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Gildedtongue's Story: Book II: Purgatorio

Chapter 1

En route home, Gildedtongue passed by hir school. Shi ran hir identification card through the reader at the front door, which rejected it. After three more times at this game, Gildy sighed and proceeded to the security office. When shi went in, three guards were at their desks, and while they were unarmed, they all crouched down for a pounce. Gildy's hands shot up in defense before peeking around hir arms at the people there. The humans seemed to sit back down again. The oldest one, a fat, portly gentleman in his late forties, crossed his arms as he approached the chakat.

"Well, lookit th' kitten that mewled out of goin' t' th' pound. Whadda want?" he sneered. Gildedtongue's nose crinkled at the odor of poorly maintained teeth and an all too healthy lust for cheap whiskey.

"It seems that the main door isn't accepting my card." Gildy said, holding up the rectangle of plastic between forefinger and middle. The three guards started to laugh loudly, slapping their knees and grinning at the feli'taur, enjoying the punchline shi came to be, though shi wasn't sure what the set up was.

The portly guard smirked and snatched the card from Gildy's fingers, taking it back to his desk where he had a press. With a loud thunk, the card came out riddled with holes, to whit he tossed it back to its owner with a cavalier flick of the wrist. Gildedtongue fumbled to catch it, pressing it against hir breast as shi stared at the two guards, "Right. I'll still need access to my room to gather my effects."

Gildedtongue was answered with the shove of a box towards hir. Hir property was jumbled together in a tall heap, with a few broken items to show off their lack of care. Gildedtongue picked up the box and gave the guards a nod before stepping out, hearing their laughter erupt while the door was in the middle of closing. Gildedtongue made hir way to the bus stop, sighing softly to hirself as shi waited, looking over hir things. Hir teaching certificate was torn half way, and an array of photographs were mangled out of recognition. Shi sighed softly to hirself. The photos could always be reprinted and the certification was only a symbol of hir ability, and certainly not hir ability itself.

The bus stopped and the driver greeted Gildedtongue with a sneer. Most definitely hir face was recognizable by many this close to the trial. Shi sighed softly to hirself and boarded the bus quietly, swiping hir pass. 'At least something works right' shi thought to hirself as the terminal beeped in compliance. The chakat made hir way to the back of the bus, greeted either with spits in hir path, or cowering. Gildedtongue idly noticed that there was no other morphs on the bus, but shi was too tired to care as shi sat down in the 'taur area, getting ready for the ride home.

Time ticked slowly as Gildy kept to the recesses of hir head, closing hir eyes lightly. The more that shi thought, the more the sinking feeling grasped at hir throat, shi merely left hir cell for a larger cell shi's grown far too accustomed to. Unfortunately shi's far too little cash to simply pick up and move out. Hir wages prior were barely enough to keep rent up at hir apartment, and savings were a joke. Shi honestly didn't think about retirement, preferring to croak right in the middle of class.

Shi got off infront of hir complex. Hir tail keeping low as shi stared up at the monolith of concrete and steel, glistening with glass. Shi tried to call it "home" but the words seemed out of hir vocabulary. Shi shrugged and approached the door, using the retinal scan to get in. It had been only two weeks and yet the place seemed too strange to hir. The four flights of stairs a bit more labouring than a month ago. Shi sighed, just thankful to be near hir bed.

The door to hir apartment was ajar and light pouring out. Shi was certain shi closed the door when shi left, or someone else would have. Shi set the box down and extracted a lump of iron ore from an asteroid mining colony that shi used as a paperweight. The chakat cautiously approached the door, giving the door a firm push to expose whatever was inside. Hir right arm twitching in attack before quickly relaxing, seeing an older human dressed in black with a white collar, a bottle of wine in his hand. "Frank! Oh shit, I thought you were a looter!" Gildedtongue laughed to hirself as shi shook hir head, picking up hir box.

"No, not me. Though I'm going to say that I don't think there's much to steal," he said, sitting down at the kitchen table with a folding chair he brought. Gildedtongue set the box inside the entry, closing the door behind hir. Shi smiled a bit at hir friend, shaking hir head a bit. "I just decided that your home could use a bit of warmth while you were out."

"Well, I gave you clearance to my place for a reason. My place is yours, my friend," Gildy said, sitting down at the table across from the monsignor. Frank nodded and chuckled as he poured out two glasses of red, handing one of the glasses to the chakat as he offered a toast.

"To justice being served properly and friends coming back home again," the priest smiled and sipped out of his glass. Gildedtongue looked into the pool of crimson nestled silently in the container. Frank cocked his head a little as he reached out to grab Gildedtongue's nearest hand, "Is there something the matter?"

