Chapter Seventeen #3
He slowed down from his run and saw a small chamber to his right that didn’t go anywhere. It was safe enough to go in and look.
On the wall were the moving images of a child and its parents, then a teenager. It moved on to images of a young woman being inducted into the order of Danu.
These must be the memories of Vorka, Davor thought.
It might be worth watching her memories. It would show who she was connected to on the outside world.
He stood and waited as it flicked through Vorka’s memories. Then it came to the part where a baby was handed to Vorka.
As it got nearer to her elder years, a humanoid figure he could almost see through, with a silvery-blueish glow around their edges, stood in front of the pictures, then blew the dirt and gravel to block the pictures. The debris turned into a whirlwind that knocked Davor over.
Davor found himself on the dirt floor again. It was impossible to see any pictures any more. It occurred to him what was happening.
“This is you, Vorka, isn’t it? You know what I’m here for. You’re alive inside here. You’re trying to put up obstacles against me, aren’t you?”
Davor managed to roll out past the whirlwind. “I will get the information I want. So give me your worst, Vorka.”
He walked forwards and looked around. Davor needed light, but there were no torches on the wall. Davor engaged the power on his hand, and a glowing ball of light appeared. The light was powered by a unit inside his wrist. To anyone else it looked like power only a god could have.
He used the light to walk further into the cave system. “Come on, Vorka, give me the answers I need. You know I’ll find them anyway.”
Davor came to another opening with bars across the entrance and fire blowing out the now red-hot bars.
“Is this where my answers lie? And you protect it with a simple fire? You think I can’t get past a fire? You can’t cause pain in your mind and mine. It’s impossible.”
With the energy weapon in his mind, he thrust his hand into the fire to bring it down.
Almost immediately a searing pain raced down his arm. “Argh!” Davor screamed.
He dropped to his knees, trying to regain his breath. The pain started to dissipate slowly.
He looked at his arm, and there were no marks on it at all. She can make pain in her mind? Davor thought.
Vorka had more power than he gave her credit for, but he also had more than she knew.
The pain began to recede when the sound of gravel hit his ears. He turned around slowly and saw Vorka sitting on a rock, looking down to the ground, with her wooden stick in front of her.
Davor stood up straight and tried to shake off the pain. “So you finally show yourself, madam. Have you had enough of playing these silly games?”
Vorka looked up and gave Davor a shock. She had glowing green eyes.
“What are you?”
She pushed herself up on her stick, then threw it aside, surprising Davor. But he supposed she wasn’t real. This was Vorka’s mind.
“You would call me a witch. I would say I’m a child of Danu, a line that has descended from the First Ones.”
“There’s no room for two gods in this realm,” Davor said.
“I am not a god, Davor, and neither were the First Ones. Nature just gave them gifts, after they evolved from humanoid to omnipotent being. And in turn the First Ones seeded our planets with some gifts,” Vorka said.
Vorka walked over to him and said, “They were allowed that gift because they left greed, wars, and oppression behind, something you will never have. As for me, I’m a descendant.
But your people were barbarous warmongers, so the First Ones agreed that you didn’t deserve gifts of nature yet.
Instead of learning how to do better, you wanted to emulate them with technology. ”
“Well, I don’t see these First Ones coming to your rescue.”
“I don’t need rescuing,” Vorka said.
Vorka lifted up her hand and had a glowing green ball of power. Davor swung his arm to release his glowing weapon, but Vorka met him in mid-air.
Davor shouted in pain. The green ball of energy had subsumed Davor’s and was now making its way down his arm.
He was putting every ounce of energy into this attack. Sweat was pouring off him, and yet he was being pushed back all the time. If the energy reached his chest, he felt like it would be over for him.
“Stop. Stop!”
With Davor’s free hand he pulled at his forehead, hoping his mind would signal his body or Ninti to pull him out.
“You will not find my Camber,” Vorka said.
