Donavan L. Cantarito. A man with golden vertical slit pupils, long black hair, with two slender horns coming out of his forehead and a pitch black tail coming from his waist. He was wearing a pair of golden framed glasses and his face was quite handsome. He was using a scaled uniform where the colours of black and white merged to create an aesthetically pleasing look resembling a bartender’s uniform. If you noticed by now, Donavan wasn’t a human, rather he was a Basilisk in human form. Actually most people of Nezdu were Basilisks because they were on the planet of Zaretta, the Basilisk home planet.

Donavan took out a drink underneath the counter as he prepared it for his human guest. His golden pupils scanned the human in front of him. Short golden hair, black eyes with a well built frame, as if he regularly exercised. He looked around his late 20’s in human terms. On his finger was a simple golden ring and a Gallean watch. He was using a scaled suit in Basilisk fashion but with the aesthetics of a human suit, as if he was about to meet someone important but his face held a grim expression. Donavan knew this man very well, he was Maximus Z. Kitonia. Age 456, Donavan’s closest friend and initial investor.

“Donavan one Icethaw please, shipment should arrive yesterday. It puts someone in a hyperfocus state and I need it for this evening”

Donavan golden pupils were filled with a mixture of shock, amusement and disbelief. An Icethaw was an extremely rare commodity used for negotiations and Donavan recently got his hands on a batch.

"Then you're paying it in full"

"Deal"

Donavan kept silent for a while before he sighed again and led Maximus to another VIP room with a personal bar and lounge. Inside the VIP room before Donavan pushed a button underneath the bar counter before the floor split apart and revealed a number of luxurious ice containers. Donavan took one out and pushed the button again which closed the floor.

He carried it to the personal bar and started preparing a Icethaw. Donavan took out a number of vials from the container before pouring it into a large steel bowl. From there he released a thin layer of purple gas from his finger which would mix into the bowl.

"This was your aim from the start wasn't it. This is the type of stuff world leaders drink before a negotiation. This was actually a reserved order for an important inter-planetary conference coming up soon but I ordered extra. If you’re about to go into a negotiation you can’t be as lazy as you were'' Donavan carefully picked up a transparent jellyfish from the container and gently placed it inside before covering the bowl with a lid. Donavan stared at Maximus before continuing.

"In the old days you wouldn't have made it so obvious that that was your aim."

"I knew you were going to give it to me even if I gave less of an effort" Maximus snickered, "That's why I put so little effort into it"

Donavan sighed at his lazy but stylish friend before he asked,

"So tell me, who are you meeting that warrants such a drink from you?”

Maximus smiled before he gave out a hearty laugh.

"Grey Nektura, the Tryphant church’s economic overseer specializing in the trade between the Basilisk from Zaretta and the Humans from Escala. We haven’t talked ever since I got out of the space business and just yesterday he said that he wanted to meet. I suspect that it’s space business though.”

“I thought you weren’t weren’t in the space business anymore after what happened to your wife.” Donavan

Maximus smiled bitterly before he took out a picture of himself, a woman and a girl before he put it back in his pocket.

"I may not be in the space business anymore but I still have friends you know. Apparently Grey wants to see me for advice and he said that it’s better if we talk face to face"

Donavan gently nodded before he noticed that the bowl was gently glowing. He took the bowl and served it to Maximus where he slowly lifted the lid. Inside, the mixture of alcohols were gone and a glowing jellyfish was all that's left. The Icethaw Jellyfish is a special breed of parasitic jellyfish bred from the northern liquid nitrogen seas of the Siren planet of Aurora. It was bred to retain it’s hyperactive state but the sirens genetically modified the Icethaw to become a domesticated species obeying whoever it parasitized onto giving the host full control over their body, improved senses, 10x accelerated thought and 2000% memory retrieval. Due to the harsh conditions of keeping it in a near-birthed state and its short lifespan of 7 days, finding a high-quality icethaw becomes something that only the rich can have access to. Despite its astronomical price, the demand for an Icethaw still tower over the supply making it rare to find on the market creating artificial Icethaws which harbour dangerous side-effects.

Maximus gently touched the glowing jellyfish when it suddenly latched onto his spine connecting itself to the nervous system and the brain. Maximus could feel the surge of computational power inside of him as he accelerated his thoughts so fast it seemed like time stopped. He could smell the range of alcohols behind Donavan, he could hear the murmuring in the other rooms and his eyes felt like they were of an eagle’s. Maximus closed his eyes as he tried to remember everything about Grey Nektura giving him a mental library of each of his major interactions with Grey Nektura for the past decade. Maximus sat there scrolling through his memories in accelerated thought before he searched up his first memories with Donavan.

“Hey Don, I’m just remembering how far we’ve come these past 5 years and it’s still so surreal to me”

Sitting there, Donavan looked around the room with a proud expression on his face.

