Dirakh stood up and exited the cockpit. He was away for a while. When he returned, his helmet was on, his rifles were attached to him and he was carrying Araan's Attack Class Augmentor; it was kept in a blue circular stone case.

  “Here,” Dirakh said. It sounded odd hearing his voice from him and the communicator simultaneously. “Take it,” he added with a gesture.

  “And do what?” Araan asked calmly. “I can't drive while wielding it.”

  “Have you gone mad, Araan?” Dirakh asked. “Blackened ground, burning bodies and a cracked dome. You said it yourself, the Seal was strange. It was the only thing you said about the summons. There, that's the reason it was odd.”

  “So we leave?” Araan asked him.

  “If we can see them, they can see us—”

  “And that's exactly the reason we can't leave,” Araan interrupted him, “Driving away would give them a wrong impression and all the reason they need to fire at us. Besides, I have no interest in running away from my own home city. I have no reason to.”

  “We are not driving to Kolvak unarmed,” Dirakh said matter-of-factly.

  “No, we aren't,” Araan agreed. “You stay armed but out of sight. If everything is alright, we pass through the gates without a hassle, if it isn't...” He paused, not wanting to consider that possibility. He continued, tapping on the board of control panels lightly, “If it isn't, the Heralder can handle any close range attack.”

  Araan didn't say more and neither did Dirakh. Instead the other cyperan dropped the Augmentor in his seat and left for the troop bay where his Sand Drifter was. Araan waited to be sure he didn't get into it or open the bay doors. When he was certain, he continued driving toward the city.

  He never for a moment doubted that his family still ruled Kolvak and the Thirteenth Sector. The Vinids were not hated by the people of the Thirteenth Sector, it wasn't a forced rule—the people wanted them on the throne. Being rulers for as long as they had been also meant that a coup by another noble house wouldn't be so easy, and Kolvak's dome would not have a scratch on it if that was the case.

  However, his eldfather was dead—murdered—and that was proof that it wasn't so peaceful in Kolvak. It might not have been another noble house, but his family was large enough that it had factions within it. Not every decision his eldfather took or allowed to happen was backed by all in the family, and the receding Dark Half might have emboldened a few to voice their dissent.

  What was more confusing was the question that followed if he adhered to that logic: why was he summoned here? It certainly wasn't because of the authority he held. He wasn't the next Lord Commander, that was Tisiryk, his cousin. Araan was the Alpha-Redinan. It wasn't to say his office was weak militarily, but the sector's army wouldn't need his permission to act if there was a coup.

  Was it his backing they needed? That would make more sense. After all, the Lord Commander and the Alpha-Redinan were supposed to be the same person.

  Araan drove the Heralder at moderate speed, and they got close enough in a few micro-seikans. Being closer, he noticed a few more details. For one, the heaps of bodies were more like hills.

  The other? the guards didn't care that he was Trigad.

  There was a towering guard post built in front of the reflective, bronze-hued dome. Beyond it was the entrance to the dome. The guard post encircled the dome on either side as far as Araan could see, forming a fortified metal barrier. At the top and by the windows were guards, armoured in dull grey gear and armed. They didn't open fire but their thermal rifles and cannons were trained on the Heralder. While a thermal rifle wasn't as powerful as a battle-rifle, cannons were complicated.

  “Halt!” the order rang out.

  Araan stopped the Heralder, and for a while nothing seemed to happen. Suddenly, the gates opened and a team of ten armed guards flowed out. The grey armours they wore incorporated Life Armour into its design. Their rifles weren't aimed, but they looked ready to fire at any moment.

  The Captain spoke; Araan recognized his rank from the red halfmoon insignia on his chest and arm armour sections instead of the blue on the others. “State your name and business.”

  Araan leaned in slightly into the Heralder's communicator and spoke, his voice ringing out from the speakers outside, “I am Commander Araan Vinid, eldson of Lord Commander Dund Vinid, here to pay my last respects.”

  The other guards passed surprised glances around, but the Captain replied strictly. “Reveal yourself.”

  Odd. Araan was sitting in front of the windscreen and he wasn't wearing his helmet.

  Araan's personal communicator rang out. “You're going to argue they can't see through a windscreen?” Dirakh's voice came through with a sneer.

  Araan ignored him. He reached for the Vinid Seal in his Trouser Armour and brandished it in front of the Windscreen. “I am who I say.”

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I said—” the Captain began, but paused and listened to the communicator on his shoulder. “Let him through,” he said afterwards.

  The guards led Araan's Heralder in through the gates. Inside the post by the gates was a small office to the left. They paused on a slightly elevated metal pad and one of the guards went into the office. There, they scanned the vehicle.

  “How many are with you, Commander?” the Captain asked.

  “One. Commander Dirakh Aratund.”

  The guard inside affirmed his statement with a nod to the captain, then paused suddenly. “They are armed, sir.”

  “Would you expect me to travel otherwise?” Araan asked almost irritatedly, his eyes never leaving the other guard.

  “No, sir,” the Captain answered, then said to the other guard, “Open the dome gates. Welcome to Kolvak, Commander Vinid.” He said the greeting with a practiced tone of formality. No endearment of any kind.

  “The bodies. What happened outside?” Araan asked the Captain.

