by Regine Abel
Xevius stiffened. It was subtle enough that, had he not been holding me, I would not have noticed.
“That’s not possible. With her power, she could glimpse from my mind far too many sensitive state secrets.”
“True, but she wouldn’t do that,” I said honestly.
“I do not doubt your sincerity, but it’s still not a risk that I can afford to take. I’m sorry.”
I placed my palms on his chest and nodded slowly, disappointed but not surprised in the least. “Don’t be. I expected no less from you. In truth, so did Khel. It was just his way of saying no.”
“He still wants to skin me alive for trespassing?” Xevius asked, sounding amused.
“Yep. When I told him he wasn’t allowed to kill my mate, he replied—and I quote—‘once I’m done fucking him up, I’ll let Zhara fix his sorry ass. Then maybe that Korlethean son of Gharah will learn to show the Titans some appreciation.’”
Xevius whistled between his teeth, his golden eyes sparkling with mirth. “Charming. I’m feeling the love.”
I smiled and caressed his cheek. “Khel is a wonderful man, but threaten his children or his mate, and Gharah himself will run for cover from his wrath.”
“Understandable,” Xevius said before turning his face to kiss the palm of my hand on his cheek. “I’ll just have to get on his good side again. The way I hear it, he’s quite the warrior.”
“The best,” I said with a nod. “Aside from my sister Aleina, he’s the only other person that I know for a fact I cannot beat in a fair fight.”
Xevius’s brows shot up in disbelief. “The Tuurean war goddess Kamala has met a foe she couldn’t vanquish?”
“Honestly, I don’t know anyone who can vanquish Khel. Well, Vahl will, eventually. For now, it would be a close call, but I’m certain he can defeat Admiral Lee. Aleina and Khel wisely chose not to put that to the test.”
“Well then, the recordings I have made so far of the children will have to do. Come on, let’s eat,” Xevius said.
“Okay,” I replied softly, letting him lead me by the hand to the table.
I took a seat while he went to fetch the fruit salad I’d finished on the counter.
“I have water or ryspak juice,” Xevius said, with that same apologetic, borderline mortified expression that made me giggle again.
“Water is fine, although I rarely drink with my meals, unless it’s some fine wine.”
“Oh, my mate is fancy,” Xevius said teasingly, bringing a jug of cold water and two glasses. He sat down across the table from me and gestured with his chin at the sandwich in the plate in front of me. “Dig in.”
We made quick work of our humble, yet tasty meal, with Xevius telling some anecdotes about his school days with Eryon and the troubles they’d gotten into. Although two years his senior, Eryon had been a close family friend of his. Getting approached by the Imperial Secret Service at seventeen, and subsequently joining the force had made it difficult for him to maintain certain relationships. As missions multiplied, he was less and less frequently at home and lost touch with many of his friends. When Eryon became one of the Fates, they got to see each other more often until he was finally abducted. Until that day on the Praghan estate, it had been nearly twenty-eight years since they’d last seen each other; something he didn’t want to repeat again.
I didn’t know how to interpret that. Was he implying that he might defect after all?
“The Korlethean delegation arrives in thirteen days,” Xevius said pensively. “It’s a three-day flight to Korlethea. It will take me a couple of days to set up the security at the residences of the ambassadors. That will give me four days to convince the Quorum to abandon their plan before I must return to greet the delegation.”
“Take me with you,” I said.
“WHAT?” Xevius exclaimed, looking at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“That’s actually the main reason I came to see you today,” I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my legs. “I knew you would reject Khel’s demands. We have tried in vain to open diplomatic discussions with Korlethea. Our peoples need to find a peaceful resolution to this conflict. We’re not going to let them harm our children, but we also do not want to end up in a bloody war, which is exactly what will happen if the Quorum gets its way.”
“They would kill you on sight, and I’d be executed for treason,” Xevius argued. “You do not seem to realize how precarious my current situation is or the already terrible fall out that will ensue from the decision I have made.”
