Chapter 115: 113 Cheekbones

She, Titanyana, was in the midst of a terrible nightmare, and only she knew it. She was terrified of something most people would consider to be safe.

Titanyana was having a dream about life on her home planet, Nekh.

For a great many, that would be home, that would be safe, but to her that couldn't be further from the truth. She was afraid of everything that could ever happen there, not because she hated it, but because she loved it so much. Watching her memories from the sidelines was painful, and living them out even more so. Various dreamlike situations could take place here, and all would end up terribly.

Every single dream would end with her looking towards that circular orange-red smudge in the sky, and then pure terror would wake her.

At least here she was safe from the tremors she had developed in the waking world. There was little threat of a death she could not prevent in the Sanctum, her star was far away.

But in her dreams it was close, in fact it seemed closer than ever. It grew night after night for a reason she oh so clearly understood. She was running out of time.

No matter how much she dreamed of finding love as her parents had, no matter how great the exploits of her dream self against her enemies, no matter how successful she envisioned her rule could be, no matter what she could dream that star was there to remind her that those were only pipe dreams.

The universe was cold and indifferent to people like her, victims of circumstance beyond her or anyone else's ability to control. She was born to royalty, something which could only be described as lucky, but it was going to be during her rule that her people were to die. It was cruel to even give her these hopes of a better, happier life, and yet they always came, night after night, like clockwork.

Recently, however, there had been a new development in these dreams. Screaming. Crying. Yelling. The sounds of the billion Nekh she was sworn by bloodline and duty to protect dying slowly, and with agony, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

Death by split deprivation wasn't a graceful affair, nor was it painless. As a matter of fact it was about as close to the opposite as possible. Anybody could go out onto the streets and easily find some poor soul who was succumbing to it as they lived their life, skin slowly peeling, eyes gradually rotting, their bones threatening to break with every movement. They were walking corpses, everyone knew it, but nobody could do anything to stop it.

She remembered her mother, a beautiful if petite woman with gentle white hair and a glowing smile struggling even to writhe in pain as her body withered away. She remembered hearing her cry to her father about the bloody mass that was supposed to be her younger sibling. She remembered the day when her mother's cheekbones were exposed to open air as the last of the flesh that clung to her face finally gave way.

Her mother the queen, renowned the world over for her beauty, rotted to her death the same as many others.

It was at that moment that her father finally resorted to desperation. His daughter, Titanyana, would be the salvation of the Nekh, or they would all die. One year later she was at the Sanctum, training Donovan.

Her efforts up to this point were earnest, she felt. She had even gone so far as to offer her people as indentured servants, to the more generous masters as slaves. All refused, quite flatly at that. It was clear that her people were wasting away, what good could they possibly make doing menial labor? Certainly not enough to recoup the costs of retrieving them.

As the scathing refusals of her prospective saviors all played back to her in this nightmare, she once more looked up to that gradually reddening orb with terror in her eyes.

"-re all good Diana. There are a few troublesome areas, but I believe those will resolve themselves with time."

Strange noises greeted her as she woke from the terror. Her ears flicked a bit as she tried to make sense of it.

"Is there something I'm going to have to do to fix them? I can't imagine just leaving them alone would be enough."

Was that . . . Diana? Titanyana swore she recognized that voice, but it didn't sound right.

'Ah! This is that English Donovan has been teaching us.'

It took a second, but eventually her mind caught up to the events unfolding around her. She had been knocked out by something, someone, and was only getting up from that now. If that was the case then it would make sense for Diana and Donovan to be nearby. They were there when she fell flat.

The biggest question was how long she had been out. It didn't feel like she was on the dirt anymore.

"You can expect them to be resolved once you reach that stage of growth pains that Donovan is going through, just don't worry about it for now."

Titanyana could feel her extremities, and most importantly wasn't feeling any pain. This was good news, fleeting as that was in her life, because it meant that she could still fight tomorrow. The bad news was that she was struggling to move them around.

