“It’s time, Tae. They just did the all-call for your flight.”
“What?” Tae shook his head, “Oh, yeah. Got lost in thought for a minute.”
After years of practicing at home, Tae had become good enough at creating two-dimensional runes that he had graduated to three-dimensional runes. In truth, it was barely a step up in importance compared to the refrigerator runes, but it was the beginning of runes getting ever more complicated.
As such, he had received notice that he would now be expected to report to a planet near the rune library to learn the intricacies of higher-dimensional runes.
Tae grabbed his bag.
“Bye, Mom,” he said, giving her a hug, “Bye, Dad.”
He turned to his sister and gave her a hug, “Love you, too, Dee.”
She squirmed out of his arms, before straightening the wolf pajamas he had gotten her for her fifth birthday a couple of weeks before. She had insisted on wearing them to the spaceport since he was leaving at night.
“Love you, Tae.”
“Bye!” he shouted one last time, as he walked towards the gate.
On reaching the desk in front of the gate, he pulled up his ticket, which an empire official had sent to his email.
“You’re clear to go through,” the gate attendant said, disinterestedly.
He went through the gate and found his way to his cubby. As the ship was meant for travel between solar systems, every passenger got a two-meter by two-meter room to sleep in. The cubbies were also only a meter tall, to double the ship's capacity and encourage passengers to spend time in the public areas, where they could spend more money.
Tae settled in his luggage before returning to the public area. It wasn’t like he had any money to get scammed out of anyway.
He spent some time reading on his phone, during which the ship took off. He went to see the view, as crowded as it was, before he was interrupted by his stomach beginning to growl.
Flagging down an employee, he asked, “What food can my basic ticket get me?”
“Sir, If you have a basic ticket, you're entitled to two nutrient packs and a single hot meal per day,” she replied, then added, almost as an afterthought, “Or you can buy additional meals.”
“Do people not buy the additional meals?” he asked.
“Not often. They are limited in supply and expensive enough that most people just pay up for the better ticket.”
“Oh. Anyways, where do I get the food?”
“Nutrient packs are available from any of the machines with the basic nutrient rune on the front. The nearest one is over around that corner,” she said, gesturing, “The hot meals are available in the mess hall, which you can find by heading towards the front of the ship.”
“Thank you.”
Tae spent the next few days on the ship just reading and getting a little bit of extra practice with his runes.
On approach to the planet, he went to the observation windows again though there wasn’t much to see. The planet they were moving towards was close to becoming an ecumenopolis, though it was possible to see flickers of the atmospheric runic array at work.
“What’s that?” he heard one of the other passengers ask.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He looked to the side, just in time to see a great streak of orange closing in on the ship at incredible speeds. He died before he could process it, one of the first casualties in the first war in empire territory in millenia.
----
“Carsen! Have you double checked this report?” Prince Elluvian called out from his desk.
“Yes, my liege,” Carsen said as he came bustling in.
“So you can confirm that my sisters have truly resorted to simply trying to steal the techniques?”
“Yes.”
Elluvian groaned, “Are they aware that techniques don’t work like that?”
“Yes.”
“And that bypassing our Royal Father’s decision on how the techniques are distributed is high treason?”
“Yes.”
“By the gods, I should have just let them die to the assassinations. That would have been easier to deal with than this.”
He fell silent.
After a few moments, Carsen approached him, “What would you have me do, your highness?”
“Well, obviously, we need to stop them…” he said, trailing off.
Coming to a decision, he spoke again, “Assign a group of men to disrupt the theft. Find a way to expose the plan to my royal father, that he might deal with it. Some things are outside the scope of our influence.”
“Of course, your highness.” Carsen bowed, then left.
Elluvian continued reading through papers for a few minutes then stepped out into the hallway and signaled to his attendant.
“Your highness?” the attendant asked.
“Has my father announced if he wishes to eat in the main dining room today?”
“His majesty has decided that he will be eating in the family dining room tonight,” she answered back professionally, “Would you like me to arrange for you to join him?”
“Yes, I'll be joining my father tonight. Please inform the kitchens.”
“Your highness,” she said, bowing before leaving on her errand.
He went to his room, getting changed to match expected attire for dinner with his father.
Having dressed, he went through the mostly empty hallways to the dining room.
Entering, he bowed, “Your majesty.”
“Rise, son,” replied Desmond, king of Ancrel, “You don’t need to bow to me.”
Elluvian rose. There was a small feast on the table, centered around a pair of roast ducks.
“Thank you, father. Which of my siblings will be joining us?”
“All but your sisters, who have found themselves too busy for their old father.”
He approached the table, and took his seat. His siblings filed in, paying their respects. Several commented on the oddity of his presence, as he normally took his meals in his quarters.
Dinner passed uneventfully, until one of the royal guards entered the room and approached the king. After some quiet words, he left the room.
There was some stifled conversation for the next twenty minutes before their father returned in a thunderous mood.
After getting everyone's attention, he spoke “It has just been brought to my attention that your sisters have attempted to steal the Prince of Life techniques, with the help of two outsiders. I have tolerated your behind the scenes scheming, so long as you remained restrained. If I hear anything more about such schemes, the violators will be severely punished.”
He sat down.
“Father,” one of his brothers asked, “What will you be doing with our sisters?”
“They have been placed in the dungeon, where they will spend the next several years caring for their fellow prisoners.”
Elluvian winced. They would likely be forced to cultivate pure healing techniques to better complete their roles. They would never be able to cultivate even the Nature’s Lord techniques that had been in their family for generations.
----
Devikan’s first memory was of being on the playground. He was around four years old, and had made a new friend.
They had become friends on the sole merit of playing on the same playground, and both having the tendency to treat the intended climbable surfaces as more a suggestion than anything.
It was dark out, but parents on Eclipse-1, the planet informally known as Solumbra by anyone who wasn’t a bureaucrat, had learned to accommodate all light levels as a result of the constant eclipses that affected the planet.
“Ha! Tag, you're it!” screamed the friend whose name he had never learned as he managed to touch Devikan’s shoe as he climbed. They had simply seen each other climbing and started playing.
From there, they had switched games several times, before ending up on tag. Occasionally, other kids would join in, but they were the only ones that stayed the entire time.
After playtime was over, he talked to his mom about his new friend for the entire car ride home from the city park.
Devikan never again saw his friend from that day. Or if he did, he wouldn’t recognize him, nameless and aged beyond recognition.