Enceladus 4: The Invasion

The first thing I did when I woke up was check my email. I didn’t know why I was eager to hear from Lord Mel. Maybe he put a spell on me. I shook my head but made a note to check the books in the library about Iapetus’ abilities.

I did have an email from him;

Llon Amelia. That means “hello” on my planet. I hope I am not writing you too soon to come off as too eager. But I think we will be fast friends. I shall offer up some information about my people. We call ourselves elves. Mostly because of the pointy ears. (That was a joke). We have several powers. One is teleportation, very fun. Another one is healing which is very practical and will be for the invasion. Hope this finds you well.

-Mel

I smiled. He even came off as sincere in written words. I wrote him back, not giving away too just in case I couldn’t trust him.

“Are you writing Lord Mel?” Talia asked from bed. I had woken her no doubt typing madly on my laptop.

“Sorry, love. Yes, I am writing Mel.”

“Ah, first name basis, huh?” Was that jealousy I heard in her voice? She came up behind me and kissed the top of my head.

“Want to come with me to the library? I want to research the planets that want to invade Earth.”

“Sure, love. Shower?”

I grinned, shut my laptop and followed her to the bathroom.

“It says here that the people of Mimas can control technology,” I read in the library after Talia and I had delicious fun in the shower. “So what, they can stop a microwave?” Talia didn’t know what a microwave was. They didn’t exist on Enceladus. I didn’t bother explaining it.

“I think it means they are able to control electronics. They can make it do what they want. They could possibly even manipulate electricity.”

That didn’t sound good. “It doesn’t say anything about their other powers.”

“I don’t believe that they have any other powers. Not all species are as lucky as us.” I turned to see Dagfinn, Enceladus’ scribe who was over seven hundred years old.

“Dagfinn. Hi.” I shook his hand.

“Hello Princess, Miss Talia. How are we doing this morning?”

“Great. How are you?”

“Oh, to tell you the truth, Princess, I’d say the end is near.”

My eyes widened. “What’s wrong?”

“I am old, darling. Very old.” He laughed and it turned into a cough. “My time on this planet is almost over.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, don’t drown an old dying man in sympathy. It’s not good to his health.” He smiled. “So, the Mimans. One of the planets set to invade Earth, yes?”

Talia answered yes.

“I’ve met a Miman once. He—it—was terrifying. He was all robotic. No shred of flesh or humanity.” He shivered.

I thought back to the SE agent I met back in October. Her name was Enisa, if I remembered correctly. She only had one robotic arm and eye. She wasn’t scary. In fact, I was amazed at the craftsmanship of her arm and had wanted to take a closer look.

“They can be very deadly. When I was a child, Mimas was in the middle of a world war. They practically tore their planet apart.”

“I’ve read them to be pretty brutal. But so are the rest of these planets,” said Talia.

Dagfinn nodded. “I just wanted to tell you girls to be careful. I’m rooting for you.” He walked away. I was sad to hear he was dying. He was a good man.

“Look,” Talia began. “It says the people of Titan don’t actually have any powers! That’s good right?”

“Yeah but they’re nine feet tall.” Sure, they didn’t have abilities but they were tall and brutal as Hell. I supposed our wings would give us some advantage as well as our powers. “Šĉôt.”

“’The residents of Dione possess the ability to create figures, or creatures, with pieces of earth’,” Talia read.

That was similar to what Peidax and his people could do with their tattoos. Only rocks were probably easier to fight. Wisps of ink on the other hand . . .

Talia kept reading. “’If their creatures are destroyed, the Dionian can easily reassemble it’.”

“Great,” I said. This just kept getting better and better. The planets who wanted to invade had us outnumbered, assuming Earth didn’t fight (or couldn’t). The planets were all irrational and ruthless. There was no talking to them. The messages SE got back from them proved that. “March” they had said. One simple word. I really hoped we could save Earth.

“What are you thinking, love?”

I smiled sadly. “Just that I hope we save Earth.”

Talia grabbed my hand. “We will try out hardest.”

“I love you.”

She grinned. Her cheeks darkened. “I love you.”

I leaned across the table and had a flashback. Months ago, Dagfinn had caught Talia and I making out in the library in one of the isles.

Maybe we’d try to get caught again.

I was in the ballroom with Lynx, Alexander and Talia the next day. Lynx had nailed down their invitation. It was beautiful. The border was a gleaming silver. It read;

Vômï bü pônët ebs Alexander Caverly ôrk Lynx Ladus. Ĥæsen 20.

The translation was, “Introducing the joinment of Alexander Caverly and Lynx Ladus. January twenty”. Joinment wasn’t a real English word, of course, but that was closest thing to what our Enceladian word meant.

It was extremely simple for all the fuss Lynx made over it. But the invitation didn’t have to be spectacular, just the wedding, Lynx had told me. Lynx wanted to invite all of Enceladus but the ballroom would only fit about three hundred guests. So, he had to pick and choose. He invited the duke and duchess of each division and their families. But that still only came to thirteen.

“So, what’s next?” I asked Lynx.

“Presents.” Lynx grinned. The presents only came from each other or family members. Guests didn’t give gifts to the marrying couple.

“And rings,” Alexander reminded him.

“Oh, right!”

“Princess Amelia, may I talk to you about something?” Alex asked me. When I nodded, he motioned for me to step outside the room with him.

As we walked out, I heard Lynx tell Talia that he still didn’t know what color suit he wanted.

“I need help with your brother’s present,” Alex confessed. He looked ashamed.

In all truth, I wasn’t totally sure what I was going to get him, let alone what Alexander was going to get him. He had everything he could ever want/need. “Well, what to get the man who has everything? What about something that only you two know about? Or maybe something that reminds him of you.”

I could see the wheels turning in Alexander’s head. “Okay, thanks Princess. I think I know just the thing.”

Before he went back into the ballroom, I called, “Wait. What should I get him?”

He smiled. “Take your own advice.”

Now I was even more at a loss.

I walked back into the ballroom and was suddenly, unexpectedly thrown into a flashback.

“Take her with you, Orion,” Vela said.

“I don’t want to,” he groaned. He was talking about me and I was standing right in the middle of them. “She is such a nuisance.” I was so young that I came up to Orion’s waist and didn’t know the meaning of the word nuisance.

“She needs to learn the ways of being a royal. Take her.” There was no more arguing with my mother.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

We walked upstairs to the ballroom. I was happy to go with my father. I was a child then and thought—assumed—he loved me.

“Now don’t say a word, Amelia.” He spat my name. I didn’t think anything of it.

We walked into the ballroom. “What is it?” Orion asked the four guards and one maid that were in there.

“Your Majesty, this maid was trying to steal silverware.”

Orion’s gaze hardened. “Theft is a crime punishable by death, servant.” He turned his attention on the guard. “You know what to do with her.”

The guard took the maid out of the room. She was screaming and crying. She kept saying, “my family, my family”.

I didn’t do anything. I never did. But as the woman was dragged out, her eyes bore into my soul. I think that was the day I started to change.

“Father, she was just trying to get food for her family,” I told Orion.

He scoffed and bent down to my level. “Why don’t you steal something, little Amelia? Then you’ll know what that ðüa is about to go through.”

I gasped. My “father” was seen in a new light.

“Let’s go.” He shoved me and I fell on my hands and knees. Tears came to my eyes. “Stop crying, môn.”

Then I was transported elsewhere. To my real father.