Style Quest: Betrayal

  Varick sat on his bunk, petting his blue volai, Layla. The cervine-like creature’s crystalline reflected light around the room as it enjoyed the attention of mahogany Clydesdale. In his free hand, Varick had a black ring with a gold band that he fidgeted with.

 

“What do you think, Layla? Is a promise ring too cheesy,” the horse asked the volai as he toiled with this dilemma. “I love Tay, and I think you like him, but is this too weird?” Layla’s only answer was to bleed softly in protest of the momentary pause in the pets. Varick pocketed the ring and petted the volai a bit longer lest he incurs her ire. Maybe it was too weird, but Tay had gone above and beyond as a boyfriend. Even if sometimes the kobold’s efforts felt a little much. “He should be finishing up his training. Why don’t we go surprise him?” Varick stood up against protest from Layla, but she followed somewhat by hiding the horse tailor.

 

Gard, Varick’s guild-appointed handler, had offered hand-to-hand combat training for anyone interested. Among the red-skinned tiefling’s students was the red and gold kobold, Tay. He wasn’t a great fighter, but Tay had told Varick he was taking the classes just in case he needed to protect his lover, which was sweet. The course was letting out as the tailor and his volai companion reached the training room.

 

“Varick,” Tay excitedly yelled as he ran up to hug the much taller horse. Sweat stains shone through the workout clothes the kobold wore. Varick had enchanted the black half-tank and grey sweatpants to give Tay an extra advantage in sparring matches. That advantage was moot when everyone in the class paid the tailor to do the same to their clothes.

 

“Hey babe, we just came to see h-,” Varick’s statement fell short as an explosion rocked the ship. Alarms started blaring with multiple flashing lights accompanied by orders shouted over the intercom speakers. Everyone assembled in the training hall began to run to their battle stations immediately.

 

“Tavin, it’s probably space pirates, but get Varick to the escape pods just in case,” Gard ordered as he ran past them. Varick looked immediately worried as the ship rocked again. Had Syph somehow managed to find him out here in space? 

 

“Come on, let’s get you to safety,” Tay insisted, pulling on Varick’s pants. The blonde horse picked up Layla before following the kobold out into the hallways. Crew members ran in all directions through the passages. On a good day, Varick couldn’t navigate the labyrinthine corridors of the ship, and today was no exception. However, there was something weird about the path Tay was leading him.

 

“Hold on,” Varick insisted as they came to a split in the corridor. “Shouldn’t the escape pods be this way?” The horse indicated the opposite path Tay was about to lead him with a concerned look.

 

“Yes, but my docking bay is this way,” Tay replied with a big smile. “We can take my mail carrier. Syph will never be expecting that.” Varick put Layla down between them as he stepped back, frightened.

 

“No one ever said it was Syph attacking the ship,” Varick said coldly with a terrified look in his eye. At that moment, everything about Tavin changed. The kobold’s usually bright eyes darkened as he assumed an aggressive stance. A terrible toothy smile spread across Tavin’s face as an evil laugh escaped his throat.

 

“All these months of careful manipulation, and you catch me on a simple slip-up like that,” Tavin yelled, frightening both Varick and Layla. The kobold pulled a long jagged knife and brandished it at the horse. “Well, I didn’t spend all those months pretending to be gay to fail my mas-.”

 

“Light,” Varick commanded, activating one of the enchanted buttons on his vest. Immediately the black button shone bright white light that the horse reflected through Layla’s crystalline antlers. As the light refracted through the prisms, it blinded Tavin. Seizing his chance, Varick scooped up the volai again and ran down the correct hallway. The escape pods were in sight as a fire blast erupted overhead. 

 

“Did you forget that you weaponized me,” Tavin taunted as the moisture in the air around Varick became sharp and jagged. The horse whispered something in Layla’s ear as he put her down. Carefully the volai made her way to an escape pod door and managed to open it. 

 

“I think you forgot about DRAGON’S BREATH,” Varick roared as the plates to the helmet slid out to encompass his face completely. Purple and blue flames blasted from the helmet as the brown Clydesdale exhaled. Tavin retreated several steps only to be met with a solid kick to the face from Varick, who promptly followed it with a second one that shattered part of the kobold’s skull.

 

“You won’t… kill me,” Tavin managed to utter as he fell weakly. “You don’t ha…ve it in you… to be a killer.” Varick was poised to make the killing blow but stopped. Despite how much he hated Tavin then, the kobold was right. Varick wasn’t a killer, no matter how much he wanted to take the life of the person that tricked him into falling in love only to betray him.

 

“True, but I don’t have to make it easy for you to escape,” Varick says as he turns and walks toward the escape pod. As he does, the horse tailor says a word in Requinest, the language of his dead home world. Immediately all of Tavin’s clothes tighten to the point of nearly crushing the kobold. “I hate when Kriv is right,” Varick tells Layla as he launches the pod at a planet below. It was a rocky trip through the atmosphere with a shaky landing on the planet’s surface.

 

Once the pod’s door opened, Varick tumbled out of them with tears flowing freely from his eyes. Above the planet, in space, Harlock Two, The Sequel, Varick’s home for the last few months, exploded in a blast of wicked green energy. Escape pods streaked towards the planet en masse. A dead tree supported Varick’s weight as he tried to stop crying but couldn’t. He felt the promise ring in his pocket. A promise from less than an hour ago that was supposed to be eternal is now tarnished and useless. The ring made a small splash as it hit the poisoned lake below. There was no way Varick was going to hold onto a cursed memento like that.

 

“Varick! Varick, we need-” Gard started to try to say something as he ran up to the tailor, only to be cut off by scissors at his throat. It looked like the tiefling had been fighting shards of glass. Cuts, bruises, and blood that mainly looked not his own covered Gard’s body.

 

“Are you going to betray me too,” Varick asked softly through tears. Gard looked confused at the question, so the horse repeated it in a shout, “Are you going to betray me as well!?” 

 

“If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have saved you on Lyra when I found you unconscious,” Gard tried his best to assuage Varick’s suspicions. “I know you are feeling a lot of things right now, and if we had time, I’d let you cry it out, but we don’t have the luxury of time time. The request is not a safe place to linger.”