Note: Been a very packed last couple of months; I had a summer holiday, had two members of the family in hospital (not at same time fortunately, and both okay now), upheaval at work as we changed our computer system and are preparing to move premises in the next two weeks, and then I've just recently had a sickness bug that has been making the rounds at work. Been warm at least here in the UK; though I can't remember a time when I could still be wearing flip-flops in October!
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ACT 2 – TRUTH
Chapter 41 – To Sleep
The air was wonderfully warm against Oneakka's face as he looked up at the bright sunny Pelydrian sky. He could feel the deep sense of relaxation already sinking into his bones, the yearly peaceful pause in his life almost as familiar as the scent of sweeten-pea blooms in the air.
There had been a time when sweeten-peas had only grown on Ugun, the plants with their versatile peas, roots and leaves one of his people's main exports to visiting off-world Traders. He could remember that two sides of his old village had been dedicated to growing long rolling fields of sweeten-peas, and, during their twice yearly blooms, the distinct smell had scented the air for months throughout the village and surrounding area.
He drew in the old familiar fragrance now, deeply sentimental memories stirring with the smell.
Yet, the memories didn't seem quite as painful this year, which was a growing theme of late for him, since his near-death and his vision of his family. Thinking of his lost home and family still hurt – which he was sure wasn't something that was ever going to change – but the stirring of old memories felt more nostalgic today rather than the more usual sharp painful reaction.
He drew in a deeper breath of sweeten-peas blooms, willingly allowing old memories from his childhood village to stir.
And, as he had often pondered but never asked, he had to wonder if the Pelydrians had planted sweeten-pea fields so close to the Portal just so he could smell the old scent of home when he visited each year, which just happened to be during one of the twice-yearly blooming seasons. Since the fall of Ugun, Pelydr had cultivated sweeten-peas themselves and its products were now a main export of their own. But to this day, each packet of the peas, bags of dried leaf for teas, or the medicinal bundles of sweeten-pea root, all declared on their label that the plant had originated on Ugun. It was one of the only places where Ugun glyphs were still used.
Other than on his yearly gift. He looked down at this year's beautifully embroidered stole-scarf, the Ugun glyphs faithfully recreated from the original trading agreement, even including the two small mistakes from the original. He always looked for those misuses of two glyph verbs, the Ugun scribe who had written it clearly having been in something of a hurry as the slightly rushed handwriting in parts of the original document evidenced. It was always a nice little snippet of the reality of his people behind the several hundred year old trading agreement, a reminder that there had been real people involved, not just boring officials.
Lifting his gaze from the stole-scarf, he looked back towards the last clothing stall on this last aisle of the marketplace. The curtain into the changing room where Raven was deciding on her latest purchases was still closed. He was happy to wait, stood in the sunshine and drinking in his yearly Pelydrian relaxation.
He hoped Raven would also be able to enjoy some of the peace here. Of all the cities, planets, moons, space-stations and spaceships he'd ever visited or lived on, nowhere felt as secure and peaceful as Pelydr. Coming here every year was the one single time in his adult life where he could set aside his warrior training and truly relax in the knowledge that there was nothing to worry about here. There were no call-to-arms to listen out for, no time schedule to keep to, and nowhere he was expected to be for two whole weeks. Sixteen days of being removed from anything that was required of him.
Here, he felt truly free.
Which made it the most perfect place to bring the 'Free One'.
He'd suspected that she might have some issues with the concept of security here on Pelydr, and, as it had turned out, he'd actually underestimated her reaction. Though, considering the life she'd lived, it wasn't all that surprising really. Feeling safe was still relatively new for Raven, it having taken her some time to settle into life in the Facility, so hopefully she would find her own way to feeling truly comfortable here on Pelydr.
And what better place for them to spend time alone together.
There was no military here on Pelydr, no links to their usual lives in the Facility, and no labels or expectations of being an Elite Warrior and ex-Security Lead/Pit Fighter.
Up at the Retreat, it would be just the two of them where it was safe and the weather was warm.
And to be able to find out, finally, how they could get along away from everything and everyone else.
But he was going to have to be careful and cautious, because Raven wasn't a female you underestimated even on her worst day. She was highly cautious and hyper-aware of everything, sometimes giving the feeling of her being ready to flee at any moment to retreat to more secure ground. He'd already noticed her peering at him today with a suspicious edge to her frown, but she was here and appeared to be enjoying herself with her shopping. Still, a Warrior didn't rush foolishly into unknown territory, so he was going to be measured and careful with his strategy. First, they needed to see if they could actually spend time alone together without falling into more heated arguments again. Secondly, he would ensure she was comfortable at the Retreat, had good food, and could truly relax. Then, if all that went to plan, then he would find the right moment to declare his intentions and present his list of qualities and promises he could provide as her partner.
So far, step one was going very well. She truly seemed to be enjoying their time in the marketplace and he was enjoying the simple act of shopping with her, strolling through the sunshine and holding her bag for her while she looked through clothes. It was interesting to see what drew her attention, what qualities she looked for in her clothing choices and how she excluded options. Of course, being Raven, her choices focused more on practicality and whether the fabric and stitching was strong rather than whether it was "pretty". Practical and utilitarian; it was so very Raven, and rather too familiar to his own way of seeing things.
Which only proved to him that his approach to his gentle careful seduction was the right strategy. He needed to set the correct atmosphere and prove his worth, as Raven would want a male who was useful in her life, an equal with valuable skills to bring to the partnership.
Though she had pointed out several times that him finding her ongoing, though reducing, paranoid suspicion of Pelydrians funny was not "useful". He had agreed that it wasn't technically 'useful', but that it was highly entertaining for him. Bringing the most suspicious and cautious female in the galaxy to the most peaceful and crime-free planet was a combination that was just too amusing not to enjoy. She'd taken offence to his phrase "most suspicious", as he'd intended, but he had been able to see that she hadn't really been offended. It was part of their usual banter, which felt strangely light and freeing here away from the Facility.
