Surely somewhere Amanda's katra is laughing.
Saavik inclined her head regally, the gems woven into her deep chestnut hair flaring like the stars outside the great Hall as they caught the firelight. The soft night's breeze from the balconies stirred the rare silk she wore, swirling the exotic emerald to black against her fair skin and drawing the guards' eyes enticingly along the smooth lines of her body beneath. Their nostrils flared at her darkly luxurious scent in pure male response. They allowed her past without so much as checking her identity. Her mouth almost curved slyly.
Romulans.
So easily distracted.
From below the great sweep of carved stairs, Spock glanced up from his conversation with one of the Senators.
Her eyes glinted mischievously as his fine control faltered for just a moment and she lowered dark lashes demurely to hide her pleasure.
Not that a certain Vulcan was much more difficult to distract.
Then, her husband extended a House jeweled hand. The ornately embroidered black robes shifted with his movement like the finest of cloaks, enhancing the Noble set of his shoulders and the long sweep of his chest. The silver in his rich ebony hair seemed worthy more of some vaulted treasure and the aristocratic sharp lines of his face gave him an intensity that could command Fleets with but a word. Yet, it was his eyes, his burning intense eyes; that held her as absolutely bound to him as the most powerful of Praetors.
She felt hot desire stir and a rueful humor filled her.
Nor, would it appear, am I.
She made a firm mental note to be certain and have his Aide clear his evening.
All of it.
She moved down the stairs with a predator's smooth focus and claimed his hand.
Their eyes locked.
Saavik bowed, her eyes consuming him. "My husband," she murmured like a caress.
His fingers tightened possessively back. "My wife," he murmured back.
The Senator had flushed an incredible shade of arousal at the restrained heat between the two Vulcans and shook his head in awed disbelief. "I had not thought . . . Vulcans . . . ."
"To master an emotion," Saavik said lowly, her eyes never leaving Spock's, "is to determine the correct use or disuse of it."
"An intriguing turn of philosophy," returned Spock, drawing her to his side and reluctantly releasing her hand.
"Indeed," the Senator murmured, completely mesmerized by the two, "Perhaps our peoples will do better together than I had thought."
Saavik turned her intense gaze upon the Romulan and his flush deepened. "Then perhaps the honorable Senator would care to join the discussion tomorrow?"
Caught in the hot intensity of her eyes, the Romulan nodded absently.
Saavik allowed a slight curve of her mouth, knowing full well its effects on the Romulan, and inclined her head. "Excellent." She extended her hand to him. He took it and brought her fair skin to his mouth. "Perhaps," she said, lowering her tones to silken warmth, "the Senator knows others of power as discerning as himself who would also be interested?"
He nodded again, unable to break the hold of her eyes on him.
She slipped her hand from his and inclined her head again; this time in a Praetor's dismissing power. "Then I will leave the Senator to his arrangements."
The Romulan bowed in engrained obedience to that use of power and vanished slowly into the crowd, cheeks still flushed and eyes hot.
"I have attempted for five years to secure his cooperation." He narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps you should relinquish your career in Starfleet and enter the diplomatic. Then I may actually live to see Reunification successful."
Humored, Saavik moved closer. "Though you have your . . . intense ones willing to give up their emotional heritage for the promise of Reunification and what Vulcan offers, Senator and the mass populace need something more . . . eased . . . to move them gently into the proper direction."
"You have heard the whispers then?"
"I have. They fear the Sundering has merely come now to the Two Worlds. That they may be displaced and forced into the dark again to find a new place if they refuse Surak's way."
"A groundless fear."
"Perhaps. But the day they speak it out loud, there will be war. Fear is a powerful motivator to action. And when one side wins, the other's fear will be realized. They will lose their home."
Spock frowned ever so slightly and looked at his wife. "How so?"
"What happened on Vulcan?"
Spock winced, ever so slightly. "Only Surak's followers were allowed to remain."
"And throughout the years, when others refused his path?"
He sighed. "They were . . . invited . . . to leave."
"And logically. Extreme divergence of philosophy cannot coexist peacefully. One will inevitably seek to dominate the other. Unless they separate entirely, war is their only end. Separation or war. However," she moved closer to him, "however, if there is a transitional philosophy, a bonding, as it were even, between the two extremes that is embraced by both, there can be peace."
