Peyton spoke to his parents about the little things that happened since he was captured by Titanium, "None of them hurt me and Steel watched over me," he concluded. He told them everything that happened when he was gone and repeated a few things, just to be sure they understood everything.
A day passed since his parents were kidnapped and lived with them. He was a bit sad that they were also victims of the metalist. At the same time, he was glad his parents were here with him. Even if it was a messy situation.
Steel came and coughed quietly, "I am sorry to interrupt your exchange, but my king wished to invite you for dinner. He finally managed to have enough time to spend time with you Peyton. Your parents are, obviously, welcomed. He will have time to explain a lot of things you might forgot or wished to know more," he stood on the side of the door, "I will be with you," he smiled.
"Good. I will make sure he didn't hurt my son in any ways," Judy cracked her fingers, "Because kidnapping my son like that sure doesn't put me in a good mood with him."
"Please don't kill him," Steel joked. He saw that sucker punch and didn't want to witness another one. Even more, being the victim of such a punch.
"Calm down," Lucas chuckled nervously as he glanced at their bodyguard, "It's not a good idea to just attack the king. We weren't in trouble the first time… Don't try your luck," he put his hand on her shoulders and she calmed down.
"Alright. If he says anything nasty, I will make him regret those words," the mother declared.
Peyton chuckled nervously, "Just make sure mom is away from Titanium," he warned Steel as his parents left the room. He followed them.
"I'm sure he is aware of this," he replied before closing the door behind.
Chapter 43: A Bit Of Metalist Lore
Titanium waited for the humans to come with Steel. He was a bit nervous. He still had a bruise on his gut from that punch. He never thought a human could hit that hard when angry.
The room had a large and long table. He was on one side and made the humans more at the middle of the table, hoping the mother would be as far away as possible from him. At least, until the bruises were gone.
He heard the door opening and watched the four coming at the large table. He crossed his fingers, "Welcome. I'm sure you are still quite angry at me miss Judy," he nodded at her. He tried to ignore the glare. He couldn't avoid her fury. He couldn't blame her, "Please have a seat."
Peyton watched where they had to sat. They were far from the king. He sat on the chair that was closer to Titanium and his father made sure his mother was farther.
Lucas chuckled a bit nervously, "I'm sure you were quite busy. Being the king surely is an endless job."
"I don't plan to leave until I finished what I set myself to do. Anyway, I am glad you came for dinner. I'm sure you have many questions for me and I want to personally answer some questions for you," he let out a small smile as he avoided the gaze of the angry mother. It was difficult to ignore it, but managed to do so. He crossed his metallic fingers.
"What are we going to eat?" Lucas asked. He pointed at the creature and himself, "We are not the same. You are made of metal and humans can't drink oil or eat metal."
Steel and Titanium laughed loudly at that comment. The king answered, "We eat the same thing as you. We are made of metal, but we eat meat and vegetables like you."
"We drink oil, but we also need water," their bodyguard added.
"Are you like robots or not?" Lucas asked.
"We are not robots," Steel replied as he chuckled a bit, "Seriously we are not. The metal is our skin," he put his hands on his table as they waited for dinner to be serve.
Peyton wondered if it was possible. They were made of metal and oil, but they still drink water. Still, oil was like blood and humans didn't call their blood water. His brain hurt a bit since he had to think a bit deeply about it. He grumbled, "Anyway, what do you want to talk about? I mean, I never looked around outside of the castle."
"Yeah. We have no idea about Perim anyway," his father grumbled as he thought about it. He glanced at his son, "Did he told you a lot of about their tribe?"
"More how they came here. Not… How did you live here for that long? I know you can do darkness power, but nothing else," he realised he knew that little about the metalist in the present.
"He is right my king. I don't think we spoke a lot about our tribe and they still didn't go outside of the castle," Steel commented.
"Not every one of my kingdoms is loyal to me. Some of them still didn't recover from out defeat against your kind," the king began. He awoke in Peyton some questions about how a tribe bigger and stronger than humans actually lost. It was as if humanity defeated the Underworlders in a fist fight. He couldn't imagine that. It would be funny, but it would never happen. He looked at the humans, "Maybe we can start with our history when we were exiled here."
Peyton nodded. He was curious about that. His questions about how they lost to humans had to wait. It was surely something they didn't want to talk about and he didn't want to poke the bear. He raised his hands, "Did you have to make everything with your hands. You know, crack! Oh! My back! And stuff like that?"
Titanium chuckled and replied, "We did hear some complains like that. This is old, but we all learned our history of the past. We have to learn from our past mistake and the consequences of our actions," he stopped when the servant came with their meal.
They looked at their meal and it was some meat and vegetables from Perim. Peyton never really ate anything from Perim, so he couldn't tell what it was before cooked.
They waited for the king to take the first bite, as Steel warned them on their way to the room.
