During the entire time since the incident began, I hadn’t seen or heard from any of the habitat’s Enforcers. As for the academy’s private security, they were probably as incapacitated as the rest of us.
Though I agreed with Duncan on one hand, I had no intention of making an enemy of Familiars like Caprice and the girl who’d fought alongside her. They had done what they could to protect us. I was grateful for that.
Though my body felt twice as heavy as normal, I still managed to walk over to Duncan. Standing before him, I kept my back and my legs as straight as I could.
“Haruka—?”
I slapped him.
I put my strength into it.
I let him feel my disappointment in him.
Duncan swayed wildly before straightening. He pressed a hand to his left cheek and stared at me in astonishment.
I took a deep breath after clearing my throat. “I’m ashamed of you.”
With that I turned my back on him, and walked as calmly as I could over to Caprice. “Thank you, for what you did for us.”
Steiner’s eyes had burned with anger, but now I saw that anger fade a little. But she gave me a hard stare as though unsure of my intentions.
I bowed to her politely, then turned and walked across the cafeteria level to where Siobhan and Alistair sat with their backs to a wall.
I heard Duncan call out to me, but I ignored him as I sat down beside my friends. I kept my eyes averted from his lonely figure, watching him through my peripheral vision as he sat down heavily where he stood, like a marionette with its strings cut.
The storm that surrounded the Crimson Crescent vessel continued to howl outside the building, even though I could see the starship had moved away to the southern end of the academy grounds. I heard the storm clearly through the holes in the ceiling.
I sat against the wall, and wondered when all this would end.
It had to end right?
Surely Crimson Crescent had what they wanted. Why else would that starship pick up its members and then move away.
Flashes of light visible through the south-side windows attracted my attention.
I’d glimpsed them before, and a number of the braver students had edged to the windows for a better look.
Now I turned my head and gazed through those panoramic windows at the habitat’s interior, watching bright beams of light – some golden, some azure – lance across the vista, striking buildings and the sky and ground with reckless abandon.
This went on for a few minutes at least.
What the Hell was going on out there?
I saw plumes of smoke billow high into the air. Fires had broken out across various district blocks, and emergency vehicles flew in the sky, trying to deal with them, despite the dangerous light show playing out nearby.
As I watched, an octagonal pyramid building in the distance crumbled amid a storm of grey dirt and debris, scattering a few of the lev-craft floating nearby.
As some of the students voiced their horror and disbelief, I thought of Caelum, and offered a prayer for his safety wherever he may be.
Chapter 26 – Lisanna.
(Caelum)
Flying into the palace citadel proved surprisingly easy.
Staying low to the ground, moving too fast for the sentry cannons to deal with.
Burning down the few ground artillery batteries that foolishly aimed their barrels my way.
I was unstoppable.
In mere minutes I was at the inner citadel wall.
I blew a hole in it using the quantum reaction cannons equipped to Ravana’s forearms, and flew through the opening, rather than over the wall.
Skimming the ground, I raced toward the main fortified superstructure of the palace which stood tall and imperiously above the foundations of the citadel and the surrounding city.
The palace wall offered no more resistance than the other fortifications did, even though this one employed localized barrier-fields.
Inside was a resplendent scene.
The architecture embodied opulence and avarice with enormous hallways with arched ceilings. I saw paintings and murals, and wondered if I’d blown my way into a public functions area.
No matter.
This wasn’t where I needed to be.
I chose not to linger, and ignored the armored troopers that rushed to greet me. Waving one of Ravana’s arms, I extended an effect-field around it, and knocked the soldiers away. Then I flew onwards and deeper into the palace.
Through the link between her and Ravana, I could feel her ever so faintly, and so I changed direction, flying upwards through the palace floors and ceilings. A diamond shaped piercer-field surrounded Ravana, cutting through floor and ceiling alike as I soared vertically through the palace.
A hundred levels later, and I neared the top.
I realized I should have just flown in from the outside but I admitted this felt more dramatic. After all it was in my nature to be dramatic. She called it my greatest failing, but I knew she didn’t mean those words.
Ravana burst through the floor of an immense, ivory white chamber, and quickly slowed to a hover, it’s vane-like feet a mere three feet off the ground.
Using Ravana’s senses, I quickly took in the surroundings.
The chamber was a good two hundred feet across and circular, with twenty foot high windows offering a three hundred and sixty degree view of the citadel and city beyond it.
Yes, I should have flown in from the outside.
After all, this was the palace’s observation deck.
No, this was her throne room.
From here the Empress of the Human Empire could observe her domain.
And from here, she could witness the end of an era.
The end of her dominion.
The throne sat on a raised dais with its back to me.
I willed Ravana to quickly circle round it, directing it as I would my body with no discernible lag.
