A Flight of Broken Wings, page 22
part #1 of The Aeriel Chronicles Series
“If the legends are to be believed, during Zeifaa’s time on earth, one of the human tribes that had been driven from their home by another tribe asked her for help in finding a new place to settle. So she drove the sea away and raised the landmass we now call North Vandram – including Ragah – from under the water for the tribesmen to settle down; which they did with much fanfare.
“As you can imagine, this impressed the humans rather profoundly. And being humans, they of course deified her and asked her to be their ruler. And being an Aeriel, she of course thought that this would be a good bit of fun, and agreed. So they established the Aeriel Monarchy in Vandram – which later spread to span the globe – and the successive Aeriel Queens ruled both the races.
“Only they didn’t. Not really. The Aeriels were not exactly the ruling type. Their idea of a ‘queen’ was very different from that of a human’s, which both sides quickly discovered. They were – are – flighty, hedonistic creatures far more concerned with arranging the clouds to look pretty than with gathering revenue and quelling unrest. They had immense power, but no drive to actually utilise it for coherent, long-term goals. For all practical intents and purposes, humans have always been ruled by chieftains and overlords belonging to their own race. The successive Aeriel Queens were never anything more than figureheads; a role with which they were perfectly satisfied, as were the humans. Every now and then they would lend a hand when things got messy with wars or natural disasters, but that was really the extent of it. The Aeriels had no idea how to actually rule anybody, and were not interested in learning. The humans, for their part, were absolutely fine with that attitude.”
“Sounds like a perfect fairy-tale,” said Ruban impatiently. “So what went wrong?”
“Biology. That’s what went wrong.”
“What?”
Dawad sighed. “Do you know how Aeriels reproduce, my lad?”
“Of course,” said Ruban, feeling vaguely insulted. He hadn’t been that bad a student. “They reproduce through their feathers.”
“That’s correct. But only partly.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s true that Aeriels usually reproduce asexually through their feathers. It’s the most common practice. But it’s not the only way they can reproduce. They can also reproduce sexually – with other Aeriels and with humans.”
“W-what are you saying, prof?” Ruban stammered. He wasn’t sure how much of this he believed. He wasn’t sure how much of it he wanted to. “You’re saying that Aeriels can…what? Have children with humans? That’s impossible and you know it.”
“You would think, wouldn’t you? I mean, they’re different species belonging to two different dimensions, for God’s sake. But it seems like nature took her laws and decided to shove them up our collective asses when it came to designing Aeriels. They’re reproductively compatible with humans, it would seem. And that compatibility is what fucked us all.”
“So what do these Aeriel-human hybrids end up being? Aeriel or human?”
“Neither. And both. They’re called vankrai, and they’re the deadliest creatures in existence.”
“Vankrai?” Ruban repeated, brow crinkling in vague remembrance. “Ashwin said something like that to Reivaa in Zikyang.”
“I’m sure he did. That is what Reivaa was. A vankrai. A creature with the raw power of an Aeriel and the ambition and avarice of a human.
“Not to sound cliché, but vankrai were born with…great potential, in one way or another. They had the drive and the motivation, the ability to set and pursue long-term goals, that the Aeriels lacked. And with it they had the godlike powers that are natural to the inhabitants of Vaan. I suppose you could say they had the best of both worlds – or the worst.”
“What do you mean the worst?” Ruban hadn’t realised he was sitting up at the edge of his chair. When had that happened?
“Well, this is just a personal theory; nothing backing it up but my own funny little ideas, you understand. But the Aeriel psyche wasn’t quite designed to handle the intensity of human emotions, I don’t think.
“Not all of their lives were documented, of course, and there weren’t many of them to begin with, so the sample-size for this hypothesis leaves something to be desired. But most vankrai seemed to be…overwhelmed…by the human side of their nature. They couldn’t control it, couldn’t really seem to get a handle on it. In one way or another, they tended to go off the rocker. Their humanity got the better of them, to the vexation of all concerned. A mad demigod hell-bent on ‘saving the fish’ or ‘ending the reign of the evil mosquitos’ is not a pretty sight.
