There was a flash of blinding blue light, an intense agony which lasted a split second and then Dia felt her body relax from her neck to her feet. It was an unnatural feeling as though every muscle had simply shut down except those in her face.
Dia became aware of a presence to her right. It was Lord Kae. She suddenly realised she was completely naked and felt a vulnerability unlike anything she had felt before but could not force her body into any sort of movement. Even moving a finger was completely impossible.
Unable to fight the paralysis, Dia took in her surroundings. She assumed she was lying flat on her back due to the angle at which Kae stood beside her, thus, she was able to make out the pale blue walls, ceiling and sphere of blue light which shone like a tiny sun directly above her. Kae faced a door over to Dia’s left, standing perfectly straight and still. He held a curved sword in one hand, his other behind his back in a fist.
Peering around the room to ensure she had not missed any vital detail, Dia noticed a shimmering, not unlike a heat haze, in a space a metre or so in front of the door. She at first thought it was a side effect caused by her rebirth, then she understood why Kae had been staring in that direction.
The shimmering became more obvious and she caught a glimpse of colours not belonging to the wall behind. Then a grey humanoid figure appeared. Looking like neither man nor woman in sex, it was hairless and its expression was completely featureless; devoid of feeling. Dia found herself unable to gasp. It was Ssus.
Kae stepped around where Dia was lying and advanced until he was less than a couple of metres away from Ssus. The latter did not move. Kae brought his sword to Ssus’ throat but he remained entirely motionless. Dia knew Ssus could destroy Kae with ease and would do for such treachery but he still did not move. He did not even appear to be drawing breath from what Dia could see. Then she noticed that the shimmering was still present and Ssus was not entirely opaque. She could make out swirls of moving colour through his dull, grey torso.
Lord Kae spoke quietly. “I know you will destroy me when we are done with your plans. I choose to prevent this. You may be aware you are currently not completely in this dimension.” With this he slid his sword through the semi-transparent stomach of Ssus. “That probably hurts. I don’t know... As far as I know this has not been done before. Of course, if I killed you, your body would reform in one of your machines. Or perhaps not. What if I had assigned your signature to one machine? What if that machine were set to disintegrate in that split second of resurrection? I think that may finish you off.” He then moved his face closer to Ssus’ and grabbed his throat as he had Dia’s. Dia caught the edge of a smirk on Kae’s face. “This is going to be enjoyable.” He whispered. Then he pulled Ssus forwards, out of the shimmer which vanished immediately. Red sparks of flame issued from all over Ssus’ body. Dia knew the agony he would be in, yet his face remained emotionless. Suddenly there was a flash of silver and Kae recoiled slightly in shock, his side gushing blood, but he did not release his grip and soon Ssus was gone. Dissolved into nothing as Dia had been.
Dia was stunned. Ssus could not have been killed so easily. She herself had tried on numerous occasions to no avail; he was too close to perfect. Kae must have developed some knowledge currently unknown to anyone else. Something well beyond the realms of understood science. Something even Ssus himself had no insight into.
As she came around from her confusion, Dia was watching Kae tend to his wound when she realised her arms and legs could move once again. They felt warmer now as if her blood had just begun circulating her body properly.
She knew she needed to act quickly while the Lord was occupied. She saw the silver dagger which had fallen from Ssus’ disintegrating hand and moved towards it, her bare feet on the floor allowing her to move silently. Scooping it from the floor, she swiftly moved to a position behind Kae and, without hesitation, stabbed at his neck. She felt only the very tip of the blade touch his skin before he faded and vanished. Dia cursed. How had he known? Surely it was not possible that he could have reacted in the split second the dagger-point touched him? ‘No time to contemplate this now.” She thought, not sure whether Kae would appear again at any second. Dia quickly dressed herself in her clothes which had reformed themselves at the end of where she had lain. Her father’s sword and her gun, however, were not there. Something she would have to worry about later. Now she needed to get out.
She crossed to the door and into the corridor beyond. There were tiny suns lining the walls like the one above the ubilis machine and there was a strange odour in the air which Dia did not recognise. She jogged up this first corridor with no resistance but as she rounded a corner a tall woman came from one of the side rooms. Dia was too quick for her and the woman was pinned to the floor with the dagger at her throat in moments. “Where’s the exit?” She demanded. The woman remained silent. Dia pressed the dagger harder into her throat. The woman coughed then pointed into the room from which she had just come. “Show me.” Said Dia quickly. They both stood and walked through the door, led by the woman with the dagger now pressed against her back.
Several doors and corridors later without another person appearing had Dia feeling anxious. She could only hope the lack of resistance had been something Kae had arranged.
Eventually, they came into to a large hall. “Go through that wall.” The woman said pointing at a space which shimmered with colours. “You first.” Said Dia, suspicious of a trap. The woman obeyed and Dia followed.
It was instantaneous. Dia left the hall and appeared on a path which winded away into the distance. It appeared to be night here but there were no stars and no moons visible. Looking around she found it was too dark to see anything. The ground was soft and colourless due to the lack of light and the air was fresh and cooling against Dia’s soft skin. The woman she had sent through first was nowhere to be seen but this did not concern Dia, she would be easy to overpower if any attack was attempted.
Dia felt exhausted. It had been a long while since she had had a proper rest but she did not feel safe here and she did not want to allow herself time to comprehend everything that had just happened. She would do this after sleep. Her only option was to travel the path.
It felt like she had walked for at least thirty or forty miles when Dia noticed a large shape off to the side of the path. Cautiously moving towards it, she saw that it was a small building of some kind. Nobody appeared to be in it, not awake at least as there was no light coming through the windows. She moved closer until she could see inside. There was no one within. Moving through the door she could clearly see it had been unoccupied for a long time. Thick layers of dust had built up over everything and yet there was warmth in the air as if the place’s heat generator still functioned. There was an Earth-style bed against one wall which was more than Dia could have hoped for but before she could sleep easy, her instincts told her to set traps to stop any unwanted intruders.
Having circled the perimeter of the small hut-like building, Dia had gathered together a few materials to make a rudimentary trigger mechanism for a simple trap; when triggered, rocks fell from the roof onto the invader. She set it just outside the only door to the hut and retreated into the warmth.
Happy she was safe enough, she walked straight to the bed, collapsed upon it and fell instantly asleep.
Dia had no idea how long she had been sleeping. It was still dark outside but seemed slightly lighter than it had been. Having not been awoken to the sound of falling rocks and screams, she assumed there had been no visitors.
She pulled herself to the edge of the bed, feeling well rested, but there were still thoughts to confront. She shuddered as she considered the events from when she awoke under the violet sky. Although she would like to think there was another explanation, everything Kae had said fitted. She had been played from the start.
‘What now?’ She thought after some time. Lord Kae had probably already taken over Ssus’ masses of armies assuming his plan had worked and he would no doubt be planning the destruction of t
he other Lords and Dames who would not join his cause, whatever that may be. She had no way of knowing whether Daniel was now safe; Lord Kae was not well known for keeping his word. Kant was hopefully back at Dia’s palace, but even that was not a certainty.
She decided after a time that too much was speculation to warrant further thought so her plan turned to focus more on the near future, namely, how to get from this place, back to her palace.
Preferably without dying again.