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Kale
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Chapter Sixty-Five: Etaka
Planet: Etheria
Location: Planet's surface, inside a cave
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Present Time
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Kotina paces the edge of the cave now, staring out into the darkness, still not having fully answered my question about the boundaries. There is concern on her face, as though she can see or hear something that I cannot. After a few more moments she comes back towards me, but she does not sit down, her eyes remain outside as she leans against the cave’s wall across from me. After a long drawn-out sigh, she finally begins to speak.
“Well, it sounds like you know about the Realm of Souls, finding it in my opinion should be considered the first boundary, given that most people never will.” Kotina begins, then lets out a smaller sigh “However, I have heard of people breaking the boundary without finding it, it’s very rare mind you, but it can happen. Which they say is why it’s not considered a boundary.”
I almost ask her more, but the way that she pauses tells me she wants me to waste a question on it, so I say nothing.
“Some will tell you the first boundary is the hardest to break, but they’ve probably never felt the seventh.” Kotina says with a grunt, again she pauses, but I do not bite “Each boundary corresponds with changes that happen inside you and your Soul Realm.”
What kind of changes? Seventh boundary? How many are there? Is that the secret to her strength, is she at or above the seventh? Sekat. So many questions fill my mind. Yet I hold my tongue, the questions I can ask are a precious commodity.
“The boundary names are different wherever you go in the Galaxy. Though most just call it by what it is.” Kotina begins, sitting back down against the cave wall, though her eyes still peer into the darkness “The first boundary as my old master used to call it is Etaka.”
My eyes look up from tinkering with my broken mechanical arm.
“Etaka?” I ask, almost confused, because I know the word, it means Heart in the old tongue.
“That a question?” She asks while giving me a smirk, though her face does not turn, there is something giving her pause outside the cave. The feral growls outside have become less fervent.
“No, it’s not a question.”
Though I cannot help but be curious, why did her old master teach it to her in the old tongue? Were they Kuwathi? Why is it called that? Is that why the energy first came from my chest in the Colosseum? So much I don’t know. Sekat, it is frustrating, each sentence she speaks breeds new questions.
She looks at me for a moment, her eyes squinting slightly with an eyebrow raised.
“You look like you really want to ask me something.” She tilts her head “You want to know if maybe I’m Kuwathi?”
“I have seen many strange things recently, but I doubt that will be among them.”
She scoffs at this, turning back towards the mouth of the cave “Maybe I’m hiding my glowing eyes with lenses.”
“My old mentor, he used to say that glowing eyes did not make one Kuwathi. He said it is in your mannerisms and your beliefs, but most importantly it is in the will your spirit carries.” I say, recalling the words of the Sage Artemius. Their meaning somehow strikes me more now, after everything I have seen.
She starts laughing, though I don’t feel it is at me.
“My old master used to say something similar.” She says, changing her expression and tone as though imitating someone else “Kotina, the way of the Kuwathi is a path that all can walk.”
She does not appear to have adopted all of his words, though her sense of honor and her warrior’s heart I have seen with my own eyes. Perhaps Kotina is a little Kuwathi, in her own way, by Sage Artemius’s words at least. She is in my mind becoming more of an exception to my hatred for her people. Her actions in the little time I have known her have shown me that she is more than a boot.
I think of the old healer woman who told me of her late Kuwathi husband and child, before Lunara and I crashed onto the ice planet. The way she had spoken the words of the Kuwathi, I felt the spirit of my people in her. All of this makes me wonder if there are others that don’t deserve my hatred. My jaw flexes at the idea, but my heart… whispers things that I do not wish to hear. I press the thoughts from my mind. I must focus her on my question again. If it can help me to understand what is happening, perhaps I can use it to help those I care for.
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“You still have not finished answering.”
Kotina groans and turns a side-eye at me before looking back to the cave’s entrance, peering once more into the abyss of night’s embrace.
“The second boundary is called Hada. That’s the one you just broke.” She says after another irritated groan.
Blood… is that why there was heat in my veins? Is that how she knew? Or is she able to sense it some other way? My jaw flexes, it is not worth wasting a question.
“The next is Haken, then Pukat and Tak followed by Nas.” She says.
They all correspond to parts of the body, but why? Does each boundary improve them? What is the meaning beneath the words? I look at her intently, noticing that she stopped at the sixth boundary.
“You mentioned a seventh,” I say.
“There are Nine Mortal Boundaries.” She says, musing about what to say next “However, I am not permitted to speak past the sixth.”
Mortal Boundaries? Why can’t she speak about it? The frustration rises, gripping my lips before I can stop it.
“Why?” I ask, my jaw flexing “Don’t answer that, I have better questions.”
“Lil’ late for take backs runt—but I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you that as a bonus if you finish your story with the maggot Adonius before the rest of your questions. Deal?”
