"I wish you could talk to me, Rey. By the gods I wish we could talk."

Kylo carried his wounded half mermaid back to his room. She had clung to him tightly, her bloody arms wrapped snug around his neck. Her breathing was labored, but steady. She needed healing, and probably more than Kylo himself could give her.

"Why did you take such a risk?" He'd set her down and her legs had been wobbly. Kylo had to bite back a reprimand. "You could have been killed. I wish you'd told me what you were going to do."

He starts to undress her. Her clothes are a soggy, tattered mess and he needs to see the full extent of her injuries. Rey pouts up at him, clearly having determined that he wasn't too pleased with her.

"You have to be more careful, Rey. You simply have to."

Because I don't know what I would do without you.

Kylo leaves that part unsaid, however. He gently lifts her arms and Rey helps him wrestle her shredded bodice free from her skin. There were numerous cuts and scratches lacing across her upper body, and a whole array of vicious looking teeth marks as well.

"You're not fully used to your new form," he tells her. He kneels to take off her shoes before remembering that shew hardly wears any to begin with. "You overextend yourself. Going down there, You can't breathe underwater, or had you forgotten?"

Despite everything, a corner of Kylo's mouth lifts at the memory of her first bath. She'd tried to breathe then and had been rather put out when she couldn't.

He draws her pants down and Rey supports herself on his shoulder as he helps her step out of them. Nothing on underneath, no surprise there. The only thing his lady seems to like less than wearing shoes is wearing her unmentionables.

"I'm sorry." The state of her injuries is painful to look at. Those hellish mermaid really were out for her blood. "I should have come to you sooner. I should have stopped you from going overboard."

Several wounds were actively bleeding. Kylo will need to clean them and then try to heal, but Taleisin would most likely be needed. He was with the boy now. Rey had rescued him at great peril, and his life still hangs suspended precariously in the Force. As much as Kylo would like to demand Taleisin comes here right now and heals Rey, his powers are needed by the child much more.

"How did you know he was down there?" Kylo asks. Rey bites her lower lip and looks down at him. "He was so down deep, there was scarcely any light at all. How did you sense him?"

Rey was strong with the Force, though unstudied. Her connection with it was purely instinct driven, or so Kylo had begun to theorize. It made her more connected to it, most likely. To simply feel what the Force was trying to tell her without all this rational thought and comprehension getting in the way.

"I believe that… yes, I would have sensed him too. But I was so preoccupied with finding those that did this. When I saw the state of the rest of the ship-" his voice trails off then, a sharp pain gripping his chest. If they had been but a half hour's time sooner…

Rey coos. She picks up his chin with her palm and smiles down at him. Her fingers rake through his hair and Kylo laughs softly.

"Trying to comfort me, M'Lady? Surely that should be my job to you, shouldn't it?"

He rises. Frowns at the bloody state of her. She was a mess. This was his fault.

"It's a miracle you saved the child, Rey. I wish- I wish I could let you know how proud I am of you for doing that."

He goes to his wardrobe and pulls out one of his shirts. It's loose and black and hangs halfway down his mermaid's thighs as he draws it over her.

"Maybe I don't give you enough credit." Her hands go back to his chest, resting over his heart as he starts to button his shirt up her torso. "You really are the most remarkable thing, aren't you? Please, always come back to me. No matter what."

A voice clears behind him. Rey cranes her neck as Kylo turns. Gareth waits in the doorway, a large bowl of steaming water in his hands to clean Rey's wounds with. Behind him is Ria, and Kylo can immediately feel Rey tense in his arms as she glares at the female Knight. Ria in turn simply rolls her eyes and steps inside. She places a small glass jar of healing ointment on the table by the door.

"How is she?" Ria asks.

She steps closer and Rey begins to hiss. Kylo carefully grips her shoulders, holding her steady. The last thing they need is Rey aggravating her wounds even more.

"I'll need our healer," Kylo answers.

Behind them Gareth sets the bowl of bathwater down and leans against the door frame, watching with a hint of amusement as Rey all but arches her back as Ria approaches closer.

"Ria-" Kylo warns.

She shakes her head, ignoring his most prudent warning. She picks up Rey's arm, almost admiring the gaping and bloody wounds decorating it. Rey growls, trying to lash out but Kylo stops her.

