Chapter 21

Atlas

The Chancellor's plans backfired spectacularly. It boggled my mind that, as a seasoned politician, he should have made such a dire mistake as to present that video. Sure, he presented it in a way to make us look like a major threat. What he achieved was to make everyone—including us—realize that we were the true power of our people.

As the debate unfolded, all the pieces of the puzzle I'd gathered during my research in our old folklore finally fell into place. Achromatics used to be the dominant breeds of the Prometheans, with Blacks and Whites balancing and enhancing each other.

Based on those ancient texts, we'd been honored, even revered. I couldn't say what triggered the change, but the written lore gradually shifted, with the names of Whites and Blacks getting gradually removed or changed in subtle ways, until the lore no longer referred to us at all. The tone of the writings about us also grew increasingly negative and disdainful, like an insidious lethal disease spreading among our people. And before we knew it, the ‘lesser' breeds had climbed to the top, and we had become pariahs.

For generations, they kept us docile with myrdin tea, drilled into our minds that we were a scourge and burden on a daily basis, that our sole purpose was to offer our lives to appease the gods when the time came in repayment for the hardships we brought upon our people.

And we believed it.

They lied to us, rewrote our history, banned the books that could have enlightened us about the truth of our nature, and used religion and fear of the wrath of the gods to keep us under their thumb.

No more.

I hadn't meant to make the statements I did and yet regretted nothing. For the first time, the Polychromatics understood they had pushed us too far, and that it finally dawned on us that we owed them nothing, least of all our lives. More importantly, they realized they didn't have the power to coerce us into doing their bidding. Between that intimidating video and the ease with which we stopped the brawling, even though they outnumbered us ten to one, they could no longer deny the tide had turned. It also dawned on them at long last that once we left, chaos would ensue with no one to rein it in.

That idiot Ajustus had convinced himself he could exile us but that essential workers would return during the day to keep the city running like good little lackeys, not to say slaves. Teaching him the error of his ways had been orgasmic. As much as they feared us, the citizens of Japhyr needed us more.

It was both exhilarating and terrifying. The well of bitterness within each of us after a lifetime of abuse ran deep. The next few weeks would be critical to make sure Achros and Monos didn't seek retribution or start treating the Polychromatics the way they previously treated us. Vengeance would serve nothing and only start another vicious cycle.

This was our chance at a new beginning, a prosperous and safe future, and above all at peace and equality for everyone.

After Venus's speech, Senator Cassius essentially took over the proceedings, chastising Ajustus every time he interjected. Soon, even the attendees booed him into silence. On top of watching his law failing, the Chancellor lost standing and status in both the chamber and with the public. Cassius shifted the discussion to the research Kyrene had been performing. She was more than happy to provide extensive details about her findings, Venus's help in acquiring advanced data on top of the live Zuras, and the role of the Achromatic pairings.

By the time she completed her presentation, it wasn't just a wind of change that swept through the Senate and every corner of our city, but also one of hope. The dissenting voices drowned beneath the overwhelming support we received.

After centuries of helpless resignation, we had something tangible to fight back with.

We devoted every waking hour to training and further studying the changes in Keryth Valley. With Senator Cassius pretty much taking over the leadership of the city, all non-essential Monos and Achros were relieved of duty so that they could join us in our preparation efforts.

Three days after the Senate showdown, the Prism went completely quiet. Venus felt uneasy about it. Not only had she grown used to the small tingling at the back of her nape indicating his psychic presence at various times of the day, but the dull color his chrysalis had taken worried her. I reassured my mate that he had entered the final stage of his metamorphosis. Xarin was now growing in size at an exponential rate. Venus said his cocoon's new shape reminded her of a sarcophagus. Once she showed me an image of one, I had to concur with her comparison.

Over the following four weeks, the bond between my wife and me further deepened. I was irrevocably in love with her. Thanks to the changes occurring within our society, Polychromatics were showing more tolerance towards us, enabling me to take my mate on a few outings and even attend a few shows held in our great theater. Many of them still displayed some unease, but we were no longer getting kicked out. You didn't change an entire society overnight.

Although Venus enjoyed those moments of semi-normalcy, they failed to achieve my purpose. With each passing day, she was becoming increasingly tense. Despite her best effort to hide it, I knew her too well now. Too often, I caught the worried glances she cast in my direction when she thought I wasn't looking. The way she kissed and hugged me reeked of despair.

My wife was afraid she'd lose me.

I didn't want to die, but above all, I didn't want to leave her alone. Try hard as we may, we still didn't know what destabilized the Sibris to trigger the cataclysm. Extensive study of the Zuras revealed nothing to enlighten us. All their responses to the various stimuli Kyrene exposed them to yielded beneficial results. The Zuras weren't parasites.

