Soaring in the azure sky amongst the migrating grey geese. The strong winds caressed her wings as she looked down at the flowing, curving rivers. Green, thick forests stretched as far as the eye could see until she could see the grasslands in the distance.
Her friend was standing in the flat grass fields, waving her hand, signaling for her to come down.
Matiligax stopped the bird lusian.
"So you are saying that the lusians live in another country that is unknown to the rest of the continent?"
"I don't know. We don't know any borders nor the names of the countries outside of our lands. We simply do not trespass a certain area."
"A protective lox zone?" Matiligax wondered and asked his assistant if it was possible that a lox zone could be set up to conceal its existence from the world.
The answer he received was one that he had already expected. The way the lusian explained it, it seemed like their lands were massive, and expanding such a lox field over such an area would most likely consume loxes at an unsustainably high rate.
"But let's say that a lox field was somehow set up, then that begs the question, how were these three captured if the protective barrier was already in place?"
"The most probable explanation would be-"
"The Royal family, I know Salecha."
"Question is how they managed to infiltrate a lox zone and why they captured lusians."
Matiligax stormed off and went back to the main conference room where only some of the old men remained.
Two old men sneered at him as they blew smoke.
With heavy steps Matiligax approached them and inquired about the lusians being captives. They both turned their heads and said they didn't know before taking deep puffs from their cigarettes.
A lox zone was nothing to scoff at. Used during the great aeonic wars, it was an impenetrable barrier that concealed everything within it. It basically closed off the space inside from the rest of the world, making it so no loxes could enter or leave that zone. It was used by the Aeon of Desire during the Aeonic war to ward off a massive attack from the Aeons.
Could it even be a lox zone if someone managed to breach it? Matiligax knew asking the other researchers would be for naught and just went back to his section.
But before leaving, he demanded research documentation of all the experiments that had been conducted so far.
The two men erupted in anger, saying that all research data were strictly confidential and couldn't be distributed.
"Oh? So I'm not a researcher now?" Matiligax playfully strolled towards the men with his hand tucked behind his back.
He stuck his head between them and gave them an eerie warning.
"I wonder what will happen to you if all the resources the royal family provided for us don't produce any results. Oh! How fun wouldn't it be seeing your heads between two wooden planks with a shining bloody edge meters above."
He grabbed their bald heads.
"I think we both know how second-rate all of your research is."
Cigarette ash fell onto the table as silence washed over them. The old man's hand trembled as he fished something out of his jacket. It was an envelope with the list of experiments that had been run so far.
Matiligax read through the paper with disappointment.
"So much wasted resources."
"They are dispensable, those kawlites," one old man muttered bitterly.
"Oh? This is why you were unable to even scratch the top list of research. How utterly disappointing."
He threw the papers onto the table and walked back to his sector. As he made his way through the narrow corridors, sounds of grunting and growling were heard.
His assistant had restrained the tiger lusian onto the table with rope, and he was struggling to break free with bites.
"Quite a feisty one, isn't he," Matiligax scratched his chin before walking up to the uncontrollable cat.
That's when the two lusians still in their cage begged Matiligax not to hurt their friend. Matiligax sucked on his upper lip, pondering what to do with the lusian.
He took out a needle from his bag and injected the lusian in the thigh. Immediately, his body stopped struggling. Matiligax bent over to look at the lusian, who had eyes full of rage but couldn't move a single muscle.
"Salecha, test the lox structures of the lusian and check if they have any affiliations."
"As you wish, Professor."
She took out several empty gray lox stones and asked the girls if they knew what it was. It seemed like the lusians had a basic concept of what loxes were, though the invention of lox stones wasn't really known to them. Which meant they must have been isolated from the world for a few centuries.
Lox stones were invented by Devina Tetolis at the Royal Academy 130 years ago. Matiligax stood up from his seat and walked over to the girls.
"Are you familiar with the Aeons?"
Suddenly their eyes turned rabid. The dog lusian's tail puffed up and some of her fangs started to show.
The bird lusian tried to calm down her friend, but anger was still present in her eyes. In the tale of lusians, it is said that they were born out of the Aeon of Desire's light and the Aeon of Guilt's emotions. After the Aeonic war, where the Aeon of Guilt was sealed away by the other Aeons. From the Lusians' perspective, it must have seemed like their mother and father were cursed by the world. And in the ending of the tales of Lusians, the Aeons fearing the lusians would take revenge on humanity sealed them away in a secluded part of the world. The world was completely destroyed after the Aeonic war and, using the body parts of the Aeon of Guilt, they rebuilt the world. His blood became the oceans, his frame became the earth, his bones became the mountains, and his heart became the foundation of life, the Aeonic Tree.
In the second part of the Lusian tales, it is said that the Aeonic Tree revitalized the world, giving both animals and plants life and power. From the destruction left in Guilt's wake, a seedling made out of his heart was planted into the ruined soil. From it sprouted a tree whose roots spread themselves across the entire globe. It explains their hatred towards the Aeons.
Matiligax then muttered a word that should sound familiar to them.
"Celestia."
The lusian dog's eyes went back to normal and their anger slowly went away. It was like a mother comforting her children, he thought.
The lusians seemed to not consider the Aeon of Desire and Guilt as Aeons, but more as just their parents. Salecha finished running the diagnostics and said that their lox structure was relatively normal and that their affiliation was neutral.
Matiligax continued to ponder. These Lusians don't seem like a combative race, they are docile and cooperative, except for that white tiger. They themselves wouldn't be that useful in war against the Luvian Empire.
But for Matiligax, war and loyalty to the King wasn't the priority. It was the opportunity to learn about a species no one else had come in contact with that was the priority.