Carpathia III: Epilogue 19 - Ramewet
Space
It didn't take long for everyone to settle into a routine on the ship and there was plenty to keep everyone occupied. With all the game, both electronic and otherwise, swimming pool, and small sports facilities like a squash court, nobody had time to try out everything, giving them things to look forward to for the journey back.
Nobody, however, was thinking about the journey back. As the days ticked away and Yseri grew closer, their minds turned more and more to what they might find there. Jaze in particular became ever more antsy, while Kaoru, Adell, and Artemis were hoping to see old friends.
When the time came, Lynx came and invited each of them to the bridge where they all took their seats in the conference area off to the side. In the forward window, as has been there all month, was the tokki mothership. Admiral Tora gave the order.
Admiral Tora: Move us out of the tokki mothership's wake.
With that came the response from the helm and Carpathia One slowly began to strafe to the side. Suddenly, the tokki ship simply disappeared. Carpathia One was no longer travelling in its wake. One of the other officers announced that the tokki ship had also dropped to sub-light speed and was waiting for Carpathia One to catch up.
Admiral Tora: Set course for Yseri, full induction speed.
Everyone kept a sharp eye out of the window for Yseri to come into view, but nothing was visible yet except the inky blackness of space punctuated by stars. With anxious, sweaty-palmed anticipation, they stared into the darkness.
Adell: One of those stars is getting bigger.
Adell pointed and, one-by-one, everyone noticed a dot in the center of the window growing larger. As it came closer, it was quite clear that the entire planet was a clouded, blue mass.
Jaze: That can't be it.
Artemis: We were on a moon orbiting a blue planet. This is probably the planet.
Jaze tapped his hands together in sudden rememberance.
Jaze: Right, I forgot about that.
Lord Lynx: the survey team that passed through here gave the planet the temporary designation "Amphitrite."
It was an interesting tidbit of information, but nobody cared, keeping their eyes carefully peeled on the planet for any signs of the moon, Yseri. It was more difficult to spot, but many agonizing minutes later, another dot was spotted above Amphitrite.
Kaoru: There?
Admiral Tora: That's the one.
Admiral Tora: That's an emergency call from a Carpathian phone coming from the surface. How is that possible?
Adell excitedly leaped from his chair.
Adell: That's coming from my phone! It must be Riven! Answer it!
Admiral Tora shrugged and gave the order.
Admiral Tora: Well, answer the call, then.
Rubbing his hands with glee, Adell watched the screen with anticipation, but what appeared was not Riven, but a nekomi woman.
Hathor: Hello! I am Judge Hathor. Are you, perchance, from Carpathia?
Lord Lynx quickly moved into frame while everyone else wondered what was going on.
Lord Lynx: Indeed, we are. I am Lord Lynx of New Carpathia.
Judge Hathor beamed excitedly.
Judge Hathor: Oh, what a momentus day this is! We have been waiting for such a long...
Suddenly, Hathor began to react as though she were being pushed away by a large, snorting boulder.
Judge Hathor: Oh, hey, easy! Ack! Okay, okay!
With Hathor out of the way, the screen filled with a familiar presence indeed.
Blue: I am so very pleased to see you again, little ones!
The reaction on board was immediate.
Jaze, Kaoru, Adell, Artemis, Ryuu, and Kagurain: BLUE!!!
Blue smiled in his own snaggle-toothed way.
Blue: There is a landing pad nearby. Just lock on to the signal and come on down. There is much to explain.
Tora gave a side-eye to Lord Lynx.
Admiral Tora: Should we?
Jaze: It's Blue! We can trust him!
Kagurain: He's our friend!
Lynx simply shrugged and pointed to the others.
Lord Lynx: You heard them. Take us down, Admiral.
Tora hesitated for a moment before giving the order.
Admiral Tora: Go to condition blue.
With several more orders, the ship began its slow descent to the surface, following the signal from Adell's phone. From there, they could see what appeared to be Zhail City come into view.
And the looked upon the city with puzzlement.
Adell: It looks kinda like Zhail City, but it's so green. What's with all the tall buildings?
Nobody, of course, knew the answer and the ship pressed on toward the landing site where it touched down.
Slowly the landing ramp descended and the others gazed outside upon Yseri with trepidation, until Blue came into view, looking quite worn and clearly having difficulty walking. All those who knew him rushed down the ramp and chose a body part to hug, which seemed to please him greatly. Kuro stood in front of him and smiled.
Kuro: It is good to see you, Blue.
Blue: Ryuu has shown me. You must be Kuro. I am glad you came. I have waited almost 150 years for this moment.
The others hesitated, wondering if they head Blue correctly.
Kaoru: How long did you say?
