshly. “Can’t you see that you are more of a burden than an aid? I am more likely to get myself killed worrying about you than I would be if my mind was fully in the battle.” The words were unkind, but I could not take the sting from them. They were the truth.

Matina’s eyes rose to meet mine. I did not think that I had seen an uspec who looked more broken. I had hurt it deeply with my words, much more than I had with the beating I had given it. But it had to be done. It bowed. “I will return to the Isle of Brio,” it said. “Forgive me for being such a disappointment.”

I exhaled and a knot in my chest loosened. I smiled. “You have done your best and I am deeply moved by your loyalty, Matina, but a war is no place for one with your skills. I am not disappointed. I am grateful to you for seeing reason.”

It bowed deeper, but when it rose its head there was no smile on its face. It looked to the ground and its shoulders were drooped.

I turned to return.

Matina stopped me with its words. “That is not why I asked to speak with you sirga.”

I turned back around.

“I think the imperial Sophi is about to betray you.” It said the words simply, without humor.

I frowned. “What?”

“When it took me back to its suite, it regaled me with tales of its hatred for you and the high Arexon.”

I shrugged. “We killed its line, it is only natural that it hate us.”

“Yes sirga,” Matina’s eyes still looked to the ground, “I know that. But it commiserated with me. It expected me to share its hatred of you after your training in the gym.”

I smiled at Matina’s adamant use of ‘training’ to describe what had gone on in the gym. If the uspec chose to think of it that way, I would not correct it. “I am sure you shattered its illusions.” I stated dryly.

Matina’s gaze snapped up to meet mine. “Of course sirga, I am grateful for your training. It is an honor to parry with you.” It looked away. “I said so, but the imperial Sophi did not believe me. Later, a messenger arrived and gave it a missive. The imperial one left me alone with the missive. It is in some type of code I do not understand, but I saw the name ‘Auxa’ written on it and so I copied the appearance.”

Part 6
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I found myself pacing the Castle halls for a long time after the meal. I thought of Nebula and how it would fare after I was gone. I thought of this place I’d come to and the war I’d brought my honoraria to fight. Arexon’s words from earlier in the day rung in my ears. It had scolded me for not thinking of the younger uspecs in my honoraria, their youth had been spent preparing for war and now they would die if I didn’t send them back. Chike had talked about Juke and Gamble’s training during the meal. It had talked about how strenuously the two uspecs had trained all to impress me. Juke had undergone a severe brawlers education so that I would be proud of it. It was eager to fight, to prove itself to me, but did I want it to? My thoughts trailed to Marcinus and the emptiness in its gaze. I did not want to think about Marcinus. It had caused harm to my offspring, yet I was expected to still care for it as I had done before the inter-port trail, before it had exposed Nebula to lust? If that was what Arexon expected, then it sought too much from me.

With the troubling thoughts in my head, I turned sharply, so distracted that I forgot that Matiu was walking beside me. The uspec stumbled and would have fallen if not for its proximity to the wall.

“Apologies,” I said.

It bowed but said nothing. It frowned and its gaze on me became intense. Its eyebrows pulled together but it remained silent.

I eyed the uspec speculatively, then I turned back around and continued my pacing. We ended up in the gym. This was one part of the Castle that I could never forget. It was where Sophian had had me whipped. The whipping post lived on in my memory, as well as the green equipoise that surrounded it. Both of those were out of my sight, but what I could see was the uspecs fighting. Gamble and Juke faced off against each other. Gamble ducked and swiveled with its blade stretched out. Just when I thought it would cut off Juke’s legs, Juke soared in the air and Gamble flapped its wings and joined the uspec. The land battle became a flight one. My gaze turned to Chike. The imp struck its sword out aiming at a green stomach. The uspec who Chike fought with turned its head away and then stuck its sword far right of Chike’s body. Chike stopped its blow an inch away from Matina’s stomach. I clenched my jaw and turned my attention to Matiu.

The uspec appeared to be staring in the same direction as I had. Its eyebrows pulled even closer together and the bottom corners of its lips tipped downwards. It sighed.

“Take them back,” I said.

Matiu startled. It turned to face me and frowned. “Sirga?”

I crossed my arms over my chest and continued to watch Chike’s battle with Matina. Chike swiped its sword slowly in the direction of the sword that Matina held out. Even with this slow pace, Chike was still able to knock Matina’s sword down.

I turned my attention back to its sibling. “Take Juke, Gamble and Matina back to the Isle of Brio to await Chuspecip’s recuperation.”

Matiu’s frown deepened. “I do not understand, sirga.”

What was there not to understand? I was speaking plainly enough. I repeated my order, but Matiu’s confusion was not eased. “Why sirga?”

I turned back to Chike and Matina. This time Matina managed to swing its blade in time to deflect Chike’s attack, but when Chike returned with a sword thrust aimed at Matina’s other side, the uspec jumped and then pushed itself even closer towards the sharp point of Chike’s sword. Chike pulled the sword back just in time to prevent Matina from stabbing itself on Chike’s blade. How could ineptness like Matina’s exist?

I turned back to Matiu. “Because I do not wish to see any more of my honoraria die.” We stood between two solid fog walls on top of a black solid fog flooring. The gym had no ceiling so traces of the cloud’s red lighting streamed through to where we stood. “Take them back Matiu.”

Matiu shook its head. It bowed to me, a slight neck bow. “I cannot sirga, we have all sworn an oath to protect you with our lives. We cannot go back on it.” It replied calmly.

“I was not asking Matiu. This is an order. Take them back.”