"Hiiiiiiiiirrrrrmmm."

A groan escaped her lips as she opened her eyes. She wasn't hurt as far as she could tell, but whatever put her to sleep like that really put her to sleep, her eyes not taking kindly to even the dim light in the room.

"Finally awake?"

Some words she could understand, spoken by Donovan no less.

"Head hurts... hooooo." Titanyana brought her hands to her eyes slowly rolling onto her side in preparation to sit up.

"Would you like some tea?"

She couldn't see Donovan, her eyes were shut, but he was definitely nearby. Maybe even directly above her.

"...water." She didn't think she could handle something like tea right now, especially not if it was hot. She didn't hold anything against it, it just didn't taste good.

"I'll be right back, so just, I don't know, stay put?" Titanyana felt a hand on her forehead. Was she sweating? "Mercedes, go sit with Diana. No, not there, Diana. Di-an-a, go. Go! Now sit. Good girl."

Titanyana had no clue what that was about. Was he talking to a child? No, he mentioned Mercedes. Was that the beast?

Was he really talking to an animal? Talking like it would actually understand him?

She really wanted to open her eyes, but she just couldn't see anything. What would she do if that beast decided to attack her.

You are reading story Dead Star Dockyards at novel35.com

"I'm sorry Chestnut, but can you make sure she's actually okay? I don't want Titanyana getting afraid of the dog if Mercedes decides to take an interest in her all of the sudden." There must be someone else in the room, this Chestnut person.

Considering she did not know of anyone with that name amongst the staff, this was probably also the person responsible for knocking her out like that.

"Very well. I suppose that now is as good a time as any to check on her condition..." Footsteps on a wooden floor. The cadence sounded familiar, at least Titanyana thought it sounded familiar. She had remembered the sounds of many footsteps in her life, it wouldn't be too odd for some of them to sound familiar to a stranger's. "I ask that you keep calm, young one. This will feel uncomfortable."

A hand on her wrist and a hushed voice in her ear, followed by searing pain running throughout her body. She twitched, tensing up to cope with it, but Titanyana did not scream. She was a warrior, pride of the Nekh. This was a level of pain she could easily bear, though she did wonder why it was painful when she was told it would be uncomfortable.

Had she been lied to, or did the other party just misspeak?

"How peculiar . . . I will have to consult the Great Csillacra about this." That voice, now that her mind was jolted awake and into motion, she recognized it to belong to the Arboreal Maiden.

All at once the pain stopped, and the Arboreal Maiden removed her hand from Titanyana's wrist. Sighing with relief, she realized just how easy it now was to open her eyes. In fact, it even seemed easier to breathe.

"How are you feeling now? I didn't think that what I did could have caused such damage, but apparently I was wrong. Clearly you were not exaggerating when you described your plight to me." She felt a hand stroking her hair. It was soothing, something her mother used to do when Titanyana was feeling afraid, but that memory alone was enough to make her uncomfortable now. "Do you still feel pain anywhere?"

"No." As much as Titanyana wanted to say yes, she knew that wasn't the right answer. The pain she was feeling was no the type that went away with balms or medicine, only with a resolution to the fundamental problem her people faced. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine." Diana chimed in from somewhere behind her. "What's bothering you?"

Titanyana remained silent, instead opting to right herself and regain some semblance of composure. "It's nothing."

"You and I both know that it is far from nothing young lady." Chestnut's tone was accusatory, though there was no malice behind it. "As a matter of fact, I would beggar to say it is closer to everything for you."

Titanyana's ears fell flat, she couldn't bring herself to turn around. What good could the two of them do? Surely her people would only be a burden given how poor and frail they were.

The squeaking of the door opening interrupted her groveling. "I managed to get a pitcher and a few glasses, but the water is lukewarm. That won't be a problem will it?"

