Part I:
RAKKA
continued
Dolatrafas is prodded ahead of Grunt by the muzzle of the krogan's rifle, Miranda on the other side of her colleague and Ylyssus trailing. He prefers to hang back, lost in thoughts as he trails them, face downcast and quiet since he has rejoined them out in the lane before the cotti. So much felt lost, being there in Mohouni and revisiting ghosts of memories he once found a solace with…
Something he felt close to home as could be found by Ylyssus. Mohouni had only gotten better with Braith around…
…Her turning and smiling in that serene way, his thumb drawing down her chin as he directed her into a kiss…
Even if at first their relationship had been convenience, and he might have become attached to her because of the sex…Cemal had changed things, and so had her becoming Behedin...
…Morthwyl killed Taph'alic! Bloodred eyes! Skin as midnight's cold darkness!…Wrath you could see in its face!…
…Braith changes everytime she returns from those hunts…Quieter, more dangerous, and ravishing, don't you think, Ylyssus…
…What does she see when she remembers at night, looking out at the moons from the bedside…I pull her away and ask her to speak of it to me, but she lays down instead and clings to me, afraid to close her eyes…
He closes his eyes and heaves a sorry sigh…
It draws Miranda's attention. With a glance behind her at the drell, she turns her face, nods at Grunt with an incline of her head to carry on.
A slower stride, she falls back to walk abreast the former th'ane lost in his misery, "…Something you need to discuss," she asks.
"What?" Completely oblivious, until she interrupted his thoughts. "You ask me something?"
"What is on your mind…You're huffing, sighing alone back here, and it's gone on far too long." She looks at the eyes of the drell, distant and longing for something. "You can either stop the sighs and moping, slowing us down, or talk about it. I'll suffer as a shoulder to cry on."
He looks away from her gaze, "…I was a slave in that city…Years…It took me years to adjust from being a th'ane to what I…I made that city my home, then Braith showed up, on a table…"
"Why was she on a table, dare I ask."
"She had been whipped. Part of her punishment for attacking one of the burrells…Aspah liked to see skin flayed off the backs of examples…She had done it to help someone, but…"
…We dance so fast, Mia'tonia is smiling for once…Kala, she's sweet to look upon, I think I could fall in love…
"…I never thought we would become what we became together."
…She looks sideways at me from the table, breasts in contact with the wood, back bare, bloody wounds breathing…She endures so much, it astonishes…
"…She changed my life and for the better."
"Good." Miranda offers a smile, knowing her own experience with Braith. "She helped me with my own life, others too…Braith has that ability." She winces, "…or had it…" Just to be safe…Who knows what exists in her place, she thinks, …Thane seems to believe Braith's dead and some sort of…succubus…exists in her form…
She looks away from Ylyssus in thought, hair blocking view of her face.
Ylyssus raises his head from looking down at the ground, "…She gave me a taste of a family…Something I've never known until…our adopted daughter."
"Braith and you…adopted a girl," Miranda says incredulously.
"A wee drellahna," he agrees, "…Little Behe…"
…Davied is put-off by the familiarity of the child to the father, he turns his back on her. "It looks like him…"
Where is Davied now…
"…She had a black stripe on her crown, down her back, which is why we called her after Braith's nickname in the Behedin."
He smiles at the memory. "I see…" Miranda turns her face back to him, seeing the change. She decides to encourage him to talk more on the happier matter, "…And Behe means?"
"Black like her hair," Ylyssus shares, now turning his eyes to hers, "…Behedin stands for Black Wind and the Behedins named Braith Behe because of her hair color, and so the really rather unclever naming continued…"
Miranda grins at his gentle mockery. "What happened to your daughter when Braith left, did she go with you to Nualavera?"
Ylyssus's smile fades, his expression turning down again. "Braith left because of our daughter…Little Behe drowned in a river…"
His gaze daggers, and it raises to the back of the drell ahead.
"…That Drell over there, he witnessed it."
"He did, did he…" Miranda looks to the same direction, her eyes narrow as she looks back at Ylyssus by the corners.
"I would like a chance to ask him about it."
"You had that chance and you lost out," she jumps to her correct presumption. Her expression coarse as her tone, "…You told me you don't kill without immediate need, and yet back in the city you nearly broke his neck, tossing him out the second-story window. What do you expect, Ylyssus," she says to the incensed look, "…You don't trust me, and you are the one with all the surprises…Trick me to think one way, turn around and behave another way—"
"He would have suffered no more than a bruising," Ylyssus growls softly, in defense of his act. "That Behedin can withstand more."
"You assume he would have landed safely but off his feet, and thrown as hard as you did, he could have gone headfirst, which he also did…" She shakes her head, "…I can't trust you to keep your urges in check, murderous ones that is."