“Of course, this wasn’t always the case. And the vankrai performed great feats, achieved great things when it went right. But those instances were rarer than the alternative.
“Still, it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Vankrai were very rare – born once or maybe twice every few centuries – and were always heavily outnumbered by both Aeriels and humans. They never really posed a serious threat. Until, that is, Tauheen was born.”
“Tauheen – as in the Aeriel Queen?” said Ruban incredulously. “She’s half-human?”
“Didn’t you see her eyes, Ruban? They weren’t silver like an Aeriel’s, were they? That’s how you tell a vankrai from a feather-born Aeriel. The eyes. They’re dark with flecks of silver – part human, part Aeriel.”
“The best of both worlds…” Ruban murmured.
“Quite. No vankrai had ever been on the throne of Vaan – and by extension that of Vandram – before. Aeriel Queens ruled for centuries at a stretch, being immortal and all, until they got bored of the whole gig and just kind of…wandered off. Then the eldest female child of the last queen took her position and so it went.
“Well, the last Queen took a human lover – and her first female offspring, Tauheen, was born of that union. Nobody knows if she had any more children, and it wouldn’t have mattered if she did. Tauheen was next in line. A few centuries after her birth – and after the birth of Tauheen’s own children – her mother found another mortal paramour, but this time decided to pursue their budding romance on the Rayanal ranges north of Zaini. And that’s where she went, leaving the throne to her daughter. The one who started and ended it all.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t go so well from there.”
Dawad laughed. “You’re a good guesser, my boy. Tauheen was a very powerful vankrai. And very…human, in some ways. And most importantly, she wasn’t satisfied with being a figurehead ruler. She wanted real power, tangible authority. A very human desire, and very dangerous in something as powerful as an Aeriel. Especially one as powerful as her. But apart from being ambitious and quite single-minded about her goals, she had another human skill. She was very persuasive. A brilliant speaker and orator, really – the original demagogue. She gathered other vankrai around her, even a few feather-born Aeriels – a coterie of loyal followers – with promises of power and glory and all that other jazz.
“The rest of the story can be found in any history book of your choosing. She began imposing her will on her subjects, brutally subjugating those who opposed her. Playing the tyrannical dictator to a T, and mightily pissing off all the human lords who were utterly unused to such behaviour from the pretty Aeriels.
“She didn’t bother the Aeriels too much. Even she couldn’t take it if they decided to gang up against her, and she was smart enough to know it. So humanity bore the full brunt of her madness.
“About a century into her rule, as you rightly said, the humans discovered sif; now that they were actively looking for a way to get rid of the Aeriels. They fashioned the ores into crude daggers and started attacking Aeriels with it. Tauheen sent some of her followers to take care of these little uprisings, and they did, with exemplary brutality. This annoyed the humans even more, and the attacks escalated, gaining more supporters and slowly turning into what we now call the Rebellion.
“All this fighting annoyed the Aeriels, who were still more interested in making pretty designs on clouds than in world domination. And it was hard to do that sort of thing when the humans kept trying to stab them. So they packed up and retreated to Vaan, and locked the gates behind them, shutting Tauheen and her core group of psychopathic followers out of the Luminous Realms for causing all that trouble with the humans.
“Once there, they put Tauheen’s firstborn, Safaa – also a vankrai, though one with significantly more self-control – on the throne of Vaan. And for the first time there were two Aeriel Queens, one on earth and one in Vaan.
“The Exiles retained power on earth for some time after the other Aeriels had left, but there were too few of them to withstand a worldwide uprising. The furthest territories started slipping out of their control, and then some of the ones closer to home. With each victory, the Rebels gained in confidence, and in supporters.
