Identity. Who you are. What you beleieve in. What you stand for. An animal can go a lifetime without it. But a human will wither it without it's presence. It drives every action. Punishes wrongdoing. And when the world closes in and makes one feel utterly alone, identity reminds you of who you are. And your mission in choosing your life.
Well Elenora De La Maicia was not human. But she had been robbed of this most precious asset. This, and I write these words as truthfully as I dare, is her story.
The tale begins on a planet very far from here in what used to be called the South West Quadrant of the Kree Empire.
Zelus. The pride and joy of her owners, home of the Grand Lord Norm and Grand Lady Elenora I. Their rule was sincere at best and a disaster at its worst. Zelus had been steadily descending into anarchy ever since the purchase of slaves was made legal twenty years prior to the birth of their first child Elenora II. From there, the population quickly began to grow until the number of slaves outnumbered their masters at 4 to 1. Food began to grow scarce, and it was on the tides of a rebellion almost twenty five years later, that Zelus met it's end.
Elenora II
"Elenora!" Her mother tugs her forward. She doesn't know why. It is only code. All of it is just code. Code is easier to read than words. But this time she's really done it. This time Nama is not happy. This time she has gone too far.
"Nama?"
"Ssshh."
The grunts of the soldiers above their heads is all that fills her hearing for the next few minutes. She's not afraid. It's just the way it goes. What the code said would happen. But Nama never understood that.
"Don't be afraid Nama," Elenora whispers to her mother, pulling her down. "If you follow me, I can get us out."
"No," her mother snaps sharply. "Elenora I will hear no more of this nonsense. Forget that code you've been writing. We're going to get out of here. There is a ship waiting for us in the capital. Your father will meet us there . . ."
"No! Nama, if you we leave, he'll find us! You have to follow my plan . . ."
"I always knew that we were giving you too much leeway," her mother murmurs under her breath. "And now I know for sure."
"Nama . . ."
And they were almost there. They were almost there. The path to the ship was clear, 100 metres and closing. But the code is never wrong.
Her mother shoved her behind her as the creature stepped out.
"Your Majesty." She remembers him being a small gangly creature. Sickly with twitchy lips and greyed hair and eyes that seemed to follow both of them at once.
The sword was drawn immediately. "Go back to the shadows foul creature!"
"Your husband is dead," the creature warns her. "You need only surrender the child to save yourself."
"Never!" She remembers the sound her mother's neck made. Never even made it three feet. Like the sound the hens made when they snapped the necks.
And she just stood there. She just stood there.
"Come here child."
"You killed my mother."
"A small price to pay," he murmurs.
"Not to me."
"Soon you will understand child." He approaches her steadily. There was no fear. Not even sadness. Not yet. "Come with me now . . . and I will show you the end of the code."
Awfully young. To be thinking about revenge. But now the code has changed. Calling her. It says that she must go. That she must go.
"And I will show you the end of your life."
He smiles. "I sense that we have an understanding."
That was the beginning of the end.