"You shouldn't do that," he warns.

Ria cracks a smirk. It's an unusual expression for one as hard headed as she is. Then she looks Rey right in the eyes, dropping her arm and nodding.

"You're a very brave warrior. You did well tonight."

She steps back and Rey finally stops hissing. She glares at the other woman, but palpable waves of confusion radiate off of her. Kylo hesitates then nods, giving his silent thanks to the female Knight.

"Crazy thing she did, diving into the night ocean like that," Gareth comments. He tosses the jar of healing salve to Kylo who catches it mid air. "Likely won't be enough in there, but it's a start. Take care of the worst of the bleeding at least."

Kylo nods and wraps his arm around Rey's waist. She looks at him thoughtfully as he picks her up and takes her to his bed. He minds to set he down very carefully then untangles her fingers from the front of his shirt where she'd been clinging.

When she lands on his bed she sprawls out, spanning her arms and legs wide across both sides of his thin mattress like a starfish. Kylo clears his throat and pulls the hem of his shirt lower down along her legs.

"She certainly seems quite comfortable there. In your bed."

Gareth says it with a- well not even a barely concealed smile. Ria shakes her head next to him, an air of disapproval written all over her features. Kylo can't change the conversation quick enough.

"So how is he? The boy that she rescued."

Rey tosses and turns, humming softly to herself. Kylo steps in front of her.

"Half drowned," Gareth answers. "Or more than half. He's hanging on by a thread of life, and Tal's doing all he can for him but-"

Kylo nods, dismissing him with a wave of his hand. Taleisin was a skilled healer, but for every last one of the Knights such a connection with the light side of the Force wasn't without its difficulty. They were Knights. Fearsome warriors. Care-giving was something so foreign to them, but Kylo had to admit that Taleisin was among his favorites of all his men.

"We don't know if the child will make it," Ria says.

Kylo nods, sighing deeply. To say they were ill prepared to take care of a young boy was an understatement. But it was their duty nonetheless.

"What in the gods happened to him down there in those depths?"

Kylo asks it as much to himself as to the others. A human boy taken far below the surface of the water? They hadn't been feeding on him, but then for what? Why? What could they possibly want from him?

"Sir," Ria shifts, her stance uncomfortable and Kylo frowns as his attention snaps back to her. She was easily the bravest and most stoic of all his men. Something strong must truly be troubling her.

"What is it?" he asks, his eyes darting to a stone-faced Gareth standing next to her. Ria clears her throat before answering.

"He was wearing this. Apparently. Taleisin had to cut off his clothes and- and when he did the boy had this placed around his neck."

She hands him a necklace. Seemingly. Kylo eyes the suspended ring of shells with great suspicion.

They were connected together with braided strands of seaweed. Kylo can sense a faint gossamer hint of the Force. The item feels important. Significant.

"They put this on him then?" he asks. "The merfolk?"

Ria tips her head to the side. Gareth watches on impassively. It would seem to be that way, but of course no one could know for sure.

"It seems that way," Ria eventually says.

Kylo slides the necklace from one hand to the other. The bizarre behavior of the merfolk when he'd been down there had been weighing on his mind. He hadn't the time to tell his Knights about what had happened or even to really ponder it himself. For all the realms it had seemed as if that mermaid that had approached him had wanted to keep him alive. Just as they had with this boy.

"Truly strange events are underway," he finally says. "We must be careful at every turn. I don't trust this. Things shouldn't be as they are."

"What does she think about it then?" Gareth asks, gesturing at Rey.

It was a good idea. See what the mermaid in their midst thinks about this unexpected sequence of events.

Kylo takes the necklace to her. Rey is laying down in his bed, the tightness to her brows the only hint that gives away the sharp pain she must be feeling.

She sits bolt upright though when he presents the charm to her. Rey gives him almost an insulted look, a deep growl echoing as she regards it. Then she snatches it from his grasp, hurling it out the door with a loud yowl. She nearly clips Ria, and the necklace clatters into two pieces against the far wall of the hall.

"Well I guess that answers that, then," Gareth comments.

Rey slumps back, the growl still echoing from her lips.

"Sir?" Ria asks.

