by Maia Starr
“Yes, yes,” he said, as though he had already expected my apology and wasn’t all that bothered by my snooping.
The creature waddled over to the desk and stepped on a pedal at the bottom of a stool, causing it to lower at a crawl. He climbed up on the stool and then pat the side of it, causing it to grow again, like magic.
He scooted up to the table and gingerly picked up the arm I had been holding, inspecting it.
“My name is Reina,” I said gingerly, setting my teeth together.
“Yes, I know that. I feel something… something…” The creature cleared his throat and then looked up at me with a frustrated, odd stare before concluding, “Tingly, around you.”
“Yeah, most people have that reaction to me,” I teased with a genuine grin. The blue creature stared up at me, puzzled, and I confirmed, “Allergic.”
He cocked his head to the side, slowly. “I see. Perhaps if you bathed more often. I have met humans, but they are much cleaner than you.”
I laughed out loud at his sentiment and then covered my mouth.
“You’ve met other humans?” I said with a sharp inhale, his sentence just occurring to me.
“Oh yes.” The creature said. “Many.”
He had a round skull with a blue fin set in the middle of it: large, round, red eyes protruding from the sides of his face.
“Alright then,” I said, and an awkward silence resumed between us. “And who is this?”
“This is Lele,” he said, absent-mindedly as he fit the arm back into the robot’s socket. “She is not a human… but she is my friend.”
“Humans can’t be your friend?” I teased.
He waved a long finger at me, matter-of-factly, and said, “Humans can’t be Lele.”
“Oh, um,” I looked down at her and then back up at the alien unsurely. “And yourself?”
“Oh, right, yes,” he quipped with a not. “I am Jareth. Yaclion.”
I wasn’t sure if the latter was a surname or his race, so I just offered a silly smile and said, “Hello, Jareth.”
The man looked like a creature that belonged in water, with his finned head and slotted nostrils.
“So, are you trying to rebuild her?” I asked, raising my brows and looking down at the beautifully crafted robot once more.
“Yes but...” He paused, tapping his long fingers down on the robot’s forehead somewhat disrespectfully before wheeling himself across the room and inviting me along.
There was a vast collection of weapons set on bright white counters along the perimeter of the room. He escorted me through his collection and explained that, despite how much he wanted to bring ‘Lele’ back to life, he was missing an important part. A fusion chip commonly found in mech and other heavy-duty machinery.
In the meantime, he’d gotten distracted with building an arsenal of weapons for the Vithohn.
I licked my lips and marveled at his creations, and then inwardly shuddered at the thought that the weapons he was making for them were likely the same ones the Vithohn were using on the humans. My people.
“These are amazing, Jareth,” I breathed. “You built all these?”
“Hm? What? Yes!”
I nodded, setting my fingers over the cold metals. “I used to build weapons with my dad out of the scraps of metal we would find on the…” I stopped cold, almost saying ‘mountainside’ to the little creature. I thought better of it and finally concluded, “Ocean.”
Jareth seemed to perk up at this, his red eyes going even wider, and as if he had the sudden need to impress me, he began handing me different guns, one after another as he spoke.
He wouldn’t explain to me what they did or how he built them. Just, set them in my hand to see if I would be overwhelmed with his genius.
“I feel, an unease like never before,” he said thoughtfully while scrambling around the room, setting a purple gun down in my palm.
“It’s the Kilari,” he continued. “Do you know?”
He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t say: Do you know them? Or: Do you know of them? Just. Do you know?
“No, I’m sorry,” I said.
“You do know,” he said distractedly. “But, ah, I fear you are lying to me. No matter.”
“How would you know what?” I laughed.
“I can see it in you. Look,” he said, shining a ray weapon on me and watching as the splatters of Kilari blood still showed on my arms. “See that?” He swiped a warm finger on my shoulder. “That is Kilari remnant. It’s a nearly untraceable slime.”
