Distant Dot
When Htrey was a distant dot behind them, Fate asked a question that had been on his mind.
"You didn't need clearance or anything to leave?"
"I've been going on joyrides to relax myself for years," Sema said with a smirk. "They long since stopped asking for clearance. Even the overly bureaucratical Advanced have better things to do than dog themselves with hour-long processes three times a day."
"But won't they find it suspicious that you've gone so far?" the Shyv asked her.
"I'm allowed to go anywhere within three solar systems," Sema replied. "That's how far this shuttle is programmed to take me before turning back on its own. Speaking of which…"
She fiddled with some buttons, a loud bleep sounding as the console flashed red. Over her shoulder, Fate caught the words "System Failure. Return Immediately."
"There. Now they can't track us, and the ship won't try to take us back. Also," with a grimace, she pressed a finger into the nape of her neck, Divine Energy funneling in and disabling her chip. "They can't track me, either. We're in the clear."
"How do you know so much about the Advanced's tech?" Fate inquired. "I was under the impression they kept the Embodiments on a need-to-know basis on that stuff."
"Once you become a Personification, they give you a longer leash," she explained. "And if you show no will to leave whatsoever, they give you an even longer one. I tamped down my disgust for years with the hopes of an opportunity to escape surfacing in the future.
"They gave me access to whichever of the two branches I wanted. Naturally, I chose the science branch. The fools didn't realize they were handing me the tools for my escape. I learned how to make and rewire the chip in my neck and how to repair and program ships like this, along with some basic weapon creation. And now, it finally paid off.
"Maybe if they weren't so arrogant, they would've seen this coming."
She flicked on the warp drive and leaned back in her chair, heaving a relieved sigh as the worst years of her life grew farther and farther away, disappearing as fast as the dazzling lights passing by their ship.
Suddenly, Fate's form flickered. "Uh, Shyv?" he called.
Shyv Palar twisted in his seat, looking up at Fate. "I'm afraid I can't sustain your physical form forever," he said. "I can keep you here for another three minutes at most before you go back to your own dreams."
"In that case, you better start contacting your friends," Sema said urgently. "I don't want a new life dangled in front of me only to be shot down because of the colors of my ship."
"I need something capable of intergalactic communication, then," Fate said.
Sema grabbed a small device out from under the dashboard and handed it to the Shyv, who handed it to him. "Clean, untraceable, and capable of communicating across fourteen galaxies," she said.
The device was strange, a white object with a leather-wrapped handle attached to a hexagonal screen. From the top protruded two collapsible antennae, which Fate extended after receiving it.
Fate could find no buttons or dials or anything to work it, and after asking Sema learned that he used his Divine Energy to control it. Frowning, he thought of Margaret and the communication devices the Flaming Crows used.
He wrote about their current predicament, how he wouldn't be there when Sema and the Shyv arrived, and that he promised the two asylum with the Flaming Crows.
As he thought, the message in his head was displayed as words on the screen, with the intended recipient listed below as "FC Terminal 5526." He confirmed the recipient and willed it to send the message, a short DING playing as a reply came in.
"Understood. Tell her to land in Bay 75."
Fate relayed the information to Sema, the flickering and distortion of his form growing heavier as she thanked him for the information.
"No probl—"
Faster than he could blink, he stood upon that same cold mountaintop that started all of this.
"—lem. Sigh." He hated getting interrupted.
Kravoss' ancestor, who Fate still didn't know the name of, gazed down from atop its mountain peak. Despite having its plans derailed, it was as calm as an undisturbed lake. The stone needed to cause ripples in the beast's temperament would need to be massive, indeed.
"You're back," the Dracok said, deep voice shaking the mountain they stood on. "Here I thought you ran away."
"No, a friend called me," Fate said with a shrug. "Completely out of my control."
"Are you ready for the next trial?"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Good. This one is perhaps the most brutal of the three. Prepare yourself."
And with that, the floor opened up once more and swallowed Fate whole.
Fate appeared in a gladiatorial arena surrounded by cheering women. The dirt floor was as dry as the air, and Fate's scales were gone. Even with his robust lungs, he found the air a bit hard to breathe.
He was clothed in a barbaric loincloth that did little to hide his decency and was covered in oil that reflected the lean muscle on his form. When compared to the immodest clothing of the women in the stands, he supposed it could be worse.
Around him in this arena were seven men dressed like him, which is to say, not very. They ranged from lean like him to muscular like Cage, and not a single weapon was in sight.
A beautiful woman stood from her throne. Clothed in a regal toga that hung loose and a golden laurel crown resting atop her head of brown hair, her bronze skin and toned arms matched her subjects.
A hint of two buds protruded from underneath the toga, but the harsh air of a ruler emanating from her, combined with the confidence in her gaze and body language, made the men below afraid to even look her in the eyes, much less ogle her chest.
Her honey-colored eyes appraised Fate and his fellow men like they were animals in a zoo. She didn't care about their well-being and was only here for the show. Fate returned the stare with his own, eyebrow raised as he waited for her to get on with it.
She raised her hands to the side, and the crows quieted, watching their empress with anticipation.