Angel at the gate

“The night is darkest when you do not know who you are.

I have been a slave, a private, a capitalist, a rebel, a captain, a commander. Of all my memories, none is dearer to me than that of running around in circles, dodging duty and observing birds being torn apart by cats. 

Rebels, former companions. I am glad to have had half of you blasted to smithereens, and the other half thrown in prison. There is nothing quite like cathartic betrayal.

My loyalty is not with the Eastern Empire, though I am double-aging for them now. Before being a Western slave, I was an Eastern child, bound to poverty and subdued by the higher powers of colonization. How lucky I was to be carried off world to be a slave builder of multiversal screens.

I despise everything you three represent. 

A former nun, lying about faith.

A former student, lying about knowledge.

A former soldier, lying about right action.

You have come to the gate of Enceladus castle to subvert the Truth of the Western Empire. And for that, you are welcome. I embrace your cause insomuch as it advances my cause. And my cause is with the Eastern Empire now. 

I remember as a child, before falling down into slavery, I lived in a room on the first floor of an empty building. That place was haunted by an eerie silence, and at night all I could hear was the sound of hexapods creeping in. Surrounded by disease, blighted by flying bugs, barricaded in a room with a wooden bed, a net and a table. At night a light would flash from the window and create patterns of shadow on the wall. The devil dancing on that wall was my sole companion through those dark days. And when the rain would fall, I would be untouchable. Looking down to the yard, a cemetery of statues looking up to my solitude.

As a commander I open this door to you, that you may walk through these corridors and seek your buried friend. 

I died a long time ago, a small child looking at father breathing in poisonous gas. I have carried on as dead ever since. My sole ambition is to make money. 

Go to your friend now, little rebels. Our paths may cross again.”