Secrets are never buried...
"Speak to me. Have you found her?" Nyla paced her office, rubbing her fingers across her forehead to avoid hopeless looks on the faces of the seekers. They were her most trusted resources to track and find people and items. Her heart plummeted deeper before they spoke. Nyla could read their expression and tell from the tense atmosphere they hadn't been successful.
"You had just one job. Find Shyva. How did I not make this clear enough." She screamed, startling the three men who stood poised with their elevated chin. Avoiding eye contact with their overseer.
"She can't be hiding very long. We'll find her." One of the men ascertained but Nyla was furious that she threw her glass cup across the room. I do not wish to hear you speak. "Leave." she cried. Uncontrollable tears slid down her eyes as pain clawed at her heart. Nyla bent on her knees, gasping for breath before sinking into a chair.
"I am a failure. I had one damn role, and I couldn't do it. I was supposed to protect my daughter." Nyla screamed, holding her head between her hands. "I lost her once, and I'm not planning on losing her a second time." Nyla gasped heavily, "All those years looking for her, searching high and low until I found her."
These fast few zaiva, Nyla hardly slept. Nightmares starring Vermeen haunted her, and Shyva's disappearance took its toll on her physique. Nyla's cheekbones deepened, and she was unusually weak from the burdens. Vermeen would have taunted her about how much weight she had shed, and she would have laughed. His good memories she kept to heart. She missed him very much. Now he was gone; she was very alone. She wished he had never betrayed her and they had continued their forbidden relationship. Nyla rose elegantly, rubbing the white sleeves of her thick bodysuit strapped with weapons. She walked over to her desk and traced her fingers over the acrylic top.
"Found you."
There was a click, and a small enclosure revealed itself. Nyla guided her slender fingers and pulled out a small picture. It was the only item she had of her daughter. Her eyes welled with tears, staring at the young girl, barely a toddler, smiling cheerfully with a metal box in her hand. Shyva hadn't had the best of childhood. Her skin was stained with slime and tar. Her messy black hair framed her small face. This touched Nyla's heart. She wished they had met earlier, but she would only be endangering her life. Hence, her need to stay away until time was ripe.
Without giving too much thought, she punched the communicator and asked for the commander. Moments later, the formidable woman with a fearsome history in combat marched into the room.
"Overseer!"
"Get my ship, we're going to find Shyva." She tightened her finger at the edge of Shyva's childhood picture.
"They still haven't found Shyva."
"It's weird that Shyva hasn't returned."
"What if she ran away?"
"I'm not certain I agree to that."
Sula conversed with her 'dogs'. Three poke noses that trailed behind her to do her bidding. They were named Ona, Wiy and Budik, respectively. Ona, offspring of the Nuvano whose dark skin glimmered, was blessed with deep purple hair. Wiy, the offspring of the Laschino, had bright orange skin and clipped dark hair. Budik belonged to the Islandyers whose children were gifted with radiant pink skin and straight brown hair. Powerful races of the old world. However, Sula was a mixed breed of the Nuvano and Sandyers. The powerful combination of traits produced a subtly pretty brown skin warrior, a hue that belonged to the desert sand. Freckles dotted her cheeks, and she wore her white mane in a tight bun. Tall and sharp.
Sula wrinkled her pointed nose and pouted her thin lips. Something was amiss. Her green eyes twinkled at finding the truth.
"I am beginning to unlearn much information about that troubled child." Sula chewed lazily on their lunch of fibrous vegetables chopped around their steak. Sula's closest friends in the Dome, who were often called her 'dogs,' snapped their gaze at the new intelligence that had come to light.
"They tell us she's a half-breed of Nuvano and Sandyers. Very few people here with pale skin are of the Irashi Tribe. They are not an independent tribe. They're outcasts of the Sandyers. I have been thinking about Shyva and her history for a long time. There isn't much unlike the rest of us."
"Then who is she really?"
"That's left for us to find out."
"I noticed the overseer hasn't been in the best of moods lately." Ona fumed at the attraction Shyva stole in her absence. "Do you think it's connected to Shyva missing?" Budik asked naively, as often. "Don't be gullible, Budik. Your questions make me question your reasoning." Ona spat, "Certainly, it's connected. Overseer Nyla." Ona whispered, bouncing her gaze over a few sisters eating around them in the cafeteria. "Gained control of the Blood Veil. Overseer Nyla could have attacked them any other time, but she did so after Shyva disappeared."
"There's a point there." Sula commended Ona. "She could have destroyed their world a long time ago. We all knew Vermeen wasn't a saint."
"Probably, Overseer Nyla was buying time because of her complicated relationship with Overseer Vermeen. They were allies until he took from us."
"Desperate times. Overseer Nyla keeps saying over and over again in every speech. Do you think this is a coincidence?" Sula raised a brow, yawning afterwards, losing excitement in the conversation.
"We've stopped visiting the lab." Wiy brought it to their attention. "I have dreams from way back, but I don't know if they're real. They're foggy, but I can see myself in these dreams. Have you felt it?"
"No," the girls answered Wiy, sending her into her shell. It won't be long before we return to our routines. The Red Lords will be here soon. And then our lives will take a drastic turn."
"I do not want to go to the lab. Something in me feels pulled out every time."
"She's just talking rubbish." Ona snapped, and the rest giggled about the Red Lords, which tickled their fancy.
On the vessel dock…
Whilst Nyla's pulse raced as she gave orders for the task ahead. Her commander barked Nyla's command, hurrying the soldiers. Creeping pairs of eyes and ears hid, watching the operation behind a wall.
"Overseer, do you think it is a good idea to leave the Dome and find her. It's the seekers' job to find her." The commander whispered as they were far from the soldiers and close to listening ears.
"I cannot live every day knowing she's out there. She is one of ours." Nyla snapped, hissing at her commander's audacity. Nyla ran her gaze over the commander's manly facial features as they stood tall, shoulder by shoulder.
"You're risking too much for a warrior."
"We always bring our soldier back."
"What if she fled out of her own will. Did that ever cross your mind?"
"She would never do that." Nyla lashed, and the commander drew her brows with profound curiosity. Her overseer was behaving unusually.
"How so?"
"A mother knows her daughter." Nyla walked away from the commander, leaving her in complete shock. Sula had sucked in a deep breath at the revelation. Her gasp was heard, but she hurried before the commander found her eavesdropping behind a wall.