by E. P. Wyck
Two assistants who had accompanied Kyneska began helping her to her feet. They moved her to a chair, and she said, “Eve, I can’t imagine the pain you or your daughter are experiencing, but if she ever tries anything like that again…”
Eve interrupted her and said, “She won’t. I promise, right, Kali?” She waited several seconds before raising her voice and saying, “Right, Kali?”
Kali went limp and sighed before she said, “Let me go.”
“You done?” Attor asked.
“Yes,” Kali said, and thought to herself, ‘for now.’
Chapter Three
After the silent ride home, Kali stormed out of the vehicle and rushed inside. She left the door open and headed to her room. She slammed the door shut and leaned against it.
After a moment of standing there, she slid down the door and sat on the floor. Furious thoughts raced through her head.
How could her mother side with Kyneska? Why did nobody believe her? How did Attor overpower her with such ease? Did the attacker tell the truth? All of these questions and more caused her to begin doubting herself.
“Kali,” Eve said from the other side of the door, “I am disappointed with you. I don’t know why you think Kyneska would be involved with this fanaticism. She works very hard to keep our Triumvirate viable. This would be completely contrary to everything she has worked towards. Do you understand?”
She clenched her still bloody fists and took a deep breath. After a sharp exhale, she clenched her teeth and furrowed her brow.
“Are you even listening?” Eve asked.
“No. The moment you took her side I stopped listening to you.”
“I didn’t take anybody’s side. I just know Kyneska would never do anything like that.”
“How, how do you know that? Did you ask her? Did you listen to the last words of one of the people who killed your husband? No, you didn’t do any of that; so how could you know?”
“I just know. I already lost a mate, and now I feel like I am losing a daughter. It doesn’t have to be this way, Kali.”
“As long as you take her side it does.”
“Kali,” Eve started to say.
Kali interrupted her and said, “Believe me. Please. I know what I heard. I am not making this up. I have nothing to gain by saying she was behind his death.”
“You’re right, you don’t have anything to gain, but you have everything to lose.”
“Still, even now, you’re defending her?” Kali asked.
“Not so much defending her as trying to help you understand the seriousness of the situation in which you’re putting yourself. If anybody else had done what you did today, they’d be scheduled for execution before the week is out.”
“So then execute me! I am not letting this go. She is behind it, and I am going to prove it.”
“You won’t be able to prove anything because she isn’t behind this.”
Kali stood up and flung the door open. It bounced off the wall with a thud, and she pushed it back open with her hand before it closed.
“Why can’t you support me? I am your daughter. You’ve already turned me into a freak. Nobody will ever love me, and now you can’t even believe me!”
“You’re not a freak, Kali, you’re the future. You’re…”
Cutting off her mother, Kali said, “You have no idea what is in the future. I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want this. I want to be normal. I, most of all, want my father back. I know I can’t have that, but I can go exact revenge on those who took him from me. This is the last time I am asking, please, support me on this.”
Eve’s face told Kali all she needed to know, her mother wouldn’t change her stance on this. Even before Eve spoke, Kali already planned to leave and find a place of her own.
“It is not that simple. You know I can’t, Kali.”
“It is that simple. I am your daughter. Pick me! For once in my life, pick me over your career, or the species, or whatever ‘greater than yourself’ cause you’re supporting.”
“I just can’t,” Eve said.
Kali stormed past her mother. She rushed to the main entrance of the house and flew away.
✯ ✯ ✯
Kali drifted in the eddies above the Olympus Mountains. She stayed aloft for hours using the warm air rising off the mountains. As the sun began to set, she decided to head to Tresopolis.
An old city that became the Empyrean Capital City after the signing of the treaty. Tresopolis sat in a natural fortress of mountains. Their old stone structures rose up beneath Kali as she approached the city. She angled her wings and descended into the city below.
She surveyed the busy sidewalks below for a place to land. In her quick search, she saw a terrace for a restaurant that jutted out of a building. Upon her approach, she noticed nobody dined outside. She decided to land there.
She swooped down and landed on the terrace. She rustled her wings before folding them and walking toward the door on the terrace. She pulled on the door, and it didn’t open. ‘Locked, who locks a door while they’re open?’ she thought to herself.
She pounded on the door with the palm of her hand, “Hey, open the door!” she called into the crack of the door and doorframe. She watched as an attendant came to the door. “Come on, let me in!”
“I can’t let you in.” The attendant said.
“Why not?”
“You have to go through security downstairs.”
“Why?”
“New policy. With the rise in violence we’ve closed our terrace for the safety of our guests.”
“Just let me in!” Kali said pounding on the door again.
“I really can’t. I don’t know you. You have blood on your hands. You’re probably one of those gendercide people.”
Kali punched the glass of the window as hard as she could. The glass cracked, and she said, “Not even a week ago they killed my father. This is the blood of one of them. Don’t you,” she raised her voice to emphasize, “ever,” her voice returned to normal, “call me that again!”
