Luna and Avraham walked silently side by side. They were about to exit the family wing when they instead diverted into a small room. Luna knew this room all too well. She had always wanted to be Luna herself when exploring the world beyond her ivory tower. Today, she was almost glad to shed her skin, and this room symbolized altered personas.
Luna went in first, and Avraham followed.
He pointed toward a bag precariously placed on a shelf in the room. "You will find your disguise here. Knock three times when you are done and leave. Wait for me near the World Elevator Plaza."
"Got it," she replied. Avraham nodded and headed out of the room.
Luna opened the bag, already familiar with its contents. She had worn disguises on many excursions with Avraham over the years: an unassuming translucent face mask, a wig, contact lenses, an HPC device, and, 'what is this?', a uniform.
She changed into the uniform first. It was an armored coat with padded trousers and an undershirt, almost identical to the inquisitors' design, except that where the inquisitors wore layers of red with a bright-flame insignia, hers was completely black, including the insignia.
Next, she put in the contact lenses and the wig. Finally, she pulled out the unassuming mask, which felt soft and thick, like jelly, in her hands. Hesitating for a moment, she held the mask with both hands in front of her face.
Luna sighed and applied the mask.
As soon as it settled on her face, it liquefied. She felt her skin tighten beneath it as the mask adjusted and clung to her. The uncomfortable, slithery sensation lasted a minute or two.
When it stopped, her face felt warm and heavy. She flexed her facial muscles, smiling, frowning, raising her eyebrows, and blinking.
The movements felt slightly sluggish, but that was to be expected. She checked the edges of her face to see if any rough patches remained or if the reconstruction had issues. There were none.
Luna slotted her HPC into her wrist mount and activated the camera.
She now had auburn hair, brown eyes, and a distinctly different face: a broader nose, fuller lips, and rounder cheeks, yet she could still detect the faintest traces of her original facial structure.
Luna knocked on the door three times to let Avraham know she was done. She moved toward the edge of the room and opened a cabinet. Tracing her finger in a practiced pattern on the back panel with practiced precision. It opened up to reveal a small chamber and a narrow stairwell.
It took Luna about fifteen minutes to exit the castle, avoiding all checkpoints and surveillance zones. This routine had been perfected over the years with Avraham.
She breathed deeply. It felt good to be out in the open again. The world elevators were nearby. She could have easily caught a ride using a local commuting station, but she chose to walk.
Luna enjoyed the air and the scenery. Though it was nighttime, the industrialized orbital space of her homeworld never let any portion of the planet be completely dark. Even the heavy automated traffic along the main road leading out of the castle became part of the scenery.
The world elevator was visible in the distance, glowing like a massive line stretching from the ground to the sky.
House Whiterock had spent a fortune creating scenic routes along the roads and around the family estate, and Luna seldom had the chance to enjoy them. She wondered how long it would be before she could return, or even be somewhere so open again.
Space travel was an extremely claustrophobic and slow affair because the dark ocean of space was so vast that not even the Living Flame could carry humanity far into it.
Her HPC pinged an alert. It was Avraham.
[Learn about your new alter ego while you walk]
Luna stopped and looked around.
'How did he know? Well of course he does.'
Attached to the message were some files.
Luna sighed and opened them. Her name was Yelena. 'Yeleeena, phew, Avraham, way to keep it subtle.' Yelena Darkflame.
'Darkflame!'
As in the same as Avraham Darkflame? Luna pondered. She stopped walking and thought back to her questions about her parentage, which both Avraham and her mother had denied. Wasn't this too on the nose even for a joke?
Luna had kept her dissapointment to herself at the time, but secretly she had always hoped Avraham was her real father. Was the old man really so tone deaf? She continued reading her profile.
She was sixteen, and her records didn't go back before her schooling, which had been right here on the Whiterock capital world. She had been designated by Avraham for the Red Mandate.
'That explains it.'
Most Inquisitors came from the same families, and each new addition joined the same one. So if Avraham had chosen Luna as his apprentice, he would have had to welcome her into his house of Darkflame.
A new house forming among the Inquisitors was a rare enough event. Avraham had been the first in a hundred years to be a completely unknown and unsupported Inquisitor.
