Chapter 873: Arrival At The Citadel [Bonus - ]

Chapter 873: Arrival At The Citadel [Bonus Chapter]

WHOOSH!

Kara White dropped out of the cloud bank in a steep whistling dive and leveled off mere inches above the black surface of the western ocean.

The pressurized cone of wind wrapped around her boots struck the sea with so much force that it gouged a roaring white furrow straight across the dark water, and two towering walls of spray peeled outward on either side of them like wings, catching the cold morning light before crashing back into the sea behind the sweep of her long black cloak.

Held firmly against Kara’s ribs in the crook of her one right arm, Aki gasped.

The air pocket around them kept the gale out, so inside it was calm and quiet but the ocean... the ocean was right there.

Close enough to touch.

"Mmm..."

Aki stared down at it with wide eyes.

The water was so dark it looked like ink, crested with foam and rolling in long heavy swells that seemed to go down forever, and every few seconds a fine cold mist from Kara’s wake drifted through the barrier and kissed her cheeks.

’It’s so close...’ she thought, her heart thumping. ’I’ve flown over the sea a hundred times in jets and royal transports... but I’ve never been this close to it.’

Her fingers twitched against Kara’s lapel.

...She wanted to touch it.

The thought was so silly and so childish that she almost laughed at herself.

Aki was the First Princess, she was a Lord now plus she was on her way to stand before the World Council, and here she was wanting to stick her hand in the ocean like a little girl on a boat trip...

"Kara...?" She said, a little shyly.

"Mm?"

"Could you... go a little lower?"

Kara finally looked down at her, and one dark brow rose.

"Lower?" she purred. "Any lower and your pretty silver skirt is going to get soaked in salt water, little princess."

"I-I know," Aki said, her cheeks warming. "I just... I want to touch it. Just once."

For a second, Kara just looked at her then a slow fond smile spread across her face, the kind that made Aki’s stomach do a little flip.

"Just once, she says..." Kara chuckled. "Hold on tight."

She tilted her body, and the air pocket shifted with her, opening on one side just enough to let the outside world in.

The roar of the wind hit Aki’s ears all at once.

Cold salt spray slapped her face with her blue hair whipped wildly behind her, and Kara dropped another few inches until the black water was racing by right beneath them.

Aki reached down and her fingertips touched the sea.

SPLASH!

The water was freezing.

It tore across her skin in a rushing cold line and threw a glittering spray up over her wrist and her sleeve, and the shock of it made her yelp and then burst out laughing with her hand trailing a little white wake beside Kara’s.

"It’s cold!" She cried out with a laugh. "Kara, it’s so cold!"

"It’s the ocean, Aki," Kara laughed. "What did you expect, bathwater?"

"I don’t know!" Aki laughed, pulling her dripping hand back and shaking it. "I’ve never touched it before! Not like this!"

Kara tilted them back up, and the air pocket sealed shut again, swallowing the roar and leaving them in that quiet calm once more.

Aki held up her wet hand and stared at it.

Her fingers were red with cold and droplets were sliding down her wrist into her sleeve, and she was smiling so hard her cheeks hurt.

’I touched the sea,’ she thought, absurdly happy. ’Twenty-five years old, and I’ve never once touched the sea...’

She caught Kara watching her and quickly lowered her hand, clearing her throat.

"That was... very refreshing," she said with as much dignity as she could gather.

"...Uh-huh."

"It’s good for the circulation too."

"I’m sure it is," Kara said, her purple eyes sparkling with shameless amusement. "You know, for someone who’s supposed to be terrifying the World Council in about ten minutes, you just squealed like a kid at the beach."

"I did not squeal!"

"You squealed, my sweet little Aki." Kara leaned her head down until her lips nearly brushed Aki’s ear. "It was adorable."

Aki’s face went up in flames, and she buried it in Kara’s shoulder.

"Stop being so terrible..." came the muffled reply.

"And you’re dripping on my suit," Kara laughed, though she didn’t loosen her arm one bit.

If anything, she pulled Aki half an inch closer.

"Speaking of grabbing things... my neck still has little finger marks on it from your penthouse... You nearly choked me taking off."

Aki’s head shot back up.

"I did not grab your neck! You kicked off the balcony with one arm at four hundred miles an hour! I was holding on for safety!"

"Safety?" Kara’s eyes danced with mischief. "Your knuckles were white... You had your nose buried in my throat before we even cleared the high-rise district."

"I was keeping my balance...!"

"Mm, keep telling yourself that," Kara murmured, her voice dipping low and warm. "But next time you want to hug me, you don’t need an excuse... Just ask nicely, and I’ll hold you for as long as you want."

Aki bit her lower lip and hid her face against Kara’s shoulder again with the heat racing all the way down her throat.

Every time she tried to hold onto her dignity, Kara took it apart with three words and a lazy grin.

It was infuriating and thrilling and completely unfair... and yet her small hand stayed anchored in the black wool of Kara’s coat, her fingers curling tighter into the fabric, not wanting to let go.

Ahead of them, the flat water began to change.

The horizon lost its clean curve as jagged unnatural shapes rose out of the grey mist.

The Citadel of the Outer Threshold came up out of the ocean like a mountain of iron and white titanium.

It was an artificial island, a fortress anchored straight into the seabed above the chambers that housed the planet’s Suppression Engines.

The sky directly above it was dead and flat... a uniform sheet of pale grey kept that way by huge stabilization towers that hummed day and night to hold the clouds at bay, and the water around it was black as crude oil, churning against the basalt breakers of the outer wall.

Floating in rings across the dark water sat the automated battle-platforms, their long twin-linked rail-cannons turning slowly on heavy oiled mounts as they swept the empty sea.

