Elysium Shining

by Terri Kraemer

  Dasos kissed her on the lips and wrapped an arm around her waist. His sisters leered at one another before Zoey walked past Tong-Chang and smacked her butt on the way back to the laundry room. She heard Tong-Chang’s gasp, but she did not look back to see her girlfriend’s hand gesture.

  Seconds later, however, she did hear Tong-Chang say, “Il’lyse, if I ever find you dating one of our brothers or sisters then you and I are going to have a lot of serious words over it.”

  “I wasn’t planning on it,” said Il’lyse.

  “W-wait a minute,” said Shungdi. “You’re Il’lyse.”

  “I am.”

  “I heard you were lost in an accident. I thought that meant you were dead.”

  “For the longest time I felt dead. The Hulda’fi made me one of them, you see, and Zoi’ne annoyed me enough times that I broke out of it. That’s the simplified, kid-friendly version.”

  Zoey moved some of her clothes into her room from the dryer, but held onto a few articles before heading back toward the bathroom. She saw Tong-Chang looking her way, and Zoey pointed at the oven. Tong-Chang nodded at her.

  “Shungdi, are you hungry?” said Zoey.

  “Not right now, thank you,” Shungdi said. “Oh, crap, now I’m imposing on you during your dinner time, aren’t I? I’m sorry. This is not a good time for me to be causing an incident.”

  “I need to know what’s going on with you and your friends outside.”

  “They’re all bodyguards from the embassy. I can order them food when it’s time; myself as well.”

  “In that case the first pizza should be out of the oven in a few minutes from now. If it’s alright with everyone else, then you can have a slice of it, but your bodyguards are going to need something else since we won’t have enough for all of them. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to take my shower after a long, long day.”

  “Understandable. Thank you.”

  * * *

  “What is pizza?” she whispered.

  Dasos said, “That would be the Earth name for flat-bottom cheese pies. Honestly, the Earth name rolls off the tongue better.”

  “Oh, I’ve actually never had one of those before.”

  The other two girls in the room pointed at her and said, “Blasphemer!”

  “My childhood was as strict as it was scheduled, and I never had the chance to try this pizza.”

  “Damn,” said Il’lyse, “if I knew that then I would have tried kidnapping you so I could treat you to a pie. Whether or not you’d have been returned home safely depends on the specific Hulda’fi that would have come with, of course, but at least you’d know what you’re missing.”

  “That’s . . . I’m not too sure how kind that is.”

  Meanwhile, Dasos pinched his brow. He had heard that a group of Hulda’fi once raided a flat-bottom parlor eight months ago, but no one was taken or injured. Some of the group had drawn inappropriate images of sex organs on the furniture using neon markers that they had acquired, and they’d stolen away with five large pies when the excursion was over. He shot his twin sister a wary glare, wondering if she’d had anything to do with it. Il’lyse placed a hand on her hip, and another in the air, with a silent “What?” aimed his way.

  “Anyways, Shungdi,” said Dasos, “I’m surprised that you’re here.”

  “I almost wasn’t,” she said.

  “Yes, so you stated earlier.”

  “It’s a long story. Oh! One second.” Shungdi opened the front door and poked her head and one arm out. “Could you bring the weird thing? No, the other weird one we found, with the strange design on it. That one. Thank you.” She pulled herself back inside of the doorway and closed it. Shungdi now held an unfamiliar device. “I should have brought this in sooner. Here, Tong-Chang, I know you love technology. Call this a peace offering.”

  While Tong-Chang took the handheld object with care, Il’lyse took one look at it from her stool by the counter, and she was taken aback. It was smaller than her hands combined, whatever it was.

  “Where did you get this?” Tong-Chang asked.

  Shungdi said, “I will tell you in a moment. You see, yesterday morning I had finished reading the arc from Dasos’ campaign about the poisoned king when it made me think to call Father. We talked for a time when I told him that I had received the urgent message and was on my way home. You should have seen him then. He gave me this quizzical expression with what strength he could muster. He was unsure of the urgency but pressed on me why I was taking so long to board a craft headed home. I may or may not have divulged with him the details of how riveting your friend is with retelling the story of your campaign, Das’ithrios.”

  “My little sister and her debilitating love of good books. I see that hasn’t changed since our early childhood.”

  “Well, no. I wish more books on socio-legal studies were written to be gripping or entertaining as Val’steen retells events. Becoming an attorney would be a far more pleasant experience.”

  “I’ll take your word for it. Please go on.”

  “Right, where was I? Oh! I had brought up the recent arc that I had finished reading when our call got cut off. I called Father again this morning and he said that Tonny and I gave him reason to look into his own matter, and that he trusted a few of our brothers to aid him in this quest. We were cut off again. This time, however, one of the men working for the Ginserei Embassy came into my room to inform me that we were facing an incident. We fled into the wine cellar. The building was attacked within seconds. I heard the stiern-boat outside when the cellar door shut.”