Avraham would have lived an exciting life, but despite all of Luna's efforts, she had never gotten him to open up. Luna read through the rest of the contents, repeating the exercise four or five times to memorize everything.
Her name was Yelena Darkflame. She was an orphan who had done well in school, was taken in by Avraham Darkflame under the Red Mandate, and thus inherited his title. This was her first official assignment with the Inquisitor.
The huge lines stretching into the sky in the distance were now wide glass columns. She could also see the busy plaza below.
Luna walked up to the gates. She wasn't the only person trying to get in on foot. A small line of people waited their turn at the walk-in checkpoints. Most were asked by security to plug in their HPC terminals. In the ten minutes she had been waiting, she had already seen three people turned away and one escorted into the building through a side entrance.
Luna grew increasingly nervous as her turn drew closer.
The man at the checkpoint waved her forward, casually pointing toward the slotting wires. Luna did as she was told and held her breath. A few seconds later, a click sounded, and the wire detached from her HPC. Luna turned to look at the guard, but he was staring open-mouthed at her.
'Don't let me be caught already!'
"I apologize for my lack of decorum, my Lady!" the guard blurted out and immediately bowed on one knee. "I should have realized I was in the presence of an Inquisitor."
Gasps rose from behind her as people hurriedly shuffled away, afraid to be near her, their gazes down and heads bowed.
"I… apologize. I beg forgiveness for my misconduct," the guard spoke again.
"It's quite all right. I'm still only an apprentice. So am I allowed to pass?"
"Of course. My thanks, my Lady. I wish you a safe trip."
Luna smiled at the guard, her mind reeling with disgust at the reverence and fear her new position inspired. "Thank you!" she replied, walking through the checkpoint.
The world elevators were the ports of the world. They stretched into orbital space to the grand fleets that kept the empire running. They saved the uncomfortable and costly trips out of a planet's gravitational pull.
Luna called Avraham through her HPC. The line connected immediately.
"I see you, Yelena. I'll be right there, and remember, you are my apprentice." The line cut off.
After a few minutes, someone tapped her shoulder without stopping. It was Avraham. She sprinted slightly to keep pace with his stride. She looked back to see two more soldiers, seemingly Knights of the Flamebound Order, pushing a trolley laden with bags. They kept pace at a slight distance.
They made their way to the elevator doors. A small queue of people was already waiting for their turn. As Luna's party appeared, a small signal sounded near the doors, and in unison, all the waiting people parted to let them through.
The attendants and guards went to their knees in salute to the arriving Inquisitor. They only rose once Avraham stopped at the security kiosk. They were quickly buzzed through, although all of them, including Avraham, had to submit their HPCs for identity verification.
The four of them were alone in the circular elevator. Its outer walls were made of thick glass set in a metal frame, offering a perfect view of the world. The elevator would slide up a huge tube, reaching into space. The tube housed the massive cables that tethered the orbital stations to the planet.
Luna felt slightly heavy as the elevator began to move, but the sensation quickly faded. It felt unusually ordinary. She had been up these elevators once before, yet she still could not shake how normal the experience of climbing so high into the sky felt.
She could see the giant white castle, the living heart of the Whiterock's slice of the empire, with its magnificent spires and monumental buildings. It truly was a city in itself. Soon, everything began to flatten, and the planet's curvature became visible.
Clouds hid her view for about fifteen to twenty minutes, the glass matted with rain. When they finally cleared the planet's stratosphere and started their ascent toward the lowest orbital stations, the vastness of space stretched before Luna. It was both terrifying and mesmerizing.
Even more impressive was the scale of the orbital structures around the Whiterock capital world. Huge stations, enormous defense cannons, and their connecting arrays almost formed a dome over the planet. The sheer scope of it all was daunting.
Even more surprising was that many of the weapons circling their planet were over five hundred years old, remnants from the last major war. Luna shuddered to think of the kind of enemy that could have reached even the heart of Whiterock-ruled space to threaten their capital world.
A warning chimed, urging passengers to secure themselves to the railings as the elevator began its orbital coupling phase.
Finally, the glass view disappeared as the cabin entered a sealed metal tunnel, the last buffer between them and the vacuum of space. Delivering them to their final stop in just under two hours: the Orbital Station.
'No turning back,' Luna thought. The silence was deafening, and she could almost make out her wildly beating heart.