Chapter 3
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Aware of the distress in her voice, mind dazed still from the surreal experience between himself and Kina, Bildea reluctantly came from the bedroom to lend his help for Konis in the kitchen…."Billy, help me with him!…." Bildea followed the bloody prints in the carpet out to the common area, over to the island and around it to Kina and Konis on the kitchen floor. Save….Konis….He didn't want to…."Billy," her voice grew demanding, "….Billy, get me towels, help me keep him warm!—I'll get the towels!—You get over here and hold the wound!…." When she still had not heard nor received any helpful advice or actions from Bildea, there with Konis beneath her hands, she looked up at Bildea questioningly, her eyes widening, her expression flushing with anger at his belligerent slowness, "….Billy!"
"Right, all right," Bildea knelt outside the pool of blood and leaned over to replace Kina's hand against the knife wound with his own, shaking his head as Kina got up, her back to him while he glared into Konis's eyes, "….Lucky asshole…." The flesh of Konis's upper torso was exposed, Kina having stripped down the top of his skinweave to get to the injury better, and Bildea had to firmly plant his palm against the wound he had scored against Konis, "….Kina—"
"Not now, Billy!—I'm getting towels and the aid kit!…." She was already moving into one of the rooms, blood on her knees, hands, and face….Bildea turned his glare back to Konis.
"I should let you die—Why aren't you dead yet?….You know she fixed me?….She'll fix you, and you don't deserve it….Because of her, because of her!…." Bildea clenched his other fist over Konis, "….You better remember that, Asshole….Don't you 'pretend' to forget it—I know what you do," Bildea sucked in and growled out from deep in his chest, too low for Kina to hear from the other room, "….She's more than what you treated her as, you prick…." Konis continued to stare at Bildea, he only blinking once.
The sound of Kina's feet hurrying back over the carpet—with towels and a first aid kit—caused Bildea to lean up from Konis, and he looked at her as she threw the towels at him and chased him up, "….Clear off, Billy, I have gel," the sound of plastic ripping, Kina's knees slapping into the blood again preceded her pushing several gel packs into Konis's stab wound….He made a soft breath through his nostrils as she held the medi-gel in the wound with her palm over the cut's opening….Kina closed her eyes at the sound of Konis's discomfort, "….Konis, you'll be okay," she forced herself to breathe, fear subsiding….He would be okay.
Konis raised his eyes to Bildea's face, the other drell's expression one trying not to grit and clench with anger at seeing him with Kina—who was trying to help him narrowly survive when he should be dead….The towels were dropped over Konis's legs, meant for having warmed him though Konis could apparently do without.
"Kina, you don't know what he was—" Kina pulled out a scanner from the first aid kit she had set down on the blood, and began to use it on Konis's form.
"Not now, Billy," she glanced at him over her shoulder, taking a read of Konis's signals and stats, "….Not now, please."
"Do you need me for anything else."
"Yes….call Cate, Billa—"
"Konis said they'd be here soon….That was before I took the vicer off you….Kina, can we talk about what happened?"
Kina looked down at Konis, "….I know what he was going to do, Billy."
Through his anger, "….Why are you helping him then?"
"Because he freed me, Billy," she checked the scans again, setting the device down into the kit and gazing upwards at Bildea, "….If it weren't for his leaving the vicer on me, I would have never had the chance nor the time to tear down the walls that kept me from learning what I am capable of…." She beckoned him down to her and he knelt, Bildea staring at her, his eyes flicking back and forth over hers, "….Konis knew what it could do, the vicer, and though he's tried to keep me under this spell of the Elders, Billy, he's freed a weapon we can use to fight Them—"
"I freed you…." He touched her temple, where the puncture mark was from the vicer bit, "….I freed you, but you're saying the vicer did something?…." She nodded.
"I can use what I was meant to use, Billy….That's how I helped you."
"So what now, Kina?"
"Now we use Cartira."
"Konis, Cate, and Billa will try to stop us."
