Chapter 24

“Greetings, earthwalkers! I come here with sombre news! Earth is about to be invaded. In thirty days. Which will most certainly spell the imminent doom of your entire race!”

I hadn’t heard anything more ominous in my lifetime. The fact that the words were delivered in a flat tone by a humanoid creature which I am certain was not from this planet made it even more mind-numbing. Before I could gather my wits about me and assess whether our intruder was an immediate threat, Samuel sprung into action. Crossing the entire distance of the room to get to the creature to deliver a punch with all the power he could muster.

The force behind the punch had me feeling somewhat sorry for the intruder. I expected to see him flying across the room but it seemed like the surprises hadn’t ceased for the day. The creature caught Samuel’s fist with nary a glance before pushing back. To my utter bewilderment, Samuel crashed into the equipment in the room. A groan of pain emanating from Samuel’s mouth was the only indication that whatever I had just witnessed was in fact real.

That was all the impetus I needed to spring into action myself. I summoned my scythe, prepared to go for an attack of my own. But before I could so much as take a step towards him, the creature stopped me in my tracks with a raised hand. I prepared myself for some sort of attack from the intruder but none was forthcoming. Instead, he just said, “Calm, earthwalker! I haven’t come here for any sort of confrontation. I come here with just a warning so that the fate which befell my race doesn’t befall yours!”

I was still feeling quite overwhelmed by what had happened in such a short amount of time. I couldn’t help but angrily remark, “Forgive me if I am sceptical of your intentions, whatever you are! Breaking into our place, giving an ominous but vague warning before hurting my friend, I hope that you can see why those actions don’t endear yourself in my mind!”

It was hard to gauge his emotions but it seemed like he had a contemplative look on his face. He silently nodded to himself before addressing us, “Forgive me. It seems like my warning might have been amiss!”

He strode towards me, his movements mechanical, as if they had been practised for ages. Samuel had risen while our conversation was going on and taken a position by my side, prepared to take action at the first sign of hostility from our uninvited guest.

Even if our intruder sensed our wariness, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he stopped right before us and said, “It seems like introductions might be in order. My name is Eirini, heir of the proud Henosis clan. I am what one of you earthwalkers would call a Martian.”

His words only served to cause our jaws to drop. What do you say when someone basically says that they are an alien? I had been vaguely aware that there might be Untethered on other planets too, based on the history lectures by the Council of Twenty-One! But to have it so blatantly thrown in our faces was a jarring experience!

It seemed like the intruder, ‘Eirini’, my mind supplied, had taken our silence for unwillingness to interact on our part as he said, “I was told that it was basic etiquette on Earth to introduce oneself to someone strange when trying to strike up a conversation? Might I have been wrong?”

His blunt words, clearly indicating that he thought of us as rude, was enough to make us feel embarrassed. I was quick to reply, “Forgive us. We were merely surprised. It’s not every day that we have someone from another planet at our door.”

Samuel followed up, “Yes, forgive our manners. It’s just that we couldn’t discern whether you are a friend or a foe. My name is Samuel.”

Eirini nodded at Samuel, his expression still stoic before turning towards me, expecting me to introduce myself. I couldn’t help but feel like I was being chided under his fervent gaze as I proceeded to introduce myself, “ Greetings, Eirini. My name is David Goliath. May I ask why you decided to honour us with your presence?”

I couldn’t help but grimace as soon as I said it. Even in my head, I realised that my words sounded patronising, my language too stilted for someone like me. Even Samuel was throwing me a weird look as if he couldn’t fathom me using such ornate language. My nervousness and the knowledge that he was an heir to some clan was enough to throw me off my game.

In reply, Eirini nodded at me, as if approving of my actions before saying, “Greeting to you, too, David. In answer to your query about my purpose here, I am afraid I come with grim tidings. As I stated before, your planet is on the cusp of an invasion. An invasion which could spell doom for your planet!”

Hearing the words for a second time didn’t make me feel any better about it. But this time I composed myself faster so that I could find out more about his ludicrous proclamation.

“I am thankful for your warning but I am afraid that you have us at somewhat of a loss here. First of all, who or what is invading our planet? And secondly, why come to us? In case you aren’t aware, there’s an entire group of people whose primary duty is the safeguarding this planet. Why not go to them with your warning?”

Eirini seemed to gain a perturbed look on his face as if he was thrown for a loop after my questions. I was wondering about the possible cause of this before he asked, “So, you are saying that you aren’t the leader of this planet?”

Now, wasn’t that a surprising question? I couldn’t help but ask, “What could possibly make you think that?”

In response to my question, he took out something resembling a compass from within his clothes. It seemed like a normal compass except the fact that it wasn’t pointing north. It pointed towards me, before whirring madly for a while then again settling towards my direction.

I asked him, “What is that and what is it supposed to do?”

He replied, “It’s a personal creation of my clan.” He puffed out his chest as he said that, obviously proud of his clan. He continued, “It’s called a slot-compass. It’s supposed to find the person with the most number of slots on a planet. Ergo, the strongest person on a planet. I had just thought the strongest person on a planet would also be the one to lead them. It seems like my assumptions were incorrect. Tell me, David of clan Goliath, are you some sort of deviant that the people on this planet don’t follow you, regardless of your strength?”

Clan Goliath? Deviant? Leader, me? I couldn’t help but wonder if this was some sort of sick dream I was experiencing! Maybe the whole fiasco with Frost had been enough to addle my brain!

Eirini gained a grim look on his face. It seemed like he had once again assumed my silence as my assent to his question. He advanced towards me with a menacing glare, probably to inflict some serious damage. But before this whole situation could devolve into an all-out brawl, Samuel took control of the situation.

“I am sure there’s been a misunderstanding here, Eirini, of clan Henosis.” I couldn’t help but sneak a look at my friend for that. Of clan Henosis? Were we just accepting that it was a normal way to talk now?

“How so, earthwalker?”, Eirini enquired, his gravelly voice that I still found menacing.

“While it is true that David here is a three-slotter, he isn’t the strongest person on this planet. Nowhere close, in fact. He has only just come into his own as an Untethered. He has been an Untethered for all of three months and only has one of his slots unlocked. As he said, there’s a whole group of experienced Untethered that govern the planet and protect it from any threats, be it internal or external.” While Samuel may have served up too much information about me, his words did help in Eirini stopping exuding the menacing aura he had been unleashing a moment ago.