The Ta'e'sha Chronicles 2: Shards of the Mind

by Theolyn Boese

  Daeshen nodded against her neck, where his face was buried.

  “Good. You two can swim and help her family with the farm; the water will help center you.” They had another two months before they left again. Kyrin had just informed them they would be returning to Earth to gather more samples while other ships were sent to begin the terraforming of the planets chosen by the Gods. There were enough basic samples for them to begin building a breathable atmosphere, which was the first, and longest, step in building a habitable world.

  She kissed Kyrin’s jaw gently. The sedative was doing its work and her stomach was calming quickly. Her husbands caressed her gently, their hands roaming over her small frame. Their touches weren’t sexual; it was more that they were trying to reassure themselves she was whole and alive. They had always been free with affection, but since the attack there was a searching quality to it. It was one of the many small changes that had taken place.

  There was a quiet knock at the door.

  Kyrin untangled himself from the arms of his mates and went to answer.

  The opening door revealed Chisha standing uncomfortably in the hall. Thea watched her narrowly as Kyrin bade her to enter. Her hair, so like her son’s, was clenched in an uncomfortable-looking knot at the back of her neck. She met Thea’s gaze for a moment before skittering to a chair and sitting down.

  Daeshen’s arms tightened around her. She knew he wasn’t looking forward to another round of arguing between his wife and his mother. Childish though it was, Thea consoled herself with thinking, She started it.

  Chisha drew herself up in the chair and addressed Thea with rigid formality. “I came to apologize for my behavior regarding the attack made upon your person by Barik. I have realized you did not do anything to warrant such actions.” She stood and carefully smoothed her clothing. “I realize I have overstepped myself and hope that you can forgive me and we can learn to be friends.” She had the look of a woman who expected her words to be thrown back in her face. She reminded Thea of Ruri in that moment. This is what Ruri could become. Maybe I should drag her down here to spend a week or two with Chisha. It might straighten both of them out a bit. Or kill them.

  Thea eyed her warily. She ignored the hopeful tension in Daeshen’s body as she studied his mother. “And Sya’tia?” she asked finally. She wasn’t willing to let Chisha start treating her better if she was going to continue being a bitch to Sya’tia.

  Chisha’s eyes flinched slightly. “I will accept her into my family.”

  It was not the warmest declaration Thea had ever heard, but she’d take what she could get. “Would you care to join us for dinner?” she finally asked. Chisha looked surprised by the offer. Thea suspected the older woman expected to be kicked out.

  Chisha nodded her acceptance. “I would like that, thank you.”

  * * * * *

  The next morning Thea dressed carefully in black slacks and a dark gray silk blouse. Her silver pentagram rested against her skin, just below her collarbones, shining gently in the light. She pulled her hair back into a neat French braid and took a deep breath. She turned to face the guys. Daeshen had copied her hairstyle. It was an interesting look; he was almost too pretty for words. Luckily, she had managed to talk him out of the bow. She made a mental note to cut his anime watching. It was starting to affect his appearance.

  Kyrin was sitting in a chair with a look on his face that said he was festering with hate. Daeshen looked sad, but resigned.

  “Kyrin, quit killing Barik in your head. Daeshen, straighten the front of your shirt. It’s buttoned wrong. Let’s go, guys,” Thea said briskly, picking up her purse.

  Kyrin looked up. His wife look cool and composed, but he knew it was a lie. He could feel her emotions twisting around her. She still hadn’t managed to completely shield Daeshen and him from them. It was disconcerting sometimes, but wonderful at other times. He knew how hard it had been for her to view her attack yesterday and was worried his and Daeshen’s reaction had been part of the reason she had vomited so many times. He hated to think they were adding to what was already a very difficult situation for her.

  The images that had been in his head about how the attack took place had been bad enough. Seeing it was much worse. He was tearing himself apart with guilt that he hadn’t been any help. That someone else had saved her. He hadn’t even known something was wrong. Logically, he knew there was little way he could have connected his illness during the attack to Thea being hurt, but his heart wasn’t logical.

