The admiral’s eyes stared down at them as they walked onto the bridge.
“The leaders of the pirates,” the man’s projection behind the windows said. “Why am I not surprised and yet have to wonder what your goals are?” Then his eyes suddenly narrowed. “Lillian Saggitarius?” The pitch of his voice rose suddenly.
“Admiral Horologii.” Lillian nodded slghtly and gave him a smile. “I guess you were still trying to find the pirates on my brother’s orders?”
“Why are you with them?” The admiral’s voice normalized and his gaze settled mostly on Lillian. He also looked for a moment at Lia, but didn’t comment on her presence.
“The pirates have reacted to the distress call send out by the Crystal Citadel.” Lillian sighed and gave the admiral time to register those words, not saying anything about her involvement with the group. When she continued, it was on the topic at hand: “The situation on the station is dire. A … foreign presence has taken control of most of the donar, who at first became mindless and aggressive, but are now learning to work together. We’ve barely made it to this ship to take shelter.”
“Where are the king and the new princess?” The admiral’s gaze moved from Lillian toward Lia.
Lia gulped and froze. It felt as if she was responsible for both of their demises.
“Orphelia is no more.” Ludwig stepped forward and in front of Lia. “She was the infection point that created all those zombies in the first place. I fear King Amir had been affected as well.”
“What happened to Amir?”
“His mind has been wiped,” Lillian supplied with a sigh. “Amir is gone, as well.”
“His mind is … gone?” The admiral stared with wide open eyes. “How is that possible?”
“He was … infected as well … and startled the new queen.” Lillian took a deep breath and shook her head.
“New queen?” The Admiral closed his eyes for a moment. “Queen … Lillian. I have a hard time believing all you’re saying. In the last few days the empire has been shook several times, and you’ve always been in the center of it all.” The admiral stopped for a moment. “You’ve steered or even engineered the events, haven’t you?”
“As queen I have done everything in my power to protect the citizens of the empire, as is my duty.” Lillian shook her head. “As I told our new queen before: I have determined this to be the best possible outcome.”
Which was something Lia still wasn’t sure of, couldn’t be sure of.
“I guess you’ll have to discuss this with the council at a later date.” The admiral grumbled slightly. “Now what’s the problem with a bunch of donar having become aggressive? Station security should be able to detain them one by one.”
“Then you didn’t get the part of the message where all the donar are using magic as if they’re royals?” Omor raised an eyebrow. “Seems as if your intelligence network is lacking.”
“The distress message only mentioned that all the donar had become brainless zombies, that the station is without gravity and that those donar had started attacking people.” The admiral stared at the pirate. “There was nothing in there to assume that they’ve suddenly gained the ability to use magic like a royal.”
“The summer captain has seen the future of the station,” Lillian said. “He knew.”
“That was the donar’s work next to you, wasn’t it?” He took a deep breath, closed his eyes for a moment and then looked back at Lillian. “The council will have many questions for you.”
The former queen only gave a slight smile in answer.
“I’ll have my men come up with a plan on how to reclaim the station.”
“We can heal the affected donar,” Lia quickly interjected. The admiral didn’t know and she feared that they’d plan on killing everyone on the station.
“I see. I’ll have them include that information in their planning.” He still had cold eyes when he looked at her. “I guess you’re now assigned to the new queen? Or are you assigned to the former one?” The admiral’s eyes moved from her back to Lillian.
“Neither of those,” the former queen answered with an almost predatory smile, “she is the new queen.”
“I … But …” The admiral stuttered a bit more, his eyes moving from Lillian to Lia and back. “That … explains a lot.” He finally admitted with a sigh. “The empire wouldn’t have moved to reclaim just two donar, even if they’re already special. And of course a princess wouldn’t just have a random donar as her companion and friend.” He looked at Lillian again. “Congratulations on faking their backgrounds this thoroughly. Even Amir didn’t suspect two hidden heirs.”
Lia wondered whether she should tell him the truth, but Lillian’s hand on her shoulder stopped her from saying anything. Not even Ludwig or the principal dared correct the misconception.
“Very well, Lia Saggitarius, we’ll keep your wish to save all of the donar in mind.” He inclined his head in a nod. “We’ll dock next to the Lagrange and will coordinate our efforts with that of the pirates.” He didn’t sound very happy at that.
“There’s one more thing you should know.” The principal stepped forward. “The freed donar retain their ability to use magic freely. Some might help us, others want to leave, especially since my staff, the pirate, and the former queen theorize that these donar can be reinfected.”
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“Thank you, we’ll take that into consideration.”
Just as the admiral wanted to say something else, a man ran onto the bridge. “The two prisoners are waking up and we’re having trouble keeping them unconscious,” he shouted.
“Admiral, the queen and I have to look after those two donar we managed to snatch.” Lillian turned around, and Lia quickly bowed to the hologram of the bearded man, before following the former queen. If the admiral gave any answer, she didn’t hear it.
“Do you have to call me queen in front of everyone?” Lia asked as they were somewhat alone in the corridors of the ship.
“It’s necessary that the important people know of your status. It will open a few doors that had been closed to you before, and maybe you’ll be able to change things, I have been unable to.”
“What things? And why should I be able to succeed where you didn’t?”
Lillian stopped and looked her in the eyes. “The magic in the royal family has been declining for years. Some kings and queens didn’t have access to all elements as imperi, others didn’t have all mana pools. The council sees this as a flaw, and a reason to question many of my decisions. They even pushed me to abdicated when Amir suddenly showed complete competency in both regards.” Lillian turned away again. “It’s why he could push a lot more decisions through than I could. At least I couldn’t do it without ruffling the council’s feathers and them starting a civil war, because I wasn’t a ‘true queen’, and that there wasn’t one for years, and that they should rule …” Lillian trailed off, then started to walk again. “Come, we need to do what we can.”
