Hello reader, I hope this chapter finds you well. And a great thank you to Stunt as usual, I feel like it is in poor taste to fish for reviews but I'd be lying if I did not confess I look forward to each and every one of your kind words after posting a new chapter. I am humbled that the story gripped you so strongly and that you are along for the ride, thank you.
And thank you, reader, for coming this far. There is much farther still to go in this tale. It makes me smile that this story has received the support it has and it is a year old this month! Enjoy what is to come, friends!
-Old Night
-0-
A small well of dread sat heavy in the pit of Vetra's stomach as she set out towards Calo Park after two hours exactly of anxious waiting at the Apothecary. It wasn't the first time she'd been the bearer of bad news or the villain in someone's eyes but telling Sindri that she was leaving with Sid was something altogether new. She'd never broken someone else's heart or torn apart a family.
For the hundredth time, she checked her omnitool and saw she had no messages.
He must be upset, he always texts back.
Strangely, to her mind, as she made her way to Calo Park she realized she had never given the thought of a life without Sindri in it any thought after she'd moved in with him. The thought of his absence left her feeling empty.
I should never have allowed myself to get that close.
The streets were empty now. Almost forlornly so. The park was just ahead at the bottom of the long street. Almost mindlessly, she continued on as she passed warmly lit homes with the shadows of their occupants playing soft, fuzzy shapes on the icy glass of their windows. So many families brought together to share time, food, common rituals, and above all love. There was scantly a house passed by that she did not hear happy chatter or muffled laughter from inside and a myriad of different smells wafting through the street, despite the harsh wind. These would not be the sounds of Sindri's home anymore, she realized. He'd have a quiet house again.
Fresh powder crunched under her boots as she quickly made her way through the field of braziers. All of them were sputtering against the cold or their coals sat cold and dead in their iron nest. She wondered where Sindri would be in such a big place.
Call him, be done with it, and say goodbye.
Dialing his number on her floating keyboard she tucked her gloved hand in her pocket.
Sindri Bogatyr, the owner of the Apothecary, leave me your number along with your message would you kindly?
Vetra couldn't shake the feeling that something was definitely wrong. Sindri, even when upset, would never turn off his phone.
Where are you?
Ahead of her loomed the profound darkness of the sparse woods of Calo Park. It seemed silly to her in a way that such an otherwise friendly place took on such a sinister quality at night. She had no idea how Sindri could comfortably traverse such an environment and enjoy it, much less sleep under starlight. Flicking her wrist, her omnitool projected a cone of sparkling white light in the tumultuous snowflake choked winds and virgin snow before her. Looking up ahead and continuing forward more out of nerves than an actual idea of where she was going she noticed that the reflective quality of the snow did lighten up the way ahead of her by a few shades, the trees seemed much less foreboding now. Many seemed now familiar to her with their dark, wavering fingers now revealed to be red streaming ribbons tied earlier that week by revelers. And further up still was a hill atop which stood a stunning, willowy tree with a large canopy that reached down almost to the tip of her crest. It was the tree she and Sindri and Sid sat under not so many days ago before New Year's Pyre.
Another gust of wind pushed against her, its intent almost feeling hostile with how bitterly the cold bit down on her face and exposed wrists.
Why did you want to meet out here, Sindri? Couldn't we have just walked together? Or even better, talked in the back of the Apothecary? I could have made you some tea and it would have been plenty private. Instead you-
Narrowing her blue eyes, Vetra could see something out of place with the base of the tree. A lump, no more than the size of a large stone allowing some snowdrift to gather, rested lazily against the trunk of the wispy tree. She stepped forward, pulled almost magnetically towards the object. The closer she came the neater she noticed the details half-hidden in the snow. The suggestion of a pair of boots buried in the fresh snow, the lapel of a greatcoat and a hood, frozen stiff like a funeral veil over a head that dangled down against a chest.
And a very clear stain of red blood frozen, almost black, under the shadows and moonlight of Mirrard's natural satellites.
Vetra moved. She moved faster than she had in conscious memory. Swiping away the snow she found Sindri under the tree.
Mauled, torn, and bloody.