“What?” I yelped. “Get it off of me! What does it do?”
“Not much. It’s just a trace. It’s like a lure for other Kilari. You, Reina, are bait.”
I made a disgusted face, thinking of how many times I’d bathed and yet still had the disgusting goo left on me.
“Lovely,” I said, and Jareth quickly interjected: ‘No.’
“And there’s nothing I can do about it?” I asked desperately.
“You can kill the Kilari,” he said, like a wise old sage. “Like you have done,” he surmised. “I think I like you better than I did before.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You build?” he asked me, now changing the subject.
“Yes,” I shrugged, still feeling disgusted. “A little.”
He blinked quickly and wandered back over to the table where Lele’s body was carefully splayed out. “And you've... run into mech before?”
“Sometimes. Yes. Scraps of it.”
Jareth looked suddenly joyous: his eyes beaming. “I've never had someone else here to build with.” He stopped then, looking up at the sliding glass doors as they opened at the front of the lab. “Ah. Oron. Hello. I see you are back from your banishment.”
“Jareth,” Oron said with the hint of a laugh on the tip of his tongue.
The attractive Vithohn saddled up next to me, coming in just a little too close, and suddenly I felt a sexual energy between us. It had been slowly building in the days that he had been my personal ‘guard.’
“So tell me, Reina. How is it you are not in captivity? Or, is this your captivity?” Jareth asked while scribbling something down.
I offered an awkward laugh and said, “Something like that.”
“She is here for the Voth’s pleasure: Sylas,” Oron said, filling in the blanks. Jareth began speaking when Oron reached down to my hand and leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “I hated seeing him kiss you.”
“I see,” Jareth said. “Yes. And then you will become a partner to a Vithohn.”
Then he handed me a piece for Lele, pressing it firmly into my hand and causing Oron to snap back, away from my face.
“There is an abandoned mech to the south of the city. This magnetic chip,” he pointed to the piece he set in my hand, “is what I require. It's imperative that you take it out correctly, or else. Well. Yes. It won't work.”
“So you’re really trying to bring her back, huh?” Oron asked, seeming to already have some sort of backstory on the Yaclion and his robot.
“Yes,” Jareth said. “I feel Lele understands me.”
“You don't see too many of those around, anymore,” Oron said thoughtfully, scratching his chin. “I thought those were done away with in the war.”
Jareth shook his head vehemently. “No, no. Humans have reconstructed them. Made from scraps. Like Reina.”
“No!” I said with a laugh.
“Reina is made from scraps?” Oron asked: his brow dipping dangerously low in confusion.
“No,” I laughed again, shaking my head to Oron.
“What? Yes? No?” Jareth piped in. “You said you and your father would build: take scraps from the mech.”
“Yes, but for like, guns and armor. Stuff like that,” I shrugged bashfully.
Jareth narrowed his eyes and began to tap down on the chip in my palm over and over. “I see,” he said. “But, I believe you are lying.”
I blushed and batted his hand away playfully, pulling the
chip to my chest. “Just give me the chip, okay?” I laughed.
“Take her,” Jareth insisted, pointing to Lele and then gesturing to Oron to pick her up. “Take Lele with you. That is what I want. Take her with you, and yes, I will follow.”
Oron widened his eyes playfully and laughed in my direction before narrowing his eyes suspiciously at the little creature. “Oh, I see how it is. You’re just using us for the manpower.”
Jareth tapped his nose but said nothing more.
Chapter Eight
Oron
We ventured into the outskirts of town: abandoned cities and neighborhoods that didn’t look anywhere near as glorious as Bolmore was, even in their glory days.
Eventually, we all came upon a heap of scrap that was gathered in the middle of the rundown neighborhood like an old burial ground. It looked like someone had gathered together every piece of junk they could find and meant to light it on fire but died or fled before they had the chance.
Or, perhaps they were getting ready to build a fortress or a security fence, but we killed them before construction had started.
