Endosymbiosis

49. Heart

"What made you get here, in this revolution?" I asked Lupan, making conversation in that hall after I left Kadi with the bathtub and his past.

"One day, when I was just a young canouro, I woke up with screams outside my tent... And I went out to see my entire village being destroyed by the Aulic's soldiers. It was a massacre. My friends, my enemies, my family..." I lost my breath.

"Why did they do that?"

"Because the rebels were there, trying to recruit us, and the Aulics couldn't let that happen." I reached out my hand to Lupan and patted his head, in an attempt to comfort him that he seemed to appreciate. "That day Korrok found me and took me to Venerna... Since them, the revolution became my family." I looked around at all those beings who, even so surrounded by death, continued to cling to that cause - the last thing they had. They gone through so much pain... And still found the strength to celebrate the victory of existing. "The revolution saved my life. And I believe it will save the Empire too."

I turned to the canouro, and I knew he could smell the spark that was growing in me.

"We will save it."

So Lupan ended up getting excited to talk about his collections and Kadi promptly came to my rescue, only to become his victim in my place.

I grinned at him with a venomous smile and used the distraction to escape, slipping through the bubbling life on the hall until I saw Korrok. My feet stopped. And so I decided to walk towards him, because, after everything that had happened, there was something I really needed to say:

"I wanted to apologize..." I muttered, unable to face him.

"For what?"

For thinking he was my mother's murderer; for not doing what I should on my loyalty test; for all my mistakes and the consequences they brought to a people who were just fighting for a little more respect - a wish that, being human in this Empire, I understood all too well.

But I didn't apologize for any of that.

"For hurting you in the Blood District, when I was trying to escape..."

Korrok watched me.

"I'm surprised you're even able to remember that."

I shrugged. Some things stayed.

"That made sense at the time, but I wouldn't do the same now... I just wanted to let you know..." I sent him a sidelong glance and noticed Korrok smiling.

"Don't apologize for being brave, sapiens. It's what keeps us alive." He hissed. "That's when I knew you would survive if you crossed the revolution's path again."

"So that was my real loyalty test?"

"Our lives are a constant test of loyalty. And only those loyal to this cause would tolerate dying for it." He said, between bloody sips. "But it doesn't hurt to be sure with a test every now and then..."

"What was yours then?"

Korrok let out a ragged laugh.

"Creating the revolution..." I stared at him, but I shouldn't have been surprised. Korrok was driven by a determination capable of bringing Empires down, a creature that so many called a monster, but which I had a hard time seeing this way anymore. He was a beast fighting for those who depended on him, the only one I felt I could trust Itopis. "Long before your mother was even a fetus."

The vorrampes had matured on the principles of injustice and strengthened before it was too late, one of the longest-lived species in the Empire. That's why the revolution was there, strong even when it lost.