A perverse sort of calm came over Vetra when her heart splintered as it contorted itself into equal parts shapes of rage, horror, regret, and grief. Sindri was dead. Wordlessly, she looked him over and realized that he was not bleeding anymore though he had been profusely. His clothes were punctured and ragged in places. This was an act of murder but he was not yet afflicted with rigor mortis. Perhaps he was dead, but if he was not the cold would certainly finish the job soon. Vetra didn't think as she scooped the human up into her arms and ran as fast as her legs could carry her through empty streets and between happy homes. She ran silently, nothing more than her burning lungs lending her powerful legs strength to keep bounding on. Several hundred yards down to the park's edge and many town blocks back to the Apothecary she ran without stopping. The one safe haven in Grennik which she now saw painted as an enemy territory with fresh eyes.
She didn't remember scaring her sister awake as she kicked the door open, slamming the hard, heavy wood against the wall. She didn't remember how Mrs. Rivana gasped as she saw Sindri now pulped and beaten bloody in her arms, much closer to the hue of an Asari than any human should really be. She didn't remember Jordun taking her gun and talking her down from going to find Nikita. She didn't remember Amanda's cool and razor-sharp focus as she cut Sindri's clothes off to examine his wounds. Or how Sid ran back and forth with clean washcloths saturated with hot water as she took the human's ready instruction to begin warming Sindri's battered flesh and how Grin began to pack Sindri's slit neck with gauze.
She did remember the look of relief on Amanda's face as the women continued to tend to him.
"He has a pulse. But he's fading fast. I'm calling Kuov's central hospital, they need to airlift him there. He'll never make it by ground."
And she did remember how she felt when Grin repeated over and over, too low to be heard over the voices of the others.
"Where are his hands?"
The Salarian checked the greatcoat's pockets then looked at Vetra.
"Are they in your pockets? Did you find them?"
It took Vetra a moment to stop screaming as she noticed Sindri's empty sleeves. It took her even longer to stop the low shrieking groan that would come with every breath from the back of her throat. It was so common to her species when experiencing the depths of despair. Stepping back into the cold, she quieted as a seething rage lent her focus while she and Jordun ran back to Calo Park's woods. They dug around the snow where she found him and followed the shallow tracks to a bench not too far away where the snow had been churned badly and a table and chair had been upended almost as though someone was thrown into it. They looked under the bench, the snow, and the broken park furniture.
They didn't find them.
-0-
Kuov was a modern city, as Amanda had described it months ago. However, Vetra having lived there for a brief spell, felt as though she'd forgotten how truly unique it was; for many of the ancient elements of human architecture blended with their interpretation of what advanced modernity was. Nothing was sleek or crafted in the soft angles she'd been accustomed to seeing in Asari cities or space stations, nor the more angular and clean Turian architecture. No, everything was made of stone and with a not-insignificant amount of wooden doors or inlays or even automatic sliding gates. But everything was lined with strobing neon lights in ultraviolet, blue, pink, and cyan hues that would come alive in nightfall. Statues of nude men in peak physical condition in contemplative poses, contrapposto or in a stance of herculean effort stood alone or in pairs along the street corners or between intersections breaking the relative rows of shops and businesses with angular or gothic lettering advertising anything from fast street food to nouveau impressionist arts (fashionable at the time). Statues of women in repose or gesturing skyward or beckoning sat or reposed on marble waves in the many small parks that lined the city and many of its streets, breaking the urban density as frequently as space allowed.
To her surprise, there was the odd Asari, Krogan, Salarian, and Turian statue as well.
Sid leaned against her sister in the waiting room on the fifth floor of the main building's trauma center. She sat quietly, but wide-eyed and curious, taking in all the sights the city had to offer through the panoramic window in front of them. Including paying particular attention to the statues.
"How much longer do we have to wait? I want to see, Brother."
"I don't know, Sidera."
Vetra held Sid's hand as she tried hard to hold down the dread that was fighting tooth and nail to break her composure.
The hospital staff was quiet, well-mannered, and varied from both species and homeworlds; more than a few had words of encouragement for them and Amanda who'd arrived some six hours earlier by rig into the city proper.