“Well, it’s not like I’ll see you again. By the way, you’re going to have to pay for that!”
“How are you going to make me pay for that when you won’t even let me in?” Kali said. She started walking backward.
“Come back here!”
Kali kept walking and then turned around and jumped off the building. She dove for a few meters before she spread her wings and flew above the crowd below. She glided closer and closer towards the crowd. As she descended, people started watching her.
The crowd below began to split and eventually provided her a path to land. She took the opportunity and landed. She began walking against the crowd, and as it thickened, she pushed her way through into a small shop.
She all but fell through the door. A dark blonde male looked up from his work and said, “May I help you?”
Kali surveyed the store. She had stumbled into an ancient weapon smith’s store. She eyed a long wooden mace studded with metal spikes. Then looked to a short knife that had an ornate handle. Miniature details hand carved in wood with gold accent details.
As she looked around the room, she could smell the wood burning forge. The scent permeated the room and danced in her nostrils. The smoky aroma enchanted her. She turned to see the person who greeted her when she walked in stood by the forge.
He held a red-hot piece of metal with tongs in one hand and a small hammer in the other hand. The embers of the forge reflected in the sweat on his brow. His brown eyes narrowed, and he said, “Are you in there?”
“Um, sorry,” Kali said, “I didn’t mean to stumble in here. I was just trying to get out of that crowd. I kind of wanted to be alone.”
“Well you’re not dressed properly for smithing, so unless you want to ruin your fancy clothes don’t get too close.”
Kali looked down at her clothes. She wore a single piece of cloth that she tied around the back of her neck and again at the small of her back that left her wings and
back exposed. She wore leather pants her father had given her. Durable pants that she broke in sparring with him.
“I think I’ll be alright, besides these are my fighting clothes,” Kali said holding up her bloody knuckles.
“I see, hate to the see the other guy,” he said.
“She, it was a she,” Kali said.
“What did they do to get such a docile creature so angry?”
“I am hardly docile,” Kali said, “but if you must know I think they had my father murdered.”
“I suppose that would get anyone angry.”
“Right.” Kali said and continued to peruse the wares in the shop, “So how much does this stuff cost?”
“Well, it depends. Some of ‘this stuff’ we stamp out all the time, and it is generic. It is well made, but inexpensive. Then we have some other stuff that is smithed to order. Sometimes people back out and we have to sell it to recoup the cost of the materials and the time put into it.”
“I might be in the market. You don’t have any guns, do you?”
“Not that kind of shop,” he said.
“Ok, well thanks for letting me escape that crowd, even if it was only for a moment.” Kali turned to leave.
“You don’t have to leave. I don’t get a lot of company.”
“I don’t even have to turn around to know that desperate is not a good look on you,” Kali said as she walked toward the door.
“What if I said I’d make you something, you know, in memory of your father?”
Kali stopped and thought for a moment before she turned and said, “What do you propose?”
“Based on the blood on your fists and the pristine condition of your gorgeous face, I’d say your father was Razian. So maybe a nice set of throwing knives.”
“You’re good. I’d hate to waste your time, but my father indulged me, and I am well equipped with throwing knives.” Kali said.
“Well I have your attention, so what didn’t he indulge you with?”
Kali eyed the mace by the door. Nearly three-quarters of a meter long the wooden mace had a custom grip carved in the handle. It curved like the handle of a small hatchet then widened at the other end. She walked over and lifted it.
“I’ve never had one of these,” Kali said. She ran her fingertips over the smooth surface of the handle tracing the grain of the wood up to the spikes, “Do these go all the way through?”
“Yes, there’s a countersunk metal rod that keeps them in place. That spike on the end is screwed in to cover it up.”
“No need to make me anything special. I’ll take this,” Kali said, “how much?”
“You don’t want that one. It’s nearly as big as you.”
“Speak softly, carry a big stick,” Kali said
“I mean if that’s the route you want to go, but I’d much rather make you something special.”
Kali hefted the mace up and down in her hands, “But I like this one.”
“Are you sure there is nothing you’d rather have?”
“The price?”
“For the prettiest girl I’ve seen all day?” He said, “Free.”
“I am probably the only girl you’ve seen all day.”
“True.”
“You should work on that.”
“This forge isn’t going to make weapons by itself.”
“I see that. Your metal isn’t glowing anymore.” Kali said.
He took the metal he still held with tongs and tossed it in a bucket of water. Despite not glowing the water hissed as it cooled the metal. He dropped the tongs by the bucket and placed his hammer down on a work bench. “I’d be happy to show you some examples of our custom-made weaponry.”
“I think I’d just like to pay for this and be on my way,” Kali said.
“At least let me wrap it up for you.” He walked from behind the counter and extended a hand to take the mace.
“I don’t know,” Kali paused and looked over the mace, “I think I’d just like to carry it. Feels good in the hands.”
“With the whole females running around and killing males thing going on right now it may not be the best thing to just carry around in public.”
