by Regine Abel
“Tell me this is a bad joke,” I said in a growl.
“You wish,” Aunt Venya said with an almost sympathetic look in her eyes. “Like I said, you will have difficult choices to make between your mate, the Quorum, your conscience, and the future of the People.”
She sobered, an expression I’d grown to know all too well over the decades. I braced for what would follow.
“For you, three paths I see,” my aunt said with that solemn voice she always took when revealing her glimpses into the future. “On the left path, siding with your mate will trigger the beginning of the civil war on Korlethea. On the middle path, killing the boys will cause the status quo, and the world will remain unchanged, continuing on as it is now. On the right path, killing the boys will give rise to a new Guldan-Sarenian empire that will enslave the galaxy.”
“You Oracles are just full of great news, aren’t you?” I snarled.
Instead of the sarcastic remark I’d expected from her, Aunt Venya’s face took on a soft, almost maternal expression. My chest tightened at her sudden uncanny resemblance with the loving mother that had been taken far too early from me. She placed her palm over my heart, an intimate gesture that signified unwavering love and loyalty between relatives or extremely close friends.
“You will prevail as you always have,” Aunt Venya said in a soothing voice. “Those choices may seem difficult, or even unfair, but sometimes, you need to break a bone to reset it properly. Let your conscience be your sole guide, and all will be as it should.
Cupping my face with both hands again, she drew it towards her to place a soft kiss on my forehead.
“For the People,” she said, caressing my cheek. Letting her hand dropped, she turned and walked away.
“For the People,” I whispered in response as I watched her receding back.
CHAPTER 3
Kamala
“Today alone, there have been twelve more incidents involving Veredian children,” I said grimly.
“Veredian children or Titans?” Eryon asked.
I frowned, somewhat resenting the question, although it had merit. Khel, Lhor, and Zhul all stiffened, giving him a stern stare. Only my half-sister, Aleina, and her mate Ghan remained stoic upon hearing his words. The first three men, having all sired Titans, took exception to their offspring being singled out. Khel, in particular, was very sensitive to all negativity towards Titans as he had sired the two most powerful—and most violent—among them. Already having four children, they didn’t plan to have any more in the near future—if at all—but Amalia had confided that Khel swore off siring any other child after the birth of little Tharek, the Shadow. While he adored his children and would lay down his life for them, he feared them—we all did—and believed himself broken that his sons would be so vicious.
“Titans,” I reluctantly conceded, leaning back against my chair.
We were sitting in the Situation Room of Khel’s military compound erected directly on a section of his property, the Praghan Estate. What had started out as a temporary station while he dealt with the devastating loss of his entire family to an assassination while pursuing his duties as General of the Xelixian army, ended up growing into a permanent, state-of-the-art facility, including a huge bunker and a brig. We often used the Situation Room to discuss matters of relevance to the Veredians living on Xelix Prime, sitting around the massive conference table which occupied the center of the rectangular room with enough seating for twenty people. One of the large vidscreens that covered the walls displayed the pictures of the children involved in the incidents.
“Once again, Xelixian children initiated the quarrel, in most cases by bullying one of the younger Veredians whose powers either haven’t manifested yet or cannot be used for offense or defense,” I said.
“And the Titans jumped in to defend them,” Khel rightly surmised.
I nodded. “In all cases, except at Tharmita School, the Xelixian children got hurt. Nothing serious, but enough to get their parents all up in arms.”
“None at Tharmita?” Khel asked, tension and hope filling his voice.
I smiled. “Your little Vahleryon systematically defused the situation.”
The look on the General’s face moved me to the core. He ached over his children, constantly fearing that he wasn’t doing enough to make sure the positive outcome of the Oracle foretelling would come to pass, and not the one where Vahl would destroy all life as we knew it. We had no predictions about little Tharek. Despite being a Seer, Eryon couldn’t see the future involving his own bloodline. Being shunned as a traitor by the Korlethean Empire for having reached out to his Veredian daughter and for defying the Quorum’s edict of no contact with the Titans, he had no way of seeking foresights from his fellow Seers and Oracles.