The changing-room curtain abruptly moved aside and Raven emerged, the clothes she'd taken in now divided up into two groups, one pile over each of her arms. She stopped and glanced around with a frown, most likely looking for him. It took her only a second to spot him stood in his patch of sunshine.
She smiled brightly and lifted one of her clothing-laden arms and then pointed off to where there was a small queue to pay. He took that to mean that she was going to buy that armful of clothing so he nodded. He got another smile before she turned away and headed towards the queue.
The burst of eager pleasure at her simply smiling at him felt shockingly good.
Clearly there were quite a few hormones powering through his system, so he made himself look away from where she had joined the back of the queue. There was no need to get too-
He paused, eyes locking onto the back of a Pelydrian stood at a nearby fruit stall.
He leaned to one side to try to get a better look…yes, it was Sitayi!
He'd not seen the Elder Seer in a long time, and especially hadn't seen or spoken to her since hearing her prophecy that had helped him save Halling. He'd meant to message her with his thanks, but he'd somehow forgotten through his hard recovery. But she was here now and he could thank her in person.
He glanced back round towards Raven, but her attention was distracted by items displayed alongside the queue. She would still be able to see him at the fruit stall with Sitayi, so he reached down and picked up both their bags and headed towards Sitayi' back.
"Ambassador Sitayi?" He called gently as he approached her.
She turned instantly, looking shocked for a moment before her expression shifted into a large grin as she faced him.
"Honoured Son of Ugun," she exclaimed. "Ah, so this is why I came to the market today," she added cheerfully and then looked down to where she was holding a kita fruit in one hand and one of the strangely shaped lung fruits in her other palm. "I was trying to decide which fruit to buy today and you say that you always prefer kita fruit," she looked back up to him with a smile.
"I do always prefer kita fruit," he confirmed, rather used to this kind of conversation with Pelydrians.
Sitayi nodded as if confirming he was right, and then she started faintly leaning to one side, her eyes shifting past his left arm. He looked round, guessing someone else wanted her attention…but there was no one there. Maybe someone had passed by.
He looked back to Sitayi only to find her looking up at him with a smile that seemed oddly innocent.
"It is always so good to see you," she stated firmly, as she always did, which always struck him as strange.
He could literally count on both hands the number of times they'd ever interacted in the past, but she always reacted as if they knew each other far better than they actually did. He put it down to her being a Seer, but whenever she behaved like this, he always felt a little thrown.
Her eyes strayed away to his left again, but quickly snapped back to him as if she had caught herself doing it.
He frowned at the strange behaviour, wondering if she actually wanted to move on to talk to someone else? Escape him. She wouldn't be the first to avoid him, but then she treated him in such a friendly way…
Wait, he had come over here for a reason.
"I had meant to send you a text link," he started, "but-"
"Your recovery took a great deal of your focus," Sitayi interrupted as she turned and set the lung fruit down on the stall and turned back to him.
"It did," he nodded, not sure which of them had made that point. "I wanted to thank you for helping save Halling's life," he forged on and said what she presumably already knew he was going to say.
"We all played our part in saving him," she replied with a soft smile.
"But if you had not warned him…" he pressed.
She nodded, sadness flashing across her aged purple face. "I am so grateful for your part in helping save him, Honoured Son of Ugun," she said, her eyes shimmering with the sudden shine of unshed tears.
Was that why she had always been so pleased to see him when they occasionally met? Because Halling was almost akin to family to her and she'd known that he would one day help save Halling from the Skerti Queen?
Her small warm hand suddenly touched against his forearm, her grip surprisingly strong. "As always, you did such impressive work, Honoured Elite."
It was rare that a Pelydrian referred to him by his usual warrior's title, especially here on their homeworld, but she had clearly done it purposefully. He knew that Pelydrians felt conflicted about the need for violence, but they had always supported the Elite, saying that they honoured the dedication and self-sacrifice of the Elite to defeat the Wraith in order to protect life. He had often wondered what life must be like for a Seer like Sitayi, living in the present but knowing so much about the future, or possible futures…
Which reminded him.
He frowned down into her gentle violet eyes. "I also wanted to ask you something, Ambassador."
"Yes." Sitayi' hand squeezed his arm again with strangely friendly affection.
"After we saved Halling, when I was in a coma," he, choosing his words carefully. "You visited Halling in the Training Facility and he said that he'd asked you if I was going to survive."
Sitayi' hand shifted on his arm again, though it now felt a more motherly comforting touch.
"And you told him that I was making a choice; essentially whether to live or die," he continued, watching her face closely. "How did you know that?"
As he understood it, Seers 'saw' the future, so how could she have known of the internal experience he'd been having at that time? Did she have more than one gift, as many Pelydrians did? Did she know about his vision of his family? About how he'd been drawn back to his life by the distant voices of his Whisperers? By the supportive push of his family…
Sitayi looked up into his eyes and smiled softly. "Because you just told me, Son of Ugun."
He blinked. "Just now?"
"Yes," she nodded, her hand squeezing his forearm before lifting away.
"You foresaw us having this current conversation back then?" He checked, the logic making more sense to him now, or as much as it ever did on Pelydr.
"No," she replied. "I remembered this conversation back then."
She didn't know about his vision then, she had instead known of his choice because he'd just described it to her. But he'd only asked her the question because of what she'd said to Halling…which she'd only been able to answer because of this conversation now… A faint headache threatened.
Sitayi' eyes shifted away to the left again, but this time her attention fixed past his left arm and a smile lit across her face.
He felt the instant warmth of someone stopping close by his left side, but he didn't need to look round to know that it was Raven. Not only because no one else here would stand that close to him, but he could already smell the floral scent off her skin and clothes in the sun's heat.
But he kept his eyes locked on Sitayi, watching, shocked, as the Seer smiled brightly at Raven.
Had Sitayi' previous glances been because she'd been waiting for Raven to join them?
In fact, she'd seemed almost eager for it, trying to hide her glances. Why?
"Greetings," Sitayi bowed her head to Raven. "It is a pleasure to meet you."
"Hi," Raven's voice replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you too," she added politely.
Maybe he was just overthinking things. Maybe Sitayi had seen him earlier with Raven in the marketplace…except she'd been surprised when he'd approached her initially, so that wasn't right.
