Chapter 10: 9 – First Steps to Apogee

"Cut. Hold on. You. Yes, you over there. Grab me a ice cold ARCfuel and banana will you? This hangover is taking a turn for the worse. Need a little something.

What? Yeah, I could could get rid of it in a second, but I like to think it keeps me on my toes. A little manic. A little fresh. Keeps me fun, you know what I mean?"

- The Unabridged Interview of Veldraken Juinper, ARCborn

❄

Mori blinked, unable to process the entirety of what Prime had just said. The ARCborn was a mythological figure, the god of the whole universe. The idea of killing them was the most insane thing she had ever heard. Mori shook her head. “Come again?”

Prime straightened in their seat. “Allow me to start from the beginning. I knew your parents—your real parents. Logun, too.”

Mori’s eyes widened. Just who was this woman beneath the kitsune mask? “You did?”

“It’s a long story,” Prime said, “and not one with a happy ending. The short answer is; your parents wanted to change the galaxy, to bring about the truth—that not all Osai were tyrants, that the narrative the people have been fed from birth is propaganda.”

Mori furrowed her brows. “It is?...”

Prime nodded. “Very rarely is the agenda of the powerful the same as the people in their care. I think you know that more than most. You’ve experienced the divide first hand, have you not?”

Mori thought of the dread haunting the village everytime Winter neared, the desperation to find adequate food and heating. The only thing anyone could think about was keeping their loved ones alive. She thought of how little the Enforcers cared for life when they razed everything she knew and loved to the ground. Well, not everything. Launi and Jeren were still alive, safe, just next door.

Mori squeezed her eyes shut. “Yes.”

“Well, the Osai of old didn’t all agree with how those at the top ruled, nor did the normal humans amongst them. Once, the Osai were an order of peace and balance in the galaxy, but when a few rotten and powerful fruit attained power, they spoiled the bunch. Too few were powerful enough to overthrow them. The ARCborn changed that with the invention of nanite refiners. Perhaps they had good intentions millenia ago, but now, are they any better than the tyrants they usurped?”

Prime held out a hand, and holo monitor after holo monitor popped up, each showing a scene worse than the previous—miners like Mori but on a desert planet, keeling over under a blaring blue sun while their companions rushed to give them the little water they had, a man in a giant factory with conveyor belts littered with sparkling treasure ore getting his arm stuck in machinery, a Favored stopping his fellow workers as the man is swallowed whole, a city with grime slicked towers jutting into the hazy sky, people coughing, disheveled, and sleeping in garbage while sleek aircrafts fly over them in air lanes.

“Not too dissimilar to you, are they? And there are hundreds of millions more examples like these, all while those at the top reap the benefits of their labor.”

Fresh holos popped up—Favored with flawless skin and luminous hair laugh over a banquet table brimming with meat, fruit, and wine, laughing as one of them kick a servant on the ground for spilling their tray—the silhouette of a horned elk imprinted on their well-pressed suits and clothing. Images pop of mansions on lush, green planets, under sparkling waterfalls, utopia-esque cities with arching white and gold trimmed buildings and neon holograms and signs, Favored families and children laughing and playing in parks.

Last is the image of the ARCborn sitting atop a geometric and technicolor throne, his rainbow eyes glaring down at Mori, a smirk on his glossy pink lips.

Mori grinded her teeth, anger fermenting into rage, radiating through her pores. “I’ve seen enough.”

Prime collapsed the holo monitors, and leaned forward. “Do you still feel you are to blame for what happened?”

Mori squeezed her hands into fists. “How can I not? I wasn’t strong enough to protect them.”

Prime nodded. “But you will be. Inside of you is a power strong enough to rival the ARCborn, a weapon I can help you grow strong enough to one day wield.”

Mori rubbed her black sleeved arm, her channels still aching faintly. The entity inside her was strong enough to kill a god? “And my own parents put this inside me?”

“They had no other choice.”

She couldn’t see past Prime’s mask, but the woman lowered her head, seemingly finding the next part difficult to say. “They didn’t want this for you. No parent would. You were young, a full blooded Osai with a strong bloodline to the frostfire sect, and had not yet sparked your power—an untapped Vessel. So they sealed the weapon within you—a weapon strong enough to slay gods.”

Hearing about these people who raised her was impossible for Mori to picture. She thought she wanted to ask what they looked like, what their personalities were, but at the same time she didn’t. Didn’t want their image to supercede the man she knew as her father, the man who had died to protect her. Her nails bit into palms. “What is the weapon? It… spoke to me, seemed to have a past it couldn’t remember. So far all it has done is not slay gods, but the people I love.”

The tears were close now, but Mori strained to keep them at bay.

“In truth, I don’t know,” Prime said. “Your mother procured it after disappearing for years. When she came back, she told me it was powerful enough to change the world. Logun—your father—and me at the time were close, so—”

Mori raised a brow. “Hold on. Excuse me?”

