Chapter One-Hundred-Fifty-Two: Talon-Ben Nul Huduk - Part Three

  Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

  Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

  Solar System: D-447

  ***

  A week before the Second Official Challenge of the Grant Hunt

  ***

  Tracing Solara with my gaze, I think on her statement, asking for something first, my words come sharply with a tone of displeasure, “Our agreement was if I won, that you would answer all of my questions. Now you are asking for something in return?”

  She looks down with a frown, “You are right. It is unfair for me to ask.” Her gaze finds mine, “You can say no, I will not press for it, but… but it will make me feel better about sharing so many things. In the Empire, secrets can make or break alliances, and cost the lives of trillions. So, I ask that you keep that in mind before you say no.”

  Luna had worried over such things before, it is why she did not always tell me what she wished to. Because she was worried about those of her house. They are similar in this way, yet I sense there is more to her request. I already can assume what she wants, now that she knows I can shape runes.

  “You want to do that binding ritual you spoke of before?”

  She nods, swallowing, “I do.”

  “My word is not enough for you?”

  “I have lived a lifetime surrounded by liars and people that wish to exploit me.”

  “And you think I have not?”

  She swallows again, her brow furrowing, “In exchange, perhaps I can tell you some things you should be asking. Questions you might not know you should ask.”

  I squint at her, “Or you could just act like a friend and tell me.”

  “We aren’t friends by your standards, remember? What are you afraid that I’ll see? That you despise me?”

  “I do not despise you.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  Sighing, I nod to her, “Fine, we can do your binding ritual.”

  Hope flickers across her eyes, she straightens, undoing her shirt around her chest, above her heart, tracing the lines she did before.

  “Your turn,” she grabs my hand and begins to trace the lines with my finger, her brow furrows again, “You shouldn’t write them on your skin.”

  “Why?” I ask, wiping them away.

  “This… this ritual is not meant to be inscribed on the soul directly, it would not be good if it was.”

  “Why?”

  “It would make us bound together by our souls, and your soul, well, it would likely devour mine, like with Fennec’s runes.”

  “What kind of ritual is this?”

  “It’s um, well,” she pauses, her face somewhat flushed, “Normally used to bind lovers, to bring them closer.”

  I pull my hand from hers, “I have told you already…”

  “I don’t want that, I’d never want that, not against your will at least. There are enough people that have or will wish to exploit you, I don’t want to be another name on that list.” Her eyes dare to lock with mine, “If we were lovers, I would only want it if you chose me.”

  There is wanting in her, a wanting that I can never reciprocate. It is not that my people do not take second lovers, or even third, but it is not my way. Nor Arrum’s, nor anyone that I respect. Love is intimate, and should only be shared with one other. Lest it lose meaning. Such is what my mother taught me, such is what I believe.

  “Solara, do not speak of such things, I do not wish to keep upsetting you.”

  Her gaze lowers and she nods. I trace the runes just like hers above my skin, hanging in the air, humming with intent. When I finish, a strange feeling pulls over me. It is familiar though, just like before, I sense the connection between us, but it’s going both ways now. After a few moments, I look up at Solara, she’s… crying.

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  “What is wrong?”

  She looks at me slowly, “There is so much pain in you, so much weight, it’s suffocating, why do you carry this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I tried to search deeper and all I found was an insurmountable wall of sheer pain.”

  Search deeper, she knows more about this ritual than me, is there a way to look deeper? I grow hesitant to keep the connection. She looks at me, I feel regret from her, and worry that I will sever it.

  I do not like the feeling of this connection running both ways, it makes me feel vulnerable, laid bare.

  “I’m sorry, I won’t push deeper.”

  I nod, still wary, and I know she feels that as well.

  “I do not wish to continue this, ask what you wanted to ask and let it be done.”

  She grimaces, but nods, wiping the tears, “Will you betray me?”

  “Not unless you give me reason to.”

  She can feel the truth of my words.

  “Are you hiding anything from me?”

  “No.”

  She nods.

  “One last question… would you,” she pauses, I feel a cascade of self doubt fluttering inside her. But the need to know rises to the top of the struggle, “If you had met me before Luna, do you think you could have fallen for me instead?”

  I blink at the question. My eyes lower, giving it thought, there is uncertainty in me. Her eyes widen at it, like she sees a glimmer of hope. My hand swipes away the runes before I answer.

  “No.”

  She doesn’t blink, she just stares.

  “Such questions are pointless, I have met Luna, I am with her.”

  She does not flinch, her eyes have seen hope, it was foolish of me to agree to do the ritual with her. Sekat.

  “What is the third aspiration?”

  She looks away for a moment, then straightens, looking me in the eyes, “To become the vessel of Zarae’s resurrection.”

