| VI |

The coloured stared as their procession moved past the mid-docks. Kaimana thought the streets would be deserted since the festivities still wore on well into the night, but she was wrong. Lines of people, those who trusted her, those who wore the masks she made, those who knew her by name, they all stood watching her surrounded by Borgs and cuffed like a criminal.

The two hour trek from the lower to the upper-docks had Kaimana's ankles aching to sit down. By the time their boots hit the polished and pristine wood decks, her feet dragged and the escort slowed to a pace resembling her sputtering generator.

Murder.

The word banged against her skull over and over again like the clapper of a bell swinging back and forth. What had actually happened in that factory and why couldn't she figure out why her mind still screamed to keep quiet?

Even with her apparatus, her lungs began to squeeze too tight. The wrist , the one supposedly formerly healed by Hypashia, started to twitch and ache.

She could see the back of Tin's head ahead of her, a dark outline against the center ring of the Senate Docks. No matter how loud her yells of denial had been, he never turned around to look at her again. After slapping on the cuffs and throwing the accusation at her, he kept walking as if her struggle to make her case didn't mean a damn thing.

After a moment of struggling, their procession began to walk, and she realized her bug enthusiast had vanished. Now she stood subdued with a tight hold around her forearms from the Borgs on either side of her. The little girl reminded her of her small pets, always blending into the background and keeping watch. She hoped she would make it home.

Kaimana blinked back tears thinking about that. Home. That's were she wanted to be.

She wished she could look at her colour and not revolt at the sight of it. The bright golden hues of the riches surrounding them matched her strange, pulsing colour. It made her sick.

Buildings made of brick and stone instead of metal sheets and rotting wood. Air clear enough to see the tips of the Senate towers before them. The sound of generators built into the pristine decks what sucked the pollution from the air.

If Kaimana thought she could stand the sickening feeling of sharing the same air as those who thought they could hide in this place, she might have considered taking off her apparatus. As it was, she couldn't stomach the thought.

The gentle halcyon hues of the grand Senate buildings were a false comfort. She'd traveled to this portion of the docks many times to help repair generator failures and maintain bots under Senate care. The Bolfere family themselves often requested her expertise in fixing their own personal machines. This wasn't the calling they hoped to receive from her.

Within the great halls of these massive structures, all walks of life from the planet's surface convened on matters of state and the separation from the lands over the White Horizon. Senators from every dock and the occasional leader of gypsy migrators walked these halls during the conventions. Now Kaimana walked them.

Opulent staircases ascended on either side of them when they walked through the massive doors. Tin instead led them down the center hall that rose into a ceiling painted like the charts of the night sky before the smog. Her eyes drew up to see the constellations she used to study with Roule and her father.

Kaimana used to lay on the floor of her father's wagon and kick at the air while staring in awe at the maps and charts spread out before her.

"How many stars are there, papa?" she would ask.

"Too many," Roule would grumble.

But her father would smile that beautiful smile and kneel beside her. His hands, so large and comforting, would hover over the papers and his dark skin nearly blended in with the ink.

"Enough stars to light our way."

The reassurance in his whisper never failed to bring a smile to her face.

Before she knew it, the memory dissipated as the company stopped before a door made of a deep, russet colored wood.

Kaimana had to strain her neck to see Tin knock on the doors, the vibrations echoing through the hall the same way their heavy footfalls had.

The doors cracked then slowly crept open. Two more Borgs on the other side held the doors wide and Tin swept in while her guard followed suit.

The elaborate doors deceived the actual air inside the room. Kaimans's eyes swept over a library-like workshop with books stacked not just on shelves but in piles all around the center desk. Behind the desk stood a giant planetarium structure with planets that spun on the axis of their poles and a center sun that had a gentle glow from a fire stoked inside it's depths. The planets shimmered in rainbows of colors that could be matched to too many possibilities.

Kaiamana couldn't name the system of this particular planetary study, but she couldn't help feeling as if she knew it well.

The figure sitting behind the desk stood and swept his robes into a dignified stance.

Senator Bolfere smiled, blue eyes shimmering whole Tin bowed before him.

"Sir, the prisoner as requested."

Bolfere nodded then switched his gaze to Kaimana. The woman wanted to choke back the familiarity of his gaze, knowing his daughter matched much of his fair attributes. From his shimmering gold locks to the pale palor of his skin, these family features opposed her own dark looks.

"Ah, Kaimana Dayra, wonderful to see you again."