Kylo shakes his head to her unspoken question.

"You both may go. I will clean her and heal her as best as I'm able, but tell Taleisin he's needed in here. If- if the boy should live, we will have much to discuss. Otherwise he can come when he can."

Losing a patient always weighed so heavily on him. Kylo doesn't doubt that Taleisin would take their newest passenger's death very heavily even though he had no part in it.

Ria nods, both she and Gareth leaving. Kylo picks up the now tepid bowl of water and approaches his bloody mermaid. Rey gives him a tired smile and obligingly lifts up the hem of his shirt from herself to let him begin his work.

Rey was uncharacteristically hostile and difficult with Taliesin.

He had come not too long after Ria and Gareth had left, and he'd brought with him a fresh bowl of hot water and wrappings. Kylo had only had limited success with healing his mermaid himself. His thoughts were simply too exhausted and far away to commit to the healing spells properly.

Rey had growled with Taleisin had come close. Both he and Kylo had sighed a weary sigh. Taleisin was clearly exhausted after spending so much of his energy on the child. Kylo had hoped that Rey would be more accommodating and simply let him work on her in peace.

"Um, Miss? I would like to treat your leg wounds first."

Taleisin bends over her, inspecting the deep wounds and bruises that littler her lower limbs. Rey had been glowering before but now she kicks up, pushing him back when he reaches for her.

Taliesin looks to Kylo for assistance. Rey turns over her shoulder to give him a significant look at well. With a crisp nod of duty Kylo sits at the head of his bed and lightly rests a hand on her shoulder. A low growl emerges from between her tightly clenched lips and she bumps her shoulder until he lets go.

"What's wrong with her?" Taleisin asks. He looks like he wants to settle on the edge of the bed to begin his examination but is trying to find the least route of ambush to do so.

"She's… she's tired, I think. Or in a bad mood. Usually she likes you. Well enough. Ria is really the only Knight that M'Lady normally has any troubles with."

"My Lady?" he asks, his voice cusping on the edge of incredulity.

Rey snorts loudly at him using her name. The sound of it rather reminds Kylo of a dragon getting ready to exude a pillar of flame. Taleisin almost rolls his eyes before he catches himself. It's a clear sign that his energy well and truly is tapped out from healing their newest passenger. And now Kylo's asked him to do more.

"Call her Rey," Kylo says, then he scoops a squirming mermaid into his arms and against her chest. "Watch out for her teeth, but go ahead and start. I try and keep her from getting too agitated."

He doesn't want to use the word 'restrained, though, with his arms locked behind her in what Rey might think is an embrace, he perhaps already rather is.

Taleisin clears his throat and sits on the edge of the bed next to Rey. She huffs and tried to kick at him, but he catches her foot firmly in his hand. His eyes close and Rey whines, squirming at look up at Kylo behind her as a thin line of the Force is applied over a rather tender looking bite mark along her inner ankle.

Another hiss. Rey begins to struggle with Kylo's grip on her. Then Taleisin pulls away and she wrenches herself forward, yanking her foot free to see for herself.

The wound is pink and raw looking, but no longer open.

Rey straightens. Taleisin leans further back, away from her, and Kylo can sense him trying to find her endlessly allusive mind. Well good luck with that.

"Your foot please, Rey."

Taleisin extends his hand, his chin tipped down and an edge of caution to him as Patient regard Doctor and vice versa.

Her foot slams against his palm with unnecessary force. Taleisin meets Kylo's shrug with an eyebrow raise of his own.

"Alright then. Twist and turn your legs only when I tell you to, Miss Rey, and otherwise please stay still."

He looks up at Kylo who had dropped his hold but still had his hands now lightly resting against her wrists.

"She doesn't understand anything," Kylo tells him, a half-lilt of a smile pulling at his lips.

Taleisin next wraps his whole palm around a deep and broody gash along her walk. Rey sucks in a breath as healing energy fills her.

"You certainly talk to her all the time, Leader. Is it perhaps only you she can understand?"

Kylo's smile falls. Likely it wasn't meant to be a baiting question. Not one coming from Taleisin. One of the others perhaps. But the subtext was that Kylo had a special connection with his clingy guest that none of the other Force0sensitive Knights could share.