  “There is a wine cellar beneath the embassy?”

  “Yes, highest sister.” Her choice of words made Il’lyse’s eye twitch. Dasos wasn’t sure why it happened, but he knew he’d caught it. “Ginserei has many High Houses, and three of them worship a deity who overlooks a vineyard. A wine cellar was bound to happen. Before you ask, I did not partake in the wine selection or bring a bottle with me, though perhaps I should have, given this occasion.”

  Tong-Chang giggled.

  Shungdi said, “Some of us escaped the cellar and chose to seek any aid that we could find. My first thought was for my escort and I to go to the pub where Dasos and his friends hold their game nights. The owner said he was closed due to family safety coming first, though he may open the pub tonight to help feed any displaced person who needs it. Then we left for here, but encountered a band of those rebels on the way. They had parked their stiern-boat amidst some vegetation. We dealt with them, save the one that got away, and I decided to take something of theirs from their craft in case reinforcements arrived before the police did. I grabbed the first important item I could find, and that device was it. I’m sorry I don’t know an adequate amount about boats and ships to know what is needed for them to function; though I do know that the latter have a multitude of stellar masts to coast within range of a sun. The reason I know that much because of a legal case that I had to read about in my studies.”

  “I’m glad you made it here safe,” said Tong-Chang, “but how did you deal with those rebels?”

  “We got the drop on them and tied them up. We are not in Ginserei jurisdiction or I would have had to sign the order to have them all killed. Do you want to know the worst part? I don’t know if I could do that.”

  “I’m dealing with the ones I killed, myself, so I understand.”

  “Tong-Chang, what happened?”

  “I can tell you later. Now, though, I need to grab dinner out of the oven so that it doesn’t burn. I wish I knew what this device is, but it doesn’t look like any tool for the operation a stiern-boat.”

  “Let me look?” said Il’lyse, “OK, one of those. The Hulda’fi keep these things in their sleeping quarters and often take one with in their stiern-boats for the longer trips they have to make. Also, yes, they do sleep, contrary to whatever you may be thinking.”

  “So you know what this is, then?”

  “Yes. It’s a portable cutter and mender for cloth, lea
ther, latex, or whatever else you can think of that can be worn. It’s useful when someone has to go to the restroom or otherwise relieve herself, or himself.”

  “No way.” The oven’s timer went off. Tong-Chang looked between the device and the oven before hurrying to the latter and grabbing a protective mitt. “I don’t know if the Hulda’fi have anyone this brilliant among them, but there was supposed to be a patent for a portable version of clothing menders. Fifty years—sorry, revolutions—ago it had been filed. Investors were happy and ready to pounce on it and make a ton of burras or yingbi on it. Then the developer and blueprints all vanished overnight. No one in the field was able to take a crack at rebuilding it due to legal rights on the patent lasting far longer than they should have. I had researched this for my class debate, but none of the details made it in our arguments or counter-arguments when the night of the debate finally came. Speaking of counter-arguments; Zoey, my baby wants to eat this whole pizza now!”

  The faint, muffled sound of Zoey’s forced laugh made its way past the running water and closed door.

  “Is anyone else tempted to test this thing on the flat-bottom cheese pie?” Il’lyse asked.

  “This thing can cut through the hardest leathers and we don’t know what has or hasn’t gone through it,” Tong-Chang said. “You want to test the cutter on a pie?”

  Zoey didn’t take too long in the shower. She came out of the bathroom with her lounging pants and loose T-shirt on. She also had a towel wrapped around her head rather than draped over it. This was the first time Dasos had ever seen anything like it. Wait, where was her hair?

  “You didn’t cut it yet?” she asked.

  “Not yet,” said Dasos. “What did you do to your head?” The other girls laughed, and he felt like he was missing the joke. What was happening?

  “I wish I had one of those rolling pizza cutters,” Zoey said. “Those things are great for this.”

  “We have this thing,” Il’lyse said, indicating the device from earlier.

  “That looks like a nail polish dryer, but for really tiny hands. I think I’ll pass on that. This dough slicer will have to do.”

  She cut the flat-bottom cheese pie into ten even pieces and let everyone standing around the counter grab what they wanted while she prepared the second pie. Dusk had settled by the time the second dish had gone into the oven. Zoey said that it would be leftovers for tomorrow.

  “So, Il’lyse,” said Shungdi, “I have a question for you, if you don’t mind telling us the answer. Is there any sort of ranking structure among the Hulda’fi? That has been one of the biggest questions that law enforcement has been trying to answer for an eon and a half.”

  “I can tell you,” Il’lyse said.

  “Oh! I was expecting you to say you couldn’t, like every other dead end so far.”

  “Dasos, since you work for the police, I’m sure you’ll want to record this.”

  “I do, until tomorrow at least,” he said. His field credit was due to end at the end of the evening of the first of the month. “Are you sure about this?”

  “People need to know. They need to know a lot of things, but this is a start. After the things I’ve done, it’s the least that I can do.”