"We have never had a Glisi visit our world before," Sitayi said animatedly to Raven. "We are very honoured that you are here."
That meant that Sitayi knew exactly who Raven was, which meant that she'd always known that Raven would be here with him on Pelydr today…
What else did she know?!
"I'm not sure it's all that much of an honour for you," Raven joked to Sitayi before her arm abruptly nudged against his. "Can I have my bag?"
He pulled his attention away from Sitayi still smiling at Raven. He had both of their bags leant against his legs, Raven's bag partly trapped under his own. He drew it out and held it out to her and realised he'd not introduced them…not that Sitayi needed to know who Raven was, but the same didn't go the other way. "Seeal, this is Ambassador Sitayi."
"Sitayi?!" Raven snapped her gaze up from having started to open her bag. "As in the one who saw the future about the Rogue Hive and warned Halling?"
"Yes," Sitayi nodded. "And I am very grateful for your part in helping save him, Honoured Glisi."
Oneakka saw Raven's faint surprised frown at the title, but she smiled at Sitayi more naturally now. "Thank you for warning him. Though some more details would have been useful."
Oneakka switched his gaze to Sitayi, but the Elder Seer hadn't taken offence, instead she pulled a pained smile. "I entirely agree with you. There are many days that I wish my gift was far more detailed."
"So you don't see that kind of detail when you…" Raven paused, her face twisting into a conflicted frown, "see the future?"
"Regretfully no," Sitayi replied. "I only remember some moments of what I have personally experienced in my life, which includes how others describe events to me," her violet eyes switched to Oneakka. There was almost something to that look.
He had thought he was long used to conversing with Pelydrians with their gifts, even with seers like Sitayi, but he felt really thrown by this encounter with her today.
An encounter she had clearly known was going to happen. Including meeting Raven with apparent anticipation…because Raven had helped Halling? Perhaps that was the reason.
That made some sense to him now.
It was about Halling; about the three of them who had helped save Halling, all stood together in this moment.
Not anything to do with him and Raven.
He was definitely starting to feel a headache the more he thought about it.
Sitayi smiled warmly at him and then switched her attention back onto Raven. "I know many of my people who specialise in cultural exchange and would welcome sitting in one of the talking circles with you to speak of the Glisi. Our knowledge of them is very limited."
"Talking circle?" Raven asked. "Is that a term for people reading my mind?" The suspicious hostility vibe was back in her voice again, but there was also a dash of humour now.
"Oh no," Sitayi responded instantly. "We would never gather information that way."
"Not even to keep your planet so secure?" Raven pressed with her Security Lead tone.
"In times of extreme danger perhaps," Sitayi considered.
"And who decides when it is a time of 'extreme danger'?" Raven pushed.
Sitayi grinned. "Perhaps you would prefer a talking circle to discuss security measures; your own experience would no doubt be highly informative."
Oneakka felt himself freeze again.
Sitayi really knew who Raven was, including her background on Dreamstation.
Which perhaps meant that at some point in the future she would be interacting with Raven enough to learn this about her…why would they spend so much time together?
Or was he overthinking again? Perhaps, as a Representative to Athos, Sitayi would have read a report on Raven, or could perhaps even know about Raven from Emmagan? Sitayi had a very close connection with both Halling and Emmagan's families, so maybe it was the Athosian connection. And Raven was part-Athosian…
"That I would be interested in discussing," Raven replied to Sitayi' suggestion with eagerness now replacing suspicion in her voice.
"I suspected as much," Sitayi chuckled. "I will mention it to some colleagues of mine and they will be in touch once you are available to meet."
Maybe that was why she knew about Raven…this connecting her with a talking circle about security?
Nothing to do with him…
"Thank you," Raven replied politely and he noticed her attention fixing on him in his peripheral vision, so he glanced round to find her giving him a questioning look.
He realised he was still holding one end of her bag, and that she'd put her latest purchases inside and closed the clasp again already. He let go of his end of her bag.
If Sitayi was going to be interacting with Raven in the future again, then she would, in theory, know the outcome of his intentions towards Raven?
Raven sent him a pointed 'what's up?' frown, and he realised he was staring at her.
He decided that they'd spent enough time talking with the Seer, so he looked back round to Sitayi.
"You should be going," Sitayi took the words out of his mouth. "I suggest you look out for the new tea deliveries in today, something you'll no doubt enjoy," she smiled at Raven. "It was an honour to meet you, Seeal."
"It was an honour to meet you too," Seeal replied. "And thank you again for helping us save Halling."
Sitayi bowed her head and then looked up at him. "Honoured Son of Ugun, I have enjoyed our encounter today and it is so pleasing to see you so well recovered." Except, of course, she'd always known he would recover…
"I look forward to seeing you again soon," she added.
How 'soon' would that mean? Or was 'soon' a very relative term for a Seer?
He wondered if some of Raven's paranoia about Pelydrian gifts had somehow rubbed off onto him today.
Sitayi smiled at him and he forced himself to concentrate. "It was good to see you too, Honoured Elder," he told her, bowed his head and then turned to leave, Raven at his side.
He'd never needed prophecy in his life…well apart from the single time it had helped save Halling…so he just needed to carry on as normal. Not worry about what the Elder Seer might know about him and his future.
He led Raven quickly away from Sitayi, resisting the urge to look back at her over his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Raven asked from his side. "You're looking more snow-coloured than usual."
The joking tone, and seeming honest concern about him, snapped him out of the paranoid thoughts. He smiled round at Raven as he made himself slow his pace. "I'm fine. Have you finished buying all the clothes in the marketplace?" He teased her, getting things back on track.
"Not all the clothes," she played along.
"Do you want to visit any more stalls?" He checked, though he was pretty sure that they'd visited every clothing stall.
"I'm done," she smiled.
It was another nice cheerful smile.
"Then we should get the food supplies," he decided as he reangled their path to the left, heading towards his favourite vegetable stall to start.
"And now that she mentioned tea," Raven added. "I realise I don't have any of my favourite tea with me."
