A radiant light suffused me, lighting the area but even as I became aware of it, it began to fade and die. I clutched frantically at my arms, expecting them to be burning with heat but they were cool to the touch. I glanced back to Star and she was watching me now with a calculated, hungry look and with something else I couldn’t quite make out.
– For a hundred years, we have fought and fled, searching the thousand worlds for a weapon, an ally to aid us in our fight. And the answer has been here all along…
Was that hope in her eyes? I couldn’t help but feel the power of her sorrow and fear; a hundred years of torment and now she thought that I could end it? I shook my head. It simply wasn’t possible. I couldn’t explain anything that was happening, not the strange burgeoning heat I felt within, or the dream and mind-bonds. All I did was clean and serve, to the best of my ability. Keep you’re head down and just do the job, my sister had always said. I stared at my hands as they clutched at each other and I couldn’t stop them or the subsequent rocking.
“I can’t do this,” I said, not looking at her. “You can’t ask me to.”
Someone banged on the door, forestalling any reply. We shared a startled glance then, ruefully acknowledging that someone had managed to sneak up on us. It took a moment before I remembered my place and coughing, said, “Who is it?”
There was no answer.
Again, the banging began.
I looked at Star, a silent question in my eyes but she just stared back. It took a second before I remembered my place. "The lady is currently indisposed," I called out. Furious buzzing arose and with a sickening feeling in my stomach, I realised who it must be - Viln, without a certain manservant. She could still feel him clinging to her hands. She gagged, feeling suddenly nauseous. Beside her, Star gasped. Whether in response to the images flooding my mind or to Viln, I didn't know nor did I have the heart to check.
"What's happening?"
Star was looking at me with despair. "You killed him, didn't you. The boy?"
I froze.
It wasn't a thought I had actively considered. But now that the question had been posed, I was sure of it. There wasn't any other explanation. I had killed someone; a boy, like myself. The realization left me reeling, on top of all the revelations in the past hour, it was too much. The room was spinning, darkness closing in on the edges amid all the swirling questions in my head; what had he been doing in my room? How had I done it and what was this strange glowing? I might have collapsed had I not encountered a wall - Star, there in my mind, a source of strength I found I could draw upon. I shuddered, curling in on myself. Through Star, I understood that it was indeed Viln outside the door and that he was demanding to be let in.
Star wasn't fazed. In the last few moments, she had returned to her formal, poised itself. She got up, retreated into her room where she quietly but calmly began to dress herself. Taking a moment to compose myself in a like manner, I rose and joined her, assisting in the preparations. In moments, we had her dressed and presentable - within, the gaping hole was still there, eating away at her but she had put it aside for now. One last item, a darkly gleaming wooden box, was opened. Inside, the white-grey ashes of the dead stirred. Scooping some up, she marked a sign atop her skull, trembling all the while.
The banging on the door continued and I hurried to open it. As I did so, Viln nearly fell into the room, arm outstretched to slam against the door once more. Two gray robed V'ra stood beside him. My flesh crawled beneath the gaze of those gaping dark cowls. Viln strode in self-importantly, buzzing and clicking rapidly; a sound that swiftly died, turning into a strangled whine. There was a moments silence as the robed V'ra glided into the room. Again, I found myself privy to the conversation.
- Acolytes, L'roc and Shirva, Star acknowledged with a nod of her head.
Viln was staring at her in open horror. "She is dead, then?"
My hatred of the man surged at his lack of sympathy. Star merely nodded, sorrow etched into her skin. “Moon perished last night as did the last colonising party. We alone, remain.” It was odd, hearing the strange and still foreign sound of the language and yet knowing the meaning in her mind, as though she listened to two conversations. These two would not share minds – that, I knew. Viln rocked back on his heels, stunned. He was not long in recovering, though.
“Regrettable as that is, we have come for the girl.”
“On what grounds?”
“The murder of my Si-an was a most grievous injury to my soul,” he lamented. “For which the girl must be punished.”
“For defending herself? I think not.”
– Enough . Petty disputes do not interest us. We sensed a disturbance of some strength and there is enough evidence to suggest this one is responsible. We must examine her.
Star hesitated. She stared into the depths of their cowls, looking for what I couldn’t tell but she didn’t find it. She looked away.
– It will do you no good.
– We must try, nonetheless.
Eyes shifting from one to the other, I couldn’t fathom entirely grasp what was happening. It was all too much, too soon – was she really giving me up that easily? Viln’s eyes gleamed with triumph as the Acolytes glided forward, grasping me calmly by the forearms, with ice cold limbs.
– We suggest you begin your preparations, Priestess.
– They have already begun. The final destination has been set.
Those ominous words were the last I heard as a surge of pain sent me tumbling into oblivion.
*
Freezing metal had her flesh crawling. Strobe lights pierced into unseeing orbs as all around, a chirping, buzzing lilt rose and fell.
*
Star slid into the metal suit, feeling the cool steel mesh meld onto her flesh. She held herself still, bracing herself for the pain as the thin, long needles of the helmet pierced her skull. She cried out –
*
As the priest lifted his oddly glittering, silver knife from her body. She could never have conceived loneliness of this magnitude; the chatter and swell of other emotions and thoughts had always pressed against hers. What could fill such a vast, gaping void as existed now?
