A Long Ways From Home

Chapter Ten: The Orb Within the Cane

She follows the tall alien man down the bright sterile halls. Setrákus Ra, he said his name was. The Mogadorian Commander, but she is supposed to call him Beloved Leader like all the other followers he has. She doesn't see that happening any time soon. He is the tyrant that caused her planet's devastation after all. He kidnapped her and brought her to his massive warship; stole her from the rest of her people. For what? She is still unsure. Though so far, he hasn't hurt her in even the smallest way. She is grateful for that. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he called her 'granddaughter', but that thought is already disgusting enough. It doesn't make any sense. She can't be related to him; they are from different worlds. He has to be lying. Some kind of manipulation he is trying to pull on her. She wonders if Reynolds knows about him. She wonders if he knows whether 'Setrákus Ra' is telling the truth or not. She wonders where he is. Is he okay?

But there is one thing in particular that she can't stop thinking about.

What did he want her to see?

"Where are we going?" she asks plainly with none of the fear that she knows she should have.

Setrákus Ra – damn that name sounds weird in her head, she'll have to get used to it – he doesn't react to her voice much at all. Except to raise a hand at his side as if to resemble her to stop, there is no indication that he even took her question into consideration. After a brief moment, he lowers his hand and waves it out over a ledge.

"Have a look," he tells her.

And she does.

They are on a wide metal bridge. It goes from the hallway they came from to another in the distance, but in between it is open. No walls no nothing. On the left is a giant bay window overlooking the stars that she has quickly gotten accustomed to. On the right is a deep pit. Every surface is made of a glistening silver metal and the light does not dim a single speck.

She peers over the edge, careful of her distance between her and him, and all she sees is them. Dozens and dozens of Mogadorians. Some of them scouts, but most of them soldiers. She even sees a beast or two wandering down there, large grey furry bodies trotting about on all fours. They are working and training, viewing blueprints of sorts, unloading boxes and sorting weaponry, and sparring against one another. She almost wants to back away; to stay hidden and safe, but then reminds herself that she is. Or should be anyhow. For now.

"Am I supposed to be looking at anything in particular? Or just your gross-ass minions?"

Setrákus Ra only smiles without showing his teeth, his lips smug. "Those minions will answer to you one day. In the events that you have wielded and mastered my power. However, until then, they answer to me, and you do too."

At that, the sudden thought of commanding an entire army seems enticing to her. Her people didn't have armies. They didn't practice or believe in wars; they believed in peace. And so many of the Loric weren't soldiers, but simply... people. Mae on the other hand, she was raised in a war. It is different than it was fifty or a hundred years ago. Besides, who's to say that commanding an entire army had to be a bad thing? If she could command a whole group of trained veterinary aliens, that means the Loric would have soldiers.

It means they'd win this war.

But, of course, she isn't about to admit any of her thoughts aloud in front of the so-called leader. She would rather keep that private.

"Why would I even consider answering to you?" she asks instead, focusing on the present.

With a patient smile, the wide hefty man leans his golden cane against the bridge railing and steps closer to lay both his hands on the tiny girl's shoulders, looking down at her proudly. Out of all her years on the run, never had she felt more insignificant than this moment. Although she was usually the shortest in the room, she has always had an attitude tougher than anyone else. That made her feel strong. But with Him? Someone who is at least triple her size and talks so much more superior than her, she can feel her confidence and toughness fade by the smallest fraction.

"You know not yet what you are capable of child," he says, and hearing him call her 'child' does not help to ease her back to high poise at all. If anything, it just makes her angry, and her anger is dramatically increased when he moves her aside, away from the side of the pit and to the side of the huge window. He reaches for his cane and again gestures it toward her. The eye of it blinks upon her blink. "Soon, this too, will belong to you, and I will teach you all that it prevails over. Though, at this time, I will demonstrate its power now."

Then he begins speaking in a strange foreign language. The same language she heard him speak when she first laid eyes on him, on her wake from the nightmare.

As soon as he starts saying words that she can no longer understand, his golden cane begins to shine and bask in a faint red glow, growing brighter every second. The eye of it remains focused on her and her alone, and she cannot help but think of it as ominous. It is the same as she has seen previously.

Its crimson colour shines forth, embedding the thing as a whole and soon the light concentrates into a sort of orb. An orb within the cane, pulsing, as if it is alive. Alive and trying to break free.

She can sense it trying to edge toward her through the Eye's red glass. It wants her. Then there is a dark flash across her vision, and she is somewhere else entirely.

Not somewhere, she quickly realizes. Some time.

She has somehow drifted to another time period. One that's either in the past or the future. The thought of the latter frightens her, due to the remnants of the nightmare still present in her mind. She can feel the way time slows around her in a way that isn't normal. She knows she isn't doing it, but maybe she is doing something else? Something she isn't aware of? A development of her legacy that she hasn't discovered? How could that be? She has never experienced anything like this before.

Setrákus Ra is still standing in front of her, speaking the foreign language that she can't comprehend. It is quieter than before and strangely dimmer even though the lights have not changed. The cane still glows red; brightening ever so slowly until it looks as hot as blood. The orb still pulls toward her, though it doesn't seem as threatening under the lesser time speed.

Then it snaps, and she is out of it.

Back from whatever time she travelled to. Bright lights and sound return. He has ceased his unearthly chant. The cane is fading its red simmer. The orb is gone.

"What happen—" she starts but doesn't finish. Due to something catching her right ankle from behind. A stinging, which quickly turns into a burning, a tearing ache.

She screams a short scream, high-pitched and clearly carrying the weight of so much pain. She cannot help but scream a second time even though she is trying her hardest not to.

"What the hell did you do?!" she yells in frustration, holding her red burning ankle on the polished clean floor and breathing in agony.

The Mogadorian Commander does not answer her. Only watches still with satisfaction in his dark deadly eyes.

By the time the searing pain diminishes, the suddenly fragile girl is able to catch some air. She releases her ankle; it is hot and still marked red. The strange glowing orb has disappeared, somehow immersed under her skin. Left behind, is a scar.

A scar unlike the other on her left ankle, meant to represent the Charm that ties the last of the Garde together by their lives.

She sheds the last of her tears, not bothering to wipe them off her cheeks, and stares at the Beloved Leader coldly. Then says again, her voice broken and abnormally shaky, but more precise than before, "What the hell did you do?"

"It is done," responds Setrákus Ra calmly, his composure the complete opposite of hers. "We are now bonded as one."