The Tower’s top floors housed the Imperial Palace, but in its massive area, only the Queen lived all by herself.
The grand hall had a tall do with rows of greenish gemstone pillars, each decorated with detailed wall art that showcased deep creativity.
In the big, quiet hall, seeing the Queen on her throne made her seem all the more lonely and distant.
She delicately used her pale fingers to move a white chess piece, setting it on the board’s black space. The clear sound of the piece touching down echoed, filling the massive hall.
Luther got down on one knee before the Queen, filling her in on the latest big events in the Empire, "There are so super-strong mutants near Imperial Nexus. They’ve hurt a lot of our people. We’ve sent out a special team, to take care of it. But you shouldn’t be worried, Your Majesty. There were so changes in the Polluted Zone, making the creatures inside more aggressive. But we just got a huge supply of weapons. We’ve got loads of gear and bullets and are totally ready, so you shouldn’t be too worried."
With every update, he kept saying things to calm her down, afraid the news might upset his much-respected queen.
The queen in front of him had her face hidden behind a white veil, and she was moving chess pieces around, lost in thought.
"Our soldiers got new, super-strong weapons and have started a big fight in the Polluted Zone. Just a few days ago, the alphas crushed another small Polluted Zone. I thought you’d find that reassuring, Your Majesty," Luther said, his face lighting up with pride.
But then, he noticed the Queen was super into her chess ga, like she wasn’t listening at all.
Softly, the Queen asked, "What’s Kestrel been doing lately? Has she been to the Polluted Zone again?"
Luther hesitated, "Kestrel’s been to many Polluted Zones lately. Like you told to, I always send so alphas with her."
Kestrel has been going in and out of the Polluted Zone a lot. One reason is to get better at teaming up with alphas in battles. But also, she’s been sneaky about her real goal in Mantidale.
Whenever she asked Luther if she could go, he’d team her up with the best alphas.
"She’s been to many places?" The Queen’s fingers drumd softly on the chessboard.
Luther thought it was strange. Lately, the Queen seed really curious about everything Kestrel did. In all his years serving the Queen, he hadn’t seen her be so interested in soone.
He thought to himself, "If the Queen’s so worried about Kestrel, why not keep her near? I an, the Polluted Zone is scary and sending guards doesn’t make it safe."
He felt that the Queen wanted Kestrel to explore more, even teaching Kestrel herself. It wasn’t like how the Empire usually looked after betas.
"Do the alphas like her?"
The question floated from the throne.
"Yes, Your Majesty, they quite like her," Luther answered. "Actually, so of them even compete for the chance to go on missions with her."
But it wasn’t a typical affection or like they were trying to impress her. Ever since stories about their adventures in battle spread, it was clear the alphas genuinely wanted to be beside Kestrel in action.
They all talked about how having a beta in battle was almost magical. With a beta around, there was no fear of unexpected psychic eruptions; the alphas could go all out. They could sense how their teammates were doing without needing words, thanks to the psychic link that was faster than any gadget. Betas had this cool ability to ss with the enemy’s moves and even make them feel less pain...
Simply put, every alpha who had tead up with Kestrel said it was aweso and they all wanted a turn.
Luther often thought about suggesting to the Queen that maybe they should train the other betas, given that Kestrel wasn’t the only one. It seed such a sha to have betas, who were really good in fights, just stuck in the Tower doing easy stuff like flower arranging or making tea.
But, for so reason he couldn’t figure out, Luther kept avoiding bringing this up to the Queen. Whenever he thought about it, this weird fear would creep up, making him feel as if he’d already tried talking about it and got a super scary reaction.
"The alphas really seem to like her." The Queen, with her veil hiding her face, set her chess piece down and turned to Luther.
"And what about you, Luther? Do you care for ?"
Luther felt like he was caught in a spell and he shivered a bit. "Of course, I’ve always held you in the highest regard, Your Majesty."
He definitely had strong feelings for the Queen. Everyone in the kingdom knew how much he looked up to her.
"Promise you’ll always be loyal and never go against ," the Queen said with a cold edge to her voice.
"I swear, I’ll always be on your side, Your Majesty," Luther replied, a bit out of it.
"I’ve been hearing about a guy you work with nad Brandon. I haven’t t him. I’d like to," the Queen ntioned, sounding almost bored.
Luther felt like his thoughts were foggy, and it was tough to think straight. Only a tiny sharp pain from a scar near his eye helped him push back against her demand a bit.
"Your Majesty, Brandon’s not really that interesting. He’s shy and kind of plain. It might be better if he didn’t..." he trailed off.
Chilly fingers suddenly held his chin, making him look up. Luther found himself staring into the eyes of soone sitting high on the throne, and he felt trapped by that intense gaze.
Caught off guard, he stamred, saying, "Yes, of course, I’ll bring him right away, Your Majesty."
...
Elsewhere, in the Polluted Zone, Kestrel caught sight of Ren.
Lately, she had been super busy, traveling to many different parts of the Polluted Zone. Because of this, she hadn’t hung out with Ren in a while, and the alphas who were with her kept changing.
But the mont she saw Ren, she suddenly rembered him being called her "exclusive alpha."
This was her first visit to Polluted Zone 35.
But she had a strong mory of this place from a long ti ago. She rembered a really sad vision she saw in Ren’s psychic world while they were on the playground of the Military Administration. In that vision, she saw young people tragically losing their lives here, in Polluted Zone 35.
That mory was so powerful and sad that she really didn’t want to co to Zone 35. It took her ages to decide to co.
Seeing Ren here was a total surprise. Just before they t, Kestrel and her group had just finished a tough fight.
Olivia’s psychic power grew super strong, and a giant panda appeared. The huge panda rolled down from a height, crushing the mutants that surrounded them.
Everyone quickly followed, trying to escape the danger.
"What the heck? It’s like every mutant here has gone crazy!" one of the alphas with Kestrel said. He was brushing off so sticky stuff from his clothes and looked worried. "Since when did Zone 35 get so scary?"
Each Polluted Zone was different. So of the older ones were kinda safe since alphas knew them well. They had rules like not going too deep at night, and if alphas followed these, they could safely explore and find a way out.
In their heads, Zone 35 was supposed to be one of the safer places. That was why Kestrel’s team picked it for training.
But this ti, for so weird reason, heaps of mutants suddenly went wild, teaming up and chasing them for a long way.
If Kestrel’s group didn’t have such good team skills and the help of a beta, they might not have gotten away from the fight so quickly.
Running away, they accidentally went super deep into the Polluted Zone. They saw another group of alphas in the distance. Those alphas were working together to attack a massive mutant in the middle of the Zone.
That giant mutant was the Backbone, the heart of Polluted Zone 35. The team was trying to take it down, aiming to wipe out the core of this place.
In the middle of all that chaos, Kestrel’s eyes found Ren.
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