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LUNARA

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Chapter Fifty-Two: Musings of Duty - Part Eight

Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

Solar System: D-447

Planet: Ora

Location: Arasha city Tarvashal, upper residential district

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***

Less than a day from Present Time

***

Nearly a month has passed. After Fennec found out that I lost the Cursed Edict, we tried to go back, but there were new postings of Merchant Federation soldiers. When I told him we should return anyway, and that perhaps there was a mix-up and the man would return it, he laughed at me. He was not wrong to, I was naïve to trust that man. I should have checked, such an important thing, why did I not check? Was it the sincerity in his eyes? My teeth grind, and holes litter the walls of my room. Caused by my frustrations. If I were a proper heir, I would have ordered Fennec to kill them on sight. If I were a proper heir, I wouldn’t even be on this world. No… I am not that person who can ask others to kill.

Fennec has told my father of my failure, and I have been ordered to return. I am waiting for the next Republic Vessel that is coming for an Etherium purchase. It will be today. When it takes me back to the Republic of Hekate, I will have to face my failures, and soon Inquisitor Victoria will find out that I have failed as well. Then everything will be lost... If only Goddess Ravena would send me guidance, anything to tell me what path to take. I know she will not though.

My memories are sour as I recall spending six entire months in prayer before the trials, seeking the blessing from Goddess Ravena. Being cleansed in the holy waters of her temple each morning and night. She still did not recognize me, this fact I think worries my father most. In more than a thousand years the bloodline of House Ravena has not been broken. Every Primus of our house’s history has received her blessing and heard her voice answer their prayers. I fear that I will be the first to not measure up, the first of my line to fail her standard. During the six months that I prayed my doubts grew higher, the silence becoming deafening.

My knees fall to the floor, my hands raising in front of me, palms to the sky as my head lowers, as is our custom. Making up my mind to beg my father’s Goddess for guidance.

“Goddess Ravena… please, tell me what I must do. If I fail, our house will fall.” My head lowers to the floor, “I beg you, please, give me guidance.”

Silence—like always. I do not stop holding the pose for thirty minutes, still… silence. Slumping down on the floor, I begin to weep, pounding my hands defeatedly on the ground. If she will not answer my prayers… perhaps another God will. My eyes close, thinking about it. Father always told me to only pray to Ravena, lest I would­ incur her ire. Yet, she does not answer me, she never has. Something my grandfather once said plays in my mind.

We mortals are the playthings of the God’s whims

Doomed to toil under their pleasures and suffer their vices

Lest we rise to meet them

That which could be—will always seek—That which will be

***

Resigned to my fate and my failures, I have boarded the Republic freighter, as my father commanded. There is still some hope that Fennec will find a way to recover the Cursed Edict. Without me though, as he made it clear that I was a hindrance to the mission. Bitterness rises in me, he is not wrong, but I dislike him greatly for it. My holopad vibrates. It must be Fennec, making sure I’m being an obedient little noble. My teeth grind. Though they should not, remembering the pain I saw on my travels, I have no right to be angry. My circumstances are my own fault. Those on the surface of planet Ora and others like it are the ones who fate has spurned the most.

To be an outcast of society and the Imperium’s governance, for the simple reason of your birth… there is no justice in it. If Inquisitor Victoria does not destroy my house, perhaps I can petition to join the Senate, following the footsteps of my mother, since I cannot follow my father’s. Maybe someday finding a way to help those here and elsewhere. Perhaps I can find peace in that. Living under the teachings of my grandfather. Helping those I can. Hoping that my house prospers with a stronger heir. My holopad buzzes again. My eyes roll as I walk down the corridor, keeping my face covered from others. Wearing my spacesuit and helmet, another of Fennec’s precautions. As if someone would attack a Republic Freighter in Imperium-sanctioned territory. My holopad buzzes again.

“Frag’s sake.” I seethe, bringing it up to my face.

It is not Fennec though, it is Solara. She has pinged a single message multiple times.

You must get to an escape pod, there is no time.

An escape pod? My eyes stare at the message, how does she even know that I am on a ship? Another message arrives just as red lights begin to flash in the corridors.

Dallus knows you’re in orbit above planet Ora.

My heart thuds, how would he know that? How does she know that he knows? Another message.

Trust me. Go now.

My gut tells me to listen to her, remembering that she guarded my back before. Looking around, I trace my eyes to an escape pod indicator. The red lights are accompanied by sirens now. Fragging hells. Mana creeps into my frame as my pace explodes, moving rapidly through the ship. The ship rocks as it depressurizes in the hallway I run through. My hand barely manages to find a grip as the air rushes out. The bulkhead slams closed. The gravity actuators fail. Sending me in a spin through the air. Remembering my training, I push off the wall firmly toward my destination.

