To Walk the Constellations Pt. 12

Jesus, please...please take care of the Tiamat. Take care of Techne and Rossk and Mal and Meetra and every last rebel. You won't need to waste time on me. I squared my shoulders and tried to an insolent little grin that was for God and for Thale.

I won't need your help here.

THE RED ROOM

The elevator doors opened and I was marched into a vast, red room. It was shaped...wrong. Like a pair of crosses pressed in one another, merging and molding together into something that shouldn't have been but...was. The floor looked like it should have been canted at a crazy angle, but walking along it felt entirely flat. The walls were a brooding, stark red, and the floor was a pure obsidian black. But to my senses, to my Liminal awareness, the room felt even more inspiring. The focused power of dozens of gravitic engines was used to sculpt spacetime itself like it was a statue, twisting it into knots. The center of the room was dominated by a throne.

Even from here, the throne felt heavy. It was made of a shimmering purple-black material that flowed in a constant, writhing motion. Like it was more liquid than solid. But the man seated upon it was seated as if it was solid. He looked...

I blinked.

That was Emperor Daniel Golgotha Rehoboam IV, great great great great grandson of Emperor Daniel Nebuchadnezzar I. This...skinny, hunched, gray skinned figure with a jagged scar that consumed half his jaw and his cheek? That balding, withered man, whose hands twitched against his golden lamé robes? That was the Emperor? I wasn't sure who I had expected...but I didn't expect him. And then, from the shadows, came the other Hegemonic Knights.

They fit the legend. They fit the stories.

One of them was a massive figure. Armored in black, with a hissing and clicking sound coming with every breath, and digitigrade cybernetic legs. He looked down at me through eyes that had been replaced with insect-optics that whirred and clicked. He felt like he was made more out of machine. Fanning around his body were others. Each had unique armor -- each one had their own twist on a threshold blade. One of them was carrying a heavy buzz-saw at the end of a stick. Another one had a mace that looked similar to the throne, rippling with gravitic fields. One of them was shirtless, covered with scars, and had a narrow cylindrical threshold blade that looked as double bladed as the Knight had I had faced before.

They walked and paced, and soon, they ringed the room.

Thale stepped forward, then held out my threshold blade.

I felt a ping. My blade reached out to me. I had access to it. I focused, giving it a tiny command to begin fabricating the microjet engine in the base.

"Well, well, well..." Emperor Rehoboam said. His voice was raspy and his grin was eminently punchable. "What do we have here." He crooked his finger and my threshold blade lifted into the air. I could feel the energies of the gravitic engines, flinging my sword up, then shooting it towards Rehoboam's hand. He caught it from the air, looking it at it with pursed lips. My eyes widened.

He was a Liminal Knight.

The Emperor was a Liminal Knight. Great.

"Do...you know what you've found for me, Lord Drak?" Rehoboam crooned.

"No, sire," Thale said, his head still ducked forward as he knelt on the ground.

"This..." Rehoboam said, looking up at me. His eyes were green. For some reason, I'd expected yellow. "This is the blade of Wotan Hohmann."

My gut dropped. I had been planning on keeping that bit of information secret. Thale snapped his head around to look right at me. The other Hegemonic Knights did as well.

"The prophecy is true, then," Rehoboam said, grinning ever so slowly. His teeth were small, white nubs. Why did I feel like he was sizing me up to tear out my throat. I glared right at him, my jaw tightening slightly as he continued to speak. "The prophecy of the orphan child -- bearing Hohmann's blade. Come to strike me down..." He spread his arms as he stood before his throne. He held my sword in his hand. His eyes met mine and he continued: "To put an end to the Hegemony. That's what the prophecy says. Are you an orphan child, Venn of Stumble?"

I glared at him.

"Yes...you are..." Rehoboam murmured. "But did you know there is another claimant?"

He set my blade down on his throne.

Rehoboam's eyes gleamed as he spoke. "What many do not know about the famed Wotan Hohmann...is that he had two threshold blade in his life. One, he raised against my ancestor. One, he used in his service." He gestured with one hand and Thale stood. Thale's hand was shaking as he drew his blade. "Yes..." Rehoboam crooned. "Yes."

Thale looked at me.

"I knew, of course," Rehoboam said. "I knew from the instant I took Lord Drak under my wing."

He sat at the throne. His gloating laugh split the room. "Why, Lord Vorsoth and I realized the solution. We communed with the Machine together -- and they charted our course. For all prophecies only come true if they come true. When they fail...they become metaphor." His teeth flashed. "And Lord Drak stands before me resolute."

