Carmine

This same place again, why was I here? It was my old bedroom from the Ascus palace.

I groaned in discontent.

The walls never got closer. Maybe I should be the master of my fear. I sat on my sheets with my legs crossed and waited.

At times, I heard my name in dull whispers, cries of passion, and sometimes bellows of anger.

It was unnerving, for it was never one voice. So many people were calling for me, but who was I in the grand scheme of things?

I shivered when my eyes opened to a dark blur and the pain set in.

“Carmine...” I knew that voice and came off the bed looking around for that murderous woman.

A hand grasped the jamb of the open doorway. I stared at it.

A forearm revealed itself leading up to a shoulder and then came that eye that struck fear through me.

Sweat peeled down my face as that eye seared through me.

My fingers curled inward as the nerves strung along my straightened back.

"Carmine."

Garth?

That eye moved forward and so did the face that carried it.

His face looked so unreal in the center of that darkness.

"Garth, what are you doing here?"

That big smile on his face was quite a fierce expression. There was nothing warm about it though.

"You need to come." Garth's face did not move.

"Where?" I gasped out of my mouth.

"You have to. You need to leave. You're in danger."

"Dan—" A burst of pain hits my head.

Passing woods startled me, my screams consumed me and my father's hand clenched around my wrist reminded me of that day.

The last day I was in Ascus.

"No." I shook my head.

Garth frowned now.

I left before and I was not leaving again. Though, this place did look like my room it didn't feel like it. I just didn't want to leave.

Something told me not to leave.

Garth's face slipped back into the darkness.

The floor broke apart as it became squares. Lines cut through the wall and even the roof fell like a thick fabric. It hits my head, but no feeling swept through me.

I whipped my head around and almost ran from my spot in terror. Everything was gone. Darkness surrounded me except for a shape ten feet from me.

I glared at it through the corner of my eye cautious of what it was. My jaw widened in abstract fear.

Canus, he was hunched to the side his head, twisted unnaturally and his arms were wide as a kite.

I drifted back holding my mouth. My legs shook and struggled to hold me up. Corona's laughter hit me like lightning.

“Leave me alone!” I shouted back.

A sharp pain shook my eyes open to see Janilla over me. My body shook, then I remained still and looked around. I was back in my hut.

My head blazed. “Wh...” I tried to speak.

Janilla pulled me up. “You were shouting in your sleep so I—pinched you.” She backed away expecting some rebuke.

I stared at my feet. “It is fine. What was I shouting?”

“Your name.”

My eyes widened at her. “My name? Did you—did you at any point hear me say leave me alone?”

“No, it was just your name. You were just saying it, repeatedly.”

I shook my head in morbid dismay at what was happening to me. Was I losing my mind? It could not be attacks of the mind, I was wearing my Sector Bloom. I groaned at my blazing headache.

“Oh, Valor is here. She is in the tavern waiting for you.”

Finally, I needed those pills.

I paused.

She?

When I went to this bar I saw a room of dark-skinned people who were shrunken in comparison to the grand magnificence of one brown sand-toned beautiful woman who naturally took the table in the center of the bar.

Five sat opposite her.

She was tall and long flowing brown curls rolled behind her. Her eyes were cat-like and carried a slimmer appearance with those high cheekbones. It stroke a nice balance between sharpness and beauty.

Her head rocked and I saw the distinct earrings that sparkled.

Her clothing was a tight dress that gripped her body with a slim layer of satin threaded with a rather lovely mix of light blue and dark blue. There were long sleeves, but they were slit down the center allowing full view of her arms, while the same went for the trousers on her legs.

Well endowed, her bosom was pronounced and made me feel self-conscious as I looked at my chest.

Beside her was Valor's trusty ax laid against the table, then my memory kicked in. This was Valor in her other body?!

I rounded the first tables and stepped up to Valor?

She looked up and said, “You are well Carmine, that is good.” The smile fell a bit as Valor pursed her lips and said, “The pain has returned I heard.”

