—

Blithe was busy in the next few weeks, studying and memorizing the map of the known universe, practicing her power and formulating plans.

She had to cram it all in before she started on the next job her father was assigning her to.

Deep in the abandoned garden she discovered back then, she created two tiny black holes. She adjusted the pull of the gravity and pushed a cockroach she found into it.

When it appeared in the other black hole, it was already dead.

“Urgh…” she covered her face in frustration.

“Are you sure you want me alive, Your Highness?”

CLINK.

She turned to look at Nikos approaching her from behind.

This abandoned villa and garden has been their meeting place ever since he agreed to be her accomplice. No servant and henchman has dared to step in deeper because of the Dark Emperor's order to stay away.

Of course, Blithe placed precautions should someone decide to venture in, laying out traps — sound proof stones, motion-sensor warp stones, etc.

And for Nikos to come and go as he pleased, she provided (smuggled) him warp stones, the ones that they only get to bring a set amount on their jobs.

“It's… not going well as I thought it would,” Blithe sighed as she turned to look at the dead cockroach in front of her.

“I can see that…” Nikos looked at the array of dead insects scattered on the ground.

“I can already control how much it pulls outside, I just can't understand how it can't survive inside!” Blithe whined as she clutched her head in frustration.

Nikos looked at her and pursed his lips. “Yep, just like a kid.”

Nikos has observed Blithe for the past few weeks. Although, there was maturity behind her thoughts, words and actions, there was an air of child-like naivety in her reactions and emotions.

It was as if all the emotions she didn't show in all the millenium that she was alive were all pent up.

“Maybe, take a break first,” Nikos shrugged. “Take your mind off of it for a while. Maybe you can suddenly get an epiphany that way.”

Blithe wordlessly walked towards the stone benches and plopped down, dejected.

Nikos followed and sat beside her.

She hunched her back and covered her nose and mouth with both hands as her elbows leaned on her knees.

“I need to be able to get this… The next time we're venturing out to the other star systems is fast approaching and if I can't do this—”

“Hey, one step at a time. For now, take your mind off of that. It's frying your brain. Maybe that's why you can't think of a solution to your problem,” Nikos interrupted her train of thought.

He crossed his arms. “This must be a centuries worth of anxiety.”

The two fell in silence.

“So, what do normal people usually talk about?” Blithe started.

Nikos looked up as if in thought and sighed.

“I don't know, I’m not exactly normal, Your Highness,” he said.

Blithe looked straight ahead. “I guess that's a common ground.”

He chuckled.

“I talk to my group whenever there's an opportunity,” he said.

Blithe hummed in acknowledgment.

The group that goes against the Dark Emperor’s orders, secretly helping out victims. With Nikos and some of her henchman's actions, she had already surmised that there were such people that existed within the Dark Empire.

“But we can't talk much. We're always surrounded by other henchmen and we're always on different assignments that it's hard to keep a conversation around. After all, we're scattered to serve other high-ranking officials. Every interaction is a risk,” he continued and then sighed.

Blithe nodded. It's the same reason she had him keep their meetings and plans a secret from his comrades.

First, the less people know, the better. Second, the group finding out that the daughter of the Dark Emperor is providing help might cause rifts, doubts and anger among them.

They might think that she has ulterior motives. Nikos, someone who was gentle-mannered, was already wary of her the first time she called him out. She imagined the possibility of the already fragmented and small group dividing if they ever found out such an unworthy person like her helping them. Or worse, they might even think Nikos is selling them out. She couldn't risk the fall out.

Nikos exhaled through his nose amidst Blithe's thoughts, as if preparing to tell her something heavy.

“Recently, one of us was caught.”

Blithe blinked before looking at him.

“She was one of Rial’s henchmen. Got caught warning Luminars of a star cluster of his plans. The other henchmen who is a part of our group couldn't defend her and had to act against her. They had to let Rial think it was an isolated case of suddenly growing a conscience. Otherwise it would risk exposing the other members,” Nikos said with a somber tone.

Blithe thought about how the others felt when they saw a fellow member get caught. It must've hurt to have to pretend that they hated that person.

“What happened after?” she asked.

“She was executed on the spot, as per orders of the Dark Emperor should one traitor be caught in the act with many witnesses. Rial was the one that gave the command to execute and then… gone,” Nikos' shoulders slightly hunched.

Blithe knows that order. It's just that she didn’t care back then. Now, she shudders at the thought of that life lost.

“My father’s dumb,” of all the colorful words insulting her father popping into her mind, she settled on that one.

