Page 48

XYREK

The decision on what to do with the still sleeping Darlams was put on hold with the arrival of the supreme commander of the Imperial Forces the very next day.

We all assembled by the airfield as several Imperial spaceships landed. One of them, a large transporter, hovered over the others because there wasn't enough space for it to sit down. Long ramps extended, and drones began unpacking boxes upon boxes.

"What is all that?" Alice asked.

I shrugged and was about to come up with a guess when the imperial ship's hatch opened and a ramp extended. The first out was none other than the emperor himself, with a beautiful human female at his side.

"Oh shit," Sloane exclaimed and looked, for the first time since I had known her, worried. "I haven't told him yet," she whispered to Vraax.

The next to exit was an impressive male in the uniform of the Imperial Forces, calling him out as their supreme commander. Right next to his side was a human female wearing the same type of uniform, who looked every bit as commanding.

"Ash!" Sloane exclaimed and ran forward to embrace the other female.

"Sloane!" The two hugged tightly while the males watched with amused patience. "I brought Silla too."

Lady Silla and Lord Protector Garth emerged from the royal ship. Several of our females ran forward to meet Lady Silla. Then, another human female appeared, and Alice squealed, “Daisy!”

Surprised, I watched her rush forward and embrace the woman. “What are you doing here?”

The female smiled endearingly. “I’m to be the empress’ personal holostreamer. Emperor Daryus wants his subjects to feel like the imperial couple is accessible to all of them.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Alice hugged her again.

None of us Space Guardians were Emperor Daryus’ subjects, so none of us bowed, but the male did exude a large amount of power. I noticed I wasn't the only one who respectfully inclined their head toward him.

Zaarek, who had been our primarch so many years ago, was the first to find his tongue. "It is an honor to meet you, Emperor Daryus. Please let me extend our deepest apologies for not fulfilling our sworn duties by you."

Teal eyes regarded my brother thoughtfully. "I understand the kind of predicament you and your brothers were in. This is a fight I will take up with the Ohrurs, not you. You may not have fully achieved what I paid for, but your accomplishments more than made up for it. Without you, we would never have discovered what evil the Ohrurs were up to. You have my thanks for that."

"You have more females who have been hurt?" Lord Protector Garth interrupted.

"They are inside the compound, ready to leave with you," I said, pointing toward the building that had held so many nasty surprises for us.

Lord Protector Garth raised his hand and waved a group of males and females forward, carrying medical supplies, equipment, and hover stretchers to take the females aboard another ship.

"What did you find out about the females we brought you?" Vraax wanted to know.

"They were not only in bad shape, but we learned that most of the children born through this act of cruelty either don't survive long or turn into something that would be better off never to have been born." Superior Commander Xandros explained.

"I fought a few of them; they didn't… " Vraax shook his head. “They weren't Space Guardians; they seemed to enjoy cruelty."

Xandros nodded darkly, "Vra—yes—we are working with each merrily—female—individually to determine her wishes and will accommodate whatever she requests."

"There has been enough suffering. Those females will receive the full support of my empire, no matter if they're Pandraxian or not," the emperor vowed.

Our females finally seemed to have gotten their hugs out of the way and joined us.

"Emperor," Sloane nodded at Daryus.

"Ah, my elusive new spymaster, tell me, Lady Sloane, how are things going?" Daryus asked.

"Quit intimidating her," Empress Heather elbowed the emperor, amusing me. "You and I both know that she won't be your new… spy mistress. You're lucky if she sends you intel now and then. So quit."

"Is that true?" He quirked an eyebrow at Sloane.

"I'm afraid so, at least for now. We need to rebuild Darlam?—"

"Let me assure you that for that endeavor, too, you will have the full support of the Pandraxian Empire. Whatever you need." He offered. "I'll leave some troops to keep out any other vultures who might want to pick on Darlam's bones."

I didn't like the idea of Pandraxian troops close by, but I also knew that, for now, we would need all the help we could get. The emperor was right; once word spread, thousands of people would come. The best-case scenario would be that most would come just out of curiosity, but there would inevitably be some who would seek to exploit Darlam like the Ohrurs had.

