Rhyl stared into Surya's light, the star that brought life to their planet—both a sphere of hot gas and a deity. He never really understood that, much to the frustrations of others.
How did he feel?
Oh he was so faeying mad that he'd murder anyone who'd interrupt him. Scream at them too to make them go away—
"Rhyl!"
Okay. Sure. Fine! Rhyl wouldn't yell at him. The Aeons sure knew how to beat him.
Right now, he was fine with their foul, foul trickery. One for the other, right?
Rhyl propped himself up on his elbows, watching his friend run. Lin was shorter than Rhyl but had real proper clothing on and did lots of prim and proper things…but he was nice. Annoying, sometimes with his desire for decorum and other dangerous things like rules and order.
He'd been serious from like…when they first met. No kid should focus on the "protection of the world" and "service" and "oaths" and "death" at the maturity of four.
Still. He was a friend.
"You're a real nice Noble, Lin," Rhyl whispered.
"You're a Noble, Rhyl." Lin settled next to him, gaze restrained. He wouldn't ask. That was nice. He also wouldn't mention it at all. Which was nicer. Rhyl didn't want to think about…Dad.
Let Rhyl dwell in the darkness he wanted to. His choice; his way.
"You're saturnine."
Noble linguistics. Always fancy language—Rhyl would never say stuff like that. He was not Noble. He was not Mother. He would be Dad.
"Yeah. What you gonna do about it?"
"I don't know," said Lin, lying down. His black hair was long, styled with flakes of gems with little fires in them. Hasynwei fashion could be weird.
But those kama venuh—the plant stalks—were pretty, Rhyl thought, letting silence pass. They were covered in these prismatic platings that shimmered green to blue to purple and white. Its flowers were like that too. They folded inwards in the wind, covering the stalks. Real nice.
But…you couldn't tell the difference of if the stalks were covered by the flowers or not.
"What do you want to be?" whispered Lin, eyes focused on the towering stems and the glassy buds. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Rhyl stayed silent, staring at Surya's radiance until his eyes teared up. Stupid, stupid things that never did any good. So unrealistic and it didn't matter. But…
"I want…to do something big," he said, voice faint. Stupid impulse. "I want to make my dreams come true," he said, blushing. That sounded naive. Nobles weren't supposed to do stuff like that. You had to be perfect like everyone else—the same and preferably smart. "I…want to change the Nobles. I want to make all of us better, I guess. And make a legacy that everyone can admire." A dream.
"That's…amazing, Rhyl," Lin said, reaching up. "That's beautiful."
Rhyl turned towards him, asking, "Aren't you going to say something realistic and serious?"
"I think we all need our dreams."
The bell rang and Rhyl started to stand up, looking at Lin—come to think of it, he didn't look all that proper sprawled on the ground.
…
Rhyl started up, looking at the lights that faded away. "Yeah. It works," he said to the sinners.
"Thank you for coming, Stell Fadrelan. It was not expected," said the harpy, Leithys.
Sinners were more common in Nikilison, but they were rare which made them all the more fun to search for.
Leithys was real stunning. Lips a deep, dark red with solid gold eyes with white and black hair in iridescent twists. The color of her eyes were weird and she lacked an epicanthic fold, like him—and both his parents—and twenty-two percent of the world, her partner excluded. Her partner, a saizi named Kaleikh, had glowing constellations upon their dark-gray skin and wire-like, burnt-red hair that dissipated into purple smoke at the ends.
He liked them both, despite their species.
"Our origins tend to provoke distrust and disgust. Not to mention that I'm from a Mind Domination subspecies and that we are both Noble Clans," said Leithys.
"Well, you're a genius," Rhyl said, "and I don't really care about what you are if you can create all of this. You let me relive my past, and well, that was a marvelous dream."
…
Kheda sprinted on top of the rooftops, leaping down to the Fadrelans estate, running like hells to her room. She leaped up, swinging, perched on the railing, flipped the latch and the window disappeared as she slunk in. Black hood flung back as she slammed the window close.
Heavens. Everyone was out partying like they were going to die the next day. The Aeons' Rebirth honestly made everyone half mad, but what should Kheda care? Just some stars getting ripped apart and remade—all besides Surya, of course. It would be dreadful if Surya was destroyed—then, they'd all be dead.
At least the Aeons had some common sense.
It made it dreadful to sneak back here. Why would she want to return to these…terrible saints and Nobles and implicit corruption? And the beingsnow here couldn't ever know what she was doing—
The door swung open and she palmed her dagger—
"What do we have here?"
Curse the Aeons.
The Warden.
…
"Are you serious? How did you leave? Where did you go!?" Lin shouted. She couldn't have left. He still had the key—
But the Constell Kiran had the controls.
Rhyl hesitated, before demanding, "Did you kill someone like…before?"
"No. I didn't," said her hoarse voice. Liar.
"Liar."
Akhedau twisted around, scowling. "Did I stutter? I didn't kill anyone."
"Threaten? Steal?"
"How is that your business?"
Rhyl stepped forward, Lin yanking him back. "Akhedau, just…was it on purpose? Did you want to do it? Did you do it of your own will?" Lin knew he wanted to ask, "Did you enjoy it?" out of curiosity, but that wouldn't end well.
"No," Akhedau snarled, turning away, "and I'm in a horrendous mood, so leave."
He would find out the things behind this, but he grabbed Rhyl and went out.