Saxifrage Fire

006

The ceiling seemed to be spinning when Alethea woke up in a cell. She laid on her cot, numb, for several minutes before realizing that the white noise in the background was The News. She sat up rubbing her aching temples, wincing as an IV tugged at her arm. She looked at the screen as she removed the IV. The Interviewer was talking to the councilmen that had hosted Alex's trial.

"Yes. The Empress's decision is final. Alethea Atlas has been found to be primal and convicted of conspiring with Pyro Terrorists. Horus Atlas will be tried for Data-Melding. Athena Atlas will be assessed."

"Wait a moment. Are you saying THE Alethea Atlas is to be terminated?"

"Yes, Ma'am. Within the hour. She has been tried and retried."

The interviewer stuttered her next question, struggling to function under the brief wave of shock that comes with the fall of a public idol.

"What of Alexius Atlas?"

"Her data was switched; she is Sera, but unfortunately she's missing. I wish not to comment further on her disappearance."

The interviewer tried to press, but the Councilmen walked away.

Alethea sat frozen staring at the floor as reality settled like lead in her bones. She'd known she was risking her life. She'd known... and she hadn't hesitated. She closed her eyes and tried to recall Ezi dragging Alex past the shields. It had happened. She wasn't imagining it. Alex was safe, or at least alive. She'd thrown her sister to a herd of terrorist Primals; would they be merciful to a born-to-be-Sera? She drew in a deep breath and tried to remember Ezi's manner- she remembered her gruff voice, her snide smile. Ezi could have killed her but she didn't- why? She recalled the scent of coffee, the old man- Papa, his chortle of a laugh. She breathed easily. Those people wouldn't hurt her sister; Alex was already one of them.

The door beeped as it opened, and she jolted, her heart throttling in her chest.

"Get up. Against the wall," a Gard ordered.

She assessed them- there were half a dozen armed with tranquilizers. How dangerous did they think she was? She was an engineer, not a combatant.

She rose, her knees shaking, and stood against the wall for them to cuff her arms behind her back. Her vision blurred and her breathing thinned as they escorted her down the dim amber passage towards the termination chamber.

A heavy set of doors opened, and two Garda took her arms firmly forcing her into the chair and locking her wrists and ankles into the built-in cuffs.

She met her own gaze in the glass-wall reflection then noticed her parents sitting upright, composed, in the seats beyond. She studied her Mother's expression only finding exhaustion. She studied her Father's- nothing. Nothing at all. She closed her eyes and tried to remember her last moments of life. She'd never felt more awake than in the last two days. She was dying, but at least she'd lived for the first time.

"Afternoon, Master Atlas."

She cut her eyes at her executioner and tensed. Surely, she was looking at the person of death. He was young, about her same age, and tall and sleek with an sculpted square face and elegant black eyes and silky ebony hair and deeply tan skin. The calm in his presence felt inhuman, even for Sera standards. She scanned him to decode his features; only her keen eye and mind would be able to tell he was genetically foreign. But, there were no Primals left that looked like him either- that tribe had been exterminated.

"Who are you?" She whispered almost inaudibly. 

He didn't react, not even with the slightest micro-express. Rather, he pulled up his sleeves before twisting her arm to pierce her vein.

Tears brimmed in her eyes. She didn't want to die. Her throat, her veins, her chest, all were on fire with a yearning that she'd made a break for the shields into a new world where people smiled and screamed and cried freely. Maybe he wasn't Sera. Maybe she wasn't about to die. She watched him insert the needle and press the substance into her vein. Her heart lifted as she noticed the burns lacing his hands and she looked up to catch him smile before all went dark.  

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Lots of love!

- Em

(E.E. Hayes)