So what in the divine Lights were we supposed to do with our newfound powers?

On the fifth week, the ground began to shift, and Venus's probes detected the first signs of radiation. Although the levels were extremely low, she immediately donned a radiation suit—a course of action I fully approved of. I hated how it hid her beauty from me. But at least, it would keep her safe.

The wisdom of that choice quickly became apparent. Within hours, small lightning-shaped fractures streaked the landscape of the valley. Their random position gave no clue as to what was causing them. Although we'd set the temporary command center at a safe distance from the fractures, I seriously contemplated moving it farther to keep my mate safe. If things turned ugly, she didn't have wings to instantly escape. Granted, Kyrene and at least one Black Guard were always by her side, but it still unnerved me.

Then the Sibris split wide open, the north edge of the flat crater rising vertically as if pushed from below. It transformed the beacon into a gaping mouth, screaming at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle. The steady beam of light streaming out of it dwindled to a trickle while pure light started shooting out of the fissures throughout the valley.

Thaudras had begun.

The first twenty-four to forty-eight hours would be relatively uneventful, with the fissures spreading their tendrils wider. Radiation levels would grow exponentially, then the ground would quake, splitting into even bigger craters that would spit out toxic energy, killing all life in the vicinity.

"Atlas! You're needed!" Pythus suddenly shouted, waving for me to come to the command center.

I'd been flying near the cave-like opening that the Sibris had turned into, trying to get a better sense of the dangerous place I would soon be forced to enter. Worried by the urgency of his voice, I flew past the hundred and twenty Achros and Monos gathered around the field, ready to face the fate that awaited us. Thankfully, our natural Promethean resistance to radiation had been enhanced since we stopped messing with our hormonal balance by no longer drinking myrdin tea. It wouldn't start harming us for at least two to three days, until its concentration levels passed a certain threshold. The gods willing, we would end this before we got to that point.

As soon as I landed in front of the tent, the look on Kyrene's and my mate's faces had my anxiety going up another notch. It was an odd mix of wonder, fear, and disbelief.

"What is it?" I asked as I rushed to their side.

As I closed the distance with them, my gaze shifted to the giant holographic screen projected by Venus's laptop. The previously grayscale images my mate's probe used to capture from the belly of the Sibris was in color. The countless fissures now allowed enough light below that the camera of the probe no longer relied on night vision.

For some reason, I expected the ground and walls of the subterranean cave the Zuras dwelled in to have a dominance of ochre, blacks, reds, and dark browns. But everything looked gray and white, with tiny veins of various shades, like a multicolored marble.

No wonder Polychromatics got decimated in Orist.

There weren't enough colors for them to draft from. It didn't answer why Monochromatics fared better, but it made obvious why Achromatics were quintessential.

Hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of Zuras crawled all over the place. They were stacked one upon the other in a thick blanket, their dark gray and rust chitin scales contrasting sharply with their pale environment. The creatures moved almost in sync, the slow movement akin to gentle waves at high seas.

Although my mind registered all this information in seconds, something far more troubling retained my attention. Just like the valley above had begun to heave before splitting and fracturing, the ground of the cave also seemed to be fighting a losing battle against some intense pressure from below. Whatever was causing it was massive.

Then I spotted the two gigantic legs that had pierced through it.

"There's another life form down there," Venus said, excitement and worry filling her voice in equal measure. "It's below the Zuras' cave and trying to climb up. From what I'm seeing so far, this thing is humongous, at least three to four times the size of your Valrens. I believe the depth and the magnetic fields prevented my probe and scanners from detecting it."

"Is it the source of the disturbance?" I asked, a thrill coursing through me.

"I think so!" Venus said before glancing at Kyrene for confirmation.

She nodded with the same excitement my woman displayed. "These readings are fantastic. The radiation levels peak around where the large creature is emerging. But look, some of the Zuras appear to be fleeing it while others are flocking to it."

I frowned and narrowed my eyes at the screen while studying the contradictory behavior of the Zuras. Then it hit me.

"They're not flocking to it. They're trying to help it climb out," I said, confused.

"What makes you say that?" Venus asked, surprised.

I pointed at the Zuras surrounding the hole the creature was piercing to escape. "Judging by the grayish color of the halo emanating from their antennae, the Zuras are casting kinetic magic to help collapse the edge."

As if to confirm that statement, more little bugs joined the others, their kinetic halo pulsating with greater intensity as they continued to expand the opening.

