The Archaeological Chronicles - The New World

This is not for your cries

This is all for your lies

Listen out for your mind

You’re killing me over love

--

Kai'ine

I arrive at center of the capitol. The ship lands smoothly. I ascend it with grace, with a crowd watching. Greeting me.

I enter the council building, the building that hovers over every other building in the capitol.

Covered in colorful ancient descriptions and paints, its ancient beauty stands out from every other building here. The whole building is made up of stone, flint to be accurate.

The flint gives a pretty shine in the sunlight and the different shades of flint makes the colorful carvings even more stunning. This is the building that our ancestors built eons ago. The building is a symbol of the start of a functioning society with the three sectors divided.

Originally, there were three tribes that resided on this planet. We still see traces of those tribes in our DNA. The tribes fought and disagreed on most things, dividing the planet into three zones so that peace between them could grow.

It only grew a bigger distance and distaste for each other.

The three leaders from these tribes decided to meet up, right where I’m standing today, right beside this building that now resides in the capitol.

They fought for weeks on how to solve the disagreements between them. Weeks turned into months and after a whole year, the three leaders finally came to a solution.

They would open the borders of the three zones, letting people roam freely and equally. They built this building as a symbol of that peace and freedom for all of the tribes. They could now roam the entire planet freely, without wars and unnecessary deaths.

Well, it didn’t go problem-free, but it never does.

In the end the three tribes dissolved completely, and people merged together. The three zones are kept merely for tradition and heritage and serves no purpose to divide, cage in and trap people within their zones.

I take in a deep breath. I bow down, almost to my knees, before the building. Paying my respects to the ancestors.

I touch the stones briefly.

Voices, songs and laughter are heard from it. Memories from the past. Sounds from an ancient time. My fingers trace the stones lightly, as I enter the building.

Everyone stops whatever they are doing, face me and bow their heads down. A sign of submission and respect. I keep my eyes forward, not meeting any of theirs.

I walk through the crystal hall, my feet clicking against the crystalized floor. A door is opened up for me, the two men bowing deeply.

I pay them no mind and enter.

The room of gemstones. This is where every political and regal meeting is held. The most ancient place. Ancient and holy center. Gemstones are splattered everywhere. On the floor, on the walls, on the furniture – everywhere. They glitter in the sunlight and leaves a haunting glow in the darkness.

One of my favorite places on this entire planet might be this room.

The generals bow their heads in respect. My siblings are seated in chairs made out of pure gemstone. Different colors on each of the chairs. Their eyes glow in my direction, a sign of happiness.

‘’My supreme,’’ the generals say in union.

‘’It’s a delight to finally see you again, my supreme,’’ general Liocel nods.

He was the shortest one of us. A deeper shade of blue covered his skin.

He was the oldest general in the squad. A man of no mercy.

I nod, to show that I heard his act of tribute. Never meeting his gaze.

I take a seat beside Zuki. Our foreheads touch for a brief moment, showing our affection towards each other.

‘’I take your trip to the earth was a success my king, well, according to the records we’ve received it has truly been a success,’’ general I’in exclaims as she folds out all of the reports I reported back on the screen that covered the wall in front of us.

‘’I am seated,’’ I state.

The generals bows deeply and join us at the table.

‘’The virus is spreading as we expected. It has travelled from the western part of earth to the poorer side of it. They will not be able to shake it off as easily,’’ Zuuri explains as the points to the numbers that are constantly rising on the screen.

‘’Nearly a million dead, and now cities that never saw the sky can suddenly see it. Their polluting cars, planes, trains, food and clothes are declining rapidly. Which is good, but the problem is that the richer countries are able to shake the virus more efficiently.

Finland, Norway and Denmark are nearly up and running as normal again. These are not the main countries of concern, as we’ve noted before.

Our biggest concern as of today is Sweden, America and Russia. America as the worst. They are at brink of a civil war and no one seems to be able to fend off the virus,’’ Zuuki explains further as he taps on his pad.

A series of videos are played on the bigger screen, that he just transferred from his pad.

‘’As you can see their pollution levels are still rising, even though this is the country with the most contagious of the virus, deaths and other troubles.

