Ravens of Eternity

Chapter 365

365 Intel & Recon, Pt Freya and Lucifer walked among the grass and wove between the trees in their cruiser’s central park. The slightly domed roof above them projected a low sun amidst clear skies. Though it was close to a simulated sunset, there was still plenty of light for them to enjoy.

Not that they were the only ones. Numerous members of the Republic were out as well, all enjoying their little slice of paradise.

They were grouped up or paired up. Most were chatting with each other, or playing strategy games at park benches, or simply taking winding strolls.

The few that came across the two of them often waved their hands or audibly greeted them. Freya greeted them back the way they did, though Lucifer typically only nodded and smiled in exchange.

“I’m still not used to being around so many people,” Lucifer said with a sigh. “It weirds me out.”

“You mean, not used to bossing so many people around,” Freya replied.

Ze opened hir mouth to retort defensively, but realized she was right.

Up until being part of the Republic, most of hir interactions with people revolved around battlefield control. And of course, it was hir absolute favorite thing in the galaxy. For the most part, nothing beat telling uniformed officers and their prim and proper fleets what to do.

“When I say people,” ze said, “I mean normal people. Anyone else I’ve ever interacted with were... people of power.”

.....

“You say that like no-one in the Republic has power,” Freya replied.

“Not like that. It’s a different kind of power, I guess. Not like a personal power kind of thing. But a kind of powerful influence. The kind that pulls other people along with it.”

“Kings and queens. Like that?”

“Yeah. Emperors and admirals and ministers.”

Freya sighed.

“I can see what you mean,” she said. “But I think your view of power’s too narrow. Or maybe you’re classifying it in ways that don’t matter.”

“You’re telling me that any given citizen in any given nation is more powerful than the person leading it?” Lucifer argued.

“Maybe not more powerful, but equally powerful, yeah.”

Lucifer scoffed at her in disbelief. Ze sat down on the grass, then laid down on it, and stared up into the slowly darkening digital sky above.

Freya laid down next to hir.

“You don’t believe me,” she continued.

“No,” Lucifer replied quickly.

“I think power’s fluid. It’s not some immovable rock that never erodes. It’s a wave that’s propelled by people into others. Through them. It builds up into something powerful enough to shatter stone.”

“Well, it still feels different to me.”

“Has it occurred to you that it only feels different because you enjoy the feeling of holding power? And, more importantly, you especially enjoy holding power over those already powerful.

“Consider for a second if admirals stopped listening to you in the middle of an engagement. Your power would vanish instantly.”

Lucifer opened hir mouth to defensively retort, but once again realized that Freya was right. Ze enjoyed bossing around people ze considered were subordinate to hir. Or at least, subordinate to hir intellect. But with the Republic, ze found no such joy.

Other than the thrill of defeating their enemies, the act of instructing the fleet during battle gave hir little to cherish. It felt to hir more of an act of necessity and duty, rather than an obvious impression of hir will on hir people.

When ze thought about hir own analysts and intelligence officers, ze didn’t feel joy from holding power over them. What did bring hir happiness was in teaching them what ze knew, and watching them grow ever more experienced and powerful with every skirmish and every battle.

Ze was taken aback at the realization, and jerked hir head as ze mentally processed hir own primal motivations. At hir own idiosyncrasies revolving around power, and the exertion of it.

Lucifer realized ze was building a wave of power that extended outward. And it made ripples in the galaxy. It didn’t appear because ze bossed around underlings, it was because hir pupils listened to hir wisdom.

“But I get what you mean,” Freya said after a while. “Like, being First Feather. Having people look up to me, expecting me to have all the answers to their questions. I don’t know if I love it or hate it. Sometimes, I really don’t want to be doing it at all...

“Sometimes, I just want to go fly.”

Lucifer turned hir head to Freya, watched her as her eyes scanned the sky above.

“It hasn’t really occurred to me,” ze said. “At least not until just now... I’m a First Feather too, but it didn’t feel like a position of power. It just seemed like a title I wore, and that I put it on only when we’ve got a fleet to put down. And now, I don’t know what to think.”

Freya turned to face Lucifer, then asked, “Feels weird, right?”

Lucifer nodded, then they both looked back up at the sky. The beautiful oranges began to fade against the horizon, and the dark blue richness of a starry sky crawled in right behind.

“I’m torn about running again for First Feather,” said Freya. “I know we said that we would open it up for others to start taking charge, but I just don’t know. And as many times I want to leave and fly away, there are so many more where I know I can do some good for someone else.

“I actively help make other people’s lives better. And I like feeling that way. But why do I need to be a First Feather to keep enjoying it? Do I need to be someone who’s in charge? It feels... addictive.”

