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I wanted blood…

A devastated wail rose from our people the moment they saw us walking out of the building carrying the corpses of our little sisters. How many more of our queens and Kalrins had gone through such abuse? We estimated that twenty-six queens were still missing. Removing the three we’d found here today, did that mean that the remaining twenty-three had met a similar fate and been disposed of since?

I walked up to Josey, our head healer, and placed the queen in his arms. Orian and I sank our veris into the ground to share a condensed version of what we’d seen with the others. There would be no trial or debate. The Procrea employees—who were not just humans, though mostly—had started pleading for mercy or claiming innocence the minute they saw us walking out with corpses.

Although it likely felt like forever to them, we’d been inside less than thirty minutes, closer to twenty. As they knew what we were going to find, you’d think they would have tried to come up with better excuses to get us to spare them.

Not that anything could.

Orian, our respective Osheos, and our two top hunters marched towards the seven people who had experimented on the Kalrins. They immediately pleaded and begged with renewed vigor. As I approached Ludwig, he once again tried to bluff his way with bravado, but he reeked of fear as he spewed more inane demands.

“I want a lawyer! I’m entitled to—”

His head jerked to the right as I backhanded him with such force that his cheekbone cracked. Blood shot out of his mouth as he shouted in pain. I leaned forward, my face inches from his.

“The only thing you’re entitled to is punishment for your cruelty,” I hissed before straightening.

I released him from the vines that were keeping him shackled to the ground. My companions did the same with the seven scientists. Grabbing them by the collar, we dragged them closer to the sidewalk so that they would be in front of the other employees and facing the building. A few tried to resist but a numbing pulse sufficed to make them more compliant. We were in no mood to sing to enthrall them.

The next hymn would not be soothing.

We lined them up at equal distance. Before they could try to move or run away, the ground bulged as if thick snakes were racing right below the surface towards those eight monsters. Their panicked shouts shifted to screams of pain when long spikes shot out of the ground and pierced through their shoulders, pinning them in place. They weren’t meant to kill, just to immobilize. They didn’t deserve a swift punishment.

The other kneeling employees shouted, some of them pointlessly trying to fight free of their restraints again. Across the parking lot and on the other side of the street, the gawkers looked just as terrified yet unable to tear their gazes away. Overhead, a small floating device kept hovering. Mirella had called those drones used by their news reporters to capture images and events. It suited me just fine that all of their people would witness what was about to happen.

“Five hundred years ago, the Settlers came and tried to destroy us so that they could appropriate our lands,” I said loudly so that all would hear me, including the drone. “We drove them away. After we went into the Long Sleep, you off-worlders once more came back here to try and claim what isn’t yours.”

I looked up straight at the drone to make sure those watching through it understood I was speaking to them this time. The drone hovered down to come a bit closer to me, while whoever was controlling it wisely kept it at a safe distance.

“Your UPO promised that you would not trespass on our lands, that you would not interfere with our way of life, and above all, that you would treat Mazeria with respect and care. On the basis of that promise, the land allowed you to stay,” I added before angrily pointing towards our healers. “And this is what some of you decided to do?”

The healers who were now holding the dead Kalrins and queens raised their small corpses for all to see.

“What kind of monsters would torture something as beautiful and innocent as the Kalrins? And for what? Your constant greed and lust for power is a sickness trying to infest this world,” I snarled.

“Please! You can’t kill us! You’re not murderers!” Ludwig begged.

“No, we’re not. We’re the children of this land and its protectors. While you’re a disease that must be eradicated before it spreads,” I said with all the contempt I could muster.

“Please! I don’t want to die!” he whimpered.

“Fear not, Dr. Ludwig,” I hissed. “You will not die quickly. You wanted to wipe out the Syllens, the Kalrins, and our homes. Instead, you will bear witness to the destruction of your own people, and of your own home.”

Without glancing away from Ludwig, I gestured with my head to my people. They grabbed the Laurellis bushes we’d retrieved from the second-floor lab and placed them amidst the employees. Their screams and pleas multiplied exponentially. Some of them fought their restraints with such desperation that they flayed themselves.

“For the Mothers you mutilated. For the little sisters you murdered. For the Syllens you tried to exterminate, and for Mazeria who you will never own or subjugate,” I said coldly as I raised my fist towards Ludwig.

At the same time, my companions also raised their fists towards the eight monsters in front of us. I couldn’t even summon the smallest sliver of pity at their pained cries when countless darts penetrated their flesh. In fact, I shamelessly reveled in their screeches of agony as we all hummed the death tone. Instantly, thin spikes extruded from the darts in random directions, piercing through flesh, bones, and organs until they protruded outside the body.

Orian and I modulated our voices to an even lower pitch, prompting thicker spikes to dig into the ground, keeping each of those wretches upright. This allowed us to retrieve the initial root-like spikes that had stabbed into their arms. As those were extensions of our veris, we had to retract them and unroot ourselves from the ground before we could walk around again.

Despite them now looking like pin cushions, the off-worlders wouldn’t enjoy a quick death. The spikes were thin enough not to instantly kill, even if they pierced vital organs. Based on our experience with the Settlers, these humans would survive for many hours. It wouldn’t be anywhere near enough for them to make amends for their wrongdoings. But this was also about sending a message to the rest of the off-worlders. The punishment needed to be gruesome enough to make any other foreigner seriously think whether their urge to commit something reprehensible was worth the potential cost.

They screamed and writhed in pain, their movements restricted by the shards impaling them. Their terrified employees watched in horror as the Syllens who had placed the Laurellis bushes in their midst moved away. It was poetic justice that these monsters should watch each other’s agony, the same way the Kalrins and Mothers had witnessed the slow death of their peers.

“Please! Let me go!” the security guard shouted. “I have nothing to do with any of this!”

“You may not have performed those experiments, but you knew what they were up to,” I replied in an icy voice. “You saw what they were doing during your rounds. You didn’t stop them. You didn’t denounce them. Your silence made you complicit. Had you informed the UPO or your authorities, this would have stopped a long time ago. By your inaction, you both condoned and enabled their crimes. You are just as guilty.”