Chapter 51: Epilogue

ISABELLE

The three tall towers of the Palace, constructed of deep-black stone, glowed like a black pearl against the rugged mountain backdrop. Izzy smiled at the beautiful sight.

Behind the Palace, the falling cascade of a stream tumbled into the valley below, creating rainbows that seemed to hold the promise of a new beginning.

As the shuttle lowered, she saw the Palace gardens, littered with trees, flowers, and soft purple-green grass.

~It’s so beautiful. The view from up here is spellbinding.~ She could see for miles.

As the shuttle landed, Mikhlas gently touched her shoulder and smiled. “The view is better from outside,” he said.

She stood and followed him out as the boys leaped out, followed at speed by G'Talnac, the Gallobarean Royal Guard.

They dashed to the edge of the landing pad, and before they got close, G'Talnac stood in front of them, shaking her head. ~She’s so fast.~

Izzy stopped to admire the view and swayed a little as she felt Mikhlas’s hands move around her waist. He leaned in and whispered in her ear. “Behold your dominion, my beautiful Queen Isabelle.”

A shiver ran up her spine. She looked around and couldn’t believe her eyes.

The bright-blue sky above her held a green tint closer to the horizon, and high above her, she could see the faint outline of the three small moons. She looked forward to seeing them at night.

“It’s incredible,” she said.

“Yes, it is. But there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to make it that way for others,” he said.

She put her hand over his on her waist and rested the back of her head on his chest. “Thank you for doing this with me.”

“There is no need to thank me for doing something I very much wanted to do,” he said softly.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” he asked, letting go of her and turning her to face him. “Your heart is going crazy. Are you afraid?”

She bit her lip and looked into his beautiful blue eyes. They reminded her even more of a cool ocean now.

“Isabelle…,” he said, “…I have ascended as your King, but we don’t have to do anything you are not ready for.”

“Oh.” She smiled and gave him a wicked grin. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

He smiled at her, looking relieved. “Then what is it?”

“You weren’t given much choice about all this. I pushed you, and then with everything that happened…

“I don’t want this,” she gestured between them, “…to be something you’re forced into and regret later. You don’t have to be here. You can do whatever you—”

She stopped as he lifted her chin with gentle fingers and kissed her so intensely, she grew dizzy.

“If you think that I am here against my will, then you are very mistaken,” he whispered. “I love you. I am right where I belong, at your side.”

“You are so getting lucky later.”

If not for the constant nagging in her head at the thought that Amy still hadn’t woken up, this moment would’ve felt perfect.

James came up to her, and Mikhlas stepped back. Izzy reached up and put her arm around James’s neck, pulling him in.

“This is it, kiddo. This is home now. What do you think?” she asked.

“It’s pretty cool, Mom,” he said, and Lucas came over to join them.

“Pretty cool? You’re such a teenager, my son. This is awesome,” she said, looking back out.

James chuckled, nodding his head.

“Move her to the infirmary.”

Izzy turned around and saw Amy, moving on a floating slab, being taken to a doorway, Silian following close behind.

“Come on, boys, let’s go inside and check out your new rooms,” she said, trying to distract them from the sudden concern on their faces.

“Before you do that,” Prime’s voice rang in her ear, “I have researched what happens on Earth when a person moves into a new residence. I have a housewarming gift.”

Izzy looked down as a small, brightly colored box with holes in it the size of a loaf of bread, flashed onto the ground in front of her. Lucas bent down and picked it up, excitement in his eyes as he handed it to her.

Curiously she opened it to reveal a tiny yellow blob happily bouncing up and down making soft noises.

“Is that—”

“Zaxary!” Lucas yelled.

“Sort of,” Prime said. “I found this small remnant of Zaxary in the remains of one of the borders. It doesn’t retain any memories of the original, so it’s more like a baby. You’ll need to teach it until it grows bigger.”

Lucas gently cupped his hand around the yellow blob and stuck it on his shoulder, talking excitedly to the yellow goo as he moved toward the doors into the Palace.

He stopped looking up at the elevator, which Silian and Amy must have already taken down.

“What is that?” she asked as she saw buildings beyond the Palace walls through the glass surrounding the elevator as she followed Lucas.

“That is the local town. It’s called Ostia. It’s the only town on this landmass. The rest of the ground here all belongs to the Palace.

