Carmine

Valor sat on my bed, the hood hung low. His mischievous smile invited me into his lovely world. I missed him, not that I would say it. My gratitude was not going to feed his arrogance. “Good to see you are alive and well, what happened to you, my friends?” I asked.

I stepped around him towards the open window he came through, while Sandream leaned on the wall close to the door.

The window’s curtains flung about wildly in the wind's cry. I pulled the string, closing the curtains.

I noticed in the corner of my eyes, Valor climbing across the bed towards me. My feet slowed as I neared the bed's side.

Valor sprayed something at me. I backed away, but he drenched my skin and clothes with an unknown liquid. I waved my arms erratically until my waist hit the chiffonier.

Valor threw a glass bottle at me, and I caught it. The glass concaved inside with a bluish liquid half-filled inside.

That strong sour smell consumed me briefly, yet It dispersed into nothing. I asked, “What the hell?”

“If someone asks what is that smell? Tell them San Rosa told you to use this to mask your presence from your enemies. Elamnite have a good sense of smell.”

“I can still smell you through the perfume," Sandream replied.

I placed the perfume bottle on the chiffonier, glanced at the mirror, and I had to admit I looked nothing like my mother.

Valor pointed at her. “Especially females.”

“Men know that and still struggle in trying to impress upon us.”

Valor tilted his head. “Not with a nose that strong. I would never win.”

"Are Janilla and Five okay?" I asked, trying to break up this pointless discussion.

Valor nodded. "Mhmm, yes, they are." My shoulders slumped in relief.

"Five's condition is deteriorating though. He didn't recover that well from the toxin. The fever is gone, and he is better, but his body will not survive for much longer."

My throat clenched as my fingers balled up. "I had a feeling. Is he in any discomfort?"

His face contorted in revulsion. "Guys like him don't feel discomfort. He'll die proud to serve you. That's enough for beta-dolls like him."

"Beta-dolls?" I asked.

Sandream chimed in. "Derogatory term concocted by jealous Modified Cores such as Valor for New Core shells made to serve free Elams."

Valor grinned. "I never knew I was jealous."

"It's as obvious as your musk," Sandream replied.

Valor shrugged, while Sandream rolled her eyes.

Did they become friendly? I smiled at that development. “Sandream it is good to see you are well, but how did you…”

Sandream sobered up. “My previous shell is lifeless right now, I will need a new heart, repaired lungs…”She rolled her jaw, “that will—”

“My shell will have to do for now,” Valor cut in.

I grinned. "Is this not grand? You gave up the body anyway."

Valor twisted his lips. "Do not drown me in it, lass."

"You could have gave it to me!"

"And I wouldn't have given it to Sandream."

"And if you gave it to me I wouldn't have gone to Deagonu. Either way, you still had to give it up, how does it feel?" My smile was insidiously large, and Valor looked away in silence. I motioned at Sandream. "I am thankful that you received it, and you are still with us."

Sandream motioned at her chest and said with disgust. “This cheap material is not on par with the shell gifted to me. Mine is a Septorial Raid Skin–four, two, five. Those shells are beyond rare.”

“Yes, yes, they are literally not being made anymore. Getting the funds is the problem," he replied.

I asked, “Oh? How much?”

“Too much for us,” Valor said. “For now, so we left her shell with my Biomath. Five and Janilla are with him.”

I asked, “Biomath?”

“They construct, restore, and augment bodies, I mean shells.”

I turned to Sandream. “We will get the means to get your body alive and well. I am sure we can find the funds.”

Sandream averted her eyes.

I said, “I am Erot’s daughter.” No reaction from Sandream, while Valor’s posture relaxed, and his eyes widened.

“You are joking right?” Valor asked.

“I wish I was.”

Valor put his hand over his mouth. “By the God’s hand. Your life is quite interesting. Your mother wants you dead?”

“Then you would have found my corpse. She, explained why I am alive, what I can do for her, but—she told me that the attacks were coming from Ashuor. She also told me you and San Rosa are agents for Amishcor. She told me singularities do not exist.”

“Horse dung, I was hired by a mere Shyia, well, I was hired, because I am the best. I know nothing about Amishcor. Besides that the art of predicting the future is real, some do not consider it a true science, but it is.”

Sandream said, “Amishcor is not a God that is privy to interfere in matters outside Elam unless it was something dire happening with his faithful.”

I said, “Thinking of it, Five was the one that told me Erot wants me dead.”

Valor asked, “You ever asked which Erot specifically? When you are part of a family, everyone takes on the last name of the coven leader.”

I said, “Contact him then.”

“Do that and every empath within the city will pick up on your discussion. We will verify that when we get back.”

“Under the assumption, I will go back.”

“You want to stay here, around Corona, Erot’s most faithful?” Valor asked.

I sighed. “Sorry, I mean—“

“Carmine, she is dangerous. Erot will kill you eventually. You are the end of her. There must be something to this, there is no way she's going to let you live. It doesn't matter if she's your mother. I know them I know Elamnites. They don't have a heart. They don't have a soul.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. She has not killed me yet.”

“She sent Corona to try and kill you all this time.”

“Maybe my mother changed her mind. She did say I am talented. So—“

“What did she say?”