“I see your point.” Kali handed him the mace and said, “So how much?”
“I already said free.” He said as he worked on packaging the mace.
“I have to pay you something. You’re in here sweating while everybody else is enjoying the day out there.”
“I don’t think you’re enjoying the day.”
“Indeed, I am not,” Kali said
“Want to talk about it?”
“To a perfect stranger?”
“Oh, you think I am perfect, why thank you.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know that,” Kali said.
“So, what did you mean?”
“I mean talking about the death of your father may be one thing, but then to add in the fact that I think my mother’s coworker is to blame. Some think that crosses a line.”
He didn’t respond right away as he concentrated on the packaging, “Um, perhaps. So, you think your mother knew?”
“That’s not what I said, are you listening to me?”
“Yes, you’re Razian, you think I am perfect, and your mother had something to do with your father’s murder.” He turned around and offered up the mace which he had encased in a wooden carrying case. “Your mace.”
Kali took the mace from him and said, “You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried. I am not Razian. My father was. You’re not perfect, you’re strange. My mother’s colleague may be the head of this gendercide.”
“Are you a ‘United’ then?”
“You’re not a purist, are you?” Kali asked.
“Oh, um, no. I don’t think that’s a thing.”
“I can assure you it is very much a thing. People get all ‘I’m better than you half-breed’ when they find out that you’re not pure Razian or Ascendant.”
“I think what your people did was the right thing. I mean ultimately we’re all the same.”
“A Seraphim is not the same as a Cherubim,” Kali said.
“That’s true, but I wasn’t talking about class, I was talking about nationality. Most people forget that the Ascendant established the Razers for their own purpose. When their mission came to an end, could you blame them for wanting independence?”
“No, but what sense does it make to go and kill somebody just because you think they may do something they haven’t done yet?”
“That makes no sense.”
“That’s exactly what happened to my father. The gendercide saw him as a threat. They’d been after him for years. So many people died protecting him that he just surrendered to them. He gave his life to keep those sent to defend him alive.”
“Kind of noble, if you ask me. He must have been a great man.”
“He was the greatest Razian to walk this planet.”
“I am sure every daughter thinks the same of their father.”
“Do you know who I am?” Kali asked.
“I am sorry, but no.”
“Perhaps you haven’t heard of my father as the greatest Razian, but he did concede the Triumvirate to Attor. My mother, however, took her seat. You may know her as Triumvir Genevieve.”
His eyes went wide, and his jaw fell open. He stared at her and then said, “You’re the daughter of Egil?”
“I just said that, try to keep up.”
“I mean he was just here. Maybe a month ago. I couldn’t believe that he’d come himself. He had quite the entourage, I figured he could have had somebody place the order for him.”
“He wasn’t like that. He believed in doing things himself. He always told me, ‘Only a weak leader orders someone to do what they can do themselves.’ So, what did he order?”
“Um,” he said heading back around his counter, “hang on, let me get it.” He bent down out of view and then stood up with a long metal case in his hands.
He sat it on the counter
. A simple slate gray case with a single handle and two clasps. With a click, he opened the clasps and rotated the case on the counter to face Kali, “Please, open it,” he said.
Kali walked up to the counter and sat the case in her hand down on the floor. She placed both hands on the case and ran her fingers along the cool surface. She gripped the top of the case and opened it. Inside she found a meter-long sword.
An obsidian handle molded to her father’s grip. She traced her fingers around the handle feeling the grooves where his hand would have held this sword. She picked it up out of the case, her much smaller hands didn’t fit well around the handle.
She looked down the blade of the sword, the two cutting edges rounded off at the tip to create a single long cutting edge. “How much?” Kali said.
“He paid in advance. It is yours.”
She eyed the blade once more before picking up the sheath out of the case. She sheathed the sword and slung it across her back. “Thanks, I really appreciate this. You have no idea.”
“Would you mind if I at least escorted you home, it is dangerous times we live in.”
Kali started to call him by his name, but she couldn’t think of it. She said, “What’s your name?”
“I am Smythe.”
“Like Smith?”
“No like smy-th,” he said.
“Well, Smythe, I appreciate the offer, but I can handle myself. You could say I had a pretty good teacher. Not to mention if anybody tried anything I’d say that would be the perfect opportunity to try out my new stuff.”
“Fair enough. Perhaps I could escort you to dinner?”
“Not going to happen, Smythe. Have a good evening.” Kali said. She walked to the door and turned to back out of it and said, “Thanks for the mace. I am going to call it ‘Kindness’ so when I get a chance to kill the woman who cost me my father that will be the kindest thing I can do. Otherwise, she will suffer a lifetime of agony.”
“Remind me to never get on your bad side, daughter of Egil.” Smythe said.
Chapter Four
After leaving Smythe’s shop, Kali wandered the city for hours. The sun had set hours ago, and the thick crowds dwindled to the occasional passerby. The air had become crisp, and a chill shivered down her back. ‘I’m not going back to her,’ Kali thought to herself.