Midlogue: Yelis

One thousand years ago

Yelis stood in line with the other soldiers. They’d placed her near the front so she’d be one of the first to die. Not because they knew who she really was, but simply because she’d gotten careless. She’d grown attached to her most recent persona, and when that persona learned too much and lived too long Maharba had to step in.

For almost three generations she’d been playing the role of Esile, a brilliant Drolian scientist. Before that, she’d been a Redaeli scientist. Before that, she’d been Egeilen. But always she pressured them toward recreating humanity. It was her entire purpose now.

She had no one left. When she took this form she’d done so to try and find any surviving humans and lead them to safety, but she never found any. She knew of a few hidden places beneath the ground that might still be safe, where they could run and hide while they figured something more permanent out, so she made a virus that would transmit from her to other diordna by touch. That virus would leave a message that would only appear to humans who resisted diordna.

She figured any human who killed a diordna would need the metal to make tools, so they’d come in contact with dismembered diordna parts. The virus inserted a program into the diordna cells that would write a message on the human’s arms. One that would tell them where the safe places to hide were.

She spread her virus in all three nations for a couple generations, but nothing ever came of it. She couldn’t actually check the underground vaults to see if anyone escaped into them as each of them were near large diordna population centers. So all she could do was hope.

But hope without its manifestation for too long will degrade.

She’d lived five lives: human, diordna in search of humanity, Egeilen, Redaeli, Drolite. Between each of the diordna lives she changed her name and spent a generation consuming the metals that would slowly change her skin to match her next life. But this would be her last life. She held on to it too long, and now she would pay the price.

“Ready!” Her commander called, and her grip tightened around her spear.

She hated using the primitive stone weapons, but anything more advanced needed metal parts, and that would never work in this society. Sure, a metal spear or sword or ax would cut better, but it would also be made from corpses. She’d been a diordna long enough that it made even her a little uncomfortable to consider, though not so uncomfortable that she wouldn’t trade her spear for something sharper.

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“CHARGE!” The commander yelled, and the entire army started running into the woods where their enemy hid.

The distance between the armies felt like an eternity, but when they finally clashed with the enemy she wished that the distance had been wider. She rammed her spear into a diordna then yanked it out as her enemy fell, spraying oil from the tip of the weapon as she did so. Other soldiers flinched as oil droplets sprayed through the air, landing on their faces. They spat and wiped the oil from their lips when it landed there, but Yelis didn’t feel anything when the droplets landed on her.

It wasn’t blood, after all.

She dodged around a tree to avoid an enemy attack, then leaped back out and stabbed them in the stomach. But as the dying diordna fell, Yelis’s weapon was caught in his crumpling form. She tried to yank it free, but another enemy rushed her with a club, forcing her to release the weapon and scramble backward. She tripped over a dying soldier, landing on her back in the dirt. The soldier with the club loomed over her, but he was no longer what concerned her.

The soldier she’d stumbled over had their hand covered in spark powder, and as she watched they snapped their fingers beside their open head wound, igniting the powder and then the oil oozing from the wound.

The soldier above her swung downward with their club even as the dying diordna exploded. Yelis was thrown through the air by the explosion only a short distance before her head slammed into a tree and she was knocked unconscious...

...Esile slowly regained consciousness.

No, that name wasn’t quite right, but it was close. She couldn’t remember where she was or what she’d been doing. The only thing she knew was that Esile was almost her name. She sat up and her head swam. Around her lay broken soldiers.

Was she one of them?

No. She could never be one of those monsters. They were the enemy. And yet… and yet she felt a need to be close to them, to touch them so she could give them… something.

She stumbled to her feet, looking around at the carnage. Trees smoldered, lighting the scene. She’d thought it was daytime, but no. The light all came from the fires. Aside from the breathing sound of flame the entire area was silent. This battle was over, and everyone involved was dead. The thought made Esile smile.

She liked that they were dead. She hoped she’d killed some of them herself.

Her eyes settled on a dead diordna, their body almost entirely intact, and she smiled again. It was a good find. She felt like in the past she used to make things from metal, though she couldn’t remember what or when. Maybe doing it again would help her remember what she’d forgotten?

Even though she’d forgotten almost everything when she looked at that body she knew she could make something nice out of that metal.

And she knew she’d enjoy it.