The pollution levels should have lowered, but it almost appears doubled. The point is; the countries that now have less under half of their normal pollution is overrun by America that doubles their pollution levels.

The country takes up so much of the yearly percentage of pollution that countries like Norway, Denmark and Finland that pollutes less are of no significant matter,’’.

The generals nod slightly. Studying the data.

‘’The virus has yet been a failure, is that what you are implying, my supreme?’’ I’in asks.

Zuuri hesitates for a moment, thinking his answer through. ‘’Not yet at least. Maybe they’ll see the positive change – the countries that are able to – and do something about it. I noted a few campaigns of it, but it all fell apart after the Black Lives Matter movement started,’’ he answers as he shows a few posters, speeches and programs that involve the positive change the virus has brought.

Zuki sighs loudly. Clearly irritated.

‘’I just think we should eliminate eighty percent of them so the earth can recover. We need its resources, it will do the universe a great favor if the earth bloomed to its original form yet again and the humans perished,’’. She folds her hands over her chest. Closing her eyes. Annoyed.

Zuuri shakes his head no quickly. ‘’We cannot eliminate thousands of years of history. How would you have liked if someone killed eighty percent of our population and destroyed their cultural heritage?’’ he shoots back at his twin.

‘’It will never happen anyways so it is irrelevant. We do not pollute our planet to death. Our heritage is more worth than theirs,’’ she snaps back.

‘’Not to them, it is not,’’ he says as a few black spots appear in his striking yellow eyes. Angry.

I close my eyes. Those two will be the death of me.

‘’Quit it,’’ I say quietly to them. ‘’As it is right now, no we will not eliminate them. If the virus is a failure, we will need to rethink and discuss the situation yet again. Zuki is right, the resources of the planet earth are too big of a resource for the rest of the galaxy to let it die. We could also take use of some of their resources without leaving damage to the planet. I struggle with the view my brother has on the humans, but I am willing to give them this chance,’’ I say.

The generals nod in union. Satisfied with my answer.

‘’My king,’’ general Liocel starts. A hesitant look in his black eyes. ‘’You brought a human to Ter’ais,’’ he states. Looks hesitantly at his colleague and looks back at me again.

‘’If you don’t mind me asking, my supreme, what is the purpose? I thought your distaste for them is as strong as your sister?’’.

I notice Zuuri closing his eyes. A wrinkle on his nose. Dissatisfied.

‘’That is correct,’’ I answer. ‘’Her purpose is none of your concern. Your main concern should be why someone tried to assassinate her as soon as we stepped out of the aircraft,’’ I say.

My eyes focus on his, unblinking. I can see him growing uncomfortable.

‘’The rebels are rising, my supreme. They are not fond of humans, as much as they are not fond of you,’’ I’in cuts in.

Answering for Liocel when he was unable to provide an adequate answer.

‘’So it’s confirmed that he was part of the rebellion group?’’ I ask.

‘’Not quite. But we caught a few of them trying to take off yesterday. According to the ships automatic programming, it was headed for earth. We interrogated them, before they were executed. They gave us little information, but my suspicion is that they want to recruit humans against us,’’ she explains.

She points her clawed finger towards the screen, showing a pretty graphic video of the interrogation.

Zuuki looks away. He was never able to take things like this.

‘’Why was I not notified of this?’’ I ask angrily. ‘’I am the supreme, I am supposed to be notified about things like this before everyone else!’’ I snarl.

Liocel covers away from me in fear.

My hair start floating around me wildly. It had struggled itself out of the tight braid I had it in.

‘’They did brother. You were too busy with your new pet, so I handled it,’’ Zuki mutters.

My eyes narrow in her direction.

‘’My supreme, please look at the video,’’ Liocel croak.

I flash my teeth at him before I return my attention to the video. Four people are tied up and bloodied. The interrogators keep prying for questions and punishing them if they won’t reply. One of the bloodied males smile maliciously.

‘’Reports from earth tells us that the supreme has found a pet,’’ he snarls and falls into a coughing fit. ‘’I wonder how long she will survive-‘’ he hisses and is cut off by another electric blow to the stomach.

The three others start laughing, hysterically. ‘’The supreme king must care for the human, seen as she just arrived Ter’ais today,’’ one of the girls giggle.

