Chapter Twelve

Mhavrych didn't want to go back into the prison. He had thought that he would only have to experience the horrific place once, but following Kendra had brought him back here, forcing him back into the grotesque hallways and grungy cells that still carried the feeling of despair and torture that he could only imagine seeped into the stone when it held the countless prisoners. He stayed in the darkest shadows even when he wanted to move toward the light when the Denynso opened the trapdoor that led down into the dungeon. Even more than he hadn't wanted to come back to the prison he hadn't wanted to go down into the dungeon beneath the already gruesome floors of the building. The upper floors of the building were already heavy and filled with signs of the brutality that had happened there. Opening the trapdoor and dropping down into the dark, damp section of the building felt like he was putting himself in the place of the inmates.

The feeling of being in the dungeon crawled across his skin and Mhavrych felt the uncomfortable feeling rolling down his spine. He had known that the Denynso were coming and it was all that he could do to stand there and wait rather than getting out of the building. When he finally heard the footsteps of the men above him he was too relieved to no longer be completely alone in the eerie building to even consider that it might not be the warriors and instead could be the Valdicians or even the Covra returning to the building that was a monument of victory to them rather than a sign of torment. The thought only occurred to him when the door opened overhead, and he heard the voices coming down toward him. He pushed back against one of the corners and watched the dusty light come down from the ceiling, surrounding the group of warriors. He watched as they came into the basement, looking around just as he had done when he first came inside.

They had been exploring the cold, musty hallways for nearly an hour, Mhavrych creeping carefully behind them so that his footsteps were concealed by theirs and he could watch what they were doing without being detected, when Ty discovered a door. It was sitting on what seemed to be an otherwise blank wall. This door didn't look as though it led into one of the cells and the handle didn't shift under his hand when he tried to open it. Finally, he took a step back and directed a forceful kick into the center of the door. The aged wood splintered beneath his foot and Ty immediately pushed through the broken pieces to enter the small room. Mhavrych couldn't see into the room from his vantage point, but he eased as close as he could to hear what they were saying.

"Hey, Pyra," Ty yelled from inside the room.

Pyra rushed past Mhavrych without noticing him and entered the room. Mhavrych saw the shine of a light within the room.

"What did you find?"

"What do you know about this prison?" Ty asked.

"Not much. I didn't even know it was here until the Klimnu attacked. I'm guessing that they built it so long ago that no one remembers it."

"I don't think they built it at all."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at this."

"Holy shit."

"I know."

Listening to the conversation was frustrating. Mhavrych wanted to know what they were looking at, what was interesting them so much. All he could do was listen and take in as much information as he could until they left so he could explore the room for himself. Ero walked into the room and Mhavrych moved slightly closer, risking rushing past the open door and into the deeper darkness toward the end of the hallway. He trusted that the men were distracted enough that they wouldn't notice the flash of his movement across the doorway. From the position he could see part of the room through the door and noticed that it was an office with a desk on one wall and rows of bookshelves along the other.

"What's going on?" Ero asked.

"This prison wasn't built by the Klimnu," Pyra said.

"What do you mean?"

"Ty just found all of these books and papers. It looks like the Klimnu were just about as gracious with this prison as they were with the realm under the compound. Apparently, this prison has been here for hundreds of years, which means that it was built before the Denynso were living on the compound."

"How could we not know that?"

"I don't know. Creia said that our kind has never made contact with other species except in battle. If it was there when the Denynso settled the compound, they either didn't notice it, or the species that built it was already gone by the time they came."

"How is that even possible?" Ero asked.

"I don't know."

"Look at this."

Mhavrych could see Pyra and noticed that he was holding a small book in his hands. His eyes were scanning across the pages as he seemed to be taking in as much as he could from it.

"This says that the species that built this prison built it during a war with another species that they had been in conflict with for years. They used this prison to hold people who they captured during battle, but the other species found out and infiltrated the prison, freeing all of the captives and killing many of the Covra."

"The Covra?"

Mhavrych recognized the name of the species both from what the group had told him about Nyx 23 and from the stories that his parents had told him about Uoria.

"That's what it says. I've never heard of that species before."

"What happened after that battle?"

"This says that the Covra knew they weren't strong enough to fight off the rest of what they call the Light Ones, so they locked them."

"Locked them?" Ty asked.

"It says that the Covra can lock an entire area in place. It's like the whole place is frozen in time. They at once exist and don't. Time passes around them, but it doesn't impact them. They locked the entire kingdom of the Light Ones in that moment and never made any plans to release them."

