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Chapter 16: Aequora Solitudo

As we made our final approach, I gazed in wonder at the glistening metallic isle arising from sky-blue tides. Constructed from salvaged shipping containers and shining steel alloy, Aequora Solitudo's angular overlooks and snaking chutes left a vivid guise against the barren ocean expanse.

My jaw grew tight as the endless waves were nothing like my desert home...my first trip outside Buriti and it was nothing but waning blue fields of foam and filthy techno garbage! The hum of the plane's engines quickly boggled my train of thought.

I was witnessing firsthand this engineering marvel commandeering the open ocean induced a thrill I hadn't expected though juxtaposing my sense of dread over our means of travel. The sheer audacity of Aequora Solitudo's odd beauty kindled hopes that Buriti too might rise anew from destruction's depths, reforged stronger than before...If only I could tap into the hidden power of these '1st world' nation's coalition.

Oxidized metal circular spires lined boxily with elegant stainless steel, presumed to keep its impossibly spiraled structure from being destroyed in the salt water. As the rickety plane circled lower, preparing to dock, I was not as thrilled at glimpsing bustling masses on runways.

There were many nations in attendance based on varying attire, skin tones, and even glimpses of exotic technologies draped on them like clothing. The simple almost seethrough garbs of the Doigan republics' delegation. While I never even attempted to spin a globe let alone study it, our southern neighbors had made such a name for themselves as loose pedlars of sex and cheap wares among the dunes...

How could these perverted jungle straddlers be invited to such a grand stage?! I looked to Aiko as she held an even face, mind seemingly focused solely on our decent...I knew something was bothering her, yet I could not tell what, Compelling the thought from my head as I thought of simpler times. Small goosebumps pricked my brown cracked skin, the mark of the goddess still absent all this time.

I smiled wistfully wanting to change my attitude, remembering how as a boy I would gape at contraband topography books my free-spirited mother smuggled home, starving after snapshots of distant public and places that imagination alone could scarce conjure.

The only true wonder outside Buriti Vasca in my mind was always Atlantia--Large buildings, free choice for everyone, no royal status just a man's wealth and power...As an adult, I heard a word the capitalist pigs were nearly eating themselves now that they see the environment as something to protect. Sanctioning any small country not able to bend to their demands is seen as 'the right way'.

The sight of Yana in my peripheral, spine straight and green steely gaze forward, kept me from truly rambling too far mentally...as ruling sovereign, I had the obligation to scour this exotic world's assemblage firsthand. I had no intention of bringing such horrible displays of wasted wealth and power but I did plan on gleaming every way they fueled these garbage 'scientific' endeavors.

My pulse quickened as the wheels touched the tarmac with a jarring landing. It was finally time to put preadolescence fantasies to bed and gamble a man's claim to my dominion of this world! History was being made and I would ensure Buriti's voice rang loudly in the chorus of screaming on this churning planet.

Yana was the first to step off the aircraft to greet the skinny albino lad wearing a pearl-colored toga. I watched from behind Aygu and Aiko as Yana and the strange pale boy exchanged placative salutations outside my hearing range, my brow furrowed before I even found the words to speak. "That boy looks as if he's been whipped and kept in a knee-high cage...". The loud dissonant chatter of the crowd drowned my voice out but I frowned as Kyler was muttering prayers behind me.

He had been shaky all day...much like Dennis before I had him killed. The boy who called himself Tella led us to a small bank of residential suites, gesturing wildly as he explained terrifying techno amenities. I chose to ignore him due to him seemingly not knowing who was the leader of our country. He flashed tense looks of nervous pink eyes every time my eyes met his but he only kept going on as we walked toward one of the small cottages resting on a granite cliffside.

When we reached the regal double doors of the presidential chamber, he finally turned to me with an odd yellow-toothed smile. "We've made your king suite amazing, Lord Dennis! Lemme' know if anything ain't up to code for your...stay!" I froze, shooting the confused white-skinned man-child intense regard as uneasy titters broke out behind me from Kyler.

My supposedly dead cousin's name falling casually from this stranger's lips rang alarms in my mind but before I could demand any explanation, Kyler sputtered loudly. "Ah, mere m-mistake, cousin Huck! Happens all the time--we Vascans look so alike, eh?" He attempted to steer me hastily to the adjacent doors with his large frame but I stood firmly, eyeing him askance. "step aside...I do not share your donkey-like facade at all."

That dolt was a terrible liar, standing there, pupils racing...Why did he seem so unnerved by the simple slip of this pale servant? Yana and Aygu hid smirks behind her palm as attendants awkwardly relayed that per Summit bookings, Aiko and I would have to share my cousin Dennis' suite. My eyes narrowed, thoughts churning with implications. How did these organizers anticipate Dennis' arrival so assuredly just weeks after bombs should have killed him?

