This Is Where I Want To Be

111. My First Step To Independence

Marcus

I stood in Nahrima's main teleporter building. I had spent most of my days there since Juliet left after her fight with my grandfather. They had many rooms from which you could teleport. I had chosen one allocated in the back, far away from prying eyes. Did my homework and punched in the numbers. It was July, and technically, Chris was supposed to have been in Shumaan for almost a year, and yet he had still not come back. The invitation was denied... And no communications were being answered.

I stood nervous. It wasn't the first time I did everything by myself, but... it was interstellar... To a place that had only one city with one hot spot... I wasn't allowed access to those coordinates. They were locked up in Ahasuerus's office. As I understood it... there were soft spots all over the planets. The fact that Zoreah had just one was physically impossible. But I didn't know at which one I was going to come out. I had spent all my time figuring out those coordinates myself. I could only find two... I pressed the button without telling anyone where I was going.

***

I had packed a bag. It was insufficient in so many ways... I arrived in the middle of a sandstorm and had to cover my eyes and lay down. The wind was so strong that I couldn't even walk. It went on for days. The wind would quiet down for little bits at a time, but it didn't give me any view. The sand didn't seem to want to fall down... I was stupid to have done it. You couldn't teleport out with one of the glass plates. You needed someone on the other side.

I didn't want to leave where I landed. I could be stranded just outside a city... So I had to wait out the storm... Lying there gave me a lot of time to think. And wanting to sort out my feelings for Juliet made my mind oddly against the process. So, I lay there with no thoughts whatsoever. I heard weird sounds. Crying sounds. Roaring sounds. Screeching and bellowing. All sorts of beasts, wondering if I had brought sufficient weapons.

The first thing that came for me was under the sand. It pushed me up and was so big that I was on its back. It flung me off. I had to fight in the wind, face completely covered, using only my ears and my senses, clicking away like two year old. Up close, I could see it. It was ugly but smelled so good that I had to kill it. I drank the blood, and it left me satisfied until the storm passed.

Nothing technological from Earth could work on Zoreah. I didn't have the time. Their gravitational pull was too much. I didn't have the constellations to guide me. I couldn't leave... Someone would come for me eventually, so I marked the spot... appropriately. Built an altar so big that no one could miss it. Even if a creature rammed it. The remnants would be there. After that, I could venture out at night following the stars, walking till their moon was high in the sky, letting me know that I needed to turn back. It took me weeks to go in all the directions and ensure nothing was there.

***

I tried the second location... There was also nothing. I sighed heavily. It was sand... sand and more sand. Rocks, mountains, and more sand. I was frustrated that I had found the two locations that were nowhere near civilization. I stood for a while, not with much faith in myself. How the hell did I get back? At least I was starting to catalog my own book of locations.

It was another month at the second location before I felt the first presence of something around me... I didn't know what it could be. It felt like a beast stalking me, but it never made a move. Again, I marked the location with a big altar. The one thing they had was rocks. Giant rocks. That way, whoever came looking would at least know where I had been... Or else no one would ever find me... I would be stuck there for months before anyone even asked where I was back home.

***

Ahasuerus

Soren was on the floor, waiting for me to speak. I had asked him where Marcus was, but he didn't know. I didn't feel the answer was sufficient. I thought he was lying. "Get up." He stood, and we made our way to the embassy platform. The clerk bowed down and waited for me to tell him where we were going.