Weight of Penumbra

Dear Readers, SURPRISE! The sequel to A WIDER SKY! The BEYOND ECLIPSE saga continues!! Cheers and Happy Reading, Talyis

********♔✯✮✰********** ♕❧•❥Oº **********

WEIGHT OF PENUMBRA

Beyond Eclipse

Book 2

by Talyis Ellison

(C) 2017

ℙrologue

Penumbra

.

noun

. pen•um•bra \pə-ˈnəm-brə\

def. a space of partial illumination (as in an eclipse) between the perfect shadow on all sides and the full light

CHAPTER 1

✯✮✰~Gaelen~ ✰❂✬

Home Sweet Home. My so called fucking refuge.

Six months ago, I left this palatial apartment and thought if I could just get through this school year...

My father and mother had been pressuring me to the leader they wanted every day since I was 5 years old. I'll never forget when I almost started to doubt that they would make me King. That it was all just a cruel joke to torture me.

I'll never forget that day. I worried for many years how tyat conversation would go. And then it happened. Two years ago, they told me, I could go to University because every general's child goes to Yale and learns how to lead but only for three years instead of five.

"It is now your turn," my mother started the conversation. My mother's cold expression and stone grey eyes looked me over from across my father's study. She put a gentle hand on my father's lap and whispered something and then turned her grey eyes back to me.

Her cold gaze is engraved on my soul. That afternoon, her tight unwilling lips to turn into a comforting smile.

"I suppose you are right," Cato, my father said. "We cannot let anyone know of your defect. So you will go to Harvard and your seconds with you."

"That's unfair Father!" I stood up and pounded my chest with my fist. I could feel my powers unfettered and surging through me as the room began to rumble.

My father and mother looked annoyed and crossed their arms. Their glares were so familiar I knew my father was going to use my lack of control as an example.

"And what would you do if your subjects learn of your defect?" Cato set his hand on the side table and stopped the room from rumbling. I grit my teeth to hide my embarrassment - I wasn't going to show them weakness.

"They won't."

"Yes, they won't if you are not in the Yale program."

"Taxa and Bane will hate me," I said under my breath and sat down defeated.

"Son," my mother added with a faux warmth that could freeze a pole. "We'll say you only need to complete three years. You need a fast program so that you can begin your duties as king. In your third year, you will be crowned and that year will be an accelerated year for you and your Seconds."

I just shook my head. They didn't understand how inadequate it made me feel. For the last few years of secondary training, going to Yale and becoming a warrior was all Taxa and Bane talked about. They wanted to be a part of a legacy of Y'vori Generals and I did too. I wanted the glory and the fame but most of all I wanted the respect. I wouldn't be respected going to the Harvard school and when people learned of my defect and they will, they will respect me even less.

"Great. It's settled then," Cato stood and wiped any wrinkles from his jacket.

I couldn't wait to be done with school and just move on with my life and all the pressures of being under everyone's watchful eye at school and my family's disapproving silence at home. I just wanted to be crowned king and get it over it. But now being home, I feel so unsure of where I belong. Like I was trapped between two mountains and I should just gnaw my way out. But where would I go?

Thankfully, no one seemed to be home when I entered our apartment. Every step I took caused every nerve to fire, jolting from the soles of my feet to my right hand. It still shakes uncontrollably since... since Mouse.

I was going to crumble with each step. If I could just get to my room and figure shit out. I need some peace because with every step I took, I was going to uproot the entire building and my powers were out of control - more unruly than usual.

"Oh, you're back, already?" My brother turned the corner and nearly ran into me. I saw him, but everything was moving in slow motion. Even his voice was a fog. I could only make out a few words he was saying.

"Gaelen, your hand is shaking. What's wrong?" I read my brother's lips with the muffle.

My big brother Anesola. He was my favorite brother, to say the least. My brothers never seemed happy even though they were legend at keeping appearances. They also resent me. Me, the youngest, will be their ruler. I don't blame them. Anesola is the oldest of all of us and but I think he resents me the least all for being the prince. Anesola would be a better ruler than...

"Brother?"

The apartment was becoming incredibly hazy and started to slant. I leaned against the wall and took deep heavy breaths.