“I do. But without an open dialogue, we can never find common ground,” I pleaded, uncrossing my legs and leaning forward over the table. “What’s the point of Korletheans fighting among themselves when ultimately, it’s all about Veredians?”
“I will not bring you to Korlethea, Fehama, and that is not open for debate. After I’ve presented my findings to the Quorum, I can tell them of your request and try to sway them in that sense, but I will not endanger you.”
Once again, frustrated but not surprised, I pursed my lips and gave him a stiff nod. Xevius smiled as if amused by a child’s tantrum. I almost wanted to make a face at him in response.
Rising to his feet, he picked up the bowl of fruit salad we hadn’t touched yet, took my hand and led me to the sectional, dark leather couch in the living area. My mate sat down and settled me on his lap. He handed me the bowl but then started feeding me the fruits, one piece at a time, sometimes taking one for himself.
Between two bites and two kisses, he told me more stories of his youth, some humorous and others more moving, and of being a single child whose parents, agents like him, had both perished in service. Although he didn’t spell it out, I could read between the lines that they had fallen during the Korlethean Titans War.
“You never did tell me what your power was,” Xevius said.
“You never asked,” I said, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“I am now,” he said, grazing the markings on my shoulder with his teeth.
“I’m an ergokinetic; a mostly useless power except in the rare occasions you truly need it,” I said derisively, looking at my palms.
Xevius raised a dubious eyebrow. “Isn’t that energy manipulation? It sounds like something very useful in our field.”
“Like I said, only in the rare occasions it’s truly needed,” I replied with a shrug. “Unlike Titans, I can’t just impact things by staring at them; I need to touch them. And while it is true that I can manipulate any form of energy, I can only shape it around things that are incomplete, be they inorganic or biologic.”
“Incomplete, how?” he asked, his apparent genuine interest giving me warm fuzzies.
“Well, say you got your leg chopped off,” I said, “then I could draw on any form of energy—usually light—to recreate your leg. Visually, it would look like a luminous hologram, but to you, it would feel like a real leg.”
“As in, I could walk on it?” Xevius asked, staring at me with bulging eyes.
I nodded, fighting the urge to laugh. “Yes. You could walk on it. It’s only temporary, although I could refresh it after a couple of hours. That said, it takes time to create biokinetic illusions and link them to the person’s nervous system. If the patient is bleeding heavily, they may go into shock or die before I can do anything. I almost lost Lee like that… well, Aleina, the day Ghan finally discovered what a hottie was hidden under the cold, Tuurean armor of Admiral Lee.”
Xevius nodded slowly, his wheels spinning. Learning about my power always threw people for a loop. But thinking back on the day we nearly lost Aleina still had me twisted up in knots. I’d never been so scared in my life.
“It’s a lot easier with objects,” I said, shaking off the uneasiness that always resurfaced with this memory. “Where biokinetics can take me minutes, regular kinetics takes seconds, unless what I’m trying to recreate is massive. So, if a piece fell off your hoverbike, I could temporarily fix it in a blink.”
“That does sound
handy,” Xevius said teasingly.
“Yep, hail the great Kamala!” I said in self-derision. “Broke a nail? I’ll fix it. Broke a heel? I’ll fix it, too! Ripped the safety belt on your shuttle? Com me to the rescue! An enemy cracked your armor? No worries, I’ll seal it back up and stop you from pissing blood all over the place!”
“You’re like a pocket emergency bot,” Xevius said, his amber eyes sparkling with mirth.
I playfully elbowed him, pretending to be offended. He chuckled and kissed me before feeding me another piece of fruit.
We continued talking long after the last bit had been devoured. I could have stayed like this with him forever. But too soon, duty called. Tomorrow would be the last day of our children attending Xelixian schools, and the day we would hold the referendum about leaving Xelix Prime permanently. Just like school Director Velthan had already known the outcome of the upcoming Xelixian vote to oust our children from their schools, I had a very strong inkling where our own vote would go.