“Finally they reached Ragah, and there was the well-known storming of the palace. Tauheen was driven underground along with what was left of her followers, and Kanbar, Zaini and Vandram became independent countries with their own governments. Which is what they had always been in all but name, apart from the few decades of actual subjugation when Tauheen was at the height of her power. And as the saying goes, they all lived not-so-happily ever after.”
“Even if everything you’ve just said is true – and I’m not saying it is – what on earth does Tauheen want with the reinforced sifblade formula now? And where the hell does Ashwin fit into this fucking convoluted picture?”
“I am a man, Ruban. A very intelligent and knowledgeable one, yes, but still only a mere mortal. I don’t have a blueprint to the psyche of the Aeriel Queen, and I am most certainly not privy to her plans regarding your formula.
“As for this Ashwin, though…well, if I am right, I think you’ll find that he wasn’t lying to you completely after all. He really is a delegate, one sent specifically with the purpose of helping you foil Tauheen’s plans, whatever they might be. Only he’s not a delegate from Zaini, but from Vaan.”
“A delegate from Vaan?” repeated Ruban blankly. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days.
“Well, one of Tauheen’s aims – apart from the domination of earth – has always been to regain the throne of Vaan, secure entry into the Luminous Realms for herself and her followers once again. So it makes sense, does it not, that Queen Safaa would be as invested in trying to foil her mother’s schemes as we are. Any success of Tauheen’s plans could not but mean trouble for the denizens of Vaan, as well as those of earth.”
Ruban put his throbbing head in his hands. “So Ashwin is…what? Safaa’s man behind enemy lines?”
Dawad smiled. “I don’t know, Ruban. I’m just saying that considering the circumstances, it seems like the most likely explanation, does it not? It certainly explains why he’s helping you and working against Tauheen and the other Exiles.”
“But-but he looked just like Reivaa. You know, when he was being an Aeriel and all.”
“He looked like a vankrai?” Dawad asked, frowning.
“Uh, not like the dark eyes or anything. His eyes were white as fuck, I can attest to that,” he shuddered. “But he had the two red marks on his wings. You know, like the mark on an X-class. Only they had one extra, both Reivaa and Ashwin. I had never seen anything like it, before that night in Zikyang.”
“Ah I see.” Dawad’s lips quirked into a strange little smile. “It looks like you’ve met Prince Shwaan.”
“Prince what?”
“Prince Shwaan, Ruban. You’ll find mention of him in any run-of-the-mill history book dealing with the events of the Rebellion. By all accounts, he was just a child when it all went to hell, though. So there isn’t as much information about him as there is about his sister, who played a more direct role in the departure of the Aeriels from earth. In any case, he was Tauheen’s second child after Safaa, and a feather-born Aeriel.”
“So he’s not a vankrai?” Ruban asked, confused.
“No indeed, he is not. He is, however, Tauheen’s son and Safaa’s half-brother, which makes him a prince of Vaan and the only surviving member of the royal line apart from the two queens. Which again makes him the most likely candidate for being Safaa’s second-in-command – which is what those two red marks indicate. Reivaa was Tauheen’s most favoured lieutenant. And I suspect you have Safaa’s younger brother sleeping on your bed as we speak.”
Turning the knob of the door to Dawad’s cabin, Ruban paused. “If it’s not too much trouble, sir, may I ask you another question?”
“Of course. You can ask me as many questions as you want.”
“If you knew all of this information all this time, how come you never said anything about it in class? Surely, it would be a part of your subject.”
Dawad laughed, but there was an edge to it that Ruban had never heard before. “In class? Because I’d be in prison if I did, I suppose. And that if I was lucky. If not, I’d be hanged for treason.”
Ruban’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Why do you think this information is not available in standard-issue textbooks, Ruban? It would be useful, don’t you think, for a Hunter to know the difference between a regular Aeriel and a vankrai? To know the specific strengths and weaknesses of each? Why do you think the only information about vankrai available on the internet are vague conspiracy theories on message-boards of dubious repute?”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at, prof.”