"Anesola, I'm fine," I said once air entered my lung. Now it's my turn to keep appearances and ignore the Phantom covering my sight. A moment ago, all I could see was Mouse's face. She is persistent to haunt me.

"I'm fine." I stood up again and patted his shoulder. He gave me a distrusting look, he knew.

"Well, maybe you should..." Anesola was still looking me over trying to figure out what was wrong. "Tread lightly. And don't turn the building upside down. Dad will be here within the hour."

"I'm ok. I just had a bad day."

"Bad day. It's the last day of school and Dad is pressed to make your coronation happen soon. He's been having a lot of meetings over the last week with the elite family generals and of course Windsor."

This day just keeps getting better and better.

"Well does that mean I can finally do whatever I want to do?"

"You know that won't happen, Gaelen. Don't even joke."

"Then I resign. I don't want to be a king that can't rule in his own way."

"You don't know what kinda person you want to be; let alone the type of king you want to be." Anesola chuckled.

"True. But I gotta start somewhere."

"Right. So why not just take Prince Gaelen to his room and figure that out. Sort out whatever has gotten you so shaken and calm your powers down."

Calm the fuck down. Right. That was good advice but I was seeing Mouse every time I closed my eyes.

"Thanks, Anesola."

"I'm here for you little brother. Oh, and Bellas is on his way too."

"That's the cherry on top of this cake of a day. Please say Nyna is staying home."

Anesola just smirked and walked away. Fuck. Bellas was my second older brother and his wife. Nyna was... let's just say she's not my favorite of people. She is materialistic General family stock. And she judges everything I do, even when I am not doing anything but standing at attention; she always finds something to say.

I finally made it to my room and did a face plant into my bed.

Fuck.

I could hear the gentle smooth voice of Mouse.

Gaelen do it.

I need to have my A-game tonight if my father was finally making arrangements for me to become king. He was going to put me under so much pressure. A human at a Y'vori school would have nothing on the stress I was about to feel.

I reached into my bag to grab my tablet out of habit. And before I could filter, I saw the thousands of messages on my feed. All about Kiowa. It was good I was going to be crowned King, at least it would save me from being ridiculed too long for falling for the human on campus.

But I did fall for the human on campus and I loved her. I love her. Trying not to think about her was never doing to diminish what I feel inside. So I guess I am going to be teased about it for a little while. Perhaps others will believe they cannot have confidence in me because of if. Whatever, I am not another hard nose Y'vori elite they can grind and mold however they please.

My hand is trembling again but at least it knows now that I am capable of. Hopefully, what have done will not desensitize me.

Every second now was as new as the seconds that passed in that dorm room.

My hand crackled with power and a bright blue light emitted from my hand. I could see Kiowa's bones under her skin glow an unearthly blue color. I felt the waves of emotions, thoughts, betrayal, pain, anger, sorrow crash into me afresh just as it had hours ago in the dorm room.

A beam of death radiated from my fingers but I pulled it in. I pulled away my powers and a new bright idea was now in its place.

No matter what pressure anyone put on me as Gaelen the Prince or Gaelen the King. Fuck, no cosmic power, no person, human or Y'vori. Cato, Windsor even Taxa and Bane could change my position. Not now. Not after how I put my heart on a hook, fishing in a sea of sharks. I know now who I am. What kind of killer that was inside me and what else reigned inside me. I'm going to keep unearthing this person I am to be and only I can figure that out.

I will never regret what I did. Ever.

ºO•❥❧•~•❧❥•Oº

My stomach was tied in knots so tight, I thought I would burst. All I could do was double over and hold myself in a tight hug. I shivered although the heat of the sun felt like warm honey against my skin. All I could think, see, hear, feel was the crackling power shooting from Gaelen's hand.

Unadulterated power aimed in a killing blow towards me. His hand glowed yellow, blue and then white with light. The room seemed churned into a storm of darkness and swirling greys in a mist followed by tremendous heat and light that circled around me speeding into a whirlpool of lightning.

But it abruptly stopped. He stopped. He was trying to catch his breath but his hand stayed outstretched and trembled fiercely.

Was he going to strike again?

His gaze was like soulless green glass but he didn't look at me. His eyes looked through me, searching blindly for something.