Ravana floated around the throne and its dais.
I stopped and touched ground before it.
Yes. I had arrived. I had found her.
Ravana’s connection to her had not failed me.
It wasn’t the Empress I looked upon – no, that woman had fled long ago.
However, I had not come to this world for the Empress.
I had come for the girl I had once taken for granted.
A daughter given to me by her family as a token of their loyalty – an offering to gain favor with me.
A shy, quiet girl. A fragile, resplendent beauty.
I hadn’t appreciated her until many months later.
I had dragged her along with me from one battle front to the next, disregarding her well-being, her comfort, her thoughts…her feelings.
I hadn’t realized how special she was until many months had gone by.
By then, she was a presence I could hardly live without.
I wondered how I’d ever lived my life without her.
By the time I admitted my feelings to her, our time came to an abrupt end.
She was taken from my side because the enemy believed she was my greatest weakness.
And they were right.
My despair, my anguish, it crippled me…until I focused it into rage and blinding determination.
It drove me through system after system, hunting down the Empire – hunting down any sign of her – until eventually it brought me here to their final seat of power.
But I didn’t come alone. I came with every resource I had at my disposal, and I intended to crush the Empire completely in order to reach her.
I stood before the dais…unable to move.
She sat on the throne, bound to it, dressed in flowing, regal white.
She looked as beautiful as I remembered her on the morning I departed for the front once more, promising to return to her side in a few days’ time.
I’d been so afraid for her safety, yet I should have kept her with me.
I should have kept her close by.
My first failing.
I had trusted the people around me – people who’d vowed to protect her.
My second failing.
I looked at her seated on the throne.
I could have taken her for sleeping, but Ravana detected only the weakest of life signs in her.
That was to be expected. Her throat was slit, as were her wrists and ankles.
And red painted her dress, the throne and the dais.
Too late.
I was too late.
This had been done not long ago, yet there was no saving her now.
Even if she was an Aventis, she had lost too much blood and couldn’t heal in time.
They had left her here for me to find, the final nail in the coffin that was my misery.
Even if they lost the war, they would succeed in breaking me.
All the power I had at my disposal, all the men, women and machinery I commanded – all the terrifying might of the Rho-Khan Ravana – and I couldn’t do anything but watch the last of her life fade away.
Through Ravana…I felt her die.
My mind broke.
I lost all reason.
I screamed and Ravana responded to my abject despair.
It blew the chamber apart.
#
(Simone)
Pain.
I felt it run through me.
Not physical.
Emotional.
A heartrending despair that made tears burst from my eyes and run freely down my cheeks.
His pain.
Something horrible had happened and his pain was flowing through the Vault and into me as I stood outside the black sphere with my right arm deep into it.
I had to do something.
I had to do more than what I was doing now.
Releasing my hold on the twisted railing, I slipped my left arm into the Vault.
And then I concentrated my feelings, pushing through his anguish, and reached out to him.
My pure and honest feelings.
And the will to do whatever it took to remain by his side.
I called out his name, over and over, not knowing if he could hear me, yet believing that he would.
#
(Caelum)
The top of the palace was gone.
Nothing but a cloud of pulverized debris that slowly drifted to the ground.
And she was gone too.
Nothing remained of her.
Nothing to bury. Nothing to mourn over.
I fell away from the remains of the palace tower, falling at terminal speed to the ground thousands of feet below.
Unable and unwilling to direct Ravana to fly.
With its effect-fields and wing-vanes powered down, a fall from this height would surely kill me. Even if Ravana survived, I would not, and that was fine by me.
My reason for coming here was gone.
Even if the war was over, I no longer had any part to play in it.
My war had come to an end.
I stared up at the grey sky, lit up by flashes of orange and lightning blue.
A carrier wrapped in flames burned a path thousands of feet above me. It would hit the city in minutes, and many people would die.
I didn’t care.
The one life that meant everything to me was gone.
Everyone could die for all I cared.
I closed my eyes and accepted my end.
Caelum.
Ah, I’d forgotten this sense of peace that slowly surrounded my heart.
How long had it been since I’d last felt this peace with her at my side?
Not since the many months since she’d been spirited away.
Caelum. Caelum.
I opened my eyes and saw the sky around me fade quickly to white.
Had I died already?
I hadn’t felt anything, no impact, no shattering of bones and body.
I turned my head and noticed I was no longer linked to Ravana.
What was this?
Everything around me was white – a pure white so blinding it almost hurt to look upon it.
I stretched out a hand and felt nothing but emptiness around my fingers. No breeze, no air, no cold or heat.
Nothing.
Caelum.
I turned my body. I realized I could do that much though there was nothing for purchase. Yet I was certain I had turned.
Please…come back to me….