It was curtly explained to them by whatever doctor had been in charge that night, now early morning, that while there was some information they would be privy to having been the ones to put in the medical call, they were not Sindri's next of kin. So until such a time he would wake and give instructions they would be told little as to the details of his care in the interest of protecting his privacy.
Anger burned behind Vetra's eyes and with the little, almost imperceptible flicks of her mandibles. If anyone had the right to know everything it would be her and Sid. Her emotions simmered with righteous indignation. But they were moored to her common sense. She wouldn't be Sindri's companion for much longer. But she needed to see this through she needed to make sure he'd live.
And she had the forethought to bring a little crate of medicine with her from their refrigerator back home to make sure it'd be done right.
"Ms. Nyx."
Turning her head, Vetra locked eyes with a meek-looking human woman who gestured for her to come forward.
"Stay here with Amanda, kiddo. I'll be back as soon as I can after I sort this out."
"What's in the crate, Vee?" asked Amanda as she fought the exhaustion clearly overtaking her slowly.
Despite how heavy the day had been and how much there was still left to do, Vetra was razor-sharp. This was not the first time she'd had to negotiate after feeling like she'd been run over by a truck. Or had to do so with blood on her clothes.
"Payment."
-0-
"Ms. Nyx, what is the nature of your relationship with that man?"
"What business is that of yours?"
"We just want to get to the bottom of this and understand why a twenty-five year old and her sister, who is a minor I will add, came to live in a Darskirri man's house. And how she came by military-grade medicine. I'm certain the un-licensed possession of such substances is illegal or was illicitly acquired at best."
"You are not a cop, and this is the frontier. If you don't want to buy this medicine at a discount then be my guest."
"We are not going to buy. We don't even know who you are or if the stuff is even good."
"But you take me seriously enough to call your CEO, your most senior doctor and the owner of the hospital. You could always use medicine and I could always use some credits. Let's make a deal."
Vetra leaned back in her chair in the boardroom, confident and unpleasant, as the Salarian clerk in front of her shifted in his own seat and sat straight. To his right was a male Turian in a human labcoat and a smart set of uniform scrubs. He was older, he'd certainly seen his share of violence of the years if the scar on his cheek and the missing end of his left mandible was anything to judge. Vetra thought the odds were good he was a veteran. He'd introduced himself as Arrentus Ponten and he was the most senior fellow of the hospital's doctors. The only Turian in a position of power in Kuov's hospital leadership.
The CEO, who'd yet to introduce herself, spoke to the Volus who stood by the window looking out into the city streets while punching numbers in a primitive calculator. The pair leafed through several pieces of paper, incomprehensible forms, figures, and numbers decorating the front and back of each. This annoyed Vetra, she didn't need to speak to a clerk. She needed to speak to the boss.
"We are not running this risk of buying stolen goods from a thief or black market criminal. Madam, please this is a terrible investment, send this charlatan away." said the Salarian as he turned his dark eyes to the Volus who remained transfixed by her device.
"And miss out on getting your hands on these meds? Bad idea."
"Don't let her yank your chain, as humans say. This lady is desperate and she won't go anywhere. There are no other buyers on Mirrard."
Vetra's mandibles clicked.
Her eyes darted to the doctor as she wondered for a moment if he would be sympathetic towards her because of their shared heritage.
He wasn't.
Standing proud and tall but still like a fixture in the room, Arrentus stared at her with his head slightly inclined, all politeness but said nothing. This was not a man who appeared to be rattled or prompted easily by a provocateur. The clerk on the other hand was very agitated.
"Then I'll take my goods to the black market."
"Good luck Ms. Nyx, I am sure you would receive better margins with them. That is of course if we did not report you to the local police department, the head of which is on a first-name basis with me."
Taking a deep breath, Vetra sat forward and looked at the Volus anew. Idly she wondered out loud.
"You could. I imagine that someone who crosses people that easily would have to look over her shoulder frequently and with good reason."
"Are you threatening her?" glowered the human woman.
Before she could continue she was cut short by the Volus who simply squeezed her forearm as an afterthought.
"You are not the first angry member of the public to threaten to kill me, and you won't be the last. But I assure you, I'm willing to do business, it is a sin to miss a business opportunity."
