A/N 1: I have posted a redacted version of an R-18 chapter that is only available on my pa-treon. This was mostly done because this scene provides some backstory, as well as character development that I felt would be best shared with all readers. However, this chapter is much shorter than the original due to all the redactions. If you see odd breaks in sentences, or the dialogue seems to skip, you know why. Personally, the amount of symbolism I had to cut out in order to make this okay for posting has left me very unhappy.
A/N 2: I post this here now because I promised the Iyanden Sidestories would end in 5 chapters/weeks, so the next one goes to Terra.
Mehlendri's apartment was sparsely decorated, only having the bare necessities for one person.
A small round table with a single chair.
A small bed for one person with one pillow.
A small wardrobe that held only enough clothes for a single week.
A single window that provided synthetic moonlight.
It was as if loneliness was symbolized in every aspect of the room's architecture.
"I understand we are encouraged to live frugally..." Filimerthex quipped as he looked around the room. "But isn't this too much?"
"Iyanden is my home. It is my life." Mehlendri answered. "This is a place to maintain my body."
"I see." Filimerthex nodded to himself.
What was about to happen was maintenance to Mehlendri. It was a method to satisfy her ego and physical urges. There was no desire for connection or warmth. That was why she chose this room.
"What do you think?"
"Beautiful." Filimerthex said as he stepped towards her. "Hair like liquid light, and skin as pale and perfect as fresh snow." He ran a hand through her hair, which sparkled when struck by the calming moonlight. "Yet it is you yourself that I find the most alluring."
She snorted, pushing his hand away from her. "The naive idealist who you could twist around your finger?"
"The pragmatist who allowed me to stay, and the Farseer with the foresight to use me." He replied, catching the hand that pushed him away as he took another step. They were close enough to feel each other's breath.
"You whisper sweet nothings to me. How many girls have you flattered to death with that poisonous tongue of yours?"
"None." Filimerthex shrugged. "I was always a soldier first. Harming my fellow Aeldari never feels right."
"Yet you killed us with such ease and brutality." Mehlendri said with narrowed eyes.
"I am a soldier first." He shrugged. "The only way I can keep everything safe is by killing."
[Large Redaction]
"Hold onto yourself, Mehlendri." Filimerthex whispered . "You no longer know what right or wrong is. But, you can still tell what you like and don't like."
She disliked pleasure, and feared its addictive and all consuming effect on her. But, to replace her moral code with self-centered decision making was idiotic. The only path that led down was a dictatorship.
"But, that is the problem, isn't it?" Filimerthex said . "You neither like pain, nor enjoy pleasure. You lie right in the middle, approaching neither extreme."
"It would have been much easier if you functioned only on logic, but you don't." He said as she glared at him. "You have beliefs and morals about how the Eldar should be, and what lessons should have been learned from the old Aeldari."
"Now, here you are, lost in the darkness no longer able to assume that blind avoidance will be our salvation from She who Thirsts."
Something snapped within her and she lunged forwards. Her mouth bit into Filimerthex's shoulder drawing blood as her teeth penetrated the skin.
"Yes, let it out." Filimerthex replied without a wince. "You wished to break something, to scapegoat someone. I am the evil you hate, , giving good reason for your revenge."
Mehlendri and Filimerthex remained that way for a few moments as the taste of rust filled her mouth.
He was right, and she struck out at him for it. The Eldar would now have to deal with their fallen brethren. That dependence on Commorragh would bring them close to the corruption that had brought the Fall. No longer could they see themselves separate from the Dark City. Its survival, and theirs were now intertwined.
The thought froze Mehlendri to her core. However, it was the only way to harvest the Spirit Stones en-masse without waiting for the Aspect shrines to grow.
Risk and reward hung in the balance, and the future swayed like the arms of a scale to-and-fro.
As her anger abated, Mehlendri released her hold on Filimerthex's shoulder.
"We had to be careful." She said slowly after she spat the blood out of her mouth. "There is no line between salvation and damnation."
"And I agreed with you." Filimerthex whispered . "For I followed you just like everyone else."
"But now we make deals with Commorragh." She said . "We sell our own into slavery, and put our fate in the hands of the slaves Khaine."
"Slaanesh did not arise during the War in Heaven." He said . "She shall not take us for reclaiming what was ours."
"Then what have I done to Iyanden, and to all those others who we did not let on board?" Mehlendri said . "Was I wrong?"
