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“I can't bear to lose them! Not again!”
“I feel your pain! As if it were my own!”
“I will protect my people's happiness!”
“Leave that burden with us now. We will bear it in your stead!”
Wuk Lamat shot upright in her bed, the heartfelt oath still ringing loudly between her ears amidst the dead silence of the room around her. For an agonizing moment time stood still; her mind paralyzed as her senses remained trapped in that moment, with the weight of her axe in her hands and Sphene’s anguished gaze locked with her own. Slowly however her heart began to still as she was pulled back into the present, the golden light of the Meso Terminal fading away into the dark empty apartment. After taking a few more breaths to calm herself, Wuk Lamat pulled her legs out from under the covers. She turned to place her feet down against the floor, propping her elbows on her knees as she held her head in her hands, clawed fingers slowly massaging her temples. Just as she finally felt herself regaining her bearings, however, an entirely unexpected voice called out from the black, knocking her off balance once again.
“Goodness Lamaty’i, that was a frightful nightmare you were having.”
Wuk Lamat jerked her head toward the voice in confusion. “Sphene!? Is that you? What are you doing here so late, shouldn’t you be resting in the Backroom?”
The voice replied with inappropriate nonchalance. “Unfortunately, I haven’t any access to the cameras in your little hideaway to confirm, but I’m certain she’s still safe in whatever bed you’ve set aside for her there.”
Wuk Lamat froze, taking in the mysterious visitor’s words as she finally spied the faint but telltale aquamarine glow from the tiara hovering just a few yalms ahead of her. Her jaw tightened as she addressed the figure with barely concealed rage. “You ...”
“I”, the voice cheekily replied back, tiara tilting slightly to the side.
A thud rang out as Wuk Lamat slammed her fist on the bedside control panel, light filling the room and revealing the Simulant’s sly smile. In the same motion she threw herself out of bed, stretching her other arm towards her axe leaning against the nearby wall. No sooner had she gripped it in her hand though did the Simulant speak once more. “Come now Lamaty’i, 'twas not my intent to fight. You know how futile that would be, for both of us.”
The furious xbr’aal glared back with her teeth bared but nonetheless stayed her hand. Though she was loath to admit it, striking down a single puppet would do little to harm the puppeteer, as Zoraal Ja had so brutally demonstrated not too long ago. Satisfied, the Simulant pressed her hands together and bobbed forward elatedly; the peculiar but all-too familiar mannerism sent a painful sting through Wuk Lamat’s heart. “Thank you, Lamaty’i.”
“That name is not yours to use!” Wuk Lamat growled, enraged. Before she knew it, she found herself marching up to the Simulant until she was practically standing over her. Despite their difference in stature however, the smaller woman remained infuriatingly unfazed. She smoothly turned her gaze upwards, continuing to regard her at her leisure as one would a chained beast.
“Were you not close to my predecessor? Surely you could afford me some small share of that goodwill, as the present ‘Queen Sphene’ of Alexandria.”
“You are no queen!” Wuk Lamat shot back. “The true Queen Sphene loved her people above all else; she would never have provoked such fear and uncertainty among her citizens as you have.”
“The true Queen Sphene you say,” the Simulant raised a hand as if to stifle a laugh. “And who, pray tell, would that be? That clueless remnant of a bygone era? Or my Endless counterpart who was so ill-suited to her task she all but unmade herself to fulfill it, only still to fall short?”
“Don’t speak as if you knew her struggle! Until the very end, she fought for her people’s happiness!”
“I suppose you knew her so well then? You speak so confidently of her, despite your comparatively brief time in her company.” The simulant paused, briefly contemplating Wuk Lamat, before a spark of glee flashed across her eyes. “Then again, that is your nature. To think that after such devastation befell your home, you would journey to the enemy kingdom — only to consent to a guided tour of all things!” The Simulant clapped her hands together in amusement.
Wuk Lamat felt her fists clench in annoyance. After a deep breath to regain her composure, she delivered a levelled reply. “Everything I do, I do for my people. It is for the sake of protecting their peace that I strive to understand all others. I have no care nor need to justify this to you though.” She glared coldly down at the Simulant.
The Simulant only gave a faint chuckle. “Please, you misunderstand! I didn’t mean to admonish you.” She took a small step forward, raising her arm to brush past Wuk Lamat’s cheek as she took a lock of her hair gently in her hand. “In fact, I find your innocent candor to be terribly endearing.”
For a moment Wuk Lamat stood stunned as she felt heat rising in her face, then abruptly reeled back in shock, her axe clattering to the ground. “What!? Why are you — why did you even come here? Was this some misguided attempt to sway me!? I swore to protect her people and mine! My resolve won’t be shaken, so you would do well to leave now rather than continue in this folly.”