  He wasn’t about to argue with that, as much as he wanted to. Dasos grabbed a napkin and wiped the grease off of his hands as he searched the area around the couch for his computer. He brought it back to the counter while finding the voice recorder. It was one of his least used features on this thing.

  “It’s ready,” he said. “Go ahead, Lyssa.”

  She growled after her name had been said. Il’lyse set her plate aside and said, “The Hulda’fi have a few simple ranks among them. On the top, in more ways than one, is the woman they all worship called Lady Tunderek. Second to her in all matters but military is her husband, Lord Tunderek. I understand this current one is the third Lord of the Hulda’fi, as well as the most ambitious and cunning of them.”

  “What of the Lady?” said Shungdi.

  “She’s the one; their first and last. Don’t ask me how, but she’s been around since the final days of the War of the Galactic Expanse. She is an Aelf, like most of us in this room, but you wouldn’t know she is ancient by looking at her.”

  “That is most unlikely. Anyone listening to this will think it is hearsay.”

  “They might, but there is more. Directly beneath the Lord Tunderek are the head recruiter and the squad leaders, many of whom squabble over who has more rank or favor over the others. Only one dared to claim rank over me, and I understand from my sister, my real sister, that the bitch was arrested today with heavy damage to her ability to walk. Now that I’m no longer one of them, now that they all think that I’m dead, the remaining team leaders will be climbing all over one another. The rest are brothers and sisters posted in numerous headquarters, depending on where the Lord and Lady will it. Most times they listen. One night in recent memory a small group of them didn’t, and paid the price for it by my hand.”

  “Soror Valide. That’s you, isn’t it?”

  “I see the name got around. Yes, that was me.”

  Shungdi clenched her fingers against the surface of the counter where everyone had been eating. Dasos turned off the recording.

  “I should be at home studying law,” said Shungdi, “but I’m on an allied planet, light-spans away, breaking bread with one of the most wanted people in the Hoshi-Lacartan Alliance.”

  “Wanted, right,” said Il’lyse. “Almost everyone who knows about me wants me dead, or thinks I already am.”

  “Do you think that makes this alright?”

  “No. I know I have a long way to go to undo the damage I did for the Hulda’fi. I know that the things I did near the end of my time with them won’t be enough. What I don’t know is what I can do, or what rotting in prison will do to help any of us.”

  “How can any of us trust you right now?”

  “I can’t answer that for my own sake. I haven’t been able to trust myself since I visited our childhood home two months ago. I can’t trust myself after how close I came to killing Mom. I need help.”

  She looked down at her shaking hands. Her fingers twitched, closing at sporadic intervals before Il’lyse reopened them. Dasos wished he knew what words to use to comfort her. It was Shungdi who made the next move. She exhaled deeply through her nose and then stepped over to Il’lyse. Shungdi rubbed her on the back, her face turned from Dasos so he couldn’t see it.

  Suddenly, the living room monitor made a ringing sound. Dasos wondered who could be calling since more than half of everyone who had this number was out of town or in hiding which made them all unlikely due to the city-wide lockdown. Was it the police captain? His building’s landlord? It wasn’t any of the women in the room with him unless someone had developed some sort of telepathic powers.

  With any of them, that would be a nightmare.

  He grabbed his computer. There was a flashing blue light on the top of the pad.

  “Huh, my computer is flashing,” said Tong-Chang.

  “Ours too,” Zoey said.

  “Wait, so that one’s mine?” Il’lyse said.

  Dasos realized at once who it was. He then answered the call with his computer before the last ring sounded, preventing it from going to voice messaging. There were two people who were on everybody’s contact list. That was the only possible way all of their computers would be lighting up while in range of the monitor.

  The image came up on the screen. Both of his parents were standing before him through a monitor of their own aboard the Hav Svan. Dasos looked over to the kitchen counter and back to the screen. Zoey hurried over next to him. The monitor sat high on the wall so that the bottom of it was level with his sisters’ eyes. Its camera at the top was able to see the bottom of the two stools by the counter, but no higher than that unless Dasos adjusted the screen’s angle. Right now he wasn’t going to do any such thing.

  “Mom, Dad,” said Dasos, “I wasn’t expecting to
hear from either of you tonight. Are you both OK?”

  “We’re fine, Dasos,” said Keft’aerak. “The current call volume being used by law enforcement is low, and the two of us have time before I’m to report for a joint meeting between ranking officials.”

  “Zoey,” said Bon’sinne, “I’m so glad you’re alright. Why did you send me away like that?”

  “You were in danger,” Zoey said. “I did what I thought I had to.”

  “Yes, but you and that Hulda’fi I fought. It might have been Soror Valide. Who else fights like that, or wears those additional black bands?”

  “It was her. It’s fine now, Mom.”

  “I don’t want you fighting her again. I think . . . No, never mind. I’m glad you’re safe, dear. Is that Tonny with you in the background?”