"Why would they help it?" I mused aloud. "If that creature is causing the radiation, shouldn't they want to kill it?"

"They would," Acamon concurred. "Our research confirms the Zuras are negatively affected by radiation, like we are. Either they're unaware that the creature is emitting those particles, or they believe that killing it right there would be more damaging to them."

"Because the remains will continue poisoning the air within their lair!" Kyrene exclaimed with sudden understanding. "But our ancestors never found the remains of one of those giant creatures before. Did it just move, leaving destruction in its path until it burrowed deep somewhere else?"

"Maybe the Achromatics obliterated it," Venus interjected pensively before turning to look in turn at Acamon and me. "We've all seen how powerful your combined magic is. If you'd been one of your ancestors, entered the rift, and ended up face to face with that creature. What would you instinctively do?"

"Destroy it," I said without hesitation.

"Burn it to cinders," Acamon concurred.

"Should you go kill it right away then, before the radiation levels go up?" Kyrene asked hesitantly.

I caught myself glancing inquisitively at my mate. Our companions emulated me, and she uncomfortably shifted on her feet.

"My survival instincts scream for you to slaughter it immediately," Venus said carefully.

"But?" I insisted.

She pursed her lips and studied the video on the holographic screen still displaying the creature painstakingly trying to come out. We couldn't even see its head.

"We don't know what we're dealing with just yet. I want to run some more scans to try and get a better sense of just how big that creature is, what it is exactly, and if there is more than one."

I smiled, relieved to hear her echo my instinctive thoughts.

"We still have forty-eight hours before things become critical," I said. "We should take at a minimum half a day more to gather additional intelligence about this creature, understand why the Zuras are helping it, and settle on a plan of attack. At least we know exactly where it is located. We can use the various fissures to enter the subterranean cave and attack it from multiple angles."

"Which will allow us to take it down faster," Acamon said approvingly.

"Then let's get to work," I said in a commanding tone.

For the next couple of hours, Venus and Kyrene dissected the information the probes and scanners gathered while also studying the behavior of the Zuras and the unknown giant creature. In the meantime, with the aid of the Whites and Brown Monochromatics, we reshaped the openings of strategically located fissures in the valley. With their earth magic, they shifted the ground to create a smooth ramp down into the belly of the cave beneath the Sibris. It was large enough to allow three Blacks to lead the charge side-by-side with their wings fully deployed in order to more effectively block or draft magic.

We assigned Blue Monochromatics to erect an energy field to seal their entrances to prevent the Zuras from scuttering out to the surface. Halfway through dividing our forces equally around each access point, my mate called Acamon and me back in the tent.

My stomach dropped at the sight of the spectacle that awaited us. Saying the creature was massive would be quite the understatement. Its oval head with multiple eyes of varying shapes protruded from the hole, crowned with two long antennae with drop-shaped tips. The creature was clearly casting magic through them as the rounded ends glowed with a familiar halo. Two smaller spindly legs jutted out between its neck and the edge of its shoulders, where the bigger front legs still struggled for purchase at the edge of the hole it was trying to climb out of.

However, it was the network of circular craters on the visible part of its upper back that retained my attention. It was as if someone had scooped round chunks of flesh out of it, or that it suffered some terrible disease that left those circular pockmarks on its back.

"What in the divine Lights is that?" I whispered, horrified.

"It's their Queen," Venus said in an ominous tone.

"WHAT?" Acamon and I exclaimed simultaneously.

"The bio scans I've performed indicate that this thing is the same species as the small Zuras," Venus explained grimly. "It's not uncommon among insects for their queens to be significantly larger than the rest of the hive or for the female to be bigger than the male. I just never imagined such a huge difference."

"But what makes you assume it's their Queen? It could simply be a mutation or a related species," Acamon challenged.

Venus pointed at the holes in the back of the creature.

"You see those holes? They used to be fertilized eggs that she carried on her back. On Earth, the Surinam toad behaves in a similar fashion. I assume that like the toad, this creature grows a thick layer of skin for the eggs to sink into and which protects them during gestation. Once the offspring hatch, they leave behind those recessed scars," she explained. "I wish we could get some blood and tissue samples from it to better understand what is going on with her."

"From the part of her we can see so far, it doesn't seem like she has any eggs left to hatch," I said pensively. "Could she be coming out to mate again?"

"Doubtful," Venus said with a frown. "Again, I'm just speculating based on the Surinam toad, but once her younglings hatched, she should have shed that extra skin the eggs were embedded in. Based on the scan readings, her leftover skin is old, and it seems diseased."

"She's dying," Acamon said as if struck by an idea. "She served her purpose, grew too old, or became ill."