As he spoke, a woman in a red robe emerged from the darkness. She held a small pillow on her palms. Sitting on it was a small ampule, filled with mana. My talent brushed against it and I felt it -- it was medical nano, designed for retroviral injection and DNA re-sequencing. I didn't need to untangle the complexity of its code to know that it was made specifically to 'fix' Thale. To strip away his mutations.

To leave him blond.

Blue eyed.

Human.

The red robed woman knelt beside Thale. Thale took the ampule in his hand, lifting it from the pillow. His hand shook and I could see that his claws were straining against his glove. His tail lashed. Adoran, kneeling, looked at him with wide wide eyes. My throat was dry as a bone.

"You have everything you dreamed of in your hand, Lord Drak," Rehoboam said. "But the nano will not truly activate until you complete your last rite. Your last...initiation."

Thale looked at him. Then he looked at me.

He knew what it was he had to do.

His mask clicked and whirred as it retracted, forming into a collar around his neck. His face met mine as Rehoboam chuckled. His eyes glittered with pure delight. I snarled.

"You're insane," I said, clenching my hand.

"Am I?" Rehoboam asked. "You're the one who put yourself to the fighting against the only thing that could save humanity from the coming darkness. A darkness you don't even begin to comprehend, that you can't even imagine. A darkness we have struggled to prepare ourselves against for one thousand years." He thrust his finger at me. "That is the dedication of the Gentek Hegemony, Venn of Stumble! That is what drove us -- and what drove Lord Drak. What I taught him! When he wished to cry, to give up, to die, I pushed him with trial after trial, test after test, and through each, he became stronger! More powerful! More dedicated to his task."

Thale began to walk towards me.

"Protect...you want to protect humanity?" I asked. "From what? Not being blond?" I snarled. "You just want to control people."

"People must be controlled for their own good," Rehoboam said, settling down.

My threshold blade pinged. The jet engine was prepped.

CHANCE

I triggered it. The jet engine roared to life, the threshold blade formatting as it shot towards Rehoboam. He didn't even twitch. He simply smirked as something twisted the blade around him -- then sent it skittering off onto the ground. It tumbled and caught up against the big dude's foot. He pressed his foot against it and chuckled.

"Gravitic shields," Rehoboam said, sounding bored. "Really now, did you think I would fall for that old trick?"

Thale stepped up. His hand grabbed onto my shoulder and he shoved me down. I gasped as my knees hit the floor. Looking up at him, I saw his face set. His jaw tight.

I refused to beg. My lips locked.

Rehoboam laughed. "Please? I can read him, you know." His skeletal finger tapped his withered temple. "To a trained Knight, even the subtlest of human expressions can be seen like an open book. The twitch of the jaw. The tightening of skin across the temples. The flick of those ears." He said ears like it was a foul curse. "A thousand micro-expressions, giving me a single kinesthetic portrait. Lord Drak could no more lie to me at this moment than he could turn air into lead." He leaned forward in his throne. "At this moment...Drak Thale...is readying himself to strike down the woman that he loves...for the man that he loves."

Thale looked into my eyes.

Rehoboam's sneering voice filled my ears. "Beg, child. See if he spares you."

Thale's threshold blade roared to life beside my ear.

And something zipped past my eye.

The humming sound of the electromagnetic containment field buzzed in my inner ear. My cybernetic arm tingled. I had almost forgotten I had it. But the knuckle sensors -- more finely attuned than my old ones -- detected an infinitesimal weight on them.

Thale and mine eyes met.

"Do it," Rehoboam hissed.

Thale nodded to me.

I turned my wrist and closed my fingers around the monomolecular wire that had draped itself across my knuckles. I found the transparent aluminum cap-ring and slid my finger through it. Thale spun and thrust out his palm. I twisted and yanked. The nearly invisible monomolecular wire that Thale had launched from the butt of his threshold blade twisted in the air. The weighted end -- whose impact had been concealed by the sound of Thale's threshold blade triggering -- popped free and looped around Emperor Rehoboam's torso.

The Emperor's eyes widened.

Thale set my blade flying into his palm, triggering it.

I yanked.

Blood misted the air as the weighted end of the monowhip flew towards me, sheeting thick, black-red blood. My palm closed around the weighted tip, drawing the shimmering wire taut between my arms as my back pressed to Thale.

