The Cross of Mithras Vol. 1: EOD Operation Welcome to Hell (21 page)

  Vaistll continued on about her life upon her planet. “There really isn’t that much left to say, other than what Natas did to me. When I first met him I was at that stage in my life where I wanted to be something more than just a warrior. There comes a time in every warrior’s life where it is time for them to come home, and I was at that stage.

  So I used up all of my credits that I earned as a warrior, and started up a small business selling lamp oils. I owned three places that made the lamp oils. I was lucky. Everything was going good for me. If anything were to happen, I would have to start all over again trying to re-earn back the credits that I used up. Everything was going so well for me that I could look forward to retirement one day. The only other thing that I needed... was to start up a family. Life was good for me.

  I eventually found someone... err... he found me. Shortly after I’ve been with him, he started to act strange. I started to become suspicious of his behavior. At first I thought that maybe he was cheating on me. But I quickly ruled that out. Then I started to suspect that he might be working for someone. That he was spying on me. But I couldn’t figure who it might be, or why.

  Later he tried to get me to work for Natas. I told him that I’ll think about it. I did have the thought that maybe he might be working for Natas. But that to me at the time didn’t make any sense at all. What would be the point in Natas spying on me? What would he have to gain by doing that? He wasn’t some competitor of mine? I never worked for any of his enemies. So it just didn’t make any sense to me why he would spy on me?

  Both Natas and my boyfriend eventually talked me into it. They wanted me to learn more about Tsk’llk and Llyysta. What’s more, Natas was going to give me a large sum of money. The half that he already gave me was large enough to where I could buy a large beautiful home and property. The other half was large enough to give me a leg up on my competitors.

  Of course, before I actually would agree to do the work, I wanted to do research on Natas. While I was doing the research, Natas was being very friendly and helpful to me. Sometimes I thought that maybe he might be rehearsing my questions beforehand. I mean he acted like a modern day politician when you ask them a question.

  I also wanted to do that research, because I thought that it was strange that a slave trader should have so much wealth and power. When I asked him why that was, he look like...“

  “What? What did he look like what?”

  “Like a bad actor who is trying to look ashamed about something. But he said that the reason why he had so much wealth and power was because of his wives. When I asked him about his fllustl wife, he said that she’d served on a ship and died at sea during a storm. I should have asked him for the name of that ship. But I didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because he kept on dodging any questions about her. It was like trying to get a straight answer from a politician. Easier said than done. He said that he was emotionally devastated when he found out that she died. He mentioned that part of his wealth came from what he inherited from her death. So I didn’t push it any further.

  He also mentioned that only a small part of his wealth came from his family. When I asked him about his family, he once again dodged the issue. He said that all of them died in a massacre, and he was the only survivor. Beyond that he wouldn’t provide any details about what happen to them. And once again I didn’t push it. I didn’t like pushing anything about his past, at the time, because he said that there where people out to get him. One look at him and it is too easy to believe it. So it was very hard to question his honest over the matter.

  It was, however, a whole lot easier to get information about his wife’s past. Especially since she was famous to some degree. So all I had to do was to go to some Iomiyyan library and check up on her past. It was both surprising, and in a way sad, about what I learned about her past.

  First of all, she came from a small island civilization with only two major port cities. She came from the northern one called Yajk’nyo (sounds like you lack - knee-o). The name of which my people used in one of their sayings. That saying would give you an idea about, not only the city of Yajk’nyo, but also the civilization itself. What’s more, other civilizations adopted the saying as well. There is no Earth equivalent to it. But if there was, it would have gone as follows, ‘Don’t get all San Francisco on me.’ It means ultra-liberal.

  The ironic things is, his wife turned out to be ultra-conservative. I don’t know why she did. Maybe it had something to do with both the civilization that she came from, and her parents colorful past. It was something that she never talked about. And I didn’t care to know why.

