Page 98 of I Married A Syllen

The bushes in their midst didn’t need us to nudge them into action. As soon as my brothers and sisters walked out of range, white fungus quickly filled the corolla of their flowers, until it completely covered the pistils.

The employees’ pleas for mercy turned into shrieks as the Laurellis flowers shot their fungus into the air. It descended as a lovely white powder over the captives, like fresh snow. Our lands didn’t experience that weather phenomenon, but far regions of Mazeria did.

As much as I wanted to bear witness to their horrendous demise under the effects of the virulent toxin, I turned to my mate to shelter her from that spectacle. Mirella had been quite traumatized when she nearly died in a similar attack in the Botanical Garden. To my shock, she shook her head and gently but firmly pushed me away. The whole time, her gaze remained glued to the people of Procrea as their skins blistered and burst.

Normally, the cold and hard glint in her eyes before the gruesome display of their deaths should have distressed me. But the same rage we felt burned inside her. Like us, she saw this as well-deserved justice. Her pain in the face of the gratuitous cruelty against the Mothers and the Kalrins had been palpable. Mirella wasn’t a Syllen, but in her heart and soul, she truly was one of us.

I took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. She reciprocated, and we stood watch until the last employee had gone quiet. The seven impaled scientists and Ludwig had mostly stopped screaming. They whimpered and moaned instead.

I lifted Mirella’s hand in front of my face, kissed the back of it, then released her. Orian stepped forward at the same time I did to face the building. We both opened our mouths, releasing a focused ultrasonic wave at two different spots on the building. Our people split their voices between the two targets, emulating us. Matching the metal’s natural resonance frequency caused structural fatigue. Thanks to the intensity of our combined voices, cracks immediately appeared in the metallic frames of the structure.

In moments, the front of the building above the doors began to collapse. We shifted our attention to the edge beams and wrecked them in seconds. With the inside now exposed, we pummeled it with ultrasonic blasts. As more support metal beams came into view, we weakened them as well.

As the structure was mostly collapsing on itself, the dark silhouettes of the Ungaro tribe flying towards us appeared on the horizon.

Perfect timing…

It took less than five minutes for only a skeleton of the building to remain standing. The ground bulged with countless thick vines extruding from our veris as they raced towards the ruins. The bulges vanished halfway through as we sank our vines deeper into the ground. I welcomed the pain of my vines ramming through the weakened foundation. Had we used this attack before distressing the support structure, we would have caused major harm to ourselves, with little to none to the building.

Our vines punched out of the rubble like flailing tentacles. The entire building shot up, as if a volcano erupted beneath it. The vines smashed anything still standing, some of us intertwining ours with others for greater destructive power. As Athusa and his tribe closed in on the devastated building, we retracted our veris.

Orian sent an ultrasonic pulse to Athusa, giving him the all clear as they began their descent. Although he didn’t know the details of what had transpired here, a single glance at the macabre scene sufficed for him to understand what we wanted. He had come prepared for that eventuality.

His tribe whipped out their bows. Athusa attached a Danatus band around his arrowhead. The rest of his tribe hooked an ash powder on theirs. Athusa fired his arrow with deadly precision. The ground shook as a massive crater appeared in the center of the structure. Unlike the fiery explosives off-worlders used, Danatus nectar didn’t cause rubble and dust to fly in every direction. It acted as if a giant punched a hole into something. In this instance, it stomped what was left of the building into the ground.

Two of the Ungaro tribe members fired their own arrows at the wreckage. On impact, their ash pouches burst open, covering everything in the vicinity in a thin, gray powder. As one, the Syllens on the ground hummed the death tone. It triggered a chemical reaction, turning everything into ashes. Two more tribemates shot their arrows, and we repeated the process three more times—the final targets being the Procrea employees.

The powder didn’t break down their bones. It could have, had we weakened them before. But their remains were a stark reminder for the off-worlders not to cross us again.

I glanced at Maeve. She was back near her shuttle in the parking lot and speaking to whoever was at the other end of her earpiece. Tedrik was standing next to her, intently observing what was happening. Despite his best efforts at keeping a neutral expression, he was undeniably troubled by this spectacle.

As much as it bothered him that we killed all the witnesses, I believed the extent of our abilities was his main source of concern. After all, while we were still exploring inside, Tedrik had arrested the person Maeve detected in the basement. Somehow, the Senior Enforcer convinced my people to let him keep that employee.

Tearing my gaze away from the agents, I glanced at Athusa and his tribemates who were landing by the water. As he made his way closer to me, I peered up at the hovering drone that had not missed a single moment of the action. Its operator immediately understood that I was about to address them and brought the drone closer to me again.

“None of this needed to happen. Had you honored your word, had you not threatened our people, we wouldn’t be here,” I said sternly. “We may not have your technology—nor do we want it—but we’re not weak. This is a mere glimpse of what we can do. We have far more lethal weapons that we would rather never have to use. The Syllens are a peaceful people… until you cross us or threaten Mazeria.”

I glanced at the neighboring buildings, where the gawkers were still plastered against the windows. That morbid curiosity baffled my mind. Had they no sense of self-preservation? In their stead, I would have tried to get as far away as possible from the threat. But they all stood there, making themselves easy targets.

“You no longer have our trust. After the horrors we’ve witnessed here, we must make sure that no more monsters hide in your midst. Therefore, the Syllens will perform random inspections of your workplaces, dwellings, and other potentially suspicious spaces. Should we find anything that violates our agreement or that threatens or harms Mazeria, you will be dealt with based on the gravity of the offense.”

I glanced at my mate. Once more, I didn’t perceive any shock, outrage, or disapproval from her. None of the pushback I feared had come to pass. I extended a hand towards Mirella, and she came willingly. As I drew her against me, I looked back at the drone.

“This wonderful woman, my soulmate, has fiercely argued that you’re not the same monsters as the Settlers who previously invaded us,” I said. “The events of the past few days have made it extremely difficult to believe. We should drive you all out of Mazeria before you cause more harm. But I trust her.”

“We trust her,” Athusa interjected.

“The land claimed her, and so have we,” Orian confirmed.

“So have we,” the rest of my people echoed.

I proudly caressed Mirella’s hair, as she gave the tribes a deeply moved smile.

“Therefore, if you know you’re doing wrong, leave this planet while you can. If your actions are not a threat to Mazeria and its inhabitants, then we have no quarrel with you. However, you do not understand this world. Some of your good intentions are harmful to the land, like that abomination of a Botanical Garden,” I said with disgust.

“We will give you guidance on how to rectify those bad choices or behaviors. If you want to remain on Mazeria, you will comply,” Athusa said in the same severe tone.

“Protect the land. Respect its children. And honor your word,” Orian said in an impassioned tone. “The Great Mother has tolerated your presence so far. It is up to you whether you will receive her full embrace or be cast out. Do not fail her. Do not fail us. And do not fail yourselves. This world is a divine gift for those wise enough to see it. So open your eyes and see.”