The Emperor stood.

Stumbled.

Fell.

His head and legs struck the ground at different times.

Adoran gaped at us.

Weapons snarled to life.

The Hegemony Knights charged -- and time seemed to slow.

Battle joined.

VIOLENCE

The first knight to rush at me had a buzz saw on a stick. He swung it at my head. I ducked, thrusting my arms up, then twisted the monowire around his wrist. His armor flared with a crackling, yellowy light, but I reached into his armor's controllers and twisted, hard. I only needed to disrupt the program for a few seconds for the electromagnetic shield to collapse. I jerked and twisted the monowhip to the side. His arm fell away, the buzzsaw skittering along the floor, sending up a spray of sparks.

I stood and twisted to the side as a the shirtless knight with a pure white blade thrust at me. The blade buzzed along the floor and I scrambled to my feet, jerking backwards. The buzzsaw Knight clutched at his wrist as blood pumped onto the floor.

To my left, Thale had my sword and his sword in both hands -- the two blades of Wotan Hohmann. He slashed, catching the red sword of one of the other knights, then shoving him backwards as, with his golden sword, he impaled a Hegemonic Knight through the chest. The Hegemonic Knight clutched at Thale's wrist and staggered backwards, yanking Thale's blade from his palms. Thale sprang away from the huge guy with the cybernetics. The huge guy had a green threshold blade that shaped into the form of an ax. He used it with the same brutal, hewing strength. He batted Thale's first parry aside, then nearly cut Thale's arm off -- Thale only saved himself by throwing himself backwards and rolling to his feet.

Meanwhile, I was desperately evading the shirtless fucker and the armless fucker. The armless guy had managed to stop the blood flow -- Christ knows how -- and had grabbed up his buzzsaw with his remaining hand. He swung in curving arcs, driving me towards the shirtless bastard, who slashed his sword at me. I twisted left, then right. Then, desperately, I thrust out my hand, my senses reaching out. I felt not only the gravitic engines. I also felt defensive turrets, concealed behind the walls.

The armless fucker grinned.

The turrets came to life.

I snapped my attention to the gravitic engines and adjusted the floor under our feet. The shirtless fucker skidded on his feet between me and the turret. Slugs the size of my fucking fist smashed into his back. Then exploded. The man blew apart in chunks and the armless guy gaped as I sprang forward, grabbed him by the shoulders, then flung him into the wall. The same gravitic engine I had used focused a point of gravitation that was as tiny as it was powerful about five inches away from the armless guy's guts.

Tidal forces ripped him into a spray of red and flesh and bone, the screaming sound cutting off far later than it should have.

Thale lifted his blade -- my blade -- and the ax-edge of the huge Hegemonic Knight bit into it. It was smashed down to his knees -- and in a daze, I started to stumble forward, looking for a weapon. But then something shot past me.

Thale was knocked to his knees as the immense Hegemonic Knight shoved forward. The Knight lifted his threshold ax upwards, then brought it whistling down. It crashed into a blue-white sword. Adoran stood above Thale, his knees locked, his body trembling. He snarled. "Not today, Lord Vorsoth," he growled.

"Insolent-" Lord Vorsoth's eyes flashed. He lifted a digitigrade leg and kicked out -- the blow slamming into Adoran's gut. Adoran skidded.

I thrust out my palm.

The clave turret hammered.

Vorsoth lifted his hand and triggered the internal explosives before the massive slugs could strike his armor. Shell casing bounced off his armor and he roared in fury. But Thale got to his feet and ran to Adoran, crying out. "Adoran!" The turret ran dry on bullets, or stopped responding to my calls. Either way, Vorsoth lowered his arm and advanced towards me. I held out my hand -- and my sword's jet flared, shooting it towards my palm.

I caught it and rolled tot he side as Vorsoth brought his ax smashing down onto the ground. Sparks flew. Then a gravitic field punched my back, shoving me back to my feet. Vorsoth hewed at my throat with his ax, but I managed to get my sword up in the way. The impact of blade on blade sent me skittering backwards and his free hand grabbed onto my throat. He lifted me up, snarling.

"You killed the Emperor, you vermin, you-"

Thale leaped onto Vorsoth's back, his threshold blade in his hand. Vorsoth dropped me -- and twisted his arm effortlessly, the joint reversing without a pause. His fist cracked into Thale's arm, and Thale's threshold blade went flying, his glove tattered. Thale cried out, then yelped as Vorsoth grabbed onto his chest and swung him to his front, hefting his threshold ax.

