Galactic High

The stars had aligned for Svaartal this day, and yet he was still nervous as he waited for his sister.

They had planned for this day for years, had go-bags prepared, false identities forged, and non-detection enchantments crafted. Everything they would need to escape their abusive household for good.

There had been many things stopping them from leaving earlier: funds being the main problem and Master Kull being the other. The old squadmate and battle buddy of his father kept a close eye on the pair of them, and would remain a threat as long as Svaartal and Svaarti were students.

Or until he was removed as a teacher.

Fortunately, the mountain of evidence Svaartal had gathered over the years had served him well when he sent an anonymous data package to the headmaster's secretary after lunch, and then Kull was caught attempting to run the gauntlet on another class, even physically manhandling one of the students.

Even the headmaster had been forced to take action.

And it was fortuitous too. Kull had tried to punish Svaartal for getting his favoured students killed by forcing him to endure the gauntlet that morning, however, a quick blink to the viewing stands had easily gotten him out of that problem, to some serious rage from the Master, though his fellow students had not been so lucky. At least Svaarti didn't have that class for another few days.

It was funny in a way, Kull was usually a lot more careful, but by sheer fortune his office had been targeted by a phantom shitter, and so he became even more unhinged than usual. Svaartal calculated that he would end up at his favourite watering hole in a few hours, which his father would no doubt join him at for the rest of the night.

More than enough time for Svaartal and his sister to move out with more than just their go-bags. Though Svaarti had pushed back a little at the idea of residing in Drow territory, she agreed that it was far better than living with their father.

His thoughts were interrupted by a figure approaching him. It wasn’t his sister. There was only one Ilithii he knew of, and she floated in mid-air across from him.

"Dhassi." Svaartal coldly greeted his classmate as they stopped. Though they knew each other in the past they had drifted apart and had kept their distance from each other. Considering what had gone down that weekend, he had seen this meeting coming.

He wasn't afraid. He had a few tricks that would be more than a match for the Ilithii, were she foolish enough to attack. He knew she couldn't read his aura either, one of the few basic cantrips his mother had directly taught him before her passing when he was still very young, Svaarti barely even speaking her first words at that time.

Svaartal. Chiyo coldly addressed the Nirah. I saw the false enchantments you placed on your friends that attacked us. What's your deal?

Svaartal gave a sly smile. It was a bad idea for Xharl and Kralk to let him cast unknown spells on them after insulting him.

"Evening the odds," Svaartal simply replied. "I only wanted to kill the Deathworlder, and an early victory for either side would jeopardise that. Besides, Svaarti wouldn't be too happy if her friends ended up dead or…"

Your group's threats were very clear to us. Chiyo cut him off.

"My group?" Svaartal recoiled in mock hurt, subtly palming one of his wands. "I had nothing to do with those particular threats. It goes against the Red Codex, not that it really binds me any more."

I don't believe you. Chiyo replied. If she could growl, she would have done so.

"And I don't care what you think." Svaartal narrowed his eyes. "Creep."

What happened to you? Chiyo asked. You used to be nice. I still remember when you made me feel welcome as a fellow mystic. I remember when you helped the rest of us when we were struggling in class! You used to stand up to the bullies when we were children! Now you’re just one yourself! What changed?

“Perhaps you just didn’t know the real me,” Svaartal replied, a little put off by her response. “Perhaps I just grew up. Perhaps the Red Legion showed me the truth of who I need to be. What I do know is that I don’t need to justify myself to anybody, especially not some damn mentalist fuck that can’t keep to herself!”

Chiyo gathered her power on reflex. Sensing this, Svaartal grinned as he quickly snapped out his wand from his sleeve. He had just the right spell to put the Ilithii in her place. They'd regret picking a fight with him…

"There you are!" Svaarti called out, and the fight was called off before it even started.

"Hello, sister!" Svaartal smiled warmly, ignoring his classmate. "You're late!"

"Sorry!" Svaarti sighed. "Some weird green guy with two curved swords asked me where the kitchens were so I showed him!"

"That's alright." Svaartal sighed in relief. "We have time anyway so we can make some final plans.”

He turned to Chiyo.

"I will agree to a truce to our little…disagreements for now. Besides…" Svaartal replied with a slight, mocking smile. "You have bigger problems right now. I'm personally hoping the Deathworlder manages to kill the Devilspawn coming after him. Good luck!" he finished as Chiyo shook her head, almost sadly, and floated away.

"What's your problem with her?" Svaarti asked. "And do you really still hate the Stygians that much?"