"No, you were not. I was there, watching you Farseer. Even before I banged on your gates, I was investigating you and all the other Craftworlds I could reach. I chose you and your Craftworld because I thought you had the highest chance of survival out of all of them. Even in the worst case scenario, Iyanden would be the one to endure. That was my conclusion." He lowered her onto the bed gently. "You were not wrong, Mehlendri. Even if you were, no one can blame you. I knew your noble intentions to save as many as you could. I counted on it to allow me to stay even after you found out what I was."
Mehendri's hands curled, raking her trimmed nails across his back.
"If you ever feel as if you do not know where you stand, then I can tell you. After all, I am the evil that fully intends to use you. It would be lazy of me not to know. You are a good woman, and so was every choice you have made."
Filimerthex defined himself as evil. Thus, from his perspective, good was whatever was on the opposite side of where he stood. As long as Mehlendri was across from Filimerthex, she was good and he was evil.
"Foolishness." Mehlendri snorted. "If that was true, then I would have to oppose you no matter how much commonsense or logic your plans or deeds had. That is the act of a reactionary."
"True." Filimerthex nodded as he stroked her head. His hand ran through her hair, straightening the strands that had gotten tangled when he had lowered her upon the bed. "But that is where the abstract concepts of morality shatter against concrete reality."
"So, is it our motives that should be opposite?" She asked . "Your acts will always be selfish, and hence mine should be selfless?"
"Is that a jest?" Filimerthex chuckled "Everyone's motives are selfish in the end. Otherwise, my wish to keep Iyandra safe and happy would be selfless as well." . "The difference between us is that you have a limit, and I do not." He said. "I went too far, and paid the price. You remain here, in this gap between pain and pleasure, right and wrong." "Even if the reward was the salvation of our entire species, you would not sell all those aboard Iyanden. I would do the opposite if it was to protect Iyandra."
"Then is it my fate that I will always lose to you?" She said sadly. "How am I supposed to fight you with one arm behind my back?"
In a fight between two equals, the one with less inhibitions was more likely to win. Mehlendri and Filimerthex were already unequal. Logic would have dictated that Mehlendri would be the one to take the underhanded path, but she could not. Thus, she would always be at a disadvantage against Filimerthex in more ways than one.
"We aren't dealing with winning or losing anymore, Mehlendri." Filimerthex whispered . "She who Thirsts has shown where my path leads." He said as he bit her earlobe. "My generation already lost themselves to the Fall. You and your kind are the survivors of that disaster. That is why I came to you, and why I serve you."
Sweet words flowed over her ears like warm water, massaging out the malaise she felt.
"You are the one with the power here." He said as he wrapped a hand around each of her wrists, then placed her fingers on his throat. "You are the one with the way forward."
"Says the one who has been using me from the day we met." She snorted as she pulled her hands out of his grip, placing them on his chest.
"Like I said, I am evil. It is my nature to do so." He shrugged, brushing a hand through her hair. "Even if you are the only method for salvation, it is meaningless to me unless it saves what I want."
The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a moment.
"What is Iyandra to you, Filimerthex?" Mehelendri asked suddenly.
She knew his granddaughter was the one thing he prioritized everything around. A baser mind would assume something sinister there, but she knew their relationship was normal. Yet, she couldn't help but feel there was something more there.
"She is my daughter's daughter. Nothing more, nothing less." He spoke earnestly. "I endure, I remain, I lie here for her safety."
Mehlendri raised an eyebrow at that. He had admitted this act of was for Iyandra's sake as well. She had her suspicions. However, to be told that the only reason he lay here like a was for her stress relief… On top of that, to be told that his motivation was so she could serve Iyanden and hence Iyandra… Well, the mixture of emotions was a blend of cold anger at the insult, and smug satisfaction for being right.
"I know what you did, back on Commorragh." She said, voice almost freezing over as she grabbed his shoulders and dug her fingers into them. "Aeldari your age don't walk around with us anymore for a reason."
"Living for tens of thousands of years gets boring." He replied with a wince. "Old friends become predictable. All conversation becomes a routine recitation of one out of several billion memorized permutations of prose, poetry, and tone. All that is left to bide the time is to lose one's self in what one wants, or to search for new means of entertainment in vain."
"Then why didn't you end up like that?" She said as she lowered her mouth to his ear. "Your background would have allowed you to be consumed by violence like the Psychomatons."
"In a way…" He said slowly. "I am here because you and I are alike."
"How so?"
"I feared losing what I was." He admitted quietly. "Everything I experienced and everything I felt was part of me. No matter how burdensome or boring that fact became, I could not abandon it just like you cannot fall to pain or pleasure. Just as you wish to remain sane, I wanted to be me and only me for as long as I could."