"The dying theory makes sense," Kyrene said excitedly. "The Zuras you captured were of different ages, based on the number of rings of their bodies. The simulations we ran implied that the oldest captured would be close to eighteen-years. With such a small sample, we have reason to think some of them might be much older. If the Queen dying causes Thaudras, then her lifespan would be between seventy-five and one hundred years."

"No, that doesn't add up," Acamon countered. "If it occurred every time a Queen died, then Thaudras would occur at every Sibris, assuming each one is actually the entrance to a Zuras hive. But it only happens near a single city every three generation."

"Fair point," Kyrene said pensively. "Maybe the new Queen travels to a different hive? Maybe it's a recessive gene that randomly kicks in for one of the Queens. But that it occurs every three generations is too much of a coincidence to be one. And I can't think of anything our people actually do that could have the type of environmental impact that would cause this mutation or trigger that illness—assuming our speculations are accurate."

"Traveling to a new hive makes the most sense to me," Acamon said. "It's common for colonial insects to send off young queens to create their own nests."

I froze then jerked my head towards my mate. "The Zuras that were moving away from the giant Queen, could there have been a young Queen among them leaving the nest?"

"Shit!" Venus hissed under her breath. "I didn't think of that and didn't track where they went. The exodus ended a few hours ago. So your guess is as good as mine. I just… What the fuck?!"

Startled by my mate's sudden expletive, I followed her gaze back to the holographic screen. The tiny Zuras were climbing on top of the Queen. At first, I thought they were attacking her or maybe even trying to eat her. But then I realized they were casting lumen—the solid form of our magic—and filling the holes left by the empty eggs on her back.

"They're sealing them up," Kyrene mused out loud, her creased forehead showing how intensely she was analyzing the situation. "Venus, can you bring up that radiation map?"

My mate's eyes widened, as if in sudden understanding of what the scientist was after. Her fingers flew over the keyboard of the laptop controlling the two probes below. The image zoomed in as the probe providing this main feed descended closer to the Queen. It was equipped with what Venus called a stealth shield, making it invisible to the creatures. Although it emitted a soft hum, it was buried by the wooshing sound emitted by the Sibris' beam of pure magic and the clicking noises of the countless Zuras crawling below.

A line chart appeared as an overlay at the bottom of the screen.

"Fuck me!" Venus whispered with excited disbelief. "The radiation emissions have dipped where they sealed the empty creases. She's leaking!"

Moments later, the Queen began thrashing, trying even more aggressively to wiggle through the still narrow opening. At first, I thought it was so that her young could seal more of the holes in her back, but she quickly proved me wrong. The round tips of her antennae glowed with a blue halo, and then the Zuras closest to them burst into flames.

"By the Lights!" Kyrene whispered.

"Shit!" Venus exclaimed.

Complete chaos erupted. The Queen was acting like a rabid, trapped animal, trying to obliterate her colony. They were fighting back but only seemed to use defensive tactics, shielding themselves with kinetic walls to counter her magic while they continued to rush towards the holes in her back. She crawled out a bit more, revealing a greater number of the empty shells along her spine. A thick, murky yellow liquid oozed out of them, like radioactive pus.

"They can't kill her," I said with sudden understanding. "The radiation is inside her!"

"Judging by these readings, she's a walking nuclear bomb about to burst," Kyrene said. "Radiation cannot be neutralized, other than by the Prism. We must contain her."

"We have to go in at once," I said firmly, glancing at Acamon. "We need the Whites and Gray Monos to keep the Queen trapped in the ground and only gradually push her up while we seal the sores on her back."

"And then encase her in the thickest lumen shell you can," Kyrene said.

"Agreed," Acamon replied. "Is there any way we can grant her a gentler death than asphyxia inside a lumen casing?"

"Based on the scans, her chitin scales are very thick. The force required for a dart to punch through it might shatter a large segment of it. We don't know yet where the radiation stems from. If it's in her blood, those of you in the front line may get exposed to a lethal dose," Kyrene cautioned.

"Is there some kind of cryogenic canister you could trap inside the lumen casing you will build?" Venus suggested. "If you put a remote detonator on it to set it off when ready, it could keep the Queen from thrashing or suffering. Once Xarin removes the radiation, you would have a perfectly preserved specimen to study."

"Ah, my dear Venus, how I wish we did," Kyrene said in an apologetic tone.

"Hmmm, we could use sleeping gas or a potent anesthetic," Acamon said pensively.

"Let's do it," I said in a decisive tone before turning to Kyrene. "If we don't have it here, request someone bring what we need at once from the hospital."

"Yes, Atlas."