Lhor turned his stunning face towards Khel—his Geminate—giving him a gentle smile of encouragement. From the way all tension bled out of Khel’s shoulder and the air of peace that settled on his handsome features, I knew Lhor had sent him soothing emotions. As Gems, they essentially shared the same soul split between two bodies. Their special bond allowed them to feel each other’s emotions. While they had independent lives and thoughts, Lhor depended on Khel—the firstborn and therefore Anchor of the pair—for his own survival. Should Khel die, within minutes of his passing, so would Lhor. But not the other way around.
“Unfortunately, that peaceful resolution didn’t prevent the parents from making a fuss about it and demanding the eviction of the Veredians from their schools,” I said with barely repressed anger. “According to the parents, these schools are for Xelixians.”
“First off, schools on Xelix Prime are open to any resident, regardless of species,” Zhul snapped, his silver eyes darkening like a brewing storm. “Second, do they not see the crihnin on the foreheads of our children clearly marking them as Xelixian hybrids?”
“The crihnin is too discreet for it to matter,” Aleina said softly. “Those bony ridges are far more prominent on pure bloods. And most of our children do not have your silver skin.” She cast a sideways glance at her mate, Ghan—Khel’s First Officer. “Our son doesn’t get funny looks when we take him out because he has grey skin and a relatively prominent crihnin. If his clothes cover his Veredian markings, he looks almost exactly like a pureblood. Your own daughter, Zharina, also hardly gets picked on thanks to her grey skin—and being a female,” Aleina added looking at both Khel and Lhor, although the latter had sired Zharina.
“This cannot be tolerated,” Eryon said, flicking his long and curly, bluish-black hair over his shoulder. “We cannot afford for the Titans to be taunted into violence. It is already difficult enough teaching all of them self-control and how to achieve inner peace without these provocations. There have been too many births for me to handle alone. I fear we are headed for a disaster.”
“We are well aware of your efforts, Eryon, and of the impossible task laid at your feet,” Aleina said with a commiserating look. “But I fear you are even more right than you realize. As the Veredian Ambassador here on Xelix Prime, I have a small window on the discussions happening in the Council Hall. And I’ve been utterly disturbed by some of the motions being presented against Veredians and our offspring.”
“What do you mean?” Eryon asked, his light-grey eyes widening in his handsome, oval face.
“She means that there are motions to send Veredian children to segregated schools to keep the other children safe,” Lhor said grimly, “and others demanding that all Veredians—adults as well—be required to wear dampening collars, bracelets or gloves so that they cannot use psi abilities unbeknownst to the population in a potentially harmful way.”
“Excuse me?” I snapped, staring at him in disbelief.
I had known of the calls for segregation. Although it had not been so specifically spelled out, the parents requesting Veredian children be expelled from ‘normal’ schools implied their underlying meaning well enough. But never would I have thought they’d want to force us into wearing the psi a
bility dampening gloves our former Master Gruuk had forced us to wear while imprisoned in his breeding compounds to keep us under control. With the breadth of our powers, some of them extremely lethal, we would have easily escaped from captivity. I would kill anyone who thought to shackle me again—or any of my Veredian Sisters—in such a debasing manner.
“And there is more,” Zhul said, exchanging a disturbed look with Lhor who, like him, occupied a Councilor seat in the Council Hall. “This morning, all five Councilors from the Capital District supported a motion to end any further meet-and-greets between single Veredians and Xelixian males.”
I recoiled while Khel, and Eryon gasped. Even the ever-stoic Ghan stiffened.
“Why the fuck would they do that?” I asked. “Our Sisters have been mainly mating with Tainted Xelixians who would die without us. How does that make any sense? They should be grateful!”
“For the very reason you stated,” Ghan stated dispassionately in his rumbling voice. While his brutish face remained impassive in a typically-controlled-Ghan way, the tension in his massive and muscular shoulders spoke volumes of the anger simmering within him. “Capital District is the home of the Norm and Primes. They have no issues finding mates, and they’ve been chafing for a long time about Veredians systematically snubbing them in favor of the Tainted.”
