Empyrean Iris

Chapter 15

Chalan couldn't believe her luck.

She had followed the instruction of the slavers, and made her way over to the dining hall to find the creature they called Noctus. Unfortunately for her, she had not been able to get close. Her reputation had already spread through the underground market as someone who did not understand the meaning of business.

Perhaps it had been a bit shortsighted of her to threaten almost everyone she had come in contact with, but to be fair, she really had no idea what she was doing.

Noctus had refused to speak to her, and she had been unable to get close as he was surrounded by the burg bodyguards. These were not so lax as the others, and she hadn't been able to get closer than ten feet before they were brandishing spears in her direction.

She had been forced to slink away to a dark corner to plot: an activity that had taken up more time than she would have liked, though time down here in the depths of the underground was hard to gage. In fact, her entire sense of time had been completely ruined upon leaving Anin. She would have guessed that she had been gone for maybe two or three lunar cycles, though she couldn't be sure.

How was all of that lucky?

Short answer is that it wasn't, but things were just about to change in her favor.

She had returned for the food, though finding something that she could eat was turning out to be difficult. There was some Tesraki food that she could at least stomach, though her body was not particularly pleased with the change in diet.

From where she sat, concealed at her table, she could just see Noctus surrounded by his guards and speaking with some of his more casual business partners. She took a bite from the strange Tesraki fruit feeling an unpleasant burning on her tongue as she did so.

She knew she should eat more, but the sensation was so unpleasant that she set the rest of the fruit down for later turning her attention to how she was going to get close to the Tesraki smuggler.

From what she knew, he was heavily guarded, and he had allies that would be more than willing to kill her if she did anything to him. He was a very big proponent of business in this sector, especially the illegal kind, and was valuable to many.

However, if she could get him alone, she wouldn't have to worry about others finding out about what she had done.

It was getting him alone that was the problem.

Sitting there in her great contemplation, Chalan almost didn't notice when the noise about the room stopped.

It was only when the strange chattering call rose up to echo around the room that her attention was drawn snapping her head to the right and craning her body over the table to see where the noise had come from. Chalan recognized that noise, knew it better than she had known any other alien voice since leaving Anin.

It was a sound she would never forget.

An amalgamation of hissing humming, clicking, and barking that made up the one alien language.

Sitting there in her seat, Chalan was struck by he memory of windblown ash and a blood red sky as alien battle cries rose up on the air around her from all sides as the pack hunters closed in

Her eyes darted about the room as the humming grew louder, and, by craning her neck around the nearest tarp, she was just barely able to make out the group of humans, who now stood at the center of the room.

More memories flashed through her head.

She remembered their faces, surprisingly mobile and twisted with hate. She remembered how the red sky had glittered off their teeth, and she had remembered their eyes: Clear orbs bouncing light and shimmering with a thousand rainbow colors narrowed to points and fixed on her chest as they charged forward.