My shoulder slams into the metal wall of the interior walls of the ship denting it. Pressing off again, I bound to the next door which has closed. Mana swims in my arms adding to the strength of a lifetime under Ravena Prime’s gravity, paired with having passed the fourth boundary makes the metal groan as I break the gears that hold it in place.

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There is a woman, fumbling with an emergency spacesuit, floating in the air. Her eyes are wide as she looks at me.

“Help… help me please!” she screams.

Grabbing her with me, I glide past others who are trying to get to pods as well. I slap the suit module onto her chest. A thin film of nanopolymer material erupts outward, encasing her. Giving her a limited barrier against the harshness of space should she need it. Though in truth it will not last long. It is an older model from Xena Corp, prone to failure. Discontinued from most Republic vessels. All of the escape pods are ejecting quickly from this section. Frag.

“We need to hurry!” she screams, clawing at me desperately.

“Relax, I’ve got you,” I say.

One of the doors to a pod looks jammed, the door going back and forth like some kind of overload set the door on a repeat cycle of opening and closing. That will do. Letting go of the woman, I wrestle the door open, sparks flying as the door's power module breaks off. The woman crawls inside, hitting the emergency launch sequence, almost leaving me outside it.

The pod lurches as it slams us against the small frame of it. Idiot. I pull her towards a seat, strapping her in. There is barely enough space for the two of us in it. I take the seat across from her. The clasp is malfunctioning, spitting out an error code. Frag. I bash it in, bending the metal around it to hold me in.

An explosion rocks us, sending us into a wild spin. Gravity slams against us as we break the atmosphere of planet Ora. The woman passes out, her eyes rolling back from the lack of blood flow. It is not enough to pull my eyes closed, I have trained in much worse conditions before.

Another explosion, this time a hissing as something sheers into the small escape pod, shrapnel sprinkling through us like a hail storm. Smoke billows into the cabin. Pain shoots through my mind as I feel something sharp slice through my suit and cut into my belly. Feeling with my hand it is a piece of metal. If I pull it now I might bleed out. I try to focus my soul's pressure around it to stem the blood flow, but gut wounds are hard to manage. Another explosion, this time cutting the pod in half. The woman’s legs the only thing left of her mangled corpse. I fight back the vomit. The power turns off… the emergency thrusters won’t activate. Fragging hells.

With my spare hand, I rip off the emergency parachute panel. It plumes above me, though it normally has three to reduce the fall. One will have to be enough. I look around for emergency impact foam but find none. It was torn off with her side of the shuttle. Gritting my teeth, I grab the metal hull as firmly as I can.

***

My eyes open, barely, the flesh of my body feels beaten like I was run over by a magtrain. My helmet is cracked, and my head feels like Kotina kicked it. I am concussed, I know the symptoms, but it does not stop the confusion. The metal around me bends as I peel myself out. Stumbling onto the icy terrain of the planet's surface. I try to stand, but my body is weak. Looking down I see that the wound opened further when I passed out, how long have I been bleeding? How long was I out? My soul’s pressure tries to stop the flow, but I am dazed and disoriented, my body is cold from the cut in my suit.

The ground shakes as a craft skids across the ice near me. Some kind of Arasha shuttle caught in the debris of the ship. I try to stand again, but it takes everything just to stay awake. If I fall asleep now, I will surely die. Looking around, I don’t see any medigel containers or first aid kits.

I hear the sound of a plasma pistol firing.

“Hurry the frag up.” Someone yells.

A pair of hands grab at me, pulling me over, eyes I have seen look down at me from the bundle of furs that wraps their head. Deep, piercing yellow eyes. My hand grabs the man who just took the weapon from my belt. My hand grabs at his furs, feeling something cube-like. Hope almost wishes to stir. Pulling it out, I see it is the Cursed Edict.

“You…” I say. A mixing of emotions in me. It is the man who stole it from me in the market.

He looks at me curiously, his eyes taking in the blue hair from the crack in my helmet.

“Are they alive?” a man’s voice asks.

“Barely,” the thief says.

I pull the box close to me, not wanting to let it go. It is my only chance at redemption.

“What are they holding?” the other man asks.

“A box of some kind…” he begins, but his eyes look at the lines forming on the Cursed Edict.

Reacting to the mana in my blood perhaps? I do not know how it functions.

“Well get a better fraggin look. My cousin is right you know.” The man sighs “Slag for brains, dogs, the lot of you.”

The thief pulls at the box, my grip tightens, I do not want to relinquish it. My eyes have spots in them, my stomach is so cold. I am dying. It is fitting that fate would bring it into my grasp one last time before it beckons me. One last cruelty.

