[Silversnow]

YES!!!
The final chapter! It's done! Take that, story *kicks it*. Nah, just kidding...

How come everything was so familiar?
I didn’t have much of a clue, though I wanted to know. The guards didn’t talk, look at me or each other. After a while, I noticed they didn’t breath either. They were just like the bitch from Gaia’s ’prison’. Robots. Of course, that must have been the best way to get cheap labour. They stopped in front of a rather large door and knocked at it.
”Yes?” a voice from inside answered. I suddenly felt… happy somehow.
”We have the one you asked for, Empress.”
Nothing was heard for a while.
”Just get him in, wait outside.” The voice said again. The guards opened the door, pushed me in and closed the door again. I looked down in the floor, afraid of what I might see. The Empress didn’t say anything either. I looked up. I saw that I was in a quite big room, with stone floor, white walls, shelfs with books and scrolls, a big throne right before a giant window. Through the window a bit of Eddalhn was seen. I realized that once upon a time that window had showen a city like a dream. Eddalhn. Then, my eyes fixed upon the Empress. A beautiful, young, female mudokon, with dark green skin and a long red feather, dressed in a long, black dress, a small bag in a chain that was bound around her waist, a crown with a emerald and two pearls in it was on her head. The Empress stood before me, and I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth. She looked at me, as if she tried to understand what she saw. She sighed.
”So… You’re here at last. I… never thought I would catch you.” She said. I thought of what could be fitting to say in such a situation.
”I… I hope you can explain some things to me…” I said. She turned around.
”Explain…” she said. ”Explain?! What makes you think I have to explain things to you?!”
I heard a silent sob.
”I didn’t mean to hurt you empress, I just want to…”
”Shut up!” she cried. She turned around slowly.
”I know what you’ve done. You… you killed him!” she said and hid her face in her hands.
”Him?” I asked and started to think I was in danger.
”Him..” she said, walked away to one of the shelfes and picked up a piece of paper. ”Him.” She said and threw the paper to me. I saw a picture of a young slig, probably just a few days old.
”You think I killed him? Why would I?” I asked.
She shrugged.
”Don’t ask me, I’m not the leader of the bad people.”
”Bad people?”
”Should I call you guys terrorists instead? Or villains? Murderers? Spies? Fine, you ’terrorists’!”
A thought slowly cleared up in my head.
I was a really screwed up slig before this happened.
”Who was he? Your best friend?”
”No, he was my son. Not biological, more like the ones of my chain have always done. He’s a slig, based on a sample of my blood. A clone, you could call him. It sounds weird, but you have no idea about what vykkers can do…”
”A… clone?” I repeated. She nodded.
”Look, empress. I’m sorry if I’ve done anything in my useless life to hurt you and anyone around you, but if that’s the case, why don’t you give me something that can proof I’m the one you say I am?”
”You mean you don’t believe me?”
”No, no, no! I don’t know who I am!”
She stared at me for a while. I could almost hear her fight with herself inside my head.
”Remove your mask.” She said, surprising me.
”I’m sorry, epmress. I’ve tried before. It’s impossible.”
She gasped and looked amazed. But before I said something she asked another question.
”What's your name?”
”People call me Gold, but I doubt that’s my real name.”
”What’s the colour of your mask?”
”It’s golden.”
She gasped again, and she laid her hand over her mouth.
” Could it be…”
She walked over to me, sat down and took a long look at me.
”Oh, my dear Odd…” she said. ”Axar?”
I didn’t reply. I was busy remembering. My name was Axar, the next emperor of Eddalhn, son on Empress Lhanéil.

”Ow!” I said when the vykker sticked me in my finger with a needle. He gathered the blood in a small tube and walked away to his colleges. I got up from the chair and walked out. Lhanéil waited for me outside.
”Are you sure you have to go?” she asked. I nodded.
”I have this strange feeling that if I don’t, people will get hurt.”
We walked away together, talking about what I would do and why. We reached the storage. She took up a key from the small bag and opened the door. She stopped me when I tried to get in.
”The guard wont let you in.” She said, walked in and came out again after a while with a bag and a chain. She gave them to me.
”What’s this?” I asked and looked at the amulet in the chain. It was a small stone with a triangle painted on it. It looked quite ugly and useless.
”It’s a symbol. You’re not the emperor yet, and that’s why you should have it. I’m glad it didn’t disappear with you. It wouldn’t come back. And I believe it symbolized something else too, but I must have forgotten…”
I played with it while she explained. When she said the last, it felt like it burned me. Tzekhels transfornation to fire appeared in my head. I knew what it symbolized. Fire. I said farewell to Lhanéil, promised that I wouldn’t die and made my way to the exit. After a while, to the gates. I had a bag with supplies, memories and knowlegde and I had hope.
Only Odd knew what I was up to.