Iris: The Games

Chapter Seven "Arriving to Titan"

I kept talking to Acacia about getting help because I was waiting for Peyton to come into the dining room to talk to me. He never did show up to see me until we reached the Capitol world. I finished the meal I had and had continued my conversation with Acacia for several minutes. We both grew strong as friends and enjoyed each other's company. She stayed in the dining room so she could greet and befriend other contestants. Acacia looked different, instead of being in her white dress and full hair and makeup she looked more natural and was wearing a basic imperial uniform. She always looked beautiful with makeup but I think she had always looked better without makeup on her face. She also seemed less stressed out and she was calmer. I finally finished my conversation with Acacia Nova and when I got up I noticed Ivan's grandma was sitting at the corner of the table next to us. I walked over to say hello and talk to her but when I tried to speak to her she told me to back off and that she wanted nothing to do with me. For some reason she hated me now, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut about my mother. I saw no point in waiting around for Peyton to show up so I went and placed my dishes on the table next to the door. Everyone either feared me or didn't want to talk to me, I saw no point in staying with the people in the dining room so I went on a walk around the ship to explore and learn about the ship. I pushed the first button on the control panel by the door to open it and walked off to go and walk around. I walked through the door and into the main hallway of the ship, there were four sections of the ship. The dining room and living space, the weapons room and engine room, the cockpit of the ship, and the drop area room. It took me a while to decide what I wanted to go see first but I then decided, I wanted to explore the engine and weapons rooms first. I had already seen the dining room and living quarters so it would only make sense to start somewhere else. I walked throughout the hallway and looked around, the guards looked at me funny. I couldn't help myself because I had never been on a ship before, let alone an imperial starship. I thought o couldn't go anywhere on the ship but earlier that day I had asked Acacia about a tour of her ship. She said she would give me a tour but she never did, she said I could have unlimited access to an exploration of the ship but when I got to the doors of the engine room two guards denied me access to the room. They told me we were coming out light-speed soon and that they couldn't risk the jump coordinates. If the coordinates were messed up we could completely go off course and ran into a planet. That was fair, so I went along with what the guards said to me. When the guards told me I couldn't come into the engine room they told me I could try to enter after we reached the Capitol world. I went and walked over to the cockpit, the cockpit was locked with guards at the door. I could only look into the cockpit through the window on the door. The only place that was left to explore was the cargo drop room of the ship. We were coming out of light speed soon so if I wanted to see outside the ship in light speed now was the time. The guards let me into the drop room, when I looked through the window of the door I saw Peyton and Acacia talking to each other and looking down observing. I walked into the room and Peyton and my eyes both linked up together. He ran up to me and yelled out my name in relief. When he ran up to me he fell into my arms and gave me a big hug. We both haven't seen each other in over a full day. Since the drawing back home on Taboo. We were passing by other core worlds and we were almost at the Capitol world of Titan. We passed by many worlds such as Valaheim and Azkaban. Yalaheim had a high amount of resources and Azkaban was a ruby covered planet with snow covering the surface as thin as ice. Azkaban was an imperial stronghold. Those planets usually had heavy security as they were the core worlds of the galaxy and were very close to the Capitol world. The ship was in orbit of Titan a few minutes after that. We were waiting for clearance through the shield gate. Acacia grabbed Peyton and I by the arms and told us to look at her. She told us that this was it. We were in the Capitol. Since we were only going to be on the ship for a couple more minutes I asked her about her brother, the emporer of Calen. She at first told that she didn't want to talk about and tried to end the conversation. But I then told her that we all go through bad times. I eventually convinced her to tell us about him. The stories she told us were horrifying. Just me personally thinking of them makes me sick so I will only write one of them. One of the stories she told me was this. "The entire time my mother was alive my brother Saxvar Nova, looked up to her as a role model for his life. He would watch her train and eventually watch her kill for power. Eventually he started to train with my mother for their conquest of power throughout the galaxy. They would kill thousands of people for respect and order throughout their empire. They both would torture and kill, they would call that equality." I asked how old her brother was, she said hundreds. But the sad and awful part of Acacia and Saxvar's relationship was that they were twins. The twins of the royal family. I could tell that they were both very different. But they were somewhat close at the time. When we went through the shield gate Acacia told me that Saxvar would be in the Capitol if I wanted to meet him. I told her no, but she told me that I would have to later interact with him. To lighten up the mood Peyton told a little joke about the ship it didn't help much but hey, at least he tried. Acacia told us both that we needed to say our goodbyes now for we wouldn't see each other until we enter the arena. I grabbed Peyton close and whispered into his ear this "I'll see you soon, I promise to protect you and Iden in the arena until the end". He responded saying "thank you, I'll see you soon".