Chapter 27: Turning Point

I was at a loss for words at the Dragon’s poignant question. Finding no way to outsmart him, or sway him with counterarguments, I decided that I would just be honest. “I honestly can’t tell you that we’d be a positive influence, not from what I’ve seen.”

The Dragon in hawk form stared down at me with threatening red eyes. “Then are you prepared to accept your fate?”

“Only after you hear me out,” I pleaded desperately.

The hawk nodded in agreement, so I continued. “I think I can understand where you’re coming from, at least a little. I’m a father, too. If anyone hurt my family, I’d probably want to kill them myself. In fact, my family is down there right now, and it’s tearing me apart that I can’t be with them to comfort them as all this happens.

“My wife is giving birth to my third child even now. I can’t imagine the anguish she is in ... to go through childbirth while the world is ending. I was even prepared to leave my entire race behind if it meant saving my family. Sounds noble, but if I think about it, it was as short-sighted and selfish as any crime my race has committed in the past.”

The hawk looked confused. “You don’t seem to be making a good case for yourself, or for your race.”

“That’s the point. I can’t. I can’t tell you anything that would change your mind about us. We bicker and fight so much with each other, how can we expect to act any better with other sentient races, like those Sages who tried to warn us? We come in, claim a planet that’s not ours, kidnap your daughter who fought off her own to save us, and don’t even listen to the warning you sent us to release her. You’re probably right. I myself have always thought that people cause more problems than they solve. Not that I’m any better. I’m as hypocritical as the worst of them.”

Now the hawk looked uncomfortable as well as confused as it said, “I’m not sure I understand.”

“All that to say this. On behalf of the entire human race, I, Maranu Toramir, apologize. I’m sorry that we offended you. If you can forgive us, I will do everything in my power to make it right. I’ll even offer my own life if you’ll just spare my family. They may be human, but they’re also innocent, and it’s wrong of you to make them pay for the sins of their forefathers.”

“What am I doing?” panted Silvia to herself, tears streaming down behind her as she ran. “What am I doing?”

Silvia weaved through the lifeless streets of Tarrus. Abandoned hover vehicles and bikes scattered across the wide streets hundreds of feet above Silvia’s head. The desolation was a much-needed distraction. Her whole life had been turned upside down ... just as it had before.

Ten years ago. The planet of Gackbar. Grimic City. Capital of the Goblin race.

Goblin architecture was much more gothic and medieval than human buildings. There were literally thousands of gargoyle statues lining every building. The Goblins called them zankaserfs, or good spirits.

Silvia had heard that many moons ago, the Goblin race visited the humans on Ancient Earth and the humans mistook them for demons and drove them away. However, what is often misinterpreted is the human’s use of gargoyle statues in their art. The Goblins crafted the zankaserfs many years before to act as guardians against the forces of darkness that plagued their people.

It was believed that the statues could take on all the darkness in the universe and absorb it into themselves. That was why they were made to look so grotesque so that the darkness would find them to be more appealing than living inside people. The buildings themselves were long and dark with pointed towers that made them look like giant knives across the planet’s landscape. The black, jagged towers of Gackbar, with their countless demonic statues, painted a bleak picture for foreigners.

However, despite the forbidding artwork of the Goblin people, Silvia always thought of her homeworld as beautiful. Maybe not beautiful by most human standards, but majestic nonetheless. And the people of Gackbar were not the monsters that the human purists made them out to be, at least for the most part.

It was true that there were many factions in the Gackbar government that saw the people of Tarrus as enemies. Some of those factions often employed violence, such as the Order of Shadows that her own father belonged to. Generally speaking though, most of the Goblin people were content to spend their lives in peace, untroubled by the prejudices of others. It was on this world that Silvia was raised and would eventually flee from.

“Look, mommy. Is my pot pretty? Is it mommy?” asked little Silvia, still in human form.

Silvia lived in a good-sized apartment high above the streets of Gackbar. Her mother had her own pottery facility in their apartment, as well as a garden sporting plants from across the galaxy. Silvia’s mother left behind her homeworld to serve in a much greater capacity as a Tarrus ambassador to the Goblins.

Silvia once thought of her mother as the bravest woman in the universe for doing that. When Silvia’s mother wasn’t in a meeting or with Galzar, she always spent time with Silvia making pottery and caring for the plants. Silvia enjoyed every minute working with her mother.

“Yes, dear. It’s very pretty, just like you,” said Silvia’s mother, a beautiful human woman with ginger hair and gray eyes.