"Your favourite Athosian tea," he picked up his new teasing point with her.
She made a show of rolling her eyes. "Don't start that again. It's just a coincidence."
He smiled as they reached the start of the long stall stacked with various vegetables imported in from across the Alliance. As he picked up a large woven wicker basket to start their selection, he found himself glancing back towards the fruit stall.
Sitayi was still there, but she was busy piling kita fruit onto a weighing scale.
He made himself look away and focus on the task at hand, not on some ill-defined uncertainty about how seers' powers worked.
And what Sitayi knew about the future…
"I start here with basic vegetables," he explained to Raven as he started along the stall, glancing over the crates containing the different veg on offer today.
"I'll only be here a day or two," Raven said from his side, "so you just get what you normally do and I'll just- Is that cloud root?!" She abruptly interrupted herself and started away to the right, reached into a crate and pulled out a white-skinned puffy-shaped tuber.
He followed her, reaching her side and considered the 'cloud root' in her hand; he couldn't remember seeing them at the stall before, but then the stall varied its produce a lot and he tended to stick to his favourite things during his visits. "Cloud root?"
"I haven't seen these in years," Raven uttered, sounding almost wistful as she turned the veg in her hands. "I didn't know they grew in the Alliance."
"Pelydr trades with some worlds outside the Alliance," he explained as he glanced down at the information pad set on the front of the cloud root's crate. It said it was traded from a small moon near the border. He glanced over the various languages declaring any conflicts of medication or allergies depending on illness or planet of origin. Ugun, Glisi or Athos weren't listed, so it was safe.
"What do they taste like?" He asked as he reached into the crate and pulled out one of the oddly heavy tubers.
"It's a sweet, starchy taste," Raven replied as she sniffed at the veg, still seeming slightly thrown by finding it. "It's from a big green plant that grows on a load of worlds well beyond the Alliance. Kind of a cheap, easily grown plant. The leaves have a slight pain-relieving effect, we used to use them in poultices at the pit fights, and used these roots for cooking all the time. I haven't eaten any since before Dream," she said with what was definitely a very nostalgic tone. It was a rare thing to see her enjoy something from her past.
"How did you cook it?" He asked as he lifted the cloud root to his nose; it did have a noticeably sweet earthy smell to it.
"We mostly used to dice it up into a stew, or fry long slices of it in a simple batter of flour and water."
"There'll be flour in the pantry up at the Retreat. How do you normally flavour them?"
"They don't need much, they kind of have a unique taste to them," she replied as she reached into the crate of roots and started going through them, clearly knowing what to look for in cloud roots. She picked two. "They're tasty by themselves, or they thicken up stews nicely."
He held up the wicker basket and she set the two cloud roots into it and reached for the one he held out to her. She inspected it and added it to the basket, his choice having passed her approval.
"The fried version sounds like it would go well with some green vein sproutlings," he considered as he moved along the stall, looking for the sproutlings. On the way, he picked up various other usual veg, adding them to the basket with barely a thought.
"Do they serve the sproutlings in the Facility Canteen?" She asked as she followed him.
"They're in that green peppery shredded fried mix," he glanced at her as he added several large ankhon potatoes to the basket.
"Ooo, I like that that green mix," she smiled, her eyes on his hands, watching him select the potatoes.
"The green vein sproutlings give it the peppery taste," he explained as he finally spotted the big top leaves of the sproutings in a crate ahead. "I also do a dish where I bake them with Litan long sweet peppers and some spices."
The sproutlings looked nice and fresh, so he added two of the large bunches to the basket. He'd cook the Litan dish tonight for them.
"A dish you do?" Raven asked amused. "Are you going to tell me that you're a chef as well as an Elite Warrior?"
He grinned as he moved to the almost overflowing crate of Litan long sweet peppers. "Not a chef," he replied. "But when you've been subjected to Halling's attempt at tuttle root soup on missions, you've got to learn quick to take over cooking duties," he told her as he added several peppers to the basket.
"Tuttle root, that's Athosian isn't it?" She asked with a look and tone that implied he'd picked an Athosian vegetable reference on purpose.
"It is," he confirmed as he picked two more peppers. He loved them, as did a large swathe of the Alliance. Litan made a fortune exporting the peppers, and had dedicated huge glass-walled houses just to produce the peppers in all seasons. "Tuttle root is a highly nutritious vegetable and keeps a long time, so we often carry packets of dehydrated tuttle root on long missions when we know we'll be in isolated areas of a planet."
"Hunting Wraith presumably?" She asked as she moved with him towards the end of the stall, where he'd spotted a crate of red-topped curly cabbage.
"Usually," he replied as he selected a cabbage and added it to the basket. "I prefer tuttle root sliced up and thrown in with a highly spiced stew, but Halling, to this day," he added to her with pointed emphasis, "keeps trying to make traditional tuttle root soup."
She grinned. "Tastes that bad, huh?"
He didn't need to exaggerate the near shudder. "Emmagan barely does better, in all honesty. Apparently it takes an experienced Athosian Elder to make it correctly."
He glanced over the last crates of the stall. He usually just bought his top favourite foods and didn't look beyond that, but he intended to properly plan the meals he was going to cook for Raven while she was with him.
He spotted a crate of Pelydr's own nice nutty-flavoured tubers and, next to it, there was a stack of prepared bags of sweeten-peas. Perfect.
"You're going to particularly enjoy my roasted Pelydrian tuber root with caramelised sweetgrain crumpets," he told her with a smile as he added the tubers and two bags of sweeten-peas to the overflowing basket.
Raven glanced round from inspecting an information pad on a crate and gave him a bemused look. "You make crumpets?"
"I do," he confirmed, resisting the urge to add a more flirtatious comment.
"From scratch?"
"Only way to make them when you're stuck in the middle of a swamp, hunting Wraith," he pointed out, noticing that the stall's Trader was approaching on the other side of the table. The male was a familiar face, his family having run this stall for as long as Oneakka had been coming to Pelydr.
"It is good to see you, Honoured Son of Ugun," the Pelydrian smiled as he reached for the basket. "And honoured guest to our world," the male added, turning his gaze to Raven.