Kaimana let her chin duck in acknowledgment of his words. Despite his daughter's prim and ignorant ways, Bolfere himself never strayed from propriety.

"Under better circumstances, I might agree," she said. "However, I'm afraid I still don't understand the circumstances."

His brow furrowed, and he waved a hand at the Borgs surrounding her. She sagged forward when they loosened their hold on her. She held back the wheezing coughs that wanted to overtake her body.

"Let her sit down. She's exhausted."

"But sir, under the circumstances–"

"They're not proven yet," Bolfere snapped. "Did you seriously walk a girl who can't breath properly all the way here from the lower docks?"

Tin's mouth clamped shut and he nodded to his guard. They guided Kaimana towards an armchair and she sank into it. Her head fell to her hands resting between her knees. This wasn't a safe position for her lungs, but she couldn't help it. As much as she didn't want to admit weakness to the senator, she was indeed exhausted.

Bolfere continued to ramble on and shooed the guards out of the space.

"Honestly, you have access to transports and the likes but instead you parade her around like anyone down below should know a damn thing. Out!"

The doors banged shut and Kaimana lifted her head to settle it on the back of the chair. She wanted nothing more than her blanket and a pile of pillows so she could curl up and sleep for days. Even shadow plagued nightmares were preferable to being unable to walk and unable to breathe.

Her wrist hurt, her brow burned again, and she cursed the so called doctor. Illusions, that's what her colour could accomplish. Kaimana now understood Hypashia's cryptic words during their first meeting.

Healing of a sort indeed, she thought bitterly. What she wouldn't give for a splint again, one placed properly.

She ignored her bound hands and instead looked to the homely surroundings. The space felt so out of place in the middle of the Senate halls. The buildings built to show power and might could be cells of stone walls in comparison to this room. The earthy glow didn't give Kaimana that inkling to be sick.

She reached up and unhooked her apparatus, sighing when the air was indeed warm but not overly stuffy like the smog outside. She set the piece in her lap and touched her brow experimentally. Still split.

She hissed and forced herself to focus on the planetary vision behind Bolfere's desk, waiting for him to settle back in his chair and face her, hands clasped, expression expectant.

Kaimana stared right back, hearing her colour scream at her again to keep quiet.

"There was a body found in the fire."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I had nothing to do–"

"It's been identified as Alfred Jems, the mechanist who took you on as an apprentice."

Kaimana's eyes blew open impossibly wide. Her exhaustion forgotten, she sat forward on the chair and tried to formulate the words that wanted to come pouring out of her mouth. Her jaw wobbled like an unhinged joint instead.

Senator Bolfere watched her reaction carefully, studying her uncertainty, her pain.

"Your brother was said to have commissioned him for a project that has yet to be identified. Holos of him leaving Alfred's facility not long before the fires broke out have been recovered."

He leaned further across his desk, graveness sinking into his wrinkles. His blonde hair fell over his shoulder in long streaks and pooled on the surface of his pristine work surface. Not even a piece of paper littered it, only a book settled perfectly aligned with the corner.

"Where is your brother, Kaimana?"

Kaimana's hands fisted despite her swelling wrist. She thought of her brother, his bruises, his inability to tell her the truth. All of it broiled in her chest, wanting to be free.

"I don't know," she said, touching her lips with her bound hands. "I-I have no idea what's happening. All I wanted to do was fix my generator yesterday, then I fell into that factory."

Bolfere nodded. "And what happened inside?"

She looked to the ground at a rug that spread beneath them. Simple patterns, but she knew that if she took off her boots and allowed her sore feet to sink into the fibers, she would never want to leave.

Her hands shook, and she put them in her lap again, shaking her head. "We walked through the factory portal, and when we reached the other side I fell over a railing. It knocked me out for a moment, and when I came to..."

He waited.

Kaimana lifted her chin and defiantly challenged him to question her. "I had to get out. I didn't start the fire, I didn't kill Alfie, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"And your brother? Was he in the wrong place too?"

She couldn't answer. Something about this whole situation, from the behavior of Roule that morning to the too kind senator seated before her, bothered her. This unbearable tightening in her chest went beyond just her breathing. Not one of these people knew her, understood her. Though perhaps no one did.

Her exhaustion returned to her, and she fisted her hands around her apparatus. The yellow seeping from her fingers started to pool in her lap.

"I-I need my spear," she whispered.

Bolfere let the silence linger for a moment longer before he indicated to the Borgs at the door.

"Tell Captain Tin to bring her absorption stone."