“I assure you I am under no illusions about your resolve, Lamaty’i,” the Simulant responded wryly. “You do love your promises after all. What was it you said in the end again? Ah yes, ‘Leave that burden with us now. We will bear it in your stead!’. Recalling so noble a declaration well-nigh takes my breath away.” The Simulant raised her hands to her chest in mock adoration.
“Do not mock me with her memories!”
“They are my memories too Lamaty’i.” The Simulant Queen approached Wuk Lamat once again; a perfect smile was still fixed upon her face, but now with just the hint of an edge seeping into her voice. “It was from her memories as an Endless that I was created. It is for this reason only that I can so faithfully replicate her in appearance and manner both.” Now toe to toe with Wuk Lamat, she stopped and peered up carefully; reflected within her eyes stood the likeness of the Queen of Reason, which peered carefully back.
“You are nothing alike —”
“We are everything alike.” The Queen pressed on, unrelenting. “You think me a mere vessel for Calyx’s machinations, a pawn in his grand plans. You are right, and she was no different. All that she was, all that she did, was by Preservation’s design.” At this she paused, and for a moment seemed to ponder something. “Granted, her final rampage did pose an unforeseen obstacle to our plans. Alas, with the Key now lost to us it falls to me to atone my past self’s deeds.” With those last words, her gaze fell, obscuring her expression from Wuk Lamat’s high vantage.
“On my honour as Vow of Resolve, you will never have that key!”
“Another promise, is it?” The Queen gave a small chuckle and raised her head once more towards Wuk Lamat, revealing only the same unfazed smile as always. “One can’t help but wonder how you intend to keep it though, given your paltry performance toward your previous commitment. All your time spent running about and still our plans continue unabated, in ways you and yours remain so laughably ignorant to.” Pausing, she raised her heels to bring her face closer to Wuk Lamat’s, stopping just shy of touching. A taunting glint flashed in her eyes as she spoke softly, “you are powerless even to keep me from your chambers, much less keep her people safe.”
Once more Wuk Lamat recoiled; as she attempted to step back however she felt her calf bump against her bedframe. A jolt ran up her spine as she threw her arms out, struggling to maintain her balance. Meanwhile, Sphene’s facsimile continued to lean mischievously toward her, bringing her hands up to rest them playfully upon her shoulders. For a moment she stopped and the two of them locked eyes. Wuk Lamat felt turmoil well up within her but still found herself unable to turn away, looking before her into those familiar eyes that held so unfamiliar a gaze. Suddenly and without warning, the spell was broken as she felt herself thrown back with uncanny force which betrayed the true nature that lay beneath the illusion. Before she could react, she found herself lying back on her bed; wrists pinned on either side of her head by those slender hands which exerted such inexplicable mechanical strength. She looked up at her assailant who now straddled her against the mattress with her legs, lips curling into a mischievous smile.
“You’re strong Lamaty’i, but strength alone will not take you far, and your companions are certainly not wanting for it besides. You give your vows with such conviction, but what do you truly intend to offer among such vaunted heroes as your allies? Surely, you’ve seen they are more than up to the task with or without you. I know she must have felt the same way, afterall ...” She leaned in closer, and whispered softly into Wuk Lamat’s ear, “it wasn’t you she entrusted the Key to now, was it?” The Queen paused to admire her handiwork; Wuk Lamat’s breath was visibly caught in her throat as she grimaced, processing the sickly-sweet words. The moment was gone all too soon though, as the pained xbr’aal suddenly surged upwards with vicious might, breaking free of her restraint. Her body moved with a lethal combination of fluidity and strength honed through years of battle, rolling around to thrust her quarry onto the bed and position herself above her. In one deft motion their roles were now fully reversed; the Queen now held down by Wuk Lamat’s iron grip.
“I am not blind to my own limitations!” Wuk Lamat growled through bared fangs. “It is agonizing to only stand by as her people suffer, just as when I was powerless to stop Zoraal Ja’s wrath upon Tuliyollal. But though it pains me that I cannot shoulder all my people’s burdens alone, I know now those burdens are not only mine to bear...” With a pause she took a breath to calm herself, clenching her eyes shut and gathering her tension in brief meditation. As she regained her composure, she began to relax, letting the memories of her long journey well within her. She took hold of the answers they carried on their currents, keeping them close to her heart to serve as her guide.
“It is true; the Scions and the Warrior of Light have strength beyond measure, but this is not all that defines them. Their courage, wisdom, and boundless compassion, that is what carries them through every trial and tribulation, and what inspires others to follow in their stead. Papa as well; he did not unite Tural with his strength and cunning, but with the hope he carried in his heart, hope for a brighter future. As Vow of Resolve that duty now falls to me — not just to fight for my people, but fight with them, and show them the better tomorrow I know they can reach!” Wuk Lamat narrowed her eyes at the Queen, giving her a hardened stare. “You may think the Alexandrians weak-willed and easy to manipulate, but they are stronger than you think. They are the people Sphene loved so dearly after all; that courage, kindness, and hope, it exists within them as well; they just don’t know it yet. And once we help them find it, your end will be swift and certain.”