Prime laced her fingers together, just like Mori’s Dad did everytime he had something bad to tell her. “Yes. We were. Your mother and father entrusted your future to us. They didn’t have long. The ARC had discovered many of their hideouts across the galaxy, and was close to catching up to them. I just joined a promising Ascension team at the time—Team Stellar—had Ice manifestations. They chose me to lay the groundwork for you while Logun kept you hidden. At least until you were of an age to take on the nanite inhibitors. Logun was to contact me through the channels when you turned sixteen, but he kept you hidden for too long. I think…” Prime paused, took a breath. “I think he wanted to keep you from all of this. He deviated from the plan.”

Mori’s lips crinkled, and she shook her head. “Are you trying to tell me?...”

“It’s no one’s fault,” Prime said. “The ARCborn and the Ascension System they created is to blame.”

Mori’s body shook against her will, the information overwhelming, crushing. “If my father had reached out to you, he could have maybe surv—”

“Mori.”

It was the first time Prime had said her name.

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“None of us are to blame. We all were trying to do what we thought was best. Logun wanted you to be safe more than anything, and I will do everything within my power to see those wishes kept.”

Mori trembled atop the medical bed, one moment thinking she might cry, and the next angry and wanting to tear the room into pieces. She wanted action, a solution, anything but to stew in her own head.

Prime stood, rolling the stool back to the side of the bed and angling towards the hatch. “I’m sorry for the overload of information. I’m sure this is a lot to process. I will give you all the time you need.”

Mori shot up, blood rushing to her head. She thought she might pass out. “I don’t need time. I need justice. What was the next step in my parents' plan?”

Prime paused, turned back to her. “To make you the most powerful Favored in history, to bring you to the peak of Apogee where you will bring the ARC to their knees, but first, we must get you a team strong enough to take you all the way.”

“An Ascension team?”

“The very same. There is only one way up, and it is through the system. To stay undetected, we will have to play by their rules. Until you are strong enough to harness the weapon within you.”

“But I'm an Osai,” said Mori. “I can’t be favored.”

Prime pointed to the holo-readout monitoring Mori’s nanite inhibitors, at the top where I read out her information. “As far as the Ascension system is concerned, you are now Favored 10273.”

Mori’s mouth hung open. So it was real, she was Favored. “But how?”

“I’m many things to many people,” said Prime, “and that means connections, access to places most can never reach. The revolution your parents began has planted many seeds while you have stayed hidden from us.”

Favored. How many times had Mori dreamed of being so, of joining a team and fighting in the tournaments on the holo-V, hearing the crowds cheering her name, imagining people like her watching, dreaming, escaping their strife?

But now the veil was lifted.

“We have under a month to prepare you for the Lyko Foundation School Entry Exams,” said Prime “Ideally, you would have had four years to train after receiving Favor from the ARC, but we don’t have time on our side.”

“Lyko Foundational School?”

“One of the most prestigious Foundation Schools in the Ascension.”

“You can get me in there?”

“I can get you through the front door,” Prime said. “It’s up to you to pass the Exams.”

Mori furled and unfurled her fingers in and out of fists. “What about the twins?”

“I have connections in the Middle Rims. I can set them up with a caring and well off foster family,” Prime said. “They will need for nothing.”

Mori bit her lip, nodding. If this was the path she would walk, she wouldn’t be able to watch after them, to keep them safe. Joma had died to protect them. Mori would make sure it wasn’t in vain.

There was one last thing on Mori’s mind. Darkness dripped from her tone. “What happened to Black Lightning Killuan?”

“You won’t need to worry about him anymore.”

Mori looked away, bit the inside of her cheeks. She wanted to be the one to make him pay, to look into his eyes as life left them, but she supposed him being dealt with would have to suffice.

“I’m ready,” she said. “To start training.”

Prime clasped her hands behind her back. “You need time for the channels in your right arm to heal. And… you should take time to grieve.”

Mori winced, shaking her head. She didn’t need to grieve, she needed movement, progression, the ARCborn’s flawless head on a spike. “You said we only have under a month. There’s no time to waste.”

“I can’t deny that,” Prime shrugged. “But any stress we put on those channels until they are fully sealed will undo all the hard work Adin put in. Let the nanites do their job. It won’t take long. Tomorrow, we can start on the training deck below.”

Mori tensed. The idea of sitting still, waiting, it felt like a death sentence. “Okay,” she agreed. “Tomorrow.”

If you need anything, you can ping the ship network through your personal holo now integrated with your nanites. And if you want to explore, consider the Ion Blade your new home.”

Prime turned, robes swooshing behind her, and exited through the hatch.

Mori was left seated on her medical bed, surrounded by only the whirring of the holo-readouts, the elevated beeping of her vitals. She tensed every muscle in her body until it became difficult to breathe. Not a second went by where the images of her village up in flames didn’t re-play in her mind—her fathers face, Joma, Black lightning Killuan, the Enforcers, the ARCborn grinning atop their throne.

The rage within her condensed into a visceral, palpable thing.

She intended to weaponize every ounce of it to bring the Ascension System to its knees.

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