Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (12 page)

“Vita,” he said in a
conspiratorial tone, “Be wary.”

“What is it, Adel?” Vita
asked in an excited tone.

Adel glanced behind him before
turning back to Vita. “Varius spoke to me a moment ago.”

Vita titled her head. “The
high timeborn running for city council again?”

“He talked about reform,”
Adel said, rolling his eyes.

“Again?” Vita asked in an
indignant tone.

Adel shook his head. “I
know. Such a brazen show of ambition. One could almost forget that he
is a first generation Saturnian and mistake him for a dustrunner.”

Vita tensed, turning to Terra
with a wide gaze.

Terra just looked confused.

Adel then turned to Terra and
paled. “Dhimmi!” he said in an awkward, surprised tone. “Infinite
apologies! I should really watch my language around mixed company.”

Terra raised an eyebrow. “I'm
confused.”

Vita relaxed. “I don't think
she understands that term yet.”

Adel sighed. “Infinite
apologies again, dhimmi. You see, dustrunner is an offensive slang
term for well... you.”

Terra frowned. She didn't like
being so ignorant that others had to explain to her when she was
supposed to be offended. “And what does dhimmi mean?”

Vita smiled. “That is an
honorific for a time traveler. That one is not offensive.”

Adel stood. “Well
regardless, may we go now? I am quite eager tonight.”

Vita faced Terra. “Delphia
should be along shortly. She can show you the way back home.”

Adel narrowed his gaze on
another man nearby. He chatted with a nearby couple, talking about
ways to improve the city.

“Shameful,” Adel said,
shaking his head, “showing such ambition. It's important that we
maintain traditional Saturnian values.”

Vita nodded.

Adel then turned to Vita.
“Well would you like to go have sex now?”

“I was the one waiting on
you to stop rambling about politics,” Vita said, taking out a
purple pill before swallowing it down with the rest of her drink.

Terra sat, red faced, while
Vita took Adel's arm and they strolled off into the crowd.

Moments later, Delphia
returned with another gorgeous man in tow. “Where is mother?”

Terra gestured to the crowd.
“She took a purple pill and went off with some guy.”

Delphia cringed as she sat
next to Terra. “I did not wish to know that. So did mother give her
approval?”

Terra nodded.

Delphia smiled. “Good. It
will be nice to have the company.”

Terra glanced to the young
man. He was like the last one, gorgeous and looking good in a
uniform. She wondered if she should even bother to remember his name.

Delphia's usual aloof air
vanished as she leaned forward, smiling. “I just heard an
interesting rumor! Alya Silverwind was spotted at the timeport
today.”

The handsome man leaned
forward. “I heard she discovers the best squires.”

Delphia nodded. “They say
she had someone with her. A youth about the right age for a squire.”

He nodded. “How interesting.
I may train alongside Silverwind's Squire. What an honor! I wonder
what he's like?”

Terra sighed. “Assuming she
even makes it in.”

The young man rolled his eyes.
“He will be accepted. I'd guess he would be admitted without delay.
I mean he is Silverwind's squire after all and she's a Legendary
Blade.”

Terra looked at Delphia.
“Okay. I have got to ask. Who are these Legendary Blades I keep
hearing about?”

“They are the greatest
heroes and heroines of the Aeon Legion,” Delphia said. “The most
skilled of the Legion become Legendary Blades and only twelve of them
exist at one time. The only way to become a Legendary Blade is the
defeat a current member in a Trial of Blades.”

Terra's brow lowered as she
struggled to understand all these new terms. “So they are the
leaders of the Legion?”

Delphia
shook her head. “No. Not really. They are the best
soldiers
of the Legion. Some have a high rank like Consul Prometheus.
Silverwind is a centurion though. A middle rank.”

Terra thought about Alya. She
certainly wouldn't be a good leader given what Terra had saw of her
flippant attitude.

Delphia and her boyfriend
finished a few more drinks before heading back. Once they left the
Convivium, she dumped the man like the last one. Terra grimaced.
Delphia discarded two boyfriends in one day while Terra had yet to
experience her first kiss.

They
traveled to a place called Dār al-salām labeled with the numeral
V
which Delphia explained was a tier two residential area. Spotless
pearl white towers crowded this zone. These tall, flat skyscrapers
stood straight save for small angular sections cut out of the sides
and each reached hundreds of stories into the air. Large glowing
glass orbs dotted the structure while wide open seams ran horizontal
along the sides.
Vegetation grew in the seams which were wide enough to allow a person
to walk on. Some of the towers were divided into sections that
floated above one another connected by a blue beam of light.

Terra followed Delphia to a
tower that hovered above, seemingly connected only by a beam of light
that shot up to it.

Delphia walked into a beam of
light. She floated upward at a steady pace while Terra followed.
Terra glanced down to her feet while she felt herself lighten. She
felt as though she were swimming in light. They floated through a
translucent field before drifting down on top of the field like it
was a floor.

Terra followed Delphia down a
long hallway with a row of arches on the walls, each inscribed with a
numeral. Delphia approached one arch as the wall behind it faded and
they entered.

“Do you not have normal
doors? What about a key to get in?” Terra asked.

Delphia
shrugged. “You mean the
fadedoors
?
They just fade when you near them. Why would it need a key?”

“To lock it?”

Delphia raised an eyebrow
while taking Terra's bag. “Why would you lock a door to a home?
Locks are for prisons, not homes. Here. Let me show you to the guest
room.”

Terra followed Delphia into
her immaculately clean home. Holofaces glowed a faint blue on the
walls which took the place of pictures. Many of the holofaces showed
pictures of Delphia and Vita. Others depicted great works of art that
faded into a new picture or painting after a few moments. Delphia
gestured to an empty room. “What's your favorite color?” Delphia
asked.