Lia blinked, then followed her quietly. What she had heard made her want the job of queen even less than before, but … Would she really get the chance to alter how the empire worked?
A strong gust of wind cut her thoughts short. Lillian pulled her down and metal rang above her. Lia looked up and saw a deep scratch in the corridor.
“We have to hurry.” Lillian got back up and Lia could see the telltale lights of using magic.
The two donar were still where they had left them, the girl just staring at them, while the boy was using his magic, creating little crescents of what looked like compressed air that he pushed toward Lillian, who quickly dismantled his magic. She wasn’t quite sure how he made air into an attack that cut scratch metal, but she was glad that Lillian could deal with it.
“We have to start with him. She,” Lillian looked at the girl, “doesn’t seem to be dangerous. Probably pure fire donar. Can’t do anything without a flame.”
Lillian bowed down to touch the donar, and when Lia saw her spirit magic attack Fornax’s mind control, she stepped forward and supplied her own mana to the former queen. Once again she observed how Lillian pushed back against the darkness, isolating little spikes that seemed to be stuck in the donar’s mind and pulling them out one by one. With every spike she removed, the eyes of the donar changed from staring, to wondering to sleepy. Finally he slumped against the wall.
The former queen straightened and looked at the girl. “Do you think you have enough …”
“Found you,” the girl suddenly said, her eyes staring at Lia.
Lillian looked at Lia, then quickly went to the girl and started at freeing her. Lia still stood there, feeling a shiver run down her spine.
“Lia, you need to help me. I can’t do this alone.”
On Lillian’s urging, she stepped to the former queen and helped her with her mana, but her mind wasn’t on learning how to remove the infection, the … curse … It was on what the girl had said. Fornax was looking for her. But why?
“Can you keep an eye on them?” Lillian asked into the corridors, and the maintenance workers and Eclaire appeared from around a corner. “They should be back to normal now.”
“Are you sure?” one of the maintenance workers asked.
“Yes. It has worked before.” The former queen sighed and turned around. “We should get back to the bridge. I am interested in what Arthur and the others have come up with.”
Lia still stood there and looked at the girl that had just said those fatal two words.
She didn’t know how long she stood there before Eclaire put an arm around her. “What happened?”
“It’s him,” she whispered. A part of her recognized that she used the same words as her friend. Orphelia had figured out a lot more than she thought. Why hadn’t she told her?
“Who are you talking about?” Eclaire sounded curious, worried, and maybe a bit caring.
“Him … Fornax … He wants me.” A shiver ran over her spine, just before the whole ground lurched.
Lillian was next to her and pulled her toward the bridge. “You’re needed.”
Eclaire took her hand and followed them this time. She didn’t let go, even when they arrived on the bridge.
“Look to the left,” Lillian whispered into her ear, and Lia turned around. There was a hole where the entrance to the dock should have been. Donar stood at the edge, looking at their ship that apparently moved away from the station.
“How do they survive?” someone on the bridge whispered.
“Magic,” came the answer from someone else.
“Why are they doing this?” the first voice whispered.
Lia stared at the donar that for now clung to the outside of the station, as if she were looking at ants climbing the stalk of a plant. They wanted her. Fornax wanted her. But why?
Then she saw some of her classmates at the entrance, followed by Mister Leda, the one who taught her how to regulate her mana flow. They all looked at the Lagrange, but it felt as if they were all looking directly at her.
“It seems as if there was a change in their behavior.” Lia heard the admiral speak, but didn’t turn to look at where his hologram was now projected. “Any idea why?”
“They want the queen,” Lillian said. “Fornax wants the queen, and he’s using all those donar like disposable drones.”
“Fornax?” There was both surprise and anger in the admiral’s voice. “Well, I suggest, we retreat from the station for now, wait until those ‘drones’ run out of air or resources.”
“What?” Lia’s heart skipped a beat and then another one.
Eclaire squeezed her hand. “So you want her legacy to be a few dozen dead donar, including her class mates?”
“This doesn’t concern you. You shouldn’t even be here, Information about Fornax is classified …”
“I don’t care. Those donar out there don’t care. But you can’t just throw one group of people repeatedly into a black hole and expect there to be no backlash.” Eclaire’s hand shook.
Lia slowly turned away from outside to look at the red-haired impera. Why was Eclaire so emotional, why was she … on her side?
“He can’t have the queen,” the admiral responded. “She’s the lifeblood of the empire, we can’t lose her!”
“I’m not saying you should sacrifice her.” Eclaire shook her head. “But she and your spare queen are able to free those donar. You can win this. You just have to find a way.”
“All those donar have turned into powerful mages …”
“So what? Doesn’t the empire have a powerful fleet? Where’s the real problem saving those people?”
Lia looked up from Eclaire and toward the admiral. “Answer her,” she said calmly. “I’d like to hear the answer as well.”
Lia could see the admiral gritting his teeth. “It’s a cost-benefit analysis. We’d have to mobilize at least half the fleet in order to separate all of those donar. Especially factoring in that they can be reinfected, meaning that we’d only spend resources. Especially since you can’t guarantee that they won’t be reinfected by Fornax, can you?” There was a small pause, before he continued. “Meaning this would just be a temporary fix.”
“You don’t know this,” Eclaire hissed instead of Lia, expressing Lia’s sentiment.
“As long as Fornax exists, that is a reasonable assumption. He somehow got access to a king and a princess. We can’t allow him to the same or something similar to the queen.” The admiral stared Eclaire down.
“He’s right,” Ludwig added. “I have seen what happens, if he gets access to you, Lia. It is the end of free will.”
“Then …” Lia looked at Ludwig, to the admiral and back to her teacher, “we have no other choice but to destroy Fornax.”