He was completely unaware of recent events, so naturally the situation turned awkward once he closed the door and turned around. It didn't help that Titanyana was now frozen in place, crouched over with her hands on her cheeks.

"I can change the temperature to her liking." The Arboreal Maiden dragged Titanyana up from underneath her shoulders and turned her to face her benefactors. "You have something important to talk to them about, don't you?"

Donovan stood in front of the door, lost. Diana wasn't faring much better, however she did have an idea of what they were talking about.

"So, water?"

"...yes please." Titanyana began to pat herself off an head for a chair. Her motions were the same as normal, when she was calm and composed, however her ears and tail betrayed her. Diana, who had paid attention to how they acted during their time together, guesstimated that she was afraid, nervous, and embarrassed. There also seemed to be some signs of despair, though she couldn't be sure.

Donovan, on the other hand, only recognized that the air of the room as 'awkward' and made himself busy pouring a glass of water for his teacher and subordinate. He handed it off to her gingerly, his way of trying not to set her off somehow. As he saw the water inside start to shake, he began to frown inside, clearly she wasn't all 'with it'.

Trying her best to suppress these tremors, the ones she felt when she awoke, she brought the glass to her face and downed a few gulps. Refreshing, but the dribble of water coming out the side of her mouth did not help the image she as trying to portray. Titanyana was a mess at the moment, but pushing the cause aside wasn't going to help her. What did she have to lose at this point? She might as well make an attempt.

With that in mind she steeled herself to finally make her request. Four pairs of eyes were on her (one of which she was trying in vain to ignore) and the room was silent. This was her last chance.

"S-so," immediately she stumbled. It was just one more blunder on a growing pile, but still she kicked herself for it. "So I, we, the Nekh, have something of a p-problem that we are faced with." Titanyana paused. Was it a good idea to understate the enormity of the plight like that? Donovan and Diana had demonstrated themselves to be serious people with challenges of their own. Certainly they could overlook a small breach of etiquette, but would they tolerate being misled. There wasn't any way to fix that mistake now, she just had to trudge onward. "And I came here, to the Sanctum, in the hopes of finding someone who could help us . . . solve it." Why the long pause! That was totally unnecessary! They knew what problems required! Solutions! They had probably finished her statement in their minds before she even finished.

"Diana?" Donovan looked over to his partner, obviously her input was required.

"I see no harm in hearing her out." Diana raised her teacup to her mouth and took a sip. It was a small motion, but it filled Titanyana with trepidation over continuing. "Who knows? We may be able to provide a solution."

"I was thinking the same. Go ahead, let's see what it is you need."

Titanyana took a deep breath. They were open to something, which was a huge relief. So many people had simply blown her off without even taking the time to hear her out. Exhaling, she continued, deciding the best course of action was to lay everything out for them to see.

"My people are slowly dying, every single one of the billion that are left, because our star is dying too. We have tried everything to save ourselves, including attempting invasions on other worlds, but nothing has worked. The only reason I am here is to find someone who can help us relocate to a different planet, but my time is limited. I have been told that if we don't leave within five years, our home will become completely uninhabitable and we will all die."

Titanyana looked down before shutting her eyes. This was the most embarrassing part for a race of self-proclaimed warriors.

"I have been told that if we must become enslaved to do so, then that is acceptable. As long as my people live then our honor can once again be restored."

Her ears were flat and she was holding her tail. She was nervous, afraid, and crying. 'Defeated' was maybe the best way to put it, not by an individual but by the indifferent cruelty and callousness of the universe she lived in. No sane individual would put the resources and effort required to transport even one thousand people that were decaying from one planet to another, especially not when the promised returns were so low.

The silence of the room was deafening, the sound of her heart the beating drum that foreshadowed death. She was gripping onto her tail so tightly that it hurt, yet she knew that letting go would only hurt her more. She needed a response from them, but didn't necessarily want one.

""We accept.""

Which made her that much more confused when she got one.