Chapter 66. The message
Akane allowed the women to pull her to her feet after they finished redoing her hair for the blood ceremony. It was braided so tightly and so elaborately that her scalp felt ready to part with her skull. She reached up to let her fingers at the many coils on her head and to the loose ends standing up from her crown. There were no bones braided into it this time, but tiny trinkets of gold and silver and colourful gemstone. As it was with many things in the tribe, these adornments did not serve to make her look nice for her mate. They were supposed to possess spiritual power. It were bids for fertility, long and prosperous union, strong progeny and those kinds of things.
The women preparing her for the ceremony started rubbing oil into her naked skin while chanting prayers to the Goddess of Victory in soft, musical tones. The substance was clear and odourless, yet as it soaked into her skin, it made her own scent become more distinct. They didn't leave a spot on her untouched and Akane resigned herself to the small hands slipping between her fingers and toes, behind her ears and up the creases of her groin, running down her crack and between her thighs. It was all executed with accurate, business like precision that quickly killed any arousal she might have felt at their ministrations. When they were done, the whole bell tent was saturated with her scent.
"I am going to have to hogtie that cuntox tonight." Gine said with an irritable sniff of the air.
The fierce tribes woman was watching the rituals being performed on Akane from the pallet where she sat back lazily with one long, bronze leg pulled up. Aina lay draped over her stomach trying to catch her long brown-furred tail while Gine kept whipping it out of the kitten's reach every time she made a grab for it. Aina's new dry nurse Suzuna sat on her haunches aside the palet coaxing her charge into having another bite from the strip of dried meat she was dangling before the kitten's eyes.
Akane snickered at Gine's comment. "You better. My mate was ready to rip him a new arsehole this morning."
Gine gave her one of her aggressively amused grins. "Bardock wound his neck in like a boy getting cuffed on the nose."
Akane mimicked her mate with a exaggerated low voice: "It's not worth the steam of my piss."
"Fucking ace." Gine threw in one of Turles' favourites. She laughed roughly.
Akane probed her mate through their bond. Vegeta was in another bell tent across the main square having his own rites in preparation for their ceremony. He gave off a very indignant feeling about whatever was being done to him by the women that tended to him. She snickered and pulled away again. The women performing the ritual told them that it would be bad luck if they connected while the preparations took place so they both refrained from communicating telepathically. Still she felt him nudge her every now and then, picking up on her feelings like she had just done to him.
The women were painting her skin anew. They had bathed her earlier in the day and removed the old paint. Now they followed her curves with soft brush strokes and this at last got her in a state, the tickling on her skin giving her the flutters. The women found that very funny and Gine was laughing again from her spot on the pallet.
"You should get that out of the way." she remarked.
Suzuna agreed. "It will help make your coupling last longer."
"No, it won't make any difference." Akane grinned. "If our King wants it to last, he will make it last. I get no say."
Gine mirrored her grin. "Well, lucky you."
Indeed, Akane thought, hoping their ceremony would begin soon so that she could finally be reunited properly with her mate after almost a moon's turn apart. Lucky her.
.
.
"This will open your mind for transcendence to the plain where we communicate with our ancestors." Ansgar said as he handed Vegeta one of two earthen cups with some foul smelling concoction in it.
Bardock took a third cup from another elder who was pouring more yellow liquid from a skin into cups and handing them out to the tribes men standing around.
"You might want to give your mate a heads up first." he advised in his booming voice. "Once you down this stuff, you'll drop off the radar for a while. You won't be able to connect. Gine went berserk the first time that happened with us."
Vegeta wrinkled his nose as he stared at the roiling, sizzling yellow substance inside his cup. "How long will it last?"
"A couple of hours at most." Ansgar said. "It will have worn off before your blood ceremony."
"It looks like piss." Bardock let out a belly laugh at Vegeta's disgusted expression. "Tastes like piss too." he held up his cup in a toast. "Well, here's mud in your eye." and with that, he downed the cup.