The answer came, for too a brief a time, and it was Moon.
*
On the table, I shivered and recoiled, clicks and gasps spilling out into the air. They clucked and ticked over her but it was not my body they wished to investigate. The bracelet, its tightness an ever-present reminder on my wrist, was taken away as the preparations began. Over and over, my mind went over those final words.
*
The steel wings flexed and began to flap, wingspan stretching to the limits of the hold. The door slid seamlessly back and she faced the barren depths of space. At some point, she’d always known she would face the void with no Bond to save her.
She dived.
*
The Duke’s harsh breaths panted against my ear as he thrust eagerly upward. I bit back a moan, blinking the tears desperately away. He grunted, taking the sound to be one of approval and sped up the pace. There was no connection here, only a distant void that sucked and tore at my heart.
Hands grasping frantically at the hay, I clung to the safety of knowing that the final destination had been set.
*
Weightless, she soared. Such elation rushed through her blood –this, this was what it must be like as one of the Drakul – as a god of the sky. They wouldn’t come silently, as with Moon. That card had been played and any minute now, the bloom of the space-rifts would open like wounds and they would surge out on vengeance-sped wings.
Behind her, the giant ship began to accelerate as fast as it could, urged on to her last coordinates. All around her, incandescent tears ripped through the fabric of the cosmos like so much paper before a blade.
*
Their minds eased into mine, quick and small and nimble as darting fish in a stream. I hadn’t the will to resist as they plumb the depths of my memories, the curious detachment that seemed so natural to them persisted at first but gradually began to unravel. Panic and horror tore into them as they quickly tried to withdraw –
– The bitch has killed us all! We are betrayed!
– They have Bonded!
My mind, so easy to open, proved impossible to escape from. As yet unconcerned with them, I began to smile. The table was no longer cold.
*
There is nothing quite like sharing ones soul with another. Being privy to the deepest depths of the darkness capable within, knowing things even the other was not aware of. It was a sacred trust, so easy to use and abuse that Star wanted to weep.
She twirled through the air, slipping beneath the great wyrms about her, unable to manoeuvre their giant bulk quickly enough and she delivered many stinging cuts. Her leash sliced white lines of power through the darkness of space as all around her tornadoes of flame burned.
Within the suit, all was cool and she smiled.
*
Their piteous mewls had ended long ago, flesh crisped and smoking. The table was melting and the great sheets of metal that bound the ship together were screaming and groaning, stretched and warped by the incredible heat. I was so close now, to being filled, to finally becoming all that I was meant to be.
I walked the halls, seeing the dead and dying all around me. I got no satisfaction from this, only upon seeing Viln – the skin and meat of his face become a sloshing tide that ran down his skull – did a kernel of happiness kindle. The core of searing light within me burned hotter until I could see naught but white. All the while, the ship hurtled toward the sun.
*
They were closing now, nipping and biting at her heels.
She tumbled and fell beneath their shifting, heavy weight, desperation clawing at her insides. There was no such thing, of course, as a Bond greater than the first and her sorrow for Moon tided over all else. Only rage competed with it as she lashed out, laying a latticework of pain around her. They fell back and she was granted a momentary reprieve.
– I will not fail you again.
*
Of course, the word Star had searched for wasn’t sister. It couldn’t cause such vast reservoirs of feeling, couldn’t spur this mad, suicidal rush. It had been lover. She failed to appreciate, however, the realities I had discovered within myself. The terrible, terrible power within - she knew only pain and I grieved for her.
She thought I was merely a Conduit, a receptacle through which sources of power could be channelled. And what force was greater than the sun? Surely its molten heart could burn even the Drakul and so the mad dance was begun. They only toyed with her, I knew and distantly, a part of me cried out, to stop, to find another way – of course I couldn’t do that. Not now.
Father was calling and he would never harm his children.
*
The ship was gone, long since destroyed and the intensity of the aurora around her was making its presence felt. The strange materials by which the Acolytes maintained their power was giving way and she could feel the pain setting in. Star welcomed it with a smile; finally the agonies within would be felt without.
The Drakul didn’t seem affected by it, still twirling and dancing, seemingly overjoyed – savage beasts. How had they once been so ignorant to worship them? Their scales were blinding, their roars twining in wonderful synchronicity to form a song she could barely grasp. In her last moments, Star shouted out in gladness; she would finally join Moon, with or without vengeance. It no longer mattered.
*
Home.
It was a notion I’d never truly understood, I realised now. As with Family; concepts just barely grasped but never explored to their fullest. It hadn’t been easy to let go of my body, but my brothers and sisters merely laughed at my foolishness.
Let it go, let it go! It’s time to grow up, they cried, with joyous abandon. Fathers welcoming heat enclosed about us, keeping us warm and full. Within his protective womb, I began to grow into my true self, at last. For now, it was enough to be at the centre of all things, illuminating all the worlds.
------------------------
To be honest, kids, I hated this. But I forced it out because I wanted it done so I could move on to the next story I want to write without feeling guilty. Also, I edited the other segments accordingly. And yes, XD, I did change Starlight's name. XD
Thanks for following through with a conclusion for us. ^_^ Some random thoughts:
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