Sinclair Delarosa wasn’t aware that she had married a Goblin, or that her child was half-Goblin. At an early age, Galzar imposed his Shifter abilities upon Silvia so that she looked and acted like a normal human girl.

When Silvia was born, in a private hospital on Tarrus, Galzar paid off the doctors not to reveal Silvia’s true form to her mother. Sinclair had been drugged before Silvia was born, so she never saw her child until after the transformation was complete.

Sinclair Delarosa was a high-ranking official within the Imperial Senate as well as the ambassador to the Goblin provinces on Gackbar. Her favorite hobbies included pottery and gardening. She served as one of the many negotiators that sought to bring Gackbar into the Tarrus Empire, eventually even going so far as to live on the Goblin homeworld itself to represent the interests of humanity. Despite resistance from those loyal to the old ways of the Order of Shadow, there was a growing sentiment of unification with Tarrus among the Goblin people due in no small part to Sinclair’s efforts. While working for the Mystics and the Order of the Shadow, Galzar was assigned to take the long-term guise of a human male and gain as much intelligence from the Tarrus Empire as possible by posing as Delarosa’s love interest. Needless to say, Sinclair fell in love with Galzar’s human façade and the two eventually got married. This later led to Silvia’s conception.

Galzar’s superiors considered Silvia a treasure. Certain factions in the Goblin government had ambitions to breed a secret legion of Human-Goblin hybrids and train them into assassins. Such a plan had many merits for military advancement. Many believed that half-human Goblins could better adapt to human society and gain much more intel on long-term missions into enemy territory. Some even theorized that perhaps the hybrids might gain new psionic abilities similar to that of the Elementals. The idea of an army of well-trained elite Goblin spies with Elemental powers to boot was far too lucrative to pass up.

And thus, Silvia was born. Silvia didn’t know much about the conspiracy at the time, only that she should never tell her mother what she and her father really looked like when they were alone together. In her child’s mind, she thought of it as a game ... a match of hide and seek to keep her father’s secret hidden as the goal.

It didn’t change how she felt about her parents in the slightest. In Silvia’s eyes, her mother was the kindest, most beautiful woman that ever lived; and her father was the best dad around whether he was a human or a green-skinned Goblin from time to time. In Silvia’s human form, she looked like a smaller version of her mother. Galzar had done a good job of giving her similarities to both Sinclair and himself in his human form.

Galzar took the form of a handsome, young Caucasian with an American accent. He had blue eyes, blond hair, and a clean-shaven square jaw. Though still short in his human form, he had a muscular upper body that seemed nonetheless imposing. His cover was that of a wealthy lawyer, and since Sinclair had already made plans to move to Gackbar before their marriage, it made his job all the easier.

He could maintain ties to the bureaucratic powers on Tarrus and still remain in touch with his superiors at the same time. However, a complication soon arose. Galzar had become emotionally involved in the operation, or at least that was how he would later describe it.

Sinclair Delarosa was a conservative woman in that she preferred the old-fashioned method of making clay pots. Sinclair used a pottery wheel which spun the clay in a circle while the potter molded its shape with her hands. The spinning lump of clay twisted and bent in the green lamplight as Silvia and her mother applied a gentle but firm hand to help the clay take shape into something beautiful. Silvia’s mother used a rare and expensive clay in her pots so that once a flower was put inside, it would never wither or wilt even without water. Some of the flowers in Sinclair’s garden were decades old.

When Silvia finally finished her first pot by herself, she had just turned six years old. Silvia held her creation up with pride and a giggle of glee. A tiny thing, not much bigger than a tea kettle ... but it was hers, and that made it magnificent. The pot was gray with red crystal gems around the rim. Silvia carved a portrait of a swan in the center of the pot, her mother’s favorite animal. Silvia heard that the swan had a lot to do with a royal family on Tarrus.

“I did it, mommy! I did it! I’m a potter, just like you!”

“I certainly hope not, dear,” said Sinclair sweetly.

This confused young Silvia for a moment. “Why is that, mommy?”

“Because I think you’ll be even better than me someday,” replied Silvia’s mother with a smile as bright as the sun as she pinched Silvia’s nose playfully.

“You really think so, mommy? You promise?”

“Cross my heart. Now, let’s see if we can’t find a nice flower to put inside that pot of yours.”

Eventually, Silvia found a light blue colored bonnet that had just begun to bloom.

Sinclair smiled her approval. “Well done. This flower is young and in need of a good home. I can’t think of a nicer one for her to stay in.”

“The flower is a girl?” asked Silvia.

“Why, of course, dear. All flowers are girls much in the same way that all girls are flowers.”

“Am I a flower too, mommy?”