Gildedtongue thought for a moment before tilting hir head back and swallowing the entire glass in one gulp. Frank's eyes went a bit wide seeing his friend do that. Gildedtongue grumbled as shi put hir glass back down on the table. "Damn, I need to get drunk," shi muttered darkly.

Frank's frown got heavier as he moved from across the table next to the chakat, leaning close, "Gildy, what's wrong? You seem very distant." Frank's hand reached up to clasp on Gildedtongue's shoulder. Shi grunted lightly, but allowed it as shi stared into hir empty glass.

"I don't know, Frank. You'd think after a couple of decades I'd just get used to it all. I'd take it as just another fact of life, but..." Gildedtongue trailed off into nothing, wrapping hir tail tightly around hir haunches, grunting softly to hirself. "Shit, even I'm doubting if I should have just let him do what he wanted. I mean, if everyone keeps telling you that you're worthless, sooner or later you're going to start believing them. I mean, Jesus Christ..."

Gildedtongue's speech was cut short by a firm cuff across the face. Hir cheek stinging by the surprise more than the act as hir eyes went wide. Shi grunted, looking back at a very furious Frank. "That was for blasphemy, as well as blaspheming our friendship. Everyone telling you that you're worthless," Frank spat at the ground, then looking back up at Gildedtongue. "We've known each other since we were children climbing trees, and have I ever said that?"

Gildedtongue sighed and whimpered to hirself, shaking hir head slowly, "No, Frank. I know that." Gildedtongue sighed again, nursed hir cheek as Frank tended his hand for a moment. Gildedtongue broke the short silence, "But, I mean, I didn't see you, or anyone else at the trial. It felt like you were all looking away when I was in real need of help." Frank nodded a bit to Gildedtongue's words, and then chuckled softly.

"Gildedtongue, you are such a Doubting Thomas. Just because you didn't see myself or anyone else, didn't mean we weren't working to help." Gildedtongue cocked hir head slightly, blinking a bit at Frank. The monsignor continued, "Contrary to popular belief, Federation admirals don't simply pop out of thin air to solve petty trials." Frank smiled as he poured another glass for Gildedtongue, "That skunk'taur that attends our school, Tarkiee? Turns out that hys cousin's mate's brother was at the local starport when the trial started. So, a few calls later, and getting hyr to get in touch with your attourney, and suddenly you've got yourself a defense."

Gildedtongue swallowed enough of that story as shi could, but then furrowed hir brow, looking closer at Frank, "Yeah, that's all well and good, but how could you have known about the defense, and what we needed to prove anything. Isn't that a long shot, even for the Almighty?" Gildedtongue's arms folded infront of hir leaning away from the priest.

Frank nodded softly, looking at his still untouched glass of wine, finally taking a sip from it, "A very good observation, Gildedtongue." Frank rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a small datapad, showing it to the chakat. Gildy's furred fingers tapped through it. Several memos and letters sent to the staff of the school with mention of the school's official view of the events, as well as notes explaining that Dreamweaver and hir family were sent to a faith based trauma management camp to work themselves through the ordeal. Frank spoke after a few minutes, watching Gildedtongue scanning the documents, "It doesn't take a warp drive engineer to see the attempts to cover up something big. Besides, I know you. I'd take quite a bit to raise your ire."

Gildedtongue nodded slightly, "Well, alright, but how'd that link you to talk to Tark about this?" Gildedtongue rested hir elbows on the table, leaning a bit closer to Frank as hir tail twitched a bit in curiosity.

"Turns out you must've been kept rather in the dark in that cell of yours." Gildedtongue nodded to Frank as he continued, "Well, after the incident, there was a considerable amount of aggression on both sides of the species line." Frank started, looking back into his glass. "About two days after you were taken in, a small group of morphs went to the local market in the upper class section and started opening fire with some older automatic weapons."

Gildedtongue blinked in horror. Shi gulped dryly as Frank continued to talk about the events of the last two weeks. Acts of terror popping up all over, each more gruesome than the previous, morphs attacking humans, and humans seeking revenge for their fallen. "Tark's mother died in the latest drive by strafing run. Hy came to my classroom after school, shaken and distraught, luckily hy knew I was your friend," Frank shrugged lightly, "I asked hym if hy had any other family around, and hy mentioned hys mother's friend, Zool..."

Gildedtongue interrupted Frank, shaking hir head slowly, "That's why hy was so curt with me. I started all this." Gildedtongue sighed softly. Frank grumbled and shook his head again.

"You might have been that straw to break the camel's back, but this started a long time ago, Gildy." Frank reached to pat his friend's shoulder. The silence was broken by a resounding explosion, causing the building to quake. "God damn this, they're here!" Frank shouted, grabbing Gildedtongue's arm, looking to the door.