  His heart told him he hadn’t protected his family. It told him his child had died because he had failed. His heart didn’t care that his wife and husband didn’t blame him. His heart told him he should have saved his wife. Not some security officers who barely knew her name.

  He stood and followed them out of the room, trying to leash his emotions. His wife had more than enough to deal with.

  Several minutes later they arrived at the Courthouse and he paid the driver. He curled his arm protectively around his wife’s waist and ignored the polite questions being asked by reporters waiting outside the building. While there wasn’t the media frenzy he had seen in some Earth movies, there was some coverage about the attacks. Very little information had been leaked to the media, only that a member of a royal clan was on trial and that several human women were seen coming and going from the building.

  The court was trying to keep the trial as quiet as possible until it was concluded. Then, a dry factual address would be given.

  They arrived outside the room and took seats to wait. Kyrin checked the time and noted they were several minutes early and the first to arrive. The other families began trailing in soon after they sat down.

  He was surprised when Corvin came in and sat next to him. “What are you doing here?”

  The older man sighed. “I was called last night to verify some of the medical facts and testify that Barik did not have access to them and explain my findings on the changes he made to the cerebcoms. Kyaness will be here too. They want to know why Barik’s brain patterns were not caught during the mental imbalance scans. She’s a stickler; her temple was performing the scans twice a day at random times and they never caught anything off from him.”

  Kyrin grunted thoughtfully. That was very odd. He hoped Kyaness had answers.

  As he continued to talk to Corvin, whom he hadn’t seen in a few weeks, he was aware of one of the other women approaching Thea hesitantly. He looked over as she bent down to whisper something in Thea’s ear. His wife jerked as if she had been stung and looked up at the woman in surprise. He started to stand and was surprised when a hand clamped down on his wrist. He looked down at it then up at Corvin.

  “You’re doing it again.”

  “Doing what?” he grumbled, knowing very well what his friend was talking about.

  “Trying to keep the world away from Thea. You have to stop doing that. If you don’t, she’s going to beat on your thick skull with one of her books. A big one,” Corvin replied easily, letting go of Kyrin’s wrist. “And then I’ll have to patch you up and you’ll get pissed, because I’m going to laugh my ass off the whole time I’m doing it.” He leaned back and rested his head against the wall. “Besides, that’s Giana. She was the last one Barik attacked before Thea. By that point he had…refined…his technique. “

  Kyrin blanched. He looked more closely at the woman. She was tall and had dark hair with lighter streaks framing her face. Her skin was also dark with what would normally be a smooth olive complexion. Today it was more of a waxy sallow shade. Her features were pinched and she looked ready to shatter. She was a pretty woman, an exotic beauty by Ta’e’shian standards, but the strain of what had happened to her was slowly leaching the life and beauty from her face.

  Thea stared at Giana steadily. “You would be doing it for the wrong reasons.”

  “That’s really not your decision to make, is it?” the other woman replied.

  “Not really, but I still think you need to think about it a lot
harder before you decide.” Thea took the other woman’s arm and drew her away from the other people in the room. “Look, Giana, you’ve been through a huge trauma, but changing your religion isn’t going to make it better,” she said softly.

  “Thea, I’ve always been Catholic and not once have I had the feeling anyone was listening to me. I’ve prayed all my life, and nothing… Do you really think a loving God would let this happen?” Giana asked faintly, her eyes were slightly glazed. “But I live my life by His word and I’m kidnapped, married to a complete stranger, and then raped by a sick bastard who thinks his problems are my fault! Sure, you were kidnapped, but your God and Goddess helped you! They intervened! They care what happens to you! They even show up at the freaking trial!” She panted slightly, her hands tightened into fists. “I want that. I need that!”

