Juliet's Tryst

Chapter 48: Capsule

Tears were the last thing expected on Kyria's face. Her eyes glistened like the ocean reflecting rays of sunshine.

"One more thing, before we part." She wiped her eyes with a finger. Kyria struck Juliet with her frailty. This was not a powerful planet-being, but a small and inconsequential woman.

"What," Juliet murmured. The silence between them stretched. The comfort of the memory was painful to leave.

"You will be the next Ruler. When Earth and I unite, you will be her will. Her eyes. Her mouth."

"No!" The anger inside her flashed like a strike of lightning. This again! She did not want this responsibility! Kyria seemed surprised.

"I am offering you power, I am offering you control of the whole planet! Why would you refuse this?"

"I do not want it. You pegged humans as greedy and power hungry. I mean, you're right for the collective, maybe. I don't know. But me? I do not want it. I want to live a peaceful life with my partner."

"The control must be transferred to you," Kyria replied. The matter was already decided. "What you do with it, is your choice."

"No one else can take the helm?"

Kyria shook her head in a way that managed to be condescending.

"You could share the responsibility with anyone you like. Ruling a planet is much more than raw power."

"See? This is why I am not suited for this."

"You are the only one who can bear it. No other human has the same constitution as you. The Ruler bloodline begins with you."

"And if I choose not to have children?"

"I will not allow it. You already had a virgin mother once?"

The walls of the bookstore started to melt, wax coming down from a candle. Then, everything faded to darkness.

Her lungs screamed like they were filled with many tiny shards of glass. She hacked for a long time before she could open her eyes. The ocean of Kulon stretched before her. She became aware of the energy inside her. Her skin felt tight, filled to the brim. There was no visible swelling. She lifted a hand in front of her, expecting it to tremble but it was still.

The transporter was beside her, two pieces side by side. She scrambled up onto her knees.

"No," she whispered. "No, no, no, no." This? After everything, this? It could not be. It would not be. She picked up a piece in each hand. A new energy flowed into her. It was the transporter's energy. She felt the edges of it, and could reason about the connections inside. There was a missing piece. She crawled around, her hands searching the ground but to no avail. It was lost.

Not this. Anything but this. She wrapped her hands firmly around the two pieces and explored further. The missing piece was a capsule full of some sort of liquid. It was a blue-green liquid, thick and luminescent. It was the agent which triggered the transportation reaction. But where? Where could she find something like that?

A boom in the distance forced her to break concentration. The sound of guttural yelling, filled with clicks and hisses entered her ears. She looked up. The sound was coming from very far away, no present danger to her.

"Fuck you, Kyria," she whispered. "Why did you have to do this to me?"

Foreign annoyance filled her. She broke the transporter when she jumped into the Kulon.

The Kulon! That is right. That was where the capsule had to be. She walked to the edge one more time. There was no more desperation inside her. The Kulon surged toward her in long waves, but she knew it would not touch her.

In her head, an image of a perfectly mended tiny pill formed. If she could get the pill, she could jam the two broken pieces together. It would be good enough for the trip home. She had to close her eyes to focus on the image. She held her hand out, waiting. Am I an idiot?

Something bonked her on the head. Then, into her hand landed a blue-green glass capsule. It reassembled all the shattered pieces. There were thin white lines where the Kulon acted as glue.

"Thank you, thank you," a prayer to the deity she just insulted. She marveled for a second at the capsule, before slipping it into one half of the transporter cylinder and jamming the two pieces together. Her last thought was of the castle in the sunset, glistening.

She came back home to a sunset and a castle, but it did not glisten. A Kyrion army surrounded it, fending off hundreds of human-made drones. Now, this was a surprise. 

Thank you for reading! See ya next time <3