“Tolmes, mes’sto spito mou! Mes’sta skota!”
There was a Rethan in Elkay’s bedroom, trying to shoot him with what looked like a small, automatic pistol of some sort. It was a blatant assassination attempt, and the only reason why Elkay’s elite team of former Phantasma body guards hadn’t come in and tried to save Elkay was because this Rethan was not normal. Small, skinny, more than higher-caste and with telepathic powers, which they had used to knock out every single Skyan within a 50m radius.
So yes, Elkay was on his own. He was in danger, but he was fine. This Rethan clearly didn’t know that, firstly, Elkay was a former Phantasma himself; that thanks to an encounter with the Silent Blade when he was young, Elkay healed and moved faster than normal; thanks to an encounter with a different, far more dangerous but more friendly telepathic Rethan, Elkay was resistant to most forms of telepathy.
This last fact had caused the Rethan to panic. Clearly their plan was to knock everyone out then kill Elkay while he was unconscious in his bed. But Elkay wasn’t quite asleep and he had heard his head body guard outside slump to the floor, and the Rethan had triggered Elkay’s shadowy caltrops, causing them to briefly grunt in pain. Of course, Elkay immediately reached for a nearby dagger, which he threw at the Rethan, hitting them in the arm.
But while Elkay was resistant to this Rethan’s attempts to telepathically knock him out, Elkay found he couldn’t just leave the room. The Rethan was suggesting that he stay in one place, forcibly stopping him from fleeing. However, they’d made a massive mistake of trapping the Shadow of the Skyavok in a dark room. Elkay was nowhere and everywhere, melting into the shadows, dodging everything the Rethan was throwing at him, waiting for the moment to strike back.
As the Rethan paused to reload their gun, Elkay took a moment to inspect the Rethan further. There was a golden collar around their neck, and they were wearing a strange, golden eyepiece over their left eye. None of this was normal for a Rethan. Rethans had excellent eyesight, even their sniper legion didn’t really use additional gear, and gold was rarely used outside of a General’s Insignia, a simple band worn around the arm.
Elkay grabbed a dagger (he had many daggers) from a nearby shelf and flicked it at the Rethan. The blade cut into their hand, forcing them to drop their weapon. Weirdly, this caused the Rethan to panic, which suggested that the Rethan was very, very young. It also caused the Rethan to try and run.
Well, Elkay wasn’t going to allow that.
“Trehas tora? Den tha’fevs!”
Elkay was aware that he was speaking in Shadowtongue, but it was a conscious effort to speak Panlex while also being the Shadow, and he didn’t have the time to think about that. Instead, he shadowjumped to the door and forced it shut, trapping the Rethan and causing it to panic even more.
Trying not to let the panic take over, the Rethan reached for a collapsed gunstaff on their belt but completely fumbled the unfolding of it. Elkay frowned, then pulled himself back into the shadow, before reappearing below the Rethan’s feet. He then grabbed onto the Rethan’s armoured tail and pulled them through the shadow and out of the ceiling, knocking them off their feet.
“Ah! Please! No!”
“Tolmes alla den telones”
Elkay stabbed the Rethan in the hand, then kicked their weapon away. The fact that the Rethan was no longer fighting back told Elkay that this Rethan had to have been younger than twenty, because they clearly hadn’t developed their protective guardian behaviours yet. That and they were openly showing fear, something only young Rethans not raised with other Rethans did.
Admittedly, Elkay did know a lot about young Threanics. Not only was one of his best friends an L-Class child carer, but he himself had helped raise young Skyans and young Rethans. Elkay had grandkids, after all.
“I… I do not want to! I… I.. I…”
Abusing his connection to the darkness, Elkay summoned several dark, shadowy tendrils and wrapped them around the Rethan’s wrists, ankles and tail.
“Pos se lene?” Elkay asked, before realizing he was still speaking in Shadowtongue. “Kid, what’s your name?”
The Rethan froze and didn’t answer.
“Little one, you just tried to kill a Phantasma Skyavok. If you value your life, I’d recommend you start answering my questions. Now tell me, what is your name?”
“… Siona…” the Rethan whimpered.
“Do you have a surname?”
“Kaldieridos.”
Elkay frowned. “Why did you attack me? And why did you attack the High General?”
Siona blinked. “I… High General? I… I did not. Not been there. That place.”
“Where were you born? Where did you come from?”
The young Rethan fell silent.
“Siona, you know what you did today was very bad. But if you talk, I can make arrangements. A lighter sentence. Because you were clearly coerced into doing this. You are not here because you want to do this.”
More silence. The Rethan had locked up. To be expected. Too many emotions going through their head at once, and their fear overcoming and blocking other senses. Keeping an eye on Siona, Elkay stepped towards his bedside table and grabbed his communicator, writing down Siona’s name and his own observations, before sending out an emergency signal for his backup security team to arrive.
“Little one, I know you are scared. You can talk to me though. I won’t hurt you any more.”
Siona sighed. “It does not matter. I am already dead. Never alive. Never here. They know I failed. I have mere seconds left.”
Elkay hesitated, then sat down next to Siona. They were clearly terrified. They were crying. They briefly flinched in pain as something activated on the gold collar around their neck.
“There are lots of us.”
“Unwilling, yes?”
“Yes. Torr 9-6. Golden Protectors. Captured her. Slaves. Controlled. Collars monitor us. North Territories. Illegal manipulation. Sec-404. Genetics. Experimentation.”
Siona’s words very quickly slowed down. Elkay realized that whatever was in that collar was killing the Rethan. And they were scared beyond belief. Much against his better judgement, Elkay released the shadowy straps around their arms, then very gently stroked Siona’s cheek. This made them relax, ever so slightly.
“Thank you.”
“You never got to live, yes?” Elkay sighed as he held Siona’s hand. Sure, Siona had tried to kill Elkay moments ago, but he didn’t want this child to die alone.
“Yes. Never free. Lab-raised. Bred. Singular purpose. I… I am sorry. I did not want to.”
Siona closed their eyes. Their breathing became erratic and pained, but Elkay could tell that Siona was no longer alive. Agonal breathing, the last, desperate reflexes from an oxygen-starved brain, continued for a few seconds, before Siona fell completely still and silent.
After an awful, silent moment, Elkay wrote down everything Siona had just told him, then sent the information off to the relevant authorities.
“Thanto Kat’olon…”
As Elkay muttered those words, the dark Phantasma energy faded from his body and his red eyes and green plating returned to normal.
Outside, he could hear his body guards start to stir. Clearly, with his would-be assassin dead, their telepathic mind field had disappeared, causing everyone to wake up. It took a little longer for the F-Class emergency services to arrive than anticipated, but clearly everyone else had been knocked out.
“I am sorry you had an awful life, little one…” Elkay muttered as he started cleaning himself up. “No one deserves to be a slave.”