  “Foreigners attacked the city, Commander Vinid. About the same...” He paused, clenching his fist, “About the same time as the attack on the Lord Commander.”

  So it wasn't a royal coup.

  Araan nodded and with that continued toward the city without another question. A dome guard captain was only just that after all; he couldn't know everything.

  The looming gates of the dome were two solid metal walls half the height of the guard post and a quarter league in distance. Metals groaned—almost thunderously, given their proximity—as it parted. The jagged cracks in the dome didn't seem to affect the process, or perhaps they did; as the gates were not opened fully, just enough to allow them into the city.

  The city inside felt very different from the entrance.

  The gentle windiness and distant howling that was on the outside stayed the same, but everything else was toned down. The winds were powerful enough to remind you that they were there, just outside, but the lethal, damaging effect and heat were absent.

  The dome's roof imitated the skies but the artificial sunlight was brighter and more focused, giving a clear view of the landscape. Kolvak city was a mix of tall and short buildings that started about ten leagues from the dome walls.

  The Citadel, Kolvak's seat of power and Araan's home, was at the eastern end of the city. He could see the top of it from his position if he craned his neck to the right as they drove.

  Glassy roads. It was the first jarring difference between Kolvak and other domed cities. Roads were usually coated in minerals that made them loose and impossible to solidify, keeping them from becoming glass-like. These roads didn't have that. And for the first time, a Heralder's spiked tires was useful in a domed city.

  Hues of brown and polished black gave off a steady glint as they drove through the in-city roads. The city comprised large and small buildings. The tall buildings were made of sturdy, modern alloys and very little stone, but the smaller, older buildings were just rocks. Carved out rocks large enough to house a cyperan and the standard family of two extra persons—a mate and their offspring—clumped together to form houses half as tall as metal buildings. Some were smaller and served as resting areas for ground workers rather than homes.

  Kolvak was an old city, the oldest in the sector. Rock homes may have been outdated in many other places, but it was still common here. Araan expected to find them even in the main city areas.

  In many ways, just by looking at them, he was reminded why he left. Some things seemed new to him, but it was not because they actually were; he had only forgotten about life here, and he wasn't going to stay long enough to remember it.

  Dirakh came back and rested an armoured shoulder on the doorframe at the entrance of the cockpit.

  After a long silent moment, he spoke. “When you always said old, I could never put a gauge on how much, so my thoughts ran wild. Still, I never imagined this.” He spoke with genuine awe, as if he wasn't the same cyperan who was ready to attack the city moments ago.

  He still carried his rifles, in that regard.

  “Does anything else interest you?” Araan asked as he made a left turn that led them further east. It was a longer route, but the alternative had been blocked by a number of ground workers reconstructing a damaged metal building.

  The outskirts were busier than he remembered them being.

  “Such green-skinned cyperans,” came Dirakh's reply as he walked in. He took a seat beside Araan's Attack Class Augmentor. “There's a reason you stood out, you know, back at the Fourth. Here you wouldn't be spared a second glance.”

  “Weren't there four cyperans who looked like me in your unit?” Araan asked with a chuckle. He pulled back the throttle, slowing almost to a halt as five noisy, oncoming vehicles drove towards them. They were long, open-top and packed with tools and people.

  More ground workers, Araan figured.

  “Not this kind of green, and not this many,” Dirakh said, “I haven't laid eyes on another with my color of skin since we got here. Now I'm the cynosure—”

  A strong voice interrupted him. The words were spoken in a loud cry. The voice, solemn.

  “Dnimilah Kolvaki Tika rah Redinan!”

  Araan turned his head sharply, searching for the speaker.

  It was a ground worker in a vehicle to his left. He watched as she hopped out of it and peeled off her helmet, revealing a face weathered by age, and numerous, thick askora at the back of her head. She walked across and stood in front of the Heralder, her hands pressed together and held against her armoured chest.

  “Dnimilah Kolvaki Tika rah Redinan!” she cried out again.

  Head of Kolvak, my Lord Redinan.

  Those words meant she had recognized him, and it meant others would soon. There were more ground workers alighting the vehicles and struggling to see his face through the Heralder's windscreen to be sure it was him. They struggled due to the sheer height of the Heralder, not because he hid his face. He never took his eyes off the first ground worker and neither did she.

  Araan smiled a little at her.

  There had been a look of sadness and pain in her eyes but now there was something else, a bright glint in her eyes. She didn't mind the wild clamor of the sudden crowd.

  She stood still, her eyes fixed on him.

  A moment passed, and with a gentle wave of his hand, Araan gestured for her to move out of the way. She took a deep bow and backed away. The others soon followed suit.

  He drove away before the crowd got too large to obey orders. He knew they would still be there staring as he drove on. He didn't want news of his arrival out before he reached the Citadel, but rumors of him would reach the entire city in less than a quarter of a micro-seikan, now that he had been spotted. He was sure of it.

  Driving without his helmet on had been unwise.

  Araan glanced over his shoulder and saw Dirakh looking in his direction. He couldn't tell what the cyperan was thinking as he stared back at the smooth, featureless surface of Dirakh's visor instead of his face.

  “He wouldn't like that, would he?” Dirakh asked.

  He meant Tisiryk Vinid.

  “Nobody would,” Araan replied honestly.