He looked at them. His brothers, his sisters. The Apostles of Vermillion, a goddess who resided in all of them. He wished he didn’t have to say it, but he did.
Now we really go to war, he answered.
Part Three
Pheia
Chapter 10
“COMMANDER, WHAT HAPPENED?” Lupus asked as he and the other Apostles reached the Primary Tactical Hall of the Luminon.
Althea had come across from the Heaven’s Lament shortly after its arrival to the fleet, but despite her discipline and resolve she was still in shock from the fate that had befallen her legion. The Apostles gathered around the holo-table where Sabre and Olympus already stood with her, trying to soothe their friend and ally. This was the first time she had seen any of the Chosen other than the Lion and the sight of them put her on edge. She wasn’t sure whether to feel at ease or terrified in their presence.
The commander of the Star Healers could see any wound, behold any damage to a legionnaire and stay stoic. But now, she froze.
“Althea?” Lupus said, moving a hand to her shoulder to bring an end to her paralysis.
Her eyes flittered and she focused on him. All of the Apostles were in their human form, but they were as daunting as they could have been were they to change, their ornate armour and powerful appearances still impressive to all. Other than Lupus, only the Apostle clad in the purest white seemed to calm her nerves with a gentle, but expectant smile.
“M-my Lord…we lost the Custodian in the first fourteen minutes. There were dozens of Hellbirth destroyers…too many for us to face alone” she said, a release of pain in her voice.
“The Custodian? That’s a Blackstar…” Oz murmured.
“Slow down, Commander” Lupus replied, surprised by what she had said. “Start at the beginning. What happened at the Frontier?”
Althea kept her eyes open but they drifted off to the back of the Hall behind him as she recalled the events that had so easily spiralled out of control.
“We were in orbit above Pheia…” she began, turning tentatively to address the other Apostles who waited for her words as well. “It was the standard medical operation; the same thing we’d done on every world in the Empire since the start of the Purge Crusades. By then, we had solved and could cure every illness and disease known to the Gothicans. It was supposed to go smoothly, just routine…”
Her voice started to fade as she remembered what happened next, but she fought to hold onto the memory without succumbing to its pain. “…At the Frontier we were greeted by ships from the 89th and 511th. They told us they were the preliminary guard before the new fleet from the Promethian Shipyards arrived, but they never came”.
Samael shrugged in confusion, his arms previously crossed over his chest but now his right hand splayed open in question.
“The construction of that fleet was supposed to finish weeks ago,” he objected. “My legions were the ones building it to protect the Frontier – I can make no sense at all to this delay; if there was a problem, I would have been told”. It seemed to Lupus that his words were genuine and spoken honestly.
“If you could have been told, Samael” Valkyrie suggested as she tended to Gaia’s wounds. The latter winced in surprise as the pain she was expecting at her sister’s touch never came. Instead, she felt her bones reknit themselves with no discomfort at all. It was an almost eerie sensation.
Gaia thanked her in gracious wonderment, the others equally impressed by the healing powers of their sister Apostle, before Valkyrie continued. “There could be any number of reasons why the fleet didn’t arrive – perhaps they weren’t ready, or maybe the same Phantom force that attacked Pheia made a pass at Promethia first.”
“In any case, we must discover the truth” Gaia insisted.
The others showed their assent and Lupus gestured to Althea to continue.
“We suspected nothing, unsure about the nature of the Promethian Fleet’s status. Still, the commander of the 89th was getting impatient, eager to join the forces that were already preparing for war elsewhere. We eventually agreed that a vessel should be sent to the Abodian Sector for an explanation, but before that could happen, the Phantoms found us.
There was no warning, no reason to suspect such a massive attack was coming. We were impossibly outnumbered,” she told them. “My Lord,” she addressed Lupus only now. “I know your Crusades destroyed the vast majority of the free Phantoms, perhaps even all their ships, but this force had to come from somewhere we didn’t expect”.
Lupus sighed gravely, reality matching the threat they were all given just an hour ago. “Althea, the Blood King on Noiran told us that the time-lock on Colossi has been broken. Are you saying it was right?”
The commander hung her head, almost shamefully. “I am, my Lord. We have no understanding of how the Great Enemy was able to do it, but there is no denying that such a vast force could only have come from His world. Before the Custodian was overwhelmed, its long-range scanners detected massive fleet movement around Colossi. The dark god is awake again”.
She looked up to see the dismayed faces of the Apostles. “We were lucky to escape, my legion and I. I think, perhaps, we were allowed to survive.”
“The Phantoms don’t know the meaning of mercy. Everything they do has a twisted purpose, none of their actions are benign” Phoenix said.
“Oh, beyond doubt…” Cerberus replied. “But we know where we stand now, even if we don’t understand how we got here so fast…” he groaned. The others looked at him, knowing what his next words would be before he even spoke them. “Our war has come…and two decades early.”
“We have to act. Now, before it’s too late” Calla replied bluntly, her tone strangely accusatory as though none of them were as ready as they should be.