Just as the green energy was at his shoulder, he was ripped back into the interrogation room. Davor fell off the chair. He was gasping for breath.
Ninti came towards Davor. She injected him with a calming serum which would help him but hopefully also help with the plan she had in mind.
“Take some deep breaths, Davor.”
He did, and she helped him to his feet and then to a seat.
“Thank you, dear Ninti. Did you help me get out?”
“Of course, Davor. I was monitoring you the whole time.”
That was a lie. She’d monitored Vorka mostly and made a show to the cameras of checking him.
The truth was, when she saw Vorka violently thrash around in the chair, her vitals looking like they were going to explode, and Davor going deathly white, she knew Vorka was going to not stop until he was dead. Even if that would mean her death.
But Ninti wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.
“Did you get what you wanted, Davor?” Ninti asked.
“That woman was in there.” He pointed at Vorka. “Her mind was set out like Danus. The information I need was in different alcoves of her brain, and she defended every one of them. Burned my arm in one of them.”
“Shocking, I didn’t think her mind could hurt people,” Ninti said with her best attempt at sincerity.
“That woman has power.”
He obviously hadn’t been shown the memories about Ninti’s connection with the rebellion, or her friendship with Vorka, or her relationship and love for Kartog. If he had, she would be dead already.
Thanks to Danu and the other First Ones, Ninti thought.
“She had an energy weapon in her hand like ours, only—and this goes nowhere.”
“Of course, Davor,” Ninti lied.
“It wasn’t a tech generated power like ours.
” He pointed at his wrist. “It was natural. She said in the beginning times, the people of Danu evolved to an omnipotent race. They gave special gifts to worlds that displayed weakness, like an end to war and peaceful living. It made me feel sick. Our world wasn’t included, just because we were powerful.
” Davor let out a cry of pain and shook his arm. “That woman is a witch.”
“What else did she say?” Ninti asked.
“Could you give me something for the pain?”
Ninti had to stop herself from sighing. He was pathetic. Davor wasn’t used to feeling pain. He usually had someone pleading at his knees.
She prepared the injection and pressed it into his neck. Davor squirmed in pain again. “That hurt.”
Ninti had picked this drug particularly, from all this many kinds she had on offer, because it burned on the way in.
“I apologize.”
Davor waved his hand. “It’s no matter. Back to your question.
They didn’t bless us with any power, probably because they saw our potential, and that we could outsmart them with any new power.
But, Madam Ninti, it showed me how gifted we are.
Because we didn’t get an ability handed to us like so many children.
We had to use our brains, our ingenuity to make the technology to do what we wanted. Now we are gods amongst them.”
Ninti was disgusted at his hubris. It made her want to fight all the more for the rebellion and take down this empire.
“How is the witch?” Davor asked.
“Very near death. She used all she had for you.”
“Good, let her die slowly.”
“Davor, I was thinking, would you allow me to keep the body, near death of course. I’d love to run tests on her and find out about this magic she used, and there are a few other experiments I’d like to try on her.”
“Yes. Dissect her like the hogo rat that she is.”
He stood up and brushed his uniform down. Ninti could feel his ego had been bruised by Vorka. Davor thought he could go into Vorka’s mind and do what he wanted with it.
But he didn’t, and it gave him fear like he hadn’t felt in a long, long time, Ninti expected.
He finally composed himself. “Let’s just hope Cardo’s tip was good. Oh, and Ninti?”
“Yes, Davor?”
He pointed towards where the cameras were hidden. “Get rid of the footage of what happened here.”
My, this really did get to you, Ninti thought.
“Of course, Davor.”
And with that, he rushed out of the room.
This was perfect for Ninti. It meant no one would see any slight sadness in her face while watching Vorka, and no record of Vorka’s body being moved.
“Computer? Ask Miaz to come to the interrogation room, to move a body.”
“Yes, madam,” it replied.
She looked down at Vorka and thought, I’m not giving up on you, Vorka. No matter what you said to me.