"Good. I want forty percent of their market cost. That should be enough for a tidy profit for the hospital."
"Despite what you may think, Ms. Nyx, profitability does not mean we are swimming in liquid credits to simply hand to you."
"According to the Net, your hospital made 940 million credits last year. I'm sure you can come up with the money these are worth."
"And what will you do with these credits?"
"That's my business."
"I couldn't in good conscience purchase those vials without knowing what you intended to use your ill-gotten credits for."
Vetra sighed, "I was going to cover the cost of recovery for Mr. Bogatyr. Then leave Mirrard."
"Without him?"
"Yes. He is a good friend of mine but his future is here," she said without hesitation.
"How noble of you. I am sorry however to inform you that we will not be paying you a single credit. But I am happy to comp the cost of his entire stay and everything he needs in exchange for the medicine. You are however free to go whenever you like and take your medicine with you if my terms are disagreeable. After which time I will be calling my good friend in the police department to have a good look at where and how you came across such highly regulated substances."
Vetra could feel the weight and finality of the Volus' words. She was desperate and stuck, and that woman had all the leverage as well as the power to punish her if she refused. There was no other way around the squat alien's offer. And if they found out it was actually Sindri's property, and most definitely war plunder at that, he'd be in a horrendous amount of trouble.
"Fine. But I want you to spare no expense."
"Agreed. I'll even have Dr. Ponten take over his care personally. That is if you are willing, doctor?"
Again, Vetra looked at the other Turian who looked at her with a professional but sullen air to him.
"I am happy to help."
"Wonderful, thank you, doctor. You see, Ms. Nyx, we'll take care of it. And what more, if we are going to bend a rule then why not break another entirely? I'm pleased to grant you a cot in his room and complimentary meals here during his stay."
"That's not enough. I want him fitted with the best top of the line prosthetics you have available."
The Volus hesitated for a fraction of a second before offering her hand to shake on it.
"I'll have him fitted with a pair fit for a man like him."
Vetra took the Volus' hand and squeezed a little harder than was necessary.
"No. Not whatever you decide is worthy of him, I want him fitted with the top-of-the-line. He's a healer, he needs his hands back."
"Of course, top of the line. You have my word."
Shaking hands the Turian spun on her heel and opened the crate as she turned it for them to inspect. The four drew forward as Vetra sat back into her seat feeling battered but faintly victorious for a fleeting moment. She wouldn't be leaving Mirrard for now but at least Sindri would be taken care of.
"I'll have a sample sent down to the labs to make sure it kept well and that you are not selling us sugar water." intoned Arrentus.
"Which reminds me; give the nurses at the station in Mr. Bogatyr's unit your contact information in case there are any developments."
"Sure will. Listen, just-"
Vetra could hear the blood rushing in her ear canals at the thought of what she was about to do next. With a silent but shaky breath, she stifled a wave of sorrow and the urge to cry that was about to overcome her and she smiled. Then she rose to her feet and moved to leave the boardroom.
"Please take care of him. He's a good man."
With a glance that lasted no longer than a second as he scribbled on his omnitool, Arrentus quipped like a darting arrow.
"His kind aren't like us, Ms. Nyx. The Darskirr are closer to animals than people."
The Turian froze and stared at her counterpart for a short while before he and the others realized that she hadn't left the room.
"Don't worry, Ms. Nyx. We'll give him world class care and keep our end of the bargain." interjected the Volus as she held up a little vial up to the light above her.
With pinned pupils and a deep mask of azure on her faceplates, Vetra Nyx gave them a scowl that could have turned away an invading army without so much as a shot fired.
"See that you do, or I will kill all four of you."
There was no grunt or snarl, no teeth, or sneer on her face. Simply a statement of fact like a remark on the weather in an even, polite tone. And then she was gone out the door.
"Dr. Ponten, see that you spare no kindness in caring for Mr. Bogatyr. I believe she was serious."
