“I’m sorry sir,” she said, in her most timid voice. “We still use copper in my village, I didn’t realize the big city was so different…”
The man chuckled, “Ha, ah’ knew it! Well sorry to be the one to tell ya this little girl, but we only accept Universal Credits from Infinity, or thetinum. So, ah’ suggest you get out—”
The man stopped himself in the middle of his thought and looked Diandra up and down again…this time much slower, which made Diandra’s skin crawl.
“…Unless of course you are willing to work off your debt.”
The man smiled at her, licking his lips with an ugly big-toothed grin, and it took all her internal strength not to send the idiot flying into the wall. She sighed to herself, shook her head and turned to leave.
“Fine, suit yourself little girl. Ah’ hope you have fun sleeping in the streets tonight!”
Diandra drowned out the bartender’s words and walked towards the door. As she was leaving the inn, she noticed that the gambling game at the table was getting volatile. An extremely large human man was standing up, and a moment later he grabbed the man sitting across from him by the throat and slammed his face through the table.
“You think you can cheat me you swine?!”
The man he was accusing of cheating, the one he had just broken through a table, slowly got up to his feet.
“Taft, come on man—do you really think I would do something like that to you?”
“I don’t know how you do it Micky—but I know you do! This is the last straw, I’m going to do this world a huge favor and kill you right here and now!”
Taft grabbed Micky by the throat again and punched him square across the jaw. Lucky for Micky, the first punch knocked him out, so he never had to feel the pain from the other seven that followed before the bartender decided to step in.
“That’s enough Taft! If you want to kill him do it somewhere else.”
Taft looked at Micky and then at a young boy, roughly twelve years old, who was the only one who had remained sitting during the entire ordeal.
“Get your dead-beat dad out of here before I change my mind.”
Micky’s son remained silent and did as he was told. He picked up his father’s unconscious body, with great effort, and slowly dragged him out of the inn.
Diandra had remained silent throughout the sequence of events and stood at the back of the room quietly watching. When she saw the boy leave the inn, dragging his father’s body, she decided to follow them. The boy didn’t get very far. He took his father to the alley behind the inn and fell to the ground, clearly exhausted. He sat in the alley, his face in his hands—tears welling up in his eyes.
The Egon let the child be for now and knelt beside his father’s unconscious body. She reached out with her powers and felt Micky’s energy. He was fine, all things considered, only a broken nose and a concussion. He could have died, but instead, he was just badly beaten. Diandra gathered some energy in her hands and placed them over the man’s nose, healing it. She moved on to his skull and healed the few cracks that Taft’s beating had caused. Micky would still have a minor concussion and would have to take it easy, but he would live.
“Wh—What are you doing?”
She turned and saw that Micky’s son had raised his head and was looking at her.
“I healed him. He had a few severe fractures, but he should be fine now.”
“What? W-w-why would you do that? You don’t even know us.”
Diandra looked into the young man’s eyes and realized that his father being beaten like this was a regular occurrence.
“Your father cheated, didn’t he?”
“W-w-what? How d-dare you accuse him of that!” The boy said defensively. “Y-you don’t know me or my father, so why don’t you just take your weird healing powers and go find someone else to annoy!”
Diandra kept calm and just smiled at him. She understood his fear, and wanted to put his mind at ease.
“What’s your name?”
“M-my my name?”
“Yes, you have one, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do. Everyone has a name.”
“Right, so what’s yours?”
“Uh, my name is Antony…Antony Peret”
“It’s nice to meet you Antony. My name is Diandra. I’m sorry if I upset you, but I was just trying to get the facts. I don’t care if your father cheated, nobody deserves what that man did to him, so I just wanted to heal your dad if that’s alright with you.”
Antony looked at Diandra and then at the ground. She didn’t know what the boy was thinking, but she felt bad for him. He didn’t deserve to deal with these things—especially not at his age.
After a few more seconds of silence, Antony leapt off the ground and threw his arms around her, giving her the biggest hug that he could manage. Diandra smiled and returned the boy’s embrace, holding him in her arms.
“T-thank, t-t-thank you…” was all that Antony could get out.
“You’re welcome Antony,” said Diandra, “Now is your home nearby? We should really get your father to a bed if we can.”
Antony slowly let go of Diandra and wiped away the tears that had fallen down his cheeks.
“Yes…we live in a group home a few blocks from here.”
“That’s good Antony,” smiled Diandra, “Lead the way.”
Antony smiled and led Diandra through the alley and into the street. They walked for a few blocks, the boy leading the way while the Egon held up the unconscious and beaten Micky. Diandra noticed that as they walked, nobody in the streets gave them so much as a passing glance. Micky was clearly hurt and bloody—but not a single person stopped to ask if they needed help. She didn’t know if the people didn’t notice them, or if they didn’t care. Whatever the reason, she hated it. She was used to a community that helped each other no matter what, and this was the opposite. She didn’t know if the citizens’ behavior was just localized to New Valley, or if it was typical for the rest of the entire planet. She hoped that it was better for the rest of AzzaNation—but she somehow guessed that it was the same in every city…and the thought made her sick.