"Pleased to meet you," Raven replied as she reached towards one of the glass vases spaced along the stall that held tall stem flowers. Oneakka knew the flowers were there mostly to distract insects away from the vegetables, but he suspected it was the pretty blue flowers that drew Raven's attention.
Noise to his left had Oneakka quickly pull his attention away from the overtly feminine image of Raven delicately sniffing a flower, to see that the Trader was simply setting the bags of sweeten-peas aside; Oneakka was never charged for any raw materials that came from the Ugun-originated plant, and he'd long ago given up trying to argue that he should pay. He watched as the Trader started picking out everything from the basket, weighing it all with barely a glance at the scale's display.
Oneakka glanced back to Raven to see that she was still admiring the flower.
In fact, she was looking nicely relaxed already, her shoulders soft and her attention captured by something as pretty as a flower.
"Anything else, Son of Ugun?" The Trader asked, drawing Oneakka's attention back to him. Everything had already been wrapped and set into a bulging net bag held forward for him.
"No, that's all," Oneakka confirmed as he waved his wrist over the charging device. "Thank you."
"Thank you for your custom," the Trader replied as Oneakka picked up the very full net bag and began to turn away, only to see the Trader's pale lilac eyes shift to Raven. "Please do take the flower with you, honoured lady, it should be with someone as beautiful and sweet-scented as it is."
Oneakka paused, surprised at the abrupt flirtatious comment from the Pelydrian male.
"Thank you," Raven replied though, her tone suggesting she had been very flattered by the comment.
Oneakka frowned a warning at the male, but the Trader's gaze was still admiringly focused on Raven.
"The tea stall is this way," Oneakka stated to her as he continued turning away from the vegetable stall. As noble and peaceful as the Pelydrians were, they were also known to be a very passionate people, so it was best to lead Raven away from the wrong type of temptation for this holiday.
"Okay," Raven replied simply as she turned with him, distracted down to where she was tucking the end of the flowering stem into the side pocket of her bag. At least she didn't seem tempted to stay and flirt with the Trader.
"Athosian teas are very popular here, so they're likely to have your preferred variety," Oneakka told her as they crossed towards the crowded tea stall, except suddenly a warm hand touched against his, snapping his attention round. For a split second, part of his Warrior's mind assumed it was a thief, but the thought died instantly not just because no one was stupid enough to try to steal something from an Elite's hand, but because this was Pelydr.
And it was obvious now, as he looked round, that it was Raven.
"I'll carry this," she stated as she gripped the handle of the heavy veg bag, her hand registering as soft and warm alongside his.
"I've got it," he reassured her, glancing down at her smaller golden hand up against his far larger pale hand.
"You're already carrying your massive holiday bag," Raven argued though, her grip tightening alongside his and he felt a faint pull on the handle.
"You've got a bag too," he pointed out.
"I didn't bring half a library with me, besides, you're still recovering."
He felt himself stand a little taller and tighten his own grip on the bag in response to her point. "I can manage it just fine. You can carry the tea and grains we still need to buy," he offered.
"As in the lighter things?" She made a scoffing sound as he felt her other hand grip the other side of the bag's handle, his hand now sandwiched between her warm soft hands.
At some point they had stopped their progress towards the tea stall and he was aware that they were now stood in the middle of the throughfare, both holding the net bag's handle while other shoppers passed by on either side of them.
"You're still recovering from injury and on a rehab plan, remember?" She added, slightly tugging on the handle again.
"It's a rehab plan now focused on flexibility," he pointed out as he easily resisted her pull on the net bag.
"Uh, no, it's to build your endurance too," she stated, annoyingly accurately and, despite his best intentions, he felt himself get ruffled at the point.
"It's mostly focused on flexibility with some building my already improved endurance," he found himself arguing back. "Besides, you're currently far more injured than me."
She frowned up from the bag to meet his eyes again. "I wasn't the one impaled by a Hive Ship."
"It wasn't a whole Hive Ship," he replied with his standard part anytime she used that phrase.
She'd given up trying to pull the bag from his obviously far stronger grip and had started trying a new wiggling technique on the handle to try to get him to release it. He tried not to find it too amusing. As strong a female as Raven was, he knew that his grip strength was naturally far stronger. A life of daily weapons training and just pure size difference gave him that advantage.
And any advantage with Raven was important.
Especially when she was stood so much closer than usual, the two of them an arguing island among the other shoppers.
Not that it felt like a real argument; instead, it felt like the lighter older arguments they'd used to have.
Or maybe it was just because she smelt so very good stood so much closer to him.
"I'm not really injured," she dismissed his point, frowning down at the bag again, clearly annoyed at her lack of success with the wiggling approach.
"Really?" He challenged her instantly. "Then why are you limping?"
She scoffed at that. "I'm barely limping," she insisted.
"Not from where I'm looking."
She narrowed her dark pretty eyes at him. "Only you can start an argument over someone trying to help you."
"Which of us was most recently in the Healing Bay?" He asked.
She really did smell good.
"It's just a light sprain, Oneakka," she stated, but he could see that he was clearly on the path to winning.
"The answer to my question is you," he continued. "And when were you last in the Healing Bay?" He pressed. "Last night. And you were so tired that you couldn't even stand without my help."
As planned, she took immediate exception to that challenge to her sense of strength. She let go of the bag's handle and crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at him. "I could stand just fine by myself."
He lifted his eyebrows at her, challenging that statement.
"It was walking I struggled with," she clarified. "And that was only because I'd spent over a day trekking through treacherous tunnels beforehand. You were probably just lazily sitting around while I was busy killing Wraith and helping save Saoka's life."
He grinned at the comment and her forced haughty manner. "Absolutely, I wasn't standing around worrying about you for over a day."
Dark eyes shifted to him with a flicker of surprise at his almost admission about how he had spent over a day fearing for her life.
Despite the fact that she was no longer holding the net bag, she hadn't stepped back to a more usual distance…probably because she would see that as backing down and admitting defeat right now.
