Shade of Deception (Two)

Twelve - SoD

Twelve:

Skylar was the focus of most of the nobles. When she might move to the City of Hidden, and what she planned to do to change the Nix people when she rose to her rightfully earned throne as the Apex.

All anyone seemed to want from me was to know my timeline on going nuts and trying to e*****e all the universe, or something like that. By the time we finished the long and repetitive conversations, I knew two things, we were better off in the Nix district, and all this high tea stuff just left me in need of the lady’s room!

“Yes, the Ender is walking down to the lift.”

I heard a pair of the Volupine guards talking. I managed to keep a somewhat friendly look on my features, despite the frequency with which I was being insulted practically to my face. Sky seemed annoyed on my behalf, but she was even better at holding in her seething emotions.

She had been sent through more political hoops than anyone. The leaders all made her agree to come back for a summit after we visited the lower district. Most of them did not seem concerned with the fact that an apex family member was missing, much less the nameless children he had been investigating.

Everyone wanted something from Skylar, and everyone merely wished to be rid of me. The entire court seemed in agreement about that. Grendel’s curiosity aside, I felt their hostility and the ripe sense of uncertainty. They expected me to freak on them, and start slaughtering puppies, or something equally terrible.

I felt a strong surge of reassurance form Clarke, who seemed to almost transmit the vague thought of a shoulder squeeze into my head. He was becoming particularly good at his projections. As with school, the camaraderie was appreciated, and the solidarity that went with it.

“Finally, only took like three bloody hours to get to where we meant to go!”

I exclaimed, being unafraid of sounding flippant. Lets face it, you spend all your time being everyone’s favorite she-devil, and you just begin to lose all give-a-f**k towards offending those around you who are already looking down upon you.

They think I am scum; they think I am some killer with a tight ass and a very sexy mixed complexion—except when it is all whitewashed in the winter. So far, I can conclude that immortal life is not unlike high school. There are clicks and there are walls built to keep the undesirables out—socially speaking if not physically. In this case, well they have a freakin’ sky spire court to separate them form the Nix, humans, and the other poor folks bellow. How messed up is it that I feel more at home as the platform begins to roar downwards? The closer I come to the ground—to the undesirables—the better I can breathe again. I was hardly expecting fanfare, yet it was a great relief to be away from the posturing and the peacocking.

“You know you’re amongst your own class when the smell just seems right.”

I joked, and Sky gave me a tolerant look.

“You’re from a middle-class house, the same as every other family in our town. There really are no poor people there, just lower-middle-class.”

Sky corrected me, and I shrugged and said, “Whatever, I am glad to be the hell out of that shitshow.”

Clarke sniffed and frowned at me.

“It just smells like spicy hotdogs and French fries to me.”

Sky sniffed the air, and I could catch the traces of her rapid analysis. She could separate every single overlapping layer of different smells in each region. Dragons were one of the ultimate apex predators, and they could track by scent. Between her abilities, and my own keen expression sensory capabilities, we should be able to scour the whole of this district for Roger. It will not take us a long time.

Clarke was correct, I could smell hotdogs and spices, and also the scent of frying potatoes or some type. The scent seemed to carry to the transportation platform, and the device hissed to a complete stop giving me my first up close view of the Nix lower district.

Somewhat like the classical village style of Doylestown, the lower city was made of stone, and it had wood and stone small buildings. Everything looked almost like it belonged on a medieval set of some film about an ancient city.

There were of course some visible signs of tech woven into the modest style the Nix were known to prefer. Teens and tweens had holo com devices, and there were other slightly less shiny and less new-looking tech hubs in the area. The lack of services and goods for sale was noticeable. Instead there seemed to be free trade, and a lot of community cooperation. Senna encouraged her people to conform to the new world enough to make a living, but these Nix seemed almost withdrawn and more simplistic. Despite their social adaptivity, they seemed to be content with seclusion, almost like they were hiding down here.

The stone paved roads were well swept, and the entire impoverished lower district was aging, but well loved, and well-tended. The people took great pride in their upkeep, and in preserving everything they had built.

Sky seemed speechless as she studied the way her lost tribe lived their lives. I felt as if my own heart was breaking, because I could feel it in her chest. She was beyond sucker-punched with the state of things. Senna had hidden the harsher facts from her. No reason I could think of might explain this, except that Senna either knew something pertinent that we did not, or that she merely wished to shield Sky from how hard life was outside the apex clan.

