The Muse

The Muse - Episode Five - Under the Night Sky

The Muse - Episode Five - Under the Night Sky

Two decades ago, Rahyndra and Rakan were found running away from the people... who were going to burn them upon cursing the land with the dark plague. Rahyndra was pregnant then, of Rakan's child.

The people finally reached them. Rakan decided to do what he can to stop them while Rahyndra ran, struggling with the child that was about to come out. Rakan summoned gluttons to attack the people, but soon enough he was caught by unknown people.

Rahydra was aching in pain. She lied on a treebranch and took out her child. Then she cut the umbillical cord, then she cut its wings. A bard chased by gluttons passed by and saw them. He asked for help. Rahydra then gave the child to the bard and the gluttons stopped going after him. After that, Rahyndra flew and left.

The bard took care of the child and raised it on the streets. After many years, this child became whom we have known as the Muse.

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On Riantheliss' first night of staying at UG's, she had a disturbing dream. The moments when she sang about the prophecy at the sanctuary flashed before her eyes. She saw the faceless theurgists. She slit her wrist and bled. But the blood never ran out. It flooded the sanctuary and everybody drowned.

She woke up from the dream. She washed her face and looked at her reflection on the mirror. She went down on the underground. She saw the news on the hologram. The news said, the theurgists were mourning upon the disappearance of the muse. Fans all over Saikan expressed sadness on media. They all assumed she was dead because her SRAM is inactive. The only time SRAM becomes inactive is if it doesn't detect the pulse. Meanwhile, her servants in the Royal Cruise were being punished to executiin as conspiracies spread that she was kidnapped and killed.

Riantheliss felt the urge to make known that she is alive and that she escaped intentionally to save those wrongly accused. She went to the biolab to find tools for SRAM. She found a surgery knife. She slit the newly stitched wrist again and put the Muse's SRAM back. But once her SRAM goes active again, the theurgists will detect her location right away and raid the undergrounders. So she tried to go outside. Meanwhile, Clio was awake and working at the computer laboratory. He was alerted through the camera footage that Riantheliss sneaked in to the biolab and was bleeding. He hurriedly went to see the situation. Then he saw the bleeding muse.

"I need help." Said Riantheliss.

"What are you doing?" Clio asked.

"I put the SRAM back." She said.

"No! Your wrists just got stitched! You're losing blood!" Clio panicked as well.

Clio's SRAM rang. It flashed a holo of Ehren.

"Clio, what's the situation? The Muse's SRAM went active. The theurgists will come in just a matter of hours." Ehren asked.

"I'm at the biolab with her. What should I do? We can't just remove it again." Clio answered.

"We need to create diversion ASAP. She needs to keep her SRAM and make an official statement." Ehren said.

"But -- it's a bad risk. She's losing blood!" Clio said. He could not keep calm while seeing a lot of blood from Riantheliss.

"She'll be fine. Ready your equipment and go to KM#05. There's an open field there that will take a longer time for them to reach. You have atleast four hours to fix this." Ehren commanded. The hologram flashed off.

"Darn it! How should I stitch that again and remove it again later and stitch it again?" Clio complained.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience. But I'll be fine. Just bandage it." Riantheliss said. They bandaged it and went at the top of the building where the airux was waiting. Airux is an air vehicle driven automatically by itself. They rode it and went to KM#05. An hour has passed and they arrived at the town.

KM#05 is the town of farmers and marketplace trade. It has the least population among the cities of Saikan. Clio and Riantheliss went down at the marketplace. It was dark and only them were on the street. They walked from there to an openfield near the shore.

They settled under the starry black sky, on a grassy open field of KM#05. They setup for the live broadcast of The Muse.

"I have a favor." The muse said.
"I want to have one last performance for the public. Release it for everyone to see." She begged.

"I got you, Ri." Clio confidently answered.

So she prepared her ERHI and wore the Muse's holo-suit for the performance. It was as if she never disguised herself. She's back to the beautiful glorious avant-garde singer.