"Up your arse." Ansgar muttered his own toast to his fellow elders before he threw back his cup as well.
The three remaining elders did the same. Turles gave Vegeta an uncertain glance, then noticed his fierce father watching him impatiently and drank the concoction with such a revolted look on his face that Vegeta very nearly flung his own cup away. At least he wasn't the only one doing this wisdom ceremony for the first time. Luckily Vegeta was a whole lot better in concealing his doubts than Turles was. It was written all over the Royal Guardsman's face.
Vegeta sent a quick word of warning through the link with his little mate, repeated that she had a lot to make up for later, then cursed himself for having agreed to the blood ceremony in the first place and threw back the substance, doing his best to let the stuff hit as little of his taste buds as possible going down. It tasted a whole lot worse than it smelled.
"It's no drinking from the furry cup." Bardock joked as he tossed his emptied cup over his shoulder.
Ansgar sissed a laugh while Turles shook his head with an almost resigned chortle. The other men snickered.
"Bleeding hell." Vegeta muttered with a snort of laughter as he bunged his own empty cup to the side. It was no wonder Akane liked the Warrior Chief so much. Every other word coming out of his gob was some vulgarity. "I am almost beginning to feel sorry for Kakarot having to weather your abuse."
"He blushes very prettily." Bardock said to that with another belly laugh.
Turles laughed in similar fashion. "That he does."
Ansgar was handing out torches he lit one by one at the small fire in front of the dark slit leading into the mountain where the cavern was. "In we go." he kicked the fire out with his bare feet and led the way inside.
It wasn't a minute into the walk up the tunnel when the concoction started kicking in. The flames of the torches the men walking in front of Vegeta held out seemed to flare up and change colour. First to a blinding white, then an otherwordly green and then they turned black as night while the tunnel around them became like a red and purple caleidoscope that rotated lazily around them.
"Fuck me." Turles walking behind Vegeta whispered bewildered.
"Getting arseholed, son?" Bardock asked from the back of the line. He sounded amused. "Anybody else feeling cunt-faced yet?" he hollered to the other men.
There were some grunts of confirmation coming from the other elders. Vegeta said nothing. The tunnel was now whirling around him in a nauseating, frenzied explosion of colours. What the hell was he doing here, he wondered. Why had he agreed to this? He didn't like what was happening to him at all. The sense of having no control, of having some foul concoction alter his state of being like this. He was groping for his ki, he noticed. Grasping it almost desperately to make himself feel grounded again, but it was slipping through his fingers like water. He couldn't channel his power.
Vegeta became aware of the men inside the tunnel with him again. They had turned into ghosts, their outlines blurry and shimmering. He didn't even know these tribes men and that impertinent arsehole Bardock wasn't the kind of man he trusted. Not around his mate and not around himself because of that. If the Warrior Chief truly was of a mind to lay his paws on Akane, getting Vegeta out of the way while he was unable to channel his ki and keep his wits about him was a good start. The only one present Vegeta truly knew and trusted was Turles and the Royal Guardsman was muttering fuck me's as if it made up his whole vocabulary. Turles wouldn't be of any use should Vegeta need him.
His mind was running away with him. These were the fears of a young boy taken from his home and confronted with men outclassing him. He wasn't that boy. When that boy became a man grown, he snuffed them out. Zarbon, Dodoria, those Ginyu Force bleeders. He had taken care of them all on Namek. He was one of the most accomplished warriors in the universe. The combined powers of these tribes men couldn't match his base power. Even without his wits, even without the ability to channel his ki, nothing the tribes men could throw at him would be enough to damage him. They would drop like flies if he tore into them. And that repugnant Warrior Chief wasn't a threat at all. He knew that. The man had shown it today. The sons he had offered up to save their home planet proved that he wasn't. This were not his enemies.
