"Wake up, Kaiser scum."
At the word Kaiser, something forms inside me. It burns away the cold that plagues my skin and brings light into a place that has not known of such a concept for a long time.
Cold. What is cold? It is bitter and painful. It bites at my body. Eats at my heart. It hurts, but not as much as the guard's words. I am not scum - I am something different. I am a Kaiser. It means emperor. An emperor should not be referred to as scum.
Another pang of pain hits me. This time, it clouds my memory. For a moment, I forget everything. I feel the meaning of the word 'kaiser' wash away, caught up by the waves of pain that lap against the shore of my memories.
"What does Kaiser mean?" I ask the guard. But the words do not come out as I will them to.
"Awwi?"
He regards me with disapproval. His gaze is as cold as my skin. Cold - I...
I do not remember what cold is.
The guard's gloved hand grabs me by the arm. HIs glove is soft and scratchy. He yanks me to my feet and pushes me out of my cell. I will not miss that place. it is cold and grey and dark and everything I do not like. I do not like this guard either, but his glove is soft and that is better than the hard floor of my cell. I miss my temple - it was a prison, too, but it was comfortable.
What have they turned my temple into? Why is it made of grey stone and black bars? Where are the shades of blue and gold and white? Where is the sound of running water? I cannot feel it - not anymore.
He barks a few harsh words into his communicator. As I watch, every action of his begins to lose meaning. Words and their meanings slip away from me as we march down the metal catwalk. His grip tightens as we approach another guard, this one toting a large gun and manacles. He kneels down and attaches them to my legs, before removing a pair of cuffs from his belt and binding my hands.
"Don't know what Yggdrasil wants with scum like this, honestly. They're just eating into our resources. And these little devils," The second guard, the one with the cuffs, spits in my face. "Have the gall to disguise themselves as one of our own. As children." His spit is warm and stinky. I do not like its scent. It smells smoky and it burns at my lungs. His partner shrugs, and tugs my chain.
"Can I punch it, Garrett? Thing looks right smug, if I do say so meself."
"No can do, Sam. Higher-ups want it unharmed. 'S it gets better grub than the rest of us. Dunno what the bigwigs at Yggdrasil are thinking."
Sam. Garrett. These are their names. The names of the men whom I hate with all my heart. I repeat their names under my breath. Sam. Garrett. Sam. Garrett. Sam. Garrett.
"Look. The freak's saying our names."
"Shut it up, won't you?"
--
My mouth hurts. Something warm drips from the corner of my lip. I wipe it off with my hand. It is blue in colour. It looks like the fruit punch the guards bring to me during my meals. I lick it, but it doesn't taste like fruit punch. It is metallic. It tastes like the steel toes of a guard's boot or the bars of my cell.
I want to open my mouth. I want to tell the guard that my mouth hurts, but then I remember that it was he who made it hurt. That it was he who struck me because I was repeating his name. I cannot do that now, he says. And so I must do it in my head. I close my eyes and concentrate, forming their names in my mind again.
Sam. Garrett. Sam. Garrett. Sam. Garrett.
The floor we are standing on starts to move. The doors in front of us hiss shut, and the sound of something heavy, like the bolt on my cell door, locks into place. The floor rises, taking us with it. I watch as the numbers on the screen change. They glow yellow in the darkness, and they are very pretty. They remind me of warmth. Remind me of the sun, something I have only read about in books and something I have never seen.
-005. -004. -003. -002. -001.
And finally, 000.
The platform does not stop there. Instead, it continues to rise. It goes into numbers that I have never seen before. Combinations of numbers that I know of, like 10, 26, 67 or 99. The numbers do not stop there. We rise and rise and rise until we arrive at 196. The door unlatches, and clouds of steam pour out of its valves.
"Out you go, Kaiserin. Where you're going, your magic won't be able to help. Not one bit." The guard shoots me a smirk full of yellowed teeth. He salutes at someone across the room.
"Dr Belitrov."
"Agent Garrett. I thank you for escorting my honoured guest here." The man says.
"Aye, doctor. Now, the payment we discussed-"
"Right. Payment. I was thinking we should... renegotiate." The man lifts his hand in one fluid motion. Behind me, Garrett chokes. Writhing in agony, he clutches at his throat. When his limp body slumps to the ground, his mouth is foaming and his eyes are bloodshot.
