S2 Chapter 5 The Sabbatical

Wildlands, 2026 AC/DC, twilight. 

She hid in the glens and woods not far from the Rainbow bridge location. The morning after her nightly drug trip, she had ridden back to Geez's manor and sent the men back to Ao'o with a message that she would be taking a sabbatical in the Sabbath lands for an undetermined amount of time. She would be taking up residence with Geez and she would return quickly, Richi was in charge until then. They left and she made way back to the stream and woods where she had stayed over night.

It still baffled her as to what her dream of her three deepest lovers meant. Zardos had said, one to never fail, one to give her power, and one to make her desperate. She hated the were-creature's riddles. After ten days of isolation she had made herself a small stream side hut on her own. A trait she learned while in the throes of hiding and battle in the year 1979. She came out of her hut and saw a thin trail of smoke on the fading horizon. The sun had already dipped below it and the blue sky was tainted pinks and golds. The smoke was a pillar of grey and she knew it was her signal to come back.

That and Zardos was staring at it. She had been serious of late, ever since Star took shelter in the glen her mental counterpart waited with her. Not speaking other than what she said that night of the mushroom trip. Now she stared with yearning at the pillar of smoke, it made Star's heart jump in her chest.

Had the time come?

She rode hard on her stallion right up to the porch of the seemingly decrepit tavern. A fire pit was smoking in the barren courtyard. She dismounted, undid her horses saddle and bridle, set them aside and only then did she enter the place. She did not expect to. . .well she didn't know what to expect. Would she be leaving this planet tonight? Going where only heroes dared. Her eyes glittered hopefully as she entered.

There was Kilmister, hanging in a seat swing tinkering with some final lever.

“Bout time you got 'ere.” He said.

“Is it. . .is it done?” She asked hopefully.

He sighed. “You really want to go?”

“Yes! I. . .I do.”

He stared at her a moment, at the desperation in her eyes. She knew she was not of earth, he all but confirmed it. He had never wanted her to return but when she asked he could not deny her.

“I was sent here to capture you and send you back. You return to Mars of your own free will Queen.”

He pulled down on the lever and the room lit in a bright greenish blue hue. She had to cover her eyes for a moment and when she could see again the rainbow light was trailing out of the massive roofless domain. The light died down but she could still see a quaking in the air and sky above them, it was something colorless yet you could see. Ripples of distortion in the stars, it was something she had never seen. When it turned on there was a loud, low toned, ring that evened as the bridge materialized.

“I don't know what awaits you on the other side. Whatever portal you come of is the one you will return by, never forget!”

She nodded and checked for her dagger, her short sword, her money would be no good so she dumped it to the floor. She tightened her cloak and stared at the doorway at the base of the bridge. The portal could only move one person at a time.

“I will keep the bridge open as long as I can but if anyone besides you comes out I will close it for twenty four hours Mars time!”

She didn't know what that meant but she knew she would find out.

“There will be no help, you are on your own.” He nodded. “God save you Queen of the Stars.”

His words made her stomach twist and while she wanted to not go, the bridge was built. She had to go. She had to know, to see what lay on Mars, why and who called to her from those sands. To see where she had come from. They had spoken little of her darkest questions. . . .where Did she come from? Why did she fall to earth? Who was the man of her dream? Who was Zardos? Where did she spend the first years of her life? Why hadn't she killed the Kilmister?

She would know these things if she stepped forward, all questions would be answered.

As she walked forward and put her hand into the rainbow light of the capsule she felt like her body become air and she looked up at to the sky once again. She stepped in and closed her eyes and felt herself leave the ground. She opened her eyes and watched stars and rainbows and sky floating passed her and it gave her the most peculiar sensation of having come this way before. She floated through galaxies and space, she was light and she was a star and she smiled. The red orb of destination loomed closer and she let herself be taken to it, she looked behind her and saw the blue orb of Earth fall away.

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Almost two months later. . . . . . .

Ao'o. Day. Throne room.

Richi had sent all the managers away after spending hours telling them what to do in Star's stead. She had been gone without a word to say other wise for over a month now. Out in the Sabbath lands for a spell she had said. . .yet no other word had come and it made Richi irritated. He didn't know why he put up with her, stood in for her, ruled for her. He had his share of woman and some he had loved, he didn't have to put up with this. But serving the Queen as closely as he did left little time for personal affairs. That and he must find a woman immortal like himself who would tolerate him spending long amounts of intimate time with his Queen cousin the ruling power of Holy Wood.