Eventually, Antony stopped at a small one story building made of clay. He led her inside and Diandra’s feeling of sickness only grew at what she saw. The building was split up into two small rooms with ten to fifteen people in each one. Some bedrolls were laid out on the ground for people to sleep on, but most just curled up on the cold hard ground of the building. She could feel the weak energy of the people inside, and it broke her heart.
“Diandra, this way,” said Antony who pulled at her cloak. He led her to a corner in the second room and told her to lay his father down on the ground because they couldn’t afford a bedroll. The Egon did as she was instructed, and then checked Micky’s vitals one more time. She had to distract herself from the reality of these poor people, and their awful living conditions.
“Good Kahl Antony, your daddy got beat up again? I can’t believe that bastard keeps dragging you into his crap.”
Diandra looked up and saw a heavy-set female drake, with light red scales, standing in front of them. She noticed that the drake looked at Antony with a protective, almost motherly gaze. The drake quickly noticed Diandra kneeling beside Micky and went on the attack.
“Who are you? What are you doing in my house?” said the woman. She turned to Antony, with a sharpness to her tone, “Who is she? Did she cause this? I know Micky and this little girly is right up his alley. What happened? He promised you he could win big and take you off this world? Forget it! I don’t want to hear it, just get out of my house!”
The woman moved to grab Diandra, but Antony stepped in-between them.
“It’s okay Rai. Her name is Diandra, she’s my friend, and she helped us.”
The drake stopped and looked at the boy skeptically. After a few seconds, she stepped back and sighed.
“…Okay, if you say so Antony.” Rai looked at the Egon, “This true? You helped them?”
“Yes…I guess I did, I just saw that Micky was hurt and thought that they could use some help.”
Diandra chose her words very carefully. She was among the poor and desperate here. If they found out that she was an Egon, they could turn hostile towards her fast.
“She did more than that Rai! Diandra healed daddy’s wounds!”
The Egon froze. She liked this kid, but he may have just doomed her.
Rai looked at Diandra with intensity and curiosity. “You’re an Evolved?”
Diandra didn’t know how to respond. She was too far away from the door to run, and she didn’t want to hurt any of these people just to protect her secret. She sighed to herself and decided to have some faith…
“Yes, it’s true… I have…healing abilities…”
Rai looked at Diandra in shock, “Oh my…”
“Please don’t turn me in! I promise I only meant well.”
There was a moment of silence before Rai began to laugh.
“Turn you in? For healing and doing good?” she continued to laugh as she spoke. “Although, I do admit that does sound like the AzzaNation thing to do, I’m not a typical AzzaNation citizen. Look around you girl. Everybody here is just struggling to survive, and all of us ain’t perfect. By the fires of the Fifth, you ain’t the only unregistered evolved in the room.”
Rai sat beside Diandra, and placed her hand on the Egon’s shoulder. They made eye contact, and Diandra finally saw the familiar sense of softness and compassion that the maternal drake had shown for Antony.
“So, don’t you worry. Nobody here is going to turn you in—especially not on my watch. Cause if they do, every one of them would be in Adras right after you.”
Diandra didn’t know what to say. Her first impression of society in AzzaNation was that everyone was ruthless and apathetic, but here was a group of people who actually wanted to help each other survive.
“Thank you Miss Rai,” said Diandra, “If there’s anything I can do to help, you just let me know.”
“It’s just Rai, honey,” said the drake, smiling. “But now that you mention it…a woman of your talents could do a lot of help around here. Many of these folks are sick and dying. Now I assume you need a place to stay tonight?”
Diandra nodded.
“Well if you would help out my people, you could stay here for as long as you need.”
Diandra looked around the room. They were in desperate need of medical help, and even if Rai didn’t offer her a place to stay out of it, she wanted to help them all.
“Where do I start?”
_________________________
Diandra spent the rest of the night going from person to person in Rai’s group home, healing them in whatever way she was able. Some of the people had serious injuries that were caused by a fight or some accident while they were working. However, most of them were sick and lacked proper medicine or care. One of the drakes had caught a flu that wasn’t dangerous by itself, but because the drake wasn’t able to afford antibiotics or a decent bed to rest in, he had developed several infections that had constantly attacked his immune system over the years. He was days away from death until Diandra spent an hour with him, healing him and removing all the toxins from his body. The drake and his family were so thankful that they praised her as a saint brought to AzzaNation, to which she replied, “I’m no saint, I’m just helping the way I know how.”
Antony stuck by her side, throughout the whole night. He followed her from person to person and would run around and grab anything that she needed. However, since her healing was mostly internal powers, Antony never had to do much running around. Instead, he mostly sat and talked with her while she worked.
“So…how did you escape the Royals when you found out you were evolved?” asked Antony with excitement and curiosity.
Diandra still had to be careful. Everyone in the group home, including Antony, thought that she was an Evolved human. They didn’t know the truth that she was actually an Egon and her mere presence out of the mountains could cause a war. She didn’t like lying to these humble people—but she knew that it was necessary.
“My family and I kept ourselves completely isolated and off the grid so the Royals couldn’t track us,” she replied…at least it wasn’t a complete lie.