“At the end of town, there is a dock that leads to the other cities. And in the sky”—Mikhlas pointed up—“you can see the outline of the main docking post.

“In Ostia, you will find the finest of everything. The best craftsmen, merchants…” He wrapped his arms around Izzy’s waist, and she felt the butterflies swarm in her. “…Dressmakers,” he finished.

“Can we go there?” she asked, putting her hand on his arm.

“Just say the word, and I will take you.”

“Maybe when Amy’s awake,” she said.

“Do you want to go see her?” he asked, letting her go and she turned to him.

“I can’t lose her. She is my best friend, and I don’t know what I would do without her.”

“I understand that bond all too well. Come,” he said as the elevator doors opened with a ping and held out his hand to her. She took it, and he led her into the elevator.

“Will you boys be okay if we visit Aunt Amy while you check out your rooms?” Mikhlas asked.

James took his eyes off his brother, animatedly waving his hands in the air.

“Right now, I don’t think Lucas would mind what you do. Baby Zaxary has all his attention. He’s just taught him the necessity of knowing how to pick a lock.

“Of course, I doubt Lucas knows how to pick a lock, so it should be good for a laugh. Sure, go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on the squirt and come down later.”

After letting the boys and G’Talnac out, they rode down to the medical wing, and when the lift stopped, Izzy stepped out onto the bright white floors. Her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness.

“Prime, update,” Mikhlas said as they walked.

“Still no change,” the machine said, and that now-familiar fire in Izzy bubbled again.

Amy lay unconscious, and Kasana remained alive. She didn’t regret her decision on Tekran 4, but Infernia disagreed with her. ~Even if she is in a pit full of horrors, she is still breathing. Amy isn’t.~

She slowed a little, knowing her eyes were going to give her away if Mikhlas looked at her. She understood now what he meant when he said it got him and Silian into trouble more than once.

As she saw Amy, looking so pale and still, Izzy took a deep breath and walked over to her, nodding to Silian as he sat on the other side of the bed, holding her hand and whispering to himself.

“Hey, babe. Where are you?” Izzy asked. “I need you to come back. I need you here. I can’t do this without you,” Izzy said and felt the tears roll out.

Izzy put her friend’s hand to her lips and gave her a gentle kiss on her fingers.

“Primary reboot instructions entered. Reboot in three minutes. All functions will cease. Initiating primary lockdown procedures,” Prime said into the room, and the lights dimmed.

Izzy looked over at Mikhlas and Silian. “What’s going on?” Izzy said, standing.

“I don’t know. Prime has initiated a reboot of her internal systems,” Mikhlas said.

“Is this normal?” she asked.

“It’s unusual that she would do it in the day,” Silian said. “This function is reserved for the nighttime when everyone is asleep.”

“So why would she do it now?”

“I don’t know, my Queen,” Silian said. She looked at Mikhlas and saw a flash of worry in his eyes.

“My boys!”

“The Royal Guard is with them,” Mikhlas said. “They are fine.”

“What is going on?” she asked, feeling the anger stir.

“We don’t know. Prime is not capable of going into this state outside of her scheduled time. Someone must have initiated the reboot. When Prime is online, we will know what happened,” he said.

“Is Prime offline everywhere?” she asked.

“Yes. This kind of reboot takes her offline everywhere for three minutes. That is why Prime only does this once a year, and always at night. This could be a change in her pattern for unpredictability.”

“If that’s all it was, you wouldn’t be so worried,” she said.

“A lot can happen in three minutes,” Silian said.

“The only person who should be able to send Prime into a restart like this is you, me, or Silian. This was no glitch,” he said.

“Restarting basic functions,” Prime said. The men relaxed a little.

“Is it over?” she asked.

“Yes, my Queen. Prime is back online. It will only be a minute or two until we get answers,” Mikhlas said.

“Okay. Good,” she said.

“Restarting secondary functions,” Prime said.

“Prime, increase the Fleet presence above us and put more guards on the ground.”

“How would someone get around Prime so easily?” she asked.

“It would not have been done easily. Hacking Prime’s defenses is meant to be impossible. Her primary function in all her extensions around the Realm is the safety and protection of the people.

“The Palace is no exception. Whoever did this knew the systems and the Palace well,” he said.

“The Palace?” she asked.

“Yes. The main core of Prime’s systems on this planet is here, below us.”

“Do you think this is an attack?”

“No. If it was, we would know by now.”