I nod, but say "Once you finish with my first question." it will give me more time to think about which questions are most important and which will give me the most information.
“Listen up, runt. Reason I can't say is because anyone who reaches the sixth boundary must already have a master who is a high-ranking member of the Theocratic Imperium, or they must be pledged to a Noble House in good standing. Only then are you permitted to study the seventh.” Kotina says, her eyes on me as she explains “There is one exception. If someone manages to become an Edict holder and has not already declared their loyalty, they will be given a temporary stay of execution.”
Theocratic Imperium, I have heard Lunara and Kotina speak of it before, but they did not go into much detail about it. Are they the ones who will not permit her to speak of the upper boundaries? Who are they, and why did Kotina seem to fear them when she spoke about them in the cave of ice?
“After claiming an Edict, they will have three years to declare who they belong to. During that time they must serve at the pleasure of the Theocratic Imperium though, or else…” she motions her finger across her throat “I am not permitted to speak further because you are not part of a Noble House, and I assume you have no Master, otherwise they would be the one having to talk about this boring slag.”
Why does it matter if you claim an Edict though? Sekat, I will have to pry it from her or someone else eventually. Kotina lets out a loud sigh again, cracking her neck and turning back to the cave’s mouth. Why is it forbidden to speak of? There is so much I do not understand. Yet I feel she does not want to speak on it further.
“You did not say what the boundaries do,” I say after a few more moments of silence.
“No offense but I don’t really see the point, that cursed thing you made a pact with will get you no doubt, honestly I’m surprised it hasn’t already, perhaps it’s this world keeping it at bay.” She says scratching her chin “Besides, the finer details are better spoken by a Master, not really my strong suit. I’m more of a smash this—then hit it again kind of teacher.”
My eyes are drawn down to my chest, she is right, it is strange that the dark lines that once traced my body have receded. Maybe it’s the Etherium Prism Flowers or something else, Lunara said it may help. Sekat. I want to ask her more about the Cursed Edict that is in my body, but I don’t want to draw her attention to it. There is no telling what she will do if she finds out.
“You need someone like my old Master.” She says nostalgically “He didn’t have much talent for bound breaking himself, but slagging hells he can teach you how to imagine it. Has a way with words that old fart, when he’s not too busy blowing smoke rings and talking in riddles.”
She lets out a hearty laugh, hearing about it somehow brings a little smile to my face, reminding me of fonder memories.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile.” Kotina says, folding her arms with a chuckle “Was starting to think your face could only make a brooding expression.”
“My old mentor used to do the same, always speaking in riddles and smoking on a pipe for hours. Arrum and I used to joke that…” I pause, the smile falling away, my stomach twisting into knots, wondering if Arrum is alive, wondering if any of the others managed to survive. Did they escape on the shuttles like Akaria planned? Sekat. The worry rises in me, a pain in my heart.
She does not speak for a time and neither do I. Eventually, she breaks the silence though, I am glad for it, I need the distraction.
“The last thing I’ll say for now on boundaries, is that by the fourth, organs start processing things much faster, and metabolism increases exponentially, especially in the fourth through sixth. Which is great, but also not so great, because it becomes increasingly difficult to get sufficiently drunk.”
She has an annoyed expression on her face as she says it. She is about to speak again, but she makes a strange expression like she’s just realized something.
“Wait—didn’t you say you broke a boundary before you fought Adonius?” she asks.
My heart thumps an extra beat as I think back to what Valka said about breaking two boundaries in less than a year. That I’d broken Amon’s record, though I don’t have enough context to know if that is rare. Sekat, there is so much I don’t know.
“That can’t be right.” She says, turning from the mouth of the cave to look at me again “You’re saying you double bounded in less than a year? Slagging hells—no, you’re saying it was in less than a week. We can’t have been here very long, if we were, I would have been much hungrier than I was when I woke up.”
She looks at me sideways now, coming closer.
“What aren’t you telling me runt?” she says, looming over me now, her eyes searching past the flesh “Your heart is beating much faster than it was before, I can hear it.”
She can hear my heart? My breath slows, trying to control the rhythm. How can she hear such a thing, is this another thing related to the boundaries?
“You never did say what happened to that cursed Edict.” She says, crouching down at eye level, less than a meter from my face.
I am wary of lying to her, I don’t know if she can detect lies like Akaria. Sekat.
“I don’t know what happened with it,” I say, which is not a lie, I don’t know what actually happened with it. All I remember is it crawling into my flesh and sealing the wound, the rest is blank, my next memory was waking up in the first cave with the spider beast.
“Well, go ahead and finish your story with the maggot Adonius.” She says, then leaning in closer, her eyes more serious than they had been before “Don’t leave anything out.”