"But such a . . . philosophy is not bound to one spectrum end or the other. The shift, through gradual time, may take the whole towards either Surak or S'task." Spock's eyes grew intensely thoughtful. "Or, in more probability and logic, cause the whole to abandon thought of either end entirely and embrace solely this new medium itself, it being the balance of the former two, until it . . . becomes . . . the entire way alone." He looked uneasily at his wife. "There would be neither Surak nor S'task. There would be no way of logic or way of emotion."
"In a millennia, no. There would only be a way of balance. The way of Spock."
He paled. "No."
Saavik studied him gently. "My husband, what did you think would be the outcome of your Reunification? Reunification, by its very nature, is the bonding again of two long separated. In that bonding, neither remains as it once was, the two become a new one, a combination of both. Your work is not to create Vulcan on the Two Worlds, nor to create the Two Worlds on Vulcan. It is to join them together. To cause the best of both to be fused into one whole. You have begun to create a new people." She touched his arm softly. "As you created me."
Spock blinked and looked at his wife intently. "You?"
"I am Vulcan and Romulan. Together. Where once I fought first to be one, then have struggled to be the other, now I hold both together. I now know peace. I have Vulcan's disciplines, yet Romulus' use of impassioned emotions; I use them both together now, without shame or confusion. And I am the stronger for it. Do you not see, Spock? I am this new philosophy." She moved closer, willing him to understand, to consider. "Do you find such a thing truly so terrible? According to the ways now separate, I am a misbegotten child, disinherited by both—yet, according to this new way, to them together, I am merely the heir of long enemy parents bonded at last. A cause for celebration rather than of horror."
"I have tried to be the bridge . . . to connect them . . . ."
"As have I. But Spock, you and I are not bridges to these worlds. We are the new worlds possible."
Spock's hands shook and he took hers to steady them. "You have . . . disturbed me, my wife." He looked around uneasily. "Have you spoken of this to anyone else?"
Saavik looked openly amused and arched a reproving eyebrow at him. "Vulcan is not known for its tolerance of . . . non traditional thought." She studied him fondly. "Your loyalty and work to reunify the Sundered are still a matter of rather . . . intense . . . debate."
Spock's shoulders slowly eased. He drew her closer and actually touched her soft hair. "You have gained too much to risk speaking such . . . things. You speak of a revolution far more . . . shaking . . . than what I do. I speak of the Romulans returning to Vulcan, of embracing Vulcan's disciplines, Vulcan's ways. The way of emotion becoming the way of logic. I speak of following one way. Of rejoining what exists. You speak of two ways becoming a new one. Of forging a new existence. " Dry humor touched his eyes. "You are dangerous," he teased gently.
"So the Klingon High Council said."
"And the Andorian Command."
"And the Federation President."
He sobered. "I desire the Romulans and Vulcans to be one people."
"Yes." She traced the embroidery of his robe with one finger. "And now you must decide what they become when they are one people—Vulcans or something else."
"Yes."
"Now you are dangerous."
He sighed and narrowed his eyes at his wife. "You have just added an immeasurably difficult dimension to Reunification."
"They will be one people. Choose what people they will become and perhaps the joining will come swifter."
He sighed again. "Your words would move the majority of the Two Worlds."
"Of course, compromise is ever more appealing than subjugation."
"Saavik!"
Her eyes glinted slyly. "I have missed debating you."
He stopped. And then his dark eyes slowly lit and he shifted ever so slightly closer. ". . . Indeed?"
Her lashes lowered. "Our discussions are always so . . . stimulating."
His eyes lost their focus a moment and she knew full well he was recalling their last late night discussion. "Indeed," he breathed.
"However, I believe your schedule is quite full for the evening . . . ." She feigned glancing around. "Perhaps I may occupy the time with our agreeable honored Senator." Her gaze landed on the Romulan across the room. He and two others instantly flushed a heady emerald and lifted their goblets invitingly to her.
Spock set a possessive hand on her arm, giving the three Romulans a narrow-eyed look and redirected her attention back to him. "My schedule contains nothing of consequence. I will locate my Aide."
"If you insist." She managed to keep her face perfectly correct.
He started to turn and then he caught sight of the three Romulans. He turned back to Saavik.
She arched an eyebrow. "What?"
He offered her his arm. "Perhaps it would be . . . more efficient . . . if you came with me."
She lowered her lashes again to hide her eyes. "Perhaps it would, indeed." She took his arm.
Diplomatic events had their use.
It had been too long since last they had leave together.
Saavik studied her husband pleasurably from the corner of her eye and carefully resisted the urge to smile.
Definitely laughing.
She wondered mildly if Sarek had ever figured it out.