A girl’s voice – a girl’s feelings – calling out to me.
Who? Who are you?
I felt a sudden, nearly unbearable sense of loss. It grew to a crushing weight within my chest.
Lisanna…Lisanna?
It couldn’t be.
But if I had died then perhaps she was here waiting for me.
Perhaps this was where we were to meet, before we both could move on.
I searched about for her. I needed her. I couldn’t move on without her.
I needed Lisanna.
Caelum. Please. I’m right here.
Yes, I sensed her clearly and I turned in her direction.
I concentrated and willed myself to move toward her.
Part of me realized I wasn’t alone here. There were other objects, other entities, here with me. Were they spirits? Were the lost souls like I was? Were they too searching for a way out?
Please, hear my heart.
Stronger. I felt it stronger this time, and the sensation drove me onwards.
I know what I need to do.
I felt myself moving away from the entities. I felt myself racing toward the source of that voice – the source of those strong, warm feelings.
I’m not afraid anymore.
Lisanna.
I’m coming.
I’m almost there.
I will accept my fate.
I felt hands on my hands.
I won’t run away.
I felt my body fall into something warm and soft and alive.
I won’t leave your side.
So very much alive.
Instinctively I knew I was out of the void.
Instinctively I knew I was in her arms.
And I understood that like the warm body embracing me, I too was very much alive.
#
(Simone)
We fell away from the Vault.
I rolled back with him, my arms embracing him tightly.
And his arms were firmly locked around me.
I closed my eyes.
I had him back.
Do you hear me, Celica? I have him back.
He lay on me, his chest weighing down on my breasts, his warmth mingling with mine.
We lay like that for a long while.
I didn’t care how much time went by.
I had what I wanted, right in my arms.
I wasn’t going to let him go…at least not for a little while longer.
Then I heard soft laughter and a quiet whisper.
“So warm. You’re so warm. I missed you. Gods, how I missed you. I missed you so much.”
My heart jumped.
Missed me? He missed me? Caelum missed me!
His arms tightened about me and he pressed himself into me.
Oh gods! My body is growing warm – very comfortably warm.
“But…”
My heart skipped a beat.
But? Did he say but?
“Bigger…much bigger…than I remember….”
He chuckled as he lay on top of me. Then he shifted his body and his arms, easing some of the pressure off my chest.
His voice was a whisper, slowly growing stronger. “Were they ever this big?”
Eh? Big?
My heart jumped and a shiver ran through me as my eyes grew wide.
He muttered softly, “They feel so soft and full….”
What did he say? What is he talking about?
I swallowed and cleared my throat to speak, but all that escaped was a surprised squeak.
He—he—he’s groping me!
Caelum muttered, “Damn, these are really something. When did you get these?”
Raising himself up on one arm, while the other massaged my left breast, Caelum looked down at me with confusion.
“Lisanna—”
He froze – but not his hand – and I saw his confusion grow several orders of magnitude.
“Lisanna? What happened to your hair? And”—he looked down at my chest—“when did you grow so large?”
He might be confused, but his hand was moving with a mind of its own.
He swallowed visibly. “By the gods…these are…heavenly….”
My breathing grew ragged.
Oh damn, his fingers felt good. They felt better than good. Even over my blouse and bra, they were really working their magic on me. A slow, burning heat spread out from my chest and into the rest of me. I reflexively squeezed my thighs together.
His palm rubbed over the peak of my breast.
I stifled a moan, then a second by clamping down on my lower lip until I tasted blood.
I had to stop him. I had to stop him before I lost control!
This—this wasn’t how I wanted to give in to him.
Not on the cold floor of a dimly lit rock chamber.
This was not how I dreamt my first time would be!
I cleared my throat through sheer force of will. “Caelum….”
A faint frown etched his brow. “Huh?”
I swallowed hard and forced the words out. “I told you before…didn’t I.”
His frown etched a little deeper. “Li—Lisanna?”
I gave him the strongest glare I could muster, and growled through the arousal choking my voice. “Don’t grab them…without permission!”
With the last of my self-control, I drove my knee bluntly into his groin.
“Geh!” He pitched forward onto me, his whole body instantly rigid. His voice broke as he whispered a strangled, “Lisanna….”
As he fell on me, cold shock blew away the heat of my arousal. Clarity returned to my mind.
Lisanna! He called me Lisanna! No, he’d been calling me Lisanna all this time!
I found strength in my arms. I pushed him off me, and Caelum rolled onto his back.
He was trembling from intense pain, a feverish sweat beading his face.
Gods, I must have really hit him hard with my knee.
Oh no, I hope I didn’t permanently injure them!
I straddled his waist and gently shook him by his shirt.
“Caelum—Caelum, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard. Please—please say something!”
Pride x Familiar Page 46