by JC Dameron
"Relax Aaron, I'm going to get you in the tank right now. Trust me, brother, you're going to be fine," Ethan said in a reassuring tone.
Aaron removed the mask trying to sit up, only to fall back to the table with a thud.
"Don't move," Ethan chided, gently removing Aaron's hand from the mask.
Aaron turned his head, looking to me. "Vel," he started, clearly in immense pain. I walked to him, and I took his other hand, unsure if he would even survive such injuries. "They got me good, huh?" He said, coughing.
"Yea, they got you good, now relax so you can get better. I can’t lose you, soldier." I commanded.
"If...if I do, get better, will you go with me to get pizza, just you and me?" He asked, smiling.
I upgraded his odds of survival, based on his ability to flirt at a time like this. "It's a date. Now rest please," I grinned, stepping back as Ethan placed the mask on Aaron once again before injecting him with a substance that Leaha explained would help him to sleep as he healed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Family?
I sat in the room where Aaron was healing, locked safely inside the rejuvenation tank for quite a while. After some time had passed, Seles walked in to let me know that they had made it back, incident free.
"Leaha is with the child," Seles said, knowing I would ask how the girl was doing. "She dressed the wound on her leg, but she says that it would be better for her to heal naturally, rather than trying to explain the rejuv tank to her, and then somehow convince her to remain calm for the hours it would take to fully heal. What was that invocation she used Vel?"
I raised up in my chair to stretch out my sore muscles, having slouched during my time in the rejuv room. "To be honest, I've never seen anything like it." In fact, I had never even heard of anything like it.
"I know it was an intense situation, and it's possible that I was hearing things, but I could swear that I heard a voice chant the invocation before the girl did," Seles said, with a concerned look in her eyes.
"You weren’t imagining it, I heard it as well." I couldn’t keep the fear of that fact from showing on my face. "What's even more unusual is the amount of Ether that she was able to draw from in order to invoke it. The closest thing I've ever felt to the amount of Ether she possessed was when Astiel attacked Leordia City while he was connected to the Leylines. Honestly, I can’t think of any other time that I have felt a stronger flow of Ether," I shared. Seles was not one to discount the potential of anyone, having been raised as a commoner herself, but hearing me compare Vesta to Astiel seemed to alarm her.
"How is that possible?" She asked, involuntarily shaking her head in disbelief.
"I don't know, and to be honest it scares me to admit that," I responded, remembering how Vesta's Ether felt like a rushing spring. "It seems as though she has somehow tapped into the Leylines of this world, and she was able to draw power from it," I said, looking back to Aaron."I don't want anyone except you, Leaha, and Grimaldi to know that, though." My concern for Vesta’s safety outweighed any need for transparency with the others. "The truth of the matter is, I could have prevented all of this. I had absorbed more than enough Ether to wipe out the whole mob. But they were our people Seles, and I just couldn’t make myself take them out like that. At least, not right away," I admitted, reflecting on the moment Aaron was injured. The guilt made me question my loyalties to the point that I really wasn’t sure anymore whose side I was really on.
Seles put her hand on my back, and she began to caress my hair, which flowed like a river, down my back. "Vel, there was nothing you could have done," She said gently. "You are our Queen; the fact that you weren't able to bring yourself to mercilessly slaughter those people is part of what qualifies you to hold such a title." She always knew just what I needed to hear. "However, going forward, you're going to have to realize that everyone with Astiel has made the same choice as those you saw today. They chose the wrong side, simple as that.”
We sat in silence for a while, reflecting on the day's events. Sometimes, silence is the best thing a friend can give you in a time like this. After some time I came to see that what she had said was the truth. If my people chose to follow Astiel, instead of trusting the very person who was sworn to protect them, then they were the enemy. I could no longer afford to hesitate when it came to taking them out.
"Aaron will be fine," I said, breaking the silence. "In fact, he asked me to dinner before he would let Ethan put him in the rejuv tank," I smirked, looking to my friend.