Accommodations already prepared for cousin's controversial forced fiancée. Too many odd threads stoked suspicions...perhaps the tragic fate intended for my whole family had not been as natural as it appeared and wholistic... As attendants moved our scant luggage toward the presidential suite, I waved them off.

"Yana, please comfort yourself, Aiko, and Warcheif Aygu into those rooms, the Grand Popa and I have some sudden matters to discuss. I secured a grave hand on Kyler's shoulder and steered him forcefully down the hall toward my modest quarters. My tone brooked no argument. "Dear cousin, I appreciate your timely wisdom on myriad issues back home...I could greatly benefit from your spiritual direction on an intimate matter that just surfaced."

His nostrils flared in alarm but he wisely kept silent under my implacable grip. The set of my jaw promised a most illuminating "chat" ahead. One unattended by curious ears. My teeth ground as doubts and theories roiled beneath my brusque facade. Either threat long believed diffused still somehow haunted my family's steps, or I had an unwitting viper hiding under my roof. Yet by god grace, I would have the truth soon enough.

First, though, Kyler had insights to share...whether voluntarily or wrangled under intense duress. My hands hungered to discern which mode our impending heart-to-heart might require. I slammed the door and wheeled on Kyler, wasting no time. The suite's strange modern style only pissed me off further as the smell of waxy candles hit my nose.

"Explain yourself. Now! Why did that boy address me as Dennis?" I crossed the room to fiddle with the drapes in the godawfully gray room.

"How precisely did Summit hosts presume my dead cousin would attend?" My eyes bored into his beaded brow, he pushed meaty fingers through his nappy beard without speaking.

"Strange if the Svets told them to push out such a plushy carpet for you two...." Sweat glistened on Kyler's sable skin as he averted his gaze. "DO NOT LOOK AWAY FROM ME!" A quick backhand sent a small cubed lamp toward him as the bulb shattered to the floor.

My large cousin's jaw opened slightly, choking his next words. "A trifling mix-up, Huckle...likely rumors swirl and..." My fist crashing beside his head cut short his pathetic stammers. "DURIK-SHIT!" I leaned closer, tone lethal. "Rumors say I perished alongside my kin. This summit was daintily prepared, specifically for Dennis fucking Vasca's arrival. Aiko too even booked to attend."

My chest rumbled with a warning of my deepening tone. "So I ask again - how did they know what none should?" Kyler scratched his neck, clearly weighing responses before thinking better under my unrelenting glare.

Finally, he sighed, shoulders slumping.

He looked deep into my eyes before speaking. "Before the bombing, Dennis and I had...covert dialogues with certain foreign a power--namely Atlantian president Darla Pape...They wished Dennis, bold visionary upstart, to gain power once certain key opponents were...removed." He gulped as my snarl alerted gathering storms, my fingers tightened to a brick at the end of my wrist.

He pressed on begrudgingly. "Atlantian billionaires who prepare these affairs were informed of Dennis' survival as contingency!" I trembled in fury, grappling with the scope of those casual revelations. biting my cheek, barely able to bark out my next sentence. "And you kept this secret, why?"

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He winced. "Religious security and fear of your response...Please, cousin...I had no real choice in the matter...and I stand with you now." Mercy would wait. Revelations first into this viper's nest. My vice had only begun to draw blood...Kyler rubbed his jaw where my backhand left a throbbing red mark. Still, he drew himself upright with indignant defiance flashing in his red eyes.

"Have you lost all senses, cousin?" he blustered. "As ordained Grand Popa, I answer only to the gods and spirits, not temporal kings either way! My sacred work shall continue no matter what assassination attempts or enigmatic treaties you unearth, regardless of how either of us feels!" He flexed his jaw a few times as his maroon dreads swayed.

I bit back a caustic retort, nostrils flaring. As much as I yearned to beat obedience into this impenitent fraud, attacking Buriti's "holy" leader posed dangers. I must play a subtler long game now my suspicions had merit. "Right. No need for further violence between kin," I replied slowly, my tone neutral. "Your misguided secrets sought to solidify the throne for a Vascan. I cannot fault...zeal, however maligned." I watched the tension leave his bulky frame at my conciliatory words.

The fool believed he had appeased me or at least played me into a corner, Little did he guess what slow embers now burned behind my pragmatic facade. I will never forgive him for such treachery...ever.

I clapped his shoulder with false warmth. "Return to your chambers, Cousin. We shall make a fresh start tomorrow." After he departed I stood brooding in the dim room, swirling recent revelations. So, that peacock Dennis conspired with foreign minds to claim a throne he hadn't earned by right or mettle. The bombs merely catalyzed a convenient opportunity to eliminate me, not the intended target.

