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LUNARA

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Chapter Forty-Nine: Musings of Duty - Part Five

Galactic Location: Theocratic Imperium’s cluster

Ruling Government: Theocratic Imperium

Solar System: Adrius

Location: Adrius Prime

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Six months ago, two hours after the preliminary trials

***

We have walked in silence for nearly an hour through the winding halls of this building. There is a restlessness growing on my nerves. My father has said nothing else besides that I have been summoned. He does not even tell me why others knew of the preliminary trial and I did not. I do not show him, but it makes me angry. I wonder how many others were told what to expect, I wonder if they know what the rest of the trials will hold.

I hear whispers from other nobles as they look at my father. They give him a wide berth as we pass by. Why would Inquisitor Victoria summon me specifically? Was it because I did not comply and they had to stun me? No, that wouldn’t merit the Inquisitor herself chastising me. Would it?

We approach a special lift now, thick composite glass lines the outside of it, and there is a singular panel inside it. My father swipes his holopad, but it gives an error message. His eyes close for a second, tension flickering across his jaw.

“Whatever she asks you to do.” He says, not turning to face me “Remember your duty.”

He steps outside the lift, before I can speak the thick glass slides closed and the platform lurches upwards. It does not stop even after I crest the pyramid-shaped building the trials were held beneath. It rises high into the skies until it stops at a large glass building, suspended in the sky by long pillars of metal that web up from the surface and into space.

“Come in.” a voice I recognize says, its tone causes a shiver to run up my spine.

My feet move as the voice beckons, and as I enter the chamber, I see Inquisitor Victoria standing by the glass walls. Her hand traces through her black hair, only slightly darker than the hue of her skin, she turns to look at me for a moment, her piercing teal eyes stop me in my tracks. The golden paint she wears around them coming to a point at the edges of her eyes. Her lips painted gold to match. She wears large bangles made of gold over her wrists, with slender golden earrings bearing the Imperium’s sigil on them.

“Who was your blade instructor?” she asks, the golden clasps in her short hair jingle as she turns more toward me.

“Knight Commander Kotina of House Ravena, Inquisitor,” I reply.

“Yes, Kotina always was a prodigy with the blade.” Victoria says, turning to face the window, looking out at the world below “I noticed that you are not using your neural inhibitors.”

She turns an eye toward me, there is curiosity in it. My heart thuds in my chest, but I try not to show it.

“Do you think yourself above the Imperium’s directives?” she asks.

My eyes blink at her question, my heart pounding faster. Above them? No, but that does not mean I agree with them. My mother taught me that obedience to that which you do not believe in is the first death of hope and the second of freedom. My father’s words echo in my mind, remember your duty. A simple word, duty, yet the implications are vast and numerous, one can spend an entire season musing on one’s duty. How do we decide what is good, and what is bad? If our duty is to be evil and oppressive, must we still see it through?

“Girl.” Inquisitor Victoria says.

“Apologies, Inquisitor,” I say, giving her a bow “I was lost in thought for a moment.”

She eyes me closer, tilting her head to the side.

“I… do not think myself above the Imperium’s directives,” I say, giving her another small bow “Inquisitor.”

“Good.” She says, moving towards her desk and sitting down “No one is.”

My eyes dare not look up at hers for more than a moment. Inquisitors are the hands of the Imperium, the ones who adjudicate their divine justice. She may look like a normal woman, but there is no doubt in my mind that she could kill me without breaking a sweat. Only those in the upper bounds can even become an Inquisitor. She may even be stronger than my father. Certainly stronger than Kotina my primary instructor.

“Some of the other Inquisitors are worried that we would be promoting someone who has an aversion to killing. Such a thing must be culled from the herd. There are times when one must level a city in order to get a point across.”

“I am capable of doing my duty.” I protest, albeit quietly.

Inquisitor Victoria swipes her hand through a holo. It shows me fighting during the trials, my stomach clenches as I see the horror my hands inflicted on others.

“You didn’t kill a single person.” She says, tenting her hands in front of her, spinning in her chair slowly to face me fully “We might have understood if you avoided killing other Nobles, but you did not even kill those of undesirable bloodlines.”

Undesirable bloodlines… people like Kotina and Yekka. Not of the Alverian golden standard, an archaic rhetoric. There were few there not of the Alverian heritage, as it is even more difficult for them to be selected for Knight Commander. Even though their qualifications are often better, they still are treated as though inferior.

