Surprisingly Nice

Cornelius slithered to a stop a few feet away, the joy in what remained of his reptilian eyes changing to fear and apprehension as he beheld Ythmun with his aura. He opened his mouth, fangs dripping with saliva. The ropes of spit that dribbled down were as thick as Fate's arm and as long as he was tall.

"Why is he still alive?" he rumbled.

"We worked out a truce of sorts," Cait told the giant snake. "There's nothing to worry about."

Cornelius raised his head, swaying it side to side as he stared down at his former master with the tattered remains of his eyes. The gazes of the two met, one indecipherable and the other with plain indifference. The snake closed his mouth reluctantly, breaking eye contact as he turned to Cait.

"Make sure he does not break his word," he said and slithered away, toward the ruins of the palace.

"So that's what you did with him," Ythmun said off-handedly. "Now come, the palace may be destroyed on the surface, but I have plenty of space underneath the wreckage. Thousands of years ago, this planet had frequent meteor storms, so I had another palace built underground, with enough space to house the nearby villages."

"Speaking of the palace," Fate started, "Aren't you mad we killed it?"

"I'm furious," Ythmun responded, although Fate doubted whether he was speaking the truth or not, as nothing showed in his eyes or on his face. "I spent several millennia working on it. I threw the lives of millions of animals and felons into the endless hunger that I had created in the palace, and now all of that hard work is rendered moot.

"But it was, ultimately, a way to protect my people from aliens and their heavily protected ships. Now that we won't have to worry about that soon, I'm willing to let the water flow under the bridge."

"Sounds good to me."

"Just don't kill any more of my pets."

The "underground palace" Ythmun had referred to was the same set of tunnels Cait and Fate had fallen into earlier. Ythmun brought them to the creepy room with the chair and shackles, whereupon he tilted the chair back onto its back legs and a section of one of the stone walls groaned, sliding down into the floor.

This revealed a wall of shiny dials, knobs, buttons, and switches, which Ythmun got to work on.

Outside of the room, the dirt floor rumbled and the walls roiled as furniture sprang out of the former and heating and cooling systems protruded from the latter. In minutes, the expanse of tunnels turned from dreary dirt to fully equipped housing, complete with several kitchenettes, chairs, thousands of beds, and a newly revealed steel door stocked with several months' worth of food, enough to feed forty thousand.

Ythmun tilted the chair back and the controls were hidden by stone once more, and strolled out to the expansive cavern, taking in his surroundings. The previously cold air was already heated to a crips temperature by the heating systems, and the furniture, despite having come out of the dirt, was spotlessly clean.

"Here's where I'll be staying for the next three days," Ythmun said. "You three are welcome to house yourselves here if you wish."

"Fate and I will be fine," Cait said. "We have adequate housing on our ship."

"I'll bunk here with Ythmun then, and leave you two to it," Garrett said, winking. He coughed into his hand and looked away in embarrassment when his wink was met by unamused stares.

'How did you make all of this?" Fate asked Ythmun, deciding to change the subject. "Seems pretty technologically advanced for this world."

The monarch grimaced. "The Advanced installed it. So be sure to pick your words carefully down here."

Fate nodded, taking the memo. The Advanced were sure to have set up monitoring systems down here. Saying anything about their plans in this cavern would be dangerous and unnecessarily risky, enough to zip Fate's mouth shut. To the side, Garrett pursed his lips, obviously having taken the hint as well.

"Well, then, I'll see you two in three days, barring any unfortunate events," Ythmun said.

Cait and Fate went through the tunnels to go back to her ship. As they were walking, Cait decided to ask Fate a question.

"How exactly are we going to bring Cornelius back home?"

"I figured we can just buy some space on a freighter. Shouldn't cost too much; Embodiments can fuel those big old ships for cheap."

"But will the EPF allow an Embodiment freighter to come to a world not under their jurisdiction?"

"If not, we can always rent one ourselves. It'll be much more expensive, and we'll probably have to put down a deposit, but it's doable."

"Or we could use… that."

Fate winked at her. "'That' is the plan."

"Oh. It was hard to tell, with the way we were talking."

"Yeah, I know. You know what else I know?"

"What?"

"We blew up our ship."

"…Fuck."

The two turned on their heels and marched back to the cavern, having to give an awkward explanation to Ythmun about their lack of a place to sleep. Ythmun, thankfully, was understanding, being surprisingly nicer than they expected of the man they came here to kill for being a tyrant.

He gave them two of the many beds in one of the separate caverns five hundred feet down one of the tunnels, a barely concealed smirk on his and Garrett's faces as they watched the two assassins go down the tunnel.

"Ah, young love," Garrett said.

"Indeed. You want some flash-frozen tuna?"

"Sure."

"Night," Fate said, dropping onto a bed and falling asleep instantly.

"Night," Cait replied, getting on her bed much more gingerly than Fate. It wasn't her property, after all. She drifted off into a fitful sleep soon after.

Perhaps because of the events of the past few days, her dreams were filled with the sound of ripping flesh, snapping bone, cries of pain, and tears; her memories of her time under the Advanced's thumb.