Relik lived as one of the Unmarked, a statistical anomaly in a world written by Astra.
From a young age, he'd been made aware that despite the intricate black seals swirling across his arms, chest, and back, he was hollow. He was devoid of the one mark that mattered. To the Empire, he was a drone born to inevitably die in the gears of state. Yet, the irony wasn't lost on him, the lack of that imperative mark was the only reason he was still breathing.
He followed Wyva through the towering double doors. The hallway was an exercise in architectural arrogance: white marble, vaulted ceilings, and arched windows that let in far more light than any one room truly needed.
At the far end sat a desk; and behind that desk sat the Shiear of Rému, Lady Jabaani of the Lance.
Her eyes seemed to get further away the more Relik closed the distance. She offered a smirk that felt less like a greeting and more like a vehicle for his further discomfort. Relik's eyes dropped to the floor. His feet were dusty from the trek through the city square, and in this obviously beautiful room, he felt like a stain.
He glanced at Wyva. The Hand had taken ip interest the structural integrity of the ceiling, unaware of their current situation.
A sigh escaped Relik, as he was truly alone.
They were signaled to stop ten paces back
.
"Aha! Relik," Jabaani smiled, balancing her chin on her right hand. "My friend in the mask here says you passed the Trial."
"Uh... yes, Lady Jabaani."
"Congratulations. I take it you would like your initiation ceremony to be bureaucratic?"
"T- uh Thank you but," Relik said, his voice tightening, "that is not the reason I'm here."
"Of course not," she said, the smile never reaching her ageless eyes. "Please, then. Go over your story here cause Wyva isn't very descriptive."
"Even if I was my penmanship is just barely legible."
The Shiear nodded in agreement, "alright kid go ahead."
Relik hesitated for a moment in an attempt to understand the pace of the conversation.
"So," his mouth began moving before his thoughts aligned, "our group of twenty four came across a gathering at random whilst traversing unknown territory. This meeting included three Shink-Ra and one unknown Astran."
"They made quick work of my team. My suspicion was aroused when the Astran revealed themselves bilingual and let slip that they were aware of the exact amount of teens taking the trial this month. Shortly after this I was knocked out and woke up in your lab. Which leads me to believe that the traitor is quite possibly in this city as we speak."
Jabaani's smirk didn't vanish; it just became static as she processed the information. Satisfied with her thought, she shot a look at Wyva. Without a word, the Hand bowed and disappeared in a blur of white fabric.
"What race?" she asked.
"Too lean to be Hurc. Too short to be a regular Alven."
"So, one of us." She didn't wait for Relik to nod before she bit off a curse.
She sprung from her seat and began to pace. She muttered incoherent nonsense to herself before stopping at the west window, staring out over the city. Relik watched her unable to stop his gaze from landing on her left arm.
He was unsure what would have happened to it but, he could tell that she favoured her right with unveiled bias.
To distract himself he followed her eyes out the window and across the city scape. From here, the shoreline houses seemed to melt into each other sprawling outward across a steady height that eventually bled into the Temple itself.
As with all Astran cities, the Temple was the centre, everything else had to be built to compliment it.
"Guess how old the city is?" she asked. Her tone was suddenly playful, too playful for a woman who just heard about a traitor.
"Four hundred an—"
"Just stop. You're more wrong than I could have anticipated. It's actually only twenty-five. Nineteen, legally."
Relik's face twisted on its own, "legally?"
"Well, yeah. We had a six-year period where it didn't have a name," she replied. "I'm telling you this because during that period, all the children, including myself, grew up speaking both languages. The problem is, nineteen years ago, during the Blood River Massacre... they were all killed."
Relik swallowed. He knew where this was headed.
"We were under the assumption that I was the sole survivor," she said, her voice dropping an octave, "saved by my idol, Lady Aisha, the first human to become a Shiear."
Relik knew the history. Rému, Blood River in the tongue of the Shink-Ra. It was a name meant to be a memorial.
"The thing is," Jabaani continued, returning to her chair and pinning Relik with a stare that felt like a physical weight, "I can bring this to the Supreme Leader tonight! He'd pass it to the other Shiears. But the part about the traitor being bilingual? That puts me in a hot seat. And I know, Jace, the son of a Shiear, died because of it. They'll want bloody revenge, and I have no interest in dying without a fight."
Relik realized then that this wasn't a history lesson.
It was a threat.
"So, you have two choices. Either you help us keep this under wraps so Rému can handle its own. Or, you can take your ass to the capital, Haraan, and sing for the Supreme Leader yourself. Just know, that you'll rile up the masses for a civil war. Then if they can look past the fact that your unmarked, then they'll include you in the history books. As a footnote. Dead, but a footnote."
"But!" Relik's eyebrows folded with rage, "they would have died for nothing!"
Jabaani slammed her hands against the table. The sound loud and abrupt like a cannon fire.
"No one in my country dies for nothing! We'll figure this out, but the moment the Capital hears this they'll be action. And Haraan is that when it mobilises, lots of innocent people get killed. Heck, you will get killed. Have you stopped once to ask yourself why they slaughtered twenty-two but allowed you, a random orphan, to live? They don't care! The Alven and the Hurcs; they'll kill us all."
Jabaani stopped herself from becoming more passionate about her argument.
Following her pause was the loudest sigh Relik had ever heard.
"Look I'm not saying we shouldn't find out," she clarified placing her open palm to her chest, "but there's over a million adults that fit that discription in Remu alone. The task almost impossible. So it's not something I believe that we should even think about right now"
Relik's instincts told him to hold his tongue but what is a conscious mind that does not rebel.
"This may not be important to you but for me it is."
She stopped, a moment taken to shift her weight to the next leg. Her left arm still sitting limp at her side.
The Shiear chuckled to herself weighing the options of her response. They both knew damn well that if she wanted to, she could have Relik spend the night inside the Temple's cell.
"So imagine I entertain this nonsense, what exactly is your plan, huh?" She asked clearly mocking the boy, "go door to door asking people if they own a mask?"
Relik silently crossed that method of his list.
"They stopped me from breathing," he blurted out as though he was sure this was the point he needed to plead his case.
"And then they also kept someone suspended mid-leap. Like he could control the air or something."
Jabaani was about to shoot down the idea before remembering that she was paid to be a Shiear not a comedian.
Her eyes rolled themselves.
"That can actually work," she admitted, "a human using magic at the Mistus level is rare. As a matter of fact I only know about five and one of them was here earlier. Nice girl, too bad the bastard in Salaam outbid me to get her."
"Outbid?"
"It's unimportant, what I can guarantee though is that they're all in Remu. I'll have one of the Hands get you a list. You're dismissed."
"So we're doing this?"
"Yes now leave."
"I promise that you won't regret this."
"Why aren't you leaving?"