Thinking quickly, I say “I wanted to show…”

“I will warn you but once, girl, do not think me so daft that I cannot see a lie being formed.” She says, tilting her head backward so her eyes look down on me.

“Apologies, Inquisitor.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

She is more perceptive than I realized, it was foolish to try and make an excuse, inquisitors are the seekers of truth as well as the deliverers of its harshness.

She swipes her hand through the display again, a new recording playing on it, it looks to be of another preliminary trial. My eyes widen, I recognize the person it focuses on… my father. When he was my age, the wrinkles gone from his eyes, no shoots of grey in his hair.

“Now this… this is what we are looking for.” She says, a smile creeping across her lips as her legs shift, thighs rubbing together while she looks at the carnage.

At my father’s feet lie hundreds of dead, he was the sole survivor of his trial. Two hundred and ninety-nine. My stomach churns again. Did my father kill them all?

“They had to change the rules after he came through. They even gave him a nickname after that day.” She says, flicking the display away “Though, I’m sure you know it already.”

I have heard it before. The Ravenous Raven. Though none of our House says it openly, it is whispered still.

“Needless to say, given your lineage and the results of the preliminary trial, we consider your performance to be an abject failure. Thus, it falls to me to administer another test, or expel you.”

Expel me? Can she do this? Another test? Does she mean to shame me? Whatever the test is, I must be strong. My house depends on it. My father’s words echo in my mind. I cannot shame our house. I must do my duty.

“I give you a choice.” She says, moving her hand and bringing up a holo.

A hundred people, in restrictive bindings line a ship's hull.

“One hundred souls, their only crime that they defied the Imperium, or…” she begins swiping her other hand, another holo appearing “Kill one.”

My heart falls past my stomach as I see the one person. It is Yekka, the one who raised me with Kotina after my mother died.

“Choose quickly, or you fail.” She says, a smile warping her face.

This is a test, to see if I can administer my duties. The benefit of the many, over the benefit of the few… Or is it a trick, my mind scrapes at the little information that I have.

“I…”

“Go on, girl, hurry up now.” She says, her eyes growing darker as her legs shift again.

She won’t kill Yekka, this is a test, she isn’t in danger… my heart beats faster, looking at the grin on her face, she would kill her. I should answer it properly how I think she wants me to.

“The one should die, to save the many,” I say, sweat beading from my brow.

“Perhaps, perhaps not.” She says, sliding a device toward me. Two buttons upon it.

My hand quivers over them, each marked with the respective choice. One hundred or one. Remember your duty. My breath is ragged as I try to press the button labeled one, but cannot, my hand will not do it despite the duty on my shoulders. Memories of her braiding my hair as a child flit through my mind. Her warm hands holding me as I cried after my mother died.

“There is bark, yet no bite.” She sighs, flicking her wrist the holos disappearing “Disappointing.”

“Please, Inquisitor don’t…” I begin. Fear gripping me, thoughts of worry for Yekka pressing past my façade of placidness.

She stands from her chair. Soul pressure erupts around me, the mana in the air pressing me to the floor. It is her soul’s strength I feel. Like a mountain crushing me, making the gravity on Ravena Prime seem weak. Blood pounds into my eyes as I struggle to breathe. What boundary has she passed to have so much strength? My vision becomes blurred, spots forming in it.

“You are unfit to be heir apparent of even a merchant’s house.” She says, looking down at me “Let alone one of the strongest houses in the galaxy.”

My hands shake as I push against the strain of her soul… doubts fill me, as I know she is right.

“You have failed the follow up test, Lunara, heir apparent of House Ravena, you are found unworthy.” She says.

My chest burns, my thoughts race, I have failed. The pressure intensifies.

“Yekka, is she…”

“On the precipice of demise, asking after the fate of a lowly Kuwathi.” Victoria says, looking down at me again “You are your mother’s daughter, taking nothing from your father.”

I feel the mana stirring around me, anger, fear, sadness, mixing and blending into rage that wants to cut her with my Ionic blade.

“Ahh, perhaps there is some bite in you,” she says, a strange smile on her face.

My eyes peer up at her defiantly. Her smile deepens at it.