"Just the fallout from our fight over the weekend," Svaartal dismissed. "And of course I hate the Devilspawn. They killed our mother."

Svaarti sadly sighed. "You'll need to move on and let it go eventually. They couldn't help it! They weren’t in control of their own actions!"

"Not going to happen," Svaartal asserted. "Though as far as moving on goes, I have Father's phone tracked. We'll meet up with a few of our new friends and make our move when he gets to the bar."

"So what's your plan?" Svaarti asked anxiously. It was clear that his little sister was scared, and while Svaartal was as well, he had to lead. "We don't just take out go-bags and get out?"

"We take back our birthright," he quietly replied, as his fear of his father slowly gave way to the cold rage that had built over the years.

"All of it."

*****

"Alright, we're ready." Svaartal told the others, looking at his commlink. "By the time we get to the house he'll have settled with Kull."

"Are you sure you want to do this without backup?" Svaarti asked. The Mal'Kars had given them 'use' of three slaves who had displeased their House to help carry their bags or act as fodder for magical traps, but Svaartal refused to send them ahead, leaving the slaves to loiter around their meeting point. The logistics weren’t an issue, as Svaartal had quickly been able to teach his sister the 'dimensional rift' spell that would allow her to store and recall small items. While not infinite, between them it would be enough.

Just having emergency go-bags wouldn’t do here.

Svaartal wanted to rob everything that wasn't nailed down: as a parting shot to their father, to really give them a headstart on life, and to lay claim to all of their mother's belongings their father hadn't yet sold or that Svaartal hadn't hidden. He remembered having to stage a break-in to keep the sword and the spellbook, but he knew that was barely the tip of the iceberg.

Their father had never spoken of their mother since they arrived at Hive Station Bastilla. Aside from his early memories as a child before she died, Svaartal only knew that she had been highly regarded in the Red Legion, had been a powerful warrior and Spellcaster of some kind, and had left behind a lot of inheritance for her two children.

Before their father had spent what he could and lost it forever.

More than anything else, Svaartal wanted to know more. He knew his father kept documents, diaries and other paperwork that couldn't be sold, though Svaartal had never gotten a look. Any risk like that while they were still all living under the same roof could bring fatal harm to himself and his sister. Even though he had trained hard, pushed himself further and grown into a powerful Magus in his own right over the years, Svaartal didn't know if he was a match for his father.

He remembered the first time he had tried to fight back. He hadn't even reached his teenage years when he staged that robbery to protect his mother's most valued possessions from being sold, and in his rage, his father had almost killed him, striking his son again and again with magic while Svaartal put up a pitiful resistance until Svaarti had begged him to stop. Svaartal still had the scars, though he hid them well.

"Shall these ones enter first?" one of the nervous women asked as they reached the address. Izadora had insisted on Svaartal taking several 'worthless slaves' with him to trigger any magical traps before the loader drones did their work, implying that she didn't want them returned, only to be used as fodder.

"No," Svaartal immediately refused. "Don't endanger yourselves, and keep watch. My sister and I will disable the wards."

The two Nirah did so, having taken note of all the magical traps around the home over the years, carefully and meticulously casting counterspells to either weaken or deactivate the wards completely. Another 'fuck you' to their father.

"Good job, Svaarti. You start with the porch while I work on disarming the other rooms. Use 'Dimensional Pull' on all the stuff you can, the loader drones will take care of the rest. Anything we can't take we'll destroy.”

"You wouldn't-" Svaarti began.

"No," Svaartal reluctantly replied. "I disagree with you, but I promised that I wouldn’t set up a proximity bomb to blow the entire block up with Father inside. I have a different parting gift in mind for him. Less talking, more working. Time is of the essence."

"Alright," Svaarti nervously replied as she started to store items in her pocket dimension. Coats, pictures, shoes, even their father's slippers. Svaartal had been adamant. Everything that could be taken, would be. What couldn't be sold or used from their father's possessions would be burned to a crisp.

"Living room is clear of traps," Svaartal suddenly spoke softly to break the silence, causing Svaarti to jump. "I'll work on disarming the kitchen next then clear my room and the bathroom. You mop up everything else then take care of your room. We'll save Father's room for last since we'll need to work together."

"Okay." Svaarti replied, trying to steady her breathing. She was so scared that something would go wrong! "What if-"

"He's still drinking," Svaartal reassured her. "And our watchers haven't said anything."

He didn't elaborate on the worst-case scenario. If his father barged in on them, Svaartal would fight to the death to protect his sister with spell and sword, win or lose.