Lucifer exhaled at length. Coming from the other end of the spectrum, ze could easily confirm it. Having power over others was inherently intoxicating.

“What if we left?” ze said. “After our terms are up, we leave the Republic.”

“We could get a couple horses, too,” Freya said with a laugh. “And ride off into the sunset. Roll credits.”

“C’mon, I didn’t mean like a cliche. I mean, we take a vacation for a year. See the galaxy, just you and me.”

“You mean, you, me, and Amarok, right? We could go exploring, foresting, flying, whatever we want, anywhere in the galaxy.”

“And also bust up Federations arms dealers now and then.”

“Sure. It’ll be romantic.”

The two of them snickered and chuckled. It was all fun to imagine, but practically impossible.

“Too bad we’re at war,” Lucifer said with a sigh. “We couldn’t just leave in the middle of it, as much as we’d want to. And I don’t think anyone in the Republic would even allow us to. They’d probably vote us back into our seats even if we didn’t want them.

“There’s too much uncertainty in our future. Combined with any unresolved traumas people are holding... Yeah, they’re gonna want us to stay right where we are. Most won’t want to take on that kinda responsibility. At least, not now.

“I mean, just logically speaking, no-ones more experienced than us. And actually, now that I think about it, the longer we go on, the more we could get locked into it.”

Lucifer shivered slightly at what ze was implying.

“Just think about it,” ze continued. “They could literally vote us into our seats for eternity. As long as the majority voted that way, right? We could be trapped being First Feathers forever, if the Republic wanted it. Or am I crazy in thinking that?”

Ze turned to look at Freya, but found that she was asleep.

And immediately scoffed.

“Can you maybe not tease me right now?” ze said. “I’m in kind of a vulnerable mental state, and I’d appreciate it if...”

Lucifer looked closer at Freya, and scanned her up and down. Her breathing seemed even, but deep. It dawned on hir that she had actually fallen asleep.

“I better not be becoming boring,” ze said quietly.

But then ze realized that something was different. Freya’s eyes were moving rapidly under her eyelids. That surprised Lucifer a great deal.

How could she already be in a REM cycle? ze thought to hirself.

Lucifer propped hirself up on an elbow, then began to more closely observe Freya. But ze was suddenly alarmed when her body tensed up and her back made an arc in the air. At the same time, her arms tensed up and her hands clenched into tight fists.

Then, after a few seconds, her body slumped back down.

Lucifer found hirself in a panic – it looked like Freya was having some kind of seizure, and ze had no idea what to do. This had never happened before, ever. Without thinking, ze instinctively reached out to her telepathically, and attempted to bind their minds together.

But as ze reached out, found hirself pulled inwards toward Freya. Or, more specifically, the deep black energies that seemed to surround her consciousness. Ze found hirself stretched out eternally, and pulled deep down into somewhere that seemed far away.

It seemed ze was in some kind of perpetual void that defied any known physics. In one moment ze was stretched out across galaxies, and in the next ze was a miniscule particle in an endless dark sky.

The galaxy then flew up towards hir, then all around hir. Countless stars and planets flew past for a few moments, but then ze slammed onto something invisible and impenetrable in the middle of it all.

“What the hell?” said Freya.

She picked Lucifer up, and set hir on hir feet.

“Did I seriously fall asleep?” she asked. “Whatever you were talking about must’ve been a real snoozer.”

But Lucifer hardly paid attention to her teasing. Instead, hir eyes were glued on a section of the galaxy in front of them. The planets around hir appeared to be getting swallowed up by shadow, one after the other.

The very sight of it frightened hir deeply.

“How?” ze stammered. “Where? What?”

Ze looked at Freya with incredulity, unable to process exactly where they were. Or rather, the last time something like this happened to them, they were in a state of... bliss.

This was far from that. All ze felt was a kind of fear.

“It’s because of that,” Freya said as she pointed at a pitch-black planet in front of them. “Whenever I fall asleep, Godeater comes calling.”

Lucifer looked on in awe at the planet that appeared to be a black hole. And yet wasn’t a black hole.

“I thought you said Godeater wasn’t spreading,” ze said. “But it’s totally spreading right in front of us.”

“I don’t think it’s spreading right now,” Freya answered. “I think it’s... promising to spread. It feels like it’s telling me what it’s trying to do. What it will do. I don’t really understand it.”

Lucifer looked out at the galaxy around them as fear chilled hir to the bone. Ze watched as planet after planet was swallowed up in darkness. Followed by their stars. And any systems beyond that.

“That’s not Godeater,” ze finally said. “That’s god. Power in its purest form, exerting its will over the powerless.”