Greeting readers!
I hope your week has started mellowly! Work has been a little insane with clients that can't make up their minds and not knowing how I system works, despite having videos that's meant to assist them.
Anyway, I got some writing done this week. While not much, I am delving deeper into Bolx's time. Once this is done, I'll be switching back to the main story and bringing in more about the Fell Dragon. But as River Song says, Spoilers.
Enjoy today's update!
It was late into the night after the attack, and now, Saasha’s body was hurting. She was sure she had a lot of bruising but luckily no breaks. She was starting to get too old to be fighting, and it bothered her to think that she would have to retire permanently. She had finally received news that her grandson and brother were out of surgery. Bahn, having been partially disembowelled, was going to be on bed rest for weeks and would likely be sent back to Brucel’s planet to recover there with his small family. His daughter, Mishka, had been granted special permission to take an early break from the Academy to help her father and the babies. Bolx had suffered a severe laceration that had peeled most of the flesh from the bones of his forearm. There was likely nerve damage, but with enough physiotherapy and rest, he should regain a lot of use in his arm. The majority of the others hurt had not needed surgery but were hurting with multiple stitched wounds and several broken bones.
Now that everyone was accounted for, she could turn her attention to the individual before her. Edzeeker, the time traveling Dekai. He was old. You wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at his face, but if you looked closely, you could see the wrinkled, half-paralyzed wings and the drooping of his cheeks. Saasha had shuddered when his weapon had been removed from him. She still bore the scars of a similar weapon used to torture her decades ago. He wasn’t talking now, instead, he stared at Sedeath with such an intensity that made Saasha think they were having a mental battle.
Doran was sitting in on this meeting too, mostly because he was uninjured and none of Saasha’s soldiers dared to remove him. She grinned at that. She saw where Saita had gotten her stubbornness from. He had clearly spent years training the wild child. She then sighed and tapped on the data pad before her. News of Saita’s condition had been sent to her by Sash. Saasha didn’t need to be a doctor to know that the results were not good. If this had been a Guard member, she would have been forced to retire them permanently and maybe even start making calls to the family. That was the one task of her rulership that she hated. Calling the families to let them know their loved ones were not going to make it.
She slid the datapad over to Doran and simply said. “It is not good.”
Doran could somewhat read Saith, and he understood the diagrams that were presented with the information. Saita’s upper left leg had snapped and was currently in traction to realign the bones. Her right arm was mangled beyond the Saith’s skill to fix though they were able to salvage the bones in her upper arm and shoulder.
“If they leave the right arm long enough it will heal itself. She has nanites in the metal bones.” Mumbled the human.
“The doctors found that out when they did a blood panel on her. They cleaned and dressed the wounds as best they could. If an infection doesn’t get rooted in the arm, she should keep it.” Said the Saith Queen as she crossed her arms.
The human continued to go through the diagrams. Saita’s throat had been partially bitten into and though bruised it would leave no permanent damage. Then there were the multiple cracked ribs, two of which were broken, and a lacerated liver.
“She is forever lacerating this damn thing.” Said Doran trying to make light of the situation. “She came to us the first time with internal injuries too.”
“That was never part of my plan.” Hissed Edzeeker suddenly.
Heart structure was compromised but was fixed in surgery. Metal plate beneath split in half. Wires detached. Object left in the cavity.
“The disc was left inside of her because the doctors didn’t know what to do.” Said Saasha. “They had never seen the kind of augmentation like this before. They barely wanted to fix what they did. For now, the girl is resting in a medically induced coma until we can come to an arrangement.”
“I have already told you. The girl is as good as dead. You need to bring me her son so that I can try again.” Yelled Edzeeker.
“That isn’t going to happen.” Said Sedeath.
“Then you doom us all.”
“Listen to yourself Edzeeker! You spent more than a decade torturing a little girl. Forced a son upon her and for what? What you perceive as a necessary evil?” Sedeath looked Edzeeker in the face. “How many others were like her? How many children were created for these experiments? Hundreds? Thousands?”
“Billions.” Said Edzeeker. “Billions of lives across countless universes have been lost and I finally have a chance to stop the Fell Dragon. Finally, but you stand in my way. It is but one child for the lives of everyone that still exist.”
“Where have I heard this before?” said Doran under his breath.
“Sedeath, please. I have one more chance with the boy. I can get it right this time.”
“Aidan.” Said Sedeath. “His name is Aidan, and he is a living, breathing creature whose mother has done everything in her power to overcome what you have done to her. And her name is not S-AY-8-A, it is Saita, start treating her like a person. If she found out, you were after her son…”
“She is dying Sedeath. Maybe she has a week, maybe longer if you manage to keep her sedated but the System will try to wake her and find a way to repair itself, but it can’t. It will consume the energy marks on her skin first and then it will start on her life until none of it remains.”
“Then fix it.” Doran threw the data pad at him. “It is one disk. Fix it!”
“It cannot be fixed by any means I have. There are no skills in the world that can. She killed the only doctor I ever found in this timeline who could keep someone alive to do it.”
“I have talented doctors and medical engineers who can step in at a moment’s notice.” Said Saasha.
“If you Saith had the knowledge, I would have taken one of your children and not a Human.” Snapped Edzeeker.
“And we’re done.” Said Saasha as she got to her feet. “He is clearly not going to help us. I’m sorry Doran but it would seem best for you to go to Saita’s side to be with her. We will arrange for Edzeeker to be shipped back to Dekai space to be tried for his crimes.”
