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Kalon
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Chapter Twenty-Five: Dregak
Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant
Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation
Solar System: D-447
Planet: Ora
Location: Beneath the planet's surface, Naro City, Lower City Markets
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My feet glide across the frosted walkways swiftly, I do not see Arrum or Korra yet. As I round the next corner, only twenty paces from where the dead man was left, I hear a loud sound, likely from an energy weapon. My blade finds my hand as I run faster, rounding the corner, I prepare myself for anything.
“See, I told you, just needed a bigger hole,” Korra says, slinging a plasma rifle on her shoulder, the barrel steams against the cold air.
Looking down, I see the man she slew earlier, a large molten hole in his throat from where she shot him, disguising the slash her blade had made.
“We need to find Kalon, he should have already…” Arrum begins, turning toward me, a smile finds his face as he rushes to me and embraces my arm “Kada.”
“What happened?” I ask, looking around now.
Before me are the corpses of the man Korra killed earlier and the guard captain. When? How?
Arrum points to the dead captain “He gave chase, thinking we knew the woman somehow and fell into Korra’s trap.”
My heart slows now as I see Arrum and Korra are fine. Relief washes over me. Arrum’s arm is bleeding from a cut, but it is not serious, he has already begun bandaging it. Tracing my eyes down, I see Korra is not limping anymore.
“Your injuries?” I ask, moving closer.
“She was faking.” Arrum says, looking me over, patting off the dust and frost “What happened to you Kada?”
“I nearly died.” I admit, looking at Korra now, I finish with “I was not able to keep the bag.”
She shrugs, moving the weapon from her shoulder and dropping it near the guard captain’s fresh corpse. She tilts her head sideways, fingers on her chin with an arm supporting her elbow. A thoughtful look on her face as she scoots the rifle with her boot a little closer to his hand.
“Perfect.” She says, nodding to herself.
She pulls something from the dead guard captain’s waist, a small sack that jingles with a metallic tune. She pours the sack out on the ground, scooping something into a smaller bag and tossing it to Arrum. He opens it, showing me the contents. It is the surface chits, the same ones that Nekam bribed the captain with.
“This was the plan?” I ask her, inspecting the surface chits, blood smeared across some of them. It is missing one hundred chits, counting again, I look up to Korra with a head tilt “Where are the rest? My chief bartered two hundred.”
“One hundred was the original offer,” she says, leaning against the wall of the walkway, small icicles cracking and falling as her back stretches into it.
“Yes, but we gave two hundred,” Arrum says crossing his arms as Korra tosses another pouch containing the rest up and down.
“Wait,” I say, the thoughts beginning to turn in my head as I piece it together. There is something more at play here. A wider design, Nekam’s plan.
“Oh,” Korra says, pushing off the wall and coming behind me now “Is he smart too?”
Her hand traces along my neck, I brush it away, still irritated with her. Thinking deeper on the number again, I realize something. Barnak had said before he died, the city chief must have known about the bribe and the plot to overthrow him. Meaning that he likely expected some of the surface chits back from the guard captain.
Then, if he still had two hundred, he must not have given them yet. Which means, the city chief will still be looking for his cut… my eyes turn to her now. It is likely the City Chief did not know he increased the amount, which is why we keep half, and also why the guard captain was in the market. He was there to sell the chits. Nekam knew all of this, but where does it lead, what is the purpose? Korra’s mouth opens in anticipation as my mind finally finds the answer.
“We are setting up your Clan to be attacked?” I ask, though I think I have guessed it correctly. Why else would we make it look like the guard captain killed the man she slew, leaving the body with her clan’s insignia embroidered on his sleeve.
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If this is true, then Nekam means for all of the Dorasi Clan to be destroyed by the City Chief… perhaps he even means to absorb the remnants, making us stronger. Securing his claim and protecting the Clan.
Taking a loss and turning it into a strength. Changing the dynamic in a series of blows that requires little from him. There is so much risk though, if we were to tell, or if Korra were to tell. All could be lost. It is no wonder he did not speak the plan. My teeth grind a little now though, he trusted Korra more than Arrum and I? Or did he not think anyone would believe her?
Korra claps her hands slowly pulling my mind back into focus.
“What do you mean?” Arrum asks.
“The chits, he came to the market to sell the extra before giving the rest to the city chief.” I begin to explain, Arrum’s face changes, he is starting to understand as well, so I let him piece together the rest.
“Then,” he begins trying to find the words as the thoughts rise, he points at Korra “she will plant the chits in her Clan, to be found by the City Chief?”
Korra gives Arrum a pat on the head which he swats away quickly.
“My, both of you are smarter than you look,” Korra says.
“How can you betray your Clan?” Arrum asks, looking at her distrustfully. More so than he did before.
Korra’s smile fades from her face, her eyes searing into Arrum, but he does not look away. He squares off with her now. Spinning blade in hand. He wants to test her mettle. After everything she has put us through, I do not blame him.