He felt the compulsion to let his gaze wander over her face, down her cheeks to her lips, to glance down at the front of her shirt while she was stood this close, but he held the basic instinctive urges in check. It wasn't like doing so was all that new around Raven, but today the restraint felt more obvious…or, perhaps, the most tenuous.
Besides, there was nothing wrong with just looking at her lovely eyes.
It struck him suddenly that their history of holding long stubborn eye contact might not have been so innocent on his part. Somewhere along the way, it had turned into something very pleasurable for him.
He realised neither of them were talking and he had no idea if a mere second had passed or a minute.
"If you want," he suggested, "we can buy some extra heavy grains for you to carry along with the tea." He hadn't intended that to sound as challengingly teasing, but it had and she instantly reacted.
She turned her head away, lifting her pretty chin in a forced haughty manner. "No, since you're so big and strong again," she stated before looking back at him out the very corner of her eyes, "you can carry everything."
Big and strong? That was a far better description than the impaled patient who needed her constant help.
"Even the 'sweet-scented' flower the Trader gave you?" He asked.
She grinned, clearly surprised, and it instantly broke through her haughty, feigned indifference, though she quickly fought against the smile – not really winning. "No, I'll carry that, you carry all the heavy stuff," she stated as she started forward, breaking up their little island in the market walkway, heading on towards the tea stall again.
He followed quickly, reaching her side with two long steps.
"Well, if the flower gets too heavy, I'll carry it for you," he offered as he watched her profile, her cheek moving as she worked to suppress another smile.
Yes, stage one of his plan seemed to be going very well so far.
00000
The exhaustion was like a physical weight on Nalla as she moved across her quarters.
Her body felt almost unbearably weary and yet she could still feel adrenaline coursing through her tired system. The carefully held psychic line she had to constantly maintain was exhausting but also required her to remain hyper-vigilant at all times, as any wrong move could draw the unknown Presence's attention to her and those around her. She had no idea what that might do, but given how shockingly powerful the Presence seemed to be, she had not been able to risk doing anything but essentially keeping herself as psychically still as possible to avoid detection.
She had never felt anything as alien as the Presence before, and, if it was the Skerti, it meant that their minds were significantly different to Wraith despite being genetic cousins.
Wraith minds she could easily deal with, even without her decades of Elite experience in battle against them. Most Wraith were relatively simple in their emotional webs, usually focused on satisfying their hunger to feed, seeking dominance over other Wraith, or in serving their intense instinctive urge to please their Queens.
She felt none of that in this Presence now…not that she dared explore its emotional web at all.
She had just held the line for days, holding still, almost fearing to breathe.
Like a prey animal trying to hold itself entirely still so as not to draw the eye of a predator.
And it was so tiring.
She had lost awareness of exactly how long it had been since she had slept, and sparing some mental attention to work it out felt too risky.
But she was home now at least, back on the Sythus, her bed before her.
The promise of sinking onto the mattress' support almost moved her to tears, but she also felt afraid to risk lowering her guard to sleep. Just moving around her bedroom space felt all too dangerously distracting for her focus.
But, she needed to sleep.
She did not need to have her empathic gift to see the very real concern her friends and colleagues were feeling for her.
She had to rest, and her Sythus quarters was the safest place she could find for that right now.
Emmagan had volunteered to sit in the adjoining room, ready should the worst outcome prevail and the Presence overwhelm Nalla's own consciousness. It was a risk, one that Emmagan, being a Seeker, truly understood; and Nalla knew, without doubt, that Emmagan would not falter should drastic action be required to protect the Sythus and everyone aboard.
At her bedside, Nalla turned and slowly eased herself down onto the edge of her wonderfully soft bed.
Just sitting on the cushioned softness of the mattress felt wonderfully good, but she could feel her own fear coursing through her, keeping her sat tense and rigid. After so many days spent constantly holding such careful psychic vigil, to let down her guard now felt wrong and almost beyond her capability.
"Do you need anything, Nalla?" Emmagan's soft voice roared through the quiet room and Nalla snapped her head round towards her trusted colleague.
Emmagan's emotional web pulsed loudly with sympathy and fearful worry for her. It was almost too much against Nalla's stressed, drained senses.
"No, thank you," Nalla replied as calmly as she could.
Emmagan smiled at her, her web shifting with kind loving concern. "I will be just out here," she indicated the main room of Nalla's quarters. The dividing curtain had been partly pulled across already, which would provide her with some privacy as she tried to sleep, but allow Emmagan to hear and check on her as needed.
And the stunner on Emmagan's hip was ready to be used if necessary.
Nalla dragged her dry tired eyes up from the holster and nodded to Emmagan. "Thank you," she repeated, the words almost sapping away the very last of her reserves.
Emmagan nodded and turned, reaching up to draw the dividing curtain fully across behind her as she left the bedroom area.
Nalla watched Emmagan's shadow slide away through the semi-sheer material as Emmagan moved to her sentry position in the next room.
It was almost unbelievable to her that Emmagan and Si could not sense the Presence. It felt so big, so loud, so…alien…
Nalla turned her heavy attention away from the curtain and focused on the lone pool of light by her bed, the small lamp shining over her pillow. It looked so inviting, but she held still, sat up rigidly straight, her hands clasped tightly together in her lap.
She frowned down at her own hands. She'd used to grip her hands tightly together like this when she'd been young, when she'd struggled so long with her gift.
Those days had seemed a long time ago, but today, she felt like she was back in those youthful inexperienced years again. Every day had been a struggle against the torrent of other people's emotional webs around her, it all too loud, too confusing, overpowering and unbearable. It had taken her years to refine her senses, helped by experienced Empath Elders on Pelydr to guide her to finding calm within the storm of others' emotions.
Years of daily meditation, classes, mental exercises, and many tears.
She looked up across her quarters to where her old Pelydrian banner hung on the wall opposite her. It had been given to her by her foremost teacher, the precepts by which she had found her eventual peace and skill with her gift.
It had been many long years since Nalla had read the words on the old banner, decades since she'd needed to be reminded of those first foundational skills she'd mastered an age ago.
But she read each word now, grasping for help.
