Chapter VI

The girl really didn't know what to say to that, but luckily, Klorel kept talking, "What do you call yourself?" She really wasn't paying attention, "My name…" she smiled, "Revenge. Who are you? And why do…" she was interrupted, "I AM YOUR GOD!" She frowned, "I thought Apophis was my god." Klorel didn't seem to find this conversation nearly as interesting as her, because he grabbed her chin and raised her face to look directly at his, "Do you know the story of Echo?" he asked. Yes. She knew the story of Echo, but she feigned ignorance anyways. Better to learn what he has to say about it.

Klorel smiled againat her seeming ignorance; "The ancient Greeks say that Echo was a nymph whose chatter greatly annoyed the goddess Hera. As punishment for distracting her, Hera made Echo incapable of saying anything but the imitation of the words of others. She then fell in love with Narcissus, but to him, Echo was nothing. She pined, and faded away until all that was left of her was the faint echo of her voice. This is your fate. You will learn your place until you become and insignificant nothingness, capable only of being obedient to my word. Echo." The girl, now called Echo, looked at him harshly, but spoke softly, "You forgot the rest of the story." Klorel glared, "What!" She looked at him intently, "The rest of the story. Narcissus sees his beautiful reflection in a stream and falls in love with his image. But when his love wasn't returned, when he found that no one loved him, he pined away, and poor, arrogant, conceited, narcissistic Narcissus became a sorry little flower, gazing at the water forever more."

Then he hit her, the effect was instantaneous, "You bastard little pansy! Who the hell hits-" she interrupted herself by lunging at him, grabbing his shoulder and kneeing him hard; he looked up, aghast. Not so much with pain, but with shock. The expression on his face conveyed something along the lines of 'you can't do that you're a girl/inferior being.' He grabbed her, and dragged her over to some kind of cell, pushed some buttons on a wall, and a barrier of light sprang up, blocking her only exited. Great. Jailed again. And then he left. Obviously, her trying to 'show no fear' was not helping.

For days she sat there, ignored. But she was watching, watching the armored men, the people with the slits on their stomachs, the human slaves, everyone. There was an easily distinguished caste system, but she wanted to learn more. She wanted to figure out the best way of getting what she wanted. Clearly freedom was not something she could get, but maybe, somehow, she could figure out some way…She looked up. There was someone at her door. The figure moved around from the clear wall of energy to the wall on her right, made up only of metal bars. It was one of the slaves, Echo had seen him around before, looking determined, but also…scared. She moved closer to the bars, and could now see that he held some food in his hands. It was her second day in the cage, and she hadn't eaten in all that time. "Hello." He looked down at her, squatting in the shadows to avoid being seen. She suspected that it was night, the torches were lowered, but who could tell in space? He spoke, "I brought you some food." She thanked him, and ate hungrily, but he remained, watching her. When she had finished, he asked, "Who are you?" She had already decided that being snide to the other slaves was unwise; allies could be helpful in her situation.

She told the strangerabout herself, about the life of freedom she had lived. He seemed amazed. In return, he told her much, unbelievable stories about her new life, creatures called the Gould, the Jaffa, eternal, never-ending wars, strange beings, rebellion, subterfuge, mystery, much of what he referred to as "the magic of the gods," and even inexplicable events concerning the Gods, things he should not have seen. She took all of this in, and understood, understood something that she believed no on else knew, except the Goulds themselves: they were not gods, but some other sort of creature, some kind of parasite. Whatever they were though, she was certain that they were powerful...and evil.