“Don’t let them get it, bring it to…” I begin, but my eyes swim with darkness now.

***

There is movement around me, as though far away. Muffled by the pull of the darkness that holds tightly. Am I dead?

“Feel my existence,” a voice says, stirring me.

The words resonate with how I feel. There is a sadness in them, mixed with bitter resolve.

“Come!” the voice yells defiantly “Find absolution in my blade.”

An explosion rocks me, telling me I am still alive, but on the edge. The precipice… I struggle against the cold that fills my bones, pushing out my soul’s pressure as hard as I can. I am alive, I do not accept this fate. Fate will feel my existence. My hands spring open as I pull all the free mana in the air, condensing it upon myself.

My eyes shoot open, light billowing from my runes. In a daze, I look around, Krothaspawn… come to eat my body. No, I have had enough. Gripping a dead one in the third phase of transformation, I swing it at the others. I don’t know how I am alive, but they will have to earn my death, fate can kiss my backside. I feel mana dripping in the air from the fractured Etherium drive of the craft. Pulling it to me now rapidly, I meet these nightmares head-on. Smashing them into each other.

“Behind you…” a voice says weakly.

I turn and see it is the thief. He smashes the Cursed Edict into a Krothaspawn. Blood from it sucking into it. All of the creatures grow still as they peer at it. Transfixed by it for some reason. The one closest cuts its own throat, black blood spilling into it. I have never seen Krothaspawn do this before.

A pulse of some kind of energy strikes at the air as the thief’s own blood rolls into the Cursed Edict now. Lines forming words rip across its surface rapidly. Black ichor traces down his hand up his arm under the sleeve. Rushing to him, I smash the Edict from his grasp. He collapses to the ground instantly, convulsing.

Did he save me? Why? The Krothaspawn are still muddled, staring at the man on the ground. I take advantage and stab a torn piece of the ship’s hull through their chests, destroying their hearts, and ending them.

Rushing back over to the man, I pull back his clothes, lines of etheric and netheric mana trace wildly across his skin, as though his body is battling whatever is happening to him. He saved my life, I cannot let him die here.

Energy tears through my body, vibrating intensely as I put my hand on his chest. Something is strange though, his body… he is runeless, I do not feel any in him, like he is empty. But how? On this world there is so much Netheric mana, it should not be possible. Torrents of Netheric mana swell in the air around us, the epicenter the thief’s chest. Thunder booms so loudly I can hear it through the deep snow that has swallowed us. The Cursed Edict is trying to claim him. I do not have the strength to stop it. Black ichor ebbs from his chest towards his extremities. The Cursed Edict rattles against the ground, trying to move to his outstretched hand.

He is going to die here… for saving me. The Krothaspawn would not have come if not for my mana attracting them. It is beyond me to save him.

“Goddess Ravena please!” I yell to the heavens, as always no answer “He does not deserve to die…”

There is bitterness swimming in me for her absence. Regret for even escaping the ship. My mind searches for something, anything that can help him. Memories of my mother praying when I was a girl come back to me. She did not worship Ravena, she worshiped another Goddess. What was her name? My mind strains to think about it. Trying to remember how my mother would pray to her, as though she was lost in a trance at times. The name finds its way onto my lips as I pray to my mother’s Goddess.

“Goddess Leora, bringer of hope, searcher of truth, I beseech you to hear my…” I begin, but a stirring in the air fills the space around us, my own body stops moving, but my perception continues.

Pressure unlike anything I have ever felt glides elegantly into existence. Light, radiant light begins to form, so bright I cannot look upon it. Warmth, beautiful warmth fills me. If time was not slowed, tears would fall in joy. It feels like a hand is grasping my shoulder, energy from it vibrating deep within my soul, giving me a feeling of peace I have never known. A voice rippling with power speaks softly into my ear.

I am here child

The voice shatters all fears in me, hope fills me past full. I feel the mana in my body shifting and mending me, as though guided by her.

For many years I have waited for your call

A feeling rises in me, one of being wanted. A feeling of being found by something greater than oneself. It destroys all the doubts in me. Erases all the pains of rejection by my father’s Goddess. I am wanted, I am found.

I will show you the path toward Destiny

Joy spreads through my being, mixing with the hope that she gives. Regrets disappear from me.

I bestow upon you my blessing

Light erupts over my skin, tracing along my body, etching new runic lines, weaving between the old, strengthening their bonds to me. I feel her power flowing through me as her hand guides mine to touch the darkness ebbing from the man’s chest. Flashes of images, and thousands of runes interlaying inside my mind as I fall into a trance.

Others may abandon you… but I never will