"But you were still bored of living." She said as she released his shoulders, and stoked the nail marks she had left in his skin softly.
"I was." He admitted. "So I searched for a way to make things fresh again."
Mehlendri snorted as he recited what he had already told her once before on the Core Worlds.
"You used the young souls born on Commorragh." She said as she dragged a nail across his collarbone. "You used them to see life through their lives again."
"I temporarily melded my mind and soul with theirs." He sighed wistfully. "I saw the world through new eyes with pure ignorance, and I could enjoy everything in the way only a fool can."
His face relaxed at the memory, but Mehlendri's features twisted in disgust.
"And they in turn saw everything you had."
"For the first few attempts, the experience was traumatic to them." He replied; nonchalant and unrepentant. "Not many can stay sane after seeing a million years of war in a blink of an eye."
"Why didn't you just wipe your memory, or seal them behind some psychic block?" She asked.
It seemed a terribly roundabout way to alleviate one's boredom. If trauma was what he wanted to be free from, Filimerthex didn't need another person or their soul in the first place.
"I am my memories, Mehlendri." He murmured. "Without them I would not be me. During the merger, I was myself and them at the same time. No… that's not right. I was them if they were me. They acted as I would have, but only as far as they could. They spoke my thoughts with their smaller vocabulary, and expressed my emotions with their less flexible faces."
Mehlendri felt a brief chill as she stared into his eyes. For a brief moment, her reflection seemed to be looking back at her, but not in the way the image inside a mirror would. Then he blinked, and it was only the liquid that covered his corneas refracting light back at her.
She sighed and reached down with both hands, and pinched both of his cheeks.
"I first feared that was your purpose when you came to us." She said as she began to pull. "When I learned of where you came from and what you had done there, I suspected you were here to feed on all those we had tried to save."
Filimerthex's hands gently eased her fingers from his face.
"I remember the day you confronted me." He chuckled once his lips could move freely. "When I saw the fury in your eyes, I was reassured. You and Iyanden were the one."
Mehlendri drew back, sitting upright as she pulled both of her hands from his fingers. Then she slapped him, hard.
"So that was part of your plan too." She said as Filimerthex nursed a reddening cheek.
"It would have been harder to keep private if we were corralled on the Craftworld." He said as he licked away the trickle of blood coming out of the corner of his mouth. "Better to air out the dirty laundry in the alleys of the Core Worlds."
She continued to stare down at him, remembering the day she confronted him.
He had already integrated himself as a productive member of the community by then. Most of his expertise was military in nature. He provided training regimens to increase the number of True Guardians. He optimized patrol routes to cover more ground with their limited forces. He even provided self-defense classes to the other Eldar, so they could survive for long enough until the True Guardians could rescue them. Removing him then would have risked their safety, for it was only their military arm that kept them safe from the Core Worlders.
At the time, she prayed that what she had learned was a mistake or a lie. She kept remembering the happy man with his toddler, telling her that he had named her Iyandra after the ship that would be their salvation. Her emotions delayed her for days. After several awkward weeks of trying to act like she used to, she finally began to search for a sign of his deceit.
It didn't take long to find it.
Filimerthex was always missing for an hour every day. Normally, it could be attributed to him having a break for himself, but the excuse he gave was odd. He told everyone who was looking for him during that hour that he was spending time with Iyandra. But, Mehlendri knew that could not be true, because he left Iyandra in her care during that exact hour.
She followed him for a few days. It didn't take long to see him using a secret hole that led under the enclave walls. After she worked up the courage to follow him through it, it took even less time to see him disappear into the alleys of the Core World.
Still, it took another two days for her to finally follow him into the alleys.
Was what she learned about him true? Did he lie when he said he had come to his senses and wanted to be better? Why did he have a secret passageway in the enclave? What was he doing in the alleys?
All those questions were running through her mind at the time, but the biggest one was more of a plea.
'What they told me about you, it's not true, is it?'
She followed him into the alleys of the Core World, but lost sight of him through its twists and turns. When she finally gave up and was about to leave, he was there at the entrance waiting for her.
"Thank you for coming, alone." He had said to her. "Now we can have a true discussion, heart to heart."
She felt something shatter inside her that moment. But, as she prepared to fight to the death, his next words gave her pause.
"Help me save Iyandra, and I will help you save Iyanden."
From that day forth, their fates were intertwined. He organized the militia they had into a full-scale army. Assisted them in acquiring heavy weapons and vehicles, or the songs necessary to sing their parts into existence. He provided escorts for their recruitment crews and craft. If there was a military-related matter, he was involved in it.
