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Knight 7『 Location ; City of Shal'raya within Alexander the Fourth 』
holy roller sits in the garden we fled ; blood into wine, take my body instead
In the dark reaches of a galaxy far from Orst sits Alexander the Fourth, present-day home to a solitary monarch. Within a void if Alexander lies Shal'raya, a floating city home to no one but still finds itself brightly lit. It is in the recesses of this floating city where our monarch can be found on most days; sometimes sparring an Aspect of the planet's leader, sometimes staring listlessly into the night sky. On this particular day, the majority of her morning was spent training.
The sounds of blades clashing echoed through the air with a mixture of grunts, groans, and the occasional swear. Beads of sweat trickled down the sides of her face and along various crevasses of her body as she swung Cisa forward to collide with the sword her opponent wielded. "Ready to yield?" her opponent taunted before applying pressure with his blade to push her back. "In your dreams," was her reply, sweeping her left leg forward and aiming for his ankles in an attempt to knock him off balance.
Before the leg could collide, she tensed and immediately withdrew from range. A distant chime sounded in her ears. If she were on any other planet, it might not worry her so much and would probably be a normal occurrence. Here? It set off a dozen red flags. The chime was part of a security system she'd inacted in her psyche to alert her when a presence entered a specific radius she set up when venturing to new places, or in this case, whenever something entered the atmosphere around Alexander. Given how far from the nearest civilization they were, it was a major red flag when the chimes went off.
"We need to put a pin in this. Something's wrong." As the last word fled her lips, the air around their bodies shimmered before they disappeared only to reappear in a large circular room in the Hive. She stepped away from her companion and advanced towards the massive computer setup in the center of the room, sheathing Cisa in its holster at the small of her back in the process. Manicured fingers moved expertly across the keyboard before her while emerald eyes flickered from one side of the screen to the other.
Behind her, a noise of discontent filled the otherwise silent room. The Aspect's voice followed shortly thereafter. "How much longer?" Another noise now, louder to emphasize his annoyance with being ignored. "Just because he isn't here doesn't mean I won't knock the taste out of your mouth. How much longer I said." He folded muscular arms across his chest. Had his shirt not already been a tattered mess from their duel, it would've stretched over his biceps to the point of fraying.
She knew ignoring his protests was less than wise, his whose temper was destructive at the best of times, cataclysmic at the worst, but she persisted. A frown had begun to crease her face as an anomaly blinked in the corner of the monitor. Despite the vast network of 'eyes' she had on all of Alexander, none of them could get a clear visual of what had spawned within its outer limits. Before the volcano behind her could erupt, she lifted her left hand and motioned him to come closer. "Look at this. I didn't think anything could reach us out here, given the distance between us and the nearest planet and the shields." Her voice was airy but held an edge of concern. In all her years on Alexander, nothing had ever just 'spawned in' unless she created it.
The Aspect stepped up behind her and leered over her shoulder at the various camera angles on screen. "What the fuck is it? It's like the eyes can't focus on it, like their frequencies don't mesh." It was his turn to frown, leaning closer until he was pressed against her. "We have no other angle? Can we send someone out there to investigate?" By someone, he meant one of her many constructs that were planted throughout Alexander as a security measure. Plugging in coordinates for the nearest construct, she pulled open the view of another camera before tapping on a microphone icon. "Veles. Advance to the coordinates I've sent you and report back on your findings."
"Command received. Action cannot be taken at this time. Please provide new directive." Veles' robotic voice echoed through the chamber. The frown on both their lips deepened. "That can't be good. Why can't it take action? Is your little toy broken?" The arrogance tried and failed to mask the irritation that festered beneath the surface. "It's not broken. It received the command, but something is preventing it from getting closer. Maybe because it senses it's not humanoid by nature?" She scraped her nail across her bottom lip as her eyebrows furrowed. If it wouldn't allow the construct near because it's not a living, breathing entity, then that meant she would have to investigate it herself which proved problematic.
They didn't know what it was or the dangers it posed. But unless she went to see for herself, they would never know which posed an even bigger risk. She knew which way the scales would tip.
『 Location ; Southeastern Quadrant of Alexander the Fourth - Coordinates Unknown 』
i can rapture the imprints sent to bore into my brain and i know that i feel the end is imminent
The Monarch and her Aspect materialized several yards back from where the Hive had first detected the anomaly. Even at this distance she knew what it was. "A portal? How peculiar' she said mostly to herself, her body already in motion to advance closer towards the swirling gateway. Before she could extend a hand out to touch the edges with her fingertips, a strong hand snatched around her wrist and yanked her back.
"Were you dropped on your head, girl? He'd kill us both if I let you go touching that thing. You don't even know where it leads." The words were a hushed growl, paranoia seeping in. Surely there wasn't anyone on the other end of the portal spying? That would be crazy talk. But the Aspect had grown paranoid in his time with this unruly Monarch whose danger sense seemed to be lost ever since her ascension. His grip on her wrist tightened on instinct, as it his subconscious sensed she was about to do something chaotically stupid. "I'm warning you now, Aless. Don't. I don't want his ire and if you were half as smart as you looked, you wouldn't either. Even if you are his wife." He spat the last word full of venom. Their time together had not changed his feelings, despite being a multiversal piece of the Ruler, there was still some resentment there.
"Where's your sense of adventure, LyLy?" She was taunting him, her body half turned to him while the other angled closer to the portal. The nearer she got to it, bits and pieces of her long dark hair floated as if she had suddenly become electrically charged. "You should be more worried about my ire." Something in her gaze darkened before a triumphant look plastered over her features. Her husband was terrifying, true, but she was within touching distance whereas he was not. Her immediate ire would be more trouble than it was worth.
Without another word, she pulled them both through the blue and purple portal.
『 Location ; A Port Town on Orst ; Coordinates Unknown 』
release the pressure, the leviathan flows
Their vision was blackened the moment they stepped through the portal but it was fleeting. A sunburst exploded in the monarch's vision, leaving her temporarily stunned. Without sight, the rest of her senses were heightened including her sense of smell and touch. It hit her immediately - salty, vaguely sulphury and tangy assailed her nose while the mostly smooth texture of sand settled around her bare feet. As the breeze hit her face, glimmers of her surroundings slowly filled her view frame.
A port town of unknown origins loomed in the distance, huts and other buildings sprinkled here and there. They'd portalled near the town's edges on a deserted beach. As she stood soaking in her new surroundings, a rush of cold water swelled around her ankles before receding. "Where are we and why is it so fucking bright." The male beside her hissed, fingers still latched about her wrist but slowly loosening the intensity of their hold. His other hand shielded his eyes. Where they'd come from, it had been night but wherever they ended up, it appeared to be mid-day based on the sun's placement in the sky.
"I don't know but I can't reach the Hive from here." Her tone managed to remain calm but beneath that brewed fear. If she couldn't connect with the Hive, they were far from Alexander which meant her powers were greatly limited. It didn't pose a problem for her now but she couldn't speak for the future and that troubled her. "Shall we see if we can find some townies and figure out where the hell we got sucked to?" Without waiting for a response, she took to movement, trudging through the sand in the direction of the town she'd seen.
With a heavy sigh, the Aspect followed in her footsteps, his attention wandering from her lithe form ahead of him to their surroundings, mentally preparing for any surprise attacks on their way towards the port town.
"I'm careless when I wear my rebel clothes."