"That is very generous, thank you." Again, it was Zaarek who spoke for us.

"And this must be Nock, the most famous holostreamer and my personal favorite," Emperor Daryus strode forward. Zaarek groaned. I would have expected Nock to glow right in front of us, expected his small chest to expand, and pride to fill his features. I even expected him to throw an I told you so look at Zaarek, but none of that happened. Instead, he stared dumbstruck at Alice’s friend, Daisy, who also beamed at him, “I’ve watched all your holostreams. You’re a legend and a genius. I know this is asking a lot, but would you be willing to help a newbie? Give me some pointers?”

She placed her fingers on his arm. Nock opened his mouth to respond, but not even a squeak left him. He tried again, and we all stared at him, bewildered. Or at least bewildered until the first mating marks began to move up and down his arm.

“Oh, what is this?” Daisy asked, clasping one hand over her arm, where the same mating marks spread.

Nock, the little Kred, seemed to grow right in front of us; he moved forward with a determination on his face that matched a Space Guardian about to terminate someone. He grabbed Daisy by the waist. “MINE!” He yelled, in a voice so deep it didn’t seem to be his. Then he kissed her.

All of us expected the human female to push him away; that’s what it looked like at first. I was ready to interfere, but she slumped against him like one of those females in the movies Alice made me watch. I think they called it swooning .

Dazed, she stared at him when he finally let go.

“Mine!” Nock repeated.

An unintelligible acknowledgment came from Daisy as if she had been struck dumb, but the haze in her eyes left no doubt that she was as fascinated with Nock as he appeared to be with her.

“That must have been one hell of a kiss,” Zoe exclaimed wistfully.

“You’ve been holding out on us, Nock,” Sloane laughed.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Zaarek stared at Nock.

“No pain?” Nova asked.

“Doesn’t seem fair,” Sloane agreed.

“Hannah?” Alice turned to our High Priestess.

“I don’t know,” Hannah looked thoughtful, “but I can’t shake the feeling that Zapharos has something to do with this.”

As if on cue, I thought I heard a deep laughter inside my head, but before I could react, it was gone. Damn Arkhevari.

* * *

Nock broadcasted his holostreams soon after the entire party left—after he showed us what he had put together, of course. It was impressive, not in his usual style at all.

"I didn't think the Kred had any respect in him at all, but that was… pretty good," Zaarek said.

"Pretty good?" Nova raised an eyebrow. "Come on, it was great. And you better tell him that, too."

"Tell me what?" Nock entered, munching, as always, on his Oreos, which had quickly become his entire nutrition intake. "Lady Silla brought them. I think I'm in love," he grinned.

“I’m not sure if I’m more in love with Nock or the Oreos,” Daisy said, following Nock and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I think these are better than the real thing.”

Nova boxed Zaarek hard in the ribs, and after a grunt, Zaarek mumbled, "Your holostream was pretty good." Nova boxed him again. "Alright, it was great !" he elaborated, widening his eyes and silently pleading with Nova to quit boxing him.

"Really?" The Kred beamed, "Thank you! That means a lot coming from you. Thank you, Zaarek."

Nova raised her eyebrows at Zaarek again in a See, I told you so way, and I turned my face so my brother wouldn't see me snicker.

"Good job," Raasla grunted, taking Zoe by the hand, rising. Ready to leave for the night.

"Hold on, we still need to discuss what to do." Sloane stopped him, and with a groan, he sat back down, pulling Zoe onto his lap.

We all knew what Sloane meant.

Nock was about to leave with Daisy in tow, but Sloane called him back. "Wait, you and Tucker get a vote in this, too. You might not be Darlams, but without you, we wouldn't have been able to find them or this planet."

Appreciative grunts followed. She was right. Both Nock and Tucker deserved a vote in this.

"I told you when I assumed command that important decisions would be up to all of us, that we are a democracy. Now that we have had some time to think about it, I need to know your votes on waking the others."

"Wait," Hannah rose from her seat. She looked paler than normal. "I need to say something first."

