Bluries was dressed in a figure-hugging knee length red dress with horizontal black lines in patterns. She was in a rush to the library with her journal. Her black lace sandals coiled around her ankles, each step made with measured elegance. She had been walking for a while when she saw the boy again, the pensive loner, Taslin. He was wearing a black suit with a dark overcoat and boots. Bluries was tall but Taslin surpassed her in height. He was at least a head taller than her. Bluries was statuesque but Taslin towered over her like an acme of a small Reolan column in the classical order. Dietru and Nostrom had each shared their disdain for him a week ago while she was at a small gathering at a bar with most of the class even Nephla spoke about him, calling him dangerous like a wild animal. He was walking briskly, so she decided to talk to him. She wanted to form her own opinion on Taslin.
"Salutations. What is the rush?" Bluries asked. She fell in step with him. The question was probing and rhetoric.
"Salutations," Taslin said. He smiled and Bluries blushed, he was as handsome as the first day she saw him in class. She moved closer to him and he didn't recoil. He looked at her hands and saw the journal.
"Same place you are headed" Taslin said. He slowed to match her pace. He felt conscious of every action he took. He didn't know her but the organism within him didn't react harshly to her presence—it was different, he was at ease. After returning from Woodling he had elected against operating further with the prosthetic DNA mask as it was compromised and left the town as himself.
"I sit next to you in class." she said, as she looked at him.
"How unlucky, I'm quite boring" he replied.
"You seem to have made an impression on everyone, are you augmented?" she asked.
"Minimal augmentations are my way, function over form" he said. He turned to look at her as the walls he built to protect and isolate himself slowly began to crumble.
"That is wonderful," Bluries said. She allowed two heartbeats to pass before saying. "Taslin, you remind me of my mother."
Taslin stopped abruptly and turned to face Bluries, his expression softened. Bluries was stunned. Taslin looked sad in an endearing way.
"How so?" he asked.
They continued walking.
"She is very prim and proper, a very by the book kind of woman" Bluries replied. She tightened her grip on her books.
"I will take the compliment, but I have to let you know, I'm a rule breaker" Taslin said, as he pocketed his hands in his jacket to warm them. The weather today was cold and chilly but the girl wore a loose skin hugging long red dress with horizontal black lines running in patterns. He deduced that she had augmented herself excessively to be able to withstand the cold but discarded the thought as he couldn't ascertain the function of her tattoos and sigils. Reola was cold most of the time but had its fair share of sunny days.
Taslin was wary of Bluries; he had already caught himself enjoying her company a little too much. But Bluries was a beautiful girl, he couldn't afford to be rude. He allowed himself to drift…to enjoy the 'present', to lower his wall and to live in this moment. He found himself continually stealing glances at her side profile. He found her attractive. It felt freeing, to drop his guard, to abandon the mantras, the justifications of his actions. The revelation of all his sins.
He attempted another glance and caught her observing him. He smiled and she returned the gesture. Taslin was broken from the trance by Reolan Destroyers shooting across Elzar, no cause for alarm, just the routine planetary defences. Reolan Destroyers were black starships that resembled the shape of a sharp knife that stabbed the air before it in a show of pride. It was capable of carrying one thousand four hundred individuals. The vehicle was very common throughout the Reolan star system but mostly piloted by Wardens. That was the essence of its creation as a vehicle of war and leisure. For if one tied beauty to rarity, they chained themself to scarcity in a world overflowing with wonder. The Imperium wasn't frugal, it was abundant.
"Do you ever think it is excessive? The whole front Reola puts up? and for who?" Bluries asked, as she saw Reolan Destroyers jet across the sky dyeing the light blue sky with grey smoke trails.
"It is necessary. Life is precious and everyone is just doing their part. Think about it, existence to man is a double edged sword, joy and despair, pain and pleasure, light and darkness. We exist so the universe can be better interpreted but that doesn't mean we exist alone. So I tear up my rulebook and sin a little and live a lot." Taslin said, with a thoughtful expression. He too had pondered on the goals of the Sun Emperor, the man who started it all. He admired him.
