by Sam Ryder
Eve offered a small smile. “Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“For not making me feel like a pathetic fool.”
“That’s the last thing you are.”
Our eyes locked for a long moment and I realized we had stopped at some point to focus on our conversation. I also realized that Vrill had stopped too, and was now watching us, her eyes narrowed and focused on our interlocked hands. We released each other simultaneously, our hands dropping back to our sides. It had been a nice moment with Eve, but Vrill was the one who really needed my support right now. So I caught up to her and said, “Hey. You ok?”
She didn’t look at me, just started walking again as I fell into step beside her. “You and Eve…” she said.
“Yeah? Ask me anything. I’m an open book.”
“You care about her? Truly?”
I couldn’t deny it. “Yes. But not the woman you know. The real Eve, the one who was afraid to let herself out of her shell. The one ashamed of the things she did for all those years.”
“You love her?”
“Yes, just as I love you. But differently. I love you each in a different way. It’s hard to explain.”
Vrill nodded, looking contemplative. “I will try to understand. Be patient with me. This is very hard for me given our history.”
“I will be as patient as you need,” I said.
“You have brought so much good to Tor.”
“Only because you saved me in the beginning and taught me so much. Without you, none of this would be possible.”
Vrill’s eyes glowed under the light from the thousands of small lights as she accepted the compliment. She grasped my hand now, and we walked hand in hand, Eve’s soft footsteps trailing behind us.
I looked back at her so she would know I hadn’t forgotten about her. “This is your first time down here?” I asked the Finder.
“Yes,” Eve said. “Dahl Mar is only accessible to the Lri Ay.”
“Then what did you do before? I mean, whenever you would Find here. Where do you go? Have you ever seen the Viss before?”
“Many times,” Eve said. “I always hoped I would arrive under the full light of one of the three moons. And I always tried to complete my task before nightfall fell. But it didn’t always work out that way. Thrice I arrived in the dead of night. The Viss were hunting. I was a stubborn woman back then, so I refused to just leave without attempting to Find new Warriors.”
“Was a stubborn woman?” Vrill said. There was no mocking in her tone. Nope. For the first time, she was actually joking with Eve, as if to prove to me that she really was going to try harder to get along with her archnemesis. For me. It meant a lot.
“Funny,” Eve said. “I can still be a stubborn woman. I know that. You’re right.” Wow. What was happening? The two women were actually being cordial with each other. “Anyway, I would find shelter anywhere I could, hiding in the shadows, listening to the Viss hunters shrieking, fearing that I’d be killed and never see Tor again. I was almost caught more times than I can count.”
Jesus. This was heavy stuff. I’d never really considered all the risks Eve took to be a Finder, always focusing on the manner in which she’d performed her duties, abducting people against their will. But was she also a prisoner the entire time, performing a function she hated, her work turning her into the bitter, resentful person I’d first met all those months ago?
“That would’ve been hard,” Vrill said, once more surprising me.
Eve caught up to us. “Thank you for saying that. It was. But, in a way, it made my objectives easier. It allowed me to justify what I had to do. I blocked all thoughts of whether it was right or wrong. I just did what I came to do and got the hell out of here.”
“And now?”
“Now…I don’t know. I’m learning a new way. Today will help me. I need your help.”
Vrill seemed as incredulous as I was. “I need yours too. Both of you. Today is a hard day for everyone.”
“Yeah, I had to fight a Viss mano e mano. I’m bleeding, you know? Are either of you bleeding?” I was trying to lighten the conversation a little, and it worked.
“How bad is it?” Vrill asked.
“Flesh wounds, I think. But when we get wherever we’re going, I’ll need some bandages.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. I know someone who can help.”
We continued on. It was strange thinking about Vrill having old friends here other than me. I wonder if she had old flames here too. Whether there was anyone she’d left behind that she was hoping to have a life with. Hell, I didn’t even know how things worked here exactly. I knew that sex was treated differently, more openly. Mostly because the Lri Ay needed it to exist much like humans needed water and food.
Finally, after what felt like several miles, the path leveled out and then spilled out into a void so large I couldn’t make out the sides or end. It was hard to see much, actually, because it was constructed like catacombs, a hundred passages veering off in a hundred directions like holes through swiss cheese.
“Dahl Mar,” Eve said, in awe.
“Yes,” Vrill said. “This was my home. C’mon. We are not far from my friend.”
Somehow she picked out the right path, though they all looked the same to me. It veered toward the left and then scythed back toward the right. As we walked, cubicles appeared on each side, no doors on any of them, small but cozy. The forms occupying the cubicles were visible due to more blue lights. They sat on soft-looking pads lying right on the ground. Some of them were conversing, their heads close together. Others seemed to be working, using blades to carve weapons. Others were writing on long rolls of parchment. However, the majority of the Lri Ay we passed as we made our way through Dahl Mar were—yeah, you guessed it—fucking. Or, as they called it, rejuvenating each other. It was quite a sight to behold, because there were all varieties of intercourse occurring right out in the open, without need for privacy. There were couples in all sorts of positions, threesomes with two males and a female, two females and a male, three females—I couldn’t help but stare in these instances—and every other combination involving even greater numbers. Some of the cubicles were larger allowing for proper orgies. At one point the tunnel we were in widened into a large atrium just filled with bodies. I felt like I was Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut gawking at the most unbelievable scene you could imagine. On all sides, bodies writhed, taut and sweaty, thrusting and sliding. After our harrowing escape from the Viss hunters, watching all this rejuvenation got my adrenaline coursing through my body for a whole different reason.