Well, fate had a way of claiming the most unworthy sacrifices. Now Dennis' absent stolen throne left a still greater destiny at my reluctant feet. I hungered for neither crown nor complex rule...yet both impended regardless.

Cousin Kyler remained too dangerous to leave unchecked. His so-called spiritual sovereignty could readily mask more worldly machinations. Dennis' foreign alliances likely threaded deeper than that fool priest realized.

No, the Grand Popa's wings required swift clipping once we returned home. I would tweet out whatever discordant notes he sang to hostile ears. Kyler may invoke divine right but even the gods cannot save schemers from secular justice...or the wrath of Vascan kings.

My pulse finally slowed as I watched Kyler's retreating form turn the far corner. Only once his garish maroon robes vanished into shadowed distance did I trust myself to release the white-knuckled grip strangling the remote entry pad lest I give in to baser impulse and chase him down to drive his fucking skull into the ground.

Though such a satisfying outcome might have raised alarms best avoided until I held louder rule back home and unraveled what deeper treasons my cousin had fermenting. Instead, I drew a long steadying breath and summoned all my thin patience to punch the door's seal.

Waiting for several beats first for good measure as I envisioned the oblivious turncoat ambling farther down myriad snaking passages, likely already dismissing my confrontation from his feeble mind. At worst he probably imagined us enjoying a hearty laugh over youthful tempers once reunited after a needed cool-down.

I scowled, shoving aside both absurd thoughts. That glib fool grasps so little. Cool down from this? I had only begun stoking suitable fury. And just now understood this strange summit's secrecy ran darker than international affairs. More a web of personal deception and danger, with me seated firmly at its center by unwanted circumstance.

Well, if hostile forces presume me conveniently pinned and unaware in some elaborate endgame, I shall take vindictive pleasure in proving myself the apex predator here. Let them carry on conspiring by shadowy light against a presumed ignorant sovereign. The one who emerges from the darkness and brings swift ruin never sees my style of attack coming until long too late.

And when it does land with full force, empires fall accordingly no matter how high the towers raze nor how deep the traitors hide... Retribution always finds its mark when born of patience, births no sound nor smoke, galvanized by the whistle just before the axe irreversible falls.

A sharp rap at my chamber door stirred me from brooding reverie. I opened it to find a smartly dressed Doigan envoy, signature light sheer colors left nothing to the imagination as I averted my eyes. "President Parva requests your immediate presence, your Majesty."

I bristled at the summons but curiosity won out, Aiko came into view suddenly, a tensed frown marking her feelings. "Lead the way..." The envoy guided me toward the Doigan Council's attachment. Their negotiation suites had an earthy lived-in feel, decorated with woven tapestries, living plants, and gentle chimes that contrasted the cold gleam elsewhere. "I must ask that your guard stay here..." The envoy's tight eyes flexed with her grin.

"Very well." I grimaced, the musty vined plants almost writhed with my entry, my hand stung where the goddess crested me. Aiko clicked her tongue before assuming guard across from the envoy, the door leading to the office suddenly slid open with a strange hiss. The next few gates were barely visible as I pushed through a raised carpet that was almost cloud-like in nature.

President Parva rose with an unusual smile as I entered, half-lidded eyes glinting gray from her smooth olive-tone face. Her sheer sapphire-laden dress was cinched by a hammered gold belt studded with circuits. "So pleased you accepted my invitation, young King Vasca. Please sit." She signaled to a large fungus that jutted from the misty floor with a smooth motion of her small hand.

I remained standing, adjusting the hyena's teeth from my its place in my wound for a moment. "You presume much, my being here is not anything more than a break from my own affairs. Speak now." I folded my arms as a small trickle of blood rolled down my chest.

She raised a manicured hand, then rolled her fingers in her palm. "Peace. I merely wished to discuss our regions' mutual interests." Her tone shifted. "We have...anxieties regarding certain unstable inherited powers." Parva sat back down, making a point to make another smooth gesture to the disgusting literal toadStool. Buriti-Vasca's ruler was no amphibian...

My eyes narrowed. Before I could retort she pressed on, still speaking an uncannily high level of my people's language. "We feel Buriti would thrive under...fresh governance. The world moves on, and old....regimes wither. But adroit realignments could prove profitable." I crossed my arms. "Buriti bows only to our ancient covenant between ruler and gods, you may assume me backward."

I may not fully believe in either the native's old gods covenant with Vascan ruling class as apex but I will be damned to show any break in my country's faith. The corner of her mouth quirked. "Covenants shift. The tides already pull." Her bracelet flickered, projecting streams of numbers to my horror. "Imagine combining our technological might, your oil and resources, Svetlan's ties to other nations...a true regional prosperity sphere!" Her horrific illusional tech finally stopped at a random money value meant to wow me.