  She always acted like she was open-minded, which was only partly true. But it might explain why she ended up with Natas. I mean one look at him and no woman would want him as a husband. He wasn’t born ugly. It was his pursuit of power, and what he did to himself that made him that way. I don’t know how they met, they never talked about it. But I often wonder what she saw in him. It wouldn’t have been his looks.

  One of the things that helped to make Natas’ wife so famous was the civilization that she came from. It gave women like her, an fllustl wannabe, opportunities that all other civilizations, including mine, would have laughed at. One of which is to let them travel on a ship for long periods of time with men. A fllustl was different because there was a small chance that they would get pregnant.

  In the region where her civilization was, there was a major pirate problem. So in the city of Yajk’nyo, powerful influential people decided to put a stop to it once and for all. They commission a ship for the purpose of pirate hunting and then they hired a crew. For each pirate ship that they sunk, they got a commission. They got a larger commission for each pirate nest that they routed. His wife was made second-in-command.

  They scored two major victories in their first two years. In their first year they won a major sea battle with the pirates and sunk several ships. In the second year they routed a major pirate nest and became famous all over. Even I heard about them in that year. And I was traveling all over at the time.

  Both Natas and his wife met in the same year that her crew routed that nest. I actually heard some of the former crew members telling me, when I asked them about that time period, that she was talking about working while pregnant. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God. You got to be shitting me. Fighting all of those pirates while pregnant.’ So I had to ask her if that was true, and she said that it was. Now you know why they don’t allow a fllustl wannabe on a ship.

  A year later both of them got married and she was pregnant. During that time they were working along side another pirate hunting ship. The captain of that ship was said to be quite arrogant. He ended up putting her, her captain, and their crew under a lot of stress. For some reason he stop talking to them and order his crew not to socialize with theirs. Because of the stress that Natas’ wife was under while she was pregnant, she had to take time off. The problem was, she’s a good officer that couldn’t be replaced.

  What’s more, her departure also meant that other good officers decided to take a break. Like her, they were irreplaceable. After four years she came back, but not those officers. The damage was too great and after three years the ship was disbanded. Those officers became a captain of their own ship, and went off to fight pirates on their own. They had nothing but mixed victories. Not one single victory that could equal those first two. One of those officers was one of those swashbuckler types. He really loved doing what he was doing. After those officers went their own way, and he got a crew and ship, but his exploits went downhill. He lost his crew and his ship. Then he got another crew and ship and lost those as well. Broken down and still in his prime, he went to the far west of Iraxxan. To those islands that look like the invert of Japan. So in a way, Natas was a curse to them. It was his wife commissions where he got part of his wealth from.

  At the time that I decided to work for Natas, there really wasn’t any strong reason to believe that he, nor his wife, had any ulterior motive against me. They only wanted my skills as a warrior. I was the best and that’s what they wanted. I killed the swamp demon, they heard about that, and they asked to see its skull. They then told me that was the reason why they wanted me. And why they were willing to pay so much for my service. They wanted me to go after Llyysta and her husband. When I asked for the reason, they dodge the question. They told me that it was a very long story, and they didn’t think I would understand. So I didn’t press the issue. Even if I did... it wouldn’t have worked. Look at how he acted when I asked about his, quote-fllustl wife-end-quote. So what more could I do?

  I did some research on Tsk’llk and Llyysta at the time. What I learned, didn’t give me any answers as to why Natas hated them so much. Llyysta once saw a fllaistl slave being whipped. When she saw that, she realized that could be Nany’skl being whipped like that. She started to talk to them about the ideas that they had for the city that they wanted to start for their people. So she’d proposed the rallying cry of, ‘Yhidnrvl qy stol (eed-na-rule key stow).’ It meant, ‘Freedom for all.’ But freedom did not mean from slavery. It meant from oppression, from tyranny. So of course not one single slave owner would have considered it a threat. If they didn’t consider Iomiyya a threat then why would they perceive both of them as a threat?