‘’She will never be safe,’’ the other one hisses.

‘’Never,’’ another repeat.

The video is turned off after that. They refused to say anything else but considering the information they just shared they confirmed that they have connections on earth.

It could be equally be humans or one of us.

‘’She will never be safe… neither here or earth,’’ Zuuki repeats to himself. ‘’They must have allies on earth,’’ Zuki concludes, as I had.

The generals nod in union. This is a bigger problem than I first thought it could be.

Fuck.

‘’We need to put an end to this. Forcefully enough to scare the others into submission,’’ I order.

She will never be safe...

My eyes widen as I shoot up from the chair full of gemstones and dart as quickly as I can out of the building, leaving the confused generals and siblings behind.

I take a deep breath, collect my thoughts and inhale as much force of matter as I can. I use the matter I inhale from the atmosphere to give me further speed.

Another perk of being high born and supreme.

She will never be safe. The words repeat themselves in my head like a broken record.

Pushing the ship to its limits as I arrive my home within minutes. A trip that usually took at least thirty minutes.

I jump out of it and speed towards the entrance. The guards are at the post I assigned them to, except for one.

I will fucking devour him!

I slam the glass doors open, nearly shattering them. Only people with powers like me could break this glass.

I scan the first floor, no sign of her.

An unknown feeling grow inside my chest and it constricts my breathing.

I inhale again, trying to find her scent and at the same time absorb more matter. I can feel my eyes glowing from the power my body accepts.

I detect two heartbeats. Second floor.

I rush up the marbled stairs and as I locate the human, and I grab hold of her, still in full speed. Nearly crashing into her. I shield her confused body as I listen for the second heartbeat.

With her still in my arms, I take one leap and crash through the ceiling and on top of the roof. I can hear her yelp of surprise in the back of my mind, but I’m too far gone to pay it any attention.

There he was. On the roof. Looking straight down at her, as he taps something into his pad. Ready to strike her down at any second, if I had not arrived on time.

The feeling inside me grows from the pits of my stomach to my throat. Constricting me further.

Is this what panic feels like?

He jumps in surprise when he sees me. My whole body is practically glowing by now. The usual invisible patterns light up my entire body. My face is morphing into anger and as my face transforms, I see him try and take a run for it.

First mistake.

I release a confused Mai’yri as I leap for him way before he even manages to take two steps away from me.

I grab him by the neck and practically roars. ‘’What do you think you are doing?’’ I snarl.

His frightened black eyes give him away.

Guilty.

‘’Thought you could spy on me?’’ I shake him once, his face turning red from the pressure around his neck.

’’Thought you could spy on her?’’ I ask again. ‘’And get away with it?’’ I smile maliciously.

My mouth stretching into the monstrous smile I get when in this form.

‘’You will die,’’ I whisper into his ear. I throw his body off the roof, and I hear his body hitting the ground by a thud.

He wasn’t dead yet, oh no, I made sure of it.

My siblings arrived at the right minute. Thankfully, they understood the threat that was made as well.

Zuki drags him onboard her ship, taking him to custody. I know she will wait for me, but I guess she’ll have a good start before I get to him.

Before I show my face to Mai’yri, I made sure that at least the monstrous face was back to normal. I take a deep breath, trying to control the intense feeling of anger that is still gripping me tightly.

I could not control the eyes, they were still probably as black as night.

‘’Are you hurt?’’ I ask, my voice still affected by the transformation.

It was deeper. Rawer.

She looks down at the hole in the ceiling and back up at me. I can see she’s frightened and confused. She shakes her head no.

I stride over to her and as she flinches away, I take a hold of her. I have to see for myself. I lift her chin so I can look closer at her vital spots.

Nothing.

I lift her into my arms in one swift moment and before she has time to react, I jump back down the hole we came from. I set the squirming human down.

‘’What was that?’’ she asks.

I take in our surroundings. Her laptop was on the marbled floor. A plate of half-eaten food beside it. Glass of water. Books scattered all around it. Pillows that shows sign of resent use.

She was studying.

‘’None of your concern,’’ I finally answer as I feel my eyes coming back to their normal color.