-0-
It was dark when Vetra stepped out of the main doors to the hospital with only the barest promise of a sunrise over the mauve skies above her. Behind her Amanda and Sid followed, both of them spent and worried. Vetra's composure held like dark iron as she was kissed by the cool wind and the little errant snowflakes still left in the warmer city. Her friend and sister were exhausted and had no vigor in their steps as they listlessly followed the Turian without a mind to what came next or where they were going. Stopping suddenly, Vetra unhooked the keys from her belt loop and handed them to Amanda who sluggishly took them as she began to quicken out of her wakeful slumber.
"Did you want me to drive us back to Grennik? I'll be honest without some caffeine I don't think I've got it in me for another two-hour drive. What did you tell those big wigs with your little box, by the way?"
The taste of ash engulfed the air in Vetra's lungs as she slowly shook her head with a deep and sorrowful frown she didn't have the energy to even try to hide.
"No. Rest up in Sindri's rig before driving home. Sid and I are leaving."
"Where are we going?" asked Sid through eyes half-closed as she drew Sindri's poncho tighter around her little frame.
Understanding seemed to dawn on Amanda as she began to shake the fog of sleep from her expression.
"Oh no, no, no, no, no. Do not be that chick right now. I know you have a thing about being bad for Sindri but do not walk out on him. Not now. He needs you."
"What's going on? Where are we going?" insisted Sid as she pulled closer to Amanda than her sister.
Spirits, give me strength.
"Sid, c'mon. We're leaving."
Turning away and taking a few steps, Vetra looked back and saw Sid hiding behind her human friend.
"Sidera. Come here, we have to go."
"No."
"Sid."
"No!"
Thoughtless and numb Vetra walked back to the pair and grabbed Sid's hand and pulled her away. The little Turian whimpered as she looked back at Amanda for help.
"Vetra, please. This doesn't have to happen today. Sindri needs the two of you now more than ever, he's got nothing left."
"He has you, Grin, Jordan, and Rivana. He's not alone."
"But he loves you and Sid the most. Please, please don't do this. Don't abandon him."
Upon hearing this Sidera yanked hard and pulled herself out of Vetra's grip and ran back to Amanda.
"No! You can't exile Sindri! I won't let you!" the little girl said with quivering mandibles and what passed for her most angry snarl.
"Sidera Nyx, come here!" Vetra yelled at her to match pitch for pitch.
"No! Sindri's hurt! I am not leaving him, just because you hate him doesn't mean I do!"
Vetra could feel the grief soaking through her flesh as surely she would her blood out of a ragged wound. Behind her eyes, she felt tears and her knees felt weak.
"Sid. Come here. Right. Now. I'm warning you."
"No! I'm not leaving my brother! You don't love him, you never loved him! He was worried you didn't and I told him you did!"
Vetra strode forward quick and angry at her younger sister who darted away from her towards the parking lot. She slowed, still clinging onto a hint of decorum.
Where could Sid go but hide behind one of ten vehicles?
"Sidera Nyx! Come here this instant, there is nowhere to go!"
"Oh, shit," exclaimed Amanda as she checked the ample pocket of her clinic uniform.
Vetra didn't need to look at her to know Sid had snatched the keys to the rig. She bolted after her sister as fast as she could cursing herself for not having taken her sister's seemingly irrational decision to run to the vehicles seriously. In an instant she closed the distance but only a second too late as Sid hopped in and locked the door behind her.
"Open this door," she said to the younger Turian through gritted teeth.
Shaking her head the little girl reached down between her legs and yanked while almost comically scooting the seat forward.
"Open this fucking door!" screamed Vetra as she punched the rig's door as hard as she could without risking injury as Sid began adjusting the mirrors and panic seized her. Sindri had taught Sid how to drive.
"I'm going to leave you here. See how you like it." yelled the girl at her sister while Amanda stood in front of the rig shaking her head and arms hard and yelling at her to stop.
A loud blaring horn deafened the pair as Amanda jumped out and away from the front of the rig which to their shock began to smoothly pull out of the parking space and lazily head down the lot. Vetra tried to jump and grab onto it only to fall flat on her face as Sid, wise to her sister's actions, accelerated aggressively and out of her reach.
Vetra's forehead smacked neatly into the paved street and the hint of pain in her head brought her out of the moment and she wished Sindri could be there. Between the two of them, they could talk down their impulsive sibling.
It was then that she began to cry.