“Um. Blue I guess,” Terra
said, wondering where she would sleep.

Delphia touched a holoface on
her Shieldwatch. A grid of light beams passed from the ceiling to the
floor, changing the room into a full guest room complete with a bed
and furnishings all with a blue tint.

Terra might had been more
surprised if she hadn't spent the rest of the day being surprised.
She looked at a holoface projected on the wall. The poster sized
holoface showed a picture of a young woman. Terra noted that the girl
looked a little like her, though thinner with a well toned body.
Still the girl's hair and eyes matched Terra's as did her height. The
girl wore Legion armor like Alya's and led several other
legionnaires.

Terra pointed to the picture.
“Who's that?”

“Oh that girl?” Delphia
said, looking at the picture. “That's Kairos. She is Silverwind's
most famous squire. Well she was until she vanished.”

“Oh,” Terra said, still
staring at the picture. She then sat down, taking off her shoes to
rub her aching feet. In a single day, she had walked more than she
had all year.

Delphia gestured for Terra to
follow. Terra followed Delphia onto the patio garden. She stepped out
and sighed at being able to tread on the grass and dirt again.
Standing grounded on the soil felt good on her feet. When Terra
looked to Delphia, she saw Delphia staring at the sky. Terra looked
up to the stars. Just like when she had first time traveled, the
stars seemed beyond number. Even the city lights were not enough to
blot them out.

“All
of the stars,” Terra said. She knew little about stellar formations
in the night sky, but she knew there were not
this
many stars in the sky. At least not in her time.

“They say there are as many
stars as pages in Saturn City's history,” Delphia said in an airy,
aloof tone. She pointed. “Taurus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Orion,
Gemini.”

“Why are there so many
stars? I have never seen the night sky so full.”

Delphia's slight smile
returned. “Light travels at a set speed. Here in the Edge, the
light from every star has had time to reach us here. You are looking
at every star to exist in the universe.”

“It's beautiful.”

Delphia glanced at Terra and
smiled. “Thank you.”

Terra turned to her. “For
what?”

“For sharing this with me.
Most don't care about my strange hobby.”

Terra grinned. “That's okay.
One day I'll force you to go to a quarry with me. Then you can be
bored with my hobby.”

Delphia turned back to the
stars. “I guess you'll be busy soon. I hear just getting into the
Legion training is hard.”

Terra
frowned.
She didn't want to think about her task ahead. She had little
information on the subject. How would she gain admittance? Alya had
told Terra to be her usual stubborn self.

Delphia looked back into the
room at the poster of Kairos. “At least you are not Silverwind's
squire. If it's true that Silverwind has a new squire then I pity
whoever it is.”

“Why is that? Isn't Alya's
squire supposed to be the best?”

“Because,” Delphia said,
facing Terra. “All Alya's Squires. They all did great things. All
of them became Legendary Blades. They all had amazing
accomplishments, but after they accomplished them. Well...”

“Well what?”

Delphia became still as she
met Terra's eyes. “Well. They died.”

Without a sign, his sword
the brave man draws, and asks no omen, but his country's cause.

-From
Homer's
The Iliad
,
translation by Alexander Pope

H
anns's
right arm
still hurt while it healed in a cast. Thankfully the broken
arm did not impair his work as much as he had feared given he was
left handed. It did make work slow. Keeping the microscope view
centered proved time consuming. The slightest shift would ruin the
view and take time to reset back on the part.

“One more,” he said as he
attached the power source to the device with a small pair of
tweezers.

The door opened. “Sir,”
came a voice from behind Hanns.

“I am busy,” Hanns said in
an irritated tone. He had told his men he was not to be disturbed.

The soldier saluted. “Sorry
Sir. The Brigadeführer wishes to see you immediately.”

Hanns groaned, wondering who
had arrived. “Tell him I will see him in a moment.”

The soldier cleared his throat
and shifted. “Sir. You realize he outranks you?”

Hanns grinned as he gazed back
into the microscope. “Yes. I also realize that I am the only one
who can make the calculations for the time machine. He can wait.”

The soldier saluted and left.

Hanns finished placing the
last piece into the device under the microscope. It was a glass
sphere with a metal ring around it the size of a pea. Hanns picked up
the device with tweezers and dropped it into his right hand that
stuck out of his cast. Holding onto the sphere, he stepped outside
into his fortification and frowned at what he saw.

A
convoy had pulled into the base and hundreds of SS troops had
arrived.
Too many,
Hanns thought. “What is this?”

“Progress,” came a voice
nearby.

Hanns turned to see a pudgy
man in a sharply tailored SS officer's uniform. He stood half a head
shorter than Hanns and had a disapproving scowl that made others
around him uncomfortable.

The SS soldiers around him
didn't seem to mind and all grinned as though they enjoyed the fact
they were displacing Hanns's Zeitmacht troops. The regular Zeitmacht
troops regarded the SS invaders with wary expressions as the
interlopers unloaded the trucks.

The edge of Hanns's lip
curled, but he still gave a traditional Wehrmacht salute to the man.
“Brigadeführer Emmerich Klein.”

Emmerich smirked. “You may
address me as Emmerich. I know how you hate formalities, Hanns, and I
wish to move this transition along quickly. Are you busy right now?”

Hanns narrowed his gaze. “I
am on my way to the labs to deliverer the key to–”

“Good,” Emmerich
interrupted, gesturing for Hanns to follow.

Hanns scowled when they
reached his office. A pile of boxes stood outside that contained his
furnishings and items. Two SS soldiers carried out the remaining
boxes and dropped them on the floor. They kicked Hanns's box of notes
and laughed before leaving.