TO SEE THE STARS

To See the Stars

The felites were slaves. They had always been slaves. They always would be slaves. Everybody knew the felites were too stupid to ascend higher in rank than servus[1]. Even the felites themselves were painfully aware of their handicap. And if one of them should happen to forget... well, they could be reminded.

Ari sat in the corner trying not to be noticed. If another felite found her, even one of her amici, her friends, they would take the food she had worked so hard to steal. But if an ekkus found her, it would be worse. Any ekki who found her would have the privilege of punishing her however they saw fit. There was no way she’d get to keep the stolen snack then. She would have to hurry.

Decent food was hard to find, harder to get. All but the worst food was given to the ekki. And the felites, well, they got what was left. Malus cibus. Bad food.

Ari was unusually stupid. She was so stupid that every time she tried to tell the others how they could steal good food, or how they could sneak off to rest, or how they could get their dominus[2] to treat them more kindly, they just looked at her like they had no idea what she was talking about. If all the others thought she knew nothing, who was she to argue?

Her intelligence, actually, convinced the Equui to allow her to go on stealing food. Better, they thought, that she waste her animum[3] on where her next meal was coming from than on how she could lead a revolution.

You didn’t have to be smart as an Equus to figure out that the felites had the numeri[4] to lead an effective rebellion. Ari wasn’t smart as an Equus, and with fortuna[5], she would never be smart enough to lead a rebellion, either.

The day came, though, when she cautiously approached her dominum. “Master,” she began, “why is it that my socii[6] do not rise against yours? I ask my friends and they only laugh and tell me to stop thinking or my head will explode. But we are superior in strength and in numbers, and surely none of us enjoys being a slave, so why don’t the felites ever do anything?”

“Because, slave, your people are too stupid. You don’t know what rebellion is, much less how to raise one. Now be content in your labore[7] like all your miserable friends or I will take you to the System.”

Ari knew she shouldn’t have spoken so boldly to her master, and by the same token, she knew she was extremely fortunate to have gotten off with just a warning. The domini did encourage their slaves to tell them when they had ‘unusual thoughts,’ and if Ari herself hadn’t asked her master, probably someone else would have. Ari kept telling them things ‘that just didn’t make sense.’ She shrugged off her worries and left to scrounge some decent food.

That night Ari was awakened by a rough voice. An ekkus picked her up by the scruff and shook her violently. When he knew she was awake he clipped her leash and hauled her out of the small room she shared with eight other felite puellis[8].

She was loaded into a cart without being told where it would be taking her. It was night, and through the open-top carrum[9] she could see the stars. Ari had heard stories, gossip really, about how beautiful the stars were, but she’d never seen them herself, having spent every night of her life before this one locked in her cell with other slaves.

The rumors didn’t lie. The forma[10] of seemingly random specks of light on the blackness of night was a view of unsurpassed beauty. At that moment, Ari realized, all she wanted was for her sociis to be able to see these stars. She felt a ray of hope for the first time ever, that if the felites could just see this vision, they would understand and follow her to their freedom. She just wanted her people to see the stars!

The cart came to a rough halt. The ekkus that had pushed her onto the carrus now dragged her off, and then handed her leash over to another. She was lugged into a building and through many hallways that seemed to only lead to more hallways, getting handed off to different ekki along the way.

Finally she was led into a round room and told to manere. Stay put. She waited a long time. Multae horae[11]. Twice she started to sit down on the floor but both times the guard standing at the exit told her to stand still. Suddenly she opened her eyes and there was another ekkus in the room with her. Guessing she had fallen asleep standing up, she tried to remember having done so.

“Ari.” The vox[12] snapped her to attention. All ekki voices were strong and commanding. This one’s was downright frighteningly so. He was nothing spectacular to look at, about average for an ekkus in build and looks. But as he stood there, directly in front of her, he had a definite presence about him, like he knew everything and owned the world. If this was the System, as Ari guessed, he almost did.

“Ari.” He repeated her nomen[13], tasting it. Ari liked the sound of her name on his lips—it was almost beautiful when he said it. And for a felite to have a pretty name was unheard of.

“Some things you said earlier to your master were brought to my attention.” A surge of intense emotion ran through her body when she heard this. But instead of being the healthy fear that she had felt earlier, it was now a happy surprise that he should be so interested in her as to hear about such a petty thing as a conversation with her master.

He ran a hand over the elaborate hilt of his gladi[14] and continued. “Now. I’m sure you know why the felites are under the cura[15] and protection of the Equestrian Class.” Equestrian Class. Yes, that rolled off the tongue more easily than the harsh sound ‘ekki’. A much nicer name to describe this much nicer ekk-ka-questrian. Equestrian. Everything about him seemed regal: his upright posture, his intense piercing eyes, his elegant sword, so lightly placed in its scabbard.

“Now you’re an intelligent girl,” her heart beat faster with the sound of it, “and I’m sure that you understand that if your people were to ever try to strike out on their own, millions of lives would be lost.” I just want them to see the stars, she thought vaguely before nodding under his hypnotic gaze.

“So I am going to offer you your freedom, tuum praemium donabit tibi tuam libertatem[16], in exchange that you abandon these foolish notions.” What foolish notions? and her mind was filled with a vision of being free. Ero libera[17]! Decent food, no more leashes, whips, or masters, being able to see the stars every night if she wanted to, maybe this good Equestrian would even take her into his family...

“All the freedom you could ever need.” Ari gazed lovingly into his eyes. So she did not see when, all in the same fluid motion, he laid his hand on his ready gladeo, stepped forward and sliced her in half with the momentum of the draw.

Felites sunt servi. Semper erant servi. Semper erunt…[18]

[16] tuum praemium donabit tibi tuam libertatem- as your reward I give to you your fredom

[18] Felites sunt servi. Semper erant servi. Semper erunt- Felites they are slaves. Always they were slaves. Always they would be