Shade of Deception (Two)

Six - SoD

Six:

“You’re mean to me; I’m not even talking to you anymore! You led me to believe there were actual fairies! Hawker even backed up the statement.”

I sulked to Sky, as Kerry accidentally let slip that the beings pulling the Hordes were Tren, a form of electrical spirit which had begun to take metallic avatar bodies tens of thousands of years ago.

“Sorry, you were just eating it all up! You should be weary if my father agrees with anything, because he is a huge practical joker.”

Sky said in her defense, and I hmphed and crossed my arms, looking out the dark almost pitch-black subterranean tracks. It was like a private subway system only no one even knew it existed outside the immortal community.

Well, to be fair, they are the sprites that the ancient Celtic people used to see, only they did not understand how beings of pure energy could be described. Hence the pixies and other such wee-folk lore that rose.

I looked over to Clarke, who was studying every facet of the cab like it was a spaceship.

“You do realize this is the same as any other vehicle, at least on the overall concept and design?”

I asked, and he gave me an incredulous look.

“This is the first actual alien craft I have been in. Pulled by space-faring pixies, I might add!”

Clarke inserted enthusiastically. I rolled my eyes and muttered a few choice phrases about boys and cars.

“Technically, these Tren were born here on earth.”

Kerry corrected Clarke, giving him a dubious once over. She seemed to be confused on his place in all of this. In her narrow world, humans were noisy outsiders that immortals had to mask their existence from. One would be right in assuming that mortals very frequently sought immortality, often at a bloody cost to any lesser immortals caught in their zealous path. Hell, I am sure people would love to stick me in a lab and poke and prod me until they could extract from me whatever it was that made me a shade. Such was human nature, to take, conquer, and harvest, even if it meant the cost of other lifeforms. Call me jaded, but just don’t call me a fool.

“So, how exactly do momma and poppa Tren get their freak on?”

Clarke asked a rapidly flushing Kerry, who was a little older than us, but only by a few years. Clearly, the life of court as a guard had not allowed for many social experiences, especially ones where boys asked girls s****l topic questions. Clarke is also a very handsome guy, so I can see why a straight girl like Kerry might feel a bit embarrassed. When Clarke gave his dimpled smile, he could win an entire basketball stadium’s worth of girls in a single glance. Thankfully, he did not have the ego of a superstar or he would not be the faithful kind, and somewhat nerdy jock I knew and loved!

“Essence merger, they synchronize and harmonize their energy. It is their version of s*x, and it is said to be both blissful and all-consuming. They also share all their memories and observations in this process. That information is passed on to their offspring.”

Sky answered and Kerry gave her a polite nod of gratitude. There was something extremely formal in her every behavior, especially around Skylar. Sky did not appear to enjoy this in the least. She seemed mildly bothered by it in all honesty. From all I have learned, she has worked hard to put the past behind her people. Their divisions, and their cast system. Some old revenants from the past seem to rattle their chains well into the future.

“Arriving.”

An electronic tone came in over an intercom system I couldn’t see.

“This entire carriage is a portion of the body of the Tren.”

Sky said by way of explanation, and I felt my eyes bug open wider, and Sky appeared amused by my reaction.

“This brings an entirely new meaning to being inside someone!”

I exclaimed excitedly and Clarke rolled his eyes, and Sky sniggered at me in amusement. Kerry just looked away with flushed cheeks. She really seemed like she was more worth of being the small-town girl than I was.

After about a minute more of travel, we came to a gradual stop. Light flooded into the carriage as the door hissed open. There was so much light for a subterranean city. As I stepped out behind Skylar, I shielded my eyes form the brilliance of the sun in the sky.

“Sky, stupid question, but how in the frack is the sun, up there?!”

I asked in an excited tone. She sighed as if lacking the patience needed to reason with and explain the world to an overly agitated and confused toddler.

“That is a fracking reflection of the sun orbiting in the surface world. There is a large dome atop this city to protect it from the world above. The design is not something I would expect you to be familiar with. Humans are still a thousand years away from achieving this type of technology.”

Sky explained in a now calmer tone. Clarke studied the expansive gates before us. The walls were black as pitch, and they seemed to scream and ring loudly in my expression power senses. I could feel the loud energy pouring from the entire outer defensive structure. The City of Hidden was truly a feat of power and architectural masterwork.

The gates appeared to be some sort of black steel or something completely different than any metal I had ever seen. They were smelted and forged without any flaws in the materials from what my keen eyes could decern.

Expressive powers coated the metal densely, almost as if the metal were soaking up the power.

“Come, we have to scan your group in since none of your have been here before.”

Kerry waved her arm towards a throng of guards using laser-like beams to scan over people.

“Them aren’t the people killing kind of lasers, are they?”

I asked, but my tone was more sarcastic and sassier than quizzical. We had barely approached when red light began to flash around me, and a holo-screen popped up revealing my assorted arsenal. I gave the Nix at the guard posting a whimsical smile and playfully bantered, “Would you believe those are just a series of sexy piercings?”

His look was flat, and he seemed almost angrier with me now.