Tharaax placed an encouraging palm on her shoulder. "Zapharos didn't return all my memories, just what I needed to see. In my vision, the group of Arkhevari that landed on Darlam was made up of fifty couples. A ship dropped them off and left. They didn't bring any technologically advanced things with them, nor did they share their knowledge with the Darlams. They sought out different towns and simply lived with them. Over time, their children grew and mated with Darlams; some bore the Soulglyph webs, others didn't. But the ones who did were revered over all others.

"From that, a priesthood grew, and several generations later, I became a part of it. And… this is so hard," Hannah twisted her hands.

"Keep going, sweetie, you're doing fine," Zoe encouraged.

Hannah smiled gratefully at her. "I didn't know any better. I swear I didn't."

"It's okay. You don't have to do this," Luph said, rising and wrapping her arms around her.

"No, I do. I really do. Like I said, I didn't know any better, but I was part of the priesthood that preached about Soulweb Glyphs. I was one of the ones who believed with all my heart that everybody was destined to find their Soulweb Mate, that no other love was acceptable." Hannah swallowed, and her tears threatened to spill over. "I was part of the group that made people run to Shade's Vale."

"You didn't know any better," Sloane said in her no-nonsense voice. "And now you can change things."

"I want to, so very much." Hannah nodded.

I cleared my throat, "Hannah, if I've learned one thing through all this, it's that none of these things happened by accident. It was always fate that dictated our path. Always. You had your beliefs, and so did we. We all believed the same. People made their own choices. Do I think it was terrible that Darlams had to choose like this and move to Shade's Vale? Absolutely. But you know what? If it wasn't for Shade's Vale, hardly any of us would be left."

I paused. I had never spoken like this before, and I didn't like that everybody was staring at me, but Alice was holding my hand, and that was enough. "We counted twenty-eight Darlams the other day, but I think there are more of them, a lot more, because a group of twenty-eight can't sustain a village or thrive as a population. That they are there is a miracle. Their ancestors would have been killed or captured like all of us had they lived out in the open."

Hannah's glassy eyes met mine. "Do you really think so?"

"Yes," I nodded. I did.

"Thank you," Hannah said, and by her expression, it was easy to see that she wasn't just saying it; she meant it. A slight smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

I shook my head, "I wasn't saying it to make you feel better. These are facts, and?—"

It was my turn to get elbowed by Alice. "Stop while you're ahead," she cautioned, and light laughter erupted from our group.

"Alright, anything else?" Sloane asked.

"Yeah," I surprised everyone, "I want to say that having learned all this, I vote to wake the others up. I don’t feel right making a decision like this for others; it makes me feel like one of the Ohrurs, but we are left to sort out their mess, and I think every Darlam has a right to forge their path. Allowing them to keep sleeping… for however long? What, until we find enough human females who we think might be their mates?" I shook my head. "Again, that makes me feel like we are taking their lives away just like the Ohrurs did."

"Damn straight, brother," Zaarek nodded. "I vote to wake them too."

The vote was unanimous, and we decided to figure out how to proceed the following day.

"I'm proud of you," Alice said on the way to our quarters.

"I'm proud of you, too," I told her, pulling her into my arms. "You are the most amazing female I've ever met."

She tried to laugh it off. "I don't know about that. There are some pretty amazing women aboard this ship."

"None as amazing as you," I reiterated and pushed her against the wall to look her in the eyes so that she would see the truth.

"You're pretty amazing yourself." She smiled.

"Don't do that."

"Don't do what?" She pulled up her brows, creasing her forehead.

"Don't belittle the things you have accomplished. You are the most wonderful person in the entire universe."

Just then, a small maintenance drone passed us. Instead of moving straight forward, though, it moved in a zigzag pattern.

"One of yours?" I smirked down at my mate.

"Well, how amazing am I now?" She challenged.

I put both of my hands flat against the wall, caging her head in. My forehead moved down until it met hers. "Still the most amazing female in the entire universe," I doubled down.

She smiled up, "I love you."

Just before my lips brushed hers, I said, "I love you too, Alice. I love you with every beat of my heart."