Seles smiled at me, and her face lit up as she sat up in the chair once again. "That's great! I've fought alongside him many times, and he is as much a warrior as any I've met. Plus unlike that other guy, what’s his face, we know for sure that Aaron is one of the good guys!" She giggled. Seles was a rare gem. Despite everything she had experienced in her life, she was always someone I could count on to make me smile.
"Well, he wants to get pizza, so there won't be any battles involved, but you never know what might happen, I guess," I said with a laugh.
"Make sure you let him know that he doesn’t get the last piece!" She said with a mischievous grin. "There are worse things that could happen than a little action on your date you know." Seles let her eyes run down Aaron’s body, who was almost completely nude in the rejuv tank. "Much worse," She said, staring intently.
I looked at Aaron, and inside, I didn't disagree with her. "Seles!" I gave her a playful swat.
"I'm just sayin'," She said with a chuckle, forcing herself to pull her eyes back to me.
"Vel." I heard Leaha's voice ring over the intercom. "I'm sending Ethan your way, I need to see you," she said, as the intercom faded out.
Seles touched my shoulder, as I looked back to Aaron, worried to leave him alone here. "Don't worry about him, Vel. He made it in time. I'll stay here with him while you're gone," she said, sweetly, as she retracted her hand from my shoulder and faced forward.
Moments later, Ethan walked into the door, walking over to check on Aaron before speaking. "Aaron is healing up well." He pushed some of the buttons on the console. "Leaha needs you in the clinic on the third floor, Vel, follow me if you would please," he said, walking to the door.
I stood from my seat and followed him, nodding to Seles as I exited the room. I followed Ethan through the halls and onto the elevator. I hadn't noticed before, but unlike the elevator, we had used in the past, this service elevator was very small. It was completely surrounded by mirrors, with only the roof, floor, and railing showcasing the metal that the box was made from.
"Is everything okay?" I asked Ethan, who had not spoken a single word since we left the rejuv room.
Ethan looked at me through the mirror on the wall, never turning. "Everything is fine," he said, coldly, as if I had interrupted him mid-thought.
I knew Ethan had a lot to deal with in a day, and learning that his brother was critically injured added another layer of anxiety to an already stressful job. The elevator dinged as the doors opened to the third floor, revealing a much softer space than that of the rejuv room.
"The clinic is this way,” Ethan grumbled, as he exited the elevator, turning to the hall on the right.
I exited behind him, noticing how serene the white walls appeared, as we hastily moved down the hallway. It was as if we were walking through the heavens themselves, blissfully skipping across the clouds. But, there was not much to be joyous about. My thoughts were drawn away, as I remembered that Vesta had also been pierced by the arrow of light and that she would be facing months of recuperation as a result.
"How is Vesta doing?" I asked as Ethan turned a corner.
"She is going to be fine. She and Aaron are both very lucky that you and the team were there to make sure things didn't escalate further," he said with a sigh.
I had experienced my fair share of sarcasm, but Ethan was clearly upset that Aaron had been injured, and was taking his pent up anger out on me. "Ethan, about what happened to Aaron, I," I began, but was interrupted as Et
han suddenly stopped in the hall before me.
"Listen, Vel, I'm sorry. I'm dealing with Aaron's injury in the wrong way. I know if there was anything you could have done, you would have," he admitted.
"It's okay. I get it. I would say that I would feel the same way if it were my brother, but we all know that can’t be true. But I really do understand where you are coming from," I said, hoping to relieve him of the guilt that he felt. "I can't even imagine going through what you have to deal with on a daily basis. You have the weight of the world on your shoulders.”
"Well, it's no excuse for my rudeness, so please forgive me. It’s just been a long day," he said, as he turned and began to walk once again.
Ethan was a man whom, though I had only known a very short time, I had come to admire greatly. His commitment to all of his men's safety, and my best friend and their unborn child was clearly sincere. It was one of the sign's that showed me, and everyone, that he was a man who could be trusted. After another turn, we entered a room that was expansive, with numerous rooms sectioned off, very similar to the hospital Lucas had taken me to when I first arrived in this world.