"They won't….I can stop them, I can break the thralldom."
Bildea laughed, not believing her, "….How?"
He hugged her though, burying his face into her hair and breathing in, "….I don't know, Billy, but I know I can….I can do it…." She moved out of his embrace to turn back to Konis, the gels having set and stopped the blood at least from flowing out onto the floor, "….And I'll free you, Konis, I will….but you'll have to give up me, understand?…." Konis's gaze left Bildea's cold eyes behind her head to join with Kina's, and she moved her stained hand to take up his own, "….I don't belong to you…." At first his hand lay still in hers, but soon she felt him squeeze her fingers back….Her eyes welled with tears, and she gave him a sad smile, "….It's okay."
Just as she was about to ask Bildea to help her move him, the system in the tower gave the alert from the door of the lift….Someone had arrived….With a turn of her head to Bildea, "….Billy, go see who it is?…." She watched as he stood and walked around the island to go to the lift….She watched as Bildea was about to reach the security screen by the door, and the metal began to fissure towards its center, before it disappeared in one violent rending from the seal to the level itself.
He fell back, turning away from the shearing metal and catching himself….A yahg from Monos Station was stuck in the gap of shorn metal, and Kina was up, hands out, pulling Bildea off his feet at the wish of a thought….The monstrous size of the yahg prevented it from making the last few feet it needed to grab at Bildea, and as the yahg's arm swung through with its thorny claws to strike him, Bildea was already airborne, sailing back through the air over the island….Having stepped over Konis to catch him as Bildea landed and almost fell onto Konis from sliding off the island, Kina helped Bildea to stand without slipping in Konis's pool of blood, "….Get Konis!"
"Kin—"
"I'll hold them off!…." Kina pushed away from him as he tried to prevent her from taking on such a deadly task against Gislayne's Yahgs, and she was running by the line of vision of the beast fumbling with trying to get inside and go after Bildea….Kina's brown dress was whipping as she slid under the swing of the arm that could reach inside ahead of the body, and Bildea struggled to pick up Konis off the floor and drag him towards another room with an alternate exit—A flight route they'd never had to use before but existed, and Bildea had to find it.
With a snarl of fury, the yahg stuck in the rended doorway thrashed and clawed at the constraining walls trapping it, but sounding and peeling from the yahg's heavy shakes and wrenching itself through the leftover materials, trying to get at Kina, which likely could have been its primary target….A second yahg could be heard growling behind the first inside the lift….Kina's compromise could have been the reason the yahgs had been sent, but Bildea and Kina had no time to wonder….The yahgs, thralls as well, could have been issued to kill all of them or just Kina, but it seemed likely the former.
Where were Billa and Cate?….Kina attempted to use her newfound powers and formed a "wall of air" to hurl at the yahg to kill it, but the "wall" seemed to weaken and disappear before it could make any significant impact on the enemy….The beast was stubborn, snagging its tough outer armor and parts of its serrated shoulders, the top of its barbed skull and horns on the torn frame of the lift's opening….About all that could possibly call off the yahgs now would be a direct command from either Gislayne or the Elders.
And where would Gislayne be?….Kina checked to see that Bildea was out of the kitchen with Konis, and hopefully on his way to the flight route, and observed the yahg wrench on the last piece of the ruined doorway to finally emerge into the common room….The second yahg came through, intelligence marked in the way it covered the first's back as by looking towards the kitchen, and the smell of blood, made for the room in which Bildea had fled dragging Konis.
Bildea and Konis were gone, however….Kina hoped they were.
Now she was alone with two yahgs in the level, and time for her to test out her awesome, newfound capabilities….Maybe the first wall of air had been a warmup….She'd try again.
The yahg that had attempted to swipe at Bildea first and then her was now coming towards Kina as she backed into a separate office….The second that had gone in search of Bildea and Konis responded to a growl of this yahg and re-emerged from the room close by the kitchen to join its partner in cornering her.
