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A Tale of Two Cities-Bandi and Windar...life in Vela Astria...when the past doesn't match the present or the future

Posted May 12, 2022, 9:10 p.m. by Fleet Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) (Kate O'Neill)

SNIP
A Tale of Two Cities-Bandi and Windar…life in Vela Astria

KUBLIA TAIS (Captial World of the Galactic Union)

The Rectoress rose from her position of genuflecting. The movement was slow and graceful as if she was floating on air. Her carefully tailored gown continued to glisten and pulse even though the transmission had stopped. Smoothing imaginary wrinkles out of the front of her dress, she moved to the side of the room pouring herself a strong ale. She secretly despised both the pomp and pageantry and the cleansing rituals of a world’s indoctrination. It was not the financial expense of the event. The Galactic Union had unimaginable wealth. It was a waste of her time and that of those that could be doing important work. Today it was Mischwald but in less than a month it would be another.

Bringing the glass to her lips, the ice clinked softly against the crystal edges of the cup. The sound felt soothing, like the wind chimes that hung outside her bedroom window when she was a child on Naluvai. Closing her eyes, the Rectoress imagined the salt smell that clung to every breeze that washed ashore from the ocean waves, the ocean gulls that seemed to caw non-stop when the tides rolled in and out, and the small grains of sand that seemed to coat the ground no matter how much one swept the floor. It was a simpler time back then when her only concern was if her father would bring back a sweet from the market along with the daily catch from his boat. Her fingers gripped the crystal glass tighter as if trying to choke the memories from surfacing with her bare hands. Living in the past did not progress one into the future fate had determined for them. Her knuckles turned whiter as the Rectoress focused on erasing the image of her and her sister running barefoot on the sand towards the encroaching waves. The white froth slipped between their toes as the waves splashed up covering their legs and stomach with the water from the endless ocean that seemed to blur the line of the planet’s surface with the horizon.

“Rectoress,” a voice called out softly causing her to startle and shatter the delicate crystal in her palm. The imaginary warm spray of ocean water was replaced with droplets from her frosty amber drink and blood from her hand covering her pristine white dress with a yellow and red blood splatter. “Kyla?” The voice was no longer across the room but in her ear. His left arm encircled her waist, pulling her tightly to his body as his right hand slowly traced her wrist, flipping her palm up. The skin was a bloody mess with jagged chunks and small shards of crystal from the glass embedded in the once creamy white skin.

Looking down at her hand, the Rectoress did not cry out in pain, flinch, or turn away. As the man’s chin settled on her shoulder, they watched as the crystal pieces seemed to slowly extricate themselves from the jagged, torn flesh of her hand. One by one they popped up out of her wound and fell to the ground producing a sound that was similar to the tinkle of the ice that once bounced in the crystal glass from which she had been drinking. His thumb moved from the pulse of her wrist to the palm of her hand in a circular motion. The motion brushed away any remaining bits of broken crystal from the glass yet smeared the blood around coating her hand. Do you see the blood on your hand? It is only a microscopic droplet of the amount you have spilled today on a world you will not remember by morning, he silently chastised the Rectoress. She did not know it but he would make Kyla Novar pay for what she did today with more than just a smear of blood.


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