Because she dared not reach out to her people on Pelydr for assistance. Barely stirring her mind to think which day it was felt too dangerous, let alone doing something so psychically powerful as reaching the vast distance to her homeworld. Perhaps even risk drawing the Presence's attention to her people!
No, she was alone here, for now.
So, she read her first teachings again: Breathe. Calm. Focus. Peace.
The words she had repeated and focused on for so long through her childhood. Her anchors in the storm.
So she repeated them again now, over and over, praying the foundation training from so long ago would help her now.
Breathe.
Calm.
Focus.
Peace.
Breathe.
Calm.
Focus.
Peace.
She closed her eyes after a while, focusing as much as she dared on repeating the words in her mind and just breathing in and out.
Breathe.
Calm.
She felt her shoulders sink a little, the tension in her muscles easing a fraction.
Focus.
Peace.
And one of her first ever training exercises suddenly came to mind: the mist.
It was the first thing Mother and her teachers had her focus on; picturing a mist gathering around her, between her and everything else. Letting it form higher around her, growing thicker and thicker, until there was nothing but the glowing soft fog encircling her, protecting her from everything outside her own mind and being.
She pictured it now, imagining a thin mist rising at first, sliding between her and the Presence, growing higher and denser.
Breathe.
Calm.
Focus.
And abruptly there was space between her and the Presence.
Finally she felt space and quiet, and she let out a long heavy sigh of relief.
Peace.
She opened her eyes and immediately turned, sinking her body down onto the mattress, her head against the soft, cool pillow. She drew the duvet up over her, the weight of the material feeling like the fog embracing her, protecting her.
Reaching out, she turned the lamp off, the immediate darkness another welcome balm against her senses.
She closed her eyes and focused on the fog again, thickening it further, forming a wall around her…helping her find peace again at last.
Sleep slid around her in an instant, scattering away the last of her fearful worries as she slid down into the blissful depth of rest.
…
The dream slid effortlessly in around her, the old path appearing through the thin late night mist.
She had always loved this old walk, padding barefoot along the worn path out beyond the trees while the others slept.
It had been her favourite time as a child, while everyone was unconscious, enjoying their dreams, their emotions far more contained and more easily ignored. She'd walked the same route every night, out away from the beds between the trees, following the wandering naturally formed path through the grasses and shrubs. Pelydr's moons had shone down over her with soft, illuminated peace, and she had felt truly happy.
Sometimes Mother would stay awake to watch her leave, natural pulses of worry in her web to see her young child wander off alone. Nothing would have happened on Pelydr, but the bond they shared had still made Mother worry. But as the years had passed, Mother had stopped her vigils of her leaving and returning hours later.
So, it was just Nalla awake now, while everyone else slept.
While there was deep, impenetrable calm around her.
There was a soft light mist across the shrubs tonight, but it wasn't stopping the wildlife from enjoying their nighttime scavenging. She smiled at the tiny simple little emotional webs, easily tolerated by her senses, as she passed by several small, long-nosed shrews digging through dried leaves under a large shrub. They did not pay her any mind. She was no threat to them and a familiar sight on their nightly outings.
The path began to wander further away from the forest, and she padded softly along it, enjoying the sights and smells.
The mist gave everything a faintly damp scent tonight that made her think of the spring rains that were still many months away.
To the left, sat on the uppermost branches of some bracken, two big-eyed birds sat watching her, the moons' light shining in their dark eyes as they watched her approaching. She could tell from their webs that they were a bonded pair, looking for safe territory to build their first nest.
Nalla bobbed her head to them as she passed by, their black eyes like the deepest pools as they watched her.
She continued on, the joyful sense of freedom of her walk making her so happy that she began to skip along the path instead, the ground still warm despite the growing mist.
She skipped on as the track began widening between denser thickets, and the smoky-scent of frog-flowers became obvious in the misty air. She stopped for a while to admire the pretty night-blooming flowers, then continued on, the path beginning to dip downwards into a gully.
The air felt noticeably cooler here and the mist was definitely growing thicker.
In fact, her long pleated dress was feeling heavier and she could feel the moisture in the air against her bare arms and face.
And it was oddly quiet.
Nalla stopped.
She realised that she couldn't hear any animals moving around anymore. No bird calls, no chittering insects, and no snuffling sounds under the vegetation around the path.
Everything was so strangely still.
She reached out with her senses, but found nothing. No life nearby at all.
Frowning into the thickening fog, she realised she was unable to see much detail around her. She padded cautiously forward along the path, barely able to see more than a few feet ahead of her, until she finally reached the lowest dip of the worn track.
There was no sound at all here.
No crunch of loose stones and dried sticks under her feet.
Not even the sound of her own breathing.
Nothing moved, nothing even dripped in the damp air.
There was nothing here but her and…
She turned, seeing something dark and indistinct in the thick fog.
It was off beyond the path.
A dark shape.
She stepped off the path, cautiously moving towards it.
The damp vegetation became bare, empty barren ground under her feet. But ahead, through the fog, she could see the dark shape growing closer, its edges becoming more distinct through the thick air.
It was an entrance to a cave.
She didn't remember there being any caves near her childhood home.
She edged cautiously towards the cave's entrance, the moonlight feeling cold against her skin.
The entrance was barely taller than her, but through the thinning mist, she could see that there was a dark tunnel just inside the cave, stretching ahead of her into blackness.
And there was something in it.
Something strange and different.
Something alive.
Curious, she stepped forward, up over the rocky edge of the entrance and into the tunnel.
It was dry and warm inside, strangely so after the damp cold outside.
The walls of the tunnel felt very close in the darkness, and different somehow…
She reached out to one wall, but her hand met a soft warm plumpness instead of rock. She snatched her hand back, but where she had touched the wall, a glow began to appear. The glow expanded into the shape of her handprint, and then started spreading further.
She watched in fascination as the light began to spread over the cave wall, down under her feet and round up over her head, until the area of the tunnel immediately around her was lit up in a soft brightness.
And she could see why now. The inside of the tunnel was covered by a series of long, thick plant vines, illuminating around her.