The doors hiss shut once more and the guard's corpse is lost to the darkness. Without the guard's hand on my shoulder, I cannot stand - not with my arms and legs bound. I fall to my knees, looking up when I hear someone approach. Shoes clacking on the floor of wherever I am. This is not the jail cell I am used to. The floor is sparkling. Its lustrous surface is cracked in innumerable ways, winding roads that lead out into unknown lands.
"Good evening, Kaiserin. I hope your journey to Yggdrasil's upper floors was pleasant, yes?"
The person speaking to me is not a guard. He does not use their harsh tones and their insults. He treats me as an equal - no, a superior. His voice is lilting, like a gust of wind blowing through chimes. He doesn't just radiate warmth. He is warmth. His very presence dispels the cold that has plagued my body from the very moment the guard brought me out of my cell.
He unlocks my cuffs and manacles and helps me to stand up. His hand - so soft and tender, like those that have just taken a tray of bread out of the oven - cups around my cheek. He runs his thumb over my lips, and when it comes away bloodied, his face hardens.
"I presume," The man muses, "Garrett did this to you. Despite my instructions." His melodic voice is now taut with anger.
I nod, my bleeding lips quivering.
"He has been dealt with. I can assure you that. It is my pleasure to serve you, Kaiserin. I am Alexei Belitrov. You may refer to me as Alexei, or Dr Belitrov. I am but your humble servant."
"A...Alex?" I can only wish for the ability to fully pronounce Dr Belitrov's name. I can picture it in my head - the curls and rolls it forces my tongue to make.
"Yes. Alex. That will do as well, zvezda moya." Dr Belitrov awards me with a wide, beaming smile. It radiates so much kindness and hospitality that it reminds me of summer days, something I have read of but never seen, like many other things. My body wants to scream 'yes', but every fibre of being is saying 'no'. He cannot be trusted. He is a killer, just like the guards and everyone else.
But he killed Garrett. Garrett was not a good man. Does this make him a saviour, rather than a killer? I do not know. All I know is this makes my head hurt. The pain is too much and I feel like crying.
Cry.
What is cry? What is this salty fluid running down my cheeks? Dr Belitrov rushes forward and dabs at my face with the sleeves of his coat, tucking my hair back.
"Oh, no, no, no. Kaiserin - please - do not let the words and actions of a filthy brute taint you. You are worth so much more. To me, and to countless others. Come. Will you do me the honour of dining with me? It is the least I can do to make up for Yggdrasil's transgressions. Kaiserin - you are zvezda moya. You are my star. When my daughter was little, I would make hot chocolate for her if she cried. I hope that it will do the same for you."
With a click of his fingers, a tray of piping hot food rises onto the nearby table. I am hesitant to touch it - all this? For me? For Kaiser scum? I am expecting Dr Belitrov to rip it all away from me and stamp on it with his feet, but he does not. He watches me as I wolf everything down. The light, crispy , almost flakey pastry, honeyed meats and the warm, brown liquid that must be hot chocolate fills me much more than the grey nutrient sludge they served in the prison cafeteria.
Dr Belitrov does not eat. He takes notes, stopping only to accommodate my requests for more. He shows me the night sky as I dine, points out the constellations to me and names all the buildings that are laid out before us. This, he says, is but one of the many perks of working for Yggdrasil. Deneb. Altair. Vega. The summer stars. He shows me the biggest dot in the sky, the Yggdrasil satellite 'Asgard'. Says that it signifies all the hopes and dreams of humanity, just like I do. Just like the Kaisers do.
He does not seem to be bothered by how much I am eating. In the prison, I would be whipped for asking for seconds. But Dr Belitrov is willing to give me as much as I want. He smiles at me every now and then, with a glint of something that I cannot place in his eye.
When the food stops coming, I look up at Dr Belitrov quizzically, my greasy hands still outstretched. He gives me one of his laughs - it is not a gust of wind, like his voice, but instead it is the wind chimes. Tinkling and musical.
"It appears as if dinnertime is up, Kaiserin. I am afraid you will have to wait. But until then, I have a gift for you."
Another click of his magical fingers causes a panel in his floor to slide open. Like the food, something rises out. A human body, lying prostrate on its metal bed. Its periwinkle locks of hair fall around its shoulders. Its arms are crossed against its chest, and its eyes stare blankly ahead. It is beautiful, in a delicate, elegant way. Its eyes are violet and its chin pointed, just like its ears - it almost looks like an elf. Its thin lips are pressed in a permanent, adorable pout. It makes my heart soar.
"I give you the gift of immortality."