Vegeta was more settled when they reached the cavern. The elders threw their torches to the cold fireplace in the middle of the space and Vegeta added his own. He followed their example and sat down with them around it, cross-legged and scowling at his bare arse touching the dusty, earthen floor of the cavern, reminding him that he had doned the same loincloth the men around him wore for the sake of his little mate's much desired blood ceremony. He should have declined...
The elders started chanting in a language so old, Vegeta couldn't make out half the words. Ansgar came to crouch in between him and Turles. The sinewy man's pupils had swallowed up his irises completely, giving him a ghastly, haunted look. Vegeta looked around to the other men. They all had that same far away stare as the High Chief. It was that potion. They were all completely out of it. Vegeta himself as well. His surroundings were waving and tilting, the light from the fire a roaring blue now. He was rocking too, his body was pitching back and forth even if he knew somewhere deep down that he was sitting utterly still.
"You have to keep your eyes shut." Ansgar instructed him and Turles. "The fire will go out in a minute. Don't open your eyes until the light is back."
All Turles had to say to this was another whispered: "Fuck me."
Vegeta growled a comfirmation.
Ansgar took his own place in the circle of men and closed his eyes with a deep breath. "Safe travels."
And with that, the fire died out.
Vegeta kept his eyes shut like Ansgar instructed him. His heart was pounding in his ears, drowning out his surroundings. He could hear the blood rushing through his own veins, could feel it pulsing through his whole body. At the inside of his eyelids colours were emerging. Muted at first, vague and indistinguishable. Then the shapes became faces. He was plunging down the line of his ancestry, all the way to the very beginning when all Saiyajins had still been tribes people. They were not just names in books now, but real men and women, putting faces to the people who he had read about in his young years when he was groomed for his succession. Some were alike to him in looks, especially the ones higher up the line and even if it varied in colour and length, all his ancestors, men and women, bore a resemblance of his flame like hair. There were many named Vegeta and many named Tarble and many bearing variations of the two. Many more had different names altogether. The less common, unimportant names of younger siblings that through some fate came into their Kingship despite their unlikely place in the line of succession. Only four of his namesakes down his line would be King.
The first Vegeta was but one King among many. The second Vegeta generations later was the first King to rule alone. He was the one who named the planet after himself. Then there was no Vegeta for many generations, the rule of Vegetasei seized by and passed down in other powerful families until the throne was taken back. The son of this King became the third Vegeta and while his heir never gained the throne, they kept the seat of power in their line from that time forth. Much later it was Vegeta's own grandfather Endou who became King. Endou was so far down the line of succession that none ever expected him to take the seat. Endou was named the boy King and he was the youngest King to ever come into his throne. His reign was the longest of all Kings of Vegetasei as well. He was the King that took a step back from the WTO, the first to recognise the Empire of Cold for what it truly was. He was also the King who put laws in place that made kinslaying a capital crime. The reason for this was his own past.
King Endou's short life preceding his Kingship had been fraught with its own horrors. He was witness to his many brothers and sisters, some full blooded, others half siblings fathered on concubines, vying for the throne upon their father's early death. His siblings ended up eradicating their whole line. The last brother and half-sister left, died on the very steps leading to the seat they fought over. Endou, the youngest child borne by the Queen, was nine years old when he gained his throne. He kept it through the protection and guidance of his father's confidant Tragus. Having witnessed the horrors his brothers and sisters brought down on their own kin, King Endou fathered only one son on his Queen and he conceived his heir near the end of his own very long and prosperous reign. This son was the fourth King Vegeta, named The Great Vegeta now that his son had taken over reign. Vegeta's grandfather and grandmother died years before he was born so he had never known them. He had a face to put to his father's stories about his grandfather now.
It took no more than seconds for his lineage to be revealed to him. A long time after that nothing happened. He was in a vaccuum. He had left the dark cavern behind and was floating in nothingness. The concoction they gave him earlier had now separated him from his own body, it seemed, making it feel strange and distant and not his own. It was an unpleasant sensation that made his earlier panic resurface. He went to the one thing that always brought him back to himself and that was his breathing. He forced it to become steady and followed the slow ins and outs with his whole being. It was entirely useless, but his attempts occupied him enough to stave off his panic.