Pyra paused for a moment and in an instant Mhavrych had the same thought that Pyra expressed.

"What if they're still there?"

Mhavrych realized that they were talking about the Nyx 23 crew and the settlement that they had created. He knew that he had heard them talking about the crew and its appearance on Uoria, but he had been so focused on what he had come to the planet to do that he hadn't thought much of it. He had done little to really learn about them or what their presence meant. Now he felt as though he was learning more, like he was standing alongside the Denynso as they discovered this new element of their beloved planet.

"What do you mean?" Ero asked.

"There's a map right here that shows where everything was when this all happened," Pyra said, indicating something on the page in front of him. "What if the kingdom is still there and the Light Ones are still stuck there, just like they have been since the Covra locked them?"

"Pyra?"

Lynx had come to the door and was standing just a few feet from Mhavrych. Mhavrych pressed his body harder into the corner, holding his breath so that he wouldn't be detected. He didn't know what would happen if the warriors discovered that he was there with them. In their timeline, none of them had encountered or even heard of Mhavrych. Though he wouldn't say that he had any real connection with any of the men in that room now, having spent little or no time with them personally, he knew who each of them were and a few details about them. If they were to see him, however, they would know nothing about him and would have no reason to believe him when he told them who he was or where he came from. He didn't fear the men or the fight that might start if that happened. Instead, he feared how it might affect all that had already happened and all that still needed to happen if they were to clash too soon.

"What is it, Lynx?" Pyra asked.

"There really isn't much down here. A bunch of cells. A couple of old chains."

"Tell the men to find a way to get back up out of the trapdoor and gather up outside. Our little adventure here is taking a detour."

That was the first indication to Mhavrych that there were more of the warriors in the prison. He hoped that he had followed the right group and was going to find what he needed to.

"Where are we going?"

"Back in time, it looks like."

The words sank into Mhavrych and somehow, he knew that was the indication that he was waiting for. He had done what he was supposed to do and now he only needed to keep going. He hadn't seen Kendra since getting to the prison, but he had learned to sense her presence, to know what she had intended for him to do. He still didn't understand it. He still didn't know how she could know what she did or why she was sending him on this quest, but his feelings for her were getting stronger and now he felt like it was another element of his mission, another part of what was going to drive him. No longer was he doing this just because it was what his family expected of him. No longer was this just something that he was born to do. Now he was doing this for her and the life that they had both begun and had waiting for them.

The men streamed out of the room and Mhavrych waited until they were back up through the trapdoor and the door was in place before he used the orb of light from his bag to illuminate the space around him. The light cutting through the darkness created a protective halo and he felt warmed and reassured by the glow. Holding the orb in his hand reminded him again of the day that he had gone down into the lair of the Order to rescue Malcolm and used the orb to trigger the lights in the corridor. He could still feel the orb hit his ankle when it landed on the platform that he had climbed onto. He hadn't been able to understand it, to figure out how it had gotten out of the corridor and back up with him. Now he knew. It had been Kendra. She had been with him even then.

Surrounded by light that Mhavrych now associated with Kendra, he walked into the room that the Denynso men had just left. Just as he had assumed, it was an office. There were papers strewn across the desk and Mhavrych glanced over some of them, trying to find what the warriors had been discussing. He didn't notice a map or the book that Pyra had been holding and he realized that they must have taken it with them. The longer that he looked at the papers, the stronger a realization became. This prison had been overrun with Klimnu, and yet the papers were about the Valdicians and the Covra. They were in far better condition that Mhavrych would have expected them to be after the many years that had passed since either species had been in this prison and he found it strange that the Klimnu had left them where they were.

Mhavrych gathered the papers and slipped them into the satchel that he had brought with him. He didn't think that he was going to find out anything more here in the prison. He would have to take his time going through the papers, and possibly share them with the others, to find out what they meant.

He paused to listen at the trapdoor for a few seconds to make sure that he didn't hear any of the Denynso. When only silence greeted him, he extinguished his light orb and tucked it away before climbing up and out of the dungeon. He was relieved when he finally got out of the charred remains of the prison and out into the fresher air. Around him the forest was silent. He couldn't hear any of the warriors or the women. At this point, they had returned to their village and were preparing for the next day, the momentous day when they would leave the compound for the first time. Of them, only one of the warriors had been beyond the large walls that surrounded the compound. Only Ero had ever left, and then it was aboard a ship that brought him to Earth so that he could make amends with his mate after hurting her with a cruel and thoughtless comment he had never intended for her to hear and had said only with the hopes of impressing the other men.