“Of course, you are ... and do you know why?”

Silvia shook her head.

“It’s because someday, you will bloom into something truly beautiful. You’re nearly there already. In just a few more years, you’ll be as graceful and as pure as the rarest of roses.”

The rarest of roses, repeated Silvia in her mind.

Later on that day, Silvia spoke alone with her father in their true Goblin forms. Something seemed different about Galzar today. He acted more spry than usual. “Silvia. I’ve decided to leave the Order of Shadows and tell the truth to your mother.”

Silvia didn’t know how her mother would react when she found out the truth. She wondered if her mother would still see her as a rose or not. “But why, daddy?”

“I cannot stand this deception any longer. Our people wish to live in peace with the human race, so there’s no need to create trouble where none exists. I will forsake the old ways and live with the rest of our people under the sun. My retirement is long overdue, so the order will not deny this to me.

“I want you to be strong, Silvia, for your mother may take the news as a shock. However, I believe that love will prevail. I have already put in my resignation ... so tomorrow, we will tell your mother the truth about both of us and hopefully she won’t leave us ... but if she does, well, I think that would be better than living a lie.”

“But ... but what if mommy doesn’t like me when I look like a Goblin.”

Galzar smiled ... he smiled a lot in those days. “Don’t be silly. Your mother has dedicated her whole life to the Goblin race. She sees all peoples in the universe as equal. And besides, if I love you, I have no doubt that she will too.”

That made Silvia smile. “Alright. Let’s go tell mommy the truth.” And for a moment she dared to hope. It would’ve been better not to hope at all. It would’ve been better.

The next day, they came. Thousands of soldiers from Tarrus rained down from the skies like locusts. Worse still, Elementals came as well. Dozens of them in their bright armor and shining weapons brought death wherever they walked. They brought fires and earthquakes, storms and tsunamis. It seemed as if nature itself had rose up to smite the people of Grimic ... and in but a few short hours, the entire city was laid to waste.

For most of the attack, Silvia covered her eyes while Galzar held her in his arms and ran. “Wait, daddy! We have to find mommy! Mommy needs us!”

Galzar did not respond as he continued running, with explosions raging all around them.

“Daddy! Where’s mommy?”

Galzar remained silent as a tear rolled down his cheek and smacked Silvia on the head. Galzar had a hidden bunker under the apartment complex where he and Silvia hid themselves. When the fighting finally stopped, they emerged from the bunker and saw nothing but carnage.

The city was in shambles. Every single zankaserf statue lay in ruins. The darkness had been too great even for them to take in. Slowly, Silvia and her father made their way up to the place that was once their home. All the pots lay shattered in pieces – every single one, save for the pot that Silvia had made ... the one that had the single blue rose in it.

Panic started to well up inside Silvia. “Daddy! Where’s mommy?!”

Galzar did not answer. He just stood there frozen.

Tears came into Silvia’s eyes. “I don’t understand, daddy! Why did this happen? Where is my mother?”

“Your mother has forsaken you,” said a dark voice.

When she looked up, four strange men in masks now stood within the ruined garden as if they had always been there.

Galzar’s eyes widened in terror as he spoke one word. “Fallen.”

Silvia did not know these masked men, nor did she care. “Who are you? Do you know where mommy is? Did you take her?”

“Forget your mother,” screeched the masked man in a shrill, inhuman voice. The way the creature spoke sounded too sinister to belong to any mortal race. “She loves you not. Why else would she reign such destruction down upon you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Silvia with all her anguish. “I just want to see mommy!”

“What do you mean by that?” asked Galzar in anger. “Answer me! What do you mean by that?”

The masked man laughed hollowly – a coarsely sound with no humor. “The woman that you love ... that you thought loved you ... has betrayed you. The very day you leave our employ, she abandons you to the wolves. It was she who unleashed the Elementals’ power on the city of Grimic.”

“That’s a lie!” cried out Galzar with clenched fists. “Sinclair loved the people of Gackbar! She wanted to forge peace between us and the humans! She would never sanction this kind of slaughter!”

“Ask her yourself,” said the masked man.

One of the masked man’s compatriots vanished and returned dragging a cringing woman by the ankle from the shadowy hallway. Silvia jumped for joy and ran for her mother, but Galzar held her back by her wrist.

“Let go! I have to be with mommy!” cried Silvia, unable to understand why her father wouldn’t let her go to her mother.

“Sinclair. You’re alive,” said Galzar as tears of joy fell from his face. “I’m too grateful for words.”

