3,224
edits
Beloved (lore): Difference between revisions
m
→I am thirty-five years old.
WizardWolf (talk | contribs) Tag: Mobile edit |
WizardWolf (talk | contribs) Tag: Mobile edit |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 36: | Line 36: | ||
Nearby, the woman bellows in his chambers | Nearby, the woman bellows in his chambers | ||
She says he has not kept his political promises to the ex-Praetorate families that approved their match. He is so wounded, he says. Doesn't his luscious body delight her? Doesn't the right to fill his pouches with her young bring her joy? She says she is not a sexist. and this is not the Era of Lead. She worries about policy and external security, not his lusciousness. He complains that she does not make him happy. She says there is more to life than happiness. He disagrees. She calls him weak. He calls her a curse and a killer. | She says he has not kept his political promises to the ex-[[Praetorate]] families that approved their match. He is so wounded, he says. Doesn't his luscious body delight her? Doesn't the right to fill his pouches with her young bring her joy? She says she is not a sexist. and this is not the [[Era of Lead]]. She worries about policy and external security, not his lusciousness. He complains that she does not make him happy. She says there is more to life than happiness. He disagrees. She calls him weak. He calls her a curse and a killer. | ||
She roars and strikes him. I gasp into the floor. It is the first time I have ever heard my father in pain. The guards stand very still. | She roars and strikes him. I gasp into the floor. It is the first time I have ever heard my father in pain. The guards stand very still. | ||
| Line 48: | Line 48: | ||
==I am thirty-five years old.== | ==I am thirty-five years old.== | ||
I have just returned to the palace from my first deployment on the cruiser Aedile Tlolol, showing our banner in the Sindû marches. I saw no action. I feel like a fraud. The sheltered Princess-Imperial who never left the rails of her father's brood pouch. He has demanded that the Evocate-General promote me to a staff position back home. She has refused. | I have just returned to the palace from my first deployment on the cruiser [[Aedile Tlolol]], showing our banner in the [[Sindû]] marches. I saw no action. I feel like a fraud. The sheltered Princess-Imperial who never left the rails of her father's brood pouch. He has demanded that the [[Umun'arath|Evocate-General]] promote me to a staff position back home. She has refused. | ||
In a tantrum, Father throws a tremendous celebration to commemorate my return. The streets of Torobatl run pulpy with trampled fruit. The skies rain cloudfry stunned by fireworks. I escape my attendants and stand in a corner of the palace ballroom, drinking pollened water and pretending I am back in my fighter. | In a tantrum, Father throws a tremendous celebration to commemorate my return. The streets of [[Torobatl]] run pulpy with trampled fruit. The skies rain cloudfry stunned by fireworks. I escape my attendants and stand in a corner of the palace ballroom, drinking pollened water and pretending I am back in my fighter. | ||
"Your name is a prayer for war," the Evocate-General says. | "Your name is a prayer for war," the Evocate-General says. | ||
| Line 58: | Line 58: | ||
"My father named me for a star," I say. "Nothing to do with war." | "My father named me for a star," I say. "Nothing to do with war." | ||
"Yes. But the star Caiatl was named for a myth. Not an old homeworld myth, either. A myth from the Age of Sails, when we conquered the stars. Surely you know it, assuming that you've been briefed on the OXA?" | "Yes. But the star [[Caiatl]] was named for a myth. Not an old homeworld myth, either. A myth from the [[Age of Sails]], when we conquered the stars. Surely you know it, assuming that you've been briefed on the [[OXA Machine|OXA]]?" | ||
"The Odyle Xenotaph Anarchive. Sometimes OXTA, depending on how you construct the acronym. The alien oracle that led us to the graves of Aark." Must be wary, now. OXA is a Psion myth, and the Psions are a sensitive topic. My father wants to free them from bondage. "It claimed to record the story of the galaxy, and to prophesize what may yet come." | "The Odyle Xenotaph Anarchive. Sometimes OXTA, depending on how you construct the acronym. The alien oracle that led us to the graves of [[Aark]]." Must be wary, now. OXA is a Psion myth, and the Psions are a sensitive topic. My father wants to free them from bondage. "It claimed to record the story of the galaxy, and to prophesize what may yet come." | ||
"A black box for galactic civilizations, if you prefer it in pilot's terms." The Evocate-General nods to the pin on my right pauldron. I am conscious of my shaved-down tusks, of the sores left by the fighter's interface. "The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA. Your star got its name from the oldest myths in that archive. And when your mother told your father that story... the star became your name. A prayer that all will go as it must... and the way it must go is struggle." | "A black box for galactic civilizations, if you prefer it in pilot's terms." The Evocate-General nods to the pin on my right pauldron. I am conscious of my shaved-down tusks, of the sores left by the fighter's interface. "The doomed and the damned left the record of their downfall in the OXA. Your star got its name from the oldest myths in that archive. And when your mother told your father that story... the star became your name. A prayer that all will go as it must... and the way it must go is struggle." | ||