I nodded my head without saying.

“Sit.” Valor brought a knapsack forward and took out a large glass vial container. She produced an orb and she cut it for me. I took it and within seconds I was starting to breathe easier.

“Thanks, I needed that.” I sat down.

“You owe me,” Valor said.

“I know.”

“No, I mean you owe me coin. Exodine is not cheap since it’s barely manufactured these days.”

I tilted my head at him, her? I closed my eyes briefly in frustration. “You are going to stick me with that delightful innocent face of yours.” I leaned back in the chair. “I must admit Valor it is hard to take that threat seriously with such a beautiful face.”

Valor scrunched up her eyes before they widened and she laughed. “Aha, yes I forget you are used to my rougher face.”

“Why did you change bodies anyway?”

“We call bodies, shells. They are called shells, do not let any Elam hear you call this created by their hands, a body. Learn the lingo. So, I got another job and it needed the sensual advantages that a female shell affords.” Valor gave me a wicked smile and Janilla snarled, loudly.

I rolled my eyes. “Spare me the details. But why come here as such? I am used to your old self. Actually, I prefer your old body.”

“Me too, but I had no time based on the urgency of the call Five sent to me. A friend has that shell. When I am passing back I can go get that. Until then—” Valor waved her hand flamboyantly.

A thundering crash sent a jolt through me. A grimy hand reached at my face.

"Carmine!" Janilla's voice mixed with the curdling dying cry of a man upset my serenity. My arms flailed about in the quickly enclosing darkness I fell into.

I blinked in my frozen state, the darkness fled, and I was graced with the wide-eyed faces of my old friends.

"Carmine?" Valor's voice returned to me to reality. It was then I noted, I was standing with a displaced chair behind me. Five and Janilla were staring at me with concern.

I heard the crash again, and my eyes turned to witness the barmaid placing wooden cartons onto the counter. It sounded so loud back then, it wasn't so murderous to my ears now.

"You okay?" Valor's eyebrows furrowed at me. I frowned, yet returned to my seat trying to restore some level of composure.

“I am sure you heard. What am I to do?” I asked.

Valor glared at me for a second, it seemed like she wanted to ask me something but decidedly answered my question. “Leave Tiam immediately. No way around it.”

I gritted my teeth in disdain.

The barmaid laid a cup on the table.

I nodded and thanked her. Valor smooched at and rolled her eyes upward at the barmaid. The barmaid smirked and wagged her body as she walked off.

Valor nodded her head with a sultry grin that grew more childish as the seconds passed.

“Aye, lover boy, I mean girl, this is not your territory,” I said. Valor looked at me, I motioned my head behind her. She looked back and saw ferocious eyes spearing into the back of her head from three fellows at the next table. One of them wore the signature symbol of Fallen, which was the wooden cross with the horizontal bar higher up the vertical bar, and worn as a necklace. Fallen, a disgraced God oversaw this land.

All I knew was he was supposedly the son of Benedict, and after betraying his father, was disposed of to the depths of the abyss. I wondered if that story was a myth or was there an element of truth to that.

Valor laughed as she looked back at me. “They are self-conscious of their own manhood.”

I said, “You're the only Terison here In this town, remember that.”

She kissed her teeth at me and downed some of her swill.

Janilla interjected. “Plus people are not happy ever since the incident with the child.”

I asked, “How is he?”

Janilla nodded. “He is alive. The family threatened me, but I think that is to be expected.”

“What happened?” Valor asked in jolly humor.

Janilla replied, “Lady Carmine accidentally shot a child in the leg.”

Valor burst out laughing. I gave her a dire gaze. Valor quieted down. “Gally me tender! Lassie you need some new eyes, how did you manage that?”

“He was hiding in the bush. Never saw him,” I retorted.

Valor shrugged and looked away. Her eyes still laughed at me, I begrudgingly noted.

I said, “You need to be careful while you are here, Terison. I have been avoiding Artus ever since the incident, so I would like to keep the peace if I can.”