Galzar took a step towards his wife, but then she yelled out, “Get away from me, you monsters!” Galzar stopped dead in his tracks at Sinclair’s outrage.

Silvia’s mother wasn’t talking about the masked men ... she was looking directly at Galzar and Silvia. Silvia then realized that she and her father were in their Goblin forms. With a quivering jaw, Galzar changed back into his human shape. He took Silvia by the shoulder and did the same for her.

“Look, honey. It’s just us. It’s me and Silvia. I know I never told you before. I’m sorry ... truly I am. But if you’ll just give me a moment to explain things-”

“I already know it’s you, Galzar,” said Silvia’s mother in a cold, cruel voice. “I knew before you got here!”

Galzar seemed pained beyond belief as his hands went slack on Silvia’s shoulders. His momentary distraction caused them to shift back to their Goblin forms. Silvia couldn’t understand why her mother was being so mean to daddy.

Tears welled up in Sinclair’s eyes and she laughed bitterly. “Galzar Slithe. I should have seen through that name from the start. I was a fool to think that there could ever be an alliance between the humans and the Goblin races. You people are all mindless savages! You’re all animals ... do you hear me?”

“You...” began Galzar, his voice as quiet as Silvia had ever heard it. “How long have you known? Who told you?”

“I just found out the other day. I saw you and Silvia conspiring together. I know the truth! I know that you’ve been lying to me right from the start! You’ve been working for the Mystic terrorists, conspiring with the Order of the Shadow. And then I found out from a military report about a Goblin attack on the neighboring human colony on Tavas II. I was just discussing security policy with the governor a week ago on a classified channel. I know it was you! Virtually the whole colony was wiped out because you leaked information from me. Governor Trask and his whole family ... we went to school together, and now he’s dead because of you! All this time, while I was trying to bring peace between Goblins and humans, you were using me as a pawn in your sick little game!” Sinclair started sobbing uncontrollably.

Galzar just stood there, too stunned to speak.

Seeing her mother cry made Silvia want to cry too. “Mommy. Please don’t cry. Daddy and I didn’t mean to lie. We’re sorry. We’re so, so sorry. Please mommy, don’t hate us. Please don’t hate me. I didn’t want to lie. I didn’t want to-”

“Shut up, Silvia! Don’t call me ‘mommy’! I don’t know what you are, but you’re not my daughter! You’re a thing ... a beast! A freak of nature! You’re not mine ... neither of you are mine!”

Those words shook Silvia to her very core. Her whole world had just been torn apart. Her city was destroyed, and her mother hated her. Life was over. Silvia crumpled to the ground and clutched her hair as she screamed without restraint. She screamed until her voice petered out into a whimpering moan as she sat there quivering.

“Did you bring them here?” asked Galzar in a hoarse whisper. “The Elementals? Did you do this, Sinclair?”

For a moment, Sinclair seemed taken off guard. “I didn’t ... I didn’t think they’d take it this far. I didn’t know they’d destroy the whole city. It was like they had an invasion plan already in the works. I didn’t ... I didn’t think it would go this far. I didn’t mean to-”

“Did you bring them here?” repeated Galzar a little more harshly.

Sinclair floundered for a few moments ... then in an angry voice, she shrieked out through bitter tears, “Yes, I brought them here! But you drew first blood, Galzar Slithe! Never forget that you made the first sin when you killed Trask!”

Galzar stared down at his former wife with cold eyes. “For the record, I left the order before the attack on Tavas II. The information was leaked by a Mystic spy, not by me. I, myself, opposed the operation. I had nothing to do with the raid itself.” Then turning back to the masked men, he said in a whispering voice, “Do what you like with her.”

One of the masked men grabbed Sinclair by the hair and dragged her away as she kicked and screamed her outrage for all to hear. Silvia got up and tried to run to her again. Once again, Galzar stopped her.

“What are they going to do to mommy?”

“She is not your mother,” replied Galzar in a dead voice.

“Let me go! Let me go right now! We have to help her! You have to stop them!”

Galzar lifted Silvia up and slapped her across the face so hard that her world spun. “I told you, she is not your mother ... not anymore,” he said in a voice far too quiet and far too calm.

Silvia didn’t know what else to do, so she just cried. All her sorrow seeped into Galzar’s arms. The bruise on her face was nothing compared to the torment in her soul. Silvia didn’t remember much after that, only crying herself to sleep in a burnt corner of the place that used to be her home. She remembered her father speaking to the masked men in a whispering voice. In fact, he never spoke above a whisper after that day.

“We have an assignment for you and your daughter. If you are successful, it will relieve you of your past transgressions.”

“What’s my mission?”