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It’d seemed like a place of hope. Instead, it served as a noose around our necks.
The Changeling servant turned on the spot and motioned for me to stop. I stood at the foot of the steps that rose to the throne. Lounging in it was our illustrious new leader. S’lec-Quos.
I immediately dropped to my knee and lowered my eyes.
“House Taw serves at your will,” I said.
“Stand, stand,” S’lec-Quos said, waving a stunted leg at me.
A helper on either side of the throne helped S’lec-Quos get to his feet. He accepted their help and then drew his legs back as if to strike them the moment he was on his feet. He made a chittering sound that had a distinctively irritated quality to it.
“Kal Taw,” S’lec-Quos said, embracing me firmly with his long spindly arms.
“Your Grace honors me,” I said.
When we pulled back, I was startled to find he had morphed into me. I might have been looking into a mirror. The sight of him wearing my ancestors’ costume made me feel sick to my stomach, but I forced a broad smile on my face.
“My costume looks so much better on you than it does on me, your Grace,” I said.
S’lec-Quos chuckled and turned to his helpers, who chuckled along with him.
“I like wearing Titan flesh,” he said. “It makes me feel strong and powerful.”
He puffed out his chest to make himself look larger.
Although he looked and sounded like me, his demeanor was unnatural. Anyone who knew me would pick up on it. Then there were the usual telltale signs like the ridges of skin around his limbs. When a Changeling adopted an alien form, they replicated their enemy in sections, which left ridges of skin across their bodies. The most noticeable were those around their wrists.
S’lec-Quos morphed back into his Changeling skin.
“We appreciate the decision you made during the battle,” he said. “Titans are awesome warriors but no use when it comes to modern warfare. You had no serious chance of stopping us.”
“No chance,” one of the helpers echoed.
“It was a most prudent decision on your part,” S’lec-Quos said.
“Most prudent,” the other helper said, nodding his head.
When the Changelings made their final assault on Oran-glei, our homeworld, they took out the most powerful lords first, so we would be headless and without good leadership. Old rivalries came to the fore and as they fought for who deserved the lordship titles, their armies burned.
Those who succeeded were forced to make decisions they never thought they would have to make. Everyone turned to the emperor for leadership, but the Changelings had taken care of him first. Then the mantel passed to the most senior lord.
Me.
They waited expectantly to see what I would do next. If the greatest Titan lord refused to fight, none would. I had to see through the bubbling anger in my veins to think clearly.
What was best for the people? I thought.
If I lit the beacon, it would call every Titan into war. They would run into battle, to their death, and accept it without hesitation. But the Changelings were too powerful, their ships too many. To send countless Titans into war across multiple worlds to die for nothing but the sake of honor…
I couldn’t do it.
I refused to light the beacon.
Death had already claimed too many. I wouldn’t add to the pyre.
“We were sorry to hear about your brother,” S’lec-Quos said.
The anger rose in me like a wave. Sorry? These creatures were the ones responsible for his death!