“This is not the shell of a Terison,” Valor replied.

“Looked pale like one,” I retorted.

Valor said, “You know your knowledge is incomplete? What if I told you there were—”

“Five races, from which the Elams took and made the first perfect model of humanity's evolution,” Janilla finished.

I looked at Janilla in mock shock.

Valor gestured with the mug in hand at Janilla. “How—”

“I have been reading. The book, Ada's book.” Janilla looked at me. “I was not sure about it, but seeing Valor in this body I can see it. All the traits of all five races blended into this body. The powerful senses of Elgins, the skin texture of Ailshans, the vitality of Mouns, the internal efficacy of Terisons, and the fertility and strength of Shyia blood… The perfect human. That was what the early Elams were trying to achieve and they had.”

I muttered, “Five races...what happened to the other four?”

Janilla looked downward. “They met the same fate as the Terisons at the hand of Arkoth.”

Right, he killed all the other races and left us as the sole rulers of the world. I said, “The history I learned was that there was only one other race.”

Valor shook her head. “I think there was some confusion back then. Shyia looked at anyone who was not Shyia as Terison. It made sense since only Shyias were dark in their skin. Every other race was light as the day.”

“Like you?” I asked.

“Exactly.”

I leaned back sighing. It seemed the Elams recreated the bodies of the once-extinct races or made a new race using all of them combined. To make a new body, the perfect body, for I wondered if they could construct one for me.

As security, that helped. I was nervous about it then, but now I was sure I needed it more than ever.

“I want a body,” I said.

Valor stared at me blankly, while Janilla looked between us, concerned.

“Again, shell, also you can't have two things. The strong survive and the weak die, that is the cycle of life.”

I scrunched up my eyebrows at her. “What do you mean?”

“Carmine you are being chased by the Tiam empire among other enemies. We really should be moving. Making a shell is difficult and the transfer in of itself will be dangerous enough.”

“Do not care. Let us do it.”

Valor widened her eyes at me. “You—Carmine, you have to sacrifice other living people to do this.”

“I know. Should we bring those people ourselves or will they be provided?”

Valor opened her mouth. She and Janilla traded looks of shock. Valor leaned forward and asked with measured words, “Carmine, what happened to you?”

Silence reigned between us. I never drew my eyes away when I spoke, “I see the truth clearly. I can die at any time. I need a body. A shell.”

Valor averted her eyes and scowled. “Listen, I am here. You will be fine. You need nobody, but me, all of me.” She smirked and touched under her neck. “Preferably the one you like.”

“Give me yours then. It’s a good-looking body, albeit tall.”

Valor’s eyes widened. “Oh no, this is my reserve. No, lass, listen, you are not paying me, and I can’t live off sentimentality.”

My lips pulled inward at the brunt of his truth. Something I got reminded of many times in the past months, my unimportance, and everyone else’s relevance. Fury razed my tongue.

“As long as you live, I will be happy for you in my grave.”

Valor snorted and almost laughed, yet her lips curled upward. “You are one sorry piece of inhumanity. You realize what you are asking for?”

“Inhumanity?” My jaw clenched. “You know I forget how much of a lackwit you are. Are you not an assassin? You kill people for a living, how are you any innocent of the same claim you lay at my feet.”

Valor snickered, but I saw the anger in her eyes as she rocked side to side. “I am just as you say. This is why I can see it in you very clearly. It is merciless eyes like yours that reminds me of Elam. Funny, you are destined to destroy Elam and you and them are a spitting image of each other.”

I snorted, glanced at Five and Janilla before facing her. “Riiiiiight, it's nothing, just like your hatred of Elam. Why did you leave?”

Valor scowled. “Leave what?”

“Elam?”

“Why would you—”

“Five said you ran from Elam, both you and San Rosa did. You are an exile just like him right?”

Valor stared at Five. Five did not react. Valor sighed, got up, and walked off.

"Insolent, come back here!” I called after her.

“Come on, we should sort out some stuff before we leave,” Valor said as she walked off.