Chapter 48: There is no place like…home
He had stormed off with thinking and now he had wandered into the massive castle.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know his way, in fact he wished he didn’t, but fate was never good to him.
Not to someone like him.
"Isn’t that the runaway?"
"The traitor?"
"Yes..."
"I heard the Emperor obsessed over him so much he killed other Miwas sent to him just because they weren’t ’good’ enough."
"Whoa...that’s scary."
"Right?"
They didn’t bother to speak is hushed tones.
Why would they?
Everyone knew who he was and it was all thanks to their crazed emperor.
The corridor expanded into an open roof dome with several vashkis trooping in and out. Very few Miwas from different clans walked alongside their Gers, their spouse or...owner.
One raised its head in his direction but quickly looked away. Another ring sat mounted onto its original ring.
The Ger of the Miwa turned in Thira’s direction and snarled,
"Look away from the traitor, Yil, or you’ll be infected by his wayward acts."
...overreacting but okay.
He looked around, concern seeping into his platings. He knew his species were going extinct but he never expected the numbers to look this way. Just what had happened during the time he left?
The dome dimmed as he made his way deeper into the castle. The corridor stretched endlessly once more before him, carved from pale stone that seemed almost translucent beneath the soft blue light embedded in its walls. A thin layer of shimmering energy covered the surface beneath his feet, rippling with every step he took.
Beneath it, something moved slowly through the stone, veins of silver light pulsing like the blood of some enormous living creature.
The Soul hall that led to Sanctum, a different route for nobles to reach the sacred ground.
He lowered his head to look at his feet, the ring around his ankle gave a faint hum.
The floor glowed in response sending a low vibration travelled through the walls.
"At least this place hasn’t fully rejected me."
Tall arches rose on either side of him, each one decorated with intricate carvings. Vashki figures had been etched into the walls in endless rows of warriors, priests, children, creatures with wings and long tails, sculptures as well.
Some were kneeling and while the others had their hands raised toward the ceiling.
His head darted sideways, making sure the hallway was empty before he slipped through an unnoticeable gap behind one of the statues.
The gap opened to a narrow cave. Small glowing bugs crawled in and out of their hideouts, coming to see who dared step into their little territory.
Thira balanced on the rocky terrain with both hands against the walls, feeling for a boulder that would normally stick out.
Soon enough, he found it and pushed it aside. The boulder gave way to a rubble. Just like in the hallway, statues and carvings were etched into the wall but this time the statues were of a woman with multiple rings surrounding her. Although most of them were broken or missing now.
The carvings were symbols of his language and little characters drawn next to them.
Above them all was a single symbol. An eye surrounded by seven rings.
Thira tilted his head toward it. He remembered seeing that symbol before.
Why wouldn’t he remember it?
He spent years praying to it, begging it to spare him of his pitiful fate, praying to it to day and night...for the mercy of death.
"I’m not here to pray to you... the teachings said our fates are written by our gods, the ones that created us. I’d say you’re a sick one to bring me back here."
The space was quiet except for the occasional sounds of those glowing critters scuttling around.
"I spent years...years upon years begging to see your face. I preached your words, I did everything your scriptures said and where did that lead me and my people?" He shook as he began to struggle to draw breath properly. "We’re now commodities, sold and owned. I tried to save my people...you couldn’t even save me from the Beast of Qashka and I was stripped of everything I had. Everything your scriptures gave me. Everything."
The statue stared back at him wordlessly.
Statues couldn’t talk neither could they magically come alive and be preferrred it that away. He could properly pour his resentment and grief that he had carried for years without disturbance.
"Your people are less than they were when I was here. Do you know how gods are forgotten and lose their standings in history? Their people forget them and stop preaching their songs but in your case...they’ll be nobody to even know you existed. Look at your shrine, it’s all dust and rocks now, Onik’Shira."
He kicked the ground and turned to leave.
...
..
.
He arrived at his quarters a few minutes to sun down. Offloading his feeelings at the run down shrine had taken more time than he had expected.
The door creaked open—
"Where have you been?"
Emperor Tuk stood next to the edge of the floating bed. His back to Thira.
"Why do you care?"
Thira shook his head and turned for the bathroom.
"My soldiers couldn’t locate you... I thought you had run away again."
"I will."
"..."
The bathroom came to life.
A large basin stretched out before him, live aquatic creatures swam in the highly transparent liquid.
The sight was magnificent.
Thira lowered himself into the large tub, the warm water rising around his porcelain body until only his shoulders and head remained above the surface. The pool stretched beneath an open archway, its pale blue depths illuminated by bioluminescent plants growing along the submerged stone. Tiny aquatic creatures drifted between them—silver fish with translucent fins, ribbon-like organisms that shimmered as they curled through the water, and small six-legged creatures that crawled lazily across the pool floor.
One of the silver fish approached Thira, circling his ankle before slipping beneath the surface. Another brushed against his fingers, its body glowing faintly at his touch.
Ripples spread across the water as he leaned back against the smooth edge of the pool. Above him, crystalline vines hung from the ceiling, their soft light reflecting across the surface. A pair of translucent creatures emerged from the water beside him, their delicate fins fluttering as they hovered briefly above the surface before diving back beneath it.
"It was so lonely without you."
Tuk hovered by the bathroom doorway. "The voices came back but I can control them now... I should have come get you all these years but that child..."
He trudged into the bathroom and into the light where Thira finally had a good look at him.
In his hand hung the head...of a Miwa.
Thira’s ring flared at the sight.
"What is wrong with you?!"
Silver blood dripped from the ends of his royal robes, seeping into the roots of the bathroom floor.
"Oh... I’m sorry, I’ll wash up now." His tone was bubbly like a child innocently apologizing.
The emperor tossed the head, sending it towards a wall flying with its blood splattering around, and began to disrobe. "You have always been the neat freak, I shouldn’t have upset you by coming in like that."
He had lost his marbles.
No, he always had. It had just gotten worse.
He slipped into the water, the creatures from before quickly scattered and disappeared into the places that served as their homes.
"So, where did you go today, Vae’Thira?"
"...it’s none of your business."
"..."
"..."
"Did you go home?"
"No."
"You should. I did just as you asked."
Thira’s ring stuttered beneath the water.
He did?
Tuk freed his clan?
"Did I do good?"
"What about the other Miwas? The other clans?"
The cherry tone dropped several octaves.
"What is my business with them? I only did as you asked."
"Free them all. You’re the emperor, aren’t you?" He swallowed. "You’d do as I ask, yes?"
A ring from Tuk’s neck glowed brightly, a pleased rumble bubbled in his chest as he made his way to where Thira sat.
"I will... but I will only do what you ask of me if... you grant a wish of mine."
"What wish?"
"It’s no fun if I tell you outright, you’ll have to figure it out."
What could he possibly want?
Tuk slipped behind him, pushing the Miwa a few feet forward and settling behind him. Long porcelain fingers trailed the areas his plating curved down to his spine.
"Have you figured it out?"
"I don’t know what you want, Tuk."
"I want you to stay with me here forever... let us rule Qashka together."
"..."
"I will spare the demon child."
"!!!"
Why did he bring Khae’el into this?
"What do you mean by that?"
"He will come after you to find you,no?"
"..."
"I originally planned to kill him right infront of your eyes."
The hand trailing down his back shot up and wrapped around his neck,
"I want us to make another child."