The Zetherionian rebels and Rakshasas ran through the empty corridors. Resembling gemstones with their golden rims, the winking lamps lit the humid, chilly tunnel, and the angular door frames jutted out from the walls every dozen metre. The majority of the doors remained shut, only some of them were left ajar.

  Cerridwen could not hold back her curiosity, and every time while passing through the gloomy tunnels, she glanced inside from the corner of her eyes. Then she spotted something moving deep in the corridor. Regardless of the rest, she halted and brought her gun out.

  The team looked at her with surprise as she fired several times.

  “He was there!” she shouted.

  Antares gave the sign to stop, and Jangalee growled at her, closing his fingers on the sword-hilt.

  “What now?” hissed the Celestian, approaching Cerridwen who was gazing at the darkness.

  The other Zetherionians got out of his way, traversing him with their widely open eyes. Antares tugged her arms and pulled her in front of his face. He wanted to reach for her gun to cure her of making unwarranted scenes, but he stemmed his impulse. Growling with every breath, he stared into her eyes.

  “Who?” he asked through clenched teeth.

  “Felvennis,” she replied in an enraged whisper, “Seth Felvennis was there...”

  One of the few extant groups of the Unions was circling in the mazes of the fortress. They changed the trails several times, seeing the trespassing intruders on their displays, moving deeper and deeper. They were approaching the tunnel leading to the hangar when the guide halted.

  “Get down!” he yelled.

  Seth jumped ahead, crouching and covering his head from the bullets shooting past him. He pressed his ears hard on hearing some shots and seeing two guards tumbling in the fountain of their blood. The bang escalated by its own echo left a dull ringing in his head anyway. One bullet pounded down in the wall, enveloping him with a mist of dust.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  “Retreat!” Somebody shouted right in Seth’s ear.

  Seth barely understood what the guard meant, but as everyone began to run away, he got up and rushed after them. He turned his head towards the source of faint yellow light in the narrower fork of the tunnel. A few moving figures cast blurred shadows on the grey-brown walls and floor. One motionless silhouette drew Seth's attention. He could not distinguish it in a split second, but he knew it was the shooter. The posture and position of that person appeared oddly familiar to him.

  “You’re gonna regret if it was only your imagination,” growled Antares.

  Cerridwen woke up from the shock and dug her nails into the Celestian’s wrists. Tightening her lips to suppress the fury welling up in her, she got closer to his face. The wrathful look in his icy-blue eyes did not intimidate her.

  Stemming her rage with the remains of her willpower, she licked a drop of saliva from her lips and hissed, “Everywhere, even at the end of the universe, I’d recognise that muzzle.”

  Antares recoiled, shaking his head with resignation. She went insane. There’s nothing here for her.

  “Come on,” he ordered, returning to the front of the group. “You too, Celestian girl.” He turned around, but Cerridwen had disappeared out of his sight. He shrugged to show his indifference for the fate of the stray who could not adjust to his rules, but on the inside, he felt like a seeker who’d just lost the treasure before he could study and describe it.

  “Go back!” called Nadee, “don’t do anything stupid!”

  Cerridwen remained deaf on hearing her words. She rushed into the dark corridor like a predator which had sensed that it was perhaps the only occasion to catch its prey after long weeks of starvation.

  Nadee ran out of the rank to stop the Celestian girl, but Antares stood in her way.

  “Stay,” he ordered.

  The Kehrian woman drew back, still staring in shock at the girl racing into the darkness. She wanted to catch up to her and convince her to return. Enemies waited for the young Celestian girl somewhere in those tunnels, and she was falling right into their trap.

  “What if she was right?” asked Nadee.

  “She imagined it,” muttered Antares. “She’s shocked and has no idea what she’s doing.”

  “But Seth Felvennis…” Nadee ran up and kept pace with him. “He can be the one we’ve been looking for all these years.”

  Antares muttered something under his breath and pointed at the three Zetherionians. They nodded and set off in the pursuit of the supposed target.

  Good luck, Celestian girl, he thought with a barely visible smile. Then he frowned and looked at Nadee. “You’ll be lucky if it turns out we didn’t waste our time.”

  She nodded and returned to the back. Running deeper into the fortress undergrounds, she thought about Cerridwen all the time. She hated her own weakness. She always had to care about the fate of some strange lost being, but this helped her make excuses to herself and add another brick to fixing her past mistake.