Chapter Thirty-Nine

“Now then, I will preface with the following,” Zafir began, taking a seat across from Rel, then motioning for the guards to shut the door. “Unlike Jysel, Casair and I are prepared to put Elara’s safety before the other queens depending on what information is uncovered. Jysel is focusing too much on ‘saving many instead of one.’”

“Then why do you have her continuing this nonsense with the humans?” Rel narrowed his eyes. “Not only is she a queen, but if she is a Depthwalker as they suggested—”

“Let me explain from the beginning.” Zafir made a dismissive motion. “The other night, I caught Elara humming to herself as she wandered the building—she had just returned from fetching the books you sent her.

“I recognized the song as one of the forbidden arts and pulled her aside to stop her. She is utterly convinced it’s merely a lullaby, when in fact she was singing one of the lethal songs. You study our past during your leisure time, yes?”

“Few known clans would have sung such songs as a lullaby,” Rel answered quietly, frowning. “However, Citomy and her predecessor supposedly extinguished those clans.”

“…those clans didn’t create the forbidden songs,” Zafir stated, pulling out his data pad, tapping a few times, and then handing it to Rel. “During interrogation they spoke of powerful clans that had removed themselves from Syldra and its politics in favor of free exploration—of both space and the arts.”

Rel skimmed the document warily, a pit growing in his stomach. “This…implies the Abyss Father is alive, and that he led clans elsewhere. Are you certain these aren’t the ravings of a madman? I’ve seen his tomb, he—”

“We’ve seen the outside of his tomb. Never its interior.” Zafir shook his head quickly. “I charted several possible courses from Syldra with exploration in mind. The Abyss Father and his followers were always searching for darker, more dangerous depths to explore. His Final Verse spoke of sifting through the deepest reaches of the universe—most believe he went to the Fringes.”

“…you believe he went down .” Rel stared at Zafir for a moment, then back to the data pad, flipping through the files until he found the star charts. “You believe one of the clans may have crashed on this planet?”

“Or, depending on how their culture has changed, she could have been exiled for her powers as a queen,” Zafir hesitated, then let out a small sigh. “What I am about to tell you doesn’t leave this room. Understand?”

Rel narrowed his eyes but nodded.

Zafir let out a reluctant sigh. “Elara’s team…they are her guards, Rel. Their memories are partially intact—they remember the Resonance Incident, and they recall making some pledge to defend her, but the rest appears to be missing. They’re just barely managing to pretend they’re human.”

“Yet they have no clan marks… What of their bloodlines?” Rel prompted.

“Much like Elara, they don’t exist in any of the databases I’ve tried.”

Casair stepped forward. “Hold on a minute. There’s a detail about the Abyss Father you skipped over.”

“Which is? Rel demanded.

“It isn’t just that Zafir thinks the Abyss Father went down , he thinks he’s still going down…unless he finds a reason to come back up.” Casair crossed his arms over his chest.

“And if he lost contact with his people here…” Zafir shook his head. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. The primary issue is Elara—at best, she’s a queen whose mind was wiped before she was dumped on this planet. At worst, she has some connection to one of the Abyss Father’s clans.”

“If she belongs to one of his clans, wouldn’t that make her valuable to them? None of those clans ever produced a queen.” Rel frowned deeply. “And with the Abyss Father’s rumored ability, he wouldn’t need to fear her power.”

“She would be a threat to the others,” Zafir pointed out. “Yet she was given guards. Someone wanted her to survive.”

“…survival becomes less and less likely the longer she remains with the humans.” Rel narrowed his eyes.

“Which is why we need to be cautious in our attempts to draw out anyone with connections to her,” Zafir stated flatly. “We need more allies. Even if Clan V’shir and Jysel’s R’selkti team up, we have nowhere near enough resources.”

“You…want to use her as bait for whichever clan she belongs to?” Rel exclaimed. “Are you out of your mind? What of all the other bites you will get in the process? They’ll eat her alive.”

“Not quite…” Zafir hesitated a moment, then glanced to Casair. “Do you still have that report?”

“Ugh, this is a mistake…” Casair muttered as he stalked over to a wall and pressed a panel, revealing a stack of stored documents. He plucked a sheet of black paper from it and offered it to Rel.

Rel pored over the chart several times before looking to Zafir. “This can’t be right.”

“I’ve checked several times. It is.”

Rel hesitated and studied it again, speaking slowly, “I’ve sparred with her several times, now that I’m training her. You’ve been there. Not once has she shown this kind of power or potential.”

“She could change things,” Casair stated bluntly. “Sure, she may not forgive us if we value her over the seeming majority. But…saving her is saving the majority. If we help her survive, she—”

“—could replace Citomy…” Rel breathed, his voice a mere whisper. “You would let that kind of power rest in human hands? I cannot condone—”

“Sir, if I may…” one of the guards spoke up nervously, then Casair motioned him to speak. “Shouldn’t we be finding a way to win her over as our queen? With her leadership, the other clans would respect us again!”

“No, they would hunt you down quicker, believing that she’s a rogue queen.” Rel shook his head, then a smile slowly spread across his lips. “For the V’shir, however…”

“ We discovered her.” Zafir narrowed his eyes at Rel.

