Back to Created and Consumed: Ch 4 Pt 1

I caught it and began to tinker with my training blade’s hilt, “Easier to find them…” a small grin spread over my face, “… and besides, if I wasn’t so engrossed in this technical stuff, I’d be able to fight hand to hand…”

“You already can!” the three of them exclaimed in unison.

Jurdo scowled, “I don’t understand how you can be a super technical wiz without training, Zyrra.”

“How can you not understand natural talent?” Ehle asked, laughing, “It’s probably like my skills with a blade, like born perfect and all…” he made a motion with an invisible blade across his front, almost clocking Jurdo in the face.

I had never actually thought about why I was so naturally able to recalibrate weaponry or break codes in the locks to other rooms, this ability, earlier, had impressed the terrible trio, now it only made them jealous. “I suppose I might just have the uncanny ability to pay attention to tiny details, I kind of liked to do puzzles when I was smaller, back in the care of Prophet Sanctuary…” the three of them looked up from their beverages quickly and stared at me, gaping, “What?”

“You knew Prophet Sanctuary?” Ehle asked me, I swear his eyes could get no wider or they would have popped out of his skull.

“I did once… so what?”

Doxo gave a chortle and looked around to the others, “She’s lying… she doesn’t know Prophet Sanctuary!”

“I don’t lie Doxo… He cared for me in my early stages of life. Ask Jurdo, he was there!” I paused, “Doxo! So were you! He said that you both li-”

“Zyrra, shut up! You’re a liar!” I was silenced by Doxo’s booming voice in my face, “You haven’t spoken to him. I’ve never met Sanctuary in my life, and neither has Jurdo. Isn’t that right?” He looked at Jurdo.

“Uhh…” Jurdo began but Doxo shouted over him.

“You’re a liar, Zyrra.” I opened my mouth to protest but quickly remembered what Sanctuary had told me in his video message. I couldn’t help but remember Jurdo and Doxo back when we were smaller than the Unggoy, when we would play around the feet of the Lekgolo. I wanted him to remember what a fine being Prophet Sanctuary was. My hopes were smashed within seconds of the thought. “Never lie about such things, Prophet Sanctuary is a criminal, as said by the Prophets of the Covenant. He is a traitor, a Heretic; he betrayed High Charity and our people!”

“Doxo, you’re wrong! You can’t tell me that you don’t remember your childhood!” I was forward in my seat, gripping my drink tightly, the contents were dribbling over my hand, “You know you weren’t born a Tahnamee!”

I was again silenced, Doxo’s fist contacted with my face like a mallet, tenderizing my face and knocking me backward. Ehle and Jurdo gasped while Doxo turned his back to me, “This discussion is over, goodnight.” He said curtly and shut the curtain to his bunk. I daren’t push my luck, Doxo at the moment seemed the type to kill me in my sleep if I had have pursued the subject. I instead gave a pleading look to Jurdo who returned an apology and curled up on his own bunk.
I cleaned up my gloop-smeared hand, taking the time to stew over my swollen cheekbone. I took my seat in the living area of our quarters once again and continued adjusting my training blade. Ehle was still present, but he was sketching something on a holo-pad and not paying much mind to me, I cleared my throat loudly to catch his attention, “Ehle?” I asked, “What exactly did Sanctuary do?”

“Hmm?” He looked up from his sketch, “Sanctuary had many an enemy in his later years of service here, he mostly liberated those who needed liberating and gave rights to those who had none. This was all well and good, but word has it that he stole information from the Mausoleum of the Arbiters and gave it to the Heretics.”

I shook my head, “He was entirely devoted to the health and well being of his people, why would he allow vital information to fall into enemy hands?”

“That’s what the Council has been asking themselves for the past three years. Ever since he was sent into exile by the Prophets Mercy, Regret and the newly appointed, Truth, nobody has come to any conclusion to the conundrum.”

“Is there any proof of this so-called felony?” I asked, still sceptical that Sanctuary, my carer, would do such a thing, “And why would he have to give the Heretics information on the Arbiters anyway? They were once one of us; they know everything about how the Covenant operates regardless of their beliefs.”

Ehle remained silent for a moment; he obviously hadn’t thought that the Heretics remembered the way of the Covenant. “Maybe the Heretics found something that the Covenant didn’t want them to?”

“That makes more sense. If that was the case then all they need do is torture the information out of him…”

“There was no torture. Not a single mark was found on him.” Ehle replied grimly, “Face it Zyrra, he handed them whatever it is the Covenant had on a silver platter.” His voice was not bitter, it was disappointed, “Such a waste, Sanctuary could have done great things for us.”

I nodded, not speaking. My vision of Sanctuary had been shattered in one foul swoop; I felt that if I ever met him I would kill him, simply because he had not told me everything I needed to know. I knew that in hindsight I would be stopped by my bond with him and let the topic go. Ehle advised me not to brood over it, that what he knows was merely relayed information and that nobody ever really was told distinct truths about Sanctuary’s ‘exile’. The trial was held privately, not even the Council knew about it.

Ado himself had said that Sanctuary hadn’t been a favourite in the High Council, but he hadn’t specified what offence he had performed against them. I just hoped that I would find out the truth of all this.

Onward to Created and Consumed: Ch 5 Pt 1