All at once the tears and the sobs came and wouldn't stop. The Turian felt the willful impetus to run back into the hospital and tell Sindri everything. Slapping her hands over her eyes she wept as she thought of him laid out like a mangled corpse with no hands and a slit neck in a hospital bed. An honest man who was more comfortable playing the villain than acting like one and gave of himself to strangers, almost foolishly so, because he was concerned with honor and decency. Honor, decency, and other ludicrous Darskirri preoccupations. How many men were left like him?
I ruined his life. I did this to him. If I'd done one fucking thing right in my entire life it should have been to just leave him alone that night!
The rig stopped a ways away and then shut off as the little Turian inside peeked her head out the window to look at her.
Vetra drew her knees up and buried her face into them as she wrapped her arms around her legs. She felt lost, truly lost for the first time since she'd left Palaven.
Just yesterday morning she had a home, she had duties in her little woodland house, a routine and a companion who'd told her without reservation or fear that he loved her. And now she'd lost the home and torn her family asunder.
"Did you learn your lesson? That's how Sindri is going to cry when he realizes you exiled him because you hate him." growled Sid as she walked over while tears began to well in her eyes because her sister was crying.
"I don't hate him, Sid! I love him!" bellowed Vetra at her, hard enough that the little girl jumped suddenly taken aback by the volume of her sister's chastisement but also because of the obvious grief in her expression.
"Then why are you leaving him? Why are you making me come with you?!"
"Because we're hurting him!"
Like a little ray of sunshine, the Turian felt Amanda's hand on the nape of her neck. She gave her a comforting squeeze much like Sindri used to do.
"We're not hurting him," replied Sid, now feeling small and very unsure of herself.
"Yes. We. Are. I-"
Raw and bare Vetra scrounged up the strength to look her sister in the eyes as the tears continued to come and sobs stifled her words.
"I started it. Almost a year ago, I started it after I found out about the medicine he'd given you, Sid. It was rare and really special. I wanted to steal it and sell it for us, so we could live better. But it got out of hand so fast and then Sindri chose to be exiled so he could protect us. Last night somebody tried to kill him and it was because the three of us are a family. And it all started because I wanted to steal from him. I should have done the right thing and left. I never should have come to him and now he's almost dead and they won't stop as long as we're with him!"
"Then let's fight them!"
"We can't fight all of them! There's too many, and Sindri's been hurt enough!"
"We'll leave then! Let's take him with us and go to another planet. We can still be together and they can't stop us from running!"
Shaking her head a calm came over the Turian as the guilt shifted off her shoulders by an increment. The words came to her as did the reasoning to give her sister. Vetra looked at the child anew. She wore Sindri's poncho well, its brown hue and earthy serpentine patterns complemented her orange eyes. Would Sindri's mother have liked it?
"What does Sindri say about family?"
"Huh? Umm- he says it is the only thing that matters because it is the only thing that exists."
"Sid, what kind of a family can he have with us, really?"
"We can be a family! Really! I'm his sister so if I take his last name and learn Darskirri stuff then we can be a real family. If you marry him like Mr. Mark married the Asari lady then you can take his name and learn too!"
"Sid, it wouldn't be real."
"Why not?"
"A quiet house, Sid. It'd just be me and him."
"Why?"
Shaking her head again with a peculiar sadness that she didn't know she could experience she looked at her little sister.
"I can't give him children. We're too different. He would never be happy."
Resolutely Sid stood up straighter and her mandibles hugged her jaw tight.
"Then when I'm grown up I'll get married and my husband and I will have lots of babies. We'll have a loud house and we'll raise them with you and Sindri."
"Sidera, that will never happen. There is no way he would be happy raising my sister's children and marrying me. Sindri is a lot of things but he's Darskirri through and through, he will never give an alien his last name. He would never, ever consider such a thing."
The little Turian girl began to cry without making a sound. She winced and shook her head as though to shake the words she'd just heard out of her ears.
"But, I'm his sister."
"That will never change. But leaving him behind is the only way he will be safe and stand a chance at being happy."
"He'll think I exiled him."
Shaking her head with the ghost of a bitter smile, Vetra buried her face into her knees again.
