Chapter Three

I looked down at the city from high atop a skyscraper, my body and face protected by the odd battle suit I was able to summon. The black ensemble was skintight in appearance but moved like it was part of me. Parts were accentuated by dark metal decorations that followed the shape of my body. The armored sections were made up of the same metal. The damned thing would have been perfect for stealth missions…if it weren’t for the obnoxiously bright neon blue piping and glowing technological pieces.

Honestly. I wished we knew how the damned suits worked, so I could fix mine to be less conspicuous.

“Come back inside, please. We have much to discuss and I would really prefer if we didn’t do it several hundred feet off the ground.” Zafir’s voice came over the communicator inside my mask-visor-thing.

Reluctantly, I made my way back inside and let the suit disappear. Zafir sighed in relief and ran his hand back through his hair. “We need to discuss the status of the others, and how best to study your abilities. Where would you like me to start?”

“What is it about my abilities that perplexes you?” I asked as we headed to the elevator.

“The others have all exhibited elemental abilities thus far, but yours remain unclassified. One of the men exhibited what we thought was darkness, but we later realized it more like…plague or necrosis. From what I understand, you have multiple elemental capabilities, and something ‘else.’ I am wondering if it is also a more nuanced concept…”

Zafir paused awkwardly as if he’d wanted to address me by name. Once we were in the elevator and we were heading down, I gave him the side eye briefly before stating, “Elara. You can call me Elara.”

“What—? You decided on a name already?” He turned toward me with widened eyes.

“Mmm, the Syldrari don’t want to call me by a number either—and I wasn’t going to divulge my designation anyway. They gave a suggestion, and I liked it.” I linked my hands behind my back as I carefully watched Zafir’s reaction.

“Elara… I’m afraid my knowledge of the Syldran language systems isn’t good. Did you find out what it means?” Zafir latched onto the topic with intense curiosity.

“Mm. It’s part of a word that means ‘song of the depths.’ The full word would be too difficult for humans to say, apparently.” I eyed him as he started rapidly typing on his data pad with one hand. “What are you doing?”

“Inputting your name so our systems can update accordingly.” Zafir glanced over at me. “Did they say why they gave you that name?”

“Oh…no, I suppose I should have asked.” I tilted my head. “Maybe next time I’m in the area…”

“And you actually enjoy their food? I hear it’s an acquired taste.” Zafir grimaced.

“They’re more surprised than you are,” I mused. “I don’t like everything. There were these vegetable things with one of the dishes that were too bitter, juicy, and slimy for me, but the rest of it is interesting in a good way. Unique, but balanced flavors. Helluvalot of seafood, I noticed.”

“I hear they come from a planet which is nearly all ocean. No human has been to it, however, as it’s quite far and the atmosphere is toxic to us.” Zafir sighed wistfully. I tilted my head faintly, gauging his tone. He didn’t sound like he was lying, but it seemed odd to me that humans had never visited—or at least flown past it or scanned it with long-range instruments. “I’d have loved to visit it someday, but I can’t swim, our own oceans terrify me enough as it is, and if I can’t breathe the air… What are you snickering about?”

“You can handle mutated humans who can go berserk and kill everyone in the complex at any moment—yet you can’t deal with the ocean?” I laughed and shook my head. “I think your priorities may be a little broken.”

Zafir opened his mouth to say something but was promptly cut off by an alarm blaring and the lights inside the elevator turning red. “Alert: An unknown threat has appeared in Cascade Park. Requesting immediate combat and medical response teams.”

Zafir swiftly tapped away at his data pad, his expression growing more and more serious. When he got to whatever he was looking for, mild surprise spread across his face. He recovered and turned to me, showing me the camera image on the data pad. “Put your battle suit on—you’re up. This isn’t something our soldiers can handle. I’ll connect to your visor and guide you through the city to Cascade Park—it’s in the Syldrari Sector. This…monster shouldn’t be on this planet.”

A…literal monster? I eyed the image. “That thing looks a lot bigger than me. What is it? Some sort of aetheromechanical chimeric monstrosity?”

“That…is an apt description, yes.” Zafir shook his head before jamming his fingers into a pattern of buttons. “Law-abiding Syldrari are unarmed civilians—otherwise they could take care of it on their own. That thing could decimate most of the sector if left unchecked, not to mention how many of our people it will kill in the process.”

