by Isabel Wroth
A gauzy black canopy fluttered overhead and soothing shadows pressed around her. The only sound she could hear was the trickle of water nearby. The shadows shifted and a pair of prismatic eyes appeared in the darkness.
"Azurryn?" the familiar shadow dipped its head, another cool tingle sparking along her arm. "Are we home? What happened? How did I get here? What the...bloody hell. Why am I naked again?"
Azurryn sighed, a soft breath of soundless air. It made her sad for some reason. Her hand passed right through his cheek when she reached for him.
"Did I get the heartstones?"
"Yes, Marahi. You did."
Two more shadows floated across the threshold of her open bedroom door, hovering at the foot of the bed to look down at her with their glowing, glittering gaze.
Deja sat up, pushing the tangled mess of her hair out of her face, and tucking the sheer sheets up under her armpits as she drew her knees to her chest.
The fine hairs on her arms stood on end as Izax and Arkhan drifted closer, the tendrils of their shadow forms snaking across her toes and beneath the sheet to coil around her ankles.
Seated the way she was, those cool seeking tendrils were far too close to the warmest part of her and a shiver of uncontrollable lust rippled through her body.
This was the third time her body had heated, quivered, and responded to the three aliens hovering around her.
She couldn't explain why the caress of their darkness was so arousing, neither could she lie and say it wasn't thrilling.
Arkhan came closer, the gold and silver of his eyes swirling when she twisted her fingers through his shadow as though she were curling her fingers in his hair.
Did he allow her to assuage her curiosity? Or did he have no choice without his heartstone other than to let her to do as she pleased? The thought put a damper on the heat building inside her.
"How? The last thing I remember was falling off a statue."
"There was a storm," Izax told her gravely. "Clouds blotted out the sunlight and allowed us to enter the city. We searched until we found you."
Deja found tears welling in her eyes, emotion burning its way up her throat, making it difficult to take a full breath. The three shadows closed in tighter, almost completely blotting out the light.
Not long ago, it would have terrified her to be so overwhelmed by darkness, right now she was overwhelmed with relief.
They had searched for her until they found her. She was safe, shrouded in her shadows.
"You are leaking again, Marahi. Are you in pain?" Arkhan asked, his ghostly fingers skating down the slope of her cheek, such a cold contrast to the heat of her tears.
Deja shook her head, swiping at her face, relieved to feel the smooth skin and no searing pain. A quick check beneath her sheer sheets revealed healthy, pale pink skin.
No burns, no blinding agony from broken bones. That crystal table in the revitalization chamber was remarkable.
"No, Arkhan. I'm not in pain. I'm just grateful to be alive right now. How long was I in Noon?"
"The sun rose and set twice, Marahi." Izax answered in a monotonous, hypnotic murmur. "It took another two days for you to be healed."
Dismayed, Deja gaped at all three of them in turn. "Four days?"
"Five. You slept through the day today and the moons have almost risen to their highest point." Arkhan's shadow rippled with the breeze that moved through the room. "I collected the vegetation you prefer. Do you require your human food?"
The question prompted her belly to give a vicious snarl, twisting in knots all of a sudden as her brain acknowledged the hollow, empty space.
"Yes please, Arkhan. Thank you."
He disappeared like smoke on the air, the sound of stone grating on stone breaking the silence a few moments later as he filled the vessel of his exoskeleton.
Izax and Azurryn hovered close while she scooted off the end of the bed to stumble back into the land of the living.
Both followed at her side, unable to hold onto her when she weaved weakly back and forth like a drunk. Arkhan just barely extended his hand to catch her when she tripped over her own clumsy feet.
Deja murmured another thank you, feeling about as strong as a limp dishcloth. Little wonder she was still alive without having had food for five days.
There had been plenty of water in Noon, but in her wanderings she hadn't found a lick of food. At least not anything she'd recognized or dared to risk without one of her shadows to tell her whether or not it might be poisonous.
