I roll onto my back and let the planet spin around me. I have no doubt Dante has a claw in what goes into everything I’m given to eat and drink. The only option is not consuming what I’m given, but it seems I cling to life stubbornly. Too stubborn to fade away.
In fact, living spites them more. So, I live. I take the scraps my brother gives me, and when I am conscious enough, I plan my revenge.
With some effort, I push myself up against the wall and rub my back against the rough surface to gain some relief.
I stare up at the bars above, reinforced with a glimmer of a forcefield. It doesn’t stop the drifting in of the sand from outside, nor the scents of the settlement which the Sarkarnii have built here and which once I was supposed to be a part of.
Not anymore. Instead I’m a burden to be hidden away. They don’t even want to risk sending me back to the second continent. I cannot be free to cause any more trouble, according to the other warlords.
I’m not sure when my scales decided I needed a shed, but I could sure do with it ending, or I’ll have no option but to rubmyself raw. Although it will relieve the boredom. Maybe if Darax thinks I’m suffering he’ll reduce the doses. I might even be able to sleep without the nightmares waking me ever nova-hour.
Outside my cell, I hear noises.
“Is he awake?” one of my guards, a warrior called Dyln, asks.
Within the forcefield, a small opening appears along with a set of eyes.
“If you can call it awake,” my second guard, Diyn grumbles. “Nevver’s dosed to the eyeballs again.”
“If only we could all be Deus.” Dyln laughs. “What I wouldn’t give for a dose of paraxio.”
“Don’t let Darax hear you talking like that,” Diyn says. “But I’ve heard Dante’s warriors…”
Their voices become mumbles as they move away from the door, no doubt planning something. The pair of them have a particularly active life outside of their guarding duties. I don’t mind hearing about it. At least it’s better than my miserable existence.
Dylia would hate what I have become. Self-pitying, unable to control my emotions, my temper, or even my shift. A pathetic creature worth none of the love she gave me. I do not deserve her, even if I did want her back so very much.
I lean my head back against the wall and stare at the sky. I used to love being in my Sarkarnii form and taking to the air, but now it seems meaningless, even pointless. I doubt I could shift even if I wanted to.
“Hey, nevver.” Dyln calls through my door. “You want to eat?”
I don’t even bother grunting at him. There’s something on the breeze. Something which hits me, slowly at first and then like a spaceship is bearing down on my very soul. Something I don’t understand. Something which penetrates the haze of the drugs, of my own pit of despair.
Something…
Something…
Something…
“MINE.”
LYDIA
I am lost.
Again.
It’s not like I’ve even gone a long way from the atrium where the aquiums are. I can’t have gone more than twenty paces, but then I turned left, or was it right…? I’m not sure. What I do know is there is not an aquium down this way. There is nothing but twisting passages, and every time I turn back, I end up getting more lost.
This is absolutely stupid. I had no idea how bad my sense of direction was until I ended up at the mercy of aliens and their indeterminately similar corridors and passages.
“Why can’t they mark them with colors or something!” I mutter to myself as I plough ever onwards.
I have my comm, but I can’t bring myself to call for help. It won’t be the first time, and it’s getting rather embarrassing now. Especially as my friends are all joined with Sarkarnii. I can’t keep asking them to come and bail me out. I’m supposed to be an adult. I’m supposed to be able to look after myself.
Even if that hasn’t ever worked out for me. At twenty-five, I’m the youngest human on Vorostor. But what I’ve been through…
The lights go out. I squeak in alarm, despite my promise to myself to be brave and bold today. I squeeze my eyes shut and count to ten. When I open them again, there’s enough ambient light coming from I don’t know where which means I can still see the walls and floor of the passage.