“The Blood King was right about Colossi…what else was it right about?” Oz wondered as if to question whether they could still save anything, or if the Phantom really had been correct when it said they had already failed.
Lupus looked at his family gathered around the table, knowing that they looked to him now for direction. Whether for better or worse, the fight with the Blood King had bonded them together in the way only a shedding of blood could achieve. With the way he fought alone to save them all when they were too weak, he must have finally garnered the love and respect of them all, perhaps even from Samael.
“Sabre,” he said. The commander snapped to attention. “Order Orion and the fleet to move to the Aurora Sector.”
“Yes, my Lord” the legionnaire answered without question and strode off to the bridge to carry out his orders. Olympus followed at his heel.
The Apostles waited expectantly for Lupus to explain himself.
Thumbing a collection of buttons on the holo-table, he projected his plan into the air for them all to see. “We’re going to regroup with the rest of the fleet at Hydron. We’ll take every ship we have. Then we go to Pheia and we take back the world that belongs to the Empire” he said with a finality born from a life of war.
WHEN THE FLEET made its jump back to Hydron, Calla was the only Apostle that stayed with Lupus on the Luminon. She knew how much he was worried about her after what happened on Noiran, but she intended to change that. They needed him to have a focussed mind for the days ahead and if she couldn’t give him that, no-one could.
After seeing the others return to their ships, several on the same Blackstars because theirs were left back in the Aurora Sector, she found him in his quarters. He had a bed in the centre of the room, larger than any of the legionnaires’, though she suspected he hadn’t asked it; rather, they had given it to him to recognise his status. He was too polite to have refused it.
When he came aboard the Luminon for the first time, Orion had insisted that he would have this room. Other than allowing himself this luxury, however, Lupus kept it as much the same abode as any other on the ship. In fact, against the captain’s intent, it was more humble than most; a fact that many in the legions couldn’t seem to
understand.
Lupus was seated at his desk resting against the wall facing the room’s entrance. The door was already open, the large hulk of metal resting against the inside wall, its lever shunted down to keep it unlocked. Calla was concerned to see his head was in his hands, but not in a depressed, hopeless way. He just seemed…tired.
She laid a hand on him softly and when he brought his head up, she leant down and kissed his cheek with all the tenderness she could muster. Despite becoming a demi-god, she could still remember the love they created as humans.
“I don’t blame you…” she told him as he looked up at her sorrowfully. “What happened to me was my fault – you cannot protect me in the chaos of battle. Sooner or later, my love, you will be needed elsewhere and I shall have to fend for myself”.
His left hand reached across and clasped her right as it rested on his shoulder. He smiled at her, trusting her words but finding it difficult to accept them.
“My mind knows that, Calla, but my heart will not hear it” he replied. “It doesn’t matter how little the responsibility is mine, it will always wound me to see you hurt. I always found a way, big or small, to protect you on Gothica before all this. I want to be that good for you again – I’m not losing you now we have all this power and help” he told her, gesturing to his room and the mighty vessel beyond its walls.
Calla pulled away from him and sat down on the bed side-on to the desk. Lupus twisted in his chair and kept his eyes fixed on her beauty. He looked at her with an expression that spoke of self-punishment and fear for her safety.
“Yes, I was injured…but only for a time. When you confronted the Blood King on your own, I had already begun to heal. Lupus, without your actions, I could have been hurt a lot worse” she reassured him.
He dropped his gaze to the floor, still reluctant to free himself from the needless guilt. Maybe both their futures would involve wounds and pain, but he didn’t want to accept that as fact. “But Calla, with all my experience it should never have happened. Not just to you, but to all the others too. My arrogance and confidence was the bane of my plan; I should have guided us better”.
Calla laughed softly, but not to mock him. “Do you really think you’re the only one to have wet your feet on the killing field?”
The question and the implication made him look up to her in surprise.
“Yes, you may have seen more and done more than us…and there is no doubt you have fought longer and harder …but we all tasted battle before we met together as one, even if it wasn’t on the scale of your Crusades.
Most of our worlds were inhabited by Phantoms when we awoke after the Blessing. It was a test, I’m certain of that, and as insane as it sounds I wouldn’t change the trials I had for anything – the days where Raina and I had to fight every moment for our survival taught us more than peace ever could have done” she said.
He frowned back at her, but the expression in his eyes gave away that it was more about him than what she had told him.
“Forgive me,” he asked of her. “I was fighting the enemy alone for so long that it sounds strange to hear of your own history against the Phantoms…it’s insulting of me to underestimate any of you, I know that, I do…It’s vain of me, selfish even, to pretend only I have experience of war”.
“Selfish? You are the least selfish man I have ever known, Lupus…it’s part of why I fell in love with you” Calla smiled.
“Do you think it’s even possible to love in times of war? Can we survive this; can we endure the evil when we risk ourselves every time we go into battle?” Lupus asked, his voice shaky with…Calla didn’t know what.
Calla had never heard him talk this way before. Had he ever expressed these fears with anyone else? Was he as close with his legion’s commanders as he was with her? She thought the answer to all those questions was a resounding ‘No’ and it made her cheeks flush with warmth for him. She stood up and walked to where he sat again.