"Leave," he commanded. I didn't know if he was talking to me. "Run! Human. Now!"

And I ran past him and out of my dorm room. He spared my life. But he was going to kill me?

I was sure of it. I dared not look over my shoulder. I sprinted for my life towards to campus entrance where my transport was waiting to take me to Ben and Maddie's.

The students on campus were already hearing the news and gather near my building. A mob began to taunt me, tossing poppy flowers at me. It resembled a joyous procession of red and yellow flowers before Eclipse. But after Eclipse, it was a threat and a desire to have my blood spill on the ground- all communicated with the simple flower.

I couldn't cry. I couldn't think. Only survival was in my muscles and pounding through my veins. Survive.

I only stayed at Ben and Maddie's house for 15 minutes before another transport arrived with a battalion of humans to escort me to the middle of that blasted shell of human remains desert floor. I was told to walk straight in one direction.

During that three-hour walk, across the sea of what was human now turned into an unearthly, smooth surface of orange and brown layer called Didaskozic shell; clarity hit me. The love of my life was ready to kill me.

I shivered again, knowing he was going to blast me into an endless surface of Didaskozic Layer. A guttural groan passed over my lips as my stomach turned again. The world clenched its fists around my throat suffocating me with a grip that tightened the more I fought to breathe.

"Kiowa!" Kiowa! Fuck!" I hear my name being called but it was so far away and I could bearly feel anything. My body was in shock. I couldn't take another step in the stifling heat. I fell to the ground and curled into a ball, shivering.

The rusted old car screeching to an abrupt stop.

"Kiowa, breathe. Fuck! What did they do to you girl?! Breathe!"

Pion continued to slam his hand into my back forcing my body to feel reality - that I was alive here and now.

I sat up waving my hands slightly to let him know I was ok- I think. My eyes were watery for some strange human reason for losing oxygen. At least, I no longer had to hide my human nature. And I was more than sure, I wouldn't return to University.

Pion quickly rounded the car to his seat. The driver's side door creaked as more rust fell to the unnatural ground before he fused with the car that didn't want to easily start.

I hadn't really taken in Pion and he didn't talk much to me. But in silence, he said a lot through brief glances he dared to look at me. My state probably tempted him to run for cover from our monsters. Instead, he focused on the long stretch of endless war grave pavement in front of us. He seemed just as nervous as the first time he dropped me off, previously sweating and jittery.

I wondered what he was like once he was in the safety of his apartment. Was his shambled colony apartment a refuge without having to worry about the Y'vori? Was he calm, laid back with a great sense of humor, was he romantic with his wife and gentle with his children? Was he able to shed his knowledge of what the aliens were threatening to do next to the colonies or did it wear on him night and day?

I wonder what he did before Eclipse. Was he an elementary school teacher or a city planner with the least of his worries being when were the Y'rvoi going to turn on the heat or electricity to the city he was in charge of.

I doubt it. I am sure he knew just as much as I did. We could be only two humans left on the planet that really knew that we are never safe with the Y'vori in power.

Was that why Gaelen didn't strike? Because he wanted to keep up appearances that we humans were not in danger. It is obvious that if I did not return home, humans would know the true danger, Y'vori posed. I would be a martyr.

Would I?

Probably not. I would just be another lost human. We have been put down so far that we are used to the trauma of domination. We would blink a vacant eye and dare not ask, least we put ourselves into more trouble.

"You have to be strong for your mother," Pion interrupted my thoughts. Whatever they have done to you, it was all peaches and cream, you hear. You have to do what they want you to do next if that means work in their glass towers you ask what floor, go back to school-"

"I'm not going back."

"You are. You have 7 days off and then you are to return."

"But we have three weeks off?"

"It doesn't matter. We go where they tell us to go and you hide whatever terrible things from your mom. You need to be strong Kiowa for her sake."

"What do you mean?"

He didn't answer.

Growing up, Matthias and I thought Pion was a worm for a governor -so weak and spineless. I was wrong. Now, I understood what his nervous tick was. I probably hae my own, now. Pion was bearing so much to be strong for all of us in the colony. We had no clue what terrible things he was preventing or could not prevent. He did the best he could for all of us.