“So, you believe jealousy is driving them?” I asked.
Ghan shook his head. “Only partially. The problem seems to be more of an economic nature. Over the nearly three years since Veredian reproductive issues have been cured, we have made a lot of changes to the laws governing Tainted with so many of your Sisters mating them, and therefore extending their lifespan. A large number of Tainted no longer need to perform hard labor to keep themselves alive. That means the cost of manual labor is increasing, and so are the demands for better working conditions. With less Tainted finding mates, the more profit Capital District will reap.”
I stared at him, speechless. As Veredians, our innate loyalty and devotion to each other pretty much defined us as a species. Exploiting each other for profit wouldn’t even enter our minds. I doubted we could even act in such a way without feeling physically ill.
“Sadly, Ghan,” Lhor said in an even grimmer tone and looking somewhat ashamed, “that is only one of their reasons. There is increasing chatter that reproduction with Veredians should be more controlled as it is changing the face of Xelix Prime—your genes are too strong. Most of the children come out looking mainly Veredian whereas mating with any other species, be it Terrans, Aveans, or Dantorians, our grey skin, eyes devoid of pupils, ridged ears, and crihnin dominate.”
I felt numb. Although it broke my heart, it didn’t shock or surprise me. I’d been noticing the shift in the Xelixians’ warm welcome of my species into a cold, distant and almost hateful behavior in the past three years. Subtle at first, it had become almost fanatical of late.
“This isn’t us,” Khel growled. “How have things deteriorated so fast and so suddenly? And how is that even any real threat? There are less than three thousand Veredians on Xelix Prime with barely a thousand of them being Veredian-Xelixian hybrids. There’s a hundred million of us Xelixians. How the fuck are they supposedly overtaking us?”
“Propaganda,” Zhul said, clasping his hand on top of the table. “It took awhile for us to notice it. With all of you living here in the Xelhan District, and me in the Xelhin District, we don’t spend much time in the Capital except for business. But it was my mate, Valena who stumbled on some of the vids playing in the waiting rooms while going to work at the Capital District Hospital to aid mental patients. The clips are short but effective. They cannot be pulled off the air because, technically, they aren’t slanderous.”
“What do they say?” I asked, bewildered that, as the new leader of our military and thus of security, I had not been aware of this.
“They are merely a series of questions without answers, planting seeds in the minds of people,” Lhor said. “‘Is this the face of Xelix Prime?’ states one question with a series of images of Veredians and hybrid children. ‘How safe are our children in school?’ asks another showing footage of documentary performed last year where a few parents had agreed to let their hybrid children display their powers. Needless to say, they showed the ones with the most potential for harm like pyromancers setting objects on fire by merely staring at them and kinetics crushing metal with a thought. Those same images were used with questions like ‘If you or your child were the target instead, how would you defend yourself?’ And the list goes on.”
“Gharah’s blood,” Khel muttered under his breath.
“Sons of bitches,” Eryon snarled with his usual colorful language. “Sharaz take them!”
I shuddered, my mind reeling at the vicious effectiveness of such hateful advertisement. Zhul was right; they were not slanderous, merely insidious. Slander and defamation were severely punished on Xelix Prime. Had they crossed that line, we could have demanded that all the ads be stopped. But, however harmful they were proving to be, they fell well within the realm of freedom of speech.
“Who is doing this?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Zhul said with frustration. “Whoever it is, they have deep pockets and even deeper connections. They are hiding behind the ‘Protectors of Xelix Prime’ corporate name with no direct contact person other than a voicemail. This propaganda is diffused on all the networks and every media platform consumed mainly by the Norms and Primes. But the most interesting fact is that every time the Council is to hold a private vote or hearing of a motion involving the place and the rights of the Veredians, protest groups always conveniently show up on the steps of the Council Hall to spew more anti-Veredian nonsense.”
