Night Come Down

Chapter 13 "Visions"

Kai awakens inside her heating chamber, moving a hand up to massage her face. Her eyes slowly opened to see a holographic message displayed before her face that read "Happy 60th Hatchday, Kai'don Juran!". She grumbled and pressed the button that rested under the hologram. The message faded and the chamber split open, making Kai shiver as she felt the cold air hit her. She looked around the room momentarily; The walls were bedight in medals and accolades, plenty of ceremonial weapons as well.

She goes to the nearest chair and takes a seat, draping a heated blanket over her shoulders. Another holographic notification came up over the wall. The caption read as follows; "Numoc Kolar has won elections, becoming the 4,473,202nd Empress of Lorinthia!". The notification became larger and showed a feed of Numoc standing at a podium, wearing almost excessively ornate armor. A hiss came from the ceiling as the speakers came to life.

Numoc; "My fellow Lorinthians... I am very proud to stand before you as your newest Empress. I look forward to bringing yet another lifetime of service and glory to our Empire."

The crowd erupts in laud, and Kai shakes her head with an unamused expression.

Numoc; "I'm also proud to announce that, thanks to the brave Mærse'lus and
Lâ'yerteß* of Division Eleven, we are responsible for the destruction of six hundred and twelve Jev'moli, or Drekar."

Kais' heart sank upon hearing those words, and she averted her eyes downward, though her hearing was still attentive to the speech.

Numoc; "Before we proceed with the military parade, I would like to give you a statistic. Six hundred and twelve Jev'moli destroyed. About half, that's around three hundred and six if I'm counting right, can be attributed to our most successful operative, Kai'don Juran. We thank you for your service..."

Kai tuned out the rest of the speech and simply presses a button on the right armrest to turn off the projection. A lone tear falls into her lap, and she's suddenly pulled from her somber mood when she heard a knock on her door. It then slid open to reveal R'tas in nearly identical ornamented armor.

Kai; "Dev'awl... What are my orders?"

R'tas rested a hand on the back of Kais' chair, chuckling quietly.

R'tas; "No mission today, Kai'don... For you, at least."

Kai looked back to R'tas, a bit of confusion visible on her face.

Kai; "What... What do you mean?"

R'tas; "Sixty is a long time to be doing what you're doing, Kai... I want you to start teaching the youngins' your skills and knowledge... None of that contact crap, though."

Kais' confusion turned to irritation as she turned in her chair to face R'tas, keeping her hands clasped in her lap.

Kai; "Have you asked the people if that's what they want?"

R'tas sighs and crouches down beside Kai, looking her in the eyes.

R'tas; "Kai... We've been over this. The Drekar are nothing but trouble. You've seen the recreations outside of Qo'nos. You were there at Yab'qo, N'gem, Pa'qis. Oh, and don't even get me started on Oveyla, the place was unrecognizable by the time we got there."

Kai; "You were there too. Some of them, the blue ones... They weren't trying to cause trouble. It was a misunderstanding."

R'tas; "A couple good ones doesn't mean anything against the hundreds of others that were out for blood. They're all bad, s'far as I'm concerned."

Kai; "How would you know? You've never talked to one."

There's a tense moment of silence between them.