Ludo’s eyes shoot open as he gasps for air like a beached whale, tumbling out of his bed violently and slamming his head on the ground with a thwack. He shakily gets to his knees and rubs his head, which throbbed and pulsed as it never had before, creasing his brow and dizzying his eyes. He grasps at his neck for his pendant which he finds and grips tightly, nearly crushing it with his unrelenting tenseness. 

As he relays his breaths over and over, his cellmate peers at him over the cover of his book trembling, slowly dissolving into the head of his bed. 

“A-are you okay?” he asks.

Ludo’s grip on his necklace softens as he looks up at his cellmate. 

“Y-yeah,” he reassures, choking on his tongue. “I’m fine.”

The cellmate scooches a little bit forward, leaning on the edge of his mattress with his lanky knees up to his sharp chin.

“You scared the heck out of me,” he sighs, “What was it like?”

Ludo slowly rises to his feet, head still in hand and spinning as if he’d twirled around like a figure skater. 

“What was what like?”

“Being encased in ice. You looked… dead…”

The realization of what had happened sunk deep into his skin. Ludo remembered the chills as he slowly faded out of consciousness, the cold embrace of death that he had never felt before, a feeling he could never have felt normally. The chilling of a borman’s lifestone was most unusual, since they’re stone is usually protected by their clay-like skin which traps the warmth it emanates. Trying to freeze it is like a light snowfall trying to penetrate an underground bunker, or radiation trying to pierce a hazmat suit. 

Looking down at his hands, Ludo’s palms shiver and he once again grabs at the pendant he wore, searching for a way to stop his fear. As he tries to clear his mind, the gilded beetle begins to glow in his hands, its light pulsing brightly. As it grew and diminished in rhythmic heartbeat-like thumpings, the floor below them began to shift and morph, changing weight and color until the light stopped and what was left was a large, green book that sat in the middle of the room.

“What the hell…” Ludo peers down at his pendant, which peered back up at him innocently.

“That's…” the cellmate starts, pointing at it. “The same light that appeared when you froze over…”

Ludo looks up at him. He still stares down at the regular-looking book, eyes darting at all its plainess and color similar to his own complexion. Ludo slowly lifts the thin book from the floor, and as he looks at the cover characters from a language he couldn’t read spread out on it, almost as if they were being written as he examined it. 

“Can you read this?” Ludo asks, handing the book to his cellmate.

The cellmate stretches out his shaky hand, nearly dropping it as he takes it from his hand. His face deepens as he reads the scribbles on the cover, sinking his eyes and making his concave nose twitch in and out slightly.

“I-it’s… my name…” He slowly opens it, pouring over the pristine white pages with his hollowed eyes. “My… old name…”

Ludo’s brow raises. He had only had his room mate for little more than a week, and he had never once asked for his name, nor had he introduced himself. 

“Rezuk… Zunzak…” he whispers. 

“Rezuk Zunzak?” Ludo repeats.

Rezuk slams the book shut and throws it to the toilet that sat in the corner of the room, causing it to clink loudly against the porcelain. He retreats back to the warmth of his sheets and covers his chest with the other book he had been reading prior. The green book began to dissipate into wisps of dust and sand that piled onto the floor.

“H-how did you do that?” He frets.

Ludo stares cautiously at Rezuk, then back down at his pendant. The gilded beetle stares back, its eyes full of life. Ludo clutches it tighter.

“I don’t know…”

“Liar,” Rezuk accuses, “You must be able to copy me or something.”

Ludo raises his eyebrow. “Copy you?”

“Yeah, like Iggy could.”

Ludo squints at him. “What are you talking about?”

“That was a real mean thing to do, Ludo. Real mean.”

Ludo’s bulb brightens and he points his finger at him. “How do you know my name? Guards only communicate using our numbers.”

Rezuk freezes, jaw open mid sentence. He quickly puts his hand to his mouth and closes his lips, rubbing the indent in his face and sweating bullets. 

“Rezuk…” Ludo quietly grumbles.

His nose begins to puff out and slightly resemble two inflamed cuts on his face. Carefully biting his lip and nails, he darts his head back and forth.

Ludo began to repeat but Rezuk stopped him. “Okay fine.” 

He takes a deep breath and slowly hands the book in his hands towards Ludo. As he inspected it, he noticed plenty of little oddities about it that- would he have seen them before- would have been a dead giveaway that Rezuk was an unusual sort.

The cover of the book was at a glance none too extraordinary, simply a red leather binding with gold leafed words plastered on the cover. However, around the border of the cover was a shiny copper wire used as stitching. From the profile the pages also appeared to be half water damaged and half perfectly dry, alternating between the two almost entirely at random. The book was also incredibly large, nearly 5 inches thick, and yet even more curious, a new page appeared to have been added into the book as he had been examining it- and then another.