  Thea took Giana’s hand and looked her straight in the eye. “They would not have stopped Barik from raping me. They didn’t send the security team that caught him. It was pure chance I was found, Giana. But that is beside the point. There’s a reason it’s called faith. Just because He doesn’t talk to you doesn’t mean He’s not real! It’s not faith if you only do it when it’s easy! You need Him now more than ever.” She stroked the woman’s cheek. “You should look at this as proof that your faith isn’t false. If the Lord and Lady are real then there is no reason your God isn’t too! Don’t give up now, babe, because I’m sure He’s been with you every step of the way!”

  Giana’s lip trembled and tears filled her eyes. Thea pulled her into a tight hug and the taller woman’s arms closed convulsively around her. She sobbed softly against Thea’s shoulder. “I just want something solid to believe in. I feel so isolated! I can’t do this! I want to go home!” she whispered in a watery voice.

  Thea rocked her gently. “You’re not alone, Giana. You can come see me anytime, and that tall drink of water with purple hair you’re married to looks like he’d chew through concrete to get close to you again.” She eyed Giana’s husband who was glaring daggers at her right now. She motioned him over with a crooked finger, not letting go of Giana. “Just talk to God, pour it all out and give it up to Him. Sometimes when my Gods talk to me, it’s nothing more than feeling a little warmer than I did before. They can be subtle; you have to look for the answers.”

  Giana nodded against her shoulder. Her husband reached them in a few long strides; he started to touch Giana’s shoulder but stopped and looked at Thea helplessly. It was obvious that he was wavering between being angry with her for making his wife cry and not knowing if Giana would accept his offer of comfort.

  Thea’s empathic abilities flared to life and she felt Giana’s pain as if it were her own. She felt the blood drain from her face, but tried to draw some of it away from the other woman the way Kyaness had been teaching her. It was like cutting into her own body. The pain was singular.

  She gently turned Giana toward her husband, whose name she didn’t know. “I think this guy could use a hug, babe.”

  Giana looked up and smiled wanly at her husband. Her face was streaked with tears, but she bravely held up her arms for a hug.

  He was quick to take advantage of it and sent Thea a grateful look before burying his face in his wife’s hair.

  She quietly slipped back to her husbands and sat beside them. Daeshen put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned tiredly against him. The day hadn’t even begun and she was already exhausted.

  “What was that all about?” he asked quietly.

  “Crisis of faith,” she replied just as softly. “Giana wants answers and she’s willing to turn to anything she thinks will give them to her.”

  Daeshen sighed softly and pressed a kiss against her temple.

  The doors to the courtroom opened and a guard motioned for them to come in. There was some shuffling as everyone entered and took seats. After everyone was settled, the doors opened to admit the people who would sit in the gallery to watch the proceedings.

  Next, Barik was ushered to his place and two guards took positions behind him. That was new. Yesterday they hadn’t been there. Thea wondered what had changed. She turned to look at Giana, who sent her a wobbly smile and clutched her husband’s hand tightly.

  They all stood as the court assistant announced the asana and High Queen again. For some reason it wasn’t as hard to look at him today as it was yesterday. Maybe she was going numb. Or maybe she was finally taking the advice she had been flinging at everyone else. Letting it go.

  Corvin was the first to be called before the asana. They asked him several questions about how the cerebcoms had been modified and if there would be any lasting effects. Thea was relieved to hear that there would not be. Corvin had managed to repair the damage caused and reprogram the coms so they could not be tampered with again.

  Next, Kyaness was called by the court regarding the scans the asana did to monitor the mental health of the residents of the ship. She produced a holoreader that had records of every scan she had done from the time the Dark Queen left dock to their return to Ta’e. She was not sure how Barik managed to evade the scanning. It should have pinpointed him the moment his rage grew to the point that he was even thinking about attacking someone. Several of the court asana talked amongst themselves for several minutes before they dismissed Kyaness.

  Finally, they called Barik up to give his account of his actions.