"To my people,
Know that I am here and breathing
Know that where I am is the path that I have chosen
I beg forgiveness to those who were put in danger because of my sudden disappearance.
Forgive me.
Right now, I am here.
And will no longer be visible always.
There is a purpose that I have yet to discover.
Pray that I be guided in uncertainties.
And I'll pray that you seek your way to your light."

The performance began. It was the first performance of the Muse happening right infront of Clio's eyes. He was amused to the bone. It was being streamed all over Saikan. She sang:

"Under the black starry sky,
We lie thinking about the future
We never knew, we never knew
The past was only but a suffering
And world was never fair
We are spinning cycles and cycles
Of breaking and healing

Hold on, though we
don't know the way
Hold on, it will be okay
I will save you
Atleast let me try
I will save you
Until then, don't cry"

The stream ended. Clio's emotions were at height. He applauded. Riantheliss was teary.

"How was it?" She asked.

"Glorious." He said, starstruck.

"This moment marked history... the final farewell to my old life, and the grand welcoming of something new... right here, I leave my destiny under the sky." She turned her holo-suit off and returned to the new her, Riantheliss, the real and the brave her. She removed the bandage and the SRAM as well. Clio assisted on putting the new SRAM and stitched it with an advanced laser equipment.

"Thank you, Clio." Riantheliss said as she smiled. Clio felt awkward and laughed.

"You owe me, then." Clio said goofly.

"We still have time. Let's visit the shore!" She invited.

And they went to the shore. The waves were raging. They heard a strange sound. Clio looked around and saw a sea creature, huge and mystical.

"It's the seven headed serpent! I've never seen one before, too. I didn't know it was real. However, it may not appear before us again." Riantheliss said.

"I wonder why it's here... maybe because you sang a great song." Clio said.

"Perhaps." She also wondered.

"Perhaps I'm going to find my purpose. Like how the moon was placed in the night to bring light upon the dark world." She added.

"Your voice resonates like thunder. When you sing, the world would stop to listen. I did. I swear I did everytime. Perhaps your purpose, you're already at it, and you just don't notice it because you were looking at something more grand." Clio said. Riantheliss was a little offended.

She walked away. Clio followed.
"Hey, I didn't mean anything bad. I'm sorry!"

Clio's SRAM alerted. Theurgists were detected and were coming their way. They have to escape.

"We have to go. They're here... run!" Clio alerted.

And they ran until they reach the streets. A theurgist in full armor spotted them. They were chased. They ran and ran until they ran out of breath. Clio has weak lungs so he was terribly palpitating and losing breath. They stopped and hid at an inn. They walked inside and asked the landlady to become their ally. The landlady agreed at a price. It was a fast transaction.

Clio and Ri went in their room and were finally able to breathe a little more freely. As Clio struggles to catch his breath, Ri was on lookout. Some theurgists just entered the inn. It seems they were raiding each room. Riantheliss pulled Clio inside the cabinet and covered his mouth.

"Be quiet, just bare it a little more." She whispered.

Clio was terribly palpitating. He was sweating cold. Riantheliss could feel his tension as they were millimeters close to each other. The door of the room opened. Clio closed his eyes and tried not to breathe. Riantheliss held him so he would calm down.
They waited until the theurgists were fully gone from the inn.

Finally, they went out of the closet.

"Wooh! That was... that was the most thrilling moment of my life! Ughh my head is aching I need some break!" Clio jokingly uttered. Riantheliss hurriedly went to get some water. She gave it to Clio.

"Here. Are you okay? I didn't know someone could be that nervous". Ri said. Clio drank the water.

"Yeah. Weren't you nervous? That was insane... all the running and hiding was... intense! Okay, I'll calm down now. Thanks by the way." Clio pretentiously tries to calm down.

"No, thank you. I owe you big. For everything you did. Thank you, Clio." She said. Clio smiled big time.

