"Ruby, you said you got him?" Reaper asked, trying to ignore the cries of agony from the eldiravan.
"Yeah, about that…. You're gonna wanna see this."
"Take the long way around."
Jackal stood in front of Fenris, arms crossed over his chest. He was glaring at the wolf like an upset father.
"So, you can…. make that gas? Or whatever it is? What the hell are you?" Jackal may have been all right about eldiravan dying. He did not particularly care about them. Concern about this strange creature was rising by the second. It wasn't normal.
Was it a quadrupedal creature? Bipedal? Why did it resemble an earthly wolf? It even resembled humans to some extent! Yet according to Mjolnir, this creature looked more like his own kind.
All of his questions surfaced in his mind. His fear made his heart thump like a war drum. His curiosity coursed through his veins.
Fenris stared right at him.
Within the blink of an eye, Jackal sunk into the soil. Enveloped by a torrent of water, he was the anchor stuck to the bottom of the ocean floor. Darkness all around him. Its tendrils stabbed towards him, threatening to spear the light within his soul.
Here again? He thought. But how?
The breath left his lungs. A sharp gasp sliced into his chest like icy daggers. Jackal clutched at his neck and chest. Bubbles rocketed out of his mouth. When they finally cleared, Jackal found the crimson lights hanging in the shadows. They breathed into focus from the top down. The creature was different this time. Indiscernible through the pulses. Jackal stared at the lights trickling down into smaller cracks.
That alluring song echoed around him, barely audible over the white noise ringing in his ears. Drawn to the lights, he followed them as they fell. The static shrieked. His body jolted. Bubbles plummeted from his mouth.
He looked to the bubbles rushing down his frame.
What?
He looked back to the lights. A wicked claw had reached out to him.
The lights were not falling! They were rising. Jackal had flipped around without realizing it. He was the odd one out. He watched the lights as they breathed. Slow. Calm. The ache in his chest slowly dissipated. The spears for tendrils retracted back into the void. The white noise gently faded into the wolf’s song.
Jackal reached for the claw. For the creature.
Cold. Metallic. It was like he plunged his hand into snow.
His touch rippled through the crimson lights. They shimmered brighter than ever.
The darkness flooded in. Its effusion carried Jackal upwards. Back to solid ground.
Back to reality….
“Hey, you alright?” Reaper grabbed his shoulder, looking him in the eyes.
Jackal blinked, his body slumping down under the sudden weight of gravity. He looked at his friend.
“Valkyrie.” Boomed an otherworldly treble. Three voices overlapped each other like an endless echo. It carried through their bodies like thunder.
“W-what?” Jackal’s voice cracked.
“I am valkyrie.” The voice was softer, resonating inside their bones.
FOURTEEN
Reaper sat in a chair inside a holding cell. There were no decorations to brighten up the gray room. Just a table and two chairs. Across the table sat a young man, a boy perhaps, with his hands cuffed in front of him. His head was bowed, a black, leafy hood hiding his face.
Reaper’s arms crossed over his chest, lips twisted in thought.
“I was under the impression that your people are pacifists. Why would you murder those eldiravan?”
The boy’s head shot up, large eyes shimmering like emeralds. What would have been his face pinched up. The bird upon his shoulder resembled a falcon. Big, yellow piercing eyes. A hooked beak and beautiful rust colored feathers decorated with black and tan stripes and flecks. Black feathers stood up on its head like a crest, matching the extra-long tail feathers.
“Drast’Oebev was a slave trader!” The bird squawked. “He was kidnapping children and forcing them to work in those mines!”
“What about the raven at the bar?”
“He was a kidnapper who worked for Drast.”
Reaper studied the boy. He could see it in his eyes. The truth and the hatred. It pierced through the darkness in a green that matched no other. Fleebeeron were not liars. He had never known one to be anyway.
“I have to say, I’ve never heard of a fleebeeron picking up a sword. What made you change?”