Dawad rubbed a withered hand over his face, sighing softly. “For millennia, Aeriels coexisted peacefully, even happily with humans. They influenced our music, our art and our architecture in ways that are still an indelible part of our culture, even if we’ve forgotten the origins of most of it. They taught and learned from humans, and we returned the favour. Even after centuries of renovations and redesigning, you can see strains of Aeriel architectural aesthetics woven through the walls of the IAW headquarters.
“And when things fell apart, it wasn’t the fault of the Aeriels alone. It wasn’t an Aeriel that sought to subjugate and enslave humanity – it was a vankrai. Equal parts Aeriel and human. It wasn’t an Aeriel that was her most vicious and devoted lieutenant. Reivaa was, again, as much human as she was Aeriel. Humans, you see, bear as much responsibility for Tauheen’s misdeeds as Aeriels do.
“But that doesn’t make for a good war-narrative, does it? Not much by way of a thrilling bed-time story for the youngsters, of the victory of good over evil. Not the sort of thing you tell Hunters before you send them off to face death fighting superhuman terrorists – ‘I mean sure, they’re terrorists now, but they did help us with rice cultivation way back in the day’.”
“It’s the truth, though,” Ruban said simply.
“It is, but an inconvenient one. I was hounded out of my own country for researching Vaan and the history of the Aeriels on earth. I went beyond the conventional study material, dug deeper. My government didn’t like that.
“Ragah has a more open-minded academia, but there is a limit even to their leniency. I’m allowed to research pretty much anything I want as long as it stays within academic circles. But to stand up before a classroom full of would-be Hunters and tell them that the evil Aeriel Queen whom the Founding Fathers had overthrown had actually been half human? And that all the actual Aeriel monarchs before her had been perfectly benign figureheads who wouldn’t understand the concept of tyranny if you put them through a graduate course on it?” The old man practically shook with laughter. “If there is a quicker way to the gallows, my boy, I do not know of it.”
Ruban let himself into the flat, making for the kitchen to put the pastries away before he ran into Hiya. Before he could get anywhere near the refrigerator, though, a bright yellow paper-plane zipped past inches from his nose, followed by a larger one in fluorescent pink which landed rather gracefully on one of the blades of the rusty old ceiling fan. A high-pitched squeal filled the air, drawing his attention to the bedroom.
Hiya sprinted round and round the tiny single-bed, her outstretched fingers grabbing at the multicoloured planes that flew around the room like oversized confetti. Sitting with his back against the headboard, Ashwin added the last few flourishes to his latest creation – a magenta monstrosity resembling a Zainian fighter-jet from the last century – before releasing it into the air to cruise the bedroom with its mates. With a shrill whoop, Hiya jumped after the new arrival, tumbling over the bed in a dubious attempt to cross the room faster.
For a moment, Ruban thought he had travelled back in time. Ashwin looked nothing like the creature he had encountered in Zikyang and everything like the young man he had met at the IAW on Emancipation Day, all those months ago. His hair was back in its usual braid, falling over one shoulder like an intricately woven ceremonial drape. And his eyes were back to being midnight-black – as Zainian as they came – no hint of the alien white remaining in their charcoal depths. Ruban closed his eyes, trying to take it all in without driving himself mad. He almost wished he could go back to believing that illusion of normalcy. It would certainly make his life easier.
But Dawad’s craggy voice rang in his ears, forcing him to tear himself from that pleasant reverie. Not everything that seems apparent is really so.
It would be so easy to turn away now – to hold on to the comfort of old prejudices that had driven him for so long, had given him strength and purpose.
Easy, and cowardly. Ruban sighed. He supposed he couldn’t allow the damned Aeriel the satisfaction of seeing him run away. Ruban Kinoh was a lot of things, some of them not very nice. But he was not, had never been a coward. And he refused to let some goddamn princeling – whether from Zaini or Vaan – make him feel like one.
