Regius (37 page)

"But why?" I repeated,
feeling a bubble of anger build up inside of myself. "If there's a
war, which there is, then I want to know about it, which they
didn't allow me. Why?" I paused. "
Why
?" I felt the need to
repeat.

Dell looked uncomfortable.
"Cause you guys are the weak race."

"Fuck you!" I
roared.

"Hey! It's not
my
fault. I'm just
sprouting out the truth. I know it ain't nice to hear, but
scientific bullcrap backs it up. Since you guys don't have any
Regius blood in your system, you ultimately can't hold your own
against Blue Bloods or Altors for that matter. Though Palliums
don't got the strength, they have access to Corium Desert, thus the
Creatures of Origin, thus capable to create weaponry and equipment
that allows them to hold their own."

"So we Civilians aren't
allowed to be aware because the Altors and Palliums, whom I'm
assuming to be on the good side of this fight, believe us to get in
their way?"

"That's one way of putting
it." Dell agreed. "And I figure they don't think you guys to be
very smart either since they did end up deciding to keep you all
clueless while letting the war go on behind your backs."

Grumbling, I crossed my
arms and stared out before me, no longer appreciating the view.
"What about the Regius? Why are they keeping us in the
dark?"

"They want to restore their
kingdom. How are you gonna have a kingdom when you got no people to
rule over? They need you alive as much as the Altors and Palliums
do. Basically, the Regius are fighting for your captivity under
their rule, while the Altors and Palliums are fighting for your
freedom."

"All nice and dandy, but I
still don't get why they would shut us out." Not even Brass was
capable of pissing me off quite like this.

"Cause back when the war
was out in the open, a lot of Civilians died. More than the Altors
and Regius. The Altors' purpose is to protect. It's coded into
their system. When a bunch of you died, they sorta figured their
purpose was being bullied an awful lot. Course the Regius slowly
came to realize that by killing off the 'little people', they'd be
left with nothing but themselves. Blue Bloods are arrogant by
nature, so being king to a country with no people didn't really
have that much appeal. Ya know, no worshippers and all
that."

What a shit load of info
that was to absorb. I looked at Dell curiously. "If to protect is
coded into the Altor system, and you told me that there were two
types of Altors, the Civilian and the Soldier, then why'd you call
yourself a Ranger?"

"Cause we're the coolest."
I rolled my eyes at his chuckled statement. "Alright, alright.
Truth? Rangers are p-" He choked, grimacing my way. "Pi-" He sighed
heavily. "We're pirates, okay?" He sounded utterly annoyed. "I was
born into the Ranger system, which a lot of us are, but some were
soldiers who then decided to cut the crap and the war, dropping
their sword to pick up a gun instead and carry the title 'Ranger'
while working for whoever pays the best prize in this never ending
battle."

"And you steal treasures?"
I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, yes. Not so much
treasures. I- We don't like to talk about it, okay?" Smothering a
chuckle, I nodded at him as seriously as I could.

"You're Altor soldiers that
have gone bad?" I clarified.

He shook his head. "No. An
Altor soldier on the bad would be if they held onto their weapon
and decided to side with the Regius instead. Now those are even
more rare than the Rangers are. We Rangers are basically very sick
and tired of the whole war and decided to live our lives whatever
way we wanted, no longer following Altor procedures and
protocol."

Ah.
I nodded. "You left a system."

"Exactly, and created a new
one that is a whole lot more free and less dangerous, too. Our main
income is reselling loot, hence why we created the Rangers Alley.
It's a war free zone, so all races, except Civilians, are allowed
to enter and purchase whatever the hell we got our hands on. We
travel through the sky and that's one of the reason the Altors,
Regius and Palliums call us sky pirates. We don't like being called
the P word by the way, so don't even think about using
it."

"Or what?"

"Or it's a gun to your
head." I stared dully his way and he shrugged. "Alright, whatever.
Be my guest and try it for yourself to see if what I say is true.
You're not gonna like the result. Then again, I'm pretty sure you
won't even realize the consequence to saying that word since you'll
be dead what with the bullet launching itself through your brain.
Blood and skin pieces all over the place and-" Placing a hand over
his mouth, I cringed while laughing.

"I get the picture."
Removing my hand, I took a moment to breathe, surprised my temper
wasn't trying to poke its head to the surface.

Was I angry for being lied
to all my life, being kept in the dark when it came to matters that
concerned the whole of Zinc, and not just a few specific types?
Hell yeah. But it was also clear to me that shouting, stamping my
feet and slamming doors would do me no good.

"Dell?"

"Yeah?"

"If this barrier allowed me
into the Rangers Alley, it means that I was meant to find out about
all of this, right?"

Dell frowned. "I don't
know, dude. Getting inside the head of a Seer isn't really my job
description. I'd tell you to go find one and ask, but unfortunately
they're about as close to extinction as one can get."

There were Seers too? Eye
twitching, I stored that away for later. "Has a Civilian ever
entered before?"

"No."

"Okay, so do I really need
to get confirmation from a Seer and have them tell me that, yes,
what I believe is correct? They wanted me to find out the truth."
Inhaling deeply, I started to feel a tad more stable now that a
plan was forming in my head.

"I don't like where this is
going." Dell announced.

"Sure you don't, cause I'm
gonna ask you to help me go up against the law the Altors, Palliums
and Regius installed without the Civilians’ consent."

"Juglan is going to kill
me."

"Juglan?" I
asked.

"My boss. He's captain to
Apnea. Which, by the way, Isa's not gonna be happy with me either.
He's Juglan's first. Guo's his second and Ali is Apnea's cook, but
also Juglan's friend." Dell told me in a conversational manner,
seemingly forgetting my request for a split second. I'd met him not
even an hour ago, but I could tell he had the attention span of a
butterfly.