Suddenly a low, rough and snarling voice cut the endless silence, breaking into the nothingness that held him.
"It's about time you let that go, Vegeta. I forgave you long before you stabbed me in the bleeding back."
Vegeta knew who it was. His old subordinate, his warden once, the general of the Royal Fleet before he volunteered to be sent off with Vegeta to serve in the WTO. This was one of the few things still haunting him after all these years. His most unforgivable act. His biggest betrayal. He answered the one who had spoken to him. He never moved his lips, yet his voice sounded clear in the darkness.
"You ruined my one chance of defeating Frieza when you killed the Namekian. My one shot at freedom."
It was silent for a time and Vegeta was battling with the guilt he felt for his unspeakable act.
"I knew what I signed on for when I became your warden." Nappa spoke again. "I was one of the watchers. I was aware of every fucking bad thing that was going to happen to you. Perhaps you should be the one forgiving me. I'm sorry for all of it, lad. There was no other way to save our people."
"You sacrificed yourself." Vegeta understood.
"And you." Nappa said. "It was better than a kick in the balls. You gave me a quick death. I have seen you in action enough times to know that you were merciful that day. It made me happy that you still had that in you."
"I will bring you back with the dragon balls." Vegeta said quickly. "And Raditz too."
"Nah, I have it better here." Nappa's voice sounded relaxed now. "I'm with my mate."
"You have a mate? You never told me."
"Couldn't talk about it, man." Nappa explained. "Hurt too bleeding much."
"I'll bring you both back." Vegeta offered. "You and your mate."
"Knock it on the head. I'm not here for that." Nappa declined. "During our years apart I learned to be without her. The key to going on without your mate is to close off a part of your mind where you can keep her. You know how that works. You already created a space for yourself in there during your first years with Frieza. Needed it too. Those fucking cunters."
Vegeta didn't like the turn their conversation had taken. "Why are you telling me this?"
There was another voice in the blackness now. It was his mother's soft, musical tingle. "You will lose her in time."
Vegeta's gut clenched. He didn't feel any gladness at hearing his mother's voice. Her words had frozen his blood. "What do you mean? Lose who?"
"Your mate." Nappa answered.
"Akane?" Vegeta asked. "How? Why?"
"That is not for you to know." his mother answered.
"Is this certain?" Vegeta asked urgently. "What can I do to prevent it?"
"It can't be prevented." it was Nappa who spoke up again. "And our people need you to go on."
"Then I'll wish her back with the dragon balls." Vegeta said stridently and feeling more at ease.
"It won't work." Nappa said. "She can't be brought back that way."
Vegeta struggled to breathe. "Why not?" he forced out.
"There is no way out for her. You need to keep her in your head." his mother again, sounding compashionate now.
"When will this happen?"
"That is not for you to know either." his mother said.
Vegeta growled in frustration. "Is there anything you can tell me?" he demanded furiously. "What happens to Akane?"
"You will lose her." Nappa was the one to saying it now. "In time."
Vegeta was grappling for a shred of calm in himself, casting about for questions they would answer for him. "Will our daughter be born? Can you tell me that?"
"This daughter and more." his mother confirmed.
Vegeta felt a tiny bit of relief at that. They had time left. "How many more."
And his mother repeated: "That is not for you to know."
Vegeta was making fists with hands that still felt to not be his own. "What is there for me to know? Do we have years left, is that what you're saying?"
"You have time." Nappa said.
"It is both on your side and against you." his mother added cryptically.
"You need to keep her locked in your head." Nappa repeated.
"I don't understand! Why can't she be brought back with the dragon balls?" Vegeta was shouting again, his despair getting the better of him. "Can't we get one fucking break in life? Why her for fuck's sake? I need her! She belongs with me!"
"Keep her in your head." his mother repeated Nappa's words. "Don't forget."
