Page 10 of Ruarc
Ruby stands in front of me with her hands on her hips, a frown upon her face. “I mean, how did the fairies get everyone to jump on board the crazy train? I understand the grass is rumored to be greener on the other side, but that’s seldom the truth. Your parents weren’t dumbasses, so what was the hook that made them all bite?”
I look over at Slavic in confusion, “Did you understand any of that?”
“I normally just agree with her. So far, it has worked out, but no, that was all confusing noise. Eat while it is still hot, Kallen. You two can continue your conversation closer to the warmth of the fire. I can already feel the temperature dropping. I have gatheredenough wood to keep us warm, but I am afraid I only have one covering with me.”
“It is fine, Slavic. Discomforts no longer bother me like they used to.”
Ruby plops down on the blanket Slavic lovingly spreads out for her next to me. “Ok, let me make this simple, why? What magic words did those fairies use to get all those people to follow them so blindly, clear to another world?”
Slavic holds a small bowl out for her before handing me a larger one. After taking a few bites, I realize he is not eating with us. “Slavic, here … I am sorry, please take your bowl back. I will eat when you are finished.”
Snarling, “You will do no such thing, Kallen. You will eat, then I will. My sire would haunt me from the stars if I took a bite before the females were fed. This is not up for discussion.”
Tears well up in my eyes, and I must force the rest of the food down. Ruby places a small hand on my leg and squeezes gently, instinctively understanding what is going through my mind. A male who is not even my mate gave up his food and his only plate to make sure I was taken care of, while the one who should have been doing this ran off because he cannot handle being around me.
“Ruby, my beautiful Starshine, while you and Kallen finish your meals, I will try to answer your question from my family’s point of view. My sire and mam had been struggling under the harsh rule of King Durotan. The farmland my sire had acquired was infertile and they were in the process of losing everything. He was desperately trying to figure out how to keep a roof overour heads, as he did not just have mam. He had me, and unknowingly, Ruarc was on the way.
We were at the market, trying to sell the few things sire had been able to harvest, when the Aynar showed up for the first time. I can remember my sire’s large hand on my shoulder when they approached our cart, eyeing me and all the other younglings. I do not remember their words because I was more concerned with what some of my friends were doing in the alleyway, but I do recall sire packing the cart up and being aggravated because I had not had any time to play with the others.
The next rotation, mam and I were hanging garments out to dry when they came looking for sire once again. This happened several times before my lifegivers sat me down to tell me that we were moving. I can recall being devastated because I was leaving most of my friends behind. The next thing I know, we are loading our possessions onto a large cargo ship with several other families and headed to Viri 9.”
“Did they show their true colors right away?”
“Are you asking me if they revealed their real intentions? No, it took them a while.
In the beginning, we were happy. Sire was able to give mam many comforts she had never known before, and our bellies were full. We were given one of the biggest dwellings upon arrival, and I can remember being excited at having the loft all to myself. One thing you probably do not realize, Ruby my love, is that Ruk younglings do not stay small for long, and within several lunar rotations, I was large enough to start helping with more than just the basics needing to be done each rising.
Due to my size and height, I was assigned to the barracks to begin my warrior training alongside some other males of my age. The Aynar were adamant that we all needed a skill and a way to contribute to the society they were building. I quickly moved to the top of my class, but when I refused to take a kill strike on a younger male, I was transferred to the mines with my sire.
That is when I learned the truth of what was really going on around us, but we had no way of returning to Uzrul or even the credits to rebuild if we did find a way to leave Viri 9. I worked hard in the beginning because I was convinced that if I could make enough credits, we would find a way off Viri 9, but that never happened. Every time my credits would build, the Aynar would initiate a new tax, or something would take all the extra we had. The one time I slacked off, rebelling against their insane rules, they threatened mam, Ruarc, and then Einar, who had just been born. For rotations, I ate, slept, and worked in the mines. It had been over a lunar rotation since I had seen the sun, on the rising we escaped their grasp.”
“Slavic, your story makes more sense, but Kallen, your family was royalty. How did they get by with all this? After your parents were gone, what happened to you?”