Svaartal almost wished that would happen. He could take everything that had built up over the years and unleash all of it as anger and hate, fueling his power.

But that would endanger Svaarti, so this would have to do for now.

The kitchen was easily disabled, not being a vital room to begin with, so Svaartal quickly went to his room to clear it out. Many of his most cherished possessions he already had within his dimensional storage, but he was loathe to leave anything behind. He instantly located his emergency go-bag filled with all the supplies he'd need for a quick exit and slung it over his shoulders. He then went across all the surfaces for the small stuff. A few pictures and posters from the walls, all the clothes he had, his bedding. A few caches of credits or sweets he had hidden away across the years. There wasn't much, and it was all quickly accounted for.

Svaartal moved to leave but quickly stopped, turning back around. He started upheaving everything. Drawers, closets and even his bed. He could barely remember what he was looking for until he spotted it. Hidden underneath the cheap wooden closet was an opened letter he once thought lost years ago when he was a child. He could barely read the words at the young age he was sent it by an unknown sender, but he recognised his mother's handwriting all the same. He slipped it into a pocket and left, not looking back.

“How are you doing?” he called to Svaarti once he quickly cleared the bathroom, smashing the toilet for good measure.

“I’ve done the kitchen and I’m going through the living room!” she called back as loudly as she dared.

“I’ll take over. Do your room, then we can work on Father’s room together,” Svaartal called back. He knew his sister had more belongings in her room than he did his, and he suspected she was much more sentimental than he was. She needed the time.

Projector, lumpy cushions, spare credits under the sofa. Svaartal didn’t care if most of the items were barely worth anything. He just took it all, upending everything he couldn’t take with him or marking it for the mover bots to store it on their behalf. He checked his commlink, still nothing. His father was still at the bar with Kull.

So far, so good.

No news from the collared slaves either, who were still acting casual while diligently watching the steady stream of passersby. They were in the clear.

Svaartal took some time to check the door to his father's room while waiting for Svaarti. The most trapped room in the house, which was to be expected from an accomplished caster like his father, who had made it very clear that if they entered his room and the traps didn't kill them, he certainly would make them wish they had.

The ward in the door he had examined multiple times over the years, and though Svaartal knew it was powerful, he had developed a countermeasure. Though disarming the trap outright was impossible, it was possible to change the conditions of the trigger to just a physical touch, enabling Svaartal to open the door with magical means. It would be a simple case of adding in a few magical runes of his own, but the real challenge would be disabling or delaying the alarm that would alert their father. Svaartal knew that he and his sister could let it go and get away with what they had, but Svaartal knew that he had to try to make his revenge complete or he would regret it for the rest of his life.

"Ready?" Svaarti asked him as she finished. "I know Father has papers. There's so much he wouldn't tell us about that I think we both need some closure."

Svaartal nodded. "If we fail, don't hesitate to run."

"We won't," Svaarti replied with determination as she followed Svaartal's instructions on changing the ward.

"The alarm is too intricate." Svaarti panicked after a few minutes of working. "We can delay it, but we won't have much time."

"We'll need to work quick," Svaartal growled in frustration. "Detect what remaining wards you can. I've got something for his console!"

He pulled out the highly potent and highly expensive device he bought from a reasonably trustworthy slicer in return for some magical services. Not only would it completely copy over files, but it would also crack recently used passwords and finally brick the console with a command from the user.

It would be perfect for draining what little remained of his father's finances to zero. The last thing he wanted was a bounty placed on the pair of them.

"Mostly clear!" Svaarti whispered nervously as she started rushing to take everything she could. "All I see is a big one over there!"

Svaartal looked at where she was pointing. A picture of their father, their mother and several other Nirah both older and younger. Extended family, perhaps? Their father had never spoken of it and Svaartal barely remembered anyone that wasn't his mother. He had barely begun casting his first cantrips when she died, and his father had immediately whisked them off here. He let the console device do its thing as he crossed the room and carefully checked the painting, quickly noting that it wasn't trapped, but rather what was behind it was.

Adding the painting to the rift, he saw what it had been hiding.

A safe.

What was behind there?

"I don't suppose you know the code for this?" Svaartal asked his sister, who quickly turned to see what he was talking about. "If not I can unlock it magically, but Father will immediately know! I can't disarm this ward unprepared."

"No..." Svaarti replied, thinking. "Why a ward on that and not on his console?"

"Either he believes in the 'flawlessness of technology,’" Svaartal replied with a smirk as he added a new credit chip to the console to download another part of his father's money, "or what's in there is far more valuable than what's on the console."