Matiu straightened. It looked into my eyes. Its gaze was piercing, each eye on its face stared into an eye on mine. Its mouth was set in a straight line and all of its eyebrows were pulled down in a corner, almost touching the ones beside it. It shook its head.

I glared at it. “An order, Matiu,” I reiterated.

“I must disobey you sirga.” It said the words evenly, with its pointed stare still fixed on my face.

My jaw clenched. “Is this what service means to you? That you pick and choose the orders to obey?”

Matiu’s eyebrows returned to their normal positions. “When the war is over and you are in your rightful position as Kaiser, you may punish me as you see fit. But till then, I will not go back on my oath to protect you.”

I took a step towards the uspec. My eyes narrowed on it. “Do not push me,” I warned.

Matiu remained undaunted. It was a brawler as I was, and it was older than me, so I was not surprised that it did not cower the way a younger, less trained uspec might.

“The only way to get rid of me would be to kill me sirga.”

I clenched my fists. There was conviction written in the set of Matiu’s face. Its eyes did not look away from mine. It stood tall and steady. It would not back down.

I fumed. An uspec let out a cry of pain. That cry took my attention momentarily from Matiu to the one who’d let out the sound. I had expected it to be Matina, but it was Sophi. It was being trained by an imp soldier. From the slight cut on Sophi’s arm, I guessed that the imp had cut the uspec. Sophi retaliated by slapping the imp across the face and then stabbing a dagger into its side. It spat more than a few derogatory slurs at the imp. The uspecs in my honoraria had stopped their sparring to watch Sophi with the imp. Those uspecs, mine, they were so young. I knew that they were all in or close to their twenties now, but to me they were still the young teens I’d left behind. How could I lead them to their deaths?

“You should not ask them to go back, sirga. They will not. They will only be hurt that you asked, and you will be enraged that they refused you. In this matter, I speak for us all. We will not leave you.”

Matiu’s softly spoken words enraged me. I looked at the uspecs and I saw them in their youth. I saw Juke, a brawler now, but I remembered it as the young uspec who’d been so eager to pour me wine and tell me stories. I had not been as close to Gamble and Matina, but they’d both been youths when I’d left. Chike and Matina resumed their sparring. Chike had to deflect another blow aimed at Matina’s side because the uspec was too slow to stop the attack itself. This latest display of Matina’s lack of skill was the last straw.

I marched into the gym.

Chike advanced on Matina and the uspec stepped backwards. It kept breaking its gaze from Chike to look backwards and the steps it took back were clumsy. Each time it looked away, it gave Chike a myriad of openings to attack. I watched the uspec and all I could see were the many ways it could die. It was an artist, a skilled one. I did not want its death on my conscience.

I wrapped my hand around the uspec’s neck when its retreat brought it right into my path. It jumped, yelped, and then turned around with its blade poised for attack. I would have been impressed by its eagerness to attack if it wasn’t swinging with its eyes closed.

Its swing was so slow that I had enough time to reach for my dagger and knock its sword of out its hand.

It opened its eyes. Those eyes widened and then they stayed wide. Its mouth hung open. I shook the uspec harder than I’d intended to. When I released it, it fell onto the hard fog ground. The fall sounded hard enough to bruise its hip, but the uspec didn’t cry out in pain.

“You are returning to the Isle of Brio.” I said, without preamble.

Matina’s wide eyes grew even wider. Then those eyes narrowed. It rose from its sprawled position and maneuvered itself to a single knee. It bowed to me. “It is my duty to protect you, imperial one, I will not leave you.”

I laughed. The uspec’s gaze rose to mine. The corners of its lips turned down slightly and its gaze dropped.

“You want to protect me?” I teased.

It looked up, saddened by my jest, but it nodded.

“Get up. Pick up your sword and show me how you plan to protect me.” I replied.

It eyes widened and its lips trembled. “Ye-yes si-sirga,” It quivered. Its legs buckled underneath when it tried to rise. After it finally got itself up, its arms began to shake. It was shivering when it picked up its sword. It stood before me, a quivering mess, and then gulped before saying, “I am ready sirga.” Its voice was low.

I sneered at it. It gasped and drew back at the sound of me unsheathing my sword. Its wide eyes followed my sword, and then rose up to stare at my face. It had no bulk, and less height than I did. It gripped the hilt of its sword with both hands. Its shaking was so pronounced that even the sword it held vibrated.

I swung my cutlass and in one swing I knocked the sword out of the uspec’s hands. It gasped and took a step back, where a real warrior would have lurched forward to retrieve its blade. I rose my sword high and brought it on a curved arch towards the uspec’s midsection. It froze and then turned with its eyes wide to stare at the approaching blade. If it was any other uspec I would have cut it in half. This one was in my honoraria, so I slammed the face of my cutlass into its side.

A whimper was the only sound of pain it made.

I pulled my blade back and rose to attack again. This time, the uspec was smart enough to reach for its sword. Since it was so eager to see what a real fight looked like, I reached for the sword before it could and then kicked it out of the way. The sword crashed into a stone post. Matina made to run after it, put I repositioned my blade and cut it off. It received a few more whacks from the face of my cutlass before it gathered enough wits to try to dodge them. When I brought my cutlass down on a high arc aimed at its neck, it bent low and I slammed my fist into its face. The uspec doubled over, blind to the returning swing of my cutlass. I whipped the flat side against its exposed aileron. It drew up and I slammed my left fist into its face and whacked the side of my cutlass into its body. It kept trying to dodge and I kept pounding it with my fist and with my cutlass. It could not escape the beating I gave it, but at least it tried. Matina was no coward. It had no skill, but it was no coward.