I cannot let this information get to her. I cannot let her know any of this.

I brush past her, trying to concentrate and find other sources of heartbeats or something that might be out of the ordinary.

’’It seems like it was, since someone was spying on me,’’ she says as she comes to stand in front of me.

Bold.

‘’There are people out there that are worse than me,’’ is my only answer.

I cannot tell her that a threat was just made, that she will never be safe. Not here. Not on earth. Her stay here has been prolonged by far after that threat. I cannot tell her that she has to stay here longer than originally planned because someone might hurt her on earth.

Fuck.

‘’I doubt it,’’ she mutters as she looks away. Disappointed.

My fingers twitch. I sigh. Realizing what kind tantrum she will throw after my up-coming command.

‘’From now on, you have to come with me wherever I go. This will not happen again,’’ I say. The last part more to myself.

I can smell her frustration.

I inhaled a lot of matter, so my senses are more heightened than usual.

‘’No thank you,’’ she says as she stalks away.

Plops down to her original spot, feet crossed as she sits on one of the pillows and types angrily on her computer.

‘’I don’t care for your feelings on this matter, either, Mai’yri,’’ I say monotonously as I walk away from her.

I can hear an object flying through the air, I dodge it easily as it shatters when it hits the glass wall beside me. I stop and look at her in the corner of my eye.

She looks angrier than normal. My lips are pulled up to a snarl.

In lightning speed, I am crouched down to her level. She jumps back in surprise, but I grab her left arm, before she can crawl away from me.

She tries desperately to free herself from my grasp, to no avail. I’m practically just waiting for her to tire herself out before I snap at her.

She bites my hand. Hard. Drawing blood. I hiss, but my grip never loosens.

I take hold of her jaw with my other hand and squeezes. Hard.

‘’Insolent,’’ I snarl in her face. I see her wince in pain. ’’You do as I say, little Viking, not the other way around,’’. Our noses almost touching.

She’s scared. Good. She needs to be.

‘’Do you understand?’’ I snarl, never blinking. Staring into her eyes.

She gives me a defiant stare and still struggle to get free from my painful grip. I adjust my grip swiftly. My hand press against her windpipe as my forefinger and thumb press at her jaw.

I know this is painful, my siblings and I always did this as a last move when we were play-fighting as kids.

‘’I will not repeat myself,’’ I say harshly.

Another internal battle in her head occurs. I am not pressing hard enough to choke her, but the warning is loud and clear.

‘’Yes!’’ she rasps out.

I release her immediately. She falls to the ground, coughing and wheezing.

I smell tears before I see them.

I have bigger things to deal with right now, and will not pay her tears any mind. I stalk away from her crying form on the ground.

I head downstairs to greet my brother. He looks at me with a disapproving look.

‘’Why bother rushing over here if you’re just going to hurt her?’’ he hisses.

I snarl at him. ‘’She needs to understand her situation, brother,’’.

I inhale matter once again and lift my hands in the air. The shattered glass on the floor floats back to its original position and it looks like nothing ever happened.

‘’You are going to break her sanity at one point if you continue this,’’ he snarls. His eyes turning blacker by the seconds.

‘’Maybe she learns her place if she loses her mind,’’ I snarl back.

His eyes turn pitch black. ‘’I know what she is to you brother. I knew it the second you laid eyes on her the second time,’’ he hisses. A warning.

‘’There will be many others as well, brother,’’ I hiss back.

‘’If you continue this, I will set her free. Get her home,’’ he snarls.

I crush his body into the glassed wall. An uncontrollable urge to crush him to pieces overpowers me.

I grip around his throat. Lifting him off the ground.

’’You will do no such thing,’’ I warn in a dangerously low whisper.

He smiles. He has the fucking audacity to smile.

‘’Oh, I will,’’ he repeats, not the slightest bothered by being nearly choked.

Realizing what he’s doing, I release his body quickly. He lands on his feet. Smiles at me once again and leaves out the door. Before he walks out, he looks at me from the corner of his eye.

‘’Fix your mistake,’’ he snarls before slamming the door shut.

My fingers twitch.

Shakes my head once and head up the stairs.

She’s not in the same spot I left her in. Books and pillows lay scattered on the entire second floor, but there is no sign of her here.