She giggled at the strangeness of it.
She reached out again, laying her small hand against a glowing vine, feeling its warmth, its life coursing through it.
And she sensed an emotional web stirring from the vine, aware of her and curious in turn.
She lightly extended her senses to it and felt a strange tingle in response, but it formed into a recognisable emotional response. A greeting.
She reached out to another vine that wasn't glowing and ran her hand gently over it to see what would happen.
The vine lit up instantly and the same sensation repeated across her senses. The exact same sensation in fact, the same web.
"I see," she whispered to the plant. It wasn't a series of separate vines, but one single lifeform.
More vines lit up, the glow spreading as more of the plant revealed itself.
She watched in fascination as the light spread, every surface of the rocky cave covered in the vines. It's web grew larger and stronger as well, as the glow continued extending further into the depths of the tunnel ahead of her. In fact, she could now see a second tunnel lighting up in the distance, branching off the first, the plant clearly vast.
Reaching out, she touched her hand gently back against the first vine and felt the plant respond again.
The plant's web shifted, its curious pleasure towards her sliding into a sense of determined struggle.
She frowned at the plant and its surprisingly powerful emotional web. She understood struggle, but she wasn't sure she understood what was wrong and what she could do to help the plant. She'd never encountered anything like this before, so allowed her senses to merge a little stronger with the plant's massive web.
A sudden sense of isolation struck her, a sense of deep bitter cold. Of the bare cave walls, and growth against almost overwhelming constriction…
She snapped her hand away, trying to cut the connection, but her bare feet were still on the vines coating the floor, and the sensations continued.
Almost as if the plant had so much to convey.
Barren isolation, the sense of being confined, struggling against cold and…something else she couldn't understand.
She tried to send reassurance through her feet, but she didn't know how to tell it more.
The web flared, but then abruptly went quiet.
Some of the tunnel's glow in the far distance dropped into darkness.
She frowned at the sudden pitch blackness of the far tunnel and the purposeful quietening of the plant's web.
A strange sound echoed from somewhere in the distant depths of shadow.
Nalla froze.
It had almost sounded like an animal noise.
Something that her primitive brain told her to fear.
More of the most distant vines began to lose their glow, plunging more of the tunnel into pitch black, making it seem as if the darkness itself was starting to advance towards her.
She took a step back, the vines still alight and warm around her.
A deep, guttural growl echoed down the tunnel as the darkness continued to spread.
There was something in the darkness.
A new web abruptly slid into the awareness of her senses. It definitely wasn't a big open web like the plant, no, this one had sharp focused intelligence and it was looking for her.
It was hungry.
Bored.
And eager.
Eager to find her.
The vines were losing their glow at a faster pace now, the darkness seemingly spreading along the walls, ceiling and rocky floor towards her.
She couldn't see anything within the approaching blackness, but she could feel the predatory intelligence still seeking, reaching, wanting…
She whimpered as she quickly backed up, unsure how close she was to the exit out of the cave, but she kept her eyes fixed on the advancing shadows, trying to see what was in there, what was hunting her.
Her foot abruptly caught on a vine and she stumbled, her feet catching in the damp ends of her long dress, and she fell backwards.
The vines were fortunately a warm and soft cushion as her backside and hands hit the cave floor, but she immediately scrambled backwards, a deep growl echoing again within the approaching darkness.
It was too much.
She screamed and turned over, flattening her hands on the still glowing vines under her and crawled desperately towards the cave entrance ahead of her.
She needed to get out, back out into the air and the mist.
The predator roared from down the tunnel and she could hear claws scratching on rock, getting closer and closer behind her with terrifying speed.
Slipping on the warm plant, the last vines dropping into darkness around her, she threw herself forward through the last short distance out of the cave, tumbling down over rock and through the damp night air outside.
An angry rageful howl reverberated out of the cave entrance as she rolled to a stop in the misty gully. She quickly turned onto her belly, got her hands and legs under her and struggled her way up onto her cold bare feet, and began running away from the cave as fast as she could.
Another loud roar echoed out of the cave, but it wasn't close behind her anymore as she tore through the mist.
She risked a look back over her shoulder, seeing the fog thickening between her and the cave entrance, the strange heavy silence hanging around her again.
Her own desperate panicked breathing was silent, almost making her feel like she was suffocating.
She looked up through the fog, up towards where Pelydr's moons hung…only they were wrong.
Masses of uneven, drifting rocky moons filled Pelydr's sky.
Nalla forced herself instantly out of the dream as she became aware of it, and gasped into wakefulness, almost striking her head up against Emmagan's who was leaning over her.
"Nalla!" Emmagan was shouting, her hands tight on Nalla's shoulders.
"I'll alright!" Nalla gasped, flattening one hand to her chest as she panted.
She was in her Sythus quarters, she was safe.
Immediately, she began picturing the mist around her, thickening it back up into a deep fog.
"Are you sure?" Emmagan asked, worry and panic flashing in her web, but it was duller now as the protective fog reformed.
Nalla held still, waiting, listening and sensing.
The Presence was still there, but well out beyond the edge of her protection.
But she understood it now, knew what she had been sensing.
Why it had been so confusing, so alien.
"You were screaming, Nalla," Emmagan moved into her view.
"I know," Nalla forced herself to give more focus to her friend. "I'm alright. I understand now."
"Understand?" Emmagan asked, her features lit by the distant lamp in the next room, the dividing curtain thrown aside. "The Presence?"
"No," Nalla shook her head, breathing into the space of her protection. "It's not a presence, it's two."
"Two?"
Nalla sat up in her bed, pushing the covers aside. "One is an immense plant-like lifeform. It's massive, it's web made up of powerful, but basic, honest instincts. But there's something else, something with it. Something powerful and dangerous."
"The Skerti?" Emmagan asked.
"Maybe," Nalla frowned, thinking back into the imagery that her gifts and her subconscious had used to portray what had happened. "I think I only sensed one though, one creature and the vast plant around it." She looked up to Emmagan with a rush of determined confidence. "But I know where they are."
"Where?"
"They're inside an asteroid."
0000
TBC