The moment Kara’s wake cut across the outer buoy line, three of them locked on.

WHIRRR!

The turrets swung around with frightening speed, and thin pulsing red laser grids painted across Kara’s flight path while the air crackled with the sharp tang of charging capacitors.

Aki stiffened in Kara’s arm.

"Kara... they’re arming the cannons."

"Let them charge," Kara said, without slowing down at all.

She didn’t change course by a single degree or flare a single ward, Kara let the slipstream carry them straight forward with her long black cloak streaming behind her and her eyes fixed ahead.

The cannons hummed louder then a sensor dish on top of the central citadel flashed a sharp green pulse and the red lasers vanished.

CLANK!

The turrets stopped dead and lifted their barrels harmlessly toward the grey sky before swinging back to their patrol sectors as if they’d never noticed anything at all.

The Citadel’s security had read the signature, recognized the lone one-armed silhouette of Lord Vespera and wisely concluded that firing on her would mean several sunken platforms before lunch.

"See?" Kara drawled with an easy wink. "These are very polite neighbors..."

Aki shook her head with a helpless little sigh, but she was smiling.

They crossed the breakers and climbed above the surf toward the barrier dome that covered the island’s airspace like an upside-down glass bowl, a shimmering grid of white hexagons built to tear apart missiles and rogue aircraft.

As Kara flew at it, the grid in front of her boots dissolved with a soft chime, let them through and sealed itself shut behind them.

Rising from the center of the Citadel was the Grand Assembly Spire, a tower of alternating white titanium and polished black granite stretching hundreds of feet into the grey sky, with a wide sweeping staircase of veined marble running down from its doors.

Kara touched down on the marble steps.

The wind cone beneath her boots collapsed with a soft rushing sigh, and she lowered Aki gently to the ground with her one arm lingering around her waist just long enough to make sure she was steady before it slid away.

Aki smoothed her deep-blue silk dress with two quick practiced strokes, shook the last drops of seawater off her fingers and straightened the platinum emblem on her lapel then she lifted her chin.

At the top of the stairs, guarding the titanium doors, stood a squad of Enforcers.

They were huge, sealed head to toe in ivory-white powered armor, their visors glowing cold blue and their hands resting on heavy shock-halberds that hummed with dormant lightning.

As Kara and Aki climbed, the lead Enforcer stepped forward.

CLANK! CLANK!

He started to raise his halberd and opened his mouth to issue the security challenge—

His visor landed on Kara White.

He took in the tall frame, the empty left sleeve pinned against her coat, the black hair spilling over her shoulders and the cold purple eyes that looked straight through his faceplate, and he froze mid-step with the halberd half-raised.

Beside him, the other three Enforcers quietly shuffled half a pace backward to clear the path.

Aki climbed the last few steps with her shoes clicking against the stone, and she looked at the armored guards on either side of the doors.

Three weeks ago, she’d walked up these exact steps as the Unawakened First Princess.

She remembered the whispers and the pitying glances, the way the guards had stepped aside for her out of awkward discomfort for a royal daughter with no Core, not out of respect.

Now their eyes were wide.

Their sensors were tracking the blue glow beneath her skin, and they could feel the heavy hum of the Core radiating from her chest.

’Look at me now...’ Aki thought, and the thought came out clean and calm, with no bitterness in it at all.

She lifted her chin half an inch higher, let the wind sweep her blue hair back over her shoulders, and walked past them like she belonged there.

High above the steps, at the edge of the Spire’s flat granite roof, a short figure in midnight-silk robes was watching.

Number 5 had stopped cackling.

She reached up and adjusted her smooth white porcelain mask with careful precision, then tugged her hood straight.

’Not yet...’ she thought. ’Let them get comfortable first... Let Kara strut through the halls like she owns the world. The higher she flies, the sweeter the fall. Kekeke...’

Two hundred feet below, Kara didn’t break her stride.

She just tilted her head back and her purple eyes went straight to the exact spot on the roof where Number 5 was standing.

Kara smiled... a wide slow smile that promised nothing but suffering while Number 5 gasped behind her mask and dropped like a stone behind the parapet with her back pressed to the granite and her knees pulled up to her chest.

’She saw me!’ she hissed in her head. ’How does she always do that?! This roof is warded against detection! Insufferable monster... Just you wait, Kara White... Just you wait...’

Down on the steps, Kara let out a soft chuckle.

"Something funny?" Aki asked quietly.

"Just spotted a short little bird trying to hide on the roof," Kara said, slipping her hand into her coat pocket. "I’ll have to pluck its feathers later..."

The titanium doors rolled aside.

PSSSSSH!

They stepped into the Spire, crossed the vaulted reception galleries and came to the towering bronze doors of the Great Assembly Chamber, where masked magistrates in midnight-blue robes stood waiting.

They bowed in stiff perfect unison as the bronze doors groaned open.

CREAAAK!

Kara and Aki walked into the Great Assembly Chamber.

It was a huge tiered amphitheater carved out of polished black obsidian that gleamed like a dark mirror under the stark lights of the high ceiling, and the air inside was freezing, heavy and thick with the smell of ozone and old mana.

Running down the center of the floor was the Grand Table, a sixty-foot slab of grey granite, and around it sat the members of the World Council, every one of them hidden behind a mask, while the magistrates stood along the walls in their midnight-blue robes.

Above them, the mezzanine tiers climbed the curved walls that were empty today since this was a closed session, and nobody outside the Council and the royal family had been allowed in.

The bronze doors swung shut behind them with a heavy boom.

BOOM!

Every masked face at the table turned at once.

The low murmur of conversation died on the spot, and in the dead silence that followed, Aki could hear her own heartbeat.

Every single eye in the room was on them.