“Please. Which of us is hiding in foreign caverns, and which of us can move freely?” Rel smirked and steepled his fingers. “Besides, you know as well as I do what my connection is to Jysel and this clan. My queen is his queen.”

Zafir narrowed his eyes at Rel. “Even if she’s a Depthwalker or Abysstouched?”

“This is Elara we’re talking about. When does she ever let others or events define who she is?” Rel shook his head and leaned forward. “Now, explain to me why I shouldn’t lure her to the Syldrari Sector and undock the first chance I get?”

“That’s…” Zafir sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The humans have been keeping the resonance weapon trained on the sector for a few weeks now. There are individuals within Imperator Julien’s inner circle who are pushing for it to be fired—they want to start a war to wipe out all non-human life and believe the weapon to be so perfect that their success is guaranteed.

“If you undock while their attention is on you, not only will your clan and Elara perish, but so will everyone and everything on this planet—including your brother, and any remnants that could give us clues to Elara’s identity or origins.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with humans. You should have simply said that from the start.” Rel gave Zafir a thoroughly unamused glance. “If whisking her away isn’t an option, then what?”

“We bide our time and collect information so that we can extract her from this awful planet.” Zafir nodded once. “You know as well as I do that taking her to Syldra, even if the gate were fixed, is out of the question. We can’t let the other queens sink their hooks into her.”

The door swung open, and an exhausted looking Jysel walked in. “I found another military installation linked to the missing queens…we have a problem.”

Rel frowned at his haggard twin. “What is it?”

“It’s in the same region as the first Resonance Incident.” Jysel rubbed his jaw. “Close. It would have suffered some effects of the weapon, but the facility is still running.”

“…you think Elara may have been experimented on there?” Zafir murmured with displeasure.

“I had my men on the cityship study the samples you asked for help with,” Jysel began, hands rummaging in his pockets. “You were right to find it odd that Elara…how did you put it…”

“She reacted poorly and venomously to one of the survivors outside her team,” Zafir answered. When Jysel handed him a folded piece of paper, he went pale. “Sydney has some of Elara’s cells? That…”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of her team has had data stolen and infused into other humans,” Jysel stated flatly, his eyes narrowing dangerously. “They’re still attempting to create artificial super soldiers. You need to be careful of this ‘Sydney’ creature. If she’s inherited any of Elara’s abilities—especially those of a queen—you’re in great danger.”

“You don’t think she’s already claimed us by accident?” Rel inquired dryly, earning a warning look from his brother. “Was that not your concern the last time we spoke?”

“And you were right…she hasn’t taken over us,” Jysel answered begrudgingly.

“But she is struggling more and more to contain her power,” Zafir murmured, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “She doesn’t know how to control it. Instead, she takes care with her phrasing. But…that will only last so long, and I am not qualified to teach her.”

“Only another queen would be, and I don’t believe it’s safe to expose her to them any further.” Jysel crossed his arms over his chest.

“Xilen—” Rel started.

“—has wanted you for centuries,” Jysel interjected flatly. “She is still a queen, born and raised on Syldra. We can’t trust she won’t begin to see Elara as a threat.”

“What did you say…?” Zafir murmured distractedly. “Born and raised…”

“What now?” Casair sighed at the mumbling man.

“She isn’t in our databases because she wasn’t born on Syldra or any of the planets whose databases have been connected,” Zafir answered, quickly navigating through his data pad. “But explorers would use localized databases off the grid, leaving them as caches they could return to or for us to find whenever we caught up. If this planet—”

“There should be a cache here. Right.” Jysel touched a device encircling his wrist and broadcast to his clan, “All hands assigned to data retrieval: be advised we believe there to be a Syldrari information cache somewhere on this planet. Start looking for it. ”

“Mmm, my scans when I brought Clan V’shir here didn’t detect anything,” Rel remarked, propping his cheek against his hand. “Granted that was with old technology…”

“Shouldn’t you be getting back?” Jysel gave his twin an unamused glance.

Rel shot the look right back at him. “Perhaps, but our discussions aren’t yet over. You will draft a plan for extracting Elara and her team—and you will not be leaving me out of it.”

Zafir spoke up before the brothers could begin arguing, “You both need to be prepared for the possibility she may become your queen—and not by choice. Yours or hers. Citomy is still pressuring anyone she can.”

“You think she’s after something on this planet?” Casair asked as the twins fell silent. “Well, other than the usual.”

“We’re certain she has someone on the inside at Resonance Project HQ.” Zafir sighed and nestled back in his seat. “Plus…knowing her reach, I wouldn’t be surprised if she is already aware that Depthwalkers or Abysstouched have been to this planet. She may believe that we’ve already found the cache and is trying to bind Rel and Jysel to a queen so they can be forced to disclose the information.”

“She hasn’t learned of Elara’s potential yet?” Rel murmured, frowning.

“No. I doubt HQ would still be standing if she had.” Zafir rose to his feet, his eyes on his data pad. “If you’ll excuse me, I seem to have work to attend to.”

“What work?” Jysel shot Zafir an expectant look.

“Information on the eighth, most recent, Resonance Incident. I’ve had someone digging for footage.”

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