Sedeath looked at Saasha with concern. “But what about Saita?”
“She will die.” Confirmed the Queen. “And we will have to prepare our people to face what is coming. There is nothing else for it.”
Saasha looked at Doran and said. “We can bury her here with full honours or we can send her home to die there. At least she will get to see her son one more time. If you need protection for the boy, I have a few names of soldiers who would welcome the opportunity to help.”
“Sedeath you can’t let them do this!” cried Edzeeker.
The Dekai shook his head then it was Jethron’s voice that sounded. “Sedeath no longer has anything to say to you. You are a traitor and a mass murderer. We will no longer indulge you in conversation.”
“You are going to kill an entire universe for a…a human?”
“If you are not willing to help a single human, are you truly qualified to save a whole universe?” snapped Doran as he got to his feet.
“You are signing all our death warrants!”
“No Edzeeker, you are. Instead of helping the one creature that you made to combat the Fell Dragon, you turn to ruin her son, the only legacy she has left as I suspect you were the one that killed her parents to steal her away.” Said Jethron.
“I did it for the universe.”
“You did it because of your pride. You have failed in whatever ancient mission you may have had and now we pay the price. Sedeath has sealed all your abilities. You will suffer this universe's death with us. No more running, no more hiding.”
“But I can save us!”
“No, you think you can save us. There is a difference.” Roared Jethron. “If Sedeath thought for a moment your gamble with Saita’s son would pay off he would have convinced us of it, but he hasn’t which leads me to believe that that plan has an equal chance to fail as your current one has.”
It was as if in the moment Edzeeker’s entire being crumbled in on itself. He clutched at his face and lowered his forehead to the table as he moaned in anguish.
“How many lives are on your head? How many children from my kingdom have you murdered?” demanded Doran.
“I was just trying to help!”
“Yes, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions! Now excuse me while I watch the girl I raised, I hunted for, die because you are useless.” Doran made to leave the room.
“There is one way.” Muttered the Dekai from between his hands. “But it is likely to fail. It always fails.”
“Speak.” Said Saasha.
“The broken pieces were left in her body and not removed, which means it can sense the other pieces around it. It will try to reach for them, to re-establish a connection. Red-Eye may have taken a chip or a wire as he removed his claw from her chest. The System isn’t designed for humans it was originally for Dekai…”
“You were going to use this on our people?” Jethron looked at the man with disgust.
Edzeeker looked up and yelled. “Volunteers Sedeath. I would never force…”
He stopped what he was saying and released a pent-up breath. “If I present a piece of the machine I have with some Dekai genetic makeup then maybe, and it is a big maybe, the System can repair itself. However, it won’t be easy on Saita.”
“She had her chest cracked open and her heart removed to put that disc in while she was conscious. None of this has been easy on her.” Muttered Doran.
“This is different.” Said Jethron as he sat down. “Dekai don’t give blood. It is seen as tainting a person with intentions that are not their own. It’ll be like adding another person to Saita if we try this. And it’ll hurt every step of the way if she rejects it. She must be conscious to allow for this to happen and she needs to be willing to go through her biggest remembered trauma.
“If she wants to live…” started Doran.
Jethron gave a sarcastic chuckle and spat. “You don’t get it. You haven’t spoken to her at length. She doesn’t want to live. She is so broken from everything that has been done to her she doesn’t have the will to live. What will she had left with forming a bond with Bolx was shattered when the King demanded her back. I don’t know if she will agree to this.”
“She will if she knows of the alternative.” Said Saasha.
“Mother! Surely you wouldn’t allow for that!”
“Of course not, but to save her life I do not have to tell her that. It’s cruel, I know but sometimes we need to bend the truth of the matter. I will not sit here and have her die when we had options to save her.”
“We will need Dekai…” started Doran.
“I’ll do it.” Said Jethron.
“My Lord, no!” exclaimed Edzeeker. “I should…”
“You have done quite enough! One of my subjects did this crime and I will pay the price for it.” Jethron got to his feet. “I will need time to prepare. Doran, you and Bolx need to convince Saita that this needs to be done to save her life. You two hold a very special place in her heart and if anyone can convince her of this then it is you.”
“Jethron what are you going to do?” begged Saasha.
“If this is successful Mother you will gain a daughter but if it is unsuccessful and she dies then I will leave with her. I need to make arrangements.”
“Jethron I…” Tears immediately came to Saasha’s only eye.
“You said it yourself, Mother. We can’t let her die if we have another option. It’s not a great option but if she is key in all of this then we need to try. I do this of my free will so please do not talk me out of it.”
The old Saith Queen took a deep breath and rubbed at her eye wearily before saying. “My own words coming back to haunt me. Aye my son, if this is what you wish to do then you have my blessing but know that I will not deal with your wife in the aftermath. Where your brother scares me, she terrifies me.”
And we'll leave it there for today. Some of the truth has come out, but not all of it. I eagerly await to share more of this story with all of you!
For those of you who have never heard of Fell Dragon you can find Book 1 here, Book 2 here and the start of Book 3 here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I love discussing my books!
As the series continues, it will combine with another book series I wrote. To avoid confusion about what is happening, introductory chapters will be introduced separately so that you don't have to be lost. However, these chapters will contain spoilers. You can find these chapters here:
Races Explained
Banishment
Royal Guard
Saasha’s Direct Family
Saith Characters Recap
Human Characters Recap
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Haven't read the other parts yet? Follow these handy links:
Part 2>>You are Here>>Part 4 (Friday)