Mhavrych stood several yards away from the prison and waited. He expected Kendra to come as she always did, to reassure him, to guide him, to give him another of the riddles that were both infuriating and leading. After several long minutes, though, she hadn't gotten there. He was still alone and soon he resigned himself to the fact that he didn't come here just to go through the prison again. Instead, there was something more that he needed to do. He suspected that he knew exactly what it was.

The weather was mild and the moon high and bright, telling Mhavrych it would be a good night to camp out rather than trying to find shelter. Not wanting to stay so close to the prison, he went deeper into the woods and found a thick knot of trees that were close enough to create a raised network of roots perfect for creating into a bed. Mhavrych settled onto the moss that stretched across the roots and pulled the papers out of his satchel again. Enough light filtered through the leaves of the trees overhead to allow him to read the papers and he went over them again. Though some were written in what looked like a shorthand code that he didn't understand, some were written clearly, and he read through them several times. It seemed that many of the notes that were written had been recorded at different times. It was almost like a scattered, unorganized journal, as though someone had come into this office and jotted down what he was thinking or had experienced without any real consideration of how it was recorded or if he would be able to decipher it later.

Mhavrych noticed something and read back through the papers again. It was a quick comment, something that seemed almost like an afterthought rather than something that held any importance, but it struck him hard. Amid several hastily written comments in the coded language that he didn't yet understand, Mhavrych saw a mention that while the Mikana had been maintaining a strong link with the settlement of Light Ones since their arrival, recent attempts to visit had been unsuccessful because the settlement seemed to have disappeared. He thought about what Aegeus and Casimir had told him, confirming that the Irisa had not only cloaked Aegeus during the battle to give him protection as he left, but had also been responsible for hiding the settlement. They had created a cloaking mechanism over the entrance to the settlement so that someone couldn't find them.

This thought rolled through his head several times. The settlement had been cloaked, hidden so that it couldn't be found. But in doing that it had also been kept from those who had been cooperating with them for years. They couldn't find them, which meant that there was a reason to protect them. Someone had discovered that they were locked and didn't know how to help them and so they protected them, hoping that eventually they could find a way to release them. They had no way of knowing that the Denynso would discover the presence of the settlement and go to look for it, guided by a map. It was that map that made a difference. When the Mikana tried to find the settlement, they traveled by memory and simply looked for it. They found it by sight. When they were unable to see it, they believed that it was somehow gone, which allowed the cloaking effect to stay effective. For the Denynso, though, it was different. They had a map. They knew exactly where the settlement was supposed to be and because of that and the fact that they had never seen the settlement, they had no reason to think that they wouldn't see it. That dissolved the concealment.

This meant that when the next day came, Mhavrych would be able to go to the settlement with them and witness the first time that they saw it. He only had to find a way to follow them without being detected. He knew that the warriors would be more vigilant during their first experience outside of the compound. No matter how courageous they were, this was unknown to them. They didn't know what they were going to see or what they were going to encounter on this first venture beyond the wall. This would intensify their defensiveness and make them more aware of what was going on around them. They would be quick to attack. Mhavrych would need to utilize every bit of his skill and subtlety to trace their movements without revealing that he was there.

He thought about this, trying to convince himself that it was something he could do, but Mhavrych was accustomed to the rest of the planet by now. He knew that the center stretch was often harsh with open sections that would provide no protection or diversion. If he was following the Denynso, he would be fully visible with no place to disappear to. That meant that he didn't have the option of simply following along behind them as he had before or hiding nearby as he had in the prison. He would have to do something else, something that would allow him to be there to see whatever it was that Kendra intended for him to witness while also making sure that he was kept safely secured away from them. They couldn't be distracted. They couldn't be stopped. If they noticed him, Mhavrych knew they would likely strike first, but even if that was not their first instinct, what would be was them taking him and bringing him to Creia. Though facing the Denynso King also didn't frighten Mhavrych because he knew that he would be able to explain himself and his connections in a way that would protect him, the time that the warriors would waste bringing him there could mean that they didn't return to their quest. Even if they did, they might not find the settlement in time to rescue those who were trapped within.

Mhavrych soon realized that there would be no way for him to follow the Denynso warriors. If he was going to be there to witness their arrival and to see what they did, he was going to have to be there first. That meant he was going to have to either walk or find another way there. He didn't know if there were any tunnels that led to the settlement, but he highly doubted it. The tunnels and portals were ancient, established long before the settlement was built from the wreckage of the StarCity. The chances that they would build it near the network were slim. Besides, even if there was a connection near the settlement, Mhavrych was still unfamiliar with the surroundings. He might get himself confused or lost, and there were too many dangers and not enough time to face them.