“Then what other reason would someone have to turn Prime off for what, three minutes? What would that achieve?” she asked.

Silian clenched his jaw. “It only takes two-and-a-half seconds to teleport someone.”

Her eyes widened, and the rage of Infernia filled her. She almost heard the crackling of flames in her voice as she turned to Mikhlas.

“The Pit?” she said, and saw Mikhlas’s eyes change until the calm blue looked more like a storm-tossed ocean. His face grew fierce, and she felt her anger echo in him.

“Prime?!” he said and waited.

“Kasana’s cell is empty.”

“FUCK!”

“Hey what’s all the shouting?”

Izzy and Silian both turned at the sound of Amy’s voice.

KASANA

“I’m going to destroy her!” Kasana raged as she walked toward Khayan’s cell aboard her battleship.

As she turned the corner, in front of her stood one of the idiot spindly-looking black dolls, and she knocked it out of the way hard enough to smash it into dust as it struck the wall.

“Everything she cares about, I am going to burn.”

“What are you going to do?” Zaftar asked as he hurried along behind her.

“You will see. For now, we need to gather our forces. Regroup. Bring all the men still loyal to me together. I will give her a war like she has never seen before. A war she will not be able to fight.”

“Kasana, we cannot. I didn’t get you out of the pit to start a war. All the Realms soldiers are looking for us. We need to run, hide.”

Kasana stopped and turned to Zaftar, “I will not run, Zaftar! I will not hide!”

“But what can we do against the might of the Realm? We face billions in the Fleet and the Sentinels. We’ve lost. It is hopeless.”

Kasana shook her head, striding forward again. “No, it is not. I weakened her, Zaftar. She is not a fully ascended Queen.”

Kasana stepped through into the darkened cell block. Khayan liked to work in the dark. ~Because it reminds the filthy bug of his home nest.~

“Lights!” she commanded. As the bright lights turned on, she heard the chittering screech of her captive. ~He’s been hanging up web again.~

“What did I tell you about spinning webs, Khayan?” she yelled. She walked to the side and opened the wall storage that contained the flame units.

“Khayan izh szorry, miztrezz. Khayan muzzt produce webzz or Khayan hurtz miztrezz.”

“I don’t care,” she said, opening up the flame unit and burning away the concealing web.

As the flames cleared, she saw the Raag cowering against the back wall, blinking his remaining eyes at her. She admired the scoring on the black chitin that crisscrossed his entire twisted frame.

She’d put each of those marks on him. Made him remember every single cut and repeat his offense. Her favorites were the eyes, which she did not allow him to grow back, unlike a few of his limbs.

She put the flame unit back into the wall and stepped forward to the specially constructed titanium bars, each as thick as her leg.

“It didn’t work, Khayan. Your nanites failed to trap the Sentinels.”

“Don’t hurtz me, miztrezz. I did the bezzt I could.”

“I should hurt you, Khayan. I don’t tolerate failure in my pets, but you’re going to help me again.”

“How, miztrezz? I give you Raag nanitezz, I give you Raag energy weaponz, what more can Khayan givez to miztrezz? What makezz miztrezz happy?”

“I’m going to give you what you’ve always wanted, Khayan. I’m going to let you return to the hive. You’re going to wake up your big brothers and the queens.”

“Are you mad, Kasana?” Zaftar said. “You want to start another Raag war? The spiders will tear through the Realm like they did last time. They slaughtered tens of billions before the Dark King lured them into the dead zone.”

Kasana turned to Zaftar. “All will be well. Khayan made me something I haven’t used yet. I can use it to distract the Queen while he wakes up the Raag.

“Once the spiders weaken the Realm, and the army sees just how weak she is, then we take over, and send the Raag back. Won’t we, Khayan?”

“Yezzz, Miztrezz.”

“I can’t let you do this, Kasana,” Zaftar said. “I remember the Raag war. You can’t visit that kind of horror on the Realm again.”

~Can’t?~

Kasana pulled Zaftar by the scruff of his shirt before slamming his back against the bars of the cage. She stared into his wide eyes as her knife slipped in under his jaw.

She shoved the blade up until the tip pierced the top of his skull. She watched as blood dripped from his mouth while he jerked and trembled in his death throes.

She pulled back to look at the vacant dead eyes turning to gray before looking over Zaftar’s shoulder.

“Hungry, Khayan?”

^—End of Book One—^