Either way, a large mech sat toppled over in the middle of the pile, and Jareth hurried us over, waving his long arms excitedly.
I brought Lele in my arms and set her down gingerly on the scrap heap.
Taking a step back, it looked like that’s exactly where she belonged. And for the life of me, I couldn’t think of why Jareth had come into contact with this strange robo-woman to begin with.
I hoisted Reina up into the sideways cockpit with me and she immediately busied herself in the exact location she needed a part from, pulling at wires and then gingerly unfurling their coppery wires.
She had definitely done this before.
Reina had become incredibly chummy with the Yaclion. She spoke to him nearly the whole way over. More than she did with me.
I feared I would always just be the one who took her away: stole her.
“I can’t help but notice you’re not speaking to me, even though I agreed to accompany you on this ridiculous, dangerous trip of yours,” I teased into Reina’s ear, breathing in her scent.
“Hey, he’s your little friend, not mine,” she said, not looking at me.
I drew my brows together in confusion and offered, “Doesn’t seem that way to me.”
“What are you doing here anyway?” she laughed, shaking her head.
“You’re my charge,” I said evenly. “I want to take care of you.”
“So would you say that we’re…” she paused, twirling her finger and pursing her lips in an exaggerated fashion before meeting my eyes and declaring, “friends?”
I smiled and lowered a brow to her. “Friends... Alright, sure.”
“Is that right?” Reina rolled her eyes and set a small, flat plate into my palm and said. “Well, here’s a tip, Bucko—”
“Bucko?” I repeated through a stifled laugh.
“—A lesson in friendship, if you will. Friends don’t kidnap friends or force them into relationships with creepy Vithohn leaders. K?”
My eyes widened incredulously, and I scratched the back of my head bashfully. “Going to be hard to go back and redo it,” I offered with a smile.
Reina laughed at that, begrudgingly, and batted me away.
“Reina, I…” I swallowed a gulp of spit and lightly grazed my teeth against my bottom lip before forcing out, “I hope you can find happiness here.”
She blinked at the statement and then held my gaze. My heart lilted at her sudden smile.
“I’m happy to be here, with you,” she said.
That was it. I couldn’t hold back any longer. I looked down at her pointed lips and leaned in, using my index finger to guide her chin close to my mouth. I wondered if she would pull away from me: if the hungry attraction I felt for her was one-sided. But she didn’t.
Reina leaned in so close, I could almost feel her skin on mine, and then Jareth…. Stupid Jareth, called out: “Did you find it?” before our lips had the opportunity to meet.
Reina sprung back, the two of us parting like shrapnel at his sudden voice, and she peeked her head out of the fallen mech.
“Here,” I heard her say to Jareth, and she disappeared from my sightline.
I bit my lip in frustration, scraping my teeth fiercely against my flesh and tightening my palm. I waited a few minutes, hoping she would come back, and then stubbornly got out of the mech to meet the two of them at the bottom of the scrap heap.
By the time I reached the bottom, Lele was already activated and sitting up, her intricately long braids and tan skin looking less robotic now that she’d been given the breath of life.
Jareth waddled over to her: the long fin that ran down the center of his scalp wobbling from side to side with each step. His red eyes beamed as he assessed the woman.
He walked around her several times, touching various wires. Lele must have been familiar with him because she didn’t smack him or ask him to talk to her like I would have.
Blinking in rapid succession, Jareth seemed satisfied.
“Hello, old friend,” he said, looking up at the robot.
“Who is this?” Lele said, referring to Reina and me in tandem. “The new couple?”
“Yes,” Jareth nodded, already doddering ahead of us.
“No!” Reina said with some humor in her voice, immediately correcting the little man.
“No, no, no,” I said, nervously eyeing the robot. “We’re not…” I looked at Reina and swallowed awkwardly. I noticed a distinct blush wash over her face, and then I looked back at Lele, offering a lame shrug. “No.”