With much reluctance, I bid goodbye to Xevius, who made me promise to return to him tomorrow to go take a dip in the river by his house. He sent me off with a searing kiss that had me throbbing in all the right places for what seemed like hours thereafter.
CHAPTER 10
Eryon
I landed my personal shuttle smoothly in the clearing at the coordinates Xevius had communicated to me after I’d requested another meeting with him. As a Seer, I had often been forced to tell dreadful news to those concerned by the visions that came to me. It was never easy to tell a parent of their child’s imminent accident that would leave them permanently crippled, or a businessman of the impending collapse of his corporate empire. But telling a dear friend that his days were numbered crushed me.
Growing up, I’d often wondered how the Seer had felt when he’d announced my future enslavement to me. How could he have withstood telling the child that I’d been then that in my early twenties, I’d be captured and forced into slavery for twenty-four years before my liberation?
As soon as I stepped out of the shuttle, Xevius appeared at the edge of the clearing, having deactivated his stealth shield. Despite my joy at seeing him, something in my demeanor must have given away my inner turmoil.
“What’s wrong, brother?” Xevius asked, as soon as he released me from his greeting embrace.
“Much is happening, my friend,” I said with a sigh. “Some of it wonderful, but most of it not so great. First, I have a confession to make. And I beg your forgiveness in advance for it.”
Xevius narrowed his eyes at me but otherwise kept his peace. With a deep sigh, I took a few steps through the large clearing, bigger than the previous one we’d met in. A tree trunk lay oddly in the middle of the area, having been visibly carried to that location a long time ago for some obscure purpose.
“How much do you know about the Taint?” I asked him over my shoulder, stopping by the trunk.
“Beyond our shameful role in it?” he asked, taking a few steps towards me but remaining at a certain distance.
I nodded.
“Only the common stuff, that mating with healthy females of certain species helps reduce and even revert the symptoms of the disease,” Xevius said with a casual tone that belied the intensity of his stare.
“Over the past eight years, Maheva’s mate, Dr. Minh, with the aid of the Veredians, has been working relentlessly on finding a cure,” I said carefully. “Part of that research, and a number of other factors, led to the discovery of the cure for the Veredian’s fertility issues.”
Xevius nodded, advancing a few more steps while my fingers absentmindedly plucked at the dead bark of the tree.
“Three years ago, Minh finally discovered what was likely the last step required to finally cure this blight on his people. The pineal gland of the Tainted isn’t functioning properly. With the right stimulus, their bodies could produce the hormones necessary for them to fight and eventually eliminate the disease.” I swallowed painfully seeing the anger gradually taking over my friend’s face as he no doubt guessed where this was headed. “Until now, despite our best efforts to procure some, we were unable to get the missing ingredient—”
“You used my gift to commit treason?” Xevius hissed, murder in his eyes.
For the first time, in all the decades I’d known Xevius, I felt true fear of him. Despite the strength of my psionic abilities and my reasonable combat skills, I didn’t stand a chance against him. The agent could tear me limb from limb without me managing to land a single blow on him—not that I ever wanted to raise a hand on someone I considered family.
“It isn’t treason to right the wrongs we have committed,” I argued forcefully. “They know nothing of our involvement. In the three years I’ve been here, I’ve not betrayed a single of Korlethea’s secrets. But entire generations of Xelixian males are dying in agonizing pain before they reach the age of forty. Entire bloodlines have been wiped out because of us!”
Xevius spasmodically opened and closed his fist, as if fighting the urge to reach out and snap my neck.
“Does it not trouble you that Korlethea’s definition of treason has now come to include denying a tiny root vegetable to save the lives of millions of innocent males?” Despite his visibly frayed control—something I hadn’t witnessed from Xevius in ages—I took a couple of steps towards him, my stance pleading. “It works, Xevius. Minh performed some tests, and it works. Vryer is the missing ingredient to cure the Taint. Close to three hundred thousand Xelixians die every year from this. We can stop it.”
