The image of Phantasmine rose up through the floor into Vexyna’s room.
Vexyna half opened one eye and caught the motion of something swelling up from the floor. She shot up in bed, keeping the covers up around her face.
“Yikes!” Vexyna exclaimed. “Phanta, can’t you enter a room a little more, uh, ‘normally’?”
“Like use the door?” Cateran asked while poking her head around the wooden frame.
“I was thinking of knocking before entering,” Vexyna shot back. She had both eyes open now. “You two let me freshen up. Be back here in fifteen minutes. Okay?”
“Okay,” said Cateran as she disappeared back around the door frame.
“As you wish,” Phantasmine said, melting through the floor.
“Use the door and knock next time!” Vexyna shouted after them.
Nature called and Vexyna answered. She had finished brushing her hair and slipping into her freshly laundered clothes by the time the allotted fifteen minutes were up.
There was a rap at the door. “Come on in,” Vexyna said loudly.
The door opened to admit Cateran and Phantasmine.
Phantasmine looked at Vexyna blankly. “Better?”
“Yes,” Vexyna answered. “Thanks.”
“Did you…?” Cateran started to say when her eyes caught sight of the answer to her query. Cateran directed her course toward the abundance of rolls and other foods that Phantasmine had provided. “Thank you,” she finished.
“It serves a purpose,” Phantasmine responded.
Cateran frowned. “What are you getting at, Meen?”
“You need food to survive,” Phantasmine explained.
“Yeah, we do,” replied Cateran. “I also happen to enjoy eating. I don’t just eat because I have to in order to remain living.”
“Someday, I, too, would relish the chance to savor the flavors of food.” Phantasmine spoke with the voice of someone who was experiencing a profound yearning. Her longing was great. She cast a sorrowful gaze upon the ground.
Speaking between bites, Cateran asked, “You can’t register tactile sensations while you are in your present state. You need a physical body. Is that right?”
Both Phantasmine and Vexyna looked at Cateran with wide eyes.
“What?” Cateran looked back at them. “I’ve been paying attention. It took me a while to piece some of it together, but I think I know the story.”
“Part of being an information gatherer?” Vexyna asked with eyebrow slightly raised.
Cateran shrugged while taking another bite. She chewed it quickly and swallowed it. “How are you gonna get a body?” She bent over at the waist and placed her right wrist sloppily to her mouth. Her mouth twisted into a silly grin and she crossed her eyes. Walking across the floor slowly, dragging her left leg behind her, she added, “Are we going grave robbing?”
“A non-functional body is of no use to me,” Phantasmine stated blankly.
“A functional body generally already has someone inside,” Vexyna tossed in. “Where do you think you will find a body that doesn’t belong to any particular person?”
“I believe the answer may be found in Nogard,” Phantasmine admitted. “The scans I did of you show that you have the blood of the line of Nogard. I am hoping that your travels will lead you to that sacred land.”
“Nogard,” Vexyna mused. “Until recently, I’d never heard the name. Maybe my grandmother went there.”
“Ninim is where we are going now at any rate,” interjected Cateran. “The backpack is stuffed and ready to go.” She reached behind her to give the pack on her back a quick pat. From her other hand, the last bite of a roll was launched into her mouth.
“Yes, we should get going,” Vexyna agreed.
“It is seven-thirty,” Phantasmine informed them. “It should be around nine o’clock when we arrive in Ninim.”
“Then we’ll have to sneak the purchase order back onto the proper desk in Clod’s office,” Cateran said.
“We also need to find the warehouses from which the items will be shipped so we can hop on a zerg freighter going east,” Vexyna added.
The three girls left the castle of Illusia and were preparing to mount their hoppers when Vexyna noticed movement in the trees in the field.
Vexyna motioned for the other two girls to remain silent and alert. She pointed towards the trees. Phantasmine faded until nothing was left of her image.
Cateran caught the figure in the shadows and swiftly cart wheeled toward it. She sprang at the shadowy figure and nearly knocked it over. “Raj!” Cateran exclaimed.
“Is that your idea of a greeting, Cateran?” Raj asked.
Phantasmine’s thoughts flowed into Vexyna’s mind. Another Vag. Do you know this one also?
Yes, Vexyna thought back. It seems he has some sort of special connection with Cateran. I don’t know enough about Vag culture to know what they’d mean or be to each other.
The Vag culture is a society where the male is dominant. The men generally enjoy performing the more interesting tasks and partaking of more of the luxuries in life than the women. The female Vags are usually left to handle the more mundane duties and are left out when it comes to the use of luxury items. Phantasmine was a wealth of knowledge. Perhaps Cateran is the reason he has sought you.
“What brings you to this spot in the road, Raj?” Vexyna asked.
“I thought you two might be on this road,” Raj answered. “I figured you’d try to get to Ninim to find the Gargantuans.”
“We’ve been to Ninim,” Vexyna told Raj.
“Oh,” Raj said. “Then you know about the situation. Sorry I didn’t mention it when I told you earlier about the Gargantuans.”