Remembering the last time that he had seen Kendra, Mhavrych stood and made his way through the forest until he reached the orchard. Here he pulled aside the large pieces of moss that covered the entry points to the mirror-image realm beneath. He slipped down into one of them and soon found himself in the cavern where he had witnessed the battle with the Klimnu and Jem's disappearance. He could hear voices and realized that one of the Denynso was in the realm with Loralia. This must have been early in her relationship with Bannack.

Using the volume of the voices as his guide, Mhavrych moved carefully through the space, avoiding making noise or getting close enough to them that they would know that he was there. Soon he made it through the main section and was in the tunnels that Kendra had shown him. He walked through them and out into the beautiful grounds of the Eteri village. As soon as he saw the hills with the small houses built into them, Mhavrych started to feel unsure of himself. He didn't know if this was the right thing to do, but he also felt as though this was where Kendra had guided him. She had brought him to her house, a house she claimed that they shared even though none of the Eteri had recognized him, so that he could have shelter for the night even though she knew that he had camped out many times before. He felt like she did that purposely, to show him the way and have a reason to introduce him to the man he was looking for now.

He had been walking through the still, quiet village for several minutes before he noticed any sign of anyone being awake. A woman came out of one of the buildings and looked at him. Though she would have had no reason to think that he would be standing there, she hadn't seemed startled. Instead, she seemed almost amused and fascinated by the new stranger standing in front of her. Mhavrych searched his mind for her name, knowing that he had seen her briefly during his last time in the village, but couldn't bring it to his tongue.

"Mhavrych," the woman said, startling him.

"Yes," he said, not knowing how else to respond.

She tilted her head at him and it suddenly occurred to him that in this timeline, he had already been here before. They had seen him, and a few had met him. He wasn't the total stranger that he thought himself to be. He took a step toward the young woman and tried to give what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Why are you back here? You shouldn't be here yet."

"Yet?"

"Kendra isn't here."

"I wasn't looking for her," he said, though in his heart he was. "I need to speak to Amoran."

"Amoran? What would you need with him?"

Her responses were odd and Mhavrych found himself feeling as though there was something he was missing.

"I just need to speak to him. I need to ask him to do a favor for me."

"I'm sure that he'll be happy to do anything that he can for you."

The woman disappeared and Mhavrych continued to try to remember her name. He was still thinking about it when he heard footsteps coming toward him and looked up to see Amoran. The large Eteri man was looking at him as quizzically as the woman had. He paused for a moment and then took a step toward Mhavrych.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I need your help."

"Where is my sister?"

"Excuse me?"

"I haven't seen Kendra since the last time that you arrived."

Mhavrych's stomach sank.

"I don't know," he said. "I haven't seen her in some time, either. But I need your help. If you help me, we might be able to find her."

Amoran thought about this for a few seconds and then gave a barely perceptible nod.

"What do you need?"

"I need you to fly me," Mhavrych said.

"Excuse me?"

"Just like you did the first night that I met you. I need you to fly me. I need to get somewhere on the planet as fast as possible, and you are the fastest creature that I know. Will you please help me?”

"Where do you need to go?" Amoran asked.

Mhavrych weighed his explanation carefully. He wanted him to understand the importance of him getting there, but at the same time, he also needed to balance what he told him with the protection of what needed to happen in the order in which it needed to happen.

"I'm not completely sure," Mhavrych answered honestly. "I know that it is beyond the Denynso compound. It's a settlement. It's been there for many years, but no one has been near it in quite some time. I need to find it. It is extremely important."

Mhavrych knew that he would be able to see the settlement from the sky, making the flight with Amoran the perfect way to get to it as fast as possible. If he were approaching it walking the way the Mikana did, there was a strong chance that he wouldn't be able to see it because he didn't know the exact position where it was, and it was possible that he would be taken in by the cloaking performed by the Irisa. From the air, however, he wasn't controlled by that. The Irisa had hidden only the front gate of the settlement so that it couldn't be seen. That meant that when he was high above it, he was still able to see the buildings and the roads. When it came into view, Mhavrych felt a rush of excitement. He stared at it, not moving his eyes away from it, until he saw the front gate come into view.

