HTG - Chapter 187

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-Seven: Ethaki - Part Three

Planet: Etheria

Kotina paces the edge of the cave, staring out into the darkness, still not having fully answered my questions. There is concern on her face, as though she can see or hear something that I cannot. After a few more moments she comes back towards me, but she does not sit down, her eyes remain outside as she leans against the cave’s wall across from me.

There is a strangeness that I feel about this encounter with Kotina. As my mind comes more into focus, I start to question things that have happened to bring us here. It all seems too convenient.

“Since we have time and you can’t find the words to answer my last question,” I begin, shifting against the rock, my head throbs from the wound on it, “The bounds, you told me of them before, but can you tell me more about the Etheric ones, like how it feels to break it and how you broke it?”

“Using your second and third question on that are you?”

“You didn’t answer my first, therefore I still have a third, one could even argue that it is a compound question and derived from the same stem so it shouldn’t even be considered two.”

She squints at me, “You should stop hanging out with Fennec, you’re starting to sound like him.”

“The questions stand, I need to know how to break the Etheric, and you are the closest thing to a teacher I have now.”

“I’m not one to teach about bounds, I’m more of a combat instructor.”

“Still, you know more than I do.”

“You shouldn’t even be thinking about breaking Etheric bounds right now. Your objective is to remove the Netheric. Which according to Arkon will take you the better part of five hundred years, if you’re lucky.”

I pause, weighing the next question, I would ask if she has known any who were successful, but she said before she’s never known a Netheric user besides me.

She looks out into the darkness for a few moments before continuing, “Fine, I did have a Kuwathi instructor once, he helped me figure out the fifth bound, I was stuck there for… it doesn’t matter.”

“A Kuwathi one?”

Her eyes trace over into mine, “You’d know him, you lived with him once upon a time.”

“The Sage?” I breathe. I knew that she knew him, but I didn’t know she knew him well.

She nods, “I knew him as Artemius, though he was Sagely. Before Arkon and Inara wed he’d actually spent time in House Raven to train him, during that time, he gave me some pointers.”

Amon rises from the shadow and peers at Kotina, something she said has drawn his attention.

“I don’t understand, the Sage taught you?”

“Artemius, Inara’s father, and Luna’s grandfather. Same one you and Arrum lived with for a time according to Luna.”

Amon’s face strains on the name, Inara. He does not say anything though.

“I know that he knew of the bounds, the way he taught made me realize that after I learned them, but I don’t think he could have been a real bounder.”

She raises an eyebrow at me, crossing her arms, “Well he wasn’t born in House Raven, and I sure as hells saw him smoking his pipe on the surface of Raven Prime without any mechanical equipment.”

I blink… then again.

“I don’t know what bound he was in, but it had to have been at least the sixth, he knew too much about it. That and why the hells would someone who wasn’t a bounder be teaching Arkon? Besides that, his daughter was nearly six hundred when she met Arkon. Given how old he looked, I’d say he was at least a thousand if he was in the fifth, but again, that wouldn’t make sense, Arkon wouldn’t take instructions from someone in the fifth. At the time he was already… well I shouldn’t be saying more than that. Rules and such.”

This is strange, it doesn’t make sense.

“Rules?” I ask, trying to keep her answering instead of asking.

“Not supposed to talk about the upper bounds.”

“Then, Arkon is in the upper bounds?”

“I… I didn’t say that. It could be inferred though. Exactly what bound though is classified. Imperium orders and house policy. Anything past the fourth gets rubber stamped as don’t talk about it.”

“Why?”

“For our house, better if the enemy doesn’t know how many bounders we have. Better they underestimate us. Better they don’t try to assassinate our finest fighters. As for the Imperium, they like control. Knowledge is power after all.”

“I thought you said Ravens are formidable, it is hard to imagine them being easy to assassinate.”

She laughs heartily for a moment, the smile fades as she peers outside again, “Look, you can be extremely strong, but if you’re sleeping and someone destroys your ship’s reactor or changes the vector of your ship’s sublight jump into a moon, or a sun, then you’re dead, just like everyone else. Upper bounders are harder to kill, but it’s not impossible.”

My statement was a pointed one, without knowing it, she answered ways for me to kill someone in the upper bounds. Someone like Victoria, or Dargo.

I think on what she said for a few moments, “And gods, how hard are they to kill?”

She looks at me strangely, as though she isn’t sure if she should laugh or check me for a fever.

“Gods can’t be killed by mortals, hells, not even immortals stand a chance…” her brow furrows.

“Immortals?” I ask.

“I’ve said enough already.”

There is something here. She answers more than she should, like she is simple, like she is falling into the palm of my hand… But I don’t believe that, not really. Not after a lifetime of playing the same game, Ulima must always be adaptive to survive. Kotina acts like she is stupid, but how does an idiot become the second in command of House Raven? I don’t think they could. Besides that, breaking the bounds for me has made my thoughts clearer, faster even. So, what is her game then? To disarm me? Should I spring her trap? Or should I play into it?