"You can't!" Svaarti frantically whispered as she realised what Svaartal intended. "He'll know instantly!"

"I know," Svaartal replied, steeling himself as he confirmed all funds were drained and the download was complete. He activated the 'brick' program as he finished magically taking the rest of the belongings he could, before giving the device to Svaarti. "Get to the others and meet at the neutral ground we agreed on as quickly as you can. If I'm not with you in a quarter of an hour, go on without me to Mal'Kar territory and show them your papers. If I'm able to catch up to you I will. If not…"

"Don't say that!" Svaarti rushed up to him for a quick hug. "We're in this together!"

"Maybe." Svaartal smiled warmly. "But I have to do this on my own."

"But…"

"Go!" Svaartal growled, spurring his sister into action. He heard her rush out the front door and gave her a few minutes as he examined the safe. Not the best make, but not the worst either. Either way, he didn't have long - the first ward was just a few minutes from alerting his father, give or take. Not wasting any time, Svaartal began casting as many defense and enhancement spells on himself as he dared. Speed, strength, steel skin. Everything he had prepared for the day, just in case the Deathworlder wanted to resume their fight, but equally useful here. Finally finishing, he set to work, quickly melting the hinges of the safe door before he ripped it off, slightly singing his hand as he did.

Inside the safe was surprisingly little. The papers that were thankfully still intact, a few coins that were probably worth something and what looked like a journal of some kind…

Huh? Svaartal thought. I would have thought Father would keep a few of the medals he claimed to receive here…

It didn't matter. Svaartal quickly pulled out another device he had prepared and got ready to stick it behind the door when he heard a crash from the other room.

"BOY!"

Shit! His father was back quicker than expected, and he heard multiple pairs of footsteps!

Not wasting any time, Svaartal began casting. He couldn’t teleport or blink out of the house itself, but once he was out he’d be able to escape. He knew better than to fight right now, and he had an escape plan in mind…

"Where is he?" another voice growled. Even worse, Master Kull was with him!

“NO!” He heard his father yell as Svaartal heard him quickly rush to the door of his room…

Only to eat a fireball to the face as Svaartal blasted a hole through the wall!

The trick had worked during their ambush that weekend, and a thin wall of a shitty slum apartment didn’t compare to the concrete his fireball blasted apart last time, even when it was many hundreds or thousands of years old. The trick here was simply not obliterating innocent passersby in the street below, or more importantly himself. Though Svaartal didn’t care much if he hit someone, Svaarti wouldn’t like it, and collateral damage tended to result in heavy bounties. He didn’t know if he had scored any kills, but hoped he did. Even better, for a brief moment he had seen a look of fear in his father’s eyes.

Several of his father’s drinking buddies that had been out of the range of the blast moved to help him to his feet, but Svaartal didn’t hesitate to dive out of the nearest hole he’d made when he heard the growl of Master Kull, his ring of floating aiding him once again in making a safe landing, but not before he twisted the cap of the trap he’d wanted to place to turn it into a grenade, and dropped it behind him as he jumped.

As he landed on the ground with a practised glide, the chemical reagents combined to blast out in a misty blast of freezing cold liquid nitrogen, to howls of pain coming from where he had left. He hoped he scored a few kills, but wasn’t going to stick around to confirm them. There was no way he was going to fight such unfair odds if he could run instead! He’d be happy with maiming a few of the bastards at least. Blinking several times to get away he finally stopped on a clear roof, where he checked his surroundings and, without any preamble, quickly portaled out of there.

*****

“There you are!” Svaarti hissed in relief as Svaartal quickly hopped to the other side. “What happened? I heard explosions a few seconds ago!”

Svaartal grinned in satisfaction as she gave him a bottle of water to guzzle down. “Got everything from the safe, but Father got back immediately with a few of his old service buddies. I had to drop a fireball to blast my way out and covered my escape with the Blizzard Mist I wanted to use as a trap.”

“So is he-”

“Unconfirmed, but he’s probably still alive. Kull was with him too. Father’s funds are wiped from his accounts, but we might still get some issues in the future assuming he can make it back. By the way, the squad was armed, I think they were planning some kind of job.”

Svaarti sighed and nodded as Svaartal quickly led them away from their rendezvous. Despite their daring escape, both of them knew it was never going to be a clean break.

“But!” Svaartal immediately added “We finally did it! We’re out. We have a place of our own and a much better life ahead of us no matter what challenges come our way!”

“Yeah.” Svaarti nervously sighed in relief. “But what happens now?”