I bristled at her presumption. Was she compromising me or negotiating? Either way, I must play along and divine her motives. For now, I play simple-minded yet money-hungry like my father. "Intriguing notions..." I managed. She smiled like a content viper, sapphire glistening almost in unison with the vine's simple wriggling dance. "Indeed. More awaits at tomorrow's trade summit. We shall talk again soon..."

I paced toward Parva's desk, fists clenched. "Svetlan's 'political ties' come from the back of a thousand years of colonialism! Their king hoards power for cronies and other Svets. I will not bow to another's despot while my people burn in thirst." I may not know the history but the Svets damning the main river was burned into my mind. A bitter trade negotiation from my father has gone sour and 60,000 of our people have no access to clean water!

Parva arched an eyebrow, her smile never leaving her face. "Bold talk. Cut ties with no backup allies? Svetlan would--." I slammed my palm down, wet juices flung from the disgusting half-bio desk. "No allies?! I shall impose sanctions, embargo them, and force compliance..."

The president steepled her fingers, eyes narrowing. "Sanctions? That risks regional turmoil, draws in the Cathlo coalition in arms naming you a radical. Foolhardy over blustered pride." The near gelatinous desk reformed as small spores entered the atmosphere.

"Pride? Children enslaved for resources and fake money know nothing of this pride you warn against...I bet your lush jungle homes never see a day like Buriti. " Parva nodded, her diaphanous gown stuck too tightly, each sapphire almost transcending my understanding of the color.

"Beware bargaining our region as chess pieces in your people's grievances, Highness. Today's squabbles churn tomorrow's wars no ruler can control...you may not be aware but there is something brewing the world has never seen before." Her lips became taught so as to not spill anything from their container yet I cared not.

I waved a dismissive hand. Fear has no place in my presence. "Global conflict? Absurd. I seek but to humble smug Svetlan. Their crippled king shall kneel to our petitions and we will have our autonomy." Parva drew closer, voice low. "Kneel to you, and you alone? Will this summit not see all leaders bent to an upjumped claimant's pride?" She leaned in.

"I shall not kneel. Nor shall Doiga bleed for your tangled family's ancient blood feud." She nodded, the gesture meant to assure herself not I...her words quivered like any other spineless dignitary not fully committed to their land. The vines in the room tensed and curled around the edges of my peripheral.

I pulled back as she watched me coldly for several seconds. I stared face to face with Parva, rage coiling hot beneath my skin at her glib dismissal of our plight...when it was about her technobabble it was prosperity, when I asked for sovereignty and dignity or Buritis's son she mocked our song. "Blood feud?!" I spat.

"You know nothing of blood spilled. For more than six hundred years Svetlan enslaved and brutalized Vasca!" I snapped with each syllable. "Their knout and horse-riders left no flesh unscarred, no field untilled, no child un-conscripted as their serfs!" I advanced closer as Parva retreated against the wall and morphed into a chair, gray eyes involuntarily widening. I noticed she grabbed her hand into a fist at my encroachment yet she stayed silent.

"Then another two hundred and fifty with my lineage in Buriti as their puppet buffer state while they pillaged our mines and desert granges! Generations lost!" I lessened my tone, taking in the moment before stabbing my finger squishily into the desk. "We have starved on the crumbs of our own bounty they hoarded as gluttonous ticks engorged on their helpless host." I towered over Parva now, jabbing an accusatory slime-wet finger. "So do not sneer of ancient grievances or family pride. Their royal fangs drew too long and too deep from my people's veins."

I drew myself up, the fire of conviction blazing in my eyes. "But no more. I shall repay threefold every injustice. Their shrinking kingdom will watch and lament as mighty Buriti-Vasca rises from bloodstained dust. I swear Buriti shall stand astride the world stage unbent and unbroken!" Her eyes raced from me to the door... the small tremble of her lips left with my finished monologue.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Please calm down Your Highness, I will not stand on the graves of children....if you press your issue I cannot represent Dioga full well knowing of the true horror in nature." Her lip curled as she adjusted her gown, eyes fixed on my clenched fist.

She spoke softly pressing a button on her belt to open the office's doors. "You are starting something we cannot end, yet this world does not need to bend to oppressors any less than to a radical agent of chaos." My chest heaved from emotion and vitriol as I held Parva's chastened gaze.

We regarded each other unspeaking for hammering heartbeats, shock, and grudging respect passing between us at what raw heights and depths had been glimpsed in this brief charged space as years of history hung suspended. My will is unmovable, my mind clear, and my soul vexed till my bitter end.