Cradled so carefully in Arkhan's enormous hands, Deja marveled at how quickly she had come to be so dependent on the three stoic warriors.
They were her protection, her guides in this alien world, and while they might not yet possess emotions or feelings of their own, they had done nothing but take care with and of her.
"You are weak, Marahi. The berries and roots alone will not sustain you. Izax and I will hunt for you." Arkhan gently deposited her into Azurryn's armored palms, startling Deja slightly as she hadn't heard Azurryn take up his vessel again.
Without another word, Izax and Arkhan disappeared, leaving Azurryn to carry her the rest of the way to the table where a bowl overflowed with the pinkish berries. Draped across a chair in the corner was the prize it seemed she had nearly died for.
If not for the fact it was a web of souls, a mantle of slavery, the necklace would have been stunning.
Deja tipped her head back to look past the slits of Azurryn's helmet to find him staring down at her intently.
"You haven't taken your heartstone back?" he shook his head, reaching for the bowl of fruit to bring closer to her, unwilling to let her go it seemed.
She ate her fill of the berries, shaking her head when Azurryn pressed the bowl closer. "After so long without it, I don't understand why you wouldn't take it back."
Her silent shadow set the bowl down and carefully deposited her on her feet, keeping his palm around her back until she nodded to say she was steady.
He twisted his helmet to the side to spill out in a froth of deepest black, floating before her. He paused for a moment before ghosting across the floor, through the table to show her how he was physically repelled by the necklace. He reached out to touch it, and it was like a blast went off.
His incorporeal hands exploded into a million shimmering particles, and before Deja could so much as gasp in horror, Azurryn backed away to show her how those particles returned to fit together, one by one like puzzle pieces until his hands were fully formed again.
He pointed to her, to the heartstones, then his chest.
"You can't take it back. It has to be given to you?" Azurryn nodded, and Deja's hunger evaporated. "Alright, do you know which one is yours? No? Well, I suppose we'll just have to go through them one by one then. Come on, get your armor."
SEVEN
~DEJA
Deja studied the mantle of stones spread out at her feet. Tugging on the dark gems hadn't worked to free them from their settings, but upon closer inspection, there was some kind of release mechanism behind each of the claws keeping the stones in place.
A small circle, raised ever so slightly, curved. Like a tiny cup or a lock. Was there a key Deja had missed in the tower? Some piece of metal that fit inside the little holes to poke the stones out or release them from the necklace?
Azurryn must have gotten tired of watching her stare at the ground in frustration. He carefully turned her chin up with a stone fingertip, holding his hand out for hers, her palm barely covering the pad of one finger.
He traced a line across the center of her hand and lifted it to press to the empty depression where his heartstone was supposed to sit.
Her blood in his veins lit up with stunning vibrancy, visibly pulsating in time with her heartbeat. She could feel the echo of it, her heart inside this enormous suit of armor.
"Blood. My blood," she realized, absently rubbing at Azurryn's armor as she looked back to the spray of gems.
There were thousands o
f them, some no bigger than her smallest fingernail, others the size of her fist, deep glittering greens, purples, gold and silver swirling in shimmering blackness. Galaxies right there within reach. Did she have to bleed on all of them?
"Small bites, Deja. Small bites." she told herself, going to hunt down a needle or a knife or something to prick her finger.
Funny how the only sharp thing she could find in the entire suite of rooms was a thorn from the climbing flowers.
It hurt like a son of a bitch, a tiny little prick she felt all the way down to her toenails, but when she knelt down to let a single drop of blood fall into the tiny well holding the gem in place, the metal claw released with a snick and the stone fell free to the floor.
"Well then. I suppose I'll need a bigger thorn."
Deja made it through thirty stones before her fingers got too swollen and sore to produce any more blood. She intended to prick the fingers of her other hand, but Azurryn picked her up and stepped into the shadows with her. Moving through the darkness to bring her back to the revitalization chamber. Her hand, the pain, was healed in seconds beneath the oscillating light.