  And as for that civilization that they wanted to start? They found a small deserted island to which they could build that civilization upon. Llyysta wanted to build their first city in a valley, which would have given them a good tactical position. Tsk’llk wanted to build a port city instead. Lucky for them... he got what he wanted. But that civilization was weak and feeble. It was not a threat to anyone. Not to one single civilization. Llyysta’s saying wouldn’t have been a good reason to destroy them. To this day I still can’t figure out why Natas hated them so much.

  Looking at the strength and weaknesses of their civilization, combine with what Natas gave me to assist me, I pretty much knew what had to be done. I had to lure them out. I expected them to bring a small army for their protection. I also knew that I had to rely upon my security force to deal with that army. Natas said that he would cover any losses to that security force.

  By the time that it was over, I had lost everything. I lost my security force, my business, and my independence. I was slightly injured. My eyes turned brown, which meant that I lost my self-control. And I ended up killing my boyfriend. When I told Natas what happened, the only thing that he wanted to know was what happened to my boyfriend. When I told him, his reaction told me that I was right all along about my boyfriend. He was a spy that was sent by Natas.”

  “Why on Earth would he do that? That doesn’t make any sense if he was planning on hiring you. Not unless he did that so that he could...“ Ramirez stopped when he realized what the answer was.

  “You got it. I had no reaction when I realized that my boyfriend was spying on me.”

  “Why?”

  “What could I do? But nothing. I had nothing. No source of income. No way to rebuild. No home. That beautiful house of mine was brunt down by one of Tsk’llk’s men. I had no way to survive on my own. Other than...“

  “Other than what?”

  “Work for Natas. I don’t think he’d plan that. But I guess to him... it was a big fat bonus. He could pay me anything now. And he did. Boy did he ever.

  My people, the Apollinarians race that is, had the custom of looking into a jade mirror when we lose our self-control. And that’s what I wanted to do. But neither Natas, nor his wife, wanted me to.”

  “Why?”

  “I guess it was a form of a control mechanism. When I went to argue that I should... they used my religious beliefs against me and then tricked me into given my honor.” The look on Vaistll face told Ramirez that something more occurred. It was something more darker. Something more nightmarish than what she just mentioned to him. So he said nothing to her.

  “All he wanted me to do was to take an army that he was in the process of putting together, and use them to raze the city that Tsk’llk and Llyysta built, and kill or capture them. Since I already gave my honor, there was nothing that I could do when I found out that it was an army of... criminals.”

  Ramirez, shocked, stunned and flabbergasted said, “W-What!? Why would he do that!?”

  “Because those criminals had no honor. And they would do things to that city that no honorable warrior would. I went over my Warrior Code Book of Honor with the most finest of fine-tooth combs, looking for anything, some loop-hole where I could get out of giving my honor... and found none. I had to go. I had to witness the horror. Oh... those poor little...

  It’s a damn good thing that their city was a port city. It helped the survivors to get away. They all went to Yynol’bkko. And I had to pursue them there. On top of it all, I was wounded. Llyysta was the one who wounded me. I took an arrow in my left hip, and one in my face. It was one reason why we were taught not to try and catch an arrow. It’s all hit-or-miss.

  Me and that... whatever-you-want-to-call-it, army of mine followed them across Yynol’bkko. They made friends and we made nothing but enemies. We traveled the length and breadth of that continent pursing them. That so-call army of mine got smaller, and I didn’t care. Their losses helped me to feel freer. But the reality of my situation, from a military point of view, made it worst. I felt like I was in psychological prison that was surrounded on all fronts, with no hope of escape. I felt like a robot that was program to do something. At the same time, with each step that I took... I descended further down that psychological nightmare. It made it that much more harder for me to escape it. But I never broke. Yes I suffered, but I didn’t break. Each time I felt like I was about to, I held the skull of that swamp demon in my hands to give me the strength to carry on. My attitude was: if I could survive that, then what else could I survive?