Chapter 9: The Great Betrayal

Chapter 9: The Upside of Betrayal
Lantima watched as the perfect cocktail-blue skies darkened, turning into swollen, peppery masses of water vapour. A lost velitis found its way to her cell and landed on one of the rusty, sand covered window bars as if saying not all hope was yet lost. For a long moment, Lantima admired the beautiful bright yellow colour on its wings before a gust of wind scared it away. A storm was coming.
Heavily sighing, she walked over to the prison cell door and sat down on the cold, dirty floor. Sitting in an empty room, surrounded by four, dark-grey walls, there was nothing else to do but stare at them. She looked at the paint that had started to chip off as time passed, the gauged-out writings by other prisoners, and wondered if she will ever be free again. An intense aching feeling washed over her. She missed her brother, the great and wise Chunagoh. Not seeing him for days was excruciating enough, but to remain isolated, without a word from the outside, made her spirit experience physical starvation, a sense of death began to creep in. The daylight outside her cell dwindled to dusk.

The silence echoing in her ears was growing more and more disruptive. She shook her floating head, vigorously, from side to side, and tried to re-focus her mind on a beautiful memory. The darkness did not make it easy. It wanted Lantima to be afraid, it wanted to take over her mind. She clung onto Chunagoh’s words she remembered from childhood, “Hot is the heart of the Shadow God. So long as Shadow lives, roaming the sea, so long he will give life to thee. Forget him not and you will be free.” She quietly chanted the words over and over, wishing they would give her strength but instead her despair grew like a desolate, empty hole, darker and deeper. Her mind raced around in a vicious circle, feeding itself on hopelessness. Oblivious, she did not notice that hours have gone by since she stood by the window and complete darkness fell all around her. She put both of her arms on her glowing shoulder pads and gently rocked back and forth, mumbling. She tried to remember the expression on Chunagoh’s face when the armed guards forced their way into their home. The last words he said to her, before she was escorted away, were "Mitram Yanjash Amaventam." Sacred words spoken by a sacred Shadow. She sighed. They seemed meaningless now. As honorable and well regarded as Chunagoh was, his power had its limits. She rocked back and forth harder. The Supreme Tribunal was the only power left, and Lantima knew they were ruthless. Thinking back to the early days, she remembered hearing horror stories about executions, carried out by the Tribunal, of the Shadows who broke the code. A creeping feeling of sheer despair grew into a gnawing feeling of all out panic. The panic sat there, at the bottom of her lower ventri spreading its tentacles into the nearby organs. The hard rocking and the shaking failed to dislodge it, failed to provide even the slightest amount of relief. She knew she broke the code. She didn't realize it first when it happened. It took a number of days to process all the feelings. That cursed day of meeting Wilfred was the beginning of this agonizing nightmare. Much like everyone else, she was curious about the human who came such a long way to visit their planet. And then running into him at the Shadow God cavern after the diplomatic dinner... None of that was planed. He seemed surprised when he took notice of her, and curious. Without hesitating, he boldly approached and introduced himself extending his hand in a greeting. Lantima laughed. "Shadows don’t shake hands, Your Highness. We bow when we greet strangers. Like this.” Gracefully, her upper body tilted forward eyes looking down. She briefly held her pose, while her floating head continued to slightly move from side to side, and then returned to her normal stance, resuming eye contact. “You should try it, since you will be doing it a lot!” Wilfred grinned back at her, “Ok, make sure I am doing it right. But please stop calling me your Highness. Will is good.” His stiff upper body attempted to tilt forward. He looked down his long nose and crossed his eyes. Lantima laughed loudly, sending vibrations through the cavern. The strength of the invisible waves caused a rocky icicle hanging from the ceiling to come crashing down. Will jumped to his left hoping to avoid a small piece of rock hitting him in the leg. "Sorry, Will! Sometimes, when we get excited, our bodies oscillate." Will smiled, "It's okay, I will wear a hard hat next time."