And just as suddenly as Vegeta had been transported to nothingness, he was brought back to the cavern. His mind was swimming, his body flexed into extremity. The fire roared into life and he opened his eyes to find all the elders still seated around it. Turles to his left was panting and clutching his throat.
"You received a fortelling." Ansgar knew immediately.
Vegeta repelled him. "It concerns only myself." he replied despite the fright that made him pant as hard as Turles next to him. He didn't want to give voice to the horrible knowledge that had been imparted to him.
Ansgar nodded his acceptance readily. "Know that the truth of prophecy is often hidden in its words, King. It is rarely as straight as it is spoken. We can give you guidance in unravelling it."
Vegeta was still furtively struggling for air, fighting for something at least resembling poise. He was seeking out the link he shared with Akane, but he couldn't find it. He couldn't reach her. The concoction clearly hadn't worn off enough yet. "We will talk later. My Queen is waiting for me. I have to go to her."
"You should commit the words to paper now that they are still fresh in your mind." Ansgar objected calmly in his sissing voice. "Once the potion wears off, you will start to forget."
The only thing Vegeta wanted was to instant transmit himself back to his little mate's side. He denied himself that comfort realising that if he did that, she would instantly know something was wrong. He didn't want to do that to her. He didn't want to tell her that death was looming over her and that it couldn't be made undone. Not during the ceremony she had been looking forward to so much. Maybe not ever.
Years... They had years left. More children meant years together. Maybe many years. More children, more years... Many children, many years...
His mind was in shambles because of that fucking potion, any train of thought he tried to follow running away with him.
"The wisdom ceremony is done. Are there any others who received a fortelling?" Ansgar asked.
All the men sitting around the small fire were shaking their heads and looking at Vegeta who was so obviously in distress. He needed to get a grip on himself. He needed them to leave him alone.
"Go back to the village." Vegeta said as he came to his feet. "I'll join you when I'm done writing down the prophecy. You stay, Turles." he added when he saw Turles stumble to his feet with the others.
The elders took up their torches and left. Vegeta crossed the cavern to the outcrop with that immense book lying closed on top. He pulled it open roughly and rifled to an empty page near the back while glancing around for a pen. The only thing available to him was a piece of charcoal that had a sharpened end. Such a crude means of writing. How they had succeeded in preserving all these writings for so long using coal was riddle. Vegeta grabbed the unwieldy implement and started writing clumsily.
"I could really use a fucking pen right now." he swore under his breath.
It was ungainly and slow work, not in the least because he still felt weird and out of it from the concoction and his anguish was robbing him from his breath again. He gave up after two sentenses, threw the charcoal through the cavern with a frustrated snarl and transmitted himself to the council chamber inside the palace where he dug up a pen. When he dropped back into the cavern, Turles startled out of his own befuddled state.
Vegeta wrote down what was said to him, including whether it was his mother or Nappa that had spoken and including his own questions to them. He wrote down everything, resolving that he was going to try and find a way to fix it. Done, he tore out the page, folded it up and held it out to Turles.
"I need you to hold onto this for me. Memorize it word for word and put it away somewhere no one else can get to it." Vegeta took a shaky breath. "Turles, she can never find out about this. It has to stay between you and me."
Turles took the piece of paper and folded it open to read it. "No." was all he said, his voice cracking.
Tears gathered that never made it past his eyes. Vegeta looked away, battling his own. He couldn't fall apart now.
"We'll fix it. We'll find a way to save her." he said decidedly, though he feared that there was no fixing this. His mother and Nappa had sounded adament about that.
When Turles was done reading he refolded the paper in a benumbed, almost slow motion. "I think I might have received a fortelling as well."
Vegeta gazed back up in the other man's face. Turles looked frightened.
"What did it say?" Vegeta demanded impatiently. "Out with it."
"My brother Raditz spoke to me in that dark place." Turles swallowed hard. "He said that my time is running out."