"Where are we going?" Jupiter calls out to the gray swathed figure who seems to stay just far enough ahead to be out of reach. The warren of alleys, rusted doors, and peeling corridors ended in a space that could be a warehouse, or a rat's nest.
"Just here," and the figure turns around, a woman with wide green eyes and delicately heart shaped face. She smiles slightly, revealing a set of dainty fangs, just as a field of blue beams snaps on like bars all around Jupiter and her party.
"Of course, you did," Jupiter sighs, stepping back from the sparking array. Kiza raises her gun, but hesitates firing, not knowing what it might set off among all the boxes and canisters and reams of cloth stacked against every corner and every post.
"I will tell my Lord that his guests have arrived." And the woman in gray glides out of the room.
"Guests?" Jupiter yells as a distant door clangs shut.
"Are we prisoners?" Bob asks, his eyes wide and his mouth in a little 'oh' of apprehension.
"Definitely," Jupiter replies, her gaze following the line of the glowing bars from floor to ceiling, and arcing around them. "Bob, put Gemma down. Gemma, aren't you able to communicate with Captain Tsing?"
"Not currently." Bob lists sideways while he struggles to release Gemma's arm from around his neck and prop her against one of the steel support beams. "A damping field was erected since the battle began."
"Someone certainly keeps trying to kill me," Jupiter muses, hands on her hips.
"Balem," Kiza breathes out.
"No," Jupiter flinches at the name, but replies firmly, "he's dead."
"What if he's just seriously burned, hiding down here in the ancient city?" Bob gazes around with a lot puppy dog expression. Gemma, sitting somewhat sideways where Bob more or less dropped her, shakes her head with a negative.
"No human could have survived that. The Aegis record was quite explicit."
"But," Kiza fidgets her gun back in the holster at her hip, "Captain Tsing told Caine about the attackers on Earth carrying Balem's signature."
"What?" Jupiter turns abruptly to face Kiza, her face a mask of shock, with a hint of betrayal. "Balem's signature?" Kiza looks to Jupiter with despair.
"I thought he would have told you."
"Not a word. But he told you?" Jupiter winces at the sound of jealousy in her own voice. She doesn't mean to say the words so harshly, or wear her insecurity so naively.
"No," Kiza says in a soft, hurt voice. "Apini's have more than just quick reflexes. You don't, you don't like me much, do you, your Majesty." More of a statement than a question. Jupiter's face falls, and a thick blanket of guilt warps around her heart.
"I don't see this is the time for sentiment," Gemma remarks. Jupiter glances at Gemma, then at the ground while struggling to pin her feelings down.
"In fact, I don't see a better time. Kiza," Jupiter says gently, "I actually like you, a lot. I'm just jealous. It's stupid, and unworthy, but sometimes that feeling just jumps out at me. You have this long, easy relationship with Caine, and I've barely gotten to know him. My heart knows he and I have a different relationship, but there are times I get reminded that you have so much more in common,. You know this world, you have a history, you're going to be a Legionnaire, and I just feel left... what?" At the last words, Kiza's eyes drop and she takes a ragged breath, turning away. "Did I flub up again?"
"Just that," and Kiza reaches within her Aegis jacket, "I won't be like him, not now," and pulls out a very old sheave. "This is all my fault," she gasps out, turning the length of glass over and over in her hand, then holding it out for Jupiter. Jupiter examines it closely.
"This is the sheave that... librarian... wouldn't let us see! How did you get it?"
"Quick hands of an Apini." Kiza shrugs with a weak grin.
"You stole it," Bob groans. "Is this what I have to look forward to in your service, Your Majesty?" Jupiter favors him a grimace, then ignores the frantic whirring of his ear bud.
"And you think that will keep you out of the Legionaires?"
"It will," Gemma interjects. "The ethic tests are quite rigorous."
"You knew?" Jupiter asks with a hint of wonder. Kiza nods. "You better be worth it," Jupiter growls at the sheave. "We'll find a way to fix this, Kiza. Being an Entitled must be good for something. Now, let's see what's so special about this sheave." Her nose wrinkles as she places her wrist over the sheave, hoping it will activate. The sheave hums in her hand with a blue glow in response.
"Isn't that forbidden?" Bob gasps.
"Forbidden often just means something the rich and powerful don't want the poor and powerless to find out," she replies, her eyes rapidly scanning the information that starts to flow up from the screen.
"Someone's coming," Gemma hisses.
"Damn." Jupiter looks up, then springs over next to Kiza, hiding the sheave behind their collective backs.
The woman in gray walks smooth as satin sheets from the shadows, flanked by two heavy shouldered guards.
"My Lord will see you now. No," and she motions the Jupiter's companions aside, "just Jupiter. This way, your Majesty," she says with a hint of irony. Jupiter slides the sheave into Kiza's hands unseen. Her heart thuds hard in her chest, still she lifts her chin, squares her shoulders, and steps forward where the bars dematerialized a human sized gap. "This way."
Jupiter steps behind her, turning her head slightly to give Kiza the briefest nod, before she, too, disappears into the shadows.