“And since you think this suit is Syldrari war technology… I get it, I get it. Fine.” I adjusted my gauntlets, stretching my fingers a few times. “Am I really running there?”

“There’s a vehicle in the garage for you. It exits from a civilian docking center, so you can leave without raising suspicion to your military connections.” Zafir shook his head and resumed typing. “Our soldiers have instructions to wait until you’ve dealt with the beast before ‘trying’ to arrest you for illegal weaponry. They’ll fail, you’ll hop on your skybike and return to headquarters. Since you haven’t learned to drive yet, I’ve loaded the path into its programming. You just have to hold on.”

“…right.” I sighed heavily and followed Zafir out of the elevator, struggling a little to keep up with his brisk pace. The vehicle he mentioned suited my tastes nicely, at least. On the ground, it was a black, sleek motorcycle. Since he’d called it a skybike, I assumed it could convert between the two. Either way, it looked appropriately badass. I straddled it and then looked over at Zafir. “Recommendations on how to conduct myself?”

“Give no name other than your codename. You can speak since the visor modulates your voice. If you recognize anyone…don’t let it show. You need to keep your identity a secret if this is going to work.” Zafir tapped a few buttons, causing the vehicle to whirr to life, its wheels retracting as it began to float. “I’ll brief you on the creature’s weaknesses over comms while you’re in transit. Hold on, and lean low.”

Once I adjusted, Zafir pressed a button and the skybike sped out of the garage and through a complex system of tunnels before exiting into the city. The contrasting dark metals and neon signs at night made visibility…shit, honestly.

“The beast’s spines and claws are an alien metal alloy. As far as our weaponry is concerned, it is indestructible.” Zafir fed an image into half my visor. “Its weaknesses are the parts which are still flesh and blood, as well as the tubing that connects its mechanical parts. The mechanical portions require aether, coolant, and lubricant to function properly as the creature isn’t smart enough to manage its own aether.”

Neither are humans, though… I decided to keep that thought to myself.

“I can’t tell if this one has a reinforced skull, but a strike through the brain is usually the best way to stop them. If not the brain, its heart is here. You can only access it from between its ribs here and here. The brain is a safer bet. If you can destroy its cooling systems and make it angry, however…”

“I get the idea,” I stated, referencing the map. “Almost there.”

“Good luck. Try to come back in one piece, alright?”

“Mmhmm,” I muttered as the skybike came to a stop on a rooftop a few blocks away from the park. Even from there, I spotted the monstrosity that was prowling around. It was easily a full story in height. Not cool

…kind of cool.

I hopped off the bike and darted over the rooftops toward my destination, noting that there were quite a few Syldrari watching the monster from inside their homes. Some were even watching and waiting from the street.

There was blood all over the ground near the beast…as well as a bright blue liquid in lesser quantity.

“Oh no… it killed a Syldrari too?” Zafir’s statement caught me off guard. “Kill it quickly, Lethe. It’s already looking for more prey.”

Prey…that’s a good word. I crept closer to the park, stalking the monster as it paced. Something stirred in me when I spotted a gash in its chest. It was already wounded. Someone had made my hunt easier?

How dare they.

I shot out of the bushes at top speed and pulled a fist back, punching the gargantuan creature hard in the side of its jaw. It staggered, caught off guard, before roaring and swiping toward me with its claws. I wove out of reach, before calling lightning around my gauntlets and striking one of its plated flanks—nothing. It didn’t appear to absorb the charge, but it certainly wasn’t enough to faze the damned thing.

Giddy at the prospect of a challenge, I continued pelting the monstrosity from different angles in search of a weakness. It grew angrier and angrier as it discovered its claws couldn’t pierce my suit. The impact hurt, of course, but the ‘special alien alloy’ was no match for whatever my suit was made out of.

“Is that…human using magic? It must be magitech, right?” I heard whispers nearby. Lovely. I had spectators.

“Just die already!” I snarled, engulfing the entire beast in a sphere of water. Then…a mildly sadistic idea ran through my mind. I didn’t have a blade to pierce its brain with…but water was an excellent conductor. With a motion of my hand, lightning struck the sphere, electrocuting the already drowning monstrosity.

