by Viola Grace
“A birthmark. My father had it, and I think his father as well. We sort of lost the records from that long ago.”
Rashee frowned. “Was there a natural disaster?”
Wia grabbed at that thread of truth. “Yes. A natural disaster.”
She fielded the same questions over and over as platters of food began to appear on every flat surface and the Tiosh family began to eat the casual meal.
They were drinking wine and chatting casually when a knock at the door got everyone’s attention.
A man walked in, radiating power.
Mrs. Tiosh walked up and curtseyed. “Avatar Elgon-Dekka. Welcome to our home. I do not mean to be rude, but dinner is tomorrow night.”
The Avatar bowed. “I beg your forgiveness, but I could not wait to meet your new daughter. I was a friend of her father’s.”
Wia moved through the crowd, and she inclined her head. “Elgon-Dekka, I am flattered by your enthusiasm. Which of my fathers were you acquainted with?”
Elgon-Dekka smiled and took her hands. “Both of them. I knew Danyer and Suek in equal measure.” The Avatar took a deep breath. “I used to be Halash.”
Wia swayed. “What?”
“I was the living soul of Halash until Suek warned me of his approaching end. Together, we found me a new home, and he helped remove my consciousness to send me here to Dekkaliash. I met you when you were just becoming a young woman. Do you remember?”
She closed her eyes and looked at his power signature, opening them in shock. She flung her arms around his neck, and he laughed, holding tightly in return. “You changed your body.”
“I had to. Only power could travel this distance.” He lifted her and whirled her in a circle.
She leaned back in his arms and stared. “You picked Braenar for me.”
He winked.
She shook her head and turned to her mate. Braenar was not looking pleased with Dekka’s embrace. “Braenar. This is my um…uncle.”
Elgon-Dekka-Halash grinned. “Close enough.”
Leena Tiosh, Braenar’s mother was looking at the exchange with surprise. “Wia, you have met Elgon-Dekka before?”
She nodded. “Once, a very long time ago.”
Leena cocked her head. “You have been here before?”
Wia shook her head. “No. He was on my home world when I was a child.”
Leena asked the Avatar, “I did not know you travelled off world?”
He frowned. “I did not. I came here fifteen hundred years ago, the same year that Wia went into stasis. I took an Avatar here and began life anew on a planet with millions of years of future.”
Elgon-Dekka suddenly smiled. “There is a new documentary about the Starborn if you would care to watch it.”
The gathering seemed confused, but Braenar nodded. “I am telling you, it will be helpful.”
Wia turned to her mate. “Did you know they were making a documentary?”
“Yes. Part of my interview is included. They make these vid strips on all Guardsmen who don’t have family at stake.”
She looked around her. “I guess that that isn’t true anymore.”
Leena smiled. “Come and sit with me, Wia. I want to know what this vid has to do with you and Dekka.”
Two hours later, the Tiosh family was looking at her with pity in their eyes. Three satellites had caught her grief at Suek’s nova, and her energy expulsion had powered four ships that had been attacked and drained of propulsion. The multi-spectrum wave woke their generators, and they had been able to limp to a shipping lane where help found them.
Leena took her hand and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We are not a star, nor an extinct species, but we will be your family if you let us.”
Wia looked at them through watery eyes. She gave the room at large a weak smile. “Do I have a choice?”
The room broke into laughter, and the tension of the moment was gone.
Wia enjoyed the acceptance, but what she really embraced was the affection in Braenar’s eyes.
She sipped at one of the endless glasses of wine provided by her new siblings and smiled.
Elgon-Dekka had his own glass in his hand. “Do you recognise the taste?”
Understanding dawned. “You designed the soil to produce the taste of Halash.”
“I did. I knew one day you would come out of your sleep, and if I was lucky, you would come for a visit.”
“So, you ensured it by providing me with my mate.”
“It took years of manoeuvring to get the genes in line, but finally, the Tiosh’s came up with a Hirn. I began coaching him on history, and the rest is…well, history.”
She chuckled and watched as couple after couple faded away, moving upstairs or to one of the guesthouses.
Dekka inclined his head toward Leena. “Thank you for your hospitality. I will be back tomorrow. I have heard your dinners are not to be missed.”
He placed a kiss on the hostess’s cheek before pressing a kiss to Wia’s forehead the same way he had when she was a child back on Halash.
Braenar followed them to the door and put his arm around her waist as the skimmer flew off.
“Where are we sleeping?”
He smiled down at her. “The largest guesthouse. Our luggage is already there.”
She looked longingly up at the sky. “Can we go for a flight before bed?”
He laughed. “I thought you would never ask.”
* * * *
Miiko Tiosh looked up from her bedroom window as her brother and his wife took flight. She watched as they climbed higher and higher in the sky, a bright glow starting from their embrace and working outward.
What was going on within that glow was something Miiko didn’t want to think about, but she watched until the light burst out in waves that made her unaccountably happy.
It was strange to think that her brother was Comet of the Sector Guard, but stranger still was that he was married to a woman who was, part Nyal, part Hirn and part star. It would be a secret that would torture her to keep, but Wiali was family now. You always protected family, even when they could burn through a planet.
Sighing, Miiko gathered the small gifts she had accumulated over the last few months, and she crept out the door, looking for anyone who would see her in action.
The tiny parcels were slipped into goblet after goblet until everyone had something.
Miiko heard a door opening behind her, and she took cover behind a couch.
Elgon-Dekka slid silently into the Tiosh house with a sack, and he placed a gift in front of each goblet. When he was done, he looked at her, his eyes swirling white and red. “You didn’t see me, and I didn’t see you, Miiko.”
She got to her feet. “Why are you here?”
“Wiali is my family, you are her new family, therefore you are my family. Now…shh, go back to bed.”
Miiko slipped back to bed, and she smiled softly at the image in her mind of Elgon-Dekka. His image was in front of her as she slept, and she knew it would be there in the morning.
Light danced in the darkness, and it lulled her into sleep with images of Avatars walking through her mind. It was definitely something she wanted to remember, the face of Dekka with the light of Braenar and Wiali coming through the window.
This was going to be the best holiday ever.
Author’s Note
Holidays are all about family, but what about those who have no family to call upon in this season? Holidays alone can be fun, but you have to put in that extra effort. Holidays with family are stressful but easier in the long run.
Here is wishing all my readers a serene and enjoyable holiday season…whatever holiday is around when you are reading this. J
Thanks for reading,
Viola Grace
[email protected]
http://www.violagrace.com
About the Author
Viola Grace was born in Manitoba, Canada where she still resides today. She really likes it there. She has no pets and can barel
y keep sea monkeys alive for a reasonable amount of time. Her line of day job tends to be analytical which leaves her mind hopping to weave stories. No co-worker is safe from her character analysis. In keeping with busy hands are happy hands, her hobbies have included cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, costuming, cake decorating, baking, cooking, metal work, beading, sculpting, painting, doll making, henna tattoos, chain mail, and a few others that have been forgotten. It is quite often that these hobbies make their way into her tales.
Viola’s fetishes include boots and corsetry, and her greatest weakness is her uncontrollable blush. Her writing actively pursues the Happily Ever After that so rarely occurs in nature. It is an admirable thing and something that we should all strive for. To find one that we truly like, as well as love.
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