Cupping his cheeks with both hands, she kissed him in the way she knew would calm him in an instant. When her lips brushed the tip of his nose, waves of ease and comfort flooded his mind, body and soul. She could sense the connection between them grow even stronger as she made him feel better than he dared hope she could. Calla stood back and, still holding his face between her hands, spoke in the smoothest voice only he had ever known.
“What answer does your heart give you?” she asked.
He kissed the back of her hand the way a knight would show his affection for his queen. “That if we can withstand the separation of time and space, we can live through anything…”
She gave him a look of adoration and affectionate approval. Taking her hand away from his grasp, she offered it to him again in a gesture of love and support.
“Will you dance with me?” she asked.
Her request took him entirely by surprise. “I…I can’t dance…I do not have feet as fair as yours” he admitted, trying to cover up his embarrassment by complimenting her.
Calla raised an eyebrow at his reply. “What, the mighty Lion can slay armies and save worlds, but cannot move from side to side?” she laughed. He would have been insulted by her reaction, but the sound of it was so enchanting and beautiful that it destroyed his anger before he could he feel offended.
She moved to the centre of the room and turned to him with a look in her eyes that crushed his resistance to her invitation. “Come, hold my hand. I will teach you, if you would dare be so humble…”
She had him. Instead of raging at her suggestion of his modesty, he allowed himself to admit his vulnerabilities to her. Gazing up at her in fascination of her ability to influence him, he found as always that he could not refute her offer. She was far too lovely, too majestic to be denied by him. She exerted a control over Lupus that no-one else in the galaxy could even dream of.
So, he rose and walked to the woman that had earned his love forever so many years ago.
“You have a challenge on your hands,” he warned her as he took hold of her arm and side.
Her expression was kinder than ever. “I do not doubt that you can be as graceful with me as you are in battle” she told him, resting her head against his shoulder. She kissed his neck and felt them begin to move in unison as if they had danced a thousand times before.
As they turned and swayed across the floor, Lupus realised that it wasn’t the Empire he was fighting for anymore; it was Calla. He couldn’t pretend to know when they would have another opportunity to be together like this, even when so many things were going wrong around them, but he took the moment they had now to be honest with her.
“I will take your hand whenever and wherever you ask me to, whether it be on the battlefield or at the altar, but I must warn you…if you ever ask me to let go, it may be the one time I find it too hard to obey you” he told her.
She moved her head up to his and kissed him on the lips. “You’re the one I love and you have me for eternity; forever and always. You will never have to let go and I shall never ask you to”.
The very thought of such a possibility came through as a sad crease on his brow. “Do you promise me that?”
Looking into the depths of the Lion’s eyes, Whitewolf said with utter conviction and solemnity, “I promise you it”.
“I DON’T AGREE with it” Valkyrie said suddenly, though she gave no indication to what she referred. Only a few minutes ago had she boarded a Stormfalcon with Oz, their destination the Everlasting. Rightfully the Blackstar was her sister’s, but Valkyrie’s legion had stayed behind at Hydron with the others. Oz agreed to do the same, believing the fortress had to be protected while they were away as though they were already at war. Now, they were.
Oz snapped out of his own world when he heard his sister’s vehement opinion on a subject he wasn’t yet sure of. “You don’t agree with what?” he asked, curious about her announcement.
She looked at him as if he were slow. “Calla and Lupus. They shouldn’t be…doing what they are”. Clearly, sh
e had no desire to find a better, more fitting phrase to describe it.
He couldn’t help but laugh at her choice of words. “You mean they shouldn’t be in love and ‘doing’ something about it?”
She continued with the same expression from before, but with a hint of annoyance on her brow this time. “Yes, of course that’s what I mean…It isn’t right. We’re all brothers and sisters now. Companionship of that sort has no place among us”.
Oz was amazed to hear such things from her. She was family to Whitewolf and loyal to the bone, but if her sister was happy then why was Valkyrie so upset? He didn’t think he would get an answer to that question just yet, but he had seen the two Apostles together. He believed in their love and that was enough for him.
“Oh, Valkyrie, come now. They are the exception. Their love came before the Blessing; you know that better than any of us. Whether you like to admit it or not, they belong together. She gives him the reason he needs to fight and lead, just as he gives her the strength she needs to endure everything. There is already talk among their legions of the difference in them both since the reunion; they are better off as they are.”
“She doesn’t need his strength, she has plenty of her own without him. She always has…” Valkyrie bit back, looking out the small windows of the transport in an effort to ignore his argument.
Oz was stung by her tone. Whether he disagreed with her or not, he was her equal, her kindred. “Yes and her judgement is her own, is it not?” he said.
It got her attention back. “Of course, bu-“
“No buts, Valkyrie” he interrupted her. “Do you think the others are having this same discussion on their transports? Would you say they are shaming themselves with doubts and accusations as well? You have your grudge against the First, fine, but the Second also? She is truly your real sibling; you must accept her choices…”
The Deian War: Vermillion's Apostles Page 31