HTG - Chapter 186

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-Six: Ethaki - Part Two

Planet: Etheria

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Present Time

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A sea of beady eyes glowing in the darkness look at Kotina and me. Heavy thuds are coming from the ground as their bodies walk forward. Low feral growls in a chorus surround us on both sides of the river, though they seem to avoid the blue humming light of the formations that jut up from the ground. I think about what Amon said before.

Be wary and do not venture where the light does not shine.

My eyes take in the monstrosities that form in the shadows of this planet, thousands of glowing blue eyes that connect with grotesque deformed bodies, my once hot blood runs cold as I see their mouths, spindles of teeth snapping at us from the edges of the shoreline.

Kotina pulls us back into the rapid waters as she curses between breaths. It is too late though, the horde of creatures leaps into the waters after us. Jaws snap at us as their strange half-formed appendages churn the surface of the water, as though possessed with only one want, to devour that before it.

Those that venture too close to the formations of blue light along the shore shriek in pain, their grey skin molting from it. They must be like their inverse, the Shulka in this way. Shulka also hate the light.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Kotina says, crushing the skull of one that comes close, it sprays out deep black, tainting the water, “Disgusting.”

Their blood is like the Shulka too. Strange.

In the distance, I see the river forks, one side leading to a cave of some kind, blue light brimming from it, the water illuminated more so by it. The other side disappears over a cliff.

“There!” I yell over the torrents of water, pointing with my hand, the waters running black with blood from the creatures Kotina kills. I am slowing her down, she only has one arm she can use, the other holds me up from the raging rapids. In this gravity it is hard to swim, especially with how weary I am from whatever is happening to me.

She turns to look at it, then kicks her legs, plowing us through the water, the sheer force of each kick sending waves of water backward in defiance of the river's flow, spilling the water onto the banks and pressing the creatures back.

She twirls in the water and hurls me towards the mouth of the cave filled with the blue light, sending me flying towards it. Sekat, she’s strong. My body tumbles against the hard ground, I try to roll to disperse the force, clawing with my calloused hands to anchor me in a slide. The stone floor shreds into my tattered clothes, covering me with scrapes. My head slams against a rock, another slam as my back connects with one of the blue formations.

Still dazed from hitting my head, I manage to stand, I hear Kotina yelling in the distance, but everything is spinning. My hand touches my forehead, coating it in blood, I stumble over, catching myself on one of the formations that glow. There are vibrations coming from it, the light from the formation grows brighter as my blood traces down it. Entrancing me in its glow. I feel the energy that overflowed being drawn to it.

“I said don’t touch that,” Kotina’s voice says as she pulls me off of it, “Adding deaf to your list of problems.”

My head becomes a little clearer as I feel her dragging me into the mouth of the cave. The creatures shriek and howl from the edge of the light.

“Never touch that stuff,” she says tossing me against the wall of the cave.

My body aches, cuts all over me stinging, but I am alive, thanks to her.

“Never seen so many Ethaki before, pairing that with the unfathomable amount of Etherium Prism Flowers, we are definitely in an uncharted area of Etheria, probably on the edge of the southern line,” she says, pacing back and forth, “Which means… fuck, what does that even mean?”

“This thing, what is it?” I ask, it looks like Etherium that’s been bonded with some type of alloy.

“That stuff you touched,” she says with an irritated sigh, “Is something that Arkon said never touch. Our goddess said it is left over from the Ancient ones, its purpose, we don’t know. But it will drain the life from anyone who touches it too long. I’ve seen it on other worlds that have Ancient ruins. Bad stuff all around. Best to avoid it at all costs.”

Her armor is melting in a few places I realize, as though sprayed with acid, the soup of metal that bubbles rolls down to the ground.

“Your armor, it’s melting,” I say, pointing to it.

She stops her pacing and looks where I point.

“Fuck’s sake,” she sighs, “I just bought this suit. Fucking Ethaki.”

She kicks the wall, causing the stone to crack, making small rocks fall to the cave’s floor. She lets out grumbles of curses under her breath as she scrapes the acid off with the stones she just made. When she finishes, she moves towards the mouth of the cave, inspecting the darkness. The growls become louder as she approaches. The creatures do not venture in towards the light though, they wait patiently, hoping we will foolishly venture out.

“We will stay here until sunrise, Ethaki hatchlings typically stay away from sunlight, their skin isn’t fully formed yet.”

My jaw tenses as I debate what questions to ask. There are so many, where would I even begin? It’s hard to think while maintaining the pull of Sha. She said they were hatchlings, which would explain the deformities, they haven’t fully grown into shape yet. Kotina looks at me sideways, with a sigh she slumps down next to me against the wall.

“Out with it runt. You’ve got three questions before I rack out. But first, I got a few of my own.”

Only three, which three things should I ask about, there is so much I do not know. So much I feel that I need to know. As I hear the screeches in the darkness, my thoughts become more focused.

“What are your questions?” I ask.

She adjusts herself, folding her arms tighter, “What really happened in the Colosseum?”