“House Balencia and House Ravena used to be much closer.” She says, releasing her soul pressure from me “Before my house’s fall.”

Air fills my lungs as I slowly stand, trying to recollect myself. She pauses, her face almost showing tension. My mother told me of the fall of the Goddess Balencia, that she was once highly favored in the heavens. She disobeyed Thane, the highest God of the Theocratic Imperium’s pantheon. Why she disobeyed or what it was about, even my mother did not know. Such things, we mortals are not permitted to know. Needless to say, he was not pleased. Sending his followers to lay waste to her house. The few that survived became wards of the Imperium.

The air hums as Inquisitor Victoria turns on an Etherium disrupter. A shimmering shield forms around the walls, hugging them tightly, and creating echoes in the chamber. It is said that even the Gods cannot hear through it. However, I do not know if this is true or not.

“Now we can speak more freely.” She says, motioning to a seat that rises from the floor.

Warily I sit, my hand close to my blade. If it is Yekka or her… do I have the resolve… I must.

“You know, I was friends with your father in his youth.” She says, leaning back “It was I who introduced your mother and him.”

I have never heard this tale before.

“In truth, I did not think anything would transpire from it.” She says, an annoyed look on her face as she muses her memories “But, here we are, and here you are. A failure wrought from a line of failures mingling with their betters.”

She means my mother’s line is the failures. Does she mean to get a rise out of me? Or is she just a…

“Her father, what was his name again?”

“Artemius.” I seethe, my emotions betraying me.

“Right,” she says.

We sit in silence for a moment.

“What would you give to become a knight commander?” she asks me, peering deep beyond the flesh.

The words linger in my mind, does she give me some kind of opportunity, or is she tormenting me for no reason other than she is a…

“I have a small task, of little import.” Victoria says, looking at her polished golden nails “If you complete it, we can forget your failings and I’ll make you my squire.”

Her squire? Is she serious? To be an inquisitor’s squire means that being a Knight Commander is all but guaranteed. She glances at me.

“You seem intrigued.” She says with a grin.

She waves her hand and a slot opens in her desk, a small black box rises from the recess. Intricate patterns flow on its sides, and the craftsmanship is remarkable. My eyes widen as I look closer at it. I have seen it before. In the reliquary of Edicts, when Kotina earned hers, I was only a girl, but I remember seeing it. It is one of the cursed Edicts, held in the forbidden section of the reliquary. I accidentally wandered in there as a girl, as though guided by a dream. Why is it here though? It is forbidden to take it from the reliquary even for an Inquisitor.

“So, you do know it.” She says, a small smile crawling onto her lip “Good, then you understand that this is not exactly an approved venture.”

“You stole it?” I ask, the words falling from my mouth.

Silence hangs between us again, her eyes searching me, my heart smashing an uneven rhythm. I should not have accused her, that was foolish.

“Can you really steal something that was stolen?” she queries, almost playfully so.

She did steal it. An inquisitor stealing the most cursed edict in the reliquary of edicts is high treason. Surely my father would not have me take part in whatever scheme she is involved in.

“I have a task for you.” She says, tenting her hands again “If you pass it, I will vouch for you to start Knight Commander training.”

“What of Yekka, the woman in…”

“Yes, she will live, for now.” She says, not trying to hide the smug expression on her face.

Duty… does father know what she expects of me? Does he know she took the Cursed Edict?

“What must I do?” I ask, bowing my head to her.

“You will take this to planet Ora.” She says.

Planet Ora, I have never heard of it before.

“You are to deliver this to someone in particular, someone you know well.” She says, leaning forward.

“Who, inquisitor?” I ask.

“Artemius.”

My grandfather? What does she want from him? Is he really on this planet Ora? I look up, ready to ask her a question, but she shakes her finger at me.

“You are to locate your grandfather, he will help you find a man called Tavjac Mordow.” She says.

I have not spoken to him in nearly ten years. How does she expect me to find him?

“And girl.” She says, leaning closer still, her eyes showing ferocity “If you fail this task or tell the Imperium what I have asked of you.”

She swipes her hand through the air, the holo of the prisoners coming back up, her other hand presses the button. Horror fills my eyes, seeping into my heart as flames erupt all around, killing them in a gruesome fashion.

“I will personally destroy your entire House.”

With shaking hands, I grasp the box, my father’s words filling my mind. Remember your duty.