The sound of the door opening and small murmurs told her he did just that. A second later Tin stood at her elbow with her spear clamped tightly in hand. The head of it emitted a glow that told her she would need to expel the colour soon.

Her hands wrapped around the staff and the colour settled into the stone.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Bolfere nodded to Tin and the man vanished again without so much as a glance her way. Their relationship never stemmed past their occasional passings in the portal districts, some smiles shared to show how pleased they were to see one another, maybe the occasional conversation about their day. It still hurt to know that even those small moments could be dashed away like nothing.

When the door closed again, Kaimana wriggled in the seat, her cheeks flushing at the look on the senator's face.

"I know you know more, Kaimana," he said.

She shook her head in earnest. "I didn't do–"

"Did you meet him there? Was that your intention?"

"What?"

Her tongue darted out to wet her dry lips. Her eyes shot from him to the planets to the shelves surrounding them. At first the room seemed homely, now it only acted as a cage, one that she wanted to claw her way out of tooth and nail.

His hand settled on the desk and slowly inched back from a metal object. Charred and almost unrecognizable, but not to her.

Her apparatus, the one that fell into the flames. Beside it, her mother's ring, the one Roule never took off.

This can't be happening.

Her eyes locked with Bolfere's, and in his gaze, she understood. They all knew she was innocent, every last one of them. This was a game, a ploy. She had no control over this situation, no control over what happened next.

"What do you want from me?" she whispered.

The man folded his hands before his lips, settling his chin against his wrists. His fingers pointed to indicate the damning items before him.

"These alone prove more damning than you'd care for, don't they?"

She scoffed. "They will if you report that they do."

His eyes lit up with triumph. "They will, won't they?"

He stood then and walked around his desk. Much to her own displeasure, Kaimana watched his every move. The way his robes shifted, dark hues of brown and burnt gold lining the pristine white fabric reminded her how her own cotton and synthetic clothes never moved like that. She was insignificant in comparison, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.

"What would you say to a deal?"

"A deal? For a crime I didn't commit."

The man shrugged and leaned back against the desk. His fingers played with the burnt edges of her apparatus and her fingers tightened on the one in her lap.

"I've told you before, Kaimana Dayra. You know what I want from you."

She let out a small laugh, her lips insincere in their tilt. "You want me to be the senate's bitch."

He tsked, lips matching her own. "Now, now, no need for such language."

Kaimana looked to the ceiling, wishing this one was painted with pleasantries like the hallway. Instead wooden beams held the structure together like a jigsaw puzzle blurred in her vision.

"I'm not building you weapons," she said.

Bolfere shifted, the fabrics caressing her feet and ankles as he stood over her. His hands settled on either arm rest and his face came within inches of hers.

"Who said anything about weapons?"

"You don't need to say it," she said.

His lips widened into the wicked grin she expected to see. She refused to shrink under his intimidation.

"And here I thought you would jump at the chance to do more with your life than tinker away at things that have no consequence. These little machines..."

His hand closed around her apparatus and plucked it from her hands. She didn't try to fight it.

"These are nothing but a waste of your potential. You could be so much more."

Her head tilted back to stare at the ceiling once again. For a moment neither of them moved. It almost seemed like she contemplated his proposal.

For a moment.

Her head shot forward, and the satisfying crunch of his nose lasted for all of a second.

Bolfere fell to the ground with a shout and she felt hands tugging at her shoulders to keep her in her chair. The door slammed open and guards poured in to surround her on all sides. They lifted her from her chair and began to drag her towards the door.

Kaimana paid them no mind, continuing to snarl profanities at the man on the ground. He cried, tears morphing with red on his cheeks. The blood dripped between his hands and stained the white of his robes in satisfying droplets.

"You can all jump straight into the abyss over the White Horizon!" she shouted.

"I want her in a cell!" Bolfere screeched.

"I'd rather be in a cell than anywhere near–"

Her last words were muffled by a hand crushing her lips. They dragged her away, the hallways twisting in a disorienting maze until something slammed against the back of her head. She tried to focus, but her eyes shut against her will.

~*~*~*~

A/N: Slightly short chapter again. I'm starting to like my longer chapters better than this, but meh, you can't force where it wants to stop! This was my favorite chapter to write so far. I have big plans ahead.

Shout out to Jamie (Jamie_Michelle) for being amazing! It's also her birthday!! Here's part your present, lovely!

Love you Jamie <3

My bag is still full of pennies btw.