Patti's Chapter Four
Patti's Chapter: Chapter 5
The Past Returns
A gunshot. Shamal lay dying at her feet. "NOOOOO!!!!!" Patti screamed, dropping to her knees next to her husband. She ripped a piece of her dress off to attempt to stop the bleeding, but there was so much blood. Gods, there was so much blood. He made an attempt to speak, which only allowed more blood to exit from his mouth. He mouthed the words 'I love you' before collapsing, his eyes slowly closing. "NOOOOOO!!!! SHAMAL! NOO!" She screamed again, sobbing on his slowly cooling body. A gun poked her in the back of the head. She turned to face the assassin who was pointing a gun at her. She no longer cared; looking at death as a release from the pain she was already feeling. She watched as the Seaking tightened his finger on the trigger. tighter.....tighter.....tighter....until finally....BANG!
"No!" Patti gasped as she jerked awake in her bed. Somebody took her hand. "Patti, are you okay?" Shamal's voice asked as she struggled to calm her racing heart. "~It was so real....I could have sworn....~" Her mind thought confusedly, still struggling to catch up with her body in the real world. "Yes, I'm fine," She managed finally, "Just a bad dream." She turned to face him, shivering as she thought of the fear she felt when he lay dying at her feet. He hugged her then, asking, "Care to talk about it?" She shook her head. "It was just a dream, nothing more. I've already almost forgotten
about it anyways." In reality, she doubted she would ever forget the way Shamal lay there in his own blood.
The ship shuddered and shook just then, causing her to look around wildly. She had yet to get used to flying in space, the thought of having nothing below her for who knows how far was very unnerving to her. Shamal hugged her again and said, "The ship is just settling into orbit of the planet, nothing more. We should get ready before the ship decides to land." Feeling sheepish at being so jumpy, she rolled out of bed and stretched, wondering exactly where it was that Karen had dragged them. Yawning sleepily, she walked over to the window that provided her with a stunning view of the
planet. She watched wonderingly as the suns peeped its way from behind one of the 3 moons she could see and almost blinded her with its radiance. The window seemed to have sensed the suns hitting it and automatically compensated for the brightness, dimming it down to tolerable levels. "Oh Shamal.." She breathed at the view. He joined her at the window and the two watched silently as the planet rotated slowly beneath them. "It looks so....so...." She started, struggling for the word. "Awesome?" He supplied, grinning. She returned the grin. "Yeah. Awesome."
Later that morning after a shower and dressing, Patti thought to ask Shamal if he knew exactly where it was they were. He shook his head. "No, I never thought to ask. That's the kind of question I leave up to a wife to ask." He said, grinning. "Whatever am I going to do with you?" She sighed helplessly. Moving closer, he was about to suggest something when a soft beeping noise resounded through the quarters. Looking around curiously, she looked to Shamal for an answer as to what it was. "Somebody's at the door." He explained, managing to look superior. Giving him a disgusted look, she moved to the 'door' and pressed a red button next to it that Karen had shown her. The metal door rolled open, revealing a metal cart filled with food under metal domes. Frowning in puzzlement, she looked around to see who had left it for them. Seeing none, Patti pushed the cart inside. She pressed the red button, and the door rolled back into place, leaving Patti to shake her head helplessly at the use of technology on this ship.
"Look what was sent up to us. Karen DID say we were the only people on here, right?" Patti asked, pushing the breakfast cart into the room. "Yeah, I swear she did." He responded frowning, but moved closer to see what was for breakfast. She was about to unveil the delicious-smelling breakfast when the android-captain of the ship came over the intercom and said, "Now descending into the atmosphere. Be advised that the windows should open up upon entering." Momentarily forgetting the delicious-smelling breakfast, both her and Shamal moved back over to the window to watch the
spectacular view. At one moment it seemed as if she was flying above the whole world, the next as if she were falling. The illusion that they were freefalling was so real that she even cried out as the clouds rushed towards them. Hugging her close, he reassured her that nothing was going to go wrong. The clouds came closer and closer until finally they enveloped the ship, whiting out the view. The ship shuddered again, a bit rougher than the previous one, only getting worse as the ship plummeted through the clouds. With a resounding crash, the breakfast cart fell over, spilling hot food onto the carpeted floor. "We are experiencing turbulence-" the captain's voice came over the intercom, interrupted by the speakers crackling into static. Not that Patti would have caught it anyways, being absorbed in keeping her footing during the increased turbulence. The ship gave a big lurch, sending both her and Shamal flying, coming to land painfully on the carpeting just short of the bed. Crying out in pain as her head connected painfully with the bedpost, she could only clutch Shamal and silently cry as
she wished it were
Instantly, it was. The speakers crackled back to life as the captain explained that they had made the mistake of descending right into a particularly severe storm. Patti lay there a moment, collecting her scattered thoughts and doing a personal inventory. Everything seemed to check out except a painful lump on her head, which throbbed dully. She sat up and found Shamal also sitting up. "You okay?" She asked concernedly, running him over with his eyes. He nodded asking in return, "How about you?" She rubbed her head and responded, "More or less." She caught his worried look and hurriedly reassured, "Us Chelestrans are hard-headed." He smiled, relieved, as he retorted, "You got that right,” earning him a punch on the shoulder.
