NOVEL NEXT Thirty Seconds in The Chair
The Unbound… Hoplite had learned about him from the Lore-Keeper, Mangwin, during their long talk at Muro’s death-day. A being that wielded the power of the Pillar Gods with none of their limitations… Mazeek had been described as being the most dangerous creature on Ahkoolis. Seeing him now, Hoplite could hardly bring himself to see him as a severe threat. Yet he knew that looks could be deceiving… and the Dragon himself had seemed eager to avoid conflict with him. That fact alone lent legitimacy to Twindil’s claim.
Hoplite dearly hoped that his shaking breaths were inaudible, that the Unbound would hopefully be unable to sense his emotional state. The horrid things Legolanthas had claimed matched with much of what Hoplite Twenty-Five had told him years ago… it unsettled and… and it frightened him. His brain felt like hot static, a torrent of enraged and worried thoughts waging a war within him that distracted from all else. He’d need time to cool down, to process things… but before that, he’d need to deal with Mazeek.
And to do that, Hoplite would need to proceed with the utmost caution.
“You made quite a mess out here…” The Unbound yawned, gesturing to the chaotic jumble of twitching bodies around them, “Not very scenic, is it?”
Mazeek then waved his hand, and in that very instant every single body, jutting bone, or scrap of flesh was immolated in Golden Flame. The yellow glow underlit his smiling face, crooked teeth on full display as he stared at the brilliant fire. In a couple heartbeats, not even a single scrap of blood remained from the battle. For an instant, Hoplite imagined himself being immolated in that fire, disintegrated until nothing remained, not even ash.
“Apologies children, but it is time for my fifth nap, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Mazeek continued, wiping his hands on his ragged clothes, “Meeting extended family is always exhausting as it is interesting…” He said smiling, turning to shoot a knowing look at Twindil, “Very interesting indeed.”
Twindil paled at those words, eyes somehow becoming wider than they already were. Hoplite stare switched between Twindil and the Unbound, his brow furrowing. What did he mean by that?
“Goodnight!” He yelled, vanishing, “You won’t be seeing me again for a long while…” Mazeek’s voice echoed, coming from seemingly everywhere, “The fifth nap is always the longest.”
“Wait!” Hoplite shouted, “Come back!”
“Sleepy.” The voice echoed back after a long yawn.
Hoplite swiped his helmet from the stones, donning it quickly to check his motion tracker. If he could find out where Mazeek had gone, he’d be able to question him about nearly everything he could think of -Kazon’s exact location, the whereabouts of the Sparrow’s crew, the best path through Akan-Var, amongst other things. He was supposedly a god, or at least close to the definition of it, the potential intel that could be gleaned from the Unbound was priceless.
Yet, when he checked his motion tracker, there was nothing to be seen, nothing besides Twindil’s stationary blip. He bumped his chin, turning the world around him infrared, yet no sign of Mazeek could be found. The only other body temperature present was again, Twindil’s. Frustration heated his face as he bumped the infrared off, turning to face her.
She seemed to flinch at his gaze, but firmed herself, sheathing her blade before clutching her quivering arms. The half-elf was shaking slightly, biting her bottom lip as she stared to where Mazeek had stood. Right as he was about to speak, he saw the squad moving out of the tunnel, shouting questions at them as they all ran to meet them. Her interrogation would have to wait for now… but it would need to be done eventually.
Once the squad reached them, a barrage of questioning was fired point-blank at both he and Twindil, asking as to what happened to the bodies. They made mention of the fact that the Golden Flame had been used, but none knew who had summoned it. Alistair in particular seemed flabbergasted at how it had been used, saying that one would have to be a God to have utilized raw Foundation to that level.
“That’s because it was.” Hoplite said, “Mazeek was here just now, along with a hostile Dragon.”
All fell silent after that statement, Lance and Nolvi shaking their heads in apparent denial. After a moment of strained silence, Lance began staring at Hoplite with a very intent gaze, seeming to try and decide whether or not he was speaking truthfully, based on that furrowed glare.
“An attempt at a joke,” Alistair said, “The Unbound and a Dragon? Why not throw in Zodd as well, make a pantheonic tea party” He finished with a shake of his head.
Hoplite was not surprised at the skepticism, he too would have doubted such a claim if he hadn’t just witnessed it with his own eyes.
