They didn’t go far. Yiel took Frial to the domed stronghold where he lived on an impressive ship that was heavily guarded. There were visible guns with homing technology and the barrels of the weapons that seemed to rest on the surface of the ship, followed anything that flew nearby.
Yiel took Frial inside and sat him in a large, mostly empty room.
“You’re gonna take me to Whadgaf Jiris,” Yiel said as two other Hafjeris men entered the room with a similar, dark coloring of their wings.
“I haven’t seen Whadgaf since she put me in that hospital. Trust me, my new friend, you do not want to mess with that woman.”
Yiel looked at him with a mixture of anger and amusement and Frial hoped that he could humor his way away from the boiling aggression.
“How do you know her?” Yiel asked.
“She murdered my family.”
“I thought you Realfen’s were just a myth. The Auburn Order and all that. As a child, my father told us that if we didn’t finish our meals, food would collect in the dumps to attract the red men, the Auburn Order, who ate garbage and kidnapped children to make them slaves.”
Frial shook his head with comic disbelief.
“That is quite the story, a little much just to get you to clean your plate. We didn’t eat garbage, and we didn’t kidnap children. I don’t even like children.”
“You plan to kill Whadgaf?” Yiel asked.
“I am content to never see her again,” Frial said.
“If you asked for a meeting, would she give it to you?”
“Why are you interested in meeting her?” Frial asked, genuinely curious.
“Do you know what she is? A warrior of legend. She can change her size, I’ve seen her, and I want what she has.”
Frial smiled. “Yes, she is the envy of the race. How do you suppose she came to possess her abilities?”
Yiel shrugged. “Her lineage, she is Jiris, a high family of Hafjeran.”
“We all had these ancestors,” Frial said. “That is how our families came to be the names that they are, powerful members who could dominate, but the attributes that Whadgaf displays haven’t occurred in generations.”
“What’s the point of this?” Yiel asked.
“I’m telling you how to get what she has. To know how to get it, you have to understand how she came to possess it. Who is your oldest living relative?”
Yiel looked at him incredulously.
“I’ll spare you the back and forth,” Frial continues. “The Ruling Class, your relatives, preserve ancient ancestors, and apparently, the Jiris family preserved one of their Perfect relatives and Whadgaf feasted on their flesh.”
Yiel laughed out loud.
“You’re saying I have to eat her?”
Frial nodded. “At least a bite. There is something about those Perfect relatives, something in their DNA that we can digest to alter our own. You don’t have to bite her, of course, you could see who the Ruling Class has preserved.”
Yiel thought about the information; it wasn’t so far fetched.
“Have I given you enough to ensure that I make it out of this dome alive?” Frial asked.
“You still haven’t given me what I asked for,” Yiel said. “I’ll give you the guarantee of your life, when you take me to Whadgaf.”
Frial had no idea where Whadgaf was, but Yiel knew that she was on her way back to the Regions after breaking into the IP.
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