“Who…what are you?” A familiar voice demanded. I shifted to see the group of Syldrari onlookers, maintaining their human disguises to their credit. At the forefront was the cafe owner, Rel, who appeared to be struggling between thankful, confused, and enraged. “That was—”

“—so cool!” A young woman pushed him out of her way. “Nasty thing came out of nowhere! A city is no place for monsters, no, no, no! Without weapons, we didn’t know how we would hunt it… Mmm, mmm… Rel? Do you think R’selkti trickery?”

“…it…is possible.” Rel glanced at her briefly before narrowing his eyes at me. “I believe I asked who you are.”

“…Lethe,” I stated.

Rel’s eyes unfocused slightly and his head tilted as if processing what he’d just heard. I kept my expression passive, but internally, I was wondering if the Syldrari were capable of hearing through the filters on my voice.

“There she is! Capture her, use force if you have to!” A soldier barked. I pivoted to see a group of men raising their guns—tranquilizers.

No thanks. I shifted my stance slightly. “I’ll be going now.”

“Wait—” Rel started, but I had no intentions of staying and getting tranq’d. I leapt into the air and landed on a balcony, quickly scaling my way up onto the roofs and made my way back to my skybike.

“Status report?” Zafir’s face appeared in my peripheral vision as the bike shot off.

I grimaced when I realized I tasted blood in my mouth. “Ngh. Bruising. I either cracked something, or I bit my tongue or cheek when jostled during guarding. The suit protected me from ripping and tearing, but not blunt force.”

“You were reckless,” Zafir sighed heavily.

“Hunting is…fun. I got carried away. It should be easier to manage as I adjust to the fact I’m no longer caged.” I winced, feeling an unfamiliar shooting pain through my temples.

“Report to the medical bay immediately when you get back.” Zafir tried to give me a warning look, but it was more concern than anything.

“You said that thing killed some Syldrari?” I asked, feeling my head swim briefly.

Zafir seemed to get the hint that conversation was needed to keep me awake, and on the bike, thankfully. “Ah…I see. Yes. The blue liquid around the site was Syldrari blood. The color of their bodily fluids is but one of many reasons so many humans find them disturbing. Their eyes, of course, are another.”

I groaned. “Did you have to say, ‘bodily fluids’ like that?”

“Like what? It’s common knowledge that all their— Ah.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, now you’re aware. While yes, they are expert shapeshifters, their bodily fluids and their eyes are two things they can’t disguise. As such, if you see a flustered or embarrassed Syldrari in human form, they will blush blue. They turn blue in the face when angry as well, much like how we turn red. As for their eyes, their evolution is quite extraordinary, really. The central pupil functions similarly to that of a human’s, but the others capture different spectrums which are relayed to separate retinas within the eye. As such, they can see many more spectrums than us. I hear they can filter which they wish to see at will.”

“Kind of like selective hearing, but instead with sight?” I asked dryly.

“Yes! Something like that.” Zafir laughed.

“…what do you think about the woman who suggested the monster was a R’selkti tactic?” I narrowed my eyes.

“…hmmm. it makes me suspect her of having connections to the R’selkti. While they’ve been known to drop monsters into cities on other planets, they’ve never done so here, and no ship was sighted.” Zafir shook his head. “Once you’re well enough to go out without raising suspicion, I want you to go to the Syldrari Sector to determine what the public opinion is. I’ll arrange for you to go there on ‘lunch break’ from one of your ‘patrols’ so they don’t grow suspicious of you.”

The skybike parked in the garage as a small team of medics, accompanied by Zafir, carefully approached me. I staggered off the bike, wincing as my muscles and bruises pulled. “Ugh, that damn thing played rough… You know, no one told me I’d be fighting literal monsters.”

“I wasn’t aware either.” Zafir shook his head, then motioned at the gurney. “Cooperate. I’d rather you not keel over and split your skull open out of some desire to maintain your pride.”

“Blegh.” I stuck my tongue out at him but did as he suggested. “I’m starving after all that.”

Zafir laughed and patted my head. “You did well, Elara. I’ll have food sent to your rooms while the medics take care of you.”

I blinked after him as he walked away, more than a little startled by the praise. So much so, that I didn’t even argue when the medics asked me to lay back on the gurney. I honestly wasn’t sure what threw me off more—the praise or calling me by name.

What universe is this, and how did I get here?

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