ANTARES: The Kappa Story - Part I
Cycle: 6227
Location: Avashe, Kappa
PART I
Lagean and Rima sat on two desks by one of the classroom windows. Rima was flipping through her textbook looking for information about Rho while Lagean was batting her eyes Vekal, the most handsome boy in all of the surrounding nine villages. As always he didn’t pay any attention to her.
“Can you believe it? They hardly talk anything worthwhile about Rho. All they talk about is the war!”
“That’s because the war is the only thing you have to know to stay away from those people. Oh my, look! Look he’s combing his hair!” Rima looked to the small gathering of boys. In the center stood Vekal who was indeed combing his hair. At a safe distance away from Vekal and his friends stood a ring of girls all looking just as excited as Lagean.
“Lala, this is stupid. Come to the library with me!”
“You go on ahead Riri, I have to find out if Vekal is coming to the party after the harvest festival.” Rima sighed, picked up her books, and left the classroom on her own. She rolled her eyes at the younger girls who were all crowded by the door also trying to catch a glimpse of Vekal.
The small school library was in he basement and people took to hanging out there on particularly hot days however the room was so poorly lit that hardly anyone used it for reading. The school library was also the only library in town so it was also open to the public but as Rima expected, the library was empty except for the sleeping librarian. She used a candle to scan over the book titles in the international section. Amongst the titles she saw The History of Mu Entertainers, Children of Ocrades: The Untold Stories of the Omicronian Security Force, A Geographical Guide to the World, and finally an old, damp, pale blue book called Rho met Rima’s eyes.
“Are you interested in Rho?” Rima jumped and almost burnt herself.
“Oh, Vekal, you scared me.” He reached across her to pull the book off the shelf.
“You should be careful when reading foreign things. People might start to suspect you.”
“Oh please, what harm could a village girl of sixteen do to anyone?”
“Not much harm at all. But an educated village girl of sixteen could make quite a mark.” Rima looked at him suspiciously as he casually flipped through the pages.
“You’re the son of a fisherman, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m the son of the banker here in town.”
“Well that makes it even worse.”
“Why?” Satisfied that she got his attention, she continued.
“Boys who spend time on boats have time to meditate about the seas. Boys who spend time in banks have too much time to meditate about money.”
“Enough to know that it’s useless.”
“Enough to desire something that’s even more dangerous” Rima responded with just a little bit more attitude than she had intended. Vekal smiled and blew out the candle Rima was holding.
“I think you’ve spent enough time down here. Watch out for people who see you with that book. This may be a small town but everyone most certainly is not your friend, not with Rho resting just beyond.” He bent down closer to whisper. “My father hears things of assassins and spies, all of whom are most certainly not Kappanian.” He left without a word leaving Rima in the darkness.