Bryan Butvidas [Butvidas - Airith- the Kentilan War

Airith

The Kentilan War

BRYAN BUTVIDAS

Copyright 2019 Bryan Butvidas

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9781726677950

15 percent of the profits from this book will be donated to St. Judes. We also encourage you to spread the word about this amazing charity.

CONTENTS

Sometimes a love is so powerful that it

curses the two who dare try to tame it.

52-143

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Cover art by Andrei Gaspar

Illustrations by Luka Dudic

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SLUMBER

M others slumber chamber pierced the sky, blocking out the sun, and before it stood the four of them: Airith, Rapha, Isabel Rae, and the Fellas. Three dark figures, and two small hovering robots, belittled by a towering gate that led into an extreme pitch black. Just miles from where they stood and out in the dusty horizon, monstrous silhouettes of ancient remains told a tale of desertion and weathering. It was the only landmark that shared the Northern District of Sector One with Mothers Slumber Chamber. The chamber was built directly into the firmament walls, and just to the west of it, on the other side of the barrier, was the Emperors Kentilan Palace.

Didnt think itd look like this and seriously, were all those steps necessary? Raphas arrogant tone echoed into the darkness, and he stared after it as if expecting some reply.

Youre mostly cyborganic, Rapha, and it isnt like your legs would have given out. And what the hell did you think it would look like? Airith replied with an eye roll. The sassy lilt in her tone only made Rapha smile.

The walls of the chamber were strings of alphanumeric lines of code fused in Eagle Mountain metal, tailing upwards to the sky and into the blinding sun. Rapha took knowing steps to the nearest wall. The eyes of his companions followed him. Using a finger, he scraped at a wall. Small particles of the alphanumeric flaked off and dissipated in minute bursts of luminous green.

First of all, I technically only have one good leg, and I dont know what I was expecting it to look like, but the style is quite boring. It's just blocks of old Cymaga and gnarly Eagle Mountain steel surrounded by sand, a butt ton of it. And look at all those distant and pointless remains and Indigo scripture. Do you know something? The architecture is rude actually.

Ay Dios mio, Rapha, can we worry more about how we get into the bottom chambers without waking Her instead of critiquing a thousand-year-old sandbox? Airith sighed as she adjusted her bodysuit and leather shoulder guard.

Of course, but Im just curious why there arent any alarms going off or why there isnt a storm of Valdovas running up to guard Mother against people like us. She is completely vulnerable while in slumber. Rapha shrugged as he stooped, brushing off dirt from the bottom of his cape.

Mother? What kind of mother uses her children to test her death machines efficiencies? What kind of a mother creates children only to be killers for her lust of war? What mother kills her own if they dont follow her idea of family? Mother? Ha, more like monster. The pain etched her face. Airith looked away to hide the rage but she already knew they had seen it. The greatest thing the Emperor ever did was force the Creator to ban her ability to abort any one of us on command. Shes more of a killer queen than a mother. Lets just hurry in, so I drive my blade right through her mostly organic brain! She raged. She pauses and then added in a darker tone, And when I do, I want her glossy, black, dead eyes locked with mine, knowing it was I who killed her, I, her custom-made death guard. I want the betrayal to gush through her while she succumbs to death, Airith swore with clenched fists. Her trembling was clear as day.

Holy Kurt Russell, that was dark. You may want to arrange some counseling for that. Rapha smirked uncomfortably.

The awkward silence was cut by a girls giggle. They all turned in Isabel Raes direction. The horn on her forehead had begun to glow, illuminating her mask in an eerie blue. She giggled again, taking timid steps away from them.

Where French toast is she going? Rapha snapped.

The girl was drawn to a distant glowing they had failed to notice; an old scripture of ancient Indigo origin. Lines of vivid electric hummed about it, sweltering with a static that the rest could feel as they neared it. Isabel Rae stopped short of her destination and began jumping excitedly, clapping and giggling like a child, each jump syncing and pulsing with the glowing from her horn.

The lines. They are pretty like blood. It makes me giggle inside my tummy.

A monotone cyber voice quipped; it was one of her companions, one of the Fellas, a levitating fish named Floop, whose voice was only a reflection of her thoughts.

And I like it very much. Isabel Rae twirled about the relic, with her other pet, Ploop; a hovering robot that resembled a metal egg with disembodied rabbit ears. Ploops neon blue, 8-bit digital expressions were telepathically linked to Isabels emotions. It was a baffling connection that the others could not explain; no one except the Creator, who gifted this child these robots to help her communicate with others.

Airith watched her in silence, disinterested in the old glowing relic; there were lots of left-behind old scriptures all over Homecity, written in an unreadable language. It was boring to think about and difficult to try and crack. But Isabel Rae was strange. Rumors trailed after the strange child. Rumors about her bleeding facial sores that were ghastly to look at, and perhaps that was why the Creator gave her the smooth, matte, white unicorn mask with its rainbow crystal horn and two floppy, fuzzy, mud-stained ears on each side.

Rapha motioned to the others with a hand signal and drew closer to the old relic. The writing was illegible. He squinted at it. Like radars, his ears twitched, reacting to an ambient wave picked by his sonar system. His systems analyzed its form. It was heated signatures. Mechanical heat. He glared in that direction as his optical scanners tried to give the waves form and origin. They failed; he had no visualization of the threat.

With a shrug, he threw back a hand signal, which met with Airiths confused facial expression and with Isabel Rae pointing to Ploop, whose digital screen was displaying a laughing face.

Are you having a stroke? Airith questioned sarcastically as she threw her hands up with her head cocked to the side. Do you need me to call someone for you?

I seriously need to teach you guys sign language. Someone or a mass of people are here. I can detect a form of bodies approximately thirty feet behind us and on each side of the passage. I'm just unable to see them, Rapha whispered.