  “What? Wait…”

  My mind races, thinking on what she said…

  “My whole life I was raised under the notion that I would become her vessel. That I was chosen above all others to fulfill the prophecy of her rebirth into the mortal realm.”

  She looks down at her hands.

  “But I am not, yet another aspiration I will fail to complete,” she leans her head against the wall, bitterness in her eyes.

  “Then Luna…”

  “If you saw Zarae, and you are the one destined to free her, then yes, you alone will know her face before she is resurrected. So it is written, so it shall be.”

  “What is written? Does Luna know this?”

  “I doubt it, Leora keeps her on a short leash, she doesn’t even know that my father… well it doesn’t matter. The point is, I am just… Solara, fated to be second choice, forsaken even.”

  There is sadness in her face, mixed with the bitterness now.

  “That’s the reason I was… am infatuated with you, there is no prophecy about the one who frees Zarae becoming her lover, but as a girl, I always thought it would be romantic. So when Leora showed me you, well… I just, became that little girl again. It’s stupid I know, but I can’t help it. And… and I can’t help that it hurts that I am not destined to be her vessel. I don’t hate Luna, I like her, more than I thought I would, but… I just… I hate that I feel like this. She is so sweet, so innocent, so real and always sees the best in people, whereas I just… I see the worst, I feel jealous of her, and it makes me sick, like I’m such a piece of shit I can’t be happy for her.”

  There is so much tension in her as she picks at her nails.

  “That is why you were upset for so long?” I ask, recalling her mood change after I said Zarae looked like Luna.

  She nods, “It’s stupid I know. Saying it out loud, I feel like an idiot. I’m supposed to be aspiring to be the leader of one of the greatest noble houses in the galaxy and yet here I am. A jealous, lovesick little girl, fawning over a man that is already taken by a woman I actually respect. What a mess.”

  “This prophecy…”

  She looks at me, “Kalon, would it kill you to let me mope before you ask about Luna?”

  “I’m sorry, but I need to know.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know all of it, but basically, the fates trapped Zarae during the time when old gods reigned over the galaxy. They were jealous of her power, with their combined strength and stealing some from the Well of Souls they were able to imprison her in the Cursed Edict, the one my master calls Dashkatul, Fate’s prison.”

  Well of Souls, the place that souls go after they die. I didn’t know there was power there to be harnessed though.

  “Does Dargo know about this?”

  “He knows about the prophecy, but he doesn’t know about my…” her face sours, “About Luna’s part in it.”

  “You said he serves Leora too though?”

  “Yes, but before he became my master, she was my Goddess. I vowed to never tell him… it made me feel important, like I was worthy of keeping one of her secrets.”

  I stare at her, trying to understand everything she is saying.

  “They have a way of making you feel important, the gods, a way of making you feel you’re the most special thing in their eyes. A feeling they take from you if you don’t do exactly what they want. Then they show you the cold reality.”

  “Why do you really want to be free of her?”

  “It is because of my master, in part at least, he told me that she has had him deliver thousands of souls to Dashkatul, that someday she would likely want me to join those who have come before. I did not believe him at first, but after I saw her align ways to get the Cursed Edict in your path, by subjecting you to things that… things that you did not deserve. I began to see that she was not a kind goddess of hope. She is… evil.”

  “I would not argue your assessment of her.” Memories of what she has placed before me fill my mind, the hate I have for her… it is wrathful. Not just for the pain she caused me, but for those around me. Thinking more on Zarae, “So, Luna is meant to be the vessel?”

  She nods, “If the prophecy is correct.”

  “What does that mean for Luna?”

  “It won’t be like that, Zarae is a good Goddess, and the host must agree to allow her in.”

  “That is why she always shows up to protect Luna, and why she came in my time of need.”

  “Yeah, probably.”

  “How do we prevent it?”

  “Prevent it?” she scoffs, “Why the hells would you want to do that?”

  “I don’t like the idea of something possessing Luna.”

  “It’s not like that, at least my mother told me it wasn’t.”

  “After a lifetime with liars you seriously don’t suspect this would be a lie?”

  “Well I… I mean it could be, but still, becoming the vessel for the strongest Goddess in known history, there could be no greater honor.”

  “The strongest?” I mull everything over. So many truths have been told that my mind is reeling.

  “Look, I don’t know as much as I want to, but I know enough to know that the prison she’s held in trapped Krotha and countless others. Krotha in her time was also known as the strongest.”

  “Krotha,” I breathe, warily looking around me. The Etheric field seems to still be working. I didn’t even feel a tingle at the whisper of her name.

  “What was she like?” Solara asks, a tone of innocent curiosity.

  “Before or after she tortured me?”

  “Right, sorry.”

  I sit for a few moments, pondering what she has told me before I say, “I do not understand why these gods care so much for all these secret games.”

  “Power. Always power.”

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