“Why were you looking for us?” Cateran enquired.
“To warn you,” Raj said as he turned to face Cateran. He took a few steps until he was quite close to her. “Krajav has received a handsome price for telling Empress Din about your new cohort. The Red Empress has placed a bounty on Vexyna’s head.”
“That’s absurd,” Vexyna scoffed. “Why would Din put a price on my head?”
“Krajav spoke of you as a hideous curse,” Raj said to Vexyna. “He also said you may be a splendid blessing. I’m not sure what he meant in either case. I do know there are rumors about you being spread amongst Din’s gang.”
“Rumors?” Vexyna looked puzzled. “What sort of rumors?”
“There was this troop of men who were sent to find you in the Argotha Forest,” Raj began.
“Oh them!” Cateran burst in. She thought about what she had just said and froze for a moment. “I think I heard about them.”
“Heard what about them?” Raj asked.
“What’s the story, Raj?” Vexyna was feeling a bit tense.
“According to the story going around, they remember finding a girl coming out of a clearing in the forest. The next thing they knew, they were all frolicking naked in another part of the forest. Naturally, they all made their way back to the clearing because that’s the last place they remember being. When they got there, they found all but two of their outfits waiting. The guys who reported back in the buff where pretty embarrassed.”
“Pretty bare assed.” Cateran snickered.
“Are the boys all right now?” Vexyna asked.
“They seem to be,” Raj said. “Is it a true story? Can you fill in any details?”
Vexyna shrugged. “Who am I to say what men do when they’re left on their own in the woods?” She gave a look to Cateran that told her to keep her mouth closed about the whole affair.
Cateran understood the look. She said to Raj, “We were at the clearing in the Argotha Forest for a short time, but we didn’t see any men.” She kicked absently at the field’s grass while she spoke.
Raj regarded Cateran for a moment before speaking. “I am bound for parts west through the Oweesh Desert. Where are you going?”
Cateran looked up at Vexyna from the clump of dirt and grass she had been creating with her boots.
Phantasmine chattered in Vexyna’s head. As a male Vag, he may have more useful information than Cateran. Perhaps he will know the location of the zerg freighter dock.
Vexyna answered Raj. “We are going back to Ninim.”
“You already know the Gargantuans cannot help you,” said Raj. “Why then would you go back to that dust bowl?”
“We need transport aboard a zerg freighter. It’s the only way we can get as far east as we need to go and get there within a reasonable amount of time.”
“You expect to catch a zerg freighter in Ninim?” Raj asked. “Which, by the way, are not built for passengers. They are strictly cargo and freight haulers. You can’t just hop aboard whenever you please. Do you think you can both get on a freighter without being spotted?”
“That’s no problem for me.” Cateran beamed.
“I can’t see it being too difficult. Wherever the freighters dock must be quite large,” Vexyna explained calmly. “It depends on the number of people working around the docks.”
“We’ll deal with it when we get to Ninim,” concluded Cateran.
“You don’t go to Ninim to catch a zerg freighter,” Raj advised them. “The freighters from Ninim dock at the central warehouse between Foundry Station and Ninim. The warehouse is like a small self-contained town.”
“Does the warehouse have a name?” Vexyna asked.
“Yes,” replied Raj. “They call it ‘the warehouse’.” His broad white smile gleamed brightly against his deeply tanned skin.
Vexyna regarded Raj coolly, then put on a smile. “Where’s the warehouse?”
“It lays to the north-west of here. I could take you there if you like.”
“We still have to go to Ninim,” Vexyna interjected. “If we don’t put the purchase order back in the hands of the people in Ninim, the shipment we need to be a part of won’t be shipped.”
“I have to travel through the country around Ninim on my travels. I could make sure the order was placed. You could use the time to venture to the warehouse. By the time you reach it, they will be getting the order ready for shipping.”
Vexyna thought to Phantasmine, what’s your take on all this?
He is trustworthy if for no other reason than the fact he will not allow any harm to come to Cateran. There is a bond between them somehow. Vag males are protective of their females.
“You said the warehouse is north-west of here?” Vexyna asked.
“The warehouse is along the western path. Then you head north,” Raj explained. “I too am traveling north-west; however, my path will be more to the north first before heading due west into the desert.”
“So, you’ll be closer to Ninim than the warehouse is?” Cateran asked.
“Yes,” replied Raj. “Your journey is to the west and then the north. It will take at least a day and half if you have hoppers.”
“No problem,” Cateran chirped.
“Good,” said Raj. “How are your provisions holding out?”
“We’re doing okay,” Cateran told Raj while holding his gaze in a deep embrace. “I would’ve remembered the warehouse’s location eventually.”
“Eventually? After you had gone all the way to Ninim?”
Vexyna interrupted them, “We’d have had to go all the way back to Ninim anyway so we could place the order for the goods to be shipped.”
“True enough,” Raj conceded. “Will you allow me to help you? I did come all this way just to warn you of the threat against you.” He looked earnestly at Vexyna.
