Authors: Dhayaa Anbajagane
Q’s eyes fluttered open, and registered a blur of images.
“You finally woke up,” a voice said.
He blinked a few times to clear his vision. The High Priest sat in an old wooden chair by his bedside, with his staff across his lap.
“Hello, Idhren,” Q said. And then he realized he’d just called the most powerful man in Armorica by his first name. “I mean, High Priest,” he corrected.
Idhren just laughed, “You may call me Idhren, just as you brother always did.”
Q smiled. The guy seemed pretty down to Earth, which wasn’t something he expected based on the way this planet embraced medieval culture.
His body felt weak and fluid, as though every muscle had turned into putty. He shifted position on his incredibly soft bed. He didn’t know how sleeping on a pile of feathers felt, but he was sure this felt better. His head still ached quite a bit, and his vision wasn’t completely cleared up yet.
“You must rest awhile,” Idhren said.
“What happened to me?” he asked. “I remember being in the hot spring, but everything after that is a blank.”
He chuckled, “You, my friend, fainted from the heat of the water.”
“You mean the thing where being in hot water stops the blood flow to the head?”
“Precisely. This must be one of the first times you’ve been in a hot spring.”
Q nodded.
“I must say you were quite lucky Carlos reached you in time. That misty air prevented us from knowing you’d fainted.”
“Where is Carlos anyway?”
“He’s sleeping in his quarters. The hot springs seemed to have relaxed him a bit too much,” he chuckled. “The girls are taking their turn at the springs now. The one called Elizabeth laughed and laughed when she found out the reason why I’d separated us by gender. She laughed even more when she found out why you had fainted.”
“She’s a silly one.”
“I did not know she was of the Seraphian race,” he said. “That fact explains alone explains her resentful reactions earlier on.”
“Yeah,” Q said. “She’s been through a lot.”
“Seraphian women are undoubtedly one of the strongest beings I’ve ever come across,” Idhren said. “Some may be weak in body, but I have never seen one who was weak at heart.”
The room’s wooden doors exploded, the shrapnel flying all over the floor. Idhren stood up, his staff pointed at the entrance, its orb glowing with a mystical aura. Q tried to get up, but his body was still far too weak.
A dark-armored figure ran into the room, its physique showing it was a man.
“Stand down, warrior,” Idhren said, his voice thundering through the air.
The intruder bent low and brought his arms in front of its chest. He was getting into an attacking position.
“There!” a voice yelled, and the sound of heavy footsteps followed.
The guards
, Q thought.
The armor clad intruder seemed to realize he was outnumbered and charged at the wall opposite to the door. He put his hand up into the air, and the wall exploded, creating an opening about three feet in diameter. He made a final burst to pick up the pace and dived full length through the hole before Idhren or Q could even react.
A few guards ran into the room, “Sire, are you safe?”
“I am fine. So is our guest,” Idhren said. “How in the world did an intruder get into the palace?”
“We do not know, Sire. The security team is looking at all the surveillance right now.”
“Surveillance? The man is trapped in here. The force field will not let him leave.”
“A section of the field was taken out before the attack commenced, Sire. The intruder seemed to have planned this very well.”
Idhren’s eyes widened. He was clearly not happy with what just happened. But he remained calm and addressed the issue, “Investigate this thoroughly and send a few men after him. There is no way he could have escaped without the locals catching glimpses of him.”
“Yes, Sire,” the guards bowed and left.
Idhren turned to Q, “I believe we’re going to have to shift you to another room. Armorica’s intel team will soon inform us on details of the event. We can talk about this incident then.”
Carlos ran into the room, his hair in a mess, and sweat pouring from his face.
“Are you guys okay?” he asked, panting heavily.
Idhren sat back down on his chair, “Come join us, Carlos,” he pulled up another chair.
Q sat there in amusement as his brother looked at Idhren in utter confusion.
“We’re fine,” Idhren laughed. “You on the other hand, look like you ran for your life.”
Carlos collapsed into the chair and took in big puffs of air.
“I see there’s been a lack of regular exercise in your life.”
“Shut up,” he finally managed to say.
Idhren smiled, “This informality is so much more comforting.”
“I’m the Commander of Aliea,” he said in between deep breaths. “I need to be formal.”
“Sire,” a man walked through the torn door.
“Ah, General,” Idhren said. “What has intel found out about the intruder?”
“He’s been posing as a Getafixian for almost a month now. We’d hired him as an errand boy, and he used that to get access into the main palace.”
“Posing as a Getafixian? Is he a Thanonian then?”
“Yes, Sire, a young male.”
Idhren paused for a few seconds, “Double up on security, and make sure we only hire people who have family here in the city. No Thanonian is going to go to the extent of faking the existence of a whole family.”
The General fidgeted, “Sire, there’s one more thing…”
“Yes?”
“We sent scout drones to the planet of Thanos, and we found concrete evidence of the Thanonians assembling an even larger army.”
“Preparing for war?”
“We believe so. The number of soldiers in their army has doubled. As it stands now, for every man we have they have ten.”
“We will discuss this later, General.”
“Yes, Sire,” the man bowed and took his leave.
“A ten to one shot seems overwhelming,” Carlos said.
“It isn’t overwhelming. It’s massacre. Our army, even with stronger weaponry and superior mages, cannot hope to defeat those numbers.”
“You could call for backup.”
“All our allies are too far away to help us once a war breaks out. They’d take days to reach Armorica, and by then who knows what sort of damage will occur.”
“Still better than nothing.”
“It might be better than nothing but the outcome is still the same.”
“Maybe I can contact some of Aliea’s allies. They might give us better options.”