"Vel." I heard Leaha call from across the room.
I made my way to her, as Ethan nodded to me, and walked out of the room.
"Hey, I need a blood sample," she said, as she worked busily on the computer in front her.
"A blood sample?" I questioned.
"Yea, for two reasons, actually. First, everyone in the UTF is required to have one taken, so that we can match your blood type if you're ever injured, but secondly, and I know this is crazy, but I believe Vesta may be a member of the royal line."
Leaha dropped that bomb on me in a tone like she was telling me how she took her coffee. But a bomb it was, and I was completely in shock. I took a few moments to let the shock sink in, then asked: "The royal line, how is that possible?" Astiel and I were our mother's only children, and her only sibling had been killed when she was very young. Although now that I thought about it, her body wasn’t ever recovered. Still, her father would have had no reason to lie to everyone about that fact.
"I don't know how or why, but Grimaldi told me she was able to defeat dozens of caster's with a single invocation. I don't know anyone with that kind of innate Ether other than Astiel," she said, pointing to her monitor where a bunch of streams that resembled worms were displayed. "This is called a DNA strand; it is what makes all of us who and what we are biologically." She sounded like one of my childhood tutors as she pulled up three more images of similar strands. Noticing my puzzled expression, she opted to try to simplify her thoughts. "Don't focus on the details, to be honest, I don't fully understand them either, but with these images, we can see the differences in the DNA. These are mine, Ethan's, and Grimaldi's," she said, pointing to each as she identified them. "Now, if you compare them to Vesta's, you'll notice it looks slightly different, in that the diameter of her DNA is forty anagrams." She started pointing out the difference in width on the monitor with her hands. "Okay, so to make this easier to understand, Ethan's DNA, alongside all other humans, has a diameter of twenty anagrams. In caster's, however, there is a disparity in the width of any given DNA strand. That indicates that our innate Ether is actually related to our DNA, and the greater the width, the greater our power, essentially. Although he doesn't make a fuss about it, Grimaldi is the most powerful of the three captains. Grimaldi's DNA is twenty-six anagrams in diameter. Vel, I only went into this to tell you that it's possible that this girl could be a member of your family. Obviously, you don't have any innate Ether, and Astiel isn't going to give us a sample, but there are certain marker's that families share which may shed some light on this," she stated as she guided me to one of the rooms.
"I don't know what to say," I replied, as I sat down in the chair she guided me too.
"In order for her to possess the same traits as you and Astiel, her mother, Marie, would have had to be born from your mother. Your father was a great leader, and powerful in his own right, but your mother carried the Renaud genes which have produced the strongest innate Ether since Raymond Renaud during Leordia's founding," Leaha said, reaching into a drawer and pulling out something that gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach.
"That's not possible, Leaha." I shook my head, praying the very sharp device in her hands wasn't what she planned to use to take my blood.
Leaha chuckled, noticing my eyes glued to the object in her hands. "Vel, this is called a syringe. I can draw your blood into this chamber and send it for testing at the UTF's private lab," she explained, wiping my arm with a substance that smelled like ale, only stronger. “Now you are going to feel just a slight pinch, okay," she said as if she was pretending to ask for permission as she forced the point of the syringe into my skin. Moments later the vial began to fill with my blood, and when it was full, she pulled the syringe out of my arm and placed a cotton ball over the area she had stuck me, taping it down. "All done!" She said with a smile, as she wrote my name on the vial upon the counter, labeling it to send to the lab, I assumed.
"About my mom," I started, remembering the stories of her fate.
"I know, Vel." Leaha shook her head, sparing me from having to dig into my memory. "It sounds impossible because of what happened, but the amount of innate Ether this child possesses is truly incredible."