“Okay,” Vexyna said. She handed Raj the purchase order. “Thank you.”
“Take the western road from here. Be prepared to leave the road and hide at any time,” Raj advised them. “Travel as much as you can at night.”
“Thanks for the help, Raj,” Cateran said.
“Look after yourself, Cat,” Raj replied, then sprang past them and sprinted into the trees in the field to the north. He disappeared in moments.
The image of Phantasmine rematerialized. “Shall we be off?”
“Yes,” answered Vexyna. “We need the time if the warehouse is as far away as Raj has indicated.”
Cateran stared off into the woods of the northern field. Her expression was decidedly downcast. She sighed before looking around at Vexyna and Phantasmine. “Raj said it’ll take us a day and a half by hopper. I can’t believe it’s that far away from Ninim.”
“It would appear they are using the Central Depot,” Phantasmine said. “Ninim used to have its own shipping facility. I am positive that they still do for raw materials. Those raw materials would only be delivered to wherever the manufacturing of finished goods would take place.”
“That would be Dilbu,” Cateran said. “I should’ve realized we’d have to go to Dilbu to catch a freighter.”
“We could’ve gone to Ninim and caught a raw material freighter from there over to Dilbu,” Vexyna offered.
Cateran and Phantasmine shook their heads. Phantasmine explained, “There would be no place for us to fit on a freighter carrying raw materials from the mines.”
“Dilbu it is then,” Vexyna concluded. “That meeting with Raj was informative.”
“At least now you know…”
Cateran stopped part way through what she was saying, a slightly puzzled expression creeping over her face. She had been stuffing her hands into the wide side pockets down the legs of her coveralls when her fingertips encountered a blockage. “What’s this?” She eased her hand down to touch the smooth surface of whatever it was in her pocket. Gently, she prodded the surface and noticed that it sank away when pressed. The surface rose again after Cateran released her finger. She maneuvered her hand under the bottom of the mysterious package and carefully extracted it from the pocket, then held it up so she could properly see it. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I know what this is. Raj must’ve slipped this in my pocket.” She opened the brown paper to reveal tiny rectangles of dough. “Snacks!” She popped two of the little dough pouches into her mouth.
Cateran offered the dough pouches to Vexyna, who took one politely and bit into it. Red liquid squirted from the pouch and splattered Cateran’s forehead.
“I’m glad it wasn’t heated,” Cateran said, deadpan. “Guess you really caught me red-faced this time.” They both broke out laughing. Cateran wiped the red muck from her face with a cloth.
“You, with a cloth?” Vexyna observed. “You are prepared, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” replied Cateran. “I want to be ready for anything. From what Raj told us, this journey has just become a dangerous one.”
“Oh, and the cave closing in on itself and nearly crushing us to death wasn’t a clue?” Vexyna retorted.
“That was just odd,” Cateran told Vexyna. “Now there are actually people after us.”
“They are after me,” Vexyna corrected her. “You can always claim no part.”
“No,” Cateran flatly stated. “I am here to see you through this right to wherever it ultimately leads. Only then will the puzzle truly be solved.”
“Cateran,” asked Phantasmine, “what were you about to say before your discovery of the food from Raj?”
“Um,” uttered Cateran. “I’m not sure.”
“Vexyna had just said she felt the meeting with Raj was informative,” Phantasmine reminded her. “At that point, you began a sentence with the words, ‘at least now you know’. What does Vexyna now know?”
“Er-er,” stuttered Cateran. “At least she now knows where the freighters are docked.” Cateran looked a little nervous.
The image of Phantasmine regarded Cateran analytically.
Vexyna knew what Cateran was driving at. Now Vexyna knew her hold over others was a temporary condition. Vexyna also realized she had to get Cateran’s mind off the subject of the night in the clearing before Phantasmine could grasp Cateran’s thoughts. Tucking the thought away in the back of her own mind, out of the reaches of Phantasmine, Vexyna said, “Yes. The meeting with Raj was helpful. Those snacks are go
od. Very chewy.”
“They’re even better when they’re heated,” Cateran said.
Phantasmine looked back and forth between Vexyna and Cateran. The two looked back at her.
“Let’s mount up and head west,” commanded Vexyna.
Once again, the girls found themselves bounding down the dusty road on their hoppers’ backs. By this point, they had become comfortable enough with the motion of the hoppers to allow them to sleep briefly while riding. It turned out the hoppers had developed a close bond with the girls and now obeyed them willingly and faithfully. Once the hopper knew the direction in which it was supposed to travel, it moved in that direction without hesitation. The only things left for the girls to do were talk, eat or sleep. They did all three along the route to Dilbu.
The landscape flattened as mountains gave way to sand. The journey overnight and throughout the following day was uneventful. They only stopped briefly to stretch and answer nature’s call.
Stars filled the night sky and the light scent of smelting ores could be detected drifting on the wind from the west. In the distance, the girls spied the bright lights of Dilbu.
Chapter 8: Build-up in Dilbu