“That will not be required. The Getafixians of Armorica have plenty of allies. We will call upon of them if we deem it necessary,” Idhren said and turned to Q. “Shall we get going then?”
“Going where?”
“The palace’s inner arena,” he smiled. “Let’s have a look at your powers shall we?”
***
“Finally!” Elizabeth jumped into the hot spring.
A laugh rang through the air, “That’s the most boyish thing you could’ve done,” the pilot said as she got into the water a little more gracefully.
“Stop being such a stickler, Alicia,” she pouted.
The pilot laughed, “Fine, fine. Let’s have some fun.”
Elizabeth had spent a while talking to Alicia while they’d rested in the master quarters. She seemed like a really fun person, which was something Elizabeth hadn’t expected. Most pilots were conditioned to be stern and focused. But then again, she had a friend, Kai, who was Aliea’s most versatile pilot and he was pretty much the goofiest person she knew.
“So,” Elizabeth shifted a little closer to Alicia, which was hard do with all the mist. “What’s your deal with Aliea Academy?”
“What do you mean?”
“Aliea takes very few teenage cadet enrollments, and usually a lot of them have umm…difficult circumstances.”
“Well, I don’t have any of the sort.”
“Aw, c’mon. There’s gotta be something.”
“You make it sound like only damaged people get into Aliea,” Alicia laughed.
“I’m not making it sound like that. I’m saying it
is
that.”
“Really? You think all of Aliea’s cadets are people who went through a lot in life?”
“As soon a cadet comes into Aliea they never go back to their planet, at least not until they finish their whole training regimen. Do you think any normal kid would be fine with staying away from their home planet for four or five years?”
“I joined when I was eighteen.”
“That old?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, how old are you now?”
“Twenty-one.”
“You don’t look like it though.”
“Maybe this spring water is helping me out,” she laughed.
“I sure hope not. I’d hate to look younger than fourteen.”
She laughed, “Don’t worry, for the way you act at times, you have a better chance of cutting your hair and passing off as a boy rather than looking like a thirteen-year old girl.”
“Thank you for that compliment,” she splashed a good chunk of water onto Alicia, who covered her face protectively.
“I was raised in a large family,” Alicia said once their mini water-fight ended.
Elizabeth stopped making ripples in the water and paid attention.
“My great-great grandfather moved from Spain to Mexico in the late 1700s. It was a horrible choice if you ask me. Ever since we reached the continent my family was completely broke, and it seemed pretty hard to make a living. But they somehow managed to get by. Then my generation came along. I’m the oldest of ten siblings - four boys and six girls.”
“WHAT?”
“Yeah,” she said. “In this day and age my mom and dad had ten children together. The financial burden of ten children kept piling up on their already penniless lives. At our lowest hour a man in a black suit came by our house, told us he was recruiting for a high class school and that he wanted to take me there. My dad and mom were against it instantly.”
“Of course they’d be against it,” she said. “They wouldn’t want to part from you.”
“They didn’t want to lose a potential worker for the family.”
Elizabeth fell silent again. She regretted asking Alicia that question.
“The man said he’d pay my family’s expenses for the rest of their lives if they let me come, and so they allowed me. Imagine how surprised I was when he suddenly whipped out a portal and dragged me into it. I thought he was an alien shapeshifter disguised as a human and that he was going to take me to his ship to experiment on me.”
“Wow, that story took an unexpected turn,” Elizabeth laughed, and Alicia joined is as well. “You know, I wonder what your parents would say if they saw you now.”
“Maybe I’ll find out,” she said. “This trip is my last mission.”
“What?”
“I’m retiring from the Academy after we go back home.”
“You’re talking like you’ve been doing this for forty years.”
She chuckled, “Sure feels like it.”
“Why all of a sudden?”
“I need to go back home, Elizabeth,” Alicia looked up at the sky. “Back to Earth, to Mexico.”
“Really? You want to go back to THAT family?”
“Yeah, I think they need me. But that’s not my only reason,” she turned to Elizabeth, a smile on her face. “I met someone.”
“Okay, I’m getting more and more confused.”
“I met a guy at the Area 51 facility. They’d called Aliea for a pilot once and I was assigned to the job. That’s when I met Kyle.”
“Wow,” she said. “So you’re going to settle down with him?”
“What? Of course not.”
“Then?”
“I don’t want to give halfhearted effort to what could turn out to be the biggest part of my life.”
“Well. I’d hoped to say you sound like an unrealistic young adult, but you don’t sound like that at all.”
She laughed, “When I told the Commander about it he said the same thing; that I was too young to be making big changes just to fall in love with someone.”
“Well, he’d be right on that part.”
“He’d be right if this job was what was important in my life,” she said.
“Okay seriously. Stop making me confused over and over again.”
“Try to think of the happiest moments you’ve ever faced. No, think of the ten happiest moments. Does even one of them involve you going on a mission? Or even anything remotely connected to Aliea?”
Elizabeth thought hard, partly because she wanted to prove Alicia wrong, and partly because she was curious herself as to what her happiest moments were.
“There isn’t a single thing related to Aliea’s missions is there?”
She hesitated a bit and then shook her head.
“The only things that goals and achievements drive is passion and curiosity. We’re all intellectual beings not because we’re smart, but because we can feel happiness when we’re together with one another. Seems like my race has forgotten that little by little over the years.”
Elizabeth didn’t know how to reply to that. The statement ran through her mind over and over again. Every time she thought of it, she couldn’t help admitting that Alicia was right. Every single moment of happiness she felt was only from a human connection she’d made, not from the self-satisfaction of finishing a mission, or discovering something new. Those made her satisfied, not happy.
Alicia stepped out the water, “You better think about that, kiddo, else life will just go by, and you’ll still be searching for the happiness that was right in front of you.”
***