One Between the Stars

Chapter 25

 Carson was starting to wonder why he ever wanted to come to this planet. Something about a deal, but that had gone sour long ago.

He needed his friends. Where were they? He hadn't even told him where he was going. For all he knew, they were waiting back at the ship. Now he wished he'd told them, then they would know to come and save him. Alyssius had taken his port-pod, and had made him give up Arthre's name. So Arthre might be on the way. But it was a trap, there was no hope for the guy.

Carson was in the dark again, curled up and shivering violently. It was as if Alyssius had shoved him into a giant refrigerator. He wasn't sure he'd ever been so cold in his life. And the cold wouldn't let him sleep, so he couldn't forget the memory of the pain. His brain was mush, he couldn't think of anything but his friends that he'd left, that he'd by now certainly gotten killed.

Maybe Ionia was safe.

He hated himself for it, but he hoped that she was safe. Alyssius didn't know about her. Arthre he knew was probably dead by now, but maybe the princess could go on without them. It was selfish to hope that she was alive when Arthre and him were either dead or on the way there. But better one of three then none, right?

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Ionia was tortured for the better part of an hour. Why, she wasn't even entirely sure anymore. Something about her magic hair. But she didn't have magic hair.

Aaaaaagggghhh!

The pain was more than she could bare. She tried to think of why she'd received it. She'd just been saying how she had never seen magic before...

AAAAAAGGGGHHH!!!!!

She didn't know anything about magic, her hair wasn't magic, she wasn't magic. Please, please, believe me...

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Arthre reached the floor that supposedly Carson and Ionia were on. When he stepped out of the elevator, he was met with an elaborately furnished hallway, double doors leading out one way. He crept to it and peeked through, seeing what looked like some kind of gambling hall. Not that way. He turned around.

A guard walked through a door, starting when she saw Arthre. "Sir, this is private quarters. Head back through those doors...."

"I'm here on the master's orders," Arthre said. "I was sent to check in with his new inmates."

She stopped, her brows furrowing. "And you are...?"

"A new guard here," he said, hoping that she couldn't see through the lie. "I'm..." he hung his head. "I got lost."

"Where's your uniform?" she asked, coming nearer.

He tried to look convincingly panicked. "There are uniforms? I'm sorry, it's my first day on the job."

The woman laughed, loosening. "Wow, you're having a bad day. Come on, I'll lead you to the cells..." she gestured for him to follow down the hall. He smiled and caught up to her, and she directed him down a side corridor and through a set of steel doors, which she opened with a card that she took out of her mechanical arm and swiped. "You'll need one of these in the future."

"Where can I get one?" he asked.

"Come and find me in the break room at lunch and I'll show you." She gave a smile. "I was in exactly your shoes when I first started working for the Haloes." she pointed to the cells on either side. "The inmates, I've heard, are a blonde guy and a woman with hair that's multicolored or something."