"... Well, if you're thankful then... how about sing a song for me?" Clio joked.

"Pleasure!" She said. They lie on the bed. Clio listened. He fell asleep.

The next day, Ri woke up in the UG headquarters. Britta was in her sight.

"Welcome back." Britta smiled.

"How did I get here?" Ri was amused.

"While you were sleeping, we transfered you back here, sa carefully that you didn't notice. Joke. We injected something." Britta laughed.

"Clio... where is he?" Ri asked.

"He's fine. But he shouldn't be bothered. Let's go!" Britta invites her out.

"Where to?" Ri asked.

"Off to the grand welcoming." Britta said.

They went out to the lobby. All the recruits are there to celebrate. They met Trajua and the rest of recruits from Xi Tribe, mostly those who helped her up the hole.

"Trajua!" Ri was delighted to see them.

"UG uniform looks good on you." Trajua said.

"I thought they were eliminated." She told Britta.

"No. There was no elimination. It was just a scare off for the recruits... So we could bring out the beast in people." Britta answered.

"It was a good game, Lady Riantheliss." Trajua claimed. Ri smiled.

"Tomorrow, after this party, we will be going back to protect our tribe. And we're bringing some armed dudes along." Trajua told Riantheliss.

"That's great!" Ri exclaimed.

"As I was told, during the game, we have won the commander's favor because of what we did. He said we have won, too. Thank you, Riantheliss." Trajua continued.

"We're in this together. I promise you that I will come to help you when you need me." Ri promised.

"Help the people of Saikan. That's enough." Trajua said. Then they continued chatting with the others.

At the center, the youthful commander, Ehren, made his welcoming speech.
"Gluttons. When we hear about them we start to feel hate, we start to feel pity. For a long time, we have forgotten that they were once like us, and we could be like them. The truth is, you don't need the dark plague to be a glutton.

In my entire life working and building UG, as I encounter more of the plague, I realized, that the illness was more of the state of the heart and mind. And there's this one particle of a substance that swimmed through the bloody veins and triggered a human's inner darkness. Could it be just a glutton for food and flesh? Or could it be glutton for riches, for achievements, for praises? Glutton about chances we do not like to share with others? What do we devour instead? Are we, humans, worse than those who were infected by the dark plague? My people, we live in the underground, hidden from everyone's sight while the rich and powerful roam around freely as if they were the ones protecting us. On the contrary, hundreds of lower ranks were sent to the dam to work on the infected waters. They are our people, sacrificing their lives for the favored and blessed. The poor, the weak, our beloved people, are deprived of future! There are worse gluttons than the actual gluttons devouring flesh. MARU was infected of a much worse plague that happened to humanity. And we will stop them! We are not gluttons, we are not sacrificial lambs, we are not hopeless, we deserve a better future! We, the UGs, will stop them! That is your one true job as the member of UG, now, get ready to work!" Ehren have spoken. The people shouted and applauded.

After the speech, Ehren came down from the stage and congratulated the new recruits. He approached Riantheliss.

"What a trouble." Ehren said in sarcasm, yet kindly smiling.

"I apologize. The people I know were in danger. I couldn't think straight." She explained.

"Think for a moment, before any doing. That's your lesson to learn. Be careful." Ehren advised.

"I will. I really apologize. The people back in the Royal Cruise, they were the consequences of my irresponsibility. I should have known better." She sadly told him.

"But you addressed it bravely. I must congratulate you from the first trial." Ehren said.

"Trial? It coordinated it?" She freaked out.

"Quite like it. Except the news part, it was real. It doesn't matter. The result was good." Ehren said and left.

She realized that the incident was organized and the Theurgists did not really chase them. Those theurgists were actually members of UG in disguise, she realized. Despite that, what remained true was she cleared misunderstandings and speculations on her disappearance, and saved the people in danger through her broadcast. After thinking for a moment, she started to look for Clio to confront him. But she did not see him at the party.