“Hoplite doesn’t know what a joke is.” Lance said with a small huff, crossing her arms and breaking eye contact, “He must mean it…” She continued, a slight quaver in her tone.
Her face went pale, the chains on her forearms rattling gently as she clutched her own arms.
“It’s hard to believe, but it's true.” Twindil said with a firm nod, “Both were here, both had an overwhelming presence… I was…” She hesitated, “I was scared for my life.”
“Sir,” Michael said loudly over the resulting mutters, “What the hell does any of that mean?”
“It means trouble.” Hoplite answered, “Mazeek is part of the local pantheon, I know that much. As for the Dragon, I’m unsure.”
“I know this much,” Elum started, clutching his graying arm nervously, “There’s only one Dragon of Decuma, and that’s Legolanthas of the East. He’s the son of Darax, the Pillar-God of War, and Saihara, the Pillar-Goddess of Knowledge.”
“He’s a Godling?” Hoplite asked, keeping his voice monotone despite the fear and anger that still raged within him.
Elum hesitated, eyes flicking to Twindil for an instant before he said, “...No, a Godling, at least from what I understand, is the child of two mortal parents, blessed… or perhaps I should say, cursed by a Pillar-God immediately after they’re conceived with their divine blood. A third parent, you could say. A Dragon on the other hand is the child of two Gods, not bound to the Pillars and born ‘mortal’ as a result.” He said with a scoff, “At least, mortal in the sense that they can be killed, unlike a Pillar-God.”
This new intel did not ease Hoplite’s paranoia. Again Twenty-Five’s words replayed in his mind… echoing what Legolanthas had claimed earlier.
“Why would a man be able to do the things Jyn does?”
“I just don’t understand what Legolanthas would be doing here of all places.” Elum continued with a shake of his head, “It doesn’t make any sense, he rarely leaves Estanlia for any reason.”
“Men are not immortal, not even us. Humans can’t fly, they can’t make things move with their minds, they can’t survive the vacuum of space without specialized gear.”
He tried to dam the flow of words, to deny them completion-
“He must have had a very good reason,” Alistair said, “Perhaps he wanted to challenge the Unbound and this just so happened to be where he was? A strange, horrifying coincidence that you two had to experience that.”
But it was a fruitless effort-
“You’ve always been the most logical of us all Jason, always overthinking, overanalyzing… so you should know these things just as well as I do.”
“Shut up…” Hoplite mouthed, resisting the urge to clutch at his helmet, “Shut up.”
“I just hope that…” Twindil started, her voice hitching, “I hope we never run into them again.”
“Not only that, but I did a fair bit of research… I snuck into the labs where we were infused with Final Kind DNA, and you know what else I found?”
“Please… stop.” Hoplite whispered, his fists clenching.
Everyone else’s words faded into the background as Twenty-Five continued…
“I found several tubes containing blood, Jyn’s very own blood in fact, they never told us that part, that we were also infused with his DNA… The tubes were hot to the touch, the blood was orange like magma, like our own… and you know what I found out when I studied these samples for myself?”
Hoplite clutched the sides of his helmet, pulling it free and letting it clatter down to the bridge as he began to heave. The conversations ceased as all eyes fell on him, with Michael putting a hand on his back-plate. He said something, likely a question asking if he was alright… but Hoplite couldn’t answer him.
“There wasn’t a trace of human DNA in those samples, Jason. Not a single drop to be found anywhere, and trust me, I looked very hard. I wanted to be wrong… but the rebels weren’t lying. You know what this means right?”
Hoplite fell to his hands and knees, a pillar crashing down to the earth as his stomach emptied itself onto the cold setstone. Voices began shouting around him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying, the world was beginning to go dark at the corners of his vision.
“Lord Jyn isn’t human.”
Memories of his re-indoctrination flashed in a moment that felt like eternity… Strapped to a chair. A mere thirty seconds had passed to any outside observer, but every second had felt like a decade, three hundred years trapped in a chair… He couldn’t do it again, he wouldn’t, Hoplite would rather be dead! He was loyal!
He was! Hoplite didn’t need to go back to the chair! He staggered back to his feet, fending off the hands that tried to aid his rise. Shakily, he grabbed his helmet, not putting it back on as he limped back toward the rest stop, jaw slack and slick with a mixture of drool and vomit.
“I’m loyal…” He muttered to himself, “I’m loyal…”