“My Princess!”

Several of the people hit the ground the instant they spotted Skylar exiting the lift. She swung her head slowly and took in every slightly scaly face and all the various shades of dragon-slit eyes looking upon her in rapture.

“You may rise.”

Sky said in a thundering tone that carried on the air as if by a storm cloud. She had definitely been working on projecting her tone. Sky has always been assertive, but she was a lot more softly spoken about it when I first met her. However, the closer she comes to her majority, the more regal, the more authoritative she sounds.

The Nix crowded in towards us to get a glimpse of the princess of their people. The eyes all looked upon her in deep wonder and everyone seemed to hope, to breathe, and to live again, as if finally given that command.

“I am here to look for my missing brother, Roger of the Apex Clan, as well as the missing youths of this city. Step forward if you can tell me anything that might assist me in this endeavor.”

No one felt brave enough to step forward for a few long moments, but finally a young-looking woman bowed herself and moved towards Sky. She did not look up from the pavement, almost as if terrified she might be struck down if she did.

“M..my Apex, they, they were tracking through the depths that lead to the core. Th That was the last we saw or heard of L Lord Roger.”

The small brunette seemed to tremble at the aura of power washing over her as she stood so close to the true dragoness. Sky stepped forward and she placed a soothing hand on the woman’s shoulder, and I felt her pour sympathy, support, and strength through them. I felt it expand outward into the crowd like lightning jumping to nearby conductive objects. The masses were breathless, they were beyond rapture at the communion with the very pentacle of their species. Skylar was like a goddess to them.

“I have come to help you, not to condemn you. It seems that life has been hard for all of you for a very long time. I will not leave you before I have seen reformations. This I decree as your apex.”

I felt my gut sink slightly. Technically speaking, it was like sending a challenge up to Senna, again. Since Senna was still supposed to rule in name right now. However, Senna would have to decide to take exception at Skylar’s decision here and decide to pick a fight over it. That did not seem likely, since neither woman had any desire to kill the other. I was sure she would gladly do so if she could be excused for killing me in the process, but not Skylar. Senna loved Sky, she saw her future, her people’s future in her daughter. She was an evolved leader, a being willing to give up ultimate authority, merely because it is the right thing to do. Nobility appears in short supply in our world, and even here that seems the case despite the massive court of supposed nobles.

My wondering mind ran towards the man I met, who seemed very chummy with Sky. The man who was supposed to rule the clan of Nix in this city. Moran, the Nix Lord, why had he allowed his people to live in such squalor while he sipped tea? Also, why was he not down here himself?

Not for the first time, I wanted to strangle Senna for her cryptic and secretive nature. She was sending Sky in ill-informed about Hidden. I was now responsible for guarding the future queen of the Nix in what felt like a powder keg of a massive city. No pressure that!

“My Apex, I shall lead thee to the very edge of the city. That is the pathway your brother, Lord Roger, took.”

A Nix man who looked thirty, much like Moran, however, he had wavy blonde hair and silver-blue eyes with dragon-slits. They were both old, like the dirt, or older still.

“You have my thanks, now lead on, and know I shall return, and I shall sit and feast with you all. We will speak as one on all that has plagued our people.”

Skylar said, and she sounded like a woman from a different era as she spoke with a slightly accented tone. She was mimicking the accent her mother retained when she was being formal or overly emotional. It was musical and held pitches not common to the human voice box.

Several children come forwards and offered items of food to each of us. They only seemed to hesitate with me for a single moment. They were all very confident in Skylar’s ability to protect them all from the big bad shade. Another woman came over with large flagon of what smelled like ale of some sort, they had corks tied to them, to close the bottles up while traveling.

“A few tokens for your journey. Tastes of the home world long forgotten by most.”

The woman said, and she looked about our age, but her power slight as it was, felt mature, and ripe like Senna. She was easily ten thousand, or so my senses told me. That was mostly based upon my experience with Senna, and how it compared to this lady.

“You’re too kind. We will cherish and enjoy these.”

Sky said, and she smiled warmly at the woman. The people saw their new soon-to-be queen for the first time. Saw that she was kind, just, and that she was willing to shed blood for them, not just for her own kin. They knew we were willingly heading into danger for them, and no one seemed apt to complain about the shade being present in this heavy situation. Help was help, no matter where it came from. People who had nothing knew this to be true, and they knew that the source did not change the outcome they wished for. All these people wanted was their families made whole.