“Arrum.” I say with a sigh, shaking my head “Dregak.”
“You heard him, back down,” Korra says, pretending to yawn, but her hand hovers over her blade, ready to exchange blows with him.
“Korra, enough,” I say sternly without thinking.
She turns to me, her eyes looking me up and down for a moment before she lets out a long exaggerated sigh.
“Fine.” She says after rolling her eyes, backing down from Arrum.
She listened to me, I did not expect that, it leaves a silence over the group. Arrum shoots me a glance before putting his blade away. He does not like Korra, this much he has made clear.
“What is the last phase of the plan?” I ask her after a time.
She does not respond for a few moments, instead, she fiddles with something in a small bag in her palms.
“The plan has been completed.” She says plainly, without inflection, her attention drawn to whatever is in her small bag.
“Completed?” Arrum asks, unfolding his arms “How can this be?”
He gives me a look, I am also confused so I shrug.
“Phase one, we watched you kill those men. Helped you prepare them, presumably for phase three, Phase two we stole from the woman…” he begins, glancing at me “We did not complete it, yet. But if we go now, perhaps we can retrieve it.”
“Wait,” she begins, looking between us “You really thought that was part of the plan?”
“You told me that it was the most important part of the plan,” Arrum says, his eyebrow twitching.
She erupts in laughter. Anger slips into my veins, but not as fast as Arrum who lunges, I barely manage to grab him before he strikes her.
“Shuma Duka Vekka!” Arrum curses, spit flying from his mouth, he fights against me, but I have him held firmly.
She laughs again, going back to looking at what is in the bag in her grasp. Whatever it is, she seems entranced by it.
“We are so close Arrum. Do not make a mistake now, think of Isola.” I plead, trying to get him to see reason “If she does not complete her end of the plan, Nekam will blame us.”
Deep breaths slowly come to him, the anger falling back, until he nods to me. Letting him go slowly, he backs away from her, moving across from us. His jaw is flexed, he is still angry, but he will not attack her. Soon, we will not be Ulima, this is more important.
“If it was not part of Nekam’s plan, then why did we risk ourselves for a rock?” I ask with a sharp tone, my temper betraying me “We only needed to get the guard captain’s attention. All of that was unnecessary.”
She lets out a sigh, tilting her head down a little before slanting her eyes up at me. A stirring in my chest I did not permit rises. She sees my discomfort and she smiles. Sekat. I am losing this argument without words.
“Unnecessary? We did it because it was fun. Which is a requirement if you want to enjoy life.” She says.
For fun? Enjoying life? We are Ulima, it is not fun that keeps us alive, it is skill and diligence. I am about to speak as my tongue demands but she throws the small bag in her grasp to me.
“You keep it. It looks important.” She says, a strange smile crosses her lips for a moment, making me almost feel, uneasy.
Brushing the thought away, I open the strings of the small bag and peer inside. My eyes widen as my heart begins to beat faster. The bag falls from my grasp, the metallic object inside clanging to the ground. Arrum comes to my side, looking at me confused.
“What is wrong Kada?” he says gripping my shoulder.
“Where did you get this?” I demand from Korra, my breath unsteady as I back away from it.
“From the woman obviously, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Korra says with a wry smile, coming to my side and whispering in my ear she says a single word in the old tongue “Kota.”
Only now am I realizing that Korra must have exchanged this… thing for a rock in the woman’s bag. She used me to distract her, I almost died for this. My eyes blink fast as I look at it.
My mind recalls what the blue-haired woman said before… it is evil and cursed. I can feel it in the air. In the way it draws my gaze to it unnaturally. Like it calls me.
More words do not leave my lips as I stare at the object on the ground, transfixed by it. It is not the first time I have seen this thing before me. It is the black box I saw in my dreams while in the mines. It has come to haunt me in real life. Thoughts race in my mind. How could I have dreamed it? I have never seen it before. What is it? Why does Korra give it to me? There is more at play here than coincidence… but it can’t be more, I don’t believe in more.
My teeth grind, what is going on…
Shrill and high-pitched noise breaks the silence between us as the city sirens begin to wail. My eyes move to Arrum and then to Korra. The runner the guard captain sent must have reached the City Chief. We need to leave this place quickly.
“That’s our cue to leave.” She says, cracking her neck “Wouldn’t be caught near these bodies if I were you.”
With that, Korra slips down the next walkway, disappearing from view.
“Kada, we should go,” Arrum says grabbing my arm.
The box is still on the ground, I am half tempted to leave it. I should take it though, perhaps I can give it back to the woman who saved my life. If the guard finds it, I do not think it will be returned.
“Kada,” Arrum says pulling me.
Letting out a curse, I grab the bag with the strange black box and pull the strings closed.
“We move,” I say, the sound of metal boots running through the larger walkways fills the air.