“Why do you care?!” The bird’s wings flapped. The boy tensed, pulled back into his seat.
Reaper knew he suffered trauma. Fleebeeron were beautiful visages of nature. Yet this boy had no flowers or vibrancy. His body darkened like bark, the leaves like charcoal, wilted and shriveled. The clothing they wore were grown by themselves, it shaped their personalities, told their stories. This boy was the complete opposite of any known image of a fleebeeron. He was at the other side of the spectrum from Fauriei, a graceful beacon of hope.
“Because I have to figure out what to do with you.” Reaper raised a brow. “I’m under orders to return you to a prison to pay for your crimes.”
“Then do it!” The bird snapped. “You wouldn’t understand. You don’t really care! All you humans are the same! Just like those bastards.”
Reaper raised a hand. “I fought the eldiravan. I went to war against them. I know they are only in it for themselves.”
“They killed our family….” The boy’s head lowered. “We were starting a colony on Monleura. Mother wanted to study the unique life. Father wanted to mine the resources to fund expansion. It was going to be a safe haven for refugees.” The bird took a deep breath, taking a second to straighten out some of its feathers. “I don’t know who it was, but a group of eldiravan showed up one day. They demanded we give them everything. My parents refused. So, they killed all of them.”
“They let you go?”
“No. We were not there when it happened. Mother sent us into the woods to gather some samples. We returned to the massacre.”
“Have you found the culprits?”
“Only one of them. He didn’t say much. We’ve been tracking them down…All we know is their sigil. Orange and yellow. An immortal dragon of fire.”
Reaper scratched his cheek. He rolled the details of the story over in his head. While it was easy to believe the eldiravan could do something so horrible, why would they do it to such close allies?
“What’s your name?”
“Ianisse. My mother was Yari. My father, Emtra.”
Reaper slowly stood from the table. “Wait here for a few minutes. If your story checks out, I’ll come to a decision.”
“If you won’t let me hunt those bastards down, then you should just kill me. I won’t live my life in a cage.”
Reaper frowned. What more could he say? He left the room, locking the door behind him. He was going to conduct some research. The fleebeeron were keen about writing everything down. Surely there would be something about Monleura in the database.
Surprisingly, I was feeling better. Whatever it was must have passed through. I debated going to see the doctor, though it would still be a good idea. Fenris was supposed to go as well and since he was still following me, I took him there. Reynold’s was far too excited about it. She barely acknowledged me! She was stuck on Fenris, taking every chance she could to examine him from head to toe.
“Doc.” I said. “Doc! Slow down!”
Fenris rolled his shoulders to make his cloak fall over the front of his frame.
Reynolds pulled away and smiled at me.
“Lieutenant Marshal! When did you get here?”
“I-I’ve been here.” I stuttered. Did she really not see me walk in?!
“Oh! I’m so sorry. Are you hurt?”
“No. I don’t think so.” I cleared my throat. “It’s come to my attention that I may need a checkup. I’ve been feeling ill as of late, at least until we left that planet. I’m actually feeling better. I suspected it could be
due to Fenris. Or radiation from the core.”
Reynolds hummed, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“It’s a possibility!” She smiled. “Since we know nothing about Fenris here, he could be housing bacteria we’ve never even heard of. I would have isolated him sooner, but he is so hard to find!” Her lips pursed together. “You said you were feeling better though?”
“Yeah. I still want to make sure. Fenris is here for a checkup as well, to be safe.”
“Oh, this is wonderful! Please, you have to let me study you, Fenris! You look absolutely marvelous! I can’t tell what is machine and what is flesh.”
“About that.” I waved at her. “He spoke earlier.”
“What?! Why didn’t you say that sooner?! What did he say?”
“Valkyrie. He said he was valkyrie.”
Her lips parted. She stared up at Fenris, arms crossed under her chest.
“Wow…”
“Doc?”
“Come with me! Let’s sit you two down in the isolation ward for now.” She pivoted on her heels and led the way into the back of the medical bay.