She worked with the other Farseers to strengthen Iyanden with other methods. Her work with the Spirit Stones gave the Eldar hope. Fostering greater filial connections between Craftworlds allowed them to trade information and resources. Coming up with ways to keep the Eldar aboard Iyanden away from temptation had the added boon of allowing them to recruit from a greater pool of people. Those who had touched temptation but had yet to be consumed by it could be weaned off their addiction with the same methods. Thus, allowing more to join them.
In the last hundred years before they left, Filimerthex had gained enough support to become Autarch in all but name only. Meanwhile, Mehlendri had gained enough trust to safely recommend him to the Seer council.
But, from what he said now, their fates had been intertwined ever since he had set eyes on her enclave.
"The Commorraghites you wish to contact, and the ones who told me what you were, they were the young souls you used." She said coldly.
"The fourth or fifth batch of attempts, I believe." Filimerthex nodded to himself. "It took a while to figure out how to look through their eyes while keeping them blinded when using mine." He chuckled as Mehlendri frowned down at him. "They called me teacher or master. All of them came to me looking for knowledge and power, and in exchange for the temporary use of their soul, I accepted."
"Following rumors you no doubt spread yourself."
"They made the choice on their own, even when I explained the danger." He smiled. "The children of Commorragh are ambitious, and eager to climb the ranks. They agreed, even when I warned them the process might show them more than they wanted to see."
"What happened to those first children?" Mehlendri said quietly.
"They are children from my perspective, not yours Mehlendri. Although, they were probably several thousand years younger than you at the time. As for their fate, most only took a few reincarnations to recover their sanity. The others threw themselves into stasis lock, and are probably still there. It was the same for all of them up to half of the fourth batch."
"Is that how you met your consort?"
"No." Filimerthex shook his head. "But, that is a story for another time." His hand reached up, stroking the back of a finger up her neck before cupping her chin in his palm. "Have you been broken down enough, Mehlendri? Can you tell yourself what is right and wrong?"
Mehlendri smiled down at Filimerthex; one side in light, one in shadow. Right and wrong had been resolved within her as the two faces of the same coin. She would fall to neither extreme, and hold herself in the middle. Her soul would forever balance on the narrow edge between the two faces of that coin.
If Filimerthex was focussed upon only Iyandra, she would be focussed purely on Iyanden. This Craftworld and all upon it were her only treasure. Their lives and souls would be forever bound to its Infinity Circuit; eternally out of the reach of gods and demons.
[Large Redaction]
"You never intended for that future to happen." Mehlendri accused . "Otherwise, you would have had a Spirit Stone for each of us you killed hidden on your person."
She was talking about the future where he killed her. It was only there that he had harmed her physically.
"It is easier to convince our kin that way." He said . "We can see the effects of our actions. There is no room for doubt, and no need for debate. The discussion of what is improbable and impossible doesn't have to take place, unlike when talking with aliens."
[Large Redaction]
"You need me." She whispered into his ear . "And I need you."
"I will use you, Filimerthex." She said . "Give all of yourself to me."
[Large Redaction]
Her head shook itself violently. Silvery hair flew outward with drops of clear sweet smelling sweat as her hands came up to her face, trying to hold onto a swiftly loosening mask that hid a wild beast.
"Sleep now." She heard a voice whisper to her, and Filimerthex's hands held her. They cupped her cheeks, wrapped around her shoulders, stroked her back, and restrained her writhing body.
Hands. Too many hands.
The moonlight dimmed, sending the room into darkness. Then Mehlendri's mind shutdown.
—-
Mehlendri awoke lying upon something soft. It felt like a hammock made of stretchy strings that softly held her, molding itself to fit her body. She opened her eyes and found herself lying on a silken web spun across blackness. Slowly, she stood up, balancing on the strands of the web. Each strand seemed to harden, as if feeling her intentions, providing a firm support for her feet.
She was not alone on the web. What looked like Aeldari men were everywhere, attached to the web.
'No…' She thought to herself. 'They are shells.'
Each body was just a shell. They lay there on the web, frozen. A split open seem was on each of their backs, like the shed carapace of a crustacean or arthropod.
Mehlendri approached the one nearest to her. The Aeldari's face was contorted in pain. Part of his body was frozen mid-way through disintegration. The features were familiar, similar to Filimerthex's, but she could not imagine the ancient Aeldari making such an expression. That man could be stabbed through the heart and smile. He would have the same expression even as Necron Gauss flayers disintegrated his body.