Sigh, being the power behind the crown was a lonesome, enjoyable, time consuming, constant duty. Yet what he could only think about was Star. She was prone to bouts of isolation yes but to go this long, over a solid month, with no word was unlike her. Something was not quite right and he knew it. Not even Geez had sent word. If this went on much longer he would have to either send someone to locate her and see what was wrong or he would have to go himself. . .and he rather not do that.

As he sat on the throne in place of Star he pondered Dawn's desire for the crown. She sat in it with her mother gone and when Richi was not attending to business in it. But he had to watch his neice like figure, ever ambitious she had created her own kingdom but he knew she would surely take over a second kingdom with ease. The woman was more than capable of ruling by herself over vast amounts of land. She sometimes took it upon herself to sit in at council meetings. But it was a rare occurrence and mostly consisted of Richi calming fears and answering questions and giving commands.

Dawn was there now, entering the room as the managers left. She was dressed for travel but it appeared light. She waltzed in, her chainmaille skirt clinking against her scabbard, she faced her uncle figure and bowed her head in respect.

“No news of my mother?”

“Not yet.”

“Could she be dead?”

“As much as we can only speculate I doubt it.” They shared thoughts.

“Pity.”

“You wanted to do it yourself?”

“HA! I couldn't kill her, no matter how furious she makes me.” She gave him a curious look in her blue eyes.

A look he didn't entirely trust.

“I am going riding for a few days.” She said. “Rosie is to remain here, I have arranged May with what she would need. Like dear Mother, I do not know when I shall return.”

Richi was pleased but didn't let it show. “To which direction do you go?”

“Westward, along the seaside. I will not take long and I hope you have news of mother when I return.”

“Gods speed Princess.” He said to her in parting.

She left her uncle to guard what she coveted. It was in safe hands. To the seaside she rode, making head way to the north. A few day's ride would bring her within sight of the infamous Chatue D'if, the island prison. Where her mother was once held captive for months when she was an infant. Three lonesome days along the mist she rode, in silence and without guards. She was a skilled, trained warrior, she needed no guards.

Once on the shore opposite of the Chatue, she found a lagoon under a massive sea cave. In it was a lone boat, the only way to and from the island. Though, rather morbidly, visitors where few and prisoners many. The guards standing over D'if were made of clay and wore armor, they neither ate nor drank, nor slept. They needed nothing. Once a month, her mother sent enough supplies to the island to feed the 66 inmates. As Dawn got into the boat and pushed off from shore she held fast to the oars and thought about what she would find.

Upon chance one day while attending a Mangers meeting, she had come across a list of inmates with the list of inventory to Chatue D'if, a prisoner of war criminals her mother funded and supplied. Those who were found guilty of crimes yet did not find death. In the personnel descriptions Dawn found a line that said an inmate had silver eyes, who was locked away with no particular crime to his “Prisoner 54” status.

This she recalled as she came closer to D'if. This seemed odd, the man himself had been put in prison for no particular crime besides 'War Criminal, Guilty'. Dawn knew her mother and knew that Star was the type of person to hide someone if she wanted them kept alive without question. The D'if is one place the BOC did not venture, once a place they ran themselves. It was the best place to hide a human being, but why?

Others may not question what the man had done to be locked away in D'if but Dawn did. Star was meticulous when dealing with imprisonment and only those who participated in the BOC war were kept in D'if. Every other inmate had a length account of his or her crimes, except the silver eyed man, nameless 54. That struck the princess as worth seeing what the man looked like and if he could attest to his crimes.

She entered the prison through the single landing dock and tied the boat to the rocks. She climbed the spiral stair case chiseled into the rock and came out into the sun. She went into the prison and into the rocky maze of cages. These were more immortals, doomed to decades of never ending starvation for their crimes. Star would end them eventually but she made them examples to the BOC. It said 'fear the wrath of the Star Queen. Cross her and suffer an endless death.'

Dawn made way past the guards, they recognized faces that the Queen deemed was appropriate to walk these halls without her. She went to the one and put her hands through his helmet, her palms to his temples. This connection allowed her inside his memories. For over six years not a single human had come or gone from D'if, but the ones who had come made her shocked. It was Tilda, alive and dressed in war woman garb, sword by her side. She accompanied her Mother! They had come this way and through the hive like collection of golem minds she saw which way the two had gone.

