Megacosmic Rift [removed] Torth #4

1.1 Cave Dwellers

PART 1

"The mind readers stole our land, our liberty, our happiness, our dignity, our deepest secrets and our dearest loves. I will gain it all back, piece by bloody piece."

- a long-forgotten Yeresunsa who rebelled against the early Torth Empire

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Evenjos walked the decks of the starship in the guise of a refugee woman, bundled in rags so that no one would get a good look at her. She had not achieved authenticity as one of the albino people. They were aliens to her, chinless and long-necked. 

She kept her misshapen attempt at one of their faces buried in scarves and woolens.

She listened. She searched in vain for familiar customs or familiar languages. Where might she find Yeresunsa who were loyal to her? Where were the royals? The nobles?

Families huddled around lanterns or rubbish heaps lit on fire. They peered forlornly into empty urns that held no water.

Everyone aboard this overcrowded starship was a filthy commoner. Worse—they were foreign. They did not pray to the goddess-empress, as they should. Instead, they whispered prayers to a giant.

Evenjos thought she knew their big savior. Ariock. He had rescued her, as well.

This starship was crude, just an empty shell. It was devoid of furnishings or basic plumbing. It was horrifically overcrowded. If Ariock had made this place, as his worshipers believed, well, he hadn't done a very good job. Unimpressive.

As for the refugees ... although they traveled in a vessel capable of delivering them to a new world, their minds held no recognition of that fact. They were nothing but ignorant cave dwellers.

Disgusted, Evenjos dropped her corporeal focus. She disintegrated into a cloud of dust, letting the empty rags drop. The nearest aliens gasped in shock. She didn't care.

She flitted overhead, from room to room, seeking anything familiar. She was nearly desperate enough to revisit that sickly monster-child who called himself "Thomas," to beg him for advice, but that idea made her shudder, even in her incorporeal state. Thomas was dangerous. He reminded her of Unyat.

Or maybe Unyat's clone. Or his clone's clone?

To Evenjos, the past was a disjointed haze. She feared that her memory might be permanently damaged, atrophied after years of....

(don't think of it)

She pushed away the darkness.

Really, she ought to kill Thomas. He was a telepath; he knew that she was scared and alone, and he had the same calculating mind as Unyat, with that creepy, all-consuming curiosity. What was to stop him from tricking all these cave dwellers into serving as his minions?

Thomas could outwit anyone. Even Evenjos herself. That made him an obvious threat. He should be eliminated.

Yet....

Evenjos had a disturbing sense that she owed the monster-child an enormous debt of gratitude. He had saved her from that...

(no, don't think)

That hellish pit of despair.

Memories kept seeping into her subconsciousness, like sludge filling an ancient well. Hadn't Thomas been trapped inside that terrible prison with her? Hadn't he tried to comfort her, in there?