  Thea braced herself. He looked unkempt, his clothing wrinkled and stained. She wondered if he was refusing to bathe in protest. She knew for a fact the prisons on Ta’e were very carefully managed. She had researched it when she’d arrived. It was a spa compared to what people would have lived with on Earth, but then, the Ta’e’sha didn’t have the same type of crimes usually seen on Earth. The harshest part of their prisons was that inmates were kept in solitary confinement through most of their sentence. For two hours during the day they were allowed to interact with other inmates and exercise. For another hour they met with an asana to discuss their crime, and the rest of the time they were left to meditate on their actions.

  Barik smeared a glare across the women he had victimized before turning to face the court. “I refuse to make excuses for my actions. You brought this about yourselves.” He glared at the High Queen with hatred.

  She raised an eyebrow, but made no comment.

  He continued to rant and rave. Most of it was incoherent. He threw wild accusations at both his own people and the human women with the disregard of a child throwing rocks into a lake. His anger and hatred seemed to stem from people having the gall to be happy while his sister lay dead. His world had stopped when she drew her last breath. Why hadn’t it stopped for everyone else? Their joy and laughter mocked his pain!

  When he tried to approach the table the guards quickly restrained him. Barik went insane then, screaming and kicking out at the asana and the High Queen. He spit on the table and bit one of the guards.

  The asana look appalled. Even the queen wasn’t able to keep her face expressionless in the face of such a display. She looked horrified.

  The High Priest of the Temple of Mental Balance cleared his throat after the guards had wrestled Barik back into his chair. “There is no disturbance on the mental plane. It’s as if he is calm and thinking about the weather! We shall check into how this is possible, my queen. Perhaps the Gods will be able to tell us more. We shall pray on it.”

  “They are not my Gods!” Barik screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. “I will never pray to them again! I want no part of Gods who let their children suffer so and claim those filthy whores as their own!”

  The High Queen leaned forward and opened her mouth, but quickly shut it again when Gaia and Skye appeared in front of the table.

  “Your renouncement has been heard and witnessed,” Gaia announced with malevolent glee. “We claim you as restitution for Our daughter’s suffering and the life of her child, Robin.”

  Red balls of light appeared between Gaia, Skye, and Barik. They formed into Kysout and Samonan,
God and Goddess of Soul Renewal. Their matched red colors glowed in the light of the room. The Ta’e’sha scrambled out of their chairs and onto their knees.

  “You can’t claim him! He is still Our child!” Samonan snarled, her hair and fins flaring widely around her.

  “He has renounced you, Sister,” Skye returned calmly. “Our claim carries the weight of Balance.”

  Thea’s eyes widened as she wondered a bit wildly if she was going to witness a Deity Smackdown Cage Match.

  Kysout nodded meditatively. “It does, Brother. However, he still has a choice.” He turned to face Barik. “Child, you have a choice before you. Accept Us once again and be at peace in your next cycle. Or remain as you are. We cannot go against the claim made by Gaia and Skye for it was made after you renounced Us, but after your death you will go to them unless you take Us back into your heart.”

  “I want nothing to do with you. I hate you; the very sight of you sickens me!” Barik growled hoarsely.

  Samonan keened softly. Thea’s heart jumped painfully in her breast at the sound of the Goddess’s sadness.

  Kysout nodded sadly. “Your choice has been made, witnessed, and enacted. You are not Our child. We are no longer responsible for your care.”

  They both faded slowly away, watching Barik with tears trailing down their cheeks.

  “We love you, child,” Samonan whispered softly as the last traces of red wisped away.

  Thea let out the breath she had been holding. She slid a glance at Barik’s mother. The poor woman looked shattered. She was swaying in place where she sat in the gallery. Her eyes were blind as she stared at her son as if she had never seen him before. Thea didn’t think she wanted to know what she was thinking. She had no idea how she would be able to watch this if it had been her child sitting in that chair.

  Gaia turned to Skye and smiled slowly. Then she turned to face the asana and High Queen. “We realize this is highly irregular, but We do not feel your court or society would be able to create a fit punishment for these crimes.”