It also made me understand my relationship with Vrill in an entirely different way. We’d been intimate within a few hours of me meeting her. It wasn’t just sex and yet it was. It was both. It was just sex and something more, a connection we’d grown over the months since. Now our intimacy was different, fuller and more mature.
Vrill, having grown up in this place and accustomed to seeing orgies like this one on a regular basis, passed through the bodies like it was nothing. Eve and I glanced at each other, eyes wide, and followed. I also noticed several of the Lri Ay staring at us as we passed, probably wondering how the hell a couple of pale-faced foreigners had gotten inside. But none of them stopped, too deep into the throes of passion to really care about us. Once we were through, I was tempted to ask if we could join in the fun but thought better of it. Maybe later, wink wink.
The path curved tightly to the left. We stopped seeing people having sex and instead seemed to enter something of a business district. The cubicles were larger and stocked with goods, such as armor, weapons and clothing. I wondered what they used for money here, or if it was a communal living society where everyone contributed and everyone received what they needed in equal measure.
I was about to ask, but then Vrill entered a cubicle on the right. The space was empty save for a few stone platforms and a small stone desk where a female was sitting and scrawling notes on a parchment tablet. Vrill
froze, while we stood behind her, unsure how to proceed. I saw Vrill take a couple of deep breaths before clearing her throat to get the woman’s attention.
The woman wrote a few more words and then half-turned. “Yes?” she said. “How may I help you?”
“Mother,” Vrill said. “It’s me.”
Holy. Shit.
EIGHT
LIKE MOTHER LIKE DAUGHTER
“Vrill?” The woman’s voice was deep and raspy, thought she still looked young, like she could be Vrill’s slightly older sister rather than mother. There was an obvious resemblance between the two women, from their high cheekbones and flawless features to their deep and soul-piercing eyes.
I had to admit, she was unbelievably hot—easily achieving MILF-status—so it was obvious where Vrill got her good looks.
“Is it really you?” Vrill’s mother said. “Where—I don’t understand. Where have you been?”
“I—” I could hear the emotion in Vrill’s voice due to the reunion. She was having trouble getting the words out. I suddenly felt awkward at being here for this. This was a moment between a daughter and a mother. Something private. Something we were intruding on and— “I left because I couldn’t stand this life anymore, Mother. I couldn’t handle your fake, plastered-on smile, the lies spilling off your lips, the way you tried to patronize and minimalize my feelings like they were the silly anxieties of an adolescent. I couldn’t take anymore of any of it.”
Whoa. Vrill’s outburst was as unexpected as it was unlike her. Then again, how quickly I’d forgotten how downtrodden I’d been before Eve found me. That’s why we all started at Level 1, Outcast. Because Eve had preyed on those who were unhappy, depressed even.
Vrill’s mother just blinked, looking uncertain as to how to react. Then she did this thing where the flash of emotion, of pain, that had crept across her face, vanished. It was like a magician’s act—now you see it, now you don’t!—except she was a master of making her expression look neutral. “I’m certain I don’t know what you mean, Vrill,” she said. “I always tried to help you adapt to your changing role in our community, but you were…resistant.”
Vrill shook her head, and though I could tell she was angry, it was a different kind of anger to that which I’d experienced when she’d faced off against the Three and Eve for the first time in years. It was more of a resigned kind of anger. Resigned to that which she could not change. “I shouldn’t have come here,” Vrill said, turning away and gesturing to us that we were leaving.
“Wait.” The single word was like a force of nature, stopping Vrill dead in her tracks. She didn’t turn around, just breathing as she waited for her mother to speak. I hadn’t turned away from her mother, and I watched the woman I hadn’t even been introduced to yet. I could see the indecision on her face. No, that wasn’t it. Her heart seemed to finally open up, and it was so full of emotions that I could barely make out any of them. Was that regret I spotted? Sadness? Elation at seeing her daughter clouded by a past from which recovery seemed almost impossible? I didn’t know anything about their relationship and yet I knew that swirling around its core was an unconditional love that had no bounds, a love that had perhaps been chained for far too long.
I felt a gravity toward this woman, a magnetic pull that made me want to help her. It might’ve been because I knew what it was like to love Vrill, or because I did love Vrill and wanted her to have hope for a relationship with her mother. In any case, I mouthed to her, Say it. I tapped my heart, hoping she would understand. I could tell Eve was looking at me curiously, but my gaze remained fixed on Vrill’s mom while Vrill continued to wait for her to speak.
She did: “Vrill, I—you’re right about me. I didn’t want to admit my own feelings so I lied. I pretended to be someone else so I didn’t have to face the real me. I pretended to be happy. I wasn’t. I’m not. I’ve missed you so deeply.” On the last word her voice cracked and Vrill spun around and practically threw herself into her mother’s arms.