“That’s smart…so, you went your whole life unregistered?”
Diandra stopped and really looked at the boy. She wondered why he was asking so many questions about her being an Evolved. Then it dawned on her.
“Antony,” she whispered, “Are you an Evolved?”
Antony’s eyes grew as large as saucers, as he froze in place. He looked down at the ground and avoided Diandra’s eye contact. Then he looked over at Rai, who was in the other room.
“Yes…”
Diandra couldn’t believe that this sweet young boy could have such a heavy burden on his shoulders. Although, it was a shock to Diandra, she kicked herself for not realizing it sooner. Of course, something was strange about Antony—just the fact that he was a free-roaming human child was out of the ordinary. Most human children were all taken by the royals at some point or another. The royals always wanted more fodder for their prep school and army. It was true that the population in New Valley was extremely high, so if a family could find a safe place to keep out of the royal eye—like Antony and Micky did with Rai, then it was possible to avoid conscription. However, most people would tell you that it was just a matter of time before someone decided to turn you in if they ever found out.
“Who all knows, Antony?” asked Diandra, keeping her voice barely audible.
“Just Rai and my dad,” he said, “…and now you.”
Diandra took this all in and smiled at him.
“Well don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
“Thanks Diandra,” said Antony returning her smile.
She had only met the boy earlier that day, but she already felt like she had a connection with him. He was kind and thoughtful, and she wanted him to stay that way.
“You’re welcome Antony,” said Diandra giving the boy a playful nudge, “…so, are you going to at least tell me what you can do? I bet it’s super cool.” Diandra gave the boy a wink, and Antony blushed a bit before continuing.
“Well it’s not as amazing as healing…but I can…see things…differently—when I want to.”
“Different how?”
Antony took a second and looked at his father sleeping across the room.
“I can see through other people’s eyes when I want to…Use their vision as my own—without them even knowing that I’m doing it.”
“So that’s how your dad cheats in his games…”
Antony looked up at her and simply nodded. She felt a boiling rage in her gut—she couldn’t believe that Micky would put his son in so much danger, just for an advantage in a card game. It was despicable, and it was incredibly dangerous. After all, Micky was lucky to get out of that bar alive, but it could have easily gone the other way if Taft had decided that he preferred the Perets as a pair of corpses.
Diandra wanted to say something. She wanted to tell Antony and Micky to stop—but how could she? She had only been in their life for one day. She didn’t know their struggles or their lives. She knew that she had no right to weigh in on how they lived…but still, she couldn’t shake the aching feeling gnawing at her soul.
Just when she thought she couldn’t feel any worse, something happened that was so horrific that she never thought it was possible. A scream was heard from outside, and a moment later, a man burst through the door to the group home, carrying a body completely drenched in blood. The man was crying as he laid the body on the ground. Rai and a few of the others in the house gathered around.
“Oh, my Kahl…” said Rai, clasping her hand to her mouth in shock. “That bastard got one of our own…”
The man on the ground was wailing and crying, “I’ll kill him Rai! I swear if I find this bastard I’m going to kill him for what he did to my
boy!”
“I don’t blame you Pete,” said Rai, “and if you ever did find the Scorpion, I’d be right there with you—giving the bastard the slow and painful death he deserves. But there’s nothing we can do for your boy now...We’ll keep him here and clean him up, so we can send his soul to the Fifth Dimension properly.”
The man holding the boy’s body was still weeping, but he let Rai take his son’s corpse and move it to a corner in the second room. Everyone moved away from the body and let the matron drake work in peace. Diandra stood in the middle of the room, in shock at what she just saw. She had never seen a murdered body before, and it pained her heart to witness such a thing. How could someone be so ruthless and commit such an act of evil? She knew she wouldn’t get any answers standing around, so she snapped back to reality and approached Rai.
Once she got closer to the body, she could see the full brutality of the murder. It was a young human boy, around twelve or thirteen years old, and most of his skin was missing. The murderer had cut out chunks of the boy’s skin. Diandra guessed that it had happened while the boy was still alive, and the worst part of the scene, was that the boy’s face had been completely destroyed. His eyes had been gouged out, as well as his nose and tongue. Whoever did this wanted the boy to feel incredible amounts of pain before he finally took the poor boy’s life.
Diandra felt sick—She wanted to throw up, but she kept herself composed. How could someone do this, she thought. What kind of person would want to cause this much pain and suffering to a child. Diandra looked over at Antony and was glad that it wasn’t him lying dead and bloody on the floor.
“Who would do such a thing?” she asked Rai.
“What…they don’t have serial killers where you come from?” snipped the drake, trying desperately to hold back her tears. She stopped, took a deep breath and looked up at Diandra. “…I’m sorry, dear, I didn’t mean to take my anger out on you—it’s just…I never thought he would kill one of my own.”
“So…you know who did this?”
“Sort of…He’s called ‘The Scorpion’ by the locals. He’s killed many of the residents in New Valley, mostly young boys, always skinning them and leaving the bodies in the streets to be found.”
The Chronicles of AzzaNation: Dawn of a New Age Page 11