They picked themselves up off the floor, running a quick inventory over the room. Other than the overturned breakfast cart, everything else seemed to be pretty much in order. "~They must prepare for this sort of thing.~" her mind concluded. "Our poor breakfast." Shamal moaned, scraping the bits of food back into their dishes. "Aww...and I was actually HUNGRY too..." Patti sighed, helping him clean up. A breeze through their room caused her to turn around, just in time to see the balcony appear where the window used to be. Leaving the spilled food behind, she moved to the balcony entrance and hesitantly stepped out, half expecting it to disappear and send her hurtling off into who knows what. Not liking the feeling of standing outside while the ship was still in motion, she returned to scrape the rest of the food up and flip the cart over. She looked down at herself and at Shamal and started laughing. They both looked a mess from the turbulence, a lump on Patti's forehead, and Shamal's bathrobe split on the seam on the side. He looked back at her and started cracking up, imagining the sight they looked. It felt good to laugh for Patti, who knew that after tonight's impending meeting with the Warlord, there might not be any more opportunities for fun and laughter. The rest of the day passed uneventfully for the most part. TOO uneventful for Patti's tastes, for she wanted to go out and SHOP. But that was out of the question, at least for today until she got word that the city was secured. So, she was stranded inside the ship until probably tomorrow, not that it wasn't a nice place to stay. It was fully loaded with anything a person could want to keep them occupied, but Patti never really enjoyed staying within 4 walls for very long. Shamal spent most of his time at the indoor pool, while Patti enjoyed sitting on her balcony and reading, enjoying the quiet.
She finished her book around 6 that evening, showered and dressed for dinner, and followed the signs to the royal dining area that Karen had provided for them. Shamal was already present, sitting at one of the two chairs set out for them. Glancing around, she took in the incredibly long table and the two chairs sitting at one end of it. She could tell that the
ship was able to accommodate an enormous amount of people. They enjoyed a candle-lit dinner, already set out by the time she and Shamal had found it. Patti wasn't very hungry, however. She KNEW something was up back in Ruok, she could sense it just like she could sense Shamal's heartbeat across the table and just like she could sense, to a limited degree, Karen's feelings as far away as they were. After dinner, they returned to their quarters and had a lovely evening to themselves. Around 9, Shamal fell asleep in bed, allowing Patti time to prepare herself for the previously arranged meeting. All the time she was preparing herself, the Chelestran wedding vows were running through her head. "~My life for your life. My death for your life. My life for your death. My death for your death.~"
Her mother had explained to her the significance of those 4 phrases that she and her father had repeated to each other on their wedding day. "'My life for your life.' That means that while your father and I live, we share the joy of living with each other." She explained, Patti nodding her head. "'My death for your life.' I would be willing to lay my life down to save your father's." Patti nodded again, it making sense to her. "'My life for your death.' I would spend my life avenging his death, if I can't prevent it." Patti frowned but nodded. "Finally, 'my death for your death.' A part of me will die when he does." Her mother finished, smiling down at Patti. "Someday, you will have your own wedding, and you will understand the deep meaning of those 4 phrases."
"My life for your death." Patti murmured aloud in the still room. "I would avenge his death if I cannot prevent it. Which is exactly what I'm doing. Preventing it." Finished justifying her actions, she checked the time and was amazed to see it was 11:30. Moving to her door, she recalled suddenly that she had no clue as to how to get to the gardens below her balcony. She couldn't exactly wake Shamal up, for that would bring about uncomfortable questions. She took one glance back at the sleeping form of her husband and almost lost her resolve. She steeled herself against her feelings of guilt and turned her back on him. Walking out to her balcony, she judged the distance between her and the ground below and traced some designs in the air. She immediately lifted in the air and drifted to the ground below, solving the problem of how to get down. She found a bench not far away and sat down to wait, arms and legs tingling in anticipation. She wasn't long in waiting, for apparently the Warlord wanted to be there early too. A tingling of her magical senses told her that she wasn't alone any longer, and she clenched her hands as she waited him out. The air in front of her shimmered, glittered, and took shape into the form of a man. A familiar man. Patti gasped. "Jehan?!?"
