HTG - Chapter 168 ( Luna POV )

Lunara

Chapter One-Sixty-Eight: Musings of Fate - Part Two

Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

Ruling Government: Republic of Hekate

Solar System: D-2,946

Planet: Ravena Minor

Location: Ara Continent, Ravena’s Temple

Weeks have moved by, and I started attending all of Dargo’s training sessions as he requested. He returned from the Imperium in even more of a mood than before. They have delayed his Trial of Ascension to Inquisitor, or more accurately, Victoria has found a way to delay it. She has sent me more than twenty summons requests, I grow worried that she will report Solara and I for not answering.

My worries are nothing compared to my friend Solara’s; her house has ordered her return, and they threaten to bring warships to this system if my father does not force her to return. My father is silent about his opinion of it. I am thankful he does not cast her away, she tells me they will likely execute her to appease the emperor of their empire. Especially since she has lost favor with Victoria by not answering her summons. Her only hope now is for Dargo to rise and challenge Victoria for us.

Hope dances on the edge of a thread.

The end of autumn fast approaches, the leaves are becoming more scarce on Ravena Minor. It is strange to spend so much time here again, I thought that father would send me to Ravena Prime the first week we returned, but he didn’t. In part because Dargo will not leave Ravena Minor, nor will he allow them to move Kalon again. The runes he has placed to ward him are insanely complex. I even caught my father studying them a few days after they were placed. It is good that Dargo does not have us move, Arrum and the others below the third would not survive the gravity of Ravena Prime.

Kalon’s friends move at remarkable speed through training, the brothers Haki and Daki have broken the first bound, finding the spiritual realm. Arrum apparently had already broken it and not known it was a bound he referred to it as Kalon does, the Realm of Dreams. He speaks fondly of my grandfather, calling him the Sage. Part of me still holds out hope that he is alive, despite all of them believing him dead. Sometimes I sit in his old quarters and wonder what advice he would give for what lies ahead. Yekka tends to the room from time to time, she was always fond of him. I think part of her hopes as well, but we never speak of it.

My pace is swift as I move toward the medical wing of Ravena’s temple. Arrum and the brothers are already there waiting for me, the knights will not let them pass without me escorting them, not since Arrum tried to break the meditube to take Kalon from it.

The knights give me a customary salute, something I still do not think I have earned.

“My Lady,” one of them says, bowing their head, “Elder Dargo has forbidden any from entering.”

I tilt my head, “Why?”

The knight shifts, I don’t think they want to say, but I fold my arms and raise my eyebrow. Technically because I am the heir apparent I outrank Dargo, for now. If he becomes an Inquisitor for our house though, he will technically outrank me. They are wary of him though, more so than me. My reputation is… soft at best according to Kotina. Like my mother’s. Which does not mean they don’t respect me, but Raven’s respect power above all. These knights are all in the third bound, Dargo teaches them from time to time to maintain their obedience.

They finally speak after a long silence, “The mana fluctuations have begun to erode his warding runes, any disturbances will…”

“Is he in there right now?”

“He is, my lady.”

“Let us pass.”

The knights move to attention and step back from the door, it opens from my holopad authorizing it. Father has not removed my access, which means, I am allowed to be here, small victory.

Kalon hangs suspended in a glass tube filled with a thick soup of medigel and other liquids, tubes run from his body to machines that monitor and feed him. His muscles are stimulated by the machines to reduce atrophy. I had to spend a few days in one of these once as a girl after a shuttle crash, the experience is unpleasant if you’re awake, as the tube is not extremely large. It will keep you alive though, there is no better medical equipment in the galaxy, as far as I know. 

“Damnit, girl, stop bullying your knights to get what you want,” Dargo groans, holding up a hand for us to halt.

“I did not bully them, I…”

“What do you want?” he interrupts, not turning to face us.

“We want to see Kalon.”

“You’ve seen him, be on your way, this is delicate work and your unsteady spirits disturb it.”

“My spirit is steady,” I return, then testing the waters I say, “Perhaps you’ve shaped them wrong.”

He turns his head slowly to look at me, “Girl, it is a thousand years too early for you to sass me. Be on your way.”

“Teacher,” Arrum says with his head lowered in respect, “You’re always saying that we need to pay attention when you do things, would this not be a perfect training opportunity?”

I raise my eyebrow as I turn to look at Arrum, he has some guile to him.

Dargo frowns then turns to look at the shimmering runes in the air, “You make a point, boy.” He turns to me, holding up a finger, “Don’t be loud, in fact don’t be anything, just observe for once.”

I could tell him not to speak to me like that, technically. However, he is my teacher, and soon he will hopefully be an Inquisitor. Besides, demanding respect with words often has the opposite effect.