“How did you get this?” Ludo asks. Flipping it to the back, a fresh sheet of white paper condenses, unfurling like a scroll from the top of the page down. Words began to be written on it in borish, inked with an invisible pen that Ludo could feel by hovering over the pages, but could not stop no matter how much he tried to grasp at the air.

“I… I made it…” Rezuk answers. 

Ludo stares at him. “You made this?”

He nods.

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

Ludo squints at him and begins to read the new pages.

As Ludo sat staring at Rezuk, he felt an unimaginable confusion at his ability. Was this a Shine ability that he was unaware of, or perhaps something more sinister? Peering into the book he began to examine the words on the page. It read, "As Ludo sat-"

“What the hell?!” Ludo exclaims, “What is this?”

Rezuk sniffed and pushed his nose back into place. “It’s your makma.”

“My what?”

“My old caretaker always told me that your makma is known as the storybook of your life. The unseen book that the gods write that shape you into the person you are now.”

Ludo stares at him cautiously but nods his head. “Then how did you get mine?”

“I told you, I don’t know.”

“You’re clearly lying.”

“How so?”

“You mentioned me being able to copy you, if I was somehow able to create your makma- or whatever that book was. That means you’re at least somewhat aware of how you spawn these things.”

Rezuk sighs, “All I know is that it's something I can do. My old caretaker said it was my god given ability, but I have no idea how I do it. They just… appear.”

Ludo’s brow shoots up and he closes the book slowly before handing it back to him. “How long have you been able to do it?”

Rezuk ponders, “Um… I think since I was 5.”

Ludo chuckles.

“What's so funny?”

“Oh, nothing, I just can’t believe this. You’re naturally gifted with your Shine and don’t even know it.”

“Shine? Your makma mentioned something about that…” 

Ludo sighs, “Don’t worry about the details. Just know its something extremely important and hard to control effectively.” He looks down at his pendant, rubbing a small speck of dust from its glowing eyes. “Trust me, I know.”

Rezuk looks down at the book and down at his feet. “You’re not mad at me?”

Ludo raises his brow. “Mad for what?”

“Peering into your private life.”

“Oh that’s right, you’ve read it,” Ludo remembers, “Nah. As long as you keep those things private it doesn’t matter to me.”

Rezuk sighs and relaxes against the wall. Ludo leans back as well, folding his arms comfortably.

Tension lifts off of both of their shoulders like weights off of a barbell. Their chilled breaths fill the room with an air of calm that neither of them had felt for what seems like years. The smoothness of the air pressing against their faces and molding them softer and kinder than before.

“Would you mind if I tell you my thoughts?” Rezuk asks.

“About what?”

“About your situation.”

Ludo squints slightly. “...Sure.”

Rezuk sits back up. “From what I read, it seems that you need to take the deal.”

“Deal?” Ludo quizzes, “You mean the deal that blue jacketed bum was peddling?”

Rezuk’s lip tenses up slightly. “Cairo’s deal seems to be the best thing for you right now.”

“Howya figure?”

“Well…” Rezuk bits his lip and rubs his chin, attempting to quell his anxieties. He looks over at Ludo as if to ask for some forgiveness. “If Meilin thinks its best for you to take it-”

Ludo shoots up and quickly points at him. Rezuk can nearly see the nonexistent veins popping out of his head. “Watch your words here bud,” he warns. 

Rezuk gulps, “Well… if Meilin gave you her blessing, it seems like she’s willing to forgive you if you at least try.”

Ludo snarls, “What do you know about blessings?”

“I went to school on Bor. I’ve lived with Bormen nearly my entire life.”

“Really?” Ludo scoffs, “What family?”

“The E~T’s, Eckart and Esmalt.”

Ludo’s eyes shoot open and he slowly lowers his finger. “No way.”

“It’s true. Me and my brother were raised by them.”

“Ain’t no way. What kind of favors did they owe your old parents? There’s no way they would have just taken in kelkish kids out of the goodness of their hearts.”

Rezuk stares at him. “Why, you know them?”

“You should know if you read the book, they were my employers.”

Rezuk’s eyes light up. “Oh are you that Ludo?!”

Ludo’s face scrunches up. “What do you mean that Ludo? There should only be one living me.”

“I read peoples’ makmas for fun, like normal books. That includes my parents and my brothers. It mentioned a Ludo quite a bit, along with a Kae and Tujo.”

Ludo leans back, eyes sinking into his head and newfound sweat dripping down his head. Rezuk tilts his head at Ludo before straightening it back and holding his lips.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

“No…” Ludo hangs his head to hit feet and releases the last of his breath. “It’s fine.” His tone was mellow, hanging even lower than his head, coming deep from the bottom of his lifestone. Rezuk curls up his knees to his chest and rocks slightly back and forth. 