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

“Well, I heard the official hush, hush bullshit story from Arkon as a briefing to all the trusted Knight Commanders of the house. I was there for the incident… but I was um,” she furrows her brow, “I was knocked out, fucking bald bastard. Anyway, the thing is, Luna said you killed that fuckwit Governor, Adonius, but the records don’t say that at all. The records say that he died in the crash. Asked Fennec, he said the same thing as Luna, that you killed Adonius. Had an edict fight or something. Tried to get the full story out of Arkon, but he’s a tough nut to crack, and he basically wanted me to ask you what happened. Luna even said some nonsense about an Edict shattering. I guess I’m just asking for clarity as to what actually happened.”

“We killed him twice,” I say coldly, recalling his face beneath my boot.

“We?”

“The first time was Adona, his sister and former Warden. She cut his throat after we flayed his back,” I say, giving the movements with my blade, telling the story in the custom of my people, showing what happened.

Kotina’s eyes open with her smile fully as she sits up all the way, “Hekate’s left nip, tell me you’re not just pulling my leg,” she pauses then tilts her head, “Wait, you said twice?”

Seeing that I have something she wants I decide to ask my own questions, “You said before that there was little information on Netheric users in the Imperium’s archive. But you never did say what you found.”

An Ulima must always find ways to trade for what they need.

She grunts and looks toward the darkness, “I’m not supposed to talk about that stuff. The clearance of a Knight Commander is not something that’s taken lightly. I will say this though, when I went to pull the information again, it wasn’t there. Strange, don’t you think?”

Strange indeed.

“Anyway, I bet that fuckwit Adonius squealed like the little maggot he is,” she chuckles, “sorry, was.”

I nod, though it does not make me happy to think about it. Images of those he slew, those that Krotha slew with my body still linger on my mind, the weight of their deaths heavy on me still. It takes a moment, but I find the thread of calm and pull it back to reality. Kotina’s watchful eyes can see it troubles me, so she straightens her face, trying to hide her glee.

After I tell her of his resurrection and the blood that followed, she ponders on it for a time.

“Strange that a God would expend that much Divinity on such a turd,” she says pensively.

Divinity? I want to ask, but I only have two questions left and she has yet to answer the first.

“It is my fault, I think,” I admit, putting my blade down, no longer in the mood to tell the story properly, in the way my people teach.

“Nah, a God wouldn’t care about a runt like you. Cursed Edict or not,” she says, then scratching her chin, “They usually only care about themselves. A selfish lot, most Gods.”

“Even if I called them the God of Cowards?” I ask, turning to her again, “Saying it for all to hear, challenging them. Saying my people will rise and burn House Helenius to the ground, that I come for them next in the afterlife. All while torturing the heir apparent of the god’s house.”

Kotina raises an eyebrow, “How many people roughly?”

“The entire Colosseum.”

She laughs, then straightens her face, “Yeah that might piss a God off. Probably not advisable most would say. Not sure anyone’s…” she pauses, choosing her words, “brave enough.”

My jaw tenses more, so it was my fault. If I had not called out his God, those people wouldn’t have died. The weight deepens upon my shoulders. My stomach twisting into knots, thousands of souls that I must carry. The faces of the mothers who cried and the young play on my mind again. Each of their faces burned into my memory, each cry to the deaf ears of the Gods echoing in mine. There is so much that has happened in the last months and there has been no time to truly process anything, it threatens to spill out again, even as I try to hold it back. My focus pulls back to reality as Kotina speaks again.

“So, how’d he die a second time?” she asks.

I slowly tell her, not really in the mood to speak on it. The feelings of remorse for calling out the God of Cowards rise in me. Was it pride? Why did I do that? If I pursue House Helenius… how many more will die? Sekat, the emotions twist in me like a storm.

Before I can finish telling her of the end of the fight, telling her of the shattering of the Edict and the words I heard, she speaks, interrupting me.

“So what Luna and Fennec said was true. You fought him, with his God’s blessing and an Edict…” she stands now, pacing back and forth, “And you won? I mean obviously you won, you’re alive… but still, that’s insane. A god’s direct blessing is no small thing.”

My eyes lower, did I really win? How does one measure success when so many lives are spent needlessly to obtain it? The emotions rise further. Amon’s voice enters my mind now, speaking to me in the old tongue.

Dun Yalla.

Its meaning - Seek the calm. He is right, I must find the calm, this is not the time to lose my resolve.

“Sha,” I whisper in the old tongue, pulling it all back into me as the meaning of it resounds in me. The chorus of screams in my memories becomes more silent. The emotions become more still once more.

Kotina looks at me as I breathe slowly in and out.

“What does that mean?” she asks as she peers at me.

“The closest meaning in your tongue… to pull or contract.”

“Huh, seems like the mana calms when you say it. Okay, back to the maggot Adonius, finish the story,” she says, there is excitement in her voice, I do not know why she despises him or his House, but I sense there is a deeper meaning behind it.

When the calm finds me again, I look up towards her, raising an eyebrow.

“You still have not answered my first question, yet I have answered many of yours.”

Kotina’s mouth wraps into a grin.

“Cheeky lil’ runt.”