“How the fuck do they know about private Council meetings?” Khel demanded in a clipped tone.
“That is exactly the question,” Lhor said.
“The traitor?” Ghan asked.
I cast an inquisitive look at Aleina who shrugged her ignorance.
“Traitor?” I repeated to Ghan.
“For the past eight years, since Amalia first came to Xelix Prime, we’ve been dealing with an elusive traitor. Someone had been leaking sensitive information about our efforts to dismantle the Blood Houses which nearly cost both Khel and Lhor their lives,” Ghan said. “When we discovered Fhara Zirthen’s betrayal, we assumed she had been the one leaking. After all, as the wife of one of the most powerful Councilors on Xelix Prime, she could have access to a lot of sensitive information. But some incidents occurred on dates she would have been off-planet. Things didn’t add up.”
“That makes sense,” Khel said pensively. “We always assumed Gruuk, Varrek, and their acolytes were behind this to keep us from dismantling their slave business. However, the current events clearly show this is someone with a personal vendetta against Veredians. But who?”
“Guldans,” Aleina said immediately. “They hate that they’ve lost the billions of credits selling us brought to their economy, and they hate even more the countless embargos they’ve fallen under when their mistreatment of us was made public.”
“Not to mention how Mercy repeatedly helped thwart their plans of taking control of Braxia,” I said, recognizing the merit of my sister’s assumption. “With her becoming the Braxian ruler’s mate, Veredians have gained yet another powerful ally eager to assist us against them.”
“Good point,” Aleina said. “Magnar Ravik has been multiplying diplomatic overtures with us after declaring a full embargo on Guldar, which had their Emperor spoiling to declare war on them until we… the Tuureans threatened to join forces with the Braxians.”
“That does make sense,” Zhul said. “The timing also matches the beginning of the propaganda.” He suddenly paused, and his eyes widened. “Actually, the frequency of the messages intensified around the time Amalia gave birth to Tharek, and then once more after Mercy gave birth to her twins.”
“But there are no Guldans left on Xelix Prime. They were all expulsed at th
e time of Varrek’s execution. Are they blackmailing yet another high-ranking official or Councilor like they had with your father?” Ghan asked.
“It is possible,” Zhul said.
“It is doubtful,” Eryon stated at the same time.
We all turned our surprised stares towards him.
“Guldans do not play this type of long game. They are all about quick and instant profit,” Eryon said. “The Veredian slave trade is dead. Too few buyers will risk the wrath of the Galactic Council to acquire one of you. Even Varrek had understood it when he shifted his business to mass producing the drug Bliss. This is not about profit. It is more malicious and seeks to sever the strong bond and military alliance between your peoples.”
“But what other enemies do we have?” I asked, unable to see who could hate us so fiercely.
“Those who fear you and your offspring above all else,” Eryon said. “My people, the Korletheans.”
CHAPTER 4
Xevius
I ran quietly through the woods bordering the Praghan estate. A gentle wind whistled through the evergreen leaves of the thick and tall trees surrounding me. I welcomed the shade they provided from Xelix Prime’s two suns. While the temperature turned out to be surprisingly mild, the excessive amount of light messed with my stealth shield.
Coming to the General’s home proved far easier than I expected. I’d landed on Xelix Prime with a false identity, my face’s true appearance disguised with prosthetics. Despite Korlethea keeping most other worlds at arm’s length, we were welcomed on any planet within the Alliance for up to a six-month stay as visitors. After settling into an apartment in the Xelhan District provided by an unknown contact indicated in my mission brief, I drove my hoverbike to Credhan’s Clearing at the edge of the forest leading to my prey’s estate.
Killing didn’t figure in today’s plans. First, I needed to assess the extent of their defense systems. General Praghan having erected a military compound on his property significantly complicated things. So far, however, with less than five hundred meters to cross before reaching the massive lawn leading up to the west side of the mansion, I had not found a single camera or motion detector. However, I didn’t doubt for a minute that his warriors in the compound had sophisticated surveillance systems from satellite cameras to long-range scanners.