A loud clunking noise startled Lantima. The beautiful memory disappeared and the darkness set itself back in. She got up from the floor. “Be strong!” she told herself. Shaking, she got up, intently staring at the door. Her darkened face exuded surrender. A petrifying, harsh whisper called out to her, “Lantima, LANTIMA! Are you there!?" She froze for a second, "who is there? Chunagoh??" She doubted it was her brother, it didn't sound like him at all. There was something vaguely familiar in the voice, though, but it wasn't him. Lantima's body stopped shaking. Losing control, she felt like the cell began to spin, faster and faster. An icky sensation ran up and down her entire being, making her feel hot and cold at the same time. "No! It's me, Sveratu!" Lantima staggered back a little and fell to the floor. Sveratu's floating head appeared through an opening in the door. His eyes stared at her for a moment before his head disappeared again. "You frightened me! Where is my brother?" she whispered back, coarsely. Sveratu appeared again in the opening. He seemed agitated and nervous. "He is going to see you soon, I have a message from him. The guards will be back soon, I must go!" He floated the capsule containing Chunagoh's message towards her before disappearing for good this time. Lantima slumped back against the wall, her floating head sank towards the floor. For the first time, in a long time, she wanted to scream in anger. The cell walls began to shake a little. "No! I will stay strong, I will stay strong." She whispered to herself, resolutely. Surrounding vibrations stopped. "At least I got to see Sveratu," she thought. "They have to get me out of here soon, before I lose my mind!" Lantima raised her head and looked at the message, in front of her. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if the news she was about to see were good or bad. "Here goes nothing," breathing heavy, she reached for it. As soon as the tiny little sphere containing the message was touched, it opened up, like a peeled fruit. White light took over the room, stayed for a moment and extinguished. A small core of the sphere, glowing in pale blue, began to transmit the message in vibrations. Lantima watched the message over and over, until she memorized every vibration, grabbed the core and swallowed it. "He can't be right. He can't be." She leaned back against the wall, thinking. She no longer cared that she was sitting in a locked cell, or that it was pitch black. Anger, fear, desperation left her body giving way to confusion.

Only moments ago she feared for her life, and now, her life didn't matter at all. The news were disorienting at best, and down right traumatizing at worst. "How could this happen? Why didn't I know it before?" Her lower ventri began to heave, unpleasantly. "Oh Shadow God, not this, I can't throw up." There wasn't anything TO throw up. Lantima lied down on her left side, trying to calm the heaving. Her thoughts trickled out of her head, as she focused her precious energy only on breathing. The less she moved, the better control she had over her lower ventri. It seemed to work, as the heaving eventually came to an end, and the merciful Shadow God granted her a moment of rest.

Deep in her dream state, Lantima felt hot air gently kissing her fragile, thin skin as if trying to wake her. She stirred. After a few long minutes, unwillingly, she slowly began to come to. Hot air coiled around her body like a giant, warm-blooded serpent spreading suffocation. Her body felt unmovable. The uneven, dirty floor stuck to her skin. Her limbs ached. Her head throbbed. Mustering strength, she quietly moved her arms and propped herself up against the wall. The heat was oppressive. Before long, her cell started to feel like an oven. "I am going to boil to death" she thought, Lantima looked around desperately. Having nothing to lose and feeling half dead already, she crawled to the cell door and began to bang on it as hard as she could. After a moment, she thought she heard something on the other side, but it was a false alarm. She dropped her head, swallowed her tears, and looked up again resolutely. "One way or another, I am going to get an answer from those fucking guards!" She began banging on the door with renewed vigor. The more she knocked, the angrier she felt. The heat has taken away any fear, worry or anxiety. The only thing she was interested in was knocking.

Daylight began to fade, but Lantima kept knocking on the door. Her knocks have lost some of its strength, but she didn't give up yet. She wondered if her dead body would be found on the floor the next day. That thought would have scared her before, but not any more. She didn't care. She couldn't. Not now.
Just when she was about to switch her hands, a loud clunking noise startled her. "Shut up in there!" a voice beyond the door yelled. She looked up at the locks. The top large lock between the ceiling and the door began to move, followed by the rest of the locks. Lantima sat back, bewildered.

A gigantic prison guard appeared in the small opening between the door and the cell. "Back up!" Lantima staggered away from the door, staring at the guard, speechless. Once the door fully opened, two guards made their way inside the cell, and forcefully grabbed Lantima by her arms. She winced. The other two guards stood back, watching. "Where are you taking me?!" Lantima tried to protest, but was promptly hit in her lower ventri. "Shut up, I said, you filthy dookar." Unable to breathe, Lantima heaved. The guards proceeded to drag her out of the cell and down a long corridor. She must have passed out from lack of air, because when she came to the guards were shoving her in a small cage, at the back of a small transport. She was able to catch a tail end of their conversation between the guards, unnoticed, "We need to hurry, the meeting is about to start." "I know, we'll make it up on the way, traffic is slow now." Once every latch was closed, and every compartment secured, guards boarded the transport and began to take off. Lantima watched from her small cage as they ascended into the atmosphere. "Hey, traitor, I bet you are happy to leave this place, huh? Don't get your hopes up yet. I bet the Supreme Tribunal will send you right back." One of the younger guards looked at Lantima and laughed. "At least I will find out who betrayed me.... and I will kill them." Lantima spat back at the guard, who looked at her, surprised. "At least I will see my brother." Lantima closed her eyes, contemplating the upcoming meeting.