Faster than I could blink, Xevius closed the remaining distance between us and squeezed my neck with both hands. On instinct, my fingers closed around his wrists, but I didn’t try to pry myself free. His hold was tight enough to make it difficult to breathe, but not to kill… yet. If he chose to end me, I’d never even have time to react before he’d snap my neck.
He leaned forward, his face a hair’s breadth from mine. Not a single trace of my childhood friend remained in the cold, hard assassin before me.
“Do you realize the Quorum wants me to also take you out during this mission?” Xevius hissed in my face, the chill in his voice promising a world of pain. “My decision to spare the Titans will start a civil war on Korlethea. And now I have to also tell them you used me as an accessory to treason? But then, maybe bringing them your head will put an end to the unrest,” he added, his hands tightening around my neck.
“If it is the price for Korlethea to get right with the Goddess and the Xelixians again, then I’ll pay it gladly,” I said, my voice coming out in choppy gasps.
Even as I spoke those words, another wave of fear washed over me, but not at the prospect of death; I’d been ready to be reunited with my beloved Sevina since the day of her passing. But it was the little faces of my grandchildren and the other young Veredian Titans that flashed before my eyes as I readied for Xevius to deliver my sentence. I needed more time to solidify their training in self-control. Without me, or another Korlethean to continue my work, I feared the direst of the Oracles vision would come true.
His cruel, bloodthirsty face began to blur before my eyes. My hold tightened around his wrists as my throat felt on the verge of collapsing in on itself. Just as my survival instincts were about to kick in, Xevius shoved me away from him. I all but crumpled on top of the fallen tree trunk. I held my throat, coughing and wheezing, my eyes involuntarily watering.
“Do you have any idea how much I hate you right now?” Xevius whispered. “You and your wretched bloodline have made my existence an endless nightmare.”
That hurt more than anything else he could have said. I straightened and held his gaze, this time with defiance. Yes, Fate seemed to constantly force his hand about the future of my bloodline, but it was the Goddess’ will. As much as I hated betraying his trust, I regretted none of my actions.
“None of this would be happening if I’d only completed my original mission—”
“Much worse would be happening, you
damn fool,” I snapped, livid he would even imply he should have murdered my soulmate. I rubbed my sore neck through another bout of coughing but didn’t avert my eyes from his. “You made the right decision then just as you are now, and you fucking know it! I am sorry if I betrayed your trust, but that, too, was the right decision. And you know that as well. Did it ever cross your mind that, since the Xelixians have no idea we were the cause, they will hail us as heroes for providing them with the cure they desperately want?”
The almost imperceptible narrowing of his eyes revealed I’d finally scored a point. Under different circumstances, Xevius wouldn’t have even questioned the common sense of providing plenty of supplies of the lifesaving root to the Xelixians. But too much had been lain at his feet. Loyalty and service to the people had been his sole driving force for years. Sparing my mate had fractured the very foundation of what had defined him: blind, unwavering obedience to the Quorum. Before my captivity, I’d seen that crack in his unshakeable belief in the righteousness of our edicts gradually expand. His fury was a knee jerk reaction, a last attempt at clinging to the ruins of the past.
“I leave tomorrow for Korlethea,” Xevius said, his voice still frosty. “See that we do not cross paths again before then, or I may just grant the Quorum at least one of its wishes.”
He turned around and started walking away.
“Xevius!” I called out. He stopped but kept his back to me. “I’ve had many visions in the past few days, thanks to your gift. I have recorded them onto this holodisk,” I said softly, retrieving it from the pocket of my dhalla. “Whatever they feel about it, it would be in the best interest of the Quorum to be informed of them.”
With his stiff back still turned to me, head facing straight in front of him, Xevius merely extended his open palm without a word. I slowly approached him and placed the small disk in his hand. The agent’s fingers closed over it, and he started walking away again.
“Take Kamala with you!” I called out before he could get too far.