“If you like, I can avert my eyes and pretend this hasn’t made you uncomfortable,” Lele said, practically toneless, but with a smile still affixed to her face.
Jareth turned around, probably just noticing that we weren’t following him and began walking back, swaying his long arms back and forth as he approached us once more. “It’s good to have you back,” he said to Lele.
“How did you guys meet?” Reina asked.
“We met…” Lele began and then abruptly paused. She held a hand to the side of her delicate face. Her eyes flicked rapidly back and forth, and she looked down at Jareth once more. “Seven years ago,” she finished.
“You’ve been gone a long time,” Jareth offered, splaying his hands out in apology.
“An associate of mine met a Vithohn and was taken back to his base. This is where Jareth was. When they left together—”
I didn’t hear much of what Lele said after that. Something about how her friend left without her: how she sought out Jareth to try and find them. But I was still lost in her first sentence.
“When they left together.”
My eyes darted to Reina, but she didn’t look back. My pace slowed, wondering what this meant for the Vithohn: for the humans. Had we been pairing off together for years now and Bolmore was painfully unaware of it?
“Tessoul felt the calling, too,” I heard Jareth say and when I looked over, Reina’s eyes went wide.
I didn’t want to tell her I hadn’t been listening when she looked at me, no doubt waiting for me to express equal shock and awe over whatever it was the Yaclion had said. So I faked an appalled expression, and Reina seemed satisfied.
Listening in for a few more minutes, I gathered that Jareth was speaking of the Kilari. The pull the Vithohn feel when they are around: that his friend had felt the pull and encountered the Kilari.
Which meant maybe Sylas wasn’t so paranoid to believe they were around after all.
“I have to tell you something,” Reina said later as we arrived back at the city. I had just taken her to her room in the immense tower, and she began pulling my hand into hers and shifting her body closer to mine.
My body reacted the way it normally did whenever she touched me, and I felt my spire slowly wander over to her body. I had to mentally scold myself for attempting to feel her, pressing my eyes shut and reminding myself what sort of position I w
as in.
I set my jaw and exhaled, watching as my spire retreated behind me as though it was a separate entity from the rest of my body.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The Vithohn, from the well,” she said, nearly gasping for breath, suddenly nervous.
“Reina,” I said, squeezing her hand and looking back and forth from her gaze. I reached my hand up and brushed her hair back in an attempt to calm her. “What is it?”
“It wasn’t a Vithohn,” she spat out all at once, like she’d been building a physical dam in front of her mouth that had finally broken and spilled over. “It was this… well… it looked exactly like the things from the clearing that attacked us. I didn’t know enough then but… I think it may have been a Kilari.”
I swallowed a large gulp of air and felt my face go cold. “Impossible,” I said, shaking my head once. “I saw you kill it. It was a Vithohn.”
“No,” she drew out her vowels. “It just looked like one. It…” She shrugged. “It shape-shifted as soon as we tried to move it to the well. It was a Kilari.”
“Shape-shifters?” I repeated in horror.
I felt the color drain from my body and exhaled as slowly as I could. I knew the Kilari were around… but I wasn’t expecting them to take form as a Vithohn.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.
“Because I just realized… that what’s going on might be bigger than you or me.”
My throat felt small: my mouth sticky and honey-like. But, as I looked over at her, I felt a sense of peace wash over me. I watched her hand, still in mine, and then pulled her closer to me so that I could smell her breath.
It was in that moment I realized there were things I absolutely adored about Reina. First being her beautiful hips and her large, expressive eyes that looked persistently worried and expectant. They kept me on my feet.
Second, I loved that she trusted me enough to tell me this story about the Kilari.
My eyes gazed over the thin, deep-green button-up shirt she wore and trailed up to her long, beautiful neck.
“Thank you for telling me,” I said, unusually gracious.
She swallowed. “You’re welcome.”
And then I kissed her. A simple meeting of the lips. Just a ‘thank you,’ I told myself.