"You traitor filth," Vorsoth growled. "You had everything! Everything!"

Thale grinned. His eyes flickered.

"Mutant. Filth."

He slashed up with his claws. The razor sharp tips caught some of the wires connecting Vorsoth's optics to his spine. Sparks flew and Vorsoth dropped Thale with a bellow. Adoran charged into his side, plunging the tip of his threshold blade deep into Vorsoth's gut. Vorsoth remained standing, sparks and oil spraying from his side. I leaped up, landed on Adoran's shoulder, then pushed myself with a gravitic impulse and my own legs, flipping and slashing at the same moment.

I landed.

Vorsoth's head thunked to the ground beside me.

His body remained standing -- still spraying a slow stream of frothing, bubbling oil. The spray slowed. Stopped. Became a silent drip along the left, metallic leg.

Silence hung in the air -- the only sound being the faint click click click click of the emptied turret, still trying to fire its empty magazines into the open air. I stood, panting heavily. Adoran limped. Thale's cheek had a large, bleeding wound slashed across it.

Vorsoth's body crashed to the ground.

PROPHECY

"Wow," I said.

"Yeah," Thale's voice was ragged.

"You're welcome," Adoran said, sheathing his blade.

We both looked at him.

Adoran shook his head. "I fucking hate prophecies," he said. "They're a lazy storytelling trope and-"

"You...you did it?" Thale whispered. His voice still sounded like his throat had been sandpapered.

"Huh?" I asked.

Adoran chuckled. "When he triggered his blade...I..." He tapped his hilt. "Magnetic launch for the monomolecular filament. Weighted tip." His lips skinned back as he grinned. "I hoped that it'd land near enough to Venn to do some good."

I looked at Thale. "W-Were you going to...but you nodded!"

"I was going to cut you free and hand you your sword," Thale said. His grin was sheepish.

"What the fuck do we do now?" Adoran asked. He looked at the throne. At the halves of Emperor Rehoboam.

"Come with me," I said, stepping forward. My heart was racing a mile a minute. I looked at Thale, then at Adoran. "Come with me, I...we can go. We can join the rebellion. We can-"

"No."

The single word cut across my speech like a sledgehammer. My knees felt weak. My shoulders slumped. My heart thudded in my chest as Adoran looked at Thale -- Thale, who had spoke. He was looking at the throne, walking slowly towards it. My guts knotted. No. No. No, no, no, no, no. I wanted to run, to scream at him. But Thale turned back to face the two of us.

"The Hegemony isn't just an Emperor..." Thale said, his voice husky. "There are Praetors and admirals and commanders and...there's an entire command aparatus, and they will just reincarnate the Emperor. He'll lose a week, two, of memories."

"What!?" I stepped forward.

"The Emperor has digitized memory stores," Adoran said, quietly.

I blinked again.

Thale held out his hand. The ampule flew to his palm, thrown his way from where it had been dropped, careless, earlier in the battle.

"No..." I whispered.

Thale plunged it into his neck with a snarl. It dropped and he wobbled, then turned to look at me. "Adoran," he said. "We need to give her cover to get to the corvette, to escape. Then...we doctor the records. She killed the Emperor, the High Lords..."

Adoran nodded.

My eyes brimmed with tears. "Thale-"

His hand cupped my cheek. His eyes met mine. "I will see you again, Venn. I will. I will."

"When?" I whispered.

"When..." He leaned in close. "When the Hegemony has nothing. When there aren't even ashes to be born from."

I leaned in.

The moment we shared was something sweeter and stronger and more fleeting than anything I'd ever felt. I can't even begin to describe it -- it was more than the press of lips, the feeling of a tongue. It was the thundering heartbeat of battle. The sizzling, the crackling of blades. The shadows of this dark, brooding place. His hand gripped my back. Then he drew back -- and his face was slick with sweat. He looked feaverish. He grinned, weakly.

Then the door opened. We all spun. Guilty. Like kids with the hands in the cookie jar.

REUNION

"...wow...I leave you guys alone for five fucking minutes...honesty!"

The voice that cut across our conversation was familiar.

Thale's face went slack. "...Quah?"

"Enriquah!?" Adoran's voice was even louder. He nearly dropped his sword as, through the door, came a red and black skinned woman, flanked by...Techne. And Mal. And Rossk. They hurried into the room, the woman twirling her threshold blade.