Kina pressed out her hands, forming the wall of air again and growing it, but as she started to push it towards the enemy, the air—blurring the space between them where it had started to coagulate—it cleared and Kina was left blinking at what had not happened.
She backpedaled as the yahg leapt with frightening agility, smashing its weight and force through the frame of the doorway this time, shattering glass and cabinetry to the left and right sides of the office she was standing in, but rather than be cornered, Kina dove underneath the yahg and back out into the common room with the second yahg….Caught between both—the yahg behind her disengaging itself from the mess it had strewn inside the next office, and the yahg in front of her, bellowing and bristling even more than its thorny-hide had seemed possible to do—she thought fast.…Billy and Traus better be clear of the level by now….With a quiver of its body gearing to rush her, the yahg before her bellowed again. She timed it—the great, dangerous arm swung….Kina, standing, ducked and rolled under the limb, which caught her bare shoulder in back, scoring a long scratch by one of the brittle horns of the forearm over her shoulderblade, but she was up—passed the second yahg and running barefooted for the doorway Bildea and Konis had gone through, indicated by the leftover trail of blood from Konis.
In the next room she stopped and turned to attempt another wall of air to be directed at the reeling yahg and its partner….Still nothing happened!—The wall of air formed, blurred, then cleared as she pushed it towards the yahgs in hopes of killing or injuring them.
The yahg closest to her in the kitchen picked up a chair to the left of the island space and threw it.
The chair broke two of its legs, and the back rest, as the remainders splintered through the doorway, the seat and cushion hitting Kina square in the chest and sending her backwards onto the carpet.…She staggered up, holding her sternum where the corner of the seat had impacted, her brown dress up over her hips and falling back down to cover her thighs as she stumbled in pain towards the exit by way of an opened closet marked by bloody handprints.
Kina whipped her head to clear the hair from her eyes, sticking to the blood on the side of her face as she twirled—quite by accident—and threw her hand out to defend herself from the calamitous, incoming roar and crash of the yahg's body against the room's entry….The yahg was stuck, the walls not giving into its thrashing, violent weight against the frame of the doorway—as had the previous doorway to the office been broken by the first yahg….That was close….Kina stumbled and twisted around again, her skirt lifting and twirling around her hips as she made for the exit door at the end of the closet.
She could hear behind her in the suites the yahgs arguing and berating each other in their ugly language of snarls and growls, spits and gnashing "talk" as she entered the darkness of the escape route through the tower….It was so dark she had to feel the walls with her hands and sense for turns and stairs, and her eyes had not adjusted, nor were they like Bildea's and Konis's vision, Drells which had far better sight in such nocturnal conditions.
Kina stopped after nearly stepping out into air and grabbing onto a railing, the innards of the tower mysterious and unclear to her, and this compared to all the other towers' "walked-in" areas meant for their residents' normal paths to and from their destinations….She held onto the railing she could feel by her hands, and tried to reach out and feel for a wall she thought she could make out in the dim lighting of the exit farther behind her….A blue, shimmering form began to appear in the surface of metallic wall beside her, Kina's eyes focusing on it and seeing her messy, disheveled, wide-eyed appearance staring back at herself, and growing transparent as the shimmering blue light seemed to come closer through her reflection….as if there were another world in the walls….And it illuminated her way, enabling Kina to see the trail of Konis's blood, Bildea's handprints on the walls ahead, the staircase she had almost fallen down from the top of, and the railing she clung to, sliding her hand along as she hurried down the steps and turned a corner….As she followed the animated escape route, the light formed into many small blue dots, "dancing" along and darting ahead of her like thousands of pixies of a microscopic nature, "toying with her" or helping her, she wasn't certain….Whatever the case, the "lights" were helping.
And to further support her path out of that maze, chasing after the little "pixies" reflecting off the mirrors of walls and flooding away the darkness ahead of her, Kina had Bildea's handprints to show her his and Konis's way out.