"You sound like those folks at the Sun temple—preaching our state doctrine. Oh we are the flame, the candle in the night. Humanity ascended—" Bluries said, as she smiled and rolled her eyes, her red eyes dilating as she stared out at the trees. She devolved into joyful laughter at a personal joke. The sounds made Taslin's heart skip. She was so strange to him, she spoke freely and declared her opinions without subterfuge. A girl who wore her heart on her sleeve.
"What is your name?" Taslin asked. He already knew it but felt he should ask out of formality. The truth is that he wanted to hear her beautiful voice saying it.
"Bluries Chinti," she said. Still descending out of her cute and sonorous laughing fit.
"I believe in hope and Reola, living for more beyond ourselves allows us to tap into a sort of primal essence" Taslin paused and continued. "My mother once told me at a low point in my life" Taslin said recalling his parents finding him when he returned bloodied to the house after the incident. "That there is only hope within us all at the end, and it is all we hold onto even when we think we have lost it. And when we can no longer hold onto it. And we believe it is gone—that there is nothing left to hold—we hold onto each other"
Bluries stared at him. "I see, Taslin" She was moved by Taslin's words, most of the time he always seemed like there was nothing behind his eyes. He reminded her of The Sun Emperor. She had seen the man once at an event with her father and mother, he had an otherworldly presence about him, like a deity who decided to wear the skin of a man and live among the people. He always had this cold expression, a man deeply invested in his own mind. A creature of providence.
"So, you are a patriot?" Bluries asked carefully.
"Yes" Taslin said. She scoffed and made a cute expression while shaking her head from left to right.
"Is that how you see it, we breathe the same air, fight the same fight, we are all connected. All consanguineous, of the same flesh and blood. I believe it is all worth protecting." Taslin said. He felt strangely light, like at peace and for the first time since the incident, he now remembered his idealistic self from the past. It felt nice and she brought it out.
"You are right, it is just that sometimes you can't help but feel overwhelmed, you know—" Bluries said.
"I feel the same way about the Trinity" Taslin said. "I want to join them, preserve order and structure"
"And not to mention there is the unseen threat. The enemy we have no knowledge on." Bluries said. Her visage slowly settled into introspection.
"You are right. What is your journal about?" Taslin asked.
"Astronavigation and data trends and anything that can explain the Icicle," Bluries said.
"I too have been following the Icicle," Taslin said. Bluries turned to face him on the marble path, her eyes wide as she said "No way, what do you think about it?"
"There is a lot to sift through but I believe it is a vessel of another civilisation from another star system—some believe it is a decay, a sinkhole of unending might that has no other goal but to blanket the stars and consume everything" Taslin said. "The Sun Emperor is the only one that will really know what it is. But I can't shake this feeling of doom coming to Reola. Everything humanity has fought to build being wiped away"
"I see, you are right on the first account. It appears to be moving and from what I can glean from my studies, it is a foreign spaceship. Although I believe it may be too early to opine" Bluries said.
"Do you ever think about becoming a Kaatar-Imperator?" Taslin asked. His eyes darted to her.
"There is always a possibility, although I never gave it much thought," Bluries said, as she dragged her hands across a nearby tree.
"Why?" he asked.
"It is scary. A Kaatar-Imperator isn't just a general. They are a new breed of man. Measured mutation across the body. Like a flip of a coin, your eyes change or they stay the same. Many don't survive and even with preparation—some never live to tell, they go into the chrysalis and come out as a soup of liquid tissues and bones—genetic garbage." Bluries sighs "I don't believe I could survive what they survived, I mean the present Kaatar-Imperators. The eager are always the saddest. Remember, Heracles Wilf-Clarke, set to be the next best Kaatar-Imperator last year and came out of the chrysalis as something that couldn't be called human—they called it a kinetic failure. He was a failed example of a potential Kaatar-Imperator, he was paraded by the press and never got to walk out of the chrysalis. I don't know how to keep it together, the thought of them opening my chrysalis and it is nothing but a phlegmy tissue goop that flows out." Bluries said. She stopped in her tracks and regarded Taslin before strolling slowly alongside him.
"Do you want to become a Kaatar-Imperator?" she asked.
