Without waiting, everything had changed.
Life in Édrin followed new directions. The inhabitants of the planet were infected with a disease that we had never seen before. A lethal virus in our atmosphere made the air contagious for the weak. It was the beginning of an invasion.
Édrin was not yet part of the planets protected by the Galactic Confederation. I can still remember it well. How it started. It's because. Our warriors had succumbed to the hands of invaders who practically brought about our destruction. Thousands of dead and infected in a few days. Few survived the alien pathogen.
If I were to tell you how it all started ... Oh, it doesn't matter. We had suddenly become slaves. The invasion had started with a pandemic so virulent and deadly that in the rapidity of events, we did not even fight. We didn't have that chance.
I was still a teenager. Of course, I heard the stories. It is one thing to listen to and quite another to be a protagonist. The frightened citizens ran in search of shelter, abandoning the inhospitable planet. The spaceships-cities. The air itself was no longer breathable on the planet. We were slowly dying. Only not everyone was so lucky or rescued. It would take some time.
I was the descendant of the throne of the Tower of Seven in Édrin. One day the throne would be mine. Only that day never came. I saw with the wide eyes of a child who had grown up too quickly overnight.
Our city fell under the march of unknown and frightening warriors. Their sight was horrifying. They weren't like us. They were predators. And they hunted for food in a new ecosystem. It was our end. From heir to the throne to the condition of a slave. I had watched my parents' murder, protecting my little brother. My eyes were dry, something inside me seemed to die along with the walls that fell under laser shots and the attack of bestial creatures. Eloas was all that mattered to me. My brother.
And it was all that child's fault. I looked at her with the hostile look of someone who lost everything. I needed someone to blame. Those beasts marched through our lands, advancing and killing. They walked like us. And yet...
The red eyes were scary. And their fangs and claws when they surrounded their victims for food left a metallic hiss that I would never forget. It was only later that I discovered that they wore the armor of impenetrable and yet unknown metal. From a distance, the sight was terrifying. They were monsters that you hear in stories and suddenly they were real.
They were not natural life forms. But what can we call natural? Life for them had not come as we might expect. That way of life had come from an unimaginable environment. Liquid ammonia. Oxygen was not critical to them.
Once again I looked at that child with resentment. My father was dead. He was the king of our people. And that little girl with reddish hair and deep green eyes should one day be my queen. There was nothing left to govern. Those bestial creatures moved mercilessly, displaying piercing horns and claws. Retractable fangs ... Their skin looked like golden scales. And the smell ... It smelled like death. It smelled of blood. Exactly what they ate.
- You better shut up! It will end up drawing the attention of these things, child. - I exploded tired.
Throughout the night I tugged on the child without much patience, holding her hand. She was annoying. The air ducts were miles and miles that had no end.
- I want to go home. I'm hungry. - the child protest came heated.
But what house?
I was also hungry. And I tried not to remember the promise my father demanded before he died. Protect that annoying child? She was not one of us. She never would be. Most people said that. Only the pleading green eyes were insistent. I didn't know why my presence was pleasant to her. Only the girl seemed to find fun in everything I did. Have I mentioned that some of us, very few actually, had magic in their blood? She was a small, rebellious, and terrible arsonist. Annoying. And also from a very old lineage.
It couldn't be that hard at least once she obeys a damned order! She did not obey anyone. Well, almost nobody. Only when I asked for something ...
Cailín ... I should hate you.
And the customs and traditions of a world that was falling into ruins. Advantageous unions were decided to guarantee powerful alliances. It had been that way that that girl had been chosen as my future companion.
- We still have to continue! - I decided without paying attention to the tearful complaints.
It was only recently that she had started to speak. Her childlike development was amazing. Was it the DNA she carried in her body? I still didn't quite understand that.
It was for her that those bloodthirsty creatures sought. She was part Edrian and partly ... I didn't even want to think. It would be very easy to find a way back and say that the child had not survived.
Why didn't I do that?
It was the small hand clinging to mine. In the midst of that destruction, she was a link that maintained my sanity. I shouldn't show emotions. Edrians always controlled their emotions. We were also binary. It aroused strange feelings in me and forced me to command. I felt strong and invincible. And it was hell!
I wanted to scream and cry like anybody there. My life was over. Everything I knew was over. Édrin belonged to the invader. With some irritation, I held the child in my arms. She shouldn't be so angry. It could bring more problems.
Caílin, in a burst of childish fury, had stopped the warriors who invaded the throne room. I saw their leader's greedy look at the disgusted child. The flames were fueled by her fear, her eyes at first glowing red and furious.
My world was falling into ruins. Only there had been a time when we were victorious and invincible. Our technology and science have failed to stop the virus from advancing.
And throughout the Universe, there were several planets. Those beasts had chosen Édrin. It wasn't because our way of life was more compatible with their species. It was the gift they longed for. That race in an involutive process wanted our skills. Greater adaptability.
Their species gradually died. They sought genetic variability. In just a generation our females would be sterile because of the poison they brought into their bodies. We would become slaves and a source of food for them.
That was what Caílin represented to the invader. The hybridization process had been successfully completed. The mixture of genes from different species had created someone unique. A female in a society without distinction of sex.
- We need to continue, okay? - I spoke slowly, ignoring her sunken eyes and her dejected appearance.
My mind still avoided the image of that thing, of the angry and unforgiving eyes.
"You will be my new slave, native. Nobody touches what belongs to me."
The threat still gave me chills. For years I would experience horrors among them. Or else would die like so many others. Most died when they had part of the blood drained from the veins by the sharp fangs. It brought terrible diseases. In a few years, my people would also have genetic changes because of that.
-You won't abandon me, will you? - the child's voice showed fear.
I hugged her, forcing a smile through the soot that covered my golden skin. My eyes looked at her in awe.
You should do just that.
-Of course not, you silly.- I replied in surprise. - We will find a place to rest and find food until the rescue appears.
Very soon we wouldn't even have any more food. They were like locusts that went on destroying absolutely everything. New forms of food would be needed to ensure that we can survive.
I saw the child whimpering terribly, his eyes shining like the precise stones my father wore in his crown.
-It was not my fault. - the child sobbed crying. - I'm hungry. I want to sleep. I promise I will obey!
-I promise if you don't abandon me! - This time the voice was clear and scared.
I took a deep breath. It was just damn tiredness.
Good heavens, she sobbed and cried. The words, however, came before my mind with amazing clarity and understanding.
I stopped in awe. That thing hadn't even spoken to me. The hateful thought was nevertheless clear in my mind. How did Caílin know what I felt? The child fell asleep from exhaustion in my arms and I kept looking and looking. Trying not to think that there was a kind of connection between us.
-I promise I won't leave you, okay? I spoke without thinking and on pure impulse.
The child's outburst aroused emotions that I hated. Like now. Years after all that, from the horror of slavery and finally getting freedom, I knew that the connection between us existed.
-Damn it, Caílin! - I put aside my unpleasant memories and my fingers cleaned the female mouth, removing fluids while the hand massaged her heart. There was no sign. Nothing.
Only a lot had happened since then. Our lives had taken opposite directions without me or she being able to protest.
I forced my mind not to register details while looking at it. It was not the body of a teenager who was next to mine. Was...
Because of her, I had experienced true hell until I was rescued by Confederate troops. My body had marks of odious fangs that drained my blood without allowing the host to die. It was a luxury acquisition for the leader of those invaders after being captured.
-Hell, stubborn girl! - I roared possessed and my fist went down hard on her chest in an outburst. - Try to breathe! Keep the damn heart beating! Angel !!!