She was bouncing with excitement. Like a kid in a candy shop. She waved for us to sit down on the foot of two gurneys while she looked over her tools on a far counter. I crossed my arms over my chest to wait patiently, sitting there on the plush mattress. Fenris had taken a seat on the other gurney which began to squeak under pressure. After a moment it cracked, the steel snapping apart. Half of the gurney ripped away, deforming the upper half while where Fenris sat crashed to the floor. The creature barely touched the ground before he turned around to see what had happened.
He visibly retracted.
“What the fuck?!” I almost jumped out of my seat.
Reynolds had turned around to stare in awe.
“Oh my! These are made with ardrizi in mind! How could it have broken?”
It made me think about my leg when it broke. From what I heard, he simply stepped on it in the fight. No wonder it had broken so badly. Fenris must have weighed a ton!
That incident must have made up Reynold’s mind. Start with the basics.
“I think you both need a full check up! Come! Liam, could you please demonstrate for Fenris?”
“All right.”
Basics. Measuring height. Weight. There was a simple machine tall enough for an ardrizi, or raven, that did both. It required standing on the scale while a separate metal arm was lowered to the top of the head. I honestly thought it was a bad idea.
Sure enough, it was. The moment Fenris put a single foot on the scale, the whole machine burst out with weights and wires.
Reynolds oohed about it. Everything that creature did fascinated her to no end. She went about the rest of the examination, using me like a guinea pig in case Fenris had never been through something like this. Yet he sat there silently, doing exactly as he was asked. I must have been there for moral support. I never felt so ignored in all my life. Maybe I was just the control in her research.
I could tell when she saw Fenris differently. It never seemed to line up when his form changed for me. Whenever I saw the humanoid form, she saw the wolf. She pulled back for a double take each time. She rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, adjusted her glasses, then went back to work as she saw fit.
She took temperature, external, internal. Skin samples. Saliva samples. Well, she tried to. When she attempted to scrape anything off Fenris, she got nothing. In fact, with the slightest pressure, her tool snapped. She caught something interesting that none of us saw before.
“What is this? A chain?” She cradled his arm out to better see it in the light.
I leaned closer to see it as well. Sprouting out from his wrist was iron and silk, like that of a chain. Maybe it was a rock. The chain was oddly textured, bumpy, yet soft and satiny like precious fabric. It hung loose under his wrist before digging into the metal of his forearm just to pop out a couple inches up.
Looking at the rest of him, the chain was wrapped all around him. It dug into his body repeatedly, but could be easily traced.
“He’s... grown into it. Around it.” She breathed. Her lip quivered as she bit into it. “You were tied up?” Those big eyes watered.
Fenris dragged his arm from her. His head dropped to look away. A painful memory.
“No wonder you don’t move much. It must hurt…” She wrote something down on her notepad. “Maybe I can cut them off? Not sure I can… I can’t even get a needle through, or a scalpel.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
She shook her head. “It doesn’t make sense. His name... The name of his species... These are earth names.”
“What about our translators?”
“There would have to be something in the database for that, but there’s nothing about a valkyrie species. If he is speaking a different language, then we shouldn’t be able to understand it. The only thing recorded about valkyries is in ancient Norse mythology, which isn’t even practiced anymore. It hasn’t been practiced for over five hundred years at least! Even then, most tales from when it was a dominating religion were spoken, not written.”
“Everything we could possibly know is passed down by speech then?” I sighed. “What if he’s from earth?”
Reynolds looked at me like I was the craziest thing in the room. “That can’t be possible! Look at him! He’s obviously machine…” Her voice trailed off.
“Not machine.” Fenris said. His voice rattled through our bones. Reynolds pulled away from him. Shocked by the quake trembling through her body. His voice was filled with rasp, guttural, yet high pitched. His jaws didn’t even move. The way it echoed made it out like he were talking through a helmet, yet the sound carried deep enough we could feel the floor shake.