She stood there staring at the smoothness of her own skin, rubbing her fingertips together gingerly.
What horrors could the Concord scientists visit on their victims with such a powerful tool at their disposal?
How many were still alive in the wreckage?
Did the guards have weapons?
The means to find Penumbra?
"Did you see the ship that crashed on Sonhadra, Azurryn?" she glanced up at the silent warrior, licking her dry lips when he inclined his head. Her throat constricted with remembered pain, so tightly she could barely speak.
"Am I safe here? Can the other humans find us?"
She practically ran for the hand he extended to her, like a child running for the safety of loving arms after waking from a nightmare. Only her nightmares weren't fantasies created by an overstimulated mind.
Dr. Travis wasn't the only sadistic monster who had conducted genetic mutation experiments on-board the Concord. There were dozens, and Deja had no idea how many were left. What they would do to survive. What they would accomplish with alien technology.
Azurryn had no voice to reassure her, but the way he held her against his armor in the careful cage of his palm, the echo of her heartbeat coming from his heartstone well was reassurance enough for now.
"Can we go back upstairs, please?"
IZAX~
Frustration. He recognized the constant growl of it the closer he got to Penumbra, to his Marahi. If he possessed feelings of his own, he would have been fascinated by the connection between them.
Even more fascinated by the scene he and Arkhan came upon as they left the shadows with the spoils of their hunting.
Azurryn was seated on the floor of Deja's quarters, holding her in the palm of his hand level with the well of his heartstone.
She was muttering in annoyance, a soft clicking sound coming every few seconds. Izax knew he should have been curious, but all he did was stand there and watch, waiting for her to notice his return and command him to come forward.
"Alright, that's all of them. Let me down so I can get the rest off that sodding necklace."
Arkhan waited for Azurryn to obey, but his brother warrior shook his head, moving her away from his chest. It seemed only then she noticed Izax and Arkhan standing there.
"Oh, you're back. Good. Come over here, Arkhan. Let me see if any of these are yours."
Drawn to her like Ak'rena to the scent of blood, Arkhan obeyed, noticing the pouch she had created in her skirt, full of shimmering gems. Heartstones.
Azurryn held her out to Izax, steadying her as she stepped from palm to palm, using her own little hand to measure the size of Arkhan's well.
One by one, she fit the stones to the empty depression in his chest, declaring none of them to fit.
"Izax, your turn."
He came to her call, beckoned by her pale, fragile hand. She was lighter than air in his hold, her smile brighter than Noon itself, yet in her gaze he saw the sweetest darkness. Her eyes seemed fathomless, pale blue with hints of purple and red, multifaceted and shining. He felt her inside him, her essence, the vibrancy and fluidity of her emotions.
"No. No. Not that one. Bugger."
So different from Astaria, this little human. So different from the humans he and Arkhan had observed while hunting, doing the duty Deja had asked of them, keeping an eye on the stranded beings who milled like insects around their broken vessel.
Hidden in the shadows, Izax had witnessed the cruel way the strong drove the weak, listened to the bitter words spoken by the overlords as they commanded their slaves to dig trenches and move carcasses of the predatory beasts Sonhadra had sent to test them.
Deja didn't speak to anyone in the tone of an overlord, or a Creator. Though she was often frightened, she smiled and laughed even more.
Her curiosity, her tenacity, her apparent disregard for her own safety if it meant sparing him and the other Shadowed pain they could not feel, was foreign to him in nearly every way.
She cared, and Izax did not possess the empathy to understand why.
"Bloody hell. Yes!" her triumphant whoop was followed by a soft snick. Izax looked down at Deja's gentle hand on his chest. Brilliant spears of light split through her spread fingers, ripples of color he had only a moment to appreciate. His heartstone had finally, after so long, been returned to him.