It seemed to shimmer slightly as it appeared, as if it were unsure of its own existence after being hidden for so long. Amoran landed just outside of the gate and released the buckle that held the other man to his chest. Mhavrych thanked him and promised to let him know if he heard from Kendra, seeming to ease the Eteri man's suspicion and discomfort toward Mhavrych. As soon as Amoran had risen back into the sky to complete the brief flight back to his home village, Mhavrych turned to the arch that led into the settlement. What had once been a beautiful stone wall and arch was now weathered and crumbling, the arch covered in thick ivy. It looked as though no one had gone near it in decades, which Mhavrych knew in this timeline was exactly the case.

It felt strange to walk through the arch and into the village. He almost felt as though he were breaching their privacy, seeing things that he wasn't meant to see. And yet he could also feel that this was exactly where he was supposed to be. Using the moon to guide his way, he began to walk along the road that ran down the middle of the village. It had been painstakingly paved with stones taken from the nearby river and polished smooth to fit together along the path. All around him the settlement was utterly silent. The stillness was unnerving and when he encountered the first of the locked people, it sent a chill through him.

Somehow this wasn't what he expected when he went into the settlement. Though he had heard a description of what it was like there, he hadn't really envisioned what it must have been like to see these people caught in an instant, trapped in the middle of the breath that they were breathing. Nearly everything that they were doing was so completely mundane. Washing laundry. Shopping in the tiny store. Stopping to talk in the middle of the road. Stepping into the bakery. Somehow the fact that it was just another day made it even more disquieting. With something as cataclysmic as the Covra imprisoning an entire settlement for the purpose of using them as human incubators for their babies, Mhavrych would have envisioned a more chaotic sight. He would have wanted to feel as though they at least had a chance to fight.

He walked down the middle of the street, looking at each of the houses. Though built very similarly, they were also each unique. Each had touches and details that differentiated them from the rest, allowing Mhavrych to imagine the thought and energy that went into crafting these homes by those who had suffered and survived, and were forcing themselves to drive on, to push forward in the new life that had been cast onto them.

One house caught Mhavrych's eye and he stopped to look at it. There was something about it that was slightly different from the rest, though he couldn't quite place it. He turned and looked at each of the other houses that were close to it. This house was in the furthest back corner of the village, tucked slightly apart from the one beside it, but that seemed to be by design, allowing for a garden positioned in between the two houses that had long since died and been reclaimed by the wild plants. He could still see signs of what had been the rows of vegetables and tools embedded in the ground. He looked at the house again and realized what it was about the house that was different from the rest. It was smaller, almost as though it had been made as a guest house or in preparation for a young couple moving into it as their first home.

Mhavrych walked toward the house, the prickling feeling on the back of his neck telling him that his subconscious was just waiting for something to happen. His body was on alert, but even as he walked up to the door, nothing changed around him. He touched the door handle and it moved. The door opened far more easily than he would have anticipated. After all the years that had passed, he would have expected that there would have been resistance due to the door or the handle warping or being changed by the weather. Instead, the door opened easily, and he was able to step through into the house.

The house was welcoming if somewhat sparse. The door opened directly into a living room which held two sofas, a chair, and a table. The chair and table looked as though they had been salvaged directly from the crash rather than being built with the materials that could be taken from the wreckage. He ran his fingers along the back of one of the chairs and then rested his hand on the metal that made up the structure of one of the couches. Finally, he returned to his exploration.

The other houses looked as though they were at least two stories each. This house, however, was only one story. The ceilings were very high, accounting for the fact that the house looked only slightly smaller from the outside but was actually considerably smaller, if more open, on the inside. Ahead of him, he saw a door that he assumed led into the bedroom. He approached it cautiously, not sure of what he might find inside. He pushed the door open slowly by flattening his palm in the center of the door and gradually pressing it out of the way so that he could take in a small amount of the space at a time.

When the door was open, revealing the bedroom in front of him, Mhavrych noticed that there was someone in the bed. It was a sad image, a person resting, not knowing that their moments had been impossibly stretched but were also gravely limited. He felt drawn to the side of the bed, wanting to see the person's face. He knew from the description of what happened in the settlement after the Denynso arrived that not everyone survived. If this person was one of those who didn't live, he wanted to ensure that at least someone saw them alive one last time.

Mhavrych could see that the figure was a woman when he was still a few steps away. Her thick hair pooled around her head and spilled over the side of the bed, and a curvy body was tucked under a light blanket. Her hands were clasped over her chest. As he got closer, Mhavrych reached into the bag at his hip and withdrew one of the light orbs. He turned it on, filling the space with the soft glow, but nearly felt it slip from his fingertips when he turned his eyes back to the figure on the bed.

It was Kendra, her hands cradling the starstone nestled between her breasts.

To be continued…