Titanium took the first bite and chuckled when Peyton and his father hungrily ate their dinner. He watched them for a few seconds, before he decided to share the history of his kind, "After my kind was sent to exile, we didn't live on this island at first. We had to deal with the other tribes who saw us as another tribe, enemies of the six others. Only the Elementalists really knew about us," he raised his finger, "This is only from records that remained. I didn't personally live through that time."
"Okay," Peyton replied, "It sounds like you have it rough. It must be because they thought you wore war armor or something like that."
Steel chuckled, "You guessed correctly Peyton. We do look like we are a warrior and fight our enemies," he took a large bite and gulped it down. He smiled, "The exception are the Elementalists."
"Why would they not think of that?" Lucas asked.
Judy commented, "Maybe because they kidnapped one of their children?"
The metalist that watch them whispered loudly to his ruler with a smirk, "I think she is going to hold a grudge for a long time."
"I can see that and we all heard that," Titanium sighed as he put his hand on his cheek. He wanted to hit the table with his forehead, but the plate was still filled with food and it was a stupid idea. He took a deep breath and went on, "It's because they know what we did in the Cothica. At that time, the creatures of Perim never met us, except for the elementalists. They know of the war, the damage we did to the Cothica and what we did to the humans. Those are the consequences of trying to expand our territory. I have to admit that my ancestors might had their eyes on Perim next if the humans didn't won. After the war, the humans gradually cut ties with Perim and the Cothica eventually became a legend. Most of your kind forgot about us and Perim until recently."
"How did we forget about all of that?" Lucas wondered.
"I have no idea. We are stuck here after all," Steel replied.
The king went on, "We eventually had to hide our existence from Perim. We couldn't fight them all and we lacked the tools for war. We left the continent and we found an inhabited land large enough where we wouldn't be hunt down and safe from enemies. It was large enough for a large population," he crossed his fingers, "We didn't give a name. Perim is not our home, so we never named it. We will go back home and return to the Cothica, where we belong."
That didn't sound that good in the mind of Lucas. He knew that it could lead to an invasion of the Earth, no matter what the metalist would say. He tapped with his fingers on his empty plate, "Why didn't you accept that this is your new home now? I know this is not where you came from… from what you said, but still…" he didn't dare to look at the creature.
"I don't know exactly the why, but it's because of… I guess, because of the constant conflict with the tribes of Perim. I'm not sure. I just know that this isn't our home. We came from the Cothica and were rightfully exiled. I believe that we have a chance to return home and redeem ourself. With the Cothica and Perim connected once more, we have a chance. We also have a chance to reforge the Jewel of the Cothica once more," Titanium declared.
"The what?" the three humans asked curiously. They were a bit nervous as this thing might be something extremely important.
"You don't know? I guess it was gone for a long time. That Jewel disappeared during the war against the humans. The Jewel of the Cothica and what it can do depends on which hands it gets. During the war, my ancestor was the one who held the Jewel…" he said nothing more. He sounded a bit sick and ashamed. He finished his meal and looked at them, "It is a powerful artifact. Some said it came from the heart of the Cothica itself. Others said it was a gift of the Cothica itself and other things."
Now, the humans were confused about the jewel, what it was and where it came from.
"Enough about this. We did something terrible in the past against the humans and I will not let this mistake repeat again," he stood up slowly and put his hand on his chest, "We will live peacefully with the humans once more. This is my vow. This is one of the reasons I brought Peyton here… forcefully."
"You kidnapped my boy," she warned him.
The metalist nervously chuckled as he scratched his neck, "I don't think I'll forget it that soon," he showed his gut and the bruise was still present. A black mark on it.
He glanced at the side as his thought returned to the Jewel of the Cothica. Van Bloot more yet about it, but with his situation, he knew that it would take a long time before he got what he wanted. He focused back on the conversation and noticed the four glanced at him, "I missed something?"
"How did you organise the city?" Lucas asked him.
"Right. I didn't organise it, it was my ancestors, but we have more information about that," he snickered as he focused on the conversation, he tapped his chin and decided, "I can show you the maps and how it was organised afterwards. I'll let the council handle a few things on their own. We have four areas in the city. We have the residential areas, they are many around the city, when the villages around are not counted. We have two industrial areas, the civilian one and the military one. Lastly, we have a small sector focused on science, research and many kinds of knowledge. At the center of it all, the castle you are residing."
"Sounds awesome. Maybe we should go around someday," Peyton suggested.
"He can bring us back home too," Lucas pointed that out.
"Not gonna happen for now. Peyton is known as a guide to the Cothica, just like his three other friends. We need him. So, I brought the one I like the most," Titanium smiled.
Steel suggested, "We should make sure everything is secure, before we consider your suggestion Peyton. As you three know, not every metalists wouldn't mind a human around. Some of them wants revenge."
"There is much more I can explain," the king came back to the subject, "I will always show everything my tribe made after we lost everything and how we came back on our feet," he let out a smile.
He then spent more time explaining the life of his tribe, while letting his council overwork themselves instead of him for once.
AC: This is the end of this chapter.
Next: It Began.
It was time. Tom left his world and Milla'iin. He never told what his other mission was.