In fact, I wasn’t positive if I was actually hearing anything. It was like hearing my own voice as I talked. The sound vibrated through my bones and flesh, producing an internal sound that thumped the drums inside my ears. It was not like hearing Reynolds talk.
“W-what?” She swallowed.
“Fenris not machine.” He repeated. “Fenris valkyrie.”
Reynolds straightened herself. Busied her hands with fixing her hair. “Are you wearing armor?”
“Yes. No.” His head tilted to one side.
“Yes and no? It can’t be both!”
Fenris tapped on his chest. “Armor is Fenris.”
Reaper had done his research. Discovered that everything Ianisse said was true. The only thing that did not check out was how he looked. That meant almost nothing. Fleebeeron’s appearances changed over time. He was only a child in the last photo taken. Now he was a full-fledged adult, he just didn’t blossom the same as the others. He was traumatized. Seeking revenge. Reaper couldn’t blame him. He would go after them, too. How could he possibly deny the right for revenge? What happened to Ianisse was wrong. It never should have happened. Reaper could not do it for him, but he could give him a way. A safe way.
Reaper returned to Ianisse.
“I can’t in good conscience let you go.” He stated.
“We know.” Ianisse’s bird replied. “You humans hold a sense of duty above all else.”
“Which is why I’m taking a big risk in not turning you in.”
“What?” He stared up at him with wide eyes.
“I can only do it on one condition.” He held up a finger. “You stay here on the Syndicate. Join our team. I will do everything in my power to find the ravens that killed your family. What you do with that information is up to you.”
“We’ll do it!” Ianisse jumped up out of the seat.
Reaper smiled. “Fantastic! Let me show you to your room then. We actually have one that should suit you well.” He unlocked the cuffs and took them off the wilted flower.
“You do?”
Reaper held the door open for him to step out first. He led the way down the hall.
“Yes. We escorted Miss Fauriei not long ago, have changed little in there since.”
&n
bsp; “F-Fauriei?! What were you doing with her?!”
“Oh, so you know her?”
“Of course! Who doesn’t know Fauriei? She’s the most popular fleebeeron in the galaxy! She’s endlessly praised and even idolized for her generosity, charity, and strength. We all wish to be as brave as her.”
“I had no idea she was so well known.”
It did not take long to make it up to the quarters. Just as they did, Fenris headed in the opposite direction.
“Hey, Fenris,” Reaper stopped in the middle of the hall, holding a hand out to the valkyrie. “I take it your examination went well?”
Ianisse stepped back to put the captain between him and the creature.
Fenris’ head tilted, looking to Ianisse in silence.
“Hmm... I’ll take that as a yes. Could you meet me in my office? I’ll be there in a minute.”
It nodded.
As Fenris walked by, Ianisse stepped around Reaper, hugging himself.
“Are you okay?” Reaper asked.
“Have you befriended that thing?”
“I think. Not sure yet.”
“You will never tame it. That is Astradon!”
“Astradon?”
“It’s the name of the black beast that comes for the souls of the impure.” The bird’s shoulders dropped in unison with Ianisse’s. “We always thought it was just a tale father told us to make sure we behaved, but now that I’ve seen it… That thing is a monster! It will eat everything it sees!”
Reaper’s lips pursed. He remembered how those in Empyree called him the World Devourer.
“It could just be chance that he matches that description.”
“Too perfect to be a chance.”
Reaper sighed. “Trust me, he won’t hurt you, or anyone else. I can promise you that. Come, you should rest up. It’s been a long night.” He placed a hand to Ianisse’s back to guide him down the hall. “After you’ve rested, feel free to eat as much as you’d like and since you seem to enjoy fighting, you can train with the others in the barracks. They’ll be happy to have you.”
“You don’t believe us, do you?”
“No. I believe you.” Reaper smiled, opening the door. “I believe that Astradon is a wicked creature. Fenris, on the other hand, has protected us.”
The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) Page 12