As we fell silent, I
thought about all I'd learned. I felt betrayed. While being
clueless seemed to be a lot more comfortable than being aware, the
reason as to why I was clueless was because I was the 'weak race'.
That wouldn't do at all. I had no idea how I was going to go about
it, or if it would even work, but one thing was certain; I was
going to make the Regius and Altors pay for believing me unable to
hold my own. Zinc wasn't just their land. It was mine too. Not just
me, but all of the Civilians.

"We need to be smart about
this." I muttered, getting up and standing on the edge of the roof,
the feeling of being at the top of the world returning to me as I
looked out over Cobalt.

"We?" Dell asked dully,
getting up as well. "I just explained to you what Rangers are. We
don't exactly do what is right. Why would I help a Civilian? What's
in it for me? Ya gonna pay me?" Before I could respond, I could see
a flash of confusion wash over his face. "Hey, you wanna tell me
what your name is?"

Blinking in surprise, I
laughed. "Delph Riddle."

Taking my hand, he shook
it. "Dell McDuffy."

"And no," I continued once
the introduction was over. "I'm not going to pay you cause I have
no gold. You're gonna be obliged to give me a hand since if you
don't, I'll go back into that Rangers Alley, tell everyone I'm a
Civilian, prove it with my
weak
blood
, and then add that you are the one
that smuggled me in there.” Smirking, I began making my way back
down to the ground.

Eyes now wide, Dell gulped
and then instead of climbing down like I had, he simply
jumped.

Landing beside me, he
squeaked. "Dude!" Grasping my shirt, he looked at me with fear in
his eyes. "They'll have my freaking head for something like
that!"

I peaked down to see he’d
lifted me off the ground. "I figured. How about we go find my
friend and then you bring me to your captain so I can have a nice
long chat with him."

Groaning, he set me back
down. "I'd rather face Cypress."

"Who-"

"Altor District Leader of
Cobalt City. Scary man. Not as scary as his brother, Reed." Dell
shrugged. "But I'd actually rather go and face the Iodin Leader
than tell Juglan what I just did."

"I didn't understand any of
that."

"Are you
sure
you want to annoy
the Regius and Altors?" Dell asked slowly, practically spelling out
each word. "Revealing that you know and plan on telling more
Civilians may only worsen the war."

"I don't want to simply
annoy them or create a hiccup in their plans." I murmured. "I want
to scare them."

"Why?" Dell asked
curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" When
he shook his head, I shrugged. "Cause finding out about the truth
is scary, Dell. A war was taking place right under my nose and they
made sure that I was blind to that fact. All these years where I
thought I was living in bored peace...what if something had set off
the Regius and they decided that they no longer cared if they had
the Civilians to rule over? We would have become aware of the
situation without explanation and suddenly would have found
ourselves in the middle of a war that we'd thought to have ended
long ago." Granted, nothing had set the Regius off and clearly all
Civilians were still as clueless as they were made to be centuries
ago.
But.
"Point
being, these people took something from us, and while I have no
idea how, I have to give that something back to the others like
you've given it back to me." Feeling good about my words, my
shoulders relaxed at my statement.

Dell on the other hand,
sighed heavily, seemingly exhausted with my plan already. "Alright.
I'll help you create the mess, but don't expect me to clean up with
you. I will run if it comes down to it."

"Deal."

* * * *

I had seen the Coliseum
many a time in my glimpses of the past, present and future, so
seeing it again wasn't all that strange. What was a rare sight to
behold, were the people that were walking towards the entrance in
my vision.

A flash and I got to see
the Altors residing within the Coliseum. They formed a perfect
line, flanking each other’s sides. Galax and Datura were nowhere in
sight, stuck down in the cells. Everyone that had gone, had
returned. I could see Dandelion and Jatrop, both reluctant to be
here, upset about Calycanthus' disappearance and worried for the
Keeper.

Beside them stood Iso, who
didn't know whether to be glad or upset he hadn't gotten the chance
to find his twin and speak. His arm was around Ivy's shoulder who
held onto the gloved hand of my half-sister, Vervaine. She, like
the Jansen's, could only worry about Calycanthus' wellbeing, and
now that she knew of my existence thanks to the Regius Prince, she
worried about me, too.

Caltha and Ilex were
staring ahead, waiting patiently to receive their orders from one
of the three Elders standing before the Trainers and
students.

Iris was the first one to
break out of the line, stepping forward to meet her daughter
halfway. Anemone had returned from Iron Island, accompanied by
Angi, the District Leader of that region. She was a short, round
woman in her late thirties with black hair loosely tied. She wore a
long, black dress with combat boots underneath, as though she'd
been pulled out of a fancy dinner and had no time to change.
Considering Anemone's neat attire, that might have been exactly the
case.

She was distracted when
Cypress, District Leader of Cobalt City, came to stand beside her
and gave her a quick hug. Unlike her, he was dressed in the Soldier
uniform most Altors wore. He was very stereotypical; tall,
muscular, square, black hair, tanned skin and an unnaturally odd
mix of one grey eye and one blue. While he looked like his mother,
Rose, he was a man of few words like his father, Pieris.

His brother Reed was the
opposite. While he looked like his father, he was as loud as his
mother. Like Cypress, he had one grey eye and one blue, but what
made him special and perfect to be the District Leader of Iodin
City, was the rest of his looks. He wasn't tanned and his hair was
pale blue. Actually, with the exception of the one grey eye, he
looked Regius through and through.

But the party was not yet
complete. Flux, Leader of the Palliums and his heirs, Conium and
Galaxi, were next to appear in the Coliseum.