I can hear her erratic heartbeat coming from the bedroom. I walk up. The bathroom door is closed and locked.

Cute that she thinks a lock will keep me out.

For the sake of her own sanity, I knock on the door. Her heart nearly stops.

‘’Open the door, Mai’yri,’’ I say in the most calming voice I could muster at the moment.

She doesn’t reply. Holding her breath.

Closing my eyes in frustration, I tug once at the door and it opens easily. I don’t even know why I have a lock on the door in the first place.

It’s not like I need it.

She is crouched in the corner, beside the tub, with arms clinging her feet tightly to her chest. Panic.

It seems like that is the only feeling she experiences in my presence. Sheer panic.

I took it too far.

Her quiet hyperventilation and shivering give a clear signal that she’s having a panic attack. I crouch down to her level and grab her by the back of her neck. Slowly.

She flinches away and screams. Her arms reach out to claw my hand away, but I catch them. Our foreheads meet. She’s staring straight into my eyes.

I’ll give her credit for her bravery.

Her heartbeat slows and her breathing back to normal as I run through her mind. Whenever I do that, I can feel her emotions as they were my own.

The pain is unbearable.

Imagine that your brain can give you so much pain without suffering any physical pain from a physical injury.

The human brain is a mystery to me.

When she has calmed, I tilt her head backwards. Inspecting the injury, I inflicted on her. Angry red marks. This will leave bruising. No doubt about it.

I took it too far.

‘’I apologize,’’ I murmur, our noses almost touching.

She doesn’t like it when I’m too close.

‘’It was a member of the rebellion,’’ I murmur. Putting space between us. She still sits in the same position.

‘’Same as the one that tried to assassinate you yesterday,’’ I explain further.

I won’t go into deeper detail than that. If she thinks that the rebellion is only residing on this planet – as I thought as of today – I will never have to tell her about her prolonged stay.

I never gave her a date to when she could return home, but I’ll let her have the hope that it will be sometime soon.

It will not.

‘’My anger got the best of me and I hurt you. I apologize,’’ I repeat.

She stares me dead in the eyes. She rises slowly from her position and walks past me silently.

I follow behind her. Like a lost puppy.

She plops down, back to her laptop, and places her big headphones over her ears and press play on her laptop. Angry, noisy music blast from them. She ignores my presence completely.

Gosh, human music.

She pays me no mind, as she types on her computer.

I’m not sure how to feel about it. Neither how to handle the situation, so I just leave her be. I get some work done in the study – a few steps away from her.

I will handle the guard tomorrow. I place a file in his name and report all the information known. I send it to my siblings and the generals.

I do some other regal stuff and notice the sun heading down the horizon.

Well, as much as I could do with her presence only meters away from me.

I realize that it was getting late, and the little Viking had still not eaten dinner. When I head towards her, I see her head bobbing to the beat of the music.

She had shut the entire world out – no – the entire universe. I close the laptop before she even manages to react.

The marks on her throat getting more and more evident.

I took it too far.

‘’Feeding,’’ I announce.

She shakes her head no.

‘’It wasn’t a question,’’ I say as I walk down the stairs. Expecting her to follow.

She does, after a few minutes.

Good.

She marches past me and opens the fridge.

Bold.

She pulls out what she’d like – a pasta dish. She reheats it in what she would call a microwave. Eats her dinner in silence and stalks back upstairs.

I let her sit in peace for an hour before I walk after her. Stops in front of her laptop.

She knows.

She gets up and walks up another set of stairs, to the bedroom. I follow closely behind her. She stalks into the bathroom and closes the door.

I let her.

I remove all of my clothing, folds it and place it on the chair beside the dressers. I get into bed, getting comfortable underneath the covers as I wait for her.

She returns after a while and slips underneath the covers, with her back to me.

Not being able to resist, I pull her body close to mine.

She doesn’t struggle. She doesn’t speak.

I brush her loose hair away from her face with my clawed fingers and trace the blue marks on her throat once. I wait until her heartbeat slows and her breathing heavy. Asleep. I close my eyes, my arms caging her into my body.

A pain erupts in my chest. The foreign one.

I took it too far.