Nikos laughed at her childish insult. “Hey, it's your father's orders. You calling your pops dumb?”

She thought of the brutal order, ‘execute the traitor once caught red-handed’. Logically, if they caught a traitor, they should keep them alive and interrogate them. But the Dark Emperor was so egotistical and easily angered that he strikes down anyone who doesn't follow him.

She, too, knew that he would not hesitate to cut her down once he discovers what she has been doing behind his back.

Though, she supposed she's thankful that he’s so full of himself that Nikos’s group has survived so long. But the exchange was the group had to act very well to feign devotion to him, so that they couldn't be found out.

“He’s not just dumb. He’s an egotistical, hot-tempered bastard,” Blithe decided to settle on a cruder description.

Nikos choked on his saliva, laughing again. “Whoa, hey, language, haha!”

“I learned it from him,” Blithe said while recalling her dream and all the other times he cursed in front of her.

“Well, I hope you don't learn to be power-hungry like him,” he laughed but his smile froze the second he realized that he might have offended her.

“Uh, sorry, I didn't mean that yo—”

“It's alright. I know what you mean,” Blithe reassured him, but she was visibly upset.

The two fell into silence again.

“Nikos.”

“Yeah?” he answered.

“Do you ever wonder why despite my father being full of bloodlust—despite him saying all the time that he wished he could've seen the destruction we did—he never once tried to accompany me or the other officials and venture out to the star clusters himself?” Blithe asked as she looked straight ahead.

Nikos looked at her. “What are you thinking?”

“... He’s afraid — afraid of something out there that he chooses to stay within the empire to preserve himself,” Blithe said with certainty.

Ever since she asked that question to the Dark Emperor, she's been mulling it over.

“I’m a scapegoat. A tool,” she continued.

Nikos looked at her with sympathy.

“He’s afraid of the Light King,” Blithe concluded. “And the coward that he is, just sits on his throne while we do his dirty work,” Blithe closed her hands tightly.

“Huh,” Nikos pondered. “I have heard that the two have been at war for millions of years already and the Dark Emperor hates him to the core. But I wasn't alive at the time it started so I don't know much.”

Blithe nodded and took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking of… a plan. What if I surrendered to the Light King and ask for his help?”

Nikos snapped his head towards her.

“Hey, you're kidding me, right? Like the stories say, the Dark Emperor hates him to the core, and the Light King probably shares the same sentiment. If you, his daughter that followed his orders of destruction, suddenly approaches him, what do you think he's going to do?” he let out a passionate rant in an attempt to dissuade Blithe from including this in one of her plans.

“Plus, back when I still wasn't under your command, I’ve seen Light Soldiers. They attack dark matter like us on sight. It's too risky,” he added.

“It's just an option…” Blithe whispered like a scolded child.

Nikos sighed in defeat and softened his voice as if to coax her. “Okay then, let's just… put that aside for when we run out of other options.”

She took a deep breath.

“So, do we just… do what you and your group have been doing? Until the end of our lives?” she asked, hopelessness and melancholy in her voice.

Nikos looked at her frustrated face.

To be honest, he has thought of venturing out to the Light King’s territory — to escape and live there instead. To leave the Dark Empire for good. Use that one-way warp stone and never return.

But seeing how the Light Soldiers looked at them with hatred, contempt and disgust, he understood. He wasn't worthy to dream of such a life after all the things he has done.

He knew how utterly despicable his past actions were. How can he live and be accepted among them?

And so, fear and self-hate gripped him and he threw that idea away. He deserved to stay in the Dark Empire and just do what he can to help until the day he dies.

But that was him. He wondered if he was imposing his own feelings on Blithe. Maybe, there could be a chance that everything will turn out fine if she did it.

Blithe fidgeted her fingers and sighed. “I mean… It's only a fleeting thought. I guess we really don't have any choice but to just stay where we are…”

Nikos bit his lips.

“Just… place it aside for now. Don't throw the idea away. We’ll… Figure it out in the future.”

She nodded and the two of them fell silent again.

After a while, Blithe sighed.

“Alright… This is enough break. I’ll go back to working on the insects,” she stood up and walked towards the area she was working on earlier.

Nikos was surprised at his thoughts.

“In the future…” he repeated in his mind.

It's the first time he ever considered himself having a future. He had long abandoned the thought of it and just lived at the moment.

He looked at Blithe, creating two black holes again, and shoving a poor insect she picked up nearby in one of them.

He chuckled at another failed attempt. He looked up at the dark sky and imagined being under a bright sky.

Maybe, Blithe was the hope they were looking for all this time.