✯✮✰~Gaelen~ ✰❂✬

It was a formal dinner. Anesola was right, Father was getting ready to make our home into a full-fledged royal home for a King. Our family butler and chef are on duty tonight. Their subordinates quietly buzz around the table placing plates and clearing plates from me and my family - always serving me first and then my father, Cato.

But I have no appetite, so I had to continue to politely let them know to clear my untouched plate for the next course. It was awkward because I swear they were looking at me and then relaying the information to an annoyed chef. The Prince is not touching his food. The chef is probably throwing a fit at his staff because of my melancholy.

Nyna and Bellas consumed most of the conversation with my father and mother. Thankfully. I just swirled my glass of wine absently. I enjoy wine, it's one of the very few earthling things that we've kept in our cuisine. Maybe because my great-great grandfather loved wine so much it was given a pass. My mind drifted to Kiowa. I realized that the restaurant I took her to a few days ago was probably her first time being waited on. And now, here I sit, with a full staff of people to wait on me.

I wonder where she is right now? Is she having a warm meal to welcome her home tonight? She probably had a warmer reception than I got. Mouse deserved to have warmth and love.

"What happened to Adam?" I asked as casually as I could, even though I was planning on asking all day. I asked in mid-bite to pretend it was just a simple question.

"Adam who, Darling?" My mother chimed as she passed food to my father who I could feel his eyes baring down on me, he knew there was more to my question.

"Adam, the kid I used to play with."

"I don't know, Honey," My mother answered, simply ignoring the fact that the woman she befriended, Adam's mother, was one of her close-knit friends.

"Do they live in purgatory?"

"I don't know darling?"

"Are they alive?"

"I don't know darling?"

"Why don't you know?"

"I'm sorry Gaelen." Her voice growled. "We lost touch once we moved you and the boys to Siberia." She took a bite of her food, chewing it delicately like a Queen. "The boys" meant me, Bane and Taxa. It was in that Siberian yurt I was told that I was King and these boys were to follow me and be my aides for the rest of my life.

"Adam and his family are no longer." My father finally piped in his brassy voice.

"What happened to them? Did they get killed? Were they offered a home in purgatory?"

"Gaelen, why are you asking these questions? Does it have anything to do with that human girl that you were romantic with at your university?" My father said sharply. I leaned back in my chair trying not stiffen at this fact. "Don't think anything slips by me, Son."

"Yes. I thought she was Y'vroi." I knew it was better to fess up than to cover it with a white lie when it came to my father.

My second brother, Bellas snorted, "How did you mistake a human for one of us?" His wife cackled with him and I blinked my right eye in a nervous twitch to try to stop her voice from ringing in my ear like a catchy song.

"Tell me about this Kiowa Walker. She scored a perfect score on her test and Professor Windsor raves about her ability to pass even his most difficult assignments," Cato leaned back in his chair never letting his eyes divert from me.

I took another huge bite. I had to play this casual. "She's always studying, Father. I assume she is just a really hard worker."

"Nah, something must have happened to allow her to get a pass. He knew she was human so he made it easy on her," Bellas disseminated with a shrug his shoulders and reached over for a large fork full of food from the serving plate.

"Have you heard of the 'Perfect but not perfect movement?'" Cato again commanded the table's attention. His voice laced more accusatory rather than a question.

"Sure, Father. We studied that in Windsor's class and in a few others."

"Well, there seems to be a growing fad among the older Y'vroi in the human district that want to be 'artistic' in the way that humans were."

"Yes, I understand. Not mathematically or scientifically defined as perfect or true art or creative but artistically perfect."

"Does Ms. Walker fall into that category? She's smart but not truly smart."

"I dunno Father. She is pretty smart. An idiot savant cannot pass the test let alone get a high score."

"You did," Bellas snickered and my face burned red.

"I want you to bring Kiowa Walker to our home next week. She will stay until the school recess ends."

"I dunno, Father. She might not even come back to school."

Why would she?

"If I command that she returns to school, she will," Cato simply stated and pat the corners of his mouth with his napkin.

"She may come back but I am pretty sure, she will stay far away from me."

"Why?"

"I almost killed her. When I found out she was human. I was going to kill her." I nearly choked on my words. I've been saying them in my head all evening but aloud, it was even more painful.