Blue: Almost 150 years. I suspected many things when you did not come in the first year. Maybe this place was too far away. Maybe you couldn't find it. This confirms my other suspicion.
Artemis: The time displacement of the portal. Kradik said it was a few minutes, but it got bigger as it sat running for so long.
Kradik: Backwards coming to Yseri, and forwards going from Yseri.
With entourage in tow, the nekomi woman from earlier, Hathor, walked briskly from behind Blue with her arms outstretched.
Judge Hathor: Welcome! Blue told us this day would come and it is finally here! There will be much celebration! I am Judge Hathor, leader of Ramewet.
Adell muttered under his breath, though unintentionally loud enough for most to hear.
Adell: I won't be able to see Prince Riven again. I wanted to thank him and see how he was doing.
Judge Hathor cocked her head to one side.
Judge Hathor: Riven? Do you mean our great and final King Riven? My goodness, I don't know how you know of him, for he died almost fifty years ago. Come, I shall take you to the palace and you can know of Riven the Wise and anything else you'd like.
It was a lot to take in, and while most of the group stuck with what was familiar, Blue, Lord Lynx chose to accompany Judge Hathor. It was for Blue that the others had the most pressing questions.
Jaze: Wishmaster. Is he dead?
Blue: He is dead, yes. After the explosion, I went to seek him and destroy him if necessary. However, in the ruins of Nekramentia, I found his bones. Together with Jacob and some of the other villagers, we burned the body and built a tomb around the remains. After that, I came here to offer my services as advisor to King Riven. I do not know what happened to his father. Perhaps he did not survive the upheaval. When the portal was destroyed, the oceans returned, the ground shook, and the rains returned. It was a calamatous time.
Adell: What did you tell Riven?
Blue: Not much. I told him that the Beast of Nekramenta was no more and I told him the true name of this world, Ramewet. After that, I decided that the best course of action was to allow this society to develop naturally. Riven was a good leader, as I'm sure you have noticed already.
The group approached the palace grounds, but they discovered that it was no longer there.
Blue: The palace did not survive the upheaval.
Upon entering the atrium, the first thing that anyone could notice was the massive, multi-storey portrait of Riven opposite the entry way. He was a bit older in the painting and looking very resplendant in his robes and with his crown. To his side, stood Shai, no longer in his old uniform, but in a luxurious bit of dress himself. Just below the painting, Judge Hathor turned and addressed the crowd.
Judge Hathor: This is our great final king, Riven the Wise. He spent his early kingship uniting the factions of this world and then much of the rest preparing us all for our new government which we use today. He was a prolific writer, writing 163 books before his death, wherein he espoused his theories and musings of leadership and governance. I'm afraid he was also rather gifted with embelishment as well. He wrote that a gloriously sexy angel descended upon the land from the heavens and taught him the way of delivering learning and freedom to all. Riven called this new system Adellism.
If it were possible to watch a human being's hair curl in real time, this time was now, for all eyes in the room widened and looked right at Adell, who was quickly developing a sweat, which he wiped from his brow.
Adell: Aha... ha ha... ha ha ha.
Without any awareness of the situation, Judge Hathor continued.
Judge Hathor: Most of the books are required reading for all schoolchildren.
Artemis: Most?
Judge Hathor scrunched up her face and nervously figdeted with her paws before continuing.
Judge Hathor: Some have been deemed not appropriate for children, but they are available to all once past a certain age. You see, our great King Riven's daliances, particularly in his younger age, and his affinity for the male form are well known and he spent eight full chapters just describing the sexy angel which visted him, even devoting three whole paragraphs to describing the cute little mole on his...
Adell: THOSE ARE LOVELY GARDENS YOU HAVE OUTSIDE!!!
Dead silence permeated the atrium for an uncomfortably long time until finally Judge Hathor raised her brow and addressed the unexpected statement.
Judge Hathor: Um... indeed, thank you for noticing. Would you like to see them?
Adell: YES, PLEASE!
Dashing Adell's hopes that the subject would be dropped, some of the others spoke up.
Jaze: I wanna read the books!
Kaoru: Me too!
Judge Hathor's head darted around with an expression that alternated between confusion and delight. Finally, she scratched behind her ears and decided to speak.
Judge Hathor: Oh dear! Such enthusiasm for our history! I must say I never expected this level of excitement. I shall summon our best scholars to help you out with whatever information you desire.
And this she did. Without the specter of looming doom, everyone went on their cheery way investigating as many details they could find, much to the delight of Judge Hathor, who joyously provided anything they asked.
Commissioned art in this episode from:
Miyumon
Atomic Clover
Thatwildmary
Jenova87
Abelphee
All city pictures from SimCity 4
