Page 76 of Broken Triad

“Stop moving your ship or we blow the payload now,” I snarl. The flagship slows.

The holographic image appears in front of me.

Crown prince Bruton. Queen Jasmine’s second born. Black hair to his shoulders, gleaming blue eyes like a glacier at night, so dark they are almost black. He is clad in the blue-black Orb-Armor of an Elite. The armor goes up to his neck, framing his hard jaw. He was born of the Bond, and his eyes are filled with color. He looks me up and down, and though he tries to keep his face blank, his eyes tighten ever so slightly in stress as he sees the green in my eyes and the poison in my veins. Behind him are the two of his triad, silent soldiers keeping a close eye on us.

He knows of the mercurial tempers of the Scorp-Blooded.

He knows that any second could be his last. With an imperious wave, he clears the bridge. I hear technicians and pilots rushing out, leaving his triad alone to negotiate.

“Krazak. It’s you, is it not? I recognize you, even with poison in your veins. You were always an honorable warrior. I’ve got tens of thousands of souls on my ship. Don’t damn them all to death. That is not how an Aurelian fights.” He speaks slowly at first, then the words quicken as he sees I am listening. Each word is another second alive.

I say nothing, and his eyes glance to Khra and Bolden behind me, then back to me.

“Let us settle this the old way, Krazak. Triad against triad. Kill me, and my second-in-command turns this ship back. I’ve never killed a Scorp-Blood before. Bolden, what do you say? You have a reputation as a warrior. The universe will know you are a coward if you choose this shameful death!” He addresses the second of my triad, trying to find an angle, and his aura burns up against the challenge. His hand is on his Orb-Blade, wanting to fight him in close combat.

“Hold,”I telepath the command, and Khra’s and Bolden’s auras tense, taut as wire, pure focus. Cold and unspeaking, they wait for me to decide. Bolden is panting, the venomous rage boiling up in him. He wants to go against the prince, blade against blade.

“Lies. I know what you’re here for, Bruton. A little whelp doing his mother’s bidding. You speak of thousands of souls when you are here to murder billions."

Bruton’s lips curl back. “A coward’s death then, Krazak. That is your end. To kill yourself through suicide. I’ve killed hundreds of your kind and flayed their flesh. Traitors, all of you. But there are not billions of you to kill.”

“A coward’s death! You are the coward! Your mother has sent you to destroy all life on Elsinor, to turn the planet to dust and make an example of them.”

His brows furrow in faked confusion. “You are a fool, Krazak. Khra, that’s your name, right? Are you the brains of this fool operation? Were you fooled by the Priests just as your false God was? We are not like you. We have more troops. More ships. We come to retake Elsinor from your little surprise attack.”

He shifts his focus to Khra, trying to appeal to reason, and I feel Khra’s cold focus splinter.

“You are a fool, Krazak. You cannot decipher the lies of your Priests. They know that they cannot hold Elsinor. The only way they can stop the counterattack is by convincing a triad with nothing to lose to volunteer for a suicide mission. You lost your Mate. Don’t let that blind you to reality.”

“And you are a whelp who was sucking at a human’s tit while I was at war. You’ve got her cunning, Bruton. And you’ve got her heartlessness. I will not fall for your ruse.”

He dares to grin at me. He grows in confidence with every second he is alive. “You don’t believe it. Not deep down. Or you would have already blown yourselves up and taken me with you. My flagships are but one spearhead of our attack. We will suffocate Elsinor of reinforcements and retake this planet. Then we will destroy Obsidian himself. Don’t you understand, Krazak? Obsidian is no God. He is a pawn, just as yourselves. They’ve filled your head with lies. But this is truth,” he says, and draws his blade, activating it. “This is truth, as old as our species. Triad against triad, and let us spare the lives of all others. Only three of us must die for Elsinor.”

The green rage poisons my sight. The Reaver is tinted green, as if covered in acid, everything washed like I’m seeing through a filter. My head throbs in pain, but Khra’s cold logic is washing over me, his mind moving quickly.

“They have the ships to retake Elsinor without destroying it.”He’s regained his cold logic, a diamond forged under the pressure of the moment, overcoming the Scorp-Blood that tells him to cast the three of us into oblivion.

“Orbs won’t shift without triads guiding them, Krazak. That’s why they needed the three of you to die a coward’s death. But that is not your end. Cut me down, and the planet is yours. We will not retake it. Not until Obsidian himself is dead. Pilot into our hangar bay, and you have my word that we will duel, my triad against yours, just as our species has always done.”

Khra stands heavily, holding onto the back of the chair. “You say Obsidian is a false God. Explain.”

Bolden’s lips curl back in contempt. “He was a child of rape, Khra. You haven’t read the ancient histories. But I have. I know of our species. Of our origins. The Priests used to be in control. They used to inject Scorp-Venom into hundreds of Aurelians. Most died. Those that survived, they bred with humans to create seers, men who lived in agony and who could guide them through the Rift. They created the prophecies over thousands of years, in case they ever lost power, to give themselves a way back. Obsidian is no God. He is not special.”

“Lies!” I bellow out the word, my finger over the button that will shut him up forever. “I’ve felt the thing in the Rift. The prophecies are not lies. We must forge the species into something greater. Something harder. You speak of a coward’s death. There is no honor, Bruton. There is only strength.”

I center myself. I breathe out, letting all of my anger and hate leave me, until I am nothing more than a tool. Bruton’s eyes widen, then he sheathes his blade, and stands. He has seen the face of a man ready to die a hundred times before, and he knows.

“Very well then,” he says. He closes his eyes, finding peace, then they open. “Four of you?” he asks, his voice confused, but I sense the truth in it.

My hand pauses over the button.

“Your triad is four. Let me understand that, before I die, Krazak. Give me that, at least.”

“What do you speak of? Is this one last ruse?”

He shakes his head. “Our scanners are showing four sets of your triad’s DNA signatures. In the long-distance sleeping bay.”

“Khra. Take control. One false move, and end this all.” I stand, hand over the denotation button, and Khra puts his own hand over it, letting me leave.

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