“Right, guess you might have heard that one before, should have known they’d have the c***k-wizards out her guarding against the, all mighty shade.”

Two other approaching guards raised spear-like weapons whish glowed purple at the tip. I could feel the particle-burst of expressive energy building a charge, which was drawing energy form some sort of very potent but small power source inside the spear-like weapons.

“Stand down! She was cleared ahead of time by the Lords and the Ladies of Hidden. We are transporting our own equipment to help with the disappearances inside the capital.”

Kerry said, her assertive tone only seemed to further anger the Nix guard.

“As if I could believe a blood-traitor’s daughter.”

He sneered at her, and I I growled and grabbed the guy by the shirt and shook him hard enough for him to lose his hand scanner to the ground.

“Hey, you apologize, or you’re never going to find an eternal mate with that mouth! Haven’t your parents ever taught you manners?!”

I snarled, and he gave me a deadly venomous look and said flatly, “What parents? Mine never made it through the breach. They got to them.”

The amber-haired young-looking male was obviously over eleven hundred-years-old, if that was the case.

“Sorry…I get that, my mom died just to give me life, and well, you know dad is a cra cra ethereal. I get the whole complex parent sitch. However, you are not allowed to go around insulting pretty ladies or you are just going to send them all to my team, and honestly, I cannot field them all by myself, so there is that. So, moral of the story, be nice to ladies, or else I will kick you in the nutts. That seems to be universally painful for all men.”

The Nix winched slightly and one of his comrades must have heard enough out of me, they fired, but Sky’s scaled hand blocked the blast in a flash that only I likely spotted before it happened. I was already raising my own defense, but Sky deflected the blast upwards and collided with the black wall. I noticed the powerful bold of energy merely disappeared into the side of the wall. It was more than likely designed to withstand extremely powerful siege weapons I could not begin to fathom now.

“How dare you!”

Sky snarled at the youth who fired, and she backhanded him, and she shifted fully into a massive multi-colored gleaming scaled dragoness. Her massive slit blue gaze seared into the young man, who seemed to have had a bit of an accident. His legs trembled as his eyes locked on the sight of a true Nix apex in her massive fifteen-foot-wing-span glory.

“There goes the whole damn neighborhood. I swear, I cannot take you girls anywhere nice! Come on there spikey, and you, can you let the damn man just scan your damn weapons or whatever he has to?!”

Clarke said and he shook his head sighing as he walked closer to Sky’s dragon form. She noted his progress, but she did not seem to regard him as a threat in any manner. Not because he was human, but because she trusted Clarke’s loyalty was to her, and to me.

“Bad dragon! Very bad dragon!”

Clarke chastised her, almost looking comical, if not for the very lethal fiery fingertips of Sky’s deadly form. Fun note, dragons do not breathe fire, rather they express it with their clawed fingers. Despite popular opinion, dragons—Nix apexes—do not behave at all animal-like in this form. They are still the hyper intellectual being they were in their human-like form.

“They dare to harm what is under my domain!”

Her harsh rough tone was so bone-chilling that it would have sobered an entire debauched frat party in full-swing.

The Nix, including Kerry, were all bowing almost prostrate before Sky. Clearly someone at the gate had not gotten the memo that the Apex and her friends were in route to the city.

“Well, now that the fireworks and sideshow acts are all finished, how about you lot follow me, m’kay?”

Siegfried said in a lazy tone, and several non-Nix guards filed in behind him as he approached the gate guards and gave a sluggish vague wave towards us.

“They’re fine. They would not be dim enough to start a bloody war with Hidden. Even for an Apex, that is suicide on her own. Let the world-ender through too. She’s only grumpy when she’s hungry, or so I believe.”

His words were almost condescending and definitely over the boarder to insulting. Siegfried seemed incapable of taking Sky seriously, even while she was fully transformed and beasty-girling-out.

“Ok, him I approve of you blasting!”

I said to Sky, who snarled something, and plumes of smoke shot from her nostrils—which seemed a bit closer than comfort to the dragon lore.

“Ender, please get the apex to shift back.”

Siegfried commanded in that same dull-lazy tone. I shot him a cold-0blooded-murderous look. His yawn almost made me hop clear over Sky to blast him with my own silver flames.

“Everyone, how about we stop measuring them. Especially you two, you should be ashamed to enter the pissing contest when you’re supposed to be more evolved than us guys!”

With that sage chastising statement, Clarke caused Sky to shift back, and I let go of the short katana-like blade Nadia had gifted me a year-and-a-half-ago. My fingers were very hesitant to leave the grip. I locked my eyes on Siegfried and said, “I had better get this back.”

He hummed in a dispassionate manner and said, “Your silent or-else is noted, now can we move this along? I am starting to think I might be able to make the dead move faster.”

Sky turned up her nose at that, and I just ignored him completely. Siegfried was a riddle wrapped in a mental cluster-f**k. I couldn’t for the life of me figure him out. I also couldn’t figure out what Hidden would nominate such a blatantly disrespectful and insolent man such as him to be their ambassador.