"I still remember when this place was a small bar in the middle of town" Donavan reminisced.

"There were only a few customers and we only sold cheap drinks. Look at us now, handling orders for Icethaw and Yelkiptus Reeds. We've come a long way these past 5 years."

"I still remember the first day I came into your bar. Depressed about Natalie and Lily's death and cursing the world while drinking my sorrows away" Maximus replied

"Aren't you still angry at the humans for not saving your wife during the crash?" replied a puzzled Donavan

"I haven't come to terms with it yet. I can't forgive the human paramedics for neglecting Natalie and Lily just because they weren’t human. Honestly this entire conflict is a big joke from the start. I’m still fucking pissed for the irresponsible leaders that started this entire mess, I've just realized that Natalie wouldn't want me to live like that for the rest of my life. She loved me for who I am and I love her too. Back then the only thing keeping me from breaking down was the hope that she can be resurrected, you know there's records in history of the Tryphant church resurrecting people. Now, the reason I live is because I have far too much to lose. Natalie and Lily will always leave an emptiness in my heart but life is meant to be lived. It won't always be sad that's something I've learnt coming to this bar of yours." an intoxicated Maximus explained.

Donavan looked at his friend in silence and decided to keep quiet. Looking down to his watch Maximus’s face was suddenly filled with shock.

“fuck. I’m supposed to be meeting him in 30 minutes. That’s like 15 Rypa in Basilisk time”

“Then you must hurry” Donavan replied with a bow “Good luck my friend”

“Thanks Don”

Maximus immediately got up and started running outside. Once outside Maximus saw Nezdu in all of its glory, a city within a tree. The large oak barks surrounded the city and the sky was shadowed by the massive root system. The tree was 20,000 meters in diameter and stood 7,251 meters tall towering as tall as Mt. Everest. Nezdu supported a population of 720,000 sentient life forms with 12 main layers with a district situated on each one. Inside of Nezdu the sight of thousands of roots interconnecting with each other replaced the sight of stars. These hollow roots were the lifeblood of the city serving as the main transportation between the layers. Within these roots are vacuum based elevators powered by air that comes from an artificial lung located on the bottom of Nezdu. According to Donavan the Basilisk as a race were inherently proficient in the manipulation of poisons and liquids. After thousands of years of innovation the Basilisk managed to create massive artificial bio-organic technology with their rich biofuel powering Basilisk society.

The modern day Basilisk civilization terraformed the dead tree of Nezdu to become an artificially living creature with lungs that would filter the poisonous air of Zaretta, provide air to operate the root system elevators, veins with clean water to their residents, a modified nerve system which transferred electricity to the houses of the people and a drone system which served as public defense. On the walls of Nezdu were millions of blue lines that illuminated the sky, these were the nervous system and the proof that Nezdu was truly a living creature.

Maximus rushed to a 5 meter wide root and placed his hand on the wall of the root and closed his eyes connecting to the Nezdu Brain network. He felt something click and his vision was instantly replaced with a field of white with a 3D blueprint of Nezdu. Maximus zoomed into the sixth floor where he found the temple and immediately requested for an elevator. As soon as he did he found that his connection to the Nezdu brain was severed and in front of him the root unraveled displaying a platform waiting for Maximus to get into. Inside Maximus saw that the platform had a diameter around 4 meters and a curved wooden wall encasing him. It was as if he was inside a wooden ball with a platform stationed on the bottom. He knew that the ball shape elevator lets the passenger stay upright the entire trip despite the curves inside the root system. Looking up Maximus saw a luminescent plant that provided light with handrails on the side. Maximus held onto the handrails and suddenly felt the decrease in pressure as he was ascending to the 6th layer which was approximately 1200 meters above the 4th layer. After 7 minutes of waiting Maximus found himself at the 6th layer right inside the Tryphant Church’s main building, a skyscraper-like tower that stood 230 meters tall. He was currently inside a Hub where other roots connected into the Tryphant Church with hundreds of other creatures entering and exiting the roots. Maximus touched the wall of the building which connected him to the Tryphant network where he saw a virtual assistant.

“Hello sir. How may I help you today?” asked the Basilisk lady

“I’m here for an appointment with Grey Nektura at 4:30pm Escala time”

“Mr. Kitonia, please enter the 5th root elevator”

Maximus' vision was cut off again before he saw a map inside his mind that led him to the 5th root elevator. Once inside it directly led him to a room where Grey was already sitting accompanied by an empty chair. Grey was a middle aged man with grey hair, a grey beard and a muscular frame. He was wearing a human suit with a silver watch on his hand. His grey hair was gelled back with a serious look on his face

“Max, a pleasure to see you. Please have a seat you will want to hear what I have to say”

“It’ll be my pleasure” Maximus replied as he took a seat, “So what business brings you here today?”

“I’ll get straight to the point. We can bring back your wife and daughter from the dead”