She stretched out a hand to touch it, only for the web to suddenly slacken under her. She fell backwards, away from the shell, landing on swiftly softening strings that began to entrap her like an overly soft mattress.
"Even that one?" Mehlendri called out into the blackness. No answer returned, but the web remained slack..
"Fine!" She shouted out after several minutes of struggling to get back on her feet. "I won't touch anything."
The web once again regained its firmness, pushing her back out of it, and allowing her to clamber back onto her feet.
Each shell was a life. A visual representation of an entire incarnation of Filimerthex. To touch it was to interact with that information. She would be exposed to everything inside it, including the painful death his life ended with. Of course, looking at the wound, she could easily imagine that there was much pain before that as well. This was Filimerthex's first incarnation fighting against the Necrons, and battle with them was brutal at every stage.
The next shell she walked by was once again in pain, but there was a grimmer look to it. Two impalement wounds with singed edges were the obvious cause of death. Yet, the man's jaw was shut tight and his eyes glared at some unseen enemy before him.
Shell after shell passed her by as Mehlendri wandered across the web. Each one was frozen at the moment of their death. But, there was a gradual trend between them. Pained grimaces and glares were gradually replaced by empty stares, then the straight line of the man's mouth began to twist. From death to death the cynical smile that had spread there began to split open into an insane grin. Then that grin opened even further into mad laughter that seemed to erupt from him the moment his body stopped moving.
Mehlendri swallowed as she felt bile build up inside her. The man's features formed an almost stop-motion animation of madness. Despite seeing only the surface level of what had happened to him, it disgusted her to her core.
His body changed as well. At first it was just an additional eye on the back of his head to see behind him, then it was an additional arm. Reincarnation after reincarnation, he became less and less recognizable. The latter shells' silhouettes shared more with the daemons of the Warp than the Aeldari. These shells no longer had a face. All they had was a mask attached to tubes and tanks that were buried into his back and sheathed in his skin. Eyes, nose, and ears had been replaced with various sensory devices. His many elongated and bladed limbs were almost entirely artificial.
But, Mehlendri did not weep for the man that was turned into a monster for war. He was unremarkable in that regard. This person's story was but one amongst billions of similar tales told by those who shared his fate. They had all been fighting and dying endlessly against the Necrons, then the Warp Plagues, then the Kroks, then the Aeldari themselves. To weep for only him was to ignore all the rest, and he would not forgive her for that. Such selfish hypocrisy would bring the being that had shed all these shells on top of her, and she did not know what he would do to her in his rage.
Finally, she came to the last shell. The bladed hands were impaled within himself, puncturing the heart, the lungs, and forehead. Bits and pieces of the armor that had been fused to his flesh lay torn around him, ripped off by his own hands.
There were no more shells after this one, but there was another figure before her.
Filimerthex's current body hung in the air, like a puppet on its strings.
Mehlendri's gaze followed the strands upwards into the void above them, and she finally saw what Filimerthex really was.
A massive eight legged spider like creature larger than a Fire Prism sat above her in the darkness. 3 long-nailed hands were on every foot, and they held both the strings that attached to his mortal body, and the strands that formed the web. Instead of pedipalps, a lipless fanged mouth spread across almost the entire front half of his body. 10 eyes were dotted around the thorax, allowing him to see in every direction. His pupils narrowed and widened at odd intervals as they swung to-and-fro, but the two largest on the front of his head were fixed on Mehlendri.
This was the shape of Filimerthex's soul. A monster that had long outgrown his mortal body, but still remained attached to the world of the living.
The spider's many hands pulled on the web, drawing Mehlendri closer to him as the net-like mesh of string below her was raised. As she got close, she saw that most of his legs and hands were tied up in his own web. He was holding himself down here, restricting his freedoms so he could pretend to be himself.
The lipless mouth opened, and numerous slug like tongues, tipped with four rhinophores stretched out towards her. She waited as the slimy tentacle-like appendages approached her. Smelling organs on retractable prongs stretched out to their fullest to draw in her scent.
The tongues and the buds upon them stopped centimeters away from her skin, hovering over her like hawks over a field.
Slowly, she stretched out a hand towards the spider. His tongues receded, keeping the same distance from her hand and arm. Her smooth fingers reached out to it. She passed the first pair of legs, then between the fangs of his mouth. The spider shivered as his jaws widened, allowing her to reach deeper into his tongue filled maw. There were now thousands of tongues surrounding her, all of them drinking in her scent, but never touching her. Cruel barbs could be seen on them, like the bristles on a cat's tongue used to rake meat from bone.
