Pultine was trapped. She was in darkness unless she released her aspect, and when she did, the view all around her made her nauseous. In the glow of her aspect, Pultine could see the mirrors that surrounded her and no matter how hard she beat at them, she couldn’t shatter them. Even the blinding orbs of light she could generate from her body were ineffective to shatter the mirrors.
Despite the optical illusion all around her, Pultine discovered that there was enough space to take a few steps in any direction before she collided with the walls and she could levitate to a mirrored ceiling about a foot from the mirrored ground beneath her.
When she first awoke in that space, she was slumped against a mirrored wall and her aspect cast everything in a yellow-white glow. She had been sedated and she wondered how long she’d been out. Then she was angry for trusting Rusa. He had been a failure and she regretted her belief that she could create a companion like Tracia. She had been unique among mmoatia, it was foolish to think that a jeris, even remade and completely in her thrall, could come close.
Rusa had put her in the mirrored box and she would pry it open and then peel his feathered hide from the rhasd underneath. When she wasn’t cursing Rusa, she focused her energy on the corners of the mirrored box, hoping that they might be weak points. But even when she exhausted her essence before collapsing in sleep, Pultine thought about turning Rusa’s wings to ash and watching him suffer in agony.
“I’m so sorry, my Pristine,” she could hear his deep, sad voice. “I will do everything in my power to free you.” It was the last thing he’d said to her as the large goat men stood around the spot where their ship landed. The mirrored prison assembled around her quickly, before she really had her bearing.
She knew that Rusa was repentant for his part in her arrest. Even though she had used her abilities as an aboatia to make him love her, he still felt that love intensely even when she wasn’t using her ability. But even though his love for her was intense, her actions on Xaxax had changed things between them.
“No one deserves to die like that,” Rusa argued. Pultine had just obliterated a xaxew fleet of spaceships that followed behind the ship she and Rusa had confiscated to escape Xaxax, and they were standing at the large window that showed the view in front of the ship.
“How else was I supposed to stop them?” Pultine asked. She tried to hide her annoyance at the question, but she was very much annoyed and approaching anger that Rusa felt the need to question her.
“Stop them from what?” Rusa asked. “They didn’t do anything to us.”
“They captured us and saved us as a meal for their leader!” Pultine raised her voice but maintained her restraint. “That entire planet is a trap. Anything edible is eaten, everything else becomes theirs. It is a dark place and a loss there is no loss for this realm.”
“True, they did intend to eat us, and I understand why you would exterminate the xaxews, but you’ve made an enemy of an entire planet and you didn’t have to. You had a plan, we had an out.”
“I appreciate your honesty, Rusa, but you underestimate the danger of that place. It represents the frightful potential of those xaxews. If they wanted to infest other places, they could with ease and come to completely dominate this entire realm. I only wanted to be to them what they are to their prey, the thing of their nightmares. Does this really upset you so much? And you wouldn’t have expressed this if I hadn’t insisted you be honest?”
“It was a lot of xaxews, Pristine,” Rusa said earnestly. He stared at her. “They couldn’t have all been monsters deserving of that end. Don’t they deserve life like everything else in the realms?”
“That was a place of death,” Pultine insisted.
She didn’t notice Rusa using the ship’s communicator. He had wandered away from their conversation shaking his head and as they neared Endla, he kept their interactions short. She figured he was just angry, but he had actually discovered a solar powered emergency commutator that was trying to connect. Rusa had answered it and was startled to see the holographic bust of a jeris female in uniform.
“Rusa Dharle, this is Captain Fhal Truss, originally of Wiis. You are traveling with the most dangerous being in the universe. We understand if you are afraid of your captor, but we require your cooperation. She is a wanted mass murderer and there are many who want to see her face justice. We’d just like to speak with her, though if she is feeling murderous, she should know that many know where we are and will see to her capture by those who mean to kill her if harm should come to us.”
“How are you doing this?” Rusa asked. His time with Pultine had primed him for mysterious feats that could only be described as arcana.
“We’ve been sending a message to your ship’s frequency since your captor blew those xaxew ships to dust. Your captor killed a dozen Hafjeris on Wiis and thousands of xaxews. We would be in your debt if you can arrange a peaceful parlay. Or, you can continue at her side like a mindless jara and suffer the punishment that she will face. Not only is the Wiis Defense Ministry after her, but there is a security coalition with the ruling nest of Xaxax and the Defense Arch of Endla. Pultine of the Fonlands will face justice. If she talks to me and my friends, we should be able to lower the temperature with the Defense Ministry. I used to be a Captain in the Ministry before I took on a different role. Powers that your captor possesses could be an asset to the Ministry and I am here covertly to see if that is a possibility.”
Pultine sat in the mirrored box, gathering her energy and seething. She should have known better than to trust anyone. Rusa had been right about one thing, she had changed over the long time that she pursued Seraphiel from their encounter on Wiis; it would measure about ten years from the perspective of the Earth realm where she longed to be. The Earth realm was always a good place to think, moreso than the disc of Agê where she was well known and highly regarded among the inhabitants who wouldn’t allow her time for contemplation. She could find dense woods on Earth to relax like she could on the disc, and it was only inhabited by Earthers who only seemed to notice her from long distances. When she did interact with Earthers, they were mostly pleasant interactions and she could easily flee an Earther that meant her harm because using violence on them felt like torturing something smaller than her. She wanted to be in an Earther forest alone to really think about the course she was on.
But she was in a mirrored box and she didn’t know how long she had struggled to free herself. She began to doubt that there was a way out.
PRL Serials 