She left the golem and went to the cell her mother had visited. When Dawn got there the cell was empty, void of any human habitation. She turned to glare at a few scattered prisoners in the same block, they stared back with wide eyes. Their tongues had been removed as part of their torture, sixty six people and not a single word spoken in forty seven years. Their eyes however told her what they remembered, the queen had left with the prisoner.

It wasn't difficult for her to understand what had happened. Star had found use in the Silver eyed inmate, the reason she kept him locked up perhaps. She took the man away, the only person who knew was dead. She had no doubt that this was the same man she visited in the Sabbath lands under cover. Whoever this man Really was, Star wanted it kept a secret and Dawn was going to find out why. What was her mother hiding so fiercely?

Dawn left the cell after inspecting it and finding only a cigarette butt. To the nearest Golem she went and looked into his mind to that day her mother came. Star stood outside the cell for some time, talking low to him. Suddenly she opened the cage and yelled at the man. Eventually, He came out and when Dawn saw him she knew it was the man in the Sabbath Lands. The man her mother had released was the same man she met with in secret.

She quickly left the island, the Sabbath Lands were next on her list. But now that she understood her mother's method-hide these things in plain sight- she knew that she had to look into the same records she had found the inmate in. If Star was trying to make it look like he was still in prison it meant she had him doing something somewhere else. The Sabbath Lands, the very place she had last been seen and known to be.

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It was three more days before Dawn returned to Ao'o. There was no new information regarding her mother. She calmly re-entered the castle, surely Richi didn't even know what Star had been doing. She doubted he did or else her mother would have taken Him with her to D'if for the Silver Eyed Man. Dawn had declared War on her mother now, war of secrets and lies. She had to play cool though, to reveal her mission would bring Richi into the fold and Dawn didn't need his ways clogging up her investigation.

Star was up to something big and to the record rooms she went. Being the princess of the crown she had all access to these rooms and so she entered alone in the night. She could waste no time. She went straight to the Sabbath land records and shut the door. Records of shipments sent to or received form the far north east marshes were written down for generations. Dawn did not need to read back far, whatever her mother was doing had only started about six years before. Knowing, somewhat, of what she looked for she noticed that every now and then an odd crate was counted for.

Thrown in with an outgoing shipment of crates bound for the north east were tools. Tools? Listed as destined for the blacksmiths of Geez Manor. The princess's eyes narrowed in suspicion. Another crate full of cigarettes. . . . .was it coincidence that Inmate 54 smoked cigarettes? Again, destined for Geez Manor. Who needed an entire crate of cigarettes? Another few weeks later, again, tools and metal sheets and other things forged by royal blacksmiths. Why did she send things that others could provide? Perhaps it was the act of providing for someone, providing things more easily made in Holy Wood.

How did anyone over look this? Much less Richi!? Yet, Dawn knew that as far apart as the shipments were during times of trade it was easier to hide. Again, her mother's attention to detail is what covered her tracks. Metal and tools to blacksmiths, sheets of metal that could be disguised as traded for rich crops of cannabis. After all, there were richer ore mines found south than north. Since Geez practiced science and alchemy, many would not doubt that Star was simply being a good hostess type and providing for her allies. Dawn, however, knew better.

Her mother had imprisoned the Man for some reason, released him for That same reason and hid him at Geez Manor. All the while, public records showed he was still locked up in D'if. Hmmm. What was her mother doing? She righted the room, put away all records and went to her chambers.

She could not go to the Sabbath lands for answers, she would find no help. Geez would not tell her, not when her mother so plainly tried to hide this and he was obviously helping her. No, Star was north working on whatever secret project she had going with the Silver eyed Man. Dawn wouldn't go riding off after her, news would surely make it to Richi in this case.

Well that and another clan dispute, different clans than the one set the fires that took her mother out that way. Always in dispute those cavemen were, Dawn didn't feel like walking into another battle riddled land. However, in Star's absence, Dawn began to form her own plan, a plan to take her turn at ruling. With Star gone and thoroughly distracted in the North she could possibly ease Richi off the throne and herself onto it. If anything THAT would bring her mother home.