“Have you said enough?”

“Yes, runt, I have,” she sighs, looking at me sideways, “You’ve asked a lot more than three questions. My turn to get some answers.” She shifts, her eyes never stray far from the darkness at the edge of the cave. “What’s it like, using Netheric mana?”

I consider the question, she has been truthful with me, more so than she should be. I think I understand why she is doing all of this.

“It depends.”

“On?” she sighs.

I lean against the smooth cave wall, admiring the glittering Etherium all around us, “You know, this much Etherium would have been more than my old clan could gather in a season, even in our prime. Are there many worlds like this one? If so, why do they have the Kuwathi toil on worlds that are so Netheric?”

“Runt, I’ve been called many things, but I wasn’t born yesterday, answer the damn question.”

It was worth a try. My brow furrows again as I ponder her question, “Channeling Netheric mana as you call it. It is different than Etheric in many ways. Netheric feels slower in the vibrations, I feel it deeper in the marrow of my bones than Etheric. In a way, I think Netheric is more of a body enhancer for me. The feeling is… intoxicating at times, like my body cannot die if I consume enough of it.”

“You never get the sickness though?” she asks, shifting her weight a little, “No negative side effects?”

They must know much about me by now, but they have never asked me before. I think Luna would have been sparce with details, she cares for me, and worries about people knowing my secrets.

“There were many side effects in the beginning,” I recall, thinking back to when I first fully channeled it, “It was painful, and it nearly killed me many times. But the more I used it, the more my body began to understand it… to meld it into my will. I could fight endlessly with it. Wounds seal in moments when you channel it fully.”

She examines me closely as I speak, “Sounds almost like you’re addicted to it.”

“Yet I do not seek it unless I must.”

“You said it seals your wounds, like Krothaspawn?”

“Yes… but I am not like them, it does not control me.”

“Spoken like a true addict,” she chuckles, then seeing my expression, “I’m joking, sort of. Anyway, I am curious what happens when you use Netherium? As you know, when normal people use Etherium, the left over becomes Netherium. Always been curious what happens once the Netherium becomes empty.”

“It turns to dust.”

“To dust?” she queries with a raised eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

“It would be easier to show you.”

“Should you really be absorbing more mana in your state?” she asks.

I shrug, “A small amount will not change the tide, in exchange, it will be my turn to ask questions, and I don’t want incomplete answers. There are no gods to watch you here, the Etheric mana is too abundant, no?”

“You’re perceptive, how’d you know?”

“It feels similar to the field that Solara made on her ship before. That and you said Hekate’s tit and didn’t apologize the second time. Perhaps because she can’t hear you, even if she wanted to.” My head feels less throbbing pain, “That and your story about not remembering seems strange, especially with the amount of detail you’re asking me. If I had to guess, this is all a ruse to get close to me, so that you can evaluate me personally.”

She blinks at me, eyes measuring my words.

“You woke up at precisely the moment I was doomed, not when you fell to the cave’s floor, but when you were certain if you didn’t intervene, I’d die.”

Her mouth opens then closes for a few moments, “Well, shit. Perceptive little runt, aren’t you. But fucking hells…”

“What?”

“I’m pissed now,” she groans, throwing a rock at the wall.

“Why?”

“That bald bastard was right, you weren’t fooled for long. Bet him I could drag it out for a week, you figured it out in less than a day. Fucking bullshit that is. Gods I hate that prick.”

“Are they listening to us now?”

She shakes her head throwing another stone, “No, they’re waiting down the river, at one of the outposts.”

“So Amon was right,” I say, turning, but he is gone, he left after she stopped talking about the Sage.

“Yeah, your demon wasn’t lying. Which is bullshit again, should void the bet, you had outside help.”

“He did not say you were deceiving me, just that I should follow the river.”

Kotina rolls her eyes, “Well, I guess this is pointless then, I’ll send up the beacon.”

“Wait,” I say, looking at her intently, “Arrum is safe, right?”

She nods, “He’s fine, staying in a lower grav chamber at one of the outposts I’d guess.”

“They were using him to motivate me?”

“Eh, kind of. Told them it was a fucked up idea, but Dargo said you were the type that was motivated by those you care about.”

“What did you bet Dargo?” I ask.

“A bottle of very expensive wine and something else… something I don’t want to think about.”

I squint at her.

“Nothing like that. It’s just going to be annoying.”

“What is it?”

“I bet him that whoever won, would have to write I’m an idiot on their forehead for a week.”

Relief threads as I know that Arrum is safe. Spending time with Kotina will do me well, and doing her a favor after everything she has done for me, that is a small thing.

I straighten, stretching my neck, “Well if Dargo doesn’t know, and Arrum is safe, then why should we let him win?”

She studies me for a moment before a wide grin crosses her lips, “I’ll let you have half the bottle, runt.”

“Seeing that on his forehead,” I say, returning her grin, “Is reward enough.”