"Yes," Taslin said without hesitation. He watched her for a few seconds. He knew that the Kaatar-Imperators had surpassed the limits of their flesh and had dense bones capable of surviving falls and impacts that would kill the average human. What he didn't know was the fear that came with becoming one and was now reassessing whether he was ready. Doubting. He remembered Heracles Wilf-Clarke and the burial and mourning back on Turrin, his home planet.
"The risks are just too great, remember Heracles," Bluries said in a quiet voice. "memento te hominem esse"
"Remember that you are a human," Taslin said slowly with a newfound respect for Bluries. "You know Latin,"
"Among other things" Bluries said "Surprised you know it as well, I won't ask, keeps things interesting"
"No, no I learned it myself. It is a dead language though, Standard is the ideal" Taslin said. He turned to face her and lifted his right hand towards her face, she was beautiful. He touched her face with his right hand and glided his left hand across the silver tattoos on her arm as Bluries blushed from the touch. He was strangely warm—almost hot. Almost boiling in the cold. His touch was intoxicating. It felt inviting as though his warm hands should stay where they were or move around her body. Bluries had a built up resistance to the cold but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.
"Semper sperare possumus" Taslin said with teary eyes as he rubbed her face, and then she saw it like the black curtains were pulled back to reveal his soul.
"We can always hope," Bluries said calmly. The words rolling off her tongue. The phrase seemed to be what defined him and he only spoke it in Latin so he could draw her closer to him. Tether her with himself as that is something unique they shared in common. Bluries had never heard the phrase in Standard or Latin before. She barely knew Taslin but it felt like she saw a man at war with himself and struggling to make sense of his circumstances. And then the black curtains closed. Taslin's hands dragged down her face to her arms and finally departed to his sides, causing her to almost blurt out her desire for him to return the scorching flame of his palms to her body as she stepped forward and fought her craving to lean into his personal space. Bluries could still feel the vestiges of body heat—embers left conveniently on her flesh as though marking her as his.
"Why do you say that?" Bluries asked.
"Ever since I was young, I have been at a disadvantage, my genetics weren't compatible with most augmentation save for Solis primary abilities" Taslin said "But I'm working on it though" He turned to walk forward and she followed.
They both finally reached the library and she took a seat next to Taslin who was reading a book on cooking different cuisines and desserts. She laughed and playfully said "I didn't know you cook"
Taslin smiled, he didn't know what it was about Bluries but he felt at peace around her and pushed away thoughts about himself, about the now dead Dalton. He had to kill the Warden but he was flying blind now and needed more information. Bluries was a distraction he welcomed. At least that is what he told himself as he tried to suppress the warmth in his chest.
"I dabble," Taslin replied. She watched him with excitement, and opened her journal to a particular page to show him.
"What do you make of this?" Bluries asked.
Taslin looked at the amalgamation before him of a black hole, pen strokes had captured its effect on nearby celestial bodies. "Great art," Taslin said and Bluries made a mock angry face. He replied again "cosmic anomaly? where did you spot it?"
"A galaxy away, it seems like a gate, but most of what I deduced are mere speculation" she said "The universe, even with humanity advancing, we barely know all about it" Bluries said "Like we are playing a sick puzzle game and someone has hidden most of the pieces so that it can never be solved." Her eyes danced across the page and then stopped.
"It is easy" he said.
"No it isn't" she said. She playfully pressed at his right shoulder and unconsciously left her hand on it.
Taslin grinned at Bluries who leaned in closer to him with a smile. "Imagine galaxies as puddles of water in two dimensions on a black canvas that is the universe that is constantly expanding—" he said.
"Interesting" she said. Cutting him off "How did you know all that?"
"I read it up and deduced the rest" he replied.
"Very funny" she said "That is a simplistic way of viewing the universe"
"The finer things in life are quite simple" he said. He took hold of her left hand and caressed it "It all comes down to us at the end, most things are difficult—it is us who peel back the layers" Taslin stayed quiet and gazed into her red eyes. The cookbook laid in front of him. Forgotten. It had a bookmark on a page about preparing strawberry cake.
Bluries squeezed his hand gently and grabbed the cookbook.
"Fine, let's see what your cookbook is about, Taslin" She said as sat closer and looked at him coyly "I feel like you missed your calling as a chef"
Taslin laughed in response.