The Day Before
1261 Words
The hover car stopped in front of a townhouse, and Vira got off, thanking the driver for his service. He looked somewhere between disgusted and shocked at her acknowledgment and gratitude. Her teacher, though he had not been that for quite some time now, had invited her to her first dinner on the planet.
As ever, Jordan Parker thought of everything.
He stood at the entrance with a welcoming smile, nothing too big or excited, with a few people behind him. She felt strange standing in front of him in casual clothes, as they had only ever worn their uniforms when they worked together. Her hand lifted itself to her forehead as she saluted him, a habit kicking in before she could help it.
“Sir,” she said, standing straight and tall.
Jordan simply chuckled and said, “I don’t think that is required, Captain. At ease.”
“It is good to see you again, sir,” she said as she walked inside. Someone took her coat out of her hands, and someone else helped her out of her shoes. She observed her surroundings, noting the guard that stood behind him with his mask covering his face.
“Are you just saying that or do you mean it?” he teased, offering his arm to her. She smiled and took it. They made their way to the dining area to have dinner.
“Of course I mean it,” she replied. “Hope you didn’t go to great lengths to host me.”
“Oh, nothing too big; I just had to argue with the Noble Regent for your time.”
Vira groaned. “Oh, Gods.”
“She seems to really like you,” Jordan said, tapping her hand. “It’s a good thing that you saved her on Porus II. It gave us an opening to restart negotiations.”
“I didn’t know she was the regent,” Vira explained. “Talk about a ripple effect.”
“Well, she wasn’t regent when you saved her. I suppose you could call it fate.”
She frowned and smirked at him teasingly as she said, “Fate? When did you start believing in such a thing? I thought nothing was set in stone.”
“Fate doesn’t necessarily mean something is set in stone; it can mean that we are given the choice, and sometimes we choose good.”
She looked at him for a moment. “You have changed, sir.”
“I have?” he questioned, raising his eyebrows.
“Yeah, in a—in a good way, I think,” she clarified. “You seem more…at peace.”
“I don't know about peace, but I’m glad you think so,” Jordan said, opening the door to the dining area with a wall of windows that looked over the city. “I hope I remembered your favorite dishes right.”
“Eh, you know me, I'll eat anything as long as it tastes good.”
The two of them sat alone, talking about what they had been up to in their time apart. Jordan Parker was proud of his student and all that she had managed to accomplish. He also felt a great relief that if he had done nothing, at least he was leaving behind someone that he had helped grow.
“Sir, what’s with the guard?” Vira asked as she served herself more gravy for her rice.
“Hmm? Oh, him! He’s my protector,” Jordan answered. “Humans are still…not looked upon favorably still, so the Yipor thought I needed extra protection.”
“The Yipor?” she exclaimed in surprise. “I didn’t know he cared so much about humans.”
Jordan paused as if he had spoken of something he shouldn’t have.
“If not the people, at least, he has to be open-minded about such things,” he said. "Humans are many in number and unavoidable across the galaxy, and the Monarchy…tries to maintain relations, but in the end, the people’s opinion matters.”
“I did hear that he has a lot of influence on Avtos. The monarchy is okay with that?”
“The Order of Xiona is the oldest establishment on Avtos. They record history and knowledge and things that even the monarchy has forgotten. They can’t help but be okay with it.”
The rest of the dinner went smoothly. Jordan was happy to have one more person on the planet that he could rely on.
“I’ll try to come as often as I can,” she said as she stepped out of the townhouse.
“Focus on your mission,” Jordan commanded.
“Yeah, alright, old man. Bye!”
Vira's ride back to the Palace turned out to be more pleasant than she had anticipated as she observed the nightlife in the capital. It wasn’t much different from her own city. People sitting and eating or closing shops to return home. Some talked as they made their way around the city. It seemed too normal for her, as if she were expecting all of them to be animals. She had only ever met soldier Sirens on the battlefield, not those people that lived there.
She thanked her driver as she got off, an attendant was waiting for her to take her back to her residence.
“Is there anything more that I can do for you, Envoy?” the attendant asked, not meeting her eyes.
“No, thank you,” Vira said with tense shoulders. There was someone in there other than the two of them. “Oh? You have something on your head.”
She stepped forward, pretending to fix something in her hair, and whispered, “Get a guard after you leave.”
The attendant froze in her place before glancing upwards and giving her a nod.
She stepped back and smiled. “There. You’re good to go. Have a good night.”
Vira waited to hear the click of the main door, and so did her assailant. A hand holding a dagger attacked her as she turned around. She stopped it a few inches away from her face as she was pushed outside the hallway to her room and into the living room.
She kicked him in his stomach, and he stumbled back, muttering something under his breath like a chant. Vira didn’t let him find his balance as she twisted his arm and got a hold on his dagger before stabbing it in his thigh.
“Who sent you?” she asked, twisting the dagger.
The assailant groaned in pain, screwing his eyes shut, but refused to speak.
“Come on, I haven’t got the time,” she said, pulling the dagger out and stabbing his shoulder before holding it to his neck. He screamed, his head falling forward, almost touching her.
He looked back up with clenched teeth and into her eyes, close to her face.
“You are a pest among my people,” he said, moving forward to drive the dagger in his neck and falling back.
He lay dead within minutes, but not before the guards could see with their own eyes that she was the victim in the situation.
She made sure to keep him alive for that long.
She scoffed as she looked at the dead body, throwing the dagger on the ground and turning to face the guard, who stared at her. She wiped the blood on her clothes, thinking that she liked this shirt and her attacker was quite mediocre.
- Writer