“Even though the Aynar built a huge dwelling for my sire and our family as promised, it felt more like a prison than a palace. We were only allowed on the upper floors. The lower ones housed their medical areas, which were terrifying. I saw things there later that I will never be able to forget. I was trapped there the same as all the others, a prisoner but in a totally different way. In my ignorance, I also believed that if I followed their orders and did what I was told, I could find a way off Viri 9. But the longer I stayed in their control, the more they watched my every move. People were eager to please me, and I believe that the Aynarstarted seeing my sway as a threat, so they took that influence and decided to use it to their advantage.
Mam had not been gone from this realm for a single rotation when I found myself uprooted from the only home I had ever known and placed into the care of a single Aynar named Elwas Oakwood. This is the same male who was fascinated with your mam, Slavic. He oversaw the breeding program, and I was assigned to help him with the younglings. I initially had no idea that they were tampering with the young ones. They were good at keeping their experiments secret, but one rising I accidentally walked in on a procedure.
I woke up shortly afterward on a table myself, facing two options. I could become a breeder for the Aynar, since that was what they were truly trying to accomplish. Their main goal was to successfully mix the races. They believed the younglings would inherit the magic of their ancestors and the strength of the Ruk, making them unstoppable in battle.
The title of princess became a curse after that because the Aynar knew they could use that alone to get me next to some of the most powerful rulers in the universe. I can remember a shiver running down my spine when they mentioned Commander DaR as my primary target. No matter what I told them, they believed my title alone would get me on Darverius. But we all know that is not the case, especially when a foreign princess shows up from a sector that should not even exist. Several times, I wondered if they sent me through the veil if I could find a way to sway the Commander into helping our people, but I never got the opportunity to seek help elsewhere.”
Slavic settles down next to me, pulling Ruby onto his lap. Ruby has not taken her eyes off me, and I know she realizes I am hiding the rest.
“Kallen, what was your second choice?”
“To be exactly what Ruarc accused me of being, a spy. I was trained to infiltrate other holdings, like the Banhan, Korgons, and Jaga, to name a few. They were hoping that with enough training, I could find a way to make myself invaluable and trustworthy to the different races behind the veil, and then I could provide the Aynar with that information so that they were aware of all the weaknesses of the races surrounding us.
I was taught to walk and talk in a certain way, to flirt, to infiltrate, steal, break into safes, and even bypass codes on personal holo comms. I was schooled constantly, but they enjoyed beating me when I failed to answer their many questions about different races or their deities. To survive, I did what I had to do, seeing no other way off Viri 9.
The only reason I was able to understand you, Ruby, was because of the upgraded translator that was installed in my brain without my approval. Randomly, I would wake up on the exam table with a new enhancement. I have no idea what else they did to me while they were in there, because soon after that surgery, I began to sporadically black out, and when I woke up, I had lost a lot of time.
As you know, the Aynar appear thin, delicate, and beautiful. However, all of that is just a glamor. When removed, they are bulky and ugly, resembling a bug more than a sentient creature. I did not realize that until my last blackout when I woke up screaming, surrounded by monsters with familiar voices. They implanted a cybernetic scanner behind my eyes that could be used as an X-ray or to see through any glamor. That was only one of many times I awoke in medical with a new incision or stitches where they were taking pieces out of me to experiment on.
When their experiments started failing on the unborn younglings, they would throw the ones of us not mated in with males. They would gas the room with various chemicals, attempting to induce mating bonds, as they needed more females to become pregnant in order to build their armies. I did not know it until later, but they even stole my reproductive eggs for their experiments. For all I know, one of the younglings born could have been partially mine.
If I refused to comply, they just found a way to force me. That’s how I ended up in the same room as your mam, Slavic. Elwas was fascinated by her for some reason, and he did everything he could to keep her close, especially when he delivered Bikar himself. The fact that she bore six strong boys made her indispensable in his eyes. He was the one who did his best to separate your parents. Elwas was convinced that if she were strong enough to carry all of you to term, then she would be the first to have his spawn.”
“WHAT!” Slavic’s voice is so loud that it echoes off the ceiling in the cave.