“Aside from us going to our new home?” Svaartal smiled before turning more serious. “Our work for the Drow begins. They don’t want me to kill the Deathworlder but I think they want me to be an enforcer and agent on their payroll.”

“Jack said he’d back off if you do…” Svaarti remembered her conversation with the human from earlier with a frown.

“Fine by me, and it’s what I planned anyway. I’ve already told the Mal’Kar’s everything I know about him and his capabilities so they can deal with him instead.” Svaartal snorted. “Though there’s a lot I can only speculate on about him. I always assumed Astara summoned him to this plane as a possible active Hero, but Izadora isn’t so sure. I think she has a plan to kill the human painfully since he attacked her this morning, but as for what, I don’t know.”

“I really wish you didn’t have to be enemies with him!”

“Too bad. I didn’t exactly make the best first impression with him by following Xharl, but things have worked out pretty well in the end,” Svaartal argued. “We are here after all. It was this whole conflict that got me noticed by House Mal’Kar in the first place.”

“Speaking of which…” Svaartal added as the convoy crossed into a nearby district. “Our transport is around here.”

He was silent as he considered their escort of slaves, who were all staring at the ground with dead expressions.

A quick input on the control device on Svaartal caused them to look up in shock as the metal collars around their necks suddenly unclamped to all clatter on the cobblestoned path. As the slaves all grabbed at their necks in disbelief, Svaartal spoke to them as he reached into a pocket.

“You are all free to go,” the Nirah said simply, as he threw each of the former slaves a creditchip. “This should help you out, though I’d suggest heading to the Temple of Hope and mixing with the refugees from the Killer Klown’s attack.”

The now freed men and women all looked at each other dumbstruck for a moment before Svaartal urged them on with a quick, “Get out of here!”

“Thank you! Bless you!” one of the women spoke up as the group started jogging in the other direction.

“Brother…” Svaarti whispered as Svaartal quickly led them to their meetup coordinates without offering any kind of explanation of what he just did, only briefly speaking to their assigned driver and the porters to transport the large items they had looted before travelling to their new residence in silence. Svaarti took in the gnarled blacked structures reinforced by a green glow of magical energy and shuddered. The Drow’s territory was an eerie place indeed! Eventually they were shown to a dingy apartment in the middle of a seemingly abandoned and deserted residential block and left to their own devices. Immediately moving the sofa to an ideal spot against the wall both Nirah sat down with a sigh.

“I have two presents for you,” Svaartal finally pointed out. “I never told you this, but I was able to recover several of Mother’s things when we were younger. I think she would have wanted you to have this.”

He cast the cantrip to bring forth a faint golden staff slowly floating out of his dimensional storage plane. It was still as beautiful as the day he dusted it off and put it away all those years ago.

“A staff?” Svaarti questioned.

“This belonged to our mother,” Svaartal handed it over to his sister. “Now it belongs to you. I have her sword. Her spellbook and a few other things we can go through later, but I think she would have wanted you to have this.”

“This is…” Svaarti gasped in awe as she felt the magic of the staff tingle down her arm.

“Better with you than me,” Svaartal finished. “It seems better suited for utility than combat, which is more your thing. Now as for the second present…” He grinned, pulling out a clear bag and passing it to her.

“Ingredients? Chalk, gem dust, myri-OH!”

“Yes, and I got a bag for me as well.” Svaartal nodded, happy to see his sister properly smile again as he knew she would. “The ritual components for summoning and binding a familiar. You should be able to adapt it to what you want before the end of the week, which is good because we’re going to a party!”

“We are?” Svaarti replied in confusion, though still ecstatic about the thought of summoning her own familiar!

“The Bharzum triplets are hosting it at one of their clan’s holdings and invited everyone in our year. Father always forbade us from going to these kind of events, which is exactly why we’re attending.”

“But won’t you be working for the Mal’Kars?”

“I am, but that won’t stop me from coming.” Svaartal shrugged. “Pretty convenient if you ask me, and it’ll be good for you as well. With those dance moves of yours you’d be able to snag any guy you want there.”

He paused for a second as he met his sister’s eyes.

“Or girl.”

Svaarti’s eyes snapped to her brother in fear, but Svaartal quickly put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her.

“You have a good heart sister. The kindest that I know of. It never mattered to me who it desires.”

Svaarti said nothing, except to throw her arms around her big brother in a hug.

Svaartal stared forward at the wall as she did so, not seeing his thousand-yard stare.

He hoped this deal with House Mal’Kar was worth it.