The pain he thought he would never feel again hit him with all the force of a falling star and literally knocked him on his ass. He heard Deja shout out in surprise, calling his name with fear in her trembling voice, and as he was seized with agony, Izax wondered if this was what it must feel like for light to touch her skin.
EIGHT
~DEJA
Azurryn's hand stopped her from hitting the ground, snatching her up out of the way as Izax thrashed and seized, hands and feet flailing, crashing through potted plants and pillars and shattering them to bits. His roars of agonizing pain shook the entire palace.
"Arkhan! Help him!" Deja sobbed, horrified by what she had done. Arkhan leapt on top of Izax to steady him, their armor scraping and smacking together.
It went on for what seemed like hours, but it could have only been minutes. Izax's pained outcries turned to ragged breaths and his struggling limbs slowly sliding to lie flat until he just lay there groaning.
"Put me down! Azurryn, put me down!"
Deja would have jumped in the next second if Azurryn hadn't released her. She ignored how he hovered, hesitating at the side of Izax's helmet, glad Arkhan still had him pinned down.
"Izax, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Marahi," he whispered.
Tears blurred her vision as she carefully set her hands to the stone cheekplate,
"I'm so sorry. Did I give you the wrong heartstone?"
At first he didn't respond, the silence stretching on long enough she wondered if he might have passed out.
"No. You did not give me the wrong heartstone."
"Then what just happened? Are you alright? Does it still hurt? Should I take it out?"
Instead of answering her, Izax moaned softly, the stone beneath her hands began to heat up, to vibrate. The illumination of the stone pulsing in his chest brightened, spreading out across his shoulders, down to his arms and legs. Azurryn pulled her away again, protecting her from whatever was happening to Izax.
Since having crash landed on this planet, Deja had seen some unbelievable things. Things that defied explanation or reason, yet this was the most jaw dropping sight yet.
Izax shrank. The nebula of color splashed across his armor dulled to a flat black, softening, wrinkling as his body changed shape.
He shrank and shrank until he was a more 'normal' size, the featureless helmet shifting this way and that until a face took form.
Hair pushed through the smooth dome of his skull, a lustrous white mane around wide shoulders. The black
ness of his skin faded until it was as pale and colorless as her own. What now lay beneath Arkhan looked human. Otherworldly, but human.
Azurryn didn't stop her when Deja stepped around his leg, or when she slowly knelt beside Izax. She hesitated to touch him, to disturb him when he looked to be peacefully sleeping.
All trace of armor was gone and the place she had set the heartstone now glowed and pulsed in a near frantic pace. Pressing her hand to her own chest, Deja realized his heartstone, his heart, beat perfectly in time with her own.
"Izax?" She jerked like a marionette when his eyes flew open and his spine arched, mouth opening to drag in great gasps of air as though he'd been drowning and just surfaced.
He clawed at the ground, his faceted purple eyes wide with so much emotion and uncertainty she could no longer sit there with her hands fisted against her chest.
"Izax, it's alright. I'm right here, look at me. That's it. Right here."
His skin was warm as his armor, smooth to the touch and felt just like her own skin, but beneath the fleshy tissue she could almost feel the stone exoskeleton.
"We're going to slow your breathing down. Follow me, breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth, slowly...slowly. Good. I've no idea what’s happening, but I'm here. How do you feel? Are you in pain still?"
"Feel," he repeated hoarsely, the same resonant voice lilting from between his pale, full lips. "Pain."
"You are hurting? Where? What can I do?"
As he relaxed, Izax turned his face into the hand she smoothed through his hair, groaning softly.
"I do not hurt, Marahi. I feel!" his sleek muscles coiled as he rolled to his knees in front of her, his hands—still big enough to swallow hers—pressing first to his cheeks, then to his chest.
His head fell back and he greedily drank in the sight of the room, his gaze touching on Arkhan and Azurryn before a devastatingly handsome grin stretched across his face.
A pair of dimples appeared on either side of his lips, and his rib cage expanded as he sucked in a deep breath to release a peal of booming laughter.