“You’re right,” Ludo admits. Rezuk looks up at him. “I need to get out of here. Maybe Cairo is the best way to do that.”

Rezuk sighs, “Good.”

.

.

.

Ludo leans back up and sits on the edge of his bed. 

“Say,” He starts, “Why are you in prison anyway? The E~T’s didn’t rope you into any of their business, did they?”

Rezuk shakes his head.

“You seem like a well mannered kid. What happened?”

“Well… ran a SkyView channel where I got the scoop from whistleblowers,” Rezuc tells, “And one day I posted something that caught the attention of the United Front. Some real bad attention.”

Ludo raises his eyebrow. “What could it have been?”

“I found out they were running an underground slave ring in cahoots with the Warcraters on Coppertank.”

“Wait, slaves? Like trafficking?”

“Yeah. They would sell their prisoners of war to the Warcraters for munitions and special military training. Apparently they are one of the species that still has a huge stockpile of weapons from the War in the Stars all those centuries ago. United Front found out my identity and stuck a terrorism charge on me and I was too poor to fight it..”

“War in the Stars…” Ludo thinks, “That sounds familiar.”

Rezuk scoffs, “It should, it’s only the biggest conflict in history. It’s the whole reason the Worlds’ Coalition and the Planet-Hopping system was made.”

“...There it is again…” Ludo wonders.

Rezuk stares at him. “What's there again?”

“That title. A Planet-Hopper. What is that?”

Rezuk’s jaw collapses. “You must be kidding.”

“No, completely honest.”

Rezuk facepalms, which pops his nose out again, which he lightly pushes back in. “How can you not? It’s all everyone talks about nowadays. They’re celebrities!”

“I don’t keep up with the news.”

“Well you must know about the biggest ones like Mama Dirigible and Cobra King?”

“Nope.”

“What about old ones like Diamante Diaz or BolBolahm Jungolet?”

“Dude, when I say I don’t know I mean it.”

He slowly picks up his jaw and locks it back into place, turning the gears in his brain.

“Why don’t you just tell me what it is? Start from the top.”

Rezuk rubs his chin, twiddling the itsy peachy hairs that lay atop his young green face.

“Well,” he starts, “A Planet-Hopper is like a politician-”

Ludo gags on reflex. Rezuk chuckles.

“Heh, yeah they can be like that. But usually they’re more so trying to help people, get in their good standings to become the Cosmic Emperor.”

“So exactly like a politician.” Ludo sticks his tongue out.

“On a fundamental level, yeah. But in practice it’s a whole lot more beneficial for everyone else. When someone registers to be a Planet-Hopper, people can start paying money to boost their bounty, basically their public standing. By helping people in the community they can have them help boost their rating in the run to become the Cosmic Emperor. 

“The big issue with that system as it stands is that the PH’s can boost their own ratings with their own money, so a super rich person that wants to become the Emperor is at an inherent advantage compared to the little guy. However, that’s where the bounty comes in, because as the name suggests it is still a bounty. If you capture a PH and hand them over to the Coalition you can claim their bounty in credits, so people make jobs out of capturing out of line PH’s- known as bounty hunters. It’s a really neat system that helps push the strong to the top and nearly guarantees that the next emperor will be, at the very least, a good leader.”

Ludo nodded vigorously throughout the conversation, absorbing the information as a sponge does water through his skin. 

“That helps a lot, thank you.”

His eyes light up and his pops up on his feet. “No problem,” Rezuk jabbers, “I honestly really admire them, I really wanted to be one myself for a long time to try and help my old family.”

Ludo raises his brow. “Old family?”

Rezuk’s eyes fade back, slumping back down to his bed.

“So when are you leaving?” Rezuk asks.

Ludo cocks his head. “Who said I was leaving?”

“Well it seems like Cairo has a plan to break you out if you go with him.”

“Ehh I don’t know. A prison break seems pretty risky with just a few guys. Don’t think it’ll happen.”

“Well, in case you do leave…” Rezuk reaches under his pillow and pulls out a small doll, body made out of a paper cup with a head of a folded piece of paper. The limbs are attached via toothpicks and they themselves are made of the handles of cafeteria sporks. Ludo takes it as Rezuk hands it to him, examining its cutesy face, drawn on with pen and fiddling with its loose limbs.

“What’s this for?” He asks. 

“My caretakers always told me to give a memento to any new friend I meet.”

Ludo pauses and gently stares at him. “A new friend?”

Rezuk only smiles. Ludo breaks his eternal frown, lips curling up to his dimples. 

“Thanks.”