Yet, the truth was...was...was that Kylo had gotten used to talking to her. Talking at her. Conversation made their odd relationship feel more normal, even if it was of a one-sided nature.

"Good," Taliesin says when he doesn't get an answer. "This leg from the knee down is mostly healed. I'd like to do the next one then her upper thighs while I still have energy. You said the rest of her wounds weren't nearly as bad?"

Kylo nods.

"There are a few that I'd like you to see, but I know you're running low of energy."

"Have her extend her other leg over. If that's something you can get her to do.":

"Right."

Kylo project the image of what he wants into Rey's head. She frowns. Deepens to a scowll.

But when a clearly impatient Taleisin simply reaches out to her knee to do it himself she shoves her foot in his face. The she giggles as he glares up at her and yanks it into a firm grip.

"I take back what I said before," Kylo says, amusement pricking in him. "I do believe she actually does like you after all."

"And this is how she shows her appreciation?" Taleisin mutters it darkly. He heals two of Rey's wounds at once. It was a method that took much greater power than simply one at a time, but Kylo was getting the impression Taleisin had had enough of this even when there still was a great deal of Rey left to go.

Rey growls again when he starts to lift the hem of her shirt to up higher on her legs. Technically it was the hem of Kylo's shirt, and that might have made it even worse.

She slaps him. Hard.

Taleisin… blinks. Then slowly recoils back, pulling away from her with his hands still floating in the air between them. He looks up at Kylo with a befuddled expression.

"Did she think that I was trrrfhn-"

The last word is muffled again by Rey's foot to his face. She kicks him away with a steady pressure until the younger Knight falls right off the edge of the bed entirely. The glare he gives his leader is both uncharacteristically insolent- though perhaps forgivable given the situation and his great exhaustion- but also clearly laced with an unspoken can I just leave already?

Kylo shakes his head, adjusting his grip on Rey and trying to figure out how he can get her to understand this.

Taleisin stands, picking up the now sloshed over bowl of water and pink tinted cloth that had been used to clean her wounds.

Rey squirms, reaching to unbutton the top button of her shirt herself. Kylo raises an eyebrow and she yanks the collar open, presenting the love bite he had given her during their- their first intimate encounter with each other.

Oh.

"Talesin, she- uh-"

The Knight flinches as understanding strikes him. He starts to turn visibly red, always one of the more easily flustered of them, and Kylo wonders if he's matching him himself.

"You have the same bite, Sir." Taleisin takes a step back, his eyes sliding then lingering on the door behind him. "I saw it when I healed you after the sparring."

Kylo clears his throat. Rey relaxes incrementally as the distance between her and Taleisin grows.

"She- it's how she shows friendship."

Of course his Knight could sense the lie in it. Poor Taleisin, he seems so terribly uncomfortable. At least Kylo knows he'll stay tight-lipped about this development and not go blagging about to the others. Kylo doesn't need their moral condemnation now, even silently.

"Perhaps her arms only, then?" Taleisin offers, now having edged back half out f the room. "I assume you've seen her naked torso. Are there really any serious wounds there I must attend to?"

"Her clothes were soaking wet. I had to get her changed into something dry."

"Of course."

Gods, why does Kylo suddenly feel like some sort of- of- of debauched fiend? Rey shifts against, looking up and he can still sense the edges of her pain that still lingers.

"Just the arms, then. Now reach out, M'Lady."

He holds her hand in his, tangling their fingers together and drawing her right arm straight. This time Taleisin approaches from the side, mindful to keep out of the range of her legs and feet.

The healing is quick and perfunctory. Rey is grumpy, occasionally even snapping her teeth at Taleisin as he rolls up her sleeves or reaches across her. When he finally stands, there's a light sheen of sweat to his forehead and his skin is more pale than usual.

"Will that be all, Sir?"

Rey throws the bloody rag at him. She crosses her arms, glaring. Kylo rubs his temple, nodding a dismissal.

When Taleisin leaves Rey tries to drag Kylo into bed with her, but eh stops her. Tucks her in and this time she allows him to leave without too much of a fuss. A light touch to her forehead helps lull her into a much-needed sleep. One that Kylo will hopefully join her in, but first he needs to see to one last piece of business on the fateful night.