I bow my head slightly in deference, not so much so as to be supplicant, but enough that he sees I will heed him.

“Good,” he says, rolling up his black sleeves.

Dargo’s arms are marred with scars. Ones that I know he could probably remove, yet he doesn’t. Kotina is the same way with scars, she says they are stories. I remember Kalon telling me stories of some of his scars when we laid together in the solace of the Terrarium. I can almost feel his hands on…

“Girl, clear your thoughts and pay attention.”

I straighten, clearing my thoughts and watch as he begins to weave mana. His method of mana tracing is similar to the way my grandfather taught me. The complexity though, it is like watching an artisanal weaver string a thousand cord fabric. Each section that he moves is complementing the next pairing, weaves inside of weaves. The runes are different than the ones before.

“Teacher, why are you not using Farka’s twenty first anymore for that section,” Haki asks.

Dargo takes a moment to consider the question, he is patient with Haki and Daki, often letting them speak out of turn. There is a guilt he feels for giving them to Mallock, or that is what Solara told me. Somehow this guilt does not extend to Fennec though, as Fennec essentially told him to jump into a volcano, according to Kotina. Fennec does not speak with me unless he must, he still holds a grudge for what happened on Ora when I ejected him from our craft… after knocking him out.

Needless to say he does not train with Dargo, even though his abilities have improved dramatically. They will not say what the secret to his rapid advancement is, and when I asked, he told me that he hopped on one foot for three days while rubbing his stomach, and that I should try it.

I did not try it.

“Farka’s twenty-first was a good choice before, however, it failed after a week, so now I am trying Raka’s seventh, it seems to hold better, given its chaotic nature and resistance to Netheric fluctuations which are rampant in this chamber.” He looks at the Etheric dampeners placed all around the room, “Even with a containment field. It’s like Netheric mana wants to bond with him more than the natural attraction it has to Etheric.”

“What do you think that means?” Daki asks.

“I wish I knew,” Dargo sighs with a furrowed brow, “That should be enough for now, eat and gather the rest of the students. I will meet you in the atrium, we will explore Nevars theory on ice runes.” He turns to me, “Which will be extremely enlightening, especially for you, if you pay attention.”

“Of course, teacher, I always pay attention.”

“Would that you paid half the attention they pay, you’d already be able to understand your elemental resonance.”

I wish that he was wrong, but he isn’t.

***

Another week passes and the chill in the air tells me that winter approaches. I am in the middle of having breakfast with Solara and Korra when Kotina finds me.

“Girl, I have news,” Kotina says with a strange expression.

I stand immediately knocking over my water, “He is awake?”

She shakes her head, “Something else.”

My heart slows at the disappointment.

“Do you remember when you asked me to find that girl?”

“Isola?”

She shakes her head, “No, still haven’t found her, but I did find someone else.”

Kotina is smiling now, she seems excited almost, “Who?”

“Riza. The girl from that journal you showed me.”

I blink, my hand touching the table to support me as everything slows, “Riza… Riza is alive?”

“Yes, little pup, she’s alive and well,” she says, then pauses, “Mostly well.”

“Mostly well? Where is she?”

“Here, on Ravena Minor.”

“Here? Riza is here?”

“Yeah, and I promise, you’re never going to believe who she is.”

I tilt my head at her.

“Just come with me, it’ll be easier to show you.”

I move after Kotina in a rush, her short blue hair swaying side to side, Solara and Korra move close behind. Kotina is very tall, so her stride makes Korra have to jog. Small victory. I don’t know why I feel this way about her, Korra has done nothing since she arrived to earn my ire.

Arrum and the brothers sprint after us, causing me to slow.

“Is he awake?” Arrum asks.

“No, this is something else.”

He looks down solemnly and nods, falling back and returning to the dining hall. There is a defeated expression on his face. I stop and turn, I should make an effort to become friends with him, it would make Kalon happy if we got along well.

“Arrum,” I call after him. He turns to face me again, “Would you… would you like to go with us?”

He looks at Korra who gives him a strange smile then back at me, “Can the brothers come?”

I nod.

“We will go, Lady.”

When he approaches, I tell him, “You don’t have to call me, Lady, just call me Luna.”

“No, he should call you Lady,” Kotina says, there is no gruffness in the tone as she says, “It’s good practice for when he joins our house.”

Arrum says nothing to this. Many of the Kuwathi that we freed have joined our house and been sent to worlds where there are opportunities for them to succeed, but the ones close to Kalon, the ones that saw him first hand defying the Governor and slaying him, they wait for him to decide the path. There is fervor in some of them and fierce loyalty. Their loyalty makes me realize that Kalon is a better leader than me. I need to work on that. Someday I will have to take my father’s place. If he were to die now… I fear as Yekka fears, I may not be ready to take the mantle of Primus.