When a supposed flapjack destroys Jekkh's planet, she relocates to a whole new system to start a new life. But after discovering her planet's long-lost artifact, Jekkh must step into a role she feels unfit for and unite her scattered people across t...
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RII'CHI, PRIME PLANET OF THE CH'CH SYSTEM
Kaalii stared at his feet as the cell door shut behind him. He was no longer an Emperor. His father now ran Riirii X'Eaa. And in the height of its prosperity, too. Kaalii walked over to the fold-down bed, slumping into it on his stomach. His arm and leg dangled off of it as he stared ahead, with no energy or hope within him. What was he supposed to do? He was useless now. He had no purpose, no name, no throne ... and no Jekkh.
"Your Highness, what is the matter?" Miaalllaa said, standing from where she had been sitting beside Piaannnoo with a deck of cards.
Kaalii groaned into the pillow. "I am no longer your highness or anyone's for that matter."
"What are you saying?" Piaannnoo asked.
Kaalii sat up, tears pricking at his eyes. "My father tricked me into signing over my crown to him." He took off his circlet, twirling it over his fingers before tossing it across the cell, the metal clanging against the iron bars.
"Oh no," Miaalllaa said, sitting beside him as she patted his back. The feeling was foreign but very welcome.
"Of course, he did that," the doctor said, scratching the stubble growing on his face.
Kaalii frowned, anger rising within him as he swiped away a few stray tears. "What is that supposed to mean?"
The doctor stood up, dusting off his sweater vest. "What is your planet's best resource?"
"I don't know, Jengo Juice?"
The man sighed. "No, they want your soil," the doctor said, pacing. "There are traces of the metal that makes up Persythian armor. With access to the planet, they have access to cheaper and higher quantities of armor to support the Sentry."
"What am I going to?" Kaalii asked, bringing the pillow to his face to hide. "Everything I've ever known is what has just been taken from me."
"Come here," Miaalllaa whispered, pulling him into her arms by his shoulders. "It's going to be okay."
The warmth and gentleness that oozed out of Jekkh's mother was his breaking point. He cried, holding onto the only mother figure he'd really known in so long. "How can you be sure?"
"There is a purpose to this, we just can't see it right now."
"Thank you, Miaalllaa," he said, pulling away. He used the corner of the pillow to wipe his eyes. "I don't know how you do it."