The two women embraced in silence, eyes closed, hearts open. It was as real a moment as I’d ever experienced, and again, I felt like somewhat of an intruder. Eve shifted awkwardly, so I could tell she felt much the same. Unfortunately, there was nowhere else for us to go. I hated to break up the tender moment, but—
I cleared my throat.
The two women finally pulled apart, both seeming to only just remember that they had an audience. “Oh,” Vrill said.
“Who are these…” Her mother’s question wasn’t finished, probably because she didn’t have a word to describe Eve and I, who stuck out like sore thumbs on a hand of otherwise healthy fingers.
“I guess technically we’re aliens on Lri Ayem,” I said, always having that annoying need to fill a void with chatter. “Though you would be aliens on Earth. Do you use the word ‘alien’?” The last was directed toward Vrill. We’d never really discussed it before.
A small smile had crept across Vrill’s lips. “No one from outside of this planet…well, except her”—she looked pointedly at Eve—“has ever been here, so we never needed a word for someone like you.”
I was tempted to point out that, as far as we knew, we’d never had any real aliens on Earth either but that they had become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and the center of an entire genre of pop culture. I thought better of it. I had a tendency to befuddle Vrill with my Earthly references and she’d met other humans; her mother would be completely lost by the concept. Instead I said, simply, “We’re from a different planet. Vrill was on a different planet too. But not the same one as the one I’m from. We both traveled—well, were taken to—a different planet. Tor. It’s a pretty fucked up place but it’s sort of home now and, you see, we’re all trying to recover these hearts for these three—”
“Sam,” Vrill said. I realized I’d been rambling.
“Right. TMI. Sorry.”
“TMI?” Vrill asked.
“Too much information. Sorry, it’s a common Earth acronym.”
“Acronym?”
“Never mind. I’ll stop. I’m Sam. Sam Ryder.”
“Delaqua,” Vrill’s mother said. She stepped forward and reached between my legs and grabbed my—yes, your mental image was correct—penis. “Well met,” she said with raised eyebrows.
Vrill looked extremely amused, probably because of how shocked I looked. “I probably should’ve warned you about the traditional Lri Ay greeting.”
“Probably,” I said. “Well met?”
Delaqua nodded and then turned toward Eve. “I’m Eve,” Eve said. Delaqua took a step in her direction but Eve took a step back. “Don’t touch me…wherever you were planning to touch me. Let’s just pretend like you did it and move on.”
“Queer folks,” Delaqua said, which was a statement that could’ve won the Ironic Statement of the Year award.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Vrill muttered. “Listen, I’ll tell you as much as I can, Mother, but first, Sam needs medical assistance.”
“Rejuvenation?”
I almost spat out my tongue.
Vrill didn’t seem to notice nor think there was anything strange about the question. Of course she didn’t. “Maybe later.” I almost spat out my tonsils. “Right now, he’s bleeding under that armor somewhere.”
Delaqua went into professional mode instantaneously, shifting over to one of the stone platforms, tapping its surface with her fingers. “Lie down,” she ordered.
I obeyed while Vrill and Eve, working surprisingly efficiently together, helped me remove my punctured chest plate.
“The Viss?” Delaqua asked.
“Yes,” Vrill said. “We arrived just before nightfall. We escaped inside moments before we would’ve been overrun.”
“You were fortunate to escape with only these injuries.”
“I was doing OK,” I said. “Took out one of the bastards.”
“You killed one?”
Well, technically I didn’t know whether the blow to its head resulted
in its demise, but… “Maybe. It went down and I don’t think it’ll be getting up anytime soon.”
“Impressive,” Delaqua said. “The Viss are no easy prey. Then again, you are a large man.” Was it my imagination or had her mother emphasized a certain word that connected back to when she’d grabbed me between the legs?
“With a big hammer,” I said, unable to help myself.
Of course, Vrill seemed to miss the innuendo, while Eve rolled her eyes.
Delaqua ran her fingers over my chest and abdomen, examining the wounds. There were twelve in total, if my count was accurate and I could see them all from my vantage point. Her fingers were smooth and delicate, sending shivers through me. The injuries were leaking blood in dozens of rivulets that ran down my sides and onto the stone platform I rested on. “These will require cauterization,” Delaqua announced.
Burning? Ugh. Didn’t sound like much fun. “OK,” I said, finding myself wanting to be a good patient for Vrill’s mother.
“Bind him,” Delaqua said. “We can’t have him moving during the procedure.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I said. “I swear it. I won’t move.”
This from the guy who back on Earth preferred not to look when he had blood drawn.
She raised her sharp eyebrows but didn’t argue. “As you wish.” She went over to her desk and opened a stone box, removing a small blade that looked like a fish knife, slightly curved at the end.
“Whoa,” I said. “What’s that for?”
“We need to remove the tooth first?”
“The what now?”
“The Viss tooth. One fell off when it bit you. Their teeth are notoriously venomous. Left inside you, the venom will spread through your body, eventually resulting in paralysis.”