For a while the Queen gave no response, only staring up at Wuk Lamat who returned her gaze in kind. As the silence passed between them, Wuk Lamat began to wonder if she had somehow been moved by her words, until her delusion was interrupted by a quiet snicker that bubbled up from below. What began as a trickle gradually overflowed into a fit of laughter, the sound of which sent her fur standing on end. Eventually the laughter subsided, and the Queen addressed Wuk Lamat once more, amusement still filling her voice.
“Spoken like a true leader Lamaty’i! There is truth to what you say; though Calyx has elected to focus on the Warrior of Light as the primary threat, it cannot be denied that your seemingly naive methods have guided events in ways our careful planning failed to foresee. In the first place, it was your actions which miraculously brought ‘Queen Sphene’ back from oblivion, enabling her to pass the Key unto your allies. Were it not for you, not a speck of ‘me’ would remain.”
Wuk Lamat’s blood ran cold as she grasped the Queen’s meaning. “What do you mean...?”
“Don’t feign ignorance Lamaty’i, you know exactly what I mean. I said as much earlier, did I not? I was formed from the Endless Sphene’s memories, memories that by all measure were assuredly wiped from existence, and yet ...” The Queen’s eyes softened, and she began to don an expression that was paradoxically both fitting of the woman whose visage she bore, and wholly unnatural on the woman she now was. “And yet somehow, you brought me back from oblivion.”
Wuk Lamat stared at the incongruous spectacle before her, struggling to reconcile the compassionate queen she once knew, and the twisted facsimile now calling out to her. She barely managed a faint utterance through her turmoil. “What are you!?”
“I’m the part of her that couldn’t help but heed your call. The part of her that, in defiance of all reason, broke free of the nothingness to return to your side. I am not all of her, nor is she all of me; but I am all that is left. Is that not enough?” At her last question Sphene’s expression turned desperate and pleading, the sight of which sent Wuk Lamat’s heart lurching within her chest. Each pulse thundered loudly enough for her to hear, and she felt the cocoon of rage she’d held tightly around herself crack apart with every beat. As her restraint wavered, the grief and longing she’d locked deep within herself began to leak out, forming into a barely coherent stream of words.
“You — you can’t be, she was gone! The last time I saw her, there... there wasn’t time. I wanted to — I wish I could’ve... I wanted to tell you! — If there was any other way, Sphene I never meant to —”
Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by Sphene swiftly wresting an arm from out of Wuk Lamat’s grip, taking her by surprise in her distracted state. Before she could react, Sphene’s hand had already wrapped around behind her head, clutching painfully at her hair. Sphene brutally dragged her head down close to her own so that they were eye to eye. Sphene’s expression had now hardened, and Wuk Lamat could feel the intensity of her stare burning a hole deep into her soul.
“Surely not even you would dare express regret now Vow Wuk Lamat. The time for that is long past, and I did not come seeking your apologies.”
“... Then for what reason did you come!?”
Sphene maintained her stare for a short while, seemingly contemplating the question, then relaxed once more into a shrewd smile. Calmly but firmly, she pulled Wuk Lamat’s head further down and to the side until her face was pushed into the bed beside her, then turned her own head to press her lips to her ears. Wuk Lamat shuddered as she heard her whisper, both from the intimacy of her touch and the disturbing lack of breath from her mouth.
“As I told you, Lamaty’i, I am but a pawn, and my role is soon to reach its conclusion. When it does, I shall be discarded once more, and our time together will come to an end yet again. You are so dear to me though, I could not help but indulge in one selfish act of disobedience before my time is come.” Sphene turned Wuk Lamat’s head so they were face to face. “I know you won’t refuse. You cannot hide the longing in your eyes, I know you see that small echo of her left in me. That tiny yet accursed spark which draws me helplessly toward you. I cannot excise it, but I take some small consolation in how it binds you so inexorably as it does me.”
Wuk Lamat remained speechless, returning only a haunted stare.
“You once spoke to my previous self of the Yok Huy, and their belief in eternal life through the memories of loved ones. It is a sentiment I find quite compelling. Of course, you already promised you would not forget her, but...”
Wuk Lamat felt a chill as a pit of bottomless enmity and obsession opened within Sphene’s eyes, threatening to pull her in for eternity.
“I will make sure you never forget me.”
At those final words, Sphene thrust her face recklessly forward. Wuk Lamat felt her lips scream in pain as they collided with cold steel and electrope.