I looked back to see Sandream had leaned up off the wall. When I stared back at Valor, his eyes hid something, serious. “She said I was talented, talent was hard to come by and—some—”

Valor narrowed his eyes and sighed.

Sandream said, “Your shell, no, yours is not a shell, but a body.”

“At ease, repeat, body, my body?” I asked.

Sandream said, “It’s highly possible. Elams, Gods rarely call anyone talented. A shyia body with the memory of their past battles etched deep within the muscles and bones is very valuable. Valor’s body, for example, old, useless, obsolete, dis—”.

“Get to the point, you do not need so many descriptions for me alone,” Valor said.

Sandream replied, “His body still holds years of battles, knowledge of survival, those will be very valuable, bodies of skilled workers are worth way more than peasants on the market floor.”

Valor snorted. “Plus it proves your mother genuinely believes you are a singularity. A lot of predictions are indeed wrong, but if a singularity was accurate. That person would become one of the greatest persons to have walked this earth. You are that person.”

I quivered in distress. Valor got up and came closer to me. He looked down with a smile. “You are destined for great things.”

He tried to lay his hand on my shoulder, but I waved my hand pushing him away. “I never asked for this.”

Valor frowned but nodded his head slowly as if in thought. I turned away from him. Valor blurted out, “She wants your body, best way to stop you is to melt your brain and replace it with her consciousness ending your grand timeline, right, on the operating table.”

I said under my shaking lips, “Grand?” Turning around to him, I clutched the bone of my neck as a deep sickness upset my gut and caused an acidic burn. "She wants my body?"

Valor nodded his head with withdrawn eyes. "It would seem so."

Sandream said, "Theoretically."

"Theoretically?" I asked.

"As in, there is no evidence to prove that a singularity can be stopped. No one has ever tried this before."

Valor said, "Why wouldn't it work? it makes a lot of sense. If Erot is inside of Carmine's body, how can she be killed?"

I glanced at myself in the mirror. This body that I birthed on this land with, given to me through the actions of my mother, was not mine to control?

Sandream waved her hand dismissingly. "We don't know that yet."

I massaged my clenched jawline where one mark from an ax swing still existed. Would this disappear like the others, or was my fate inevitable? "We should stop talking about this. At this point, we are not sure what will occur."

"What we know is that she wants you alive for a reason." Sandream stepped closer to the bed.

"That is why I say we take her right now. We cannot leave her here," Valor sneered with restrained rage.

I went closer to the mirror. "I don't find out anything if I leave."

Valor pounded his arms against the bed. "For the love of all that is good, do you have a death wish?"

I frowned. "Death and I are good friends. If my mother wants my body she'll be getting an ugly one, I have so many—"

"Most of your cuts are gone, being the daughter of a God afforded you better cell regeneration," Sandream said.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Wait, like Five? Have I gotten other abilities from my mother?"

Valor crossed his arms. "Yes, it would seem so. It's a weaker trace of it, so I ask for you to not rely on it. As far as others, depends on what shell she was in when she and your father consummated."

I wagged my eyebrows in disdain. "So why haven't I gained the ability to suppress pain? Is it not true that the Elams have such a thing?"

"Just like a tall man has a son that grows to be short. Not everything gets passed down through birth," Sandream said.

I grunted in disgruntlement, for a painless life, that was what I needed the most.

My chest got tickled with my fingers. "So is it like that for people like me with lighter skin?" I gestured to the window. "Like the people in this city?"

Valor said, "No, most people like you are half-Terisons, half-Shyias, while you are half-Elam, half-Shyia. Terisons are not Elams, they're nothing more than a forgotten race in servitude to Shyias and Elams for their survival."

Here I thought I knew everything, so everything got separated so evenly. I was who I was, and that was not normal. My fingers graced against my chest, so I felt my beating heart. It proved I was a living thing, yet that never comforted me.

I stood between both worlds, for I was neither Shyia nor Elam.

"At least you recognize your worth in this," Sandream said.

Valor groaned aloud. "You know, I'm starting to wonder if you hold some grudge. What is it, because you are not Elam? You can class yourself as such all you want, but for years now, you served a Shyia King as a jester. That is such a high position you have my Sister. Tell me how important you are for being everyone's joke."

Sandream narrowed her eyes at him, and her fists crackled from her fingers crushing inward.

"Please, can we not have an argument," I said.

Valor and Sandream cut their eyes at each other.

I sighed, and It got quiet, except for pounding steps swiftly increasing in volume. Valor came over the bed and jumped through the window. Sandream followed him. I stared dumbfounded.

The door opened. In came Corona, her eyes moved purposely and menacingly. I shifted as she approached. My body blocked view of the perfume bottle.

She blinked her eyelids rapidly at me. I asked, “What a-are you doing here?”

Corona frowned at me before moving around the room. She looked around and said nothing. Corona eventually got to the window and looked out. My heart beat like a drum, but she saw nothing of import as she left the window.

She rounded the bed, and almost passed me, yet she stopped in front of me. “I will repeat my preparation for you, and I expect when I pick you up in half an hour, you will give me no struggle, agreed?”

"Yes, I mean, no problems," I replied.

She turned away from me and walked out of the room. I sighed, and my heart eased, for now.