"No he won't. He'll hate me, he knows that it's my fault. But he'll never stop loving you."
Through gritted teeth Sidera lunged forward and pushed her older sister over.
"I hate you too."
Amanda's eyes shut in pain.
Sid didn't back down and Vetra didn't rise to the affront.
She looked defeated.
The older Turian slowly got up to her feet and looked back at the human.
"Tell him I said goodbye and keep him out of trouble, Amanda."
"Vetra."
The older sister walked away and into Kuov's empty streets, hands buried in her pockets and head hanging low in shame.
"Vetra!"
Her mind didn't dwell on how long Amanda stood in that parking lot or what the others would say when they heard what she'd done. Half of her waking mind settled on listening to her little sister's steps as she followed her at a distance and the feeling of her glaring eyes boring into the back of her skull. The other half, the half she couldn't silence, ran through her life this last year. The day she met Sindri had gone by so fast. In the blink of an eye the year had come and gone and her world had changed so much her old life seemed like a fuzzy memory prior to living with him. She'd never seen Sid so happy, or engaged. And she had almost forgotten the string of tension in the back of her mind, pulled tight, from her life as a smuggler. The expectation of betrayal or sudden violence. What did that feel like?
She wasn't sure anymore.
What she was now accustomed to was the sense of relief when Sindri picked her up with Sid at Sapphire Salvage after a long day. The smell of dinner once she got home and pretending she didn't notice him struggling to doodle a little note for the lunch he was packing for his Turians or how grateful he was on the rare occasion he wouldn't chase her out of the kitchen and served him dinner. Or dozing on the couch to tales of sacrifice, gallantry and heroism of Darskirri clans who traversed wild worlds and fought against armies and slew gods, stories that thrilled her younger sister.
Her daily life was filled with moments like this. Moments with the absurd little magic of a culture not her own but that told itself it was great, it was to be admired and that the people in a family unit are the most important beings in the universe. She had that, and she'd never called it what it was. And now she had nothing. She was unmoored with her younger sister, starting fresh and alone without a place to call her own or the man she'd come to rely on. A man who loved her for who she was, not what he could get out of her.
Stay strong for Sid. She's all that matters, she's all that ever mattered.
As Vetra Nyx ambled drunkenly through the frozen street with a broken heart she kept reminding herself that Sid was the most important thing in her life. Her sister's grief and rage would pass and then she'd mend the relationship she wounded. It'd be like it had been since she was a babe.
Just the two of them.
We'll move on from this and it'll be ok, he'll be ok. If we're gone then he doesn't have to fight for us anymore. If I'm gone then he can be with his own kind away from the clan in Grennik where he belongs. And it'll get better. He's strong. He'll move on, fall in love and have the wife and children he is missing. I won't be an excuse for him to stop living, he's too good for that.
In her mind's eye she held Sindri's image, untarnished because of his wounds with a woman not so dissimilar to himself and a few children. She thought of them sitting placidly under a willow tree enjoying the bright sun and shade out in the woods. Maybe up on a hill overlooking a lake that was not half frozen with a long, misty waterfall feeding it and the silent river that snaked out of the water's base. There would be no bears around, maybe a Sable Elk chewing quietly within sight. Observing their happy children running and chasing one another with its bug eyed stare and sublimely soft coat. Sindri would have his arm around his wife and her matching poncho and he'd smile contentedly for having finally found his place in the universe. Here on Mirrard. Not beyond the stars with a pair of Turian sisters he would have been better off not knowing.
Her logical mind purred approvingly.
Yes, this made sense. He would move on and find his place again. He'd found the strength to live after his exile with their help and he would now, alone. Sindri Bogatyr knew who he was after everything had been stripped bare from him. These injuries could only lay him low for a time. They could not break him. He was made of stone.
The Turian kept walking, ignoring how much it pained her to think of Sindri with his spouse. But also how much she would have loved to have met his children. They'd have their father's dark hair and umber eyes. More than one would probably have his smug disposition and smile.
And maybe one of them would have azure eyes that didn't belong to him.
Vetra shook her head.
Pure fantasy. But for what it's worth; Sindri, I'm glad I never told you even when I knew it deep down inside last night.
I love you too.