The boy was around ten or eleven years old, barely conscious, and echoes op the energy emanated from him.

"He has the Force," Balen says, watching closely but keeping his distance.

"Likely not strongly, but it's there" his twin agrees. "We won't know for sure until he's more lucid."

"So he'll likely live." Like the brothers Kylo also hung back, trying to sink into the shadows of the small storage room that had been hastily turned into the boy's infirmary. "When he can speak we'll have to try and talk to him. Find out what he remembers of the attack."

And then they'll have to find something to do with him. The Western Station was likely a very dangerous place, the Ilos even moreso, and the odds of them just happening to cross a friendly and suitable ship in these wintery waters was very slim.

"He was asking for his parents," Mayenne says. "I didn't want to tell him right then. He fell unconscious again shortly after."

Right. Tell this strange, Force-sensitive boy who'd just been kidnapped by a gang of mermaids that his whole family had just been horribly slaughtered. And now he was on a ship alone with the Knights of Ren.

"Perhaps tomorrow Taliesin can be the one to..."

Kylo lets the words hang. Such a discussion was a highly delicate manner, and none of his Knights were even remotely suited for it. Apparently all but Mayenne had badly frightened the child when he'd woke. No doubt he'd favored Mayenne because of her gender and smaller size, something that Kylo was sure secretly irked her.

"Tal's done enough," Balen finally answers. "He looked half dead when he'd stumbled into our bunk room a few minutes ago. Let me and Gareth talk to the boy when he wakes up. We'll find a way to charm him, or at least not scare him too badly more."

Their passenger was likely about the same age as the twin's ad been when the great war between the Island and Winterton had broken out. Maybe they would still have some points in common with him, though that hadn't looked like a slaver's ship.

"Alright then," Kylo agrees. "First thing when he comes to, ask him about the mermaids. Ask him what they had been trying to do to him. Then… then break the news about his family. Use the Force to calm him, if you have to, and that should get you a read on his abilities. If his powers are going to grow we should teach him a few basic controls before we set him out with a new caretaker."

Caretaker. Somehow. Kylo didn't have a bloody clue what they were going to do with the child.

Before Kylo goes to bed for likely only an hour or two's rest, he stops at the ship's hold. Maz had given him several books and old records. He'd been looking through them before to try and understand Rey's existence, but it's possible he overlooked something else that may now have new meaning.

The real question now lingered heavily on his mind. What in all the realms had those mermaids been doing? To the boy, to Rey, to himself?

The Western Station was looming closer. The villains who had attacked the ship had fled there. With a favorable wind, The Falcon should catch up with them in a day's time.

Somehow, though, Kylo doubted he would find anything but more questions.

Author's Note:

Yay, managed to squeeze a chapter in before my flight this evening! Relocating back to Prague to weather out the winter, and the cooler temperatures are hopefully going inspire this setting. I got asked on twitter how far into the story we are. I think… well it's not firmly outlined but I'd say around the 60-70% mark. After the halfway for sure. There's the business at the Western Station then its off to the Ilos. Lots of chapters going on there. And then possibly an epilogue chapter or two. We'll see, I'm kind of just figuring it all out as I go.

Poor Kylo. Poor kid that's likely to be hurled at the first not totally, completely, 100% sketchy person the Knights can find. And poor Taleisin. No one gropes a mated mermaid, doesn't he know that? Just bad manners.

And, as always, you can find me on tumblr at lost-inthesunlight and on twitter Ava_Avdal

comment replies:

Coesa Rudo – Oh glad you liked this chapter! A whole lot of things were going on, and it set the ground for the last 3rd of the fic. Poor Kylo needs to start trusting his mate more, but he's just so darned protective of her. Thanks for commenting!

.Feathers – Rey had been *trying to tell him about the boy, just her thick headed mate wasn't listening! Now they've really got a situation on their hands to deal with. All will be explained in time, though. Thanks so much for commenting!

Demelza1999- Glad to have you on board with this fic! Congrats on getting your movie tickets, I'm so like OTT excited! It's going to be so much fun, can't wait!

Thanks for commenting too! : )

Angelique Sauvegarde- Oh good, I was just kinda guessing what everything was called. Or existed, lol. Thanks so much for commenting!