"I see now why you still remain, despite having fallen so far." Mehlendri said as she turned her hand over in the monster's mouth. His entire body shook, vibrating so hard a dull hum could be heard. All of his eyes except the two main ones were swirling round and round in their sockets.
"You chase a dream, a scent, a feeling forever." She said as she slowly pulled her hand out of his mouth. "But, you will never savor it." The spider's shivering slowed as his tongues retracted from her. "You stopped being mortal eons ago. Now, you're the same as all the other denizens of the Othersea. Like them, you are a creature who feeds on our thoughts, dreams, and souls."
Mehlendri leaned forwards, looking into the huge orbs in the spider's head.
"You want to eat me. To savor everything that I was, including my death. But, to do that, you would have to kill me." She smiled sadly at the spider. He never asked to be like this, but this is where the man had ended up after what seemed like an endless war. "Thus, you can only ever enjoy that moment once and only once. So, you bind yourself here, endlessly dreaming of the day you can devour me and all those you love. Even though you know you will never ever allow yourself to do that." The spider continued to stare at her with unblinking eyes, neither affirming nor rejecting her statements. "To do that means to end the dream, and to expose yourself to endless boredom. That is a fate worse than death for you."
"Not, boredom." Filimerthex's voice came from his suspended body. Only the mouth moved, like a ventriloquist's doll. "Despair, darkness, and regret." He said slowly, correcting the one part of her statement he found to be incorrect. "If it means I have to live through that again, I would rather starve myself to death."
Mehlendri stood back. The being before her was miniscule in comparison to the daemons she had seen consuming the Aeldari. Compared to them, he really was just the size of a spider. A single stomp, and he would be dead. Even though he was still the same as them. Filimerthex was a simple bug in comparison to them.
That was to be expected. This was a being of the immaterium that should have left for his natural habitat long ago. Instead he stayed here, clinging to all that he used to be. Deprived of worship, or prayer, he sat here with no name to call out in joy or fear. Only the first of his former students had seen his form, but by that time they had already gone insane from millions of years of death and destruction.
"You are of no use to me dead." She said as she put a hand on her breast. "Take my fear. Take my grief. Take the tears I shed in silent shame at being deceived by you." As she spoke all the memories she had of him appeared behind her as ghostly mirages. "Take my feelings, feed on them, and rise." The mirages slipped between his fangs, force feeding him Mehlendri's many emotions. "The Aeldari have need of you once again. Serve us and save us, ancient soldier and servant to our species."
—-
Synthetic sunlight filtered in from the window, entering Mehlendri's eyes through squinted lashes. She lay upon her bed, tucked in under the covers. For a moment, she wondered if everything that had happened last night was a dream.
It was only supposed to be for a night. However, finding herself alone with only the evidence that someone else had been there left a hollow feeling in her chest. The empty room she used only to sleep in seemed colder than usual.
*Knock knock
Before Mehlendri could answer, the door to her apartment swung open.
"Ah, you're awake." Filimerthex said with a smile. "I brought something to eat." He held a tray with two bowls, and two mugs. Warm sweet scents wafted over to her with the water vapor rising from the porridge he brought for breakfast. An extra chair hovered behind him, following him into the room as he placed the two bowls and drinks on the single table.
"What's wrong?" He smiled. "Did you think I left you?"
Mehlendri didn't know what sort of expression was on her face, but the hollow feeling in her chest was gone.
"Where did you sleep?" She asked, pushing aside whatever she felt at the moment. She lay in the center of the small bed, and there was no evidence of another occupant.
"On the floor." He shrugged as he sat down. "Aren't you hungry?"
As if on cue her stomach rumbled. She glared at him for a moment, but he neither laughed nor made fun of her. There was only a gentle smile as warm as the sunlight that came in from the window.
"Come Mehlendri. It will get cold soon."
This was probably another act, another mask of his to mollify her. It might not be malicious in nature, simply an extension of his service towards her to relieve stress.
But, Mehlendri ignored all that.
"Alright." She said with a small smile.
If this was a dream, she could afford to sleep in for a few minutes. Even if it wasn't, there was no point denying herself this small mundane happiness. She threw off the blanket and summoned a towel, a shirt, and a pair of shorts from her closet. After cleaning and dressing herself up, she sat across from him. It was the replication of a scene from her memory a few hundred years ago. A natural occurrence between the two of them before she had learned how old he was and where he came from.