She apologizes and is about to leave when I wave her to the table. She sits and watches Sevro. He doesn’t care. He eats for a few more minutes, making sure to collect every last crumb, chugs his beverage, burps, leans back, scratches his belly, looks up, yawns, then brings his eyes down on her like a hammer. “And?”
She stares at the necklace of ears he still wears around his neck.
“My name is Aurae.”
“I know. We talked in the evac. And?”
“I have a message for you from friends in the Rim. It is from Athena.”
I frown, even though I’m less surprised than Aurae thinks I should be. She pulls a strangely designed holocube from her pocket. It activatesand bathes us in amber light. Like Ares once did, this Athena wears a helmet. Hers is black with a Corinthian crest. Red eyes stare out from it. Her voice is slow, heavy with the laconic accent of the Gas Giants.
“Yassou,Son of Ares, Sevro. I greet you on behalf of the lowColors of the Rim. I cannot tell you my name, for I am hunted. But I am called Athena.”
“Cute theater,” Sevro mutters.
“You do not know me, but I knew your father. He was my mentor, my friend, my hero. He found me when I was broken and showed me that it was not I that was broken, but the worlds. Since his death, I have kept his legacy alive in the Rim.”
“A joke?” Sevro stands and snorts in disgust. “I ain’t got the patience for this shit.”
“You may doubt this. You may doubt me. So hear it from him.”
Sevro freezes as his father appears in place of Athena. “What…” Fitchner is young, probably close to the age we are now, and recording in an apartment with a view of Agea. A toddler lies asleep on the couch beside him, his head resting on Fitchner’s thigh. Fitchner smiles ruefully out at us from across time. Sevro touches the ears on his necklace. His entire essence shifted the moment he saw his father. He became a boy again. He blinks a few times and sits back down. Chills creep along my arms when I hear Fitchner’s voice. I forgot how much I missed the man.
“Hey, boyo. It’s me. Your da.”Fitchner strokes the toddler’s hair.“And you. I hope you don’t wake up while I’m talking to you. You were a bastard today, bit me like a goblin.”He shows a mark on his hand and sighs.“I don’t know if you’ll ever watch this. I hope you don’t ever have to. But if you do it’s because you’re grown and I am dead.”Fitchner grimaces.“Strange, talking to the man you’ll be. To me, right now, you’re innocent. Except for the biting. You don’t yet know your mother is dead. You are too young to miss her. You’re too young to know you will have no place in the world that killed her. That won’t last.”His eyes grow sad.“But you will know she’s dead. You know how she died.
“This is a hard message to record. It’s like admitting I won’t be there. But that’s being a da, I think. I wish I could protect you from the pain that’s waiting. I wish your innocence would last forever. I wish tonight that I didn’t have to leave you. But I’ve done something, my boy. I have started a war.
“Our enemies do not know it yet. Hopefully they won’t know till they’re choking on it. That is why I have to leave you tonight. I’ll be back, but there are seeds that must be sown in the Rim. I will return to you as soon as I can.By the time you watch this, those seeds should be grown to fruition. Their bounty is your inheritance, should you need it. I hope you won’t. I hope I am alive sitting beside you as you watch this. If I am, pour me a whiskey and rub an old man’s back. I deserve it because if I’m alive, I’ve beaten the bastards and you won’t have inherited my war.
“It’s a pretty dream. But your mother was the dreamer, boyo. I’m not. I’m just a savage who can’t let things go. Something tells me you might be the same. I know the path I walk might leave you alone. I’m a bastard for that. I know. It eats me up knowing you’ll probably hate me for it. But fortune ain’t kind to those who conceive revolution. The generation that lights the fuse usually gets buried in the rubble. My only hope is you’ll build something of the rubble, son. Maybe a monument, eh? I’d like that. A big one on the Lion Steps for me and your mum. And a family for yourself. A whole brood to climb on our statue and be amazed at what big toes their grandparents had.
“Athena, my ally in the Rim, will have sent this via a herald. You’ll know it’s them when they say the words your mother once said to you. They’ll have a book with them. It belonged to Bryn, your mother, and her mother before her. It is a partial collection of the oral wisdom of their clan on Triton. It’s your heritage, and it belongs to you now. Trust the book, and trust the herald. They will guide your journey to Athena as surely as I hope this book will guide your heart. Vale knows, it saved mine.”He looks down at the toddler resting beside him.“I must go now. I’ll be back for you to chew on soon.”
He grows somber as he looks at the recorder.“If I am not there now, I’m sorry. But know I’m all right. No matter how I went, the path led me back to your mother. We loved you, Sevro. With your first breath. With our last. We will always love you and we will see you again at the end of your path. Farewell, for now.”
Fitchner shrinks back into the holocube.
Stunned, Sevro hasn’t time to say anything before Athena returns.
“Your father knew the worst could always happen, Sevro. He believed in redundancy. That is why he had me found an independent cell. I was the first Daughter of Ares. When the Raa swept the Sons away like dust, we survived because we are shadow. At first we were few. Now we are many. More even than there ever were Sons. For years we have been too afraid to reach out to you. Too embittered. Because we know what Darrow did. We know he gave Romulus au Raa the Sons to win the Battle of Ilium.
“For his own people, the Reaper sacrificed the Sons of Ares in the Rim.That sacrifice allowed freedom to flourish in the Core, but not here. There are some amongst us who will never forgive that. I am not one of them. Our cause is too important for us to be divided by the sins of one man.
“I reach out to you now because the Raa have entered your war. They have proven to my council what I have long argued, there is no Rim. No Core. Only the high and the low. The oppressors and the oppressed. The high have united. If the low do not, I believe the dream of Ares and Eo, our dream, will die.
“That is why I offer you your inheritance now. For thirty-one years, the Daughters have focused on two tasks. The first, the dissemination of literature and liberal philosophy to gain converts, particularly those skilled in research, weapons development, and military construction. The second, the accumulation of military hardware.
“We have a fleet. We have weapons, but we do not have a general. It is time for you to fill your father’s helm.
“Come be our god of war.”
The hologram ends. Aurae watches Sevro, waiting for a reply. He gives none. Overwhelmed, he retreats toward the crew quarters. Aurae stands to follow him. I hold up a hand to stop her. “How many ships does this Athena have?”
“I would not know. Athena is careful and I was deep cover until this mission.”
“Are you lying?” I ask.
“No.”
