GLADIATOR | ELYSIUM RISING 1 ✔️

⍢ | 3

No matter what Iggy did, he couldn't seem to get his head to stop spinning. His vision had tilted, almost like his entire world had been turned on its axis, kind of like the dangerous world of Hadaxys* in the Black Sky star system. The ground beneath his feet felt more like sand. Knees buckling, he collapsed back onto the bed.

This couldn't be happening.

His father couldn't be a rebel. He just couldn't.

But as he recalled memories from the past, he realized this truth had been in his face the entire time. Their abrupt evacuation from Yensari, the hushed conversations in the dead of the night when Iggy's parents thought he was asleep. The letters in the mines. All the evidence was there. It had always been there.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he swallowed hard.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he finally asked.

"I didn't want you involved," his mother told him. She joined him at his side, her hand resting on his shoulder. "He didn't either. Your father didn't abandon us, Iggorii."

Iggy wiped his eyes. "Where is he? Why isn't he here?"

"It was for a reason, I'm sure of it."

That was all she could tell him. Biting the inside of his cheek, he glared at the floor.

His father placed the rebellion over his own family. He valued fighting a pointless war over the safety of his wife. Of his only son. Iggy's hands curled into fists by his side.

"Icarii was a..." His mother caught herself before chuckling. "He's always been an idealist. A dreamer. When we were still on Yensari, he dreamt of a better galaxy—one no longer ruled by the Elysian Empire. His dreams brought us here, in search of the rebellion. He told me he contacted someone from Galenrad. A warrior." She gestured at the letters. "Shortly after that, he went missing."

Iggy turned away. It didn't make sense. Not a single word. Why would his father rip them away from the safety of Yensari in search of the rebellion?

His mother was wrong. The man wasn't a dreamer. He was a fool.

"He might not have abandoned us," he began, his voice shaking with rage, "but he left us here to die." Grabbing his mother's hand, he stared at her with tears in his eyes. "We're drowning, aurata. We can barely keep up with the rent. Your lungs aren't getting any better, and your medication isn't getting any cheaper. The Au Vormnirs just upped the prices. I'm not sure how much time we—"

She grabbed his face with both of her hands. "You listen to me, and you listen to me good. Some things in this universe are bigger than us. Your father...he believed standing up against the empire was one of those things. He wanted to fight for something bigger than himself. You have to understand. You have to forgive him—"

"I can't!" Sniffling, he wiped his eyes again. "And you shouldn't either."

"Iggorii..."

"If you believe in his stupid dreams, then maybe you're just as much of a fool as he was."

Thick silence filled the room like a dense fog. Iggy immediately regretted the words as soon as they left his lips. They burned against his tongue like poison. But he couldn't take them back. They were out in the open, igniting the tension in the air like lightning bugs from the mines.

His mother flinched away from him, her eyes wide. A single tear slid down her face.

She didn't speak.

Neither did he.

He wanted to apologize. He wanted to hug her and kiss her on the forehead, but he couldn't. The immense shame and grief squeezing his body wouldn't let him. All he could do was sit on the edge of the cot as an overwhelming numbness enveloped him.