"Leaha, listen," I interrupted. "I haven't told anyone besides Seles what I'm going to tell you, and I want you to keep it between us for now, okay. It's not only impossible because my mother died trying to murder Astiel and me as infants, but in truth, the reason she is so powerful is because she is connected to the Leylines of this world," I admitted.
"What, but how can that be?" Leaha was as shocked as I was by that revelation.
"I honestly don't know," I answered, shrugging my shoulders. "I felt her mother's Ether as it flowed into me, and it wasn't anywhere near the level of Astiel's," I said, standing to my feet. "This girl's Ether began expanding rapidly after her mother was killed right in front of her. I don't know how Astiel was able to make a connection to the Leylines in our world, but somehow Vesta has managed to do so here, after witnessing Marie's death anyways," I explained.
Leaha placed her hand to her mouth. "If Astiel were to discover there was a caster who had managed to make such a connection, he would go to whatever lengths he could to capture or destroy her, in order to prevent her from growing into a threat," Leaha said, understanding why I wanted to keep her connection to the Leylines a secret.
"Exactly, Leaha. And may the gods help us if that ever got out.”
"It goes without saying then that will stay between us," Leaha said, walking back to the main room.
I followed Leaha to the central room, and I watched as she sealed my blood sample into a clear envelope and set it on a tray before turning back to me.
"I'm going to stay here with her tonight, I want to make sure she feels safe when she awakens." Leaha was perhaps the most compassionate person I had ever known, and I was relieved that she too felt the strong urge to protect Vesta. "We'll call it practice," she said, rubbing her own pregnant womb.
"I will stay as well," I said, truly appreciating her desire to nurture others.
"Not tonight, Vel," She countered. "I sent the transport devices that you recovered to Lucas in the lab. You need to figure out what you're going to do with him. Ethan will not permit him to walk freely through this facility, and Aaron is obviously not going to be able to watch him. I recommend asking Ethan to have him placed in his cell overnight," Leaha said, watching my eyes to see how I would react to her suggestion.
I had completely forgotten that Lucas and the other scientists were locked down in the lab. "I'm perfectly capable of keeping him in line, I'll keep him with me until Aaron is healed." I started to make my way to the hall, hoping to be able to retrace my steps to the elevator.
"Do you, Velareedra Renaud, Queen of Leordia, really trust him?" Leaha's voice rang out before I exited the room.
"Yes.I r
eally do," I said, stopping to look at Leaha. I couldn’t explain why, but with Leaha, I wouldn’t have to.
"Then he will have free reign, I will make it so." She had complete faith in my judgment. "I will have Ethan assign him quarters, but he will have to stay with you tonight. Keep him in line!" She finished with a chuckle.
"Thank you, Leaha," I said, smirking, knowing full well that her chuckle originated from the belief I could be seduced by the great seducer. I walked out of the room, finding the elevator shortly thereafter. I took the elevator to the sixth floor and quickly made my way to the lab.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Timing is Everything
The first thing that I noticed when I arrived at the lab was that Leaha had already lifted the lockdown, and many of the researchers were preparing to leave for the night. Lucas, however, was standing beside a table, near the middle of the room, in front of Mahnon alongside Felix. I entered the room, Lucas, and Felix never losing focus, and walked to the table where they stood. They had both of the devices on the table, one intact, and the other dissected into individual parts.
"Hello," I said, attempting to peel their attention away from the devices for a moment.
"Hey!" Lucas said, looking to me. "Great job securing these."
"Hopefully they will be helpful, they came at a rather high cost," I said, my thoughts moving to Aaron and Vesta.
"Yea, I heard Captain fluffy britches got hurt, but they say that he's going to be okay," Lucas jested.
Lucas was not a warrior, nor did he understand the dynamics and interdependence that being part of a team played in battle. Initially, I was a little angered by his statement, but after considering his ignorance I decided that a simple explanation would have to suffice for now.
"Aaron shielded a young girl with his own body, not because it would benefit him, but because he is a protector," I said, scolding Lucas for his careless words.