Page 66 of Across The Stars
I left the food in the room with Sam, certain she’d find it when she woke up. From what I could tell, it was more fruit with some kind of cracker toast that had seasoning on top. It looked good, but I was itching to take that run Solukh mentioned. Whatever he meant when he said “good luck” just piqued my interest.
Finding the archway wasn’t hard. It was bigger than I imagined. And a lot more beautiful, too. It looked like it was made of pearl, glistening different pale colors depending where I stood. I gawked at it for some time, watching the way the light played on the silvery lettering. Like Solukh said, I couldn’t read it. It was a pattern of swirling shapes all intertwined like cursive, but I couldn’t recognize a single letter. The only thing I could tell was that the valerian’s used an alphabet because a couple of the symbols repeated themselves. Or, at least, that was my theory.
When I finally decided to go through the passage, a couple of valerians were on their way out, both wearing monotoneclothing that flowed lightly as they walked. Each of them tossed me a strange glance, their steps hesitating a short moment before they took a wide birth around me. I noticed one of them had small specks of blue in her white skin and the other was a smooth gold that adopted a greener undertone the longer he stared at me.
Once the couple was gone, I checked the laces on my boots, rolled my shoulders, and headed through the arch. I found myself on a raised walkway wide enough for six people to stand side by side across it. The floor was made of a reflective metal and the railings were glass. Walking to the very edge, I looked over into a pool, just like Solukh mentioned. Except the water wasn’t blue. It wasn’t even clear. It was a shimmery aqua color with lily pads floating on the surface. Or things that looked like lily pads. They were a dark, purplish black color with deep red flowers on the top. And just beneath the surface of the big pool were long, snake-like creatures with scales just as pearlescent as the archway. As they swam around, I could see light glistening off their scales.
A smile spread over my lips at the sight. It was heavenly. It was a pure, angelic heart in an otherwise dim settlement filled with walls. That was when I realized how quiet it was. I peered up to see a spiral above me as the path wound countless times around the pool all the way to the top. From where I was, I could count seven spirals, but it went on further than that.
So, with thinner air, a dream, and an itch to adapt and move, I started to jog up the path, around and around and around. Every now and then, I glanced over to the pool below to see how far I’d gone and it wouldn’t look so bad. But my lungs began to burn before I knew it. I’d jogged before. I used to love it. It was my peaceful place, despite there being so few places to do it on Earth. In that place, with nothing but my breathing and myfootsteps to taint the silence, peace couldn’t even describe the feeling.
But then the burning in my lungs became a shortness of breath. I started walking for a while, using the railing for support, but I could barely find air. It took longer than I wanted to center myself, but once I did, I was pushing toward the top of the spiral again.
A good hour into a walk-run trek upward, I found myself reaching what looked like the end of the path. I glanced over the edge of the walkway and saw the pool… very far below.
Holy shit, I did it.
I was wheezing and feeling lightheaded, but I was almost there and every lungful of air I sucked in was a step toward acclimating to the new atmosphere. It was one less weakness. One more thing I could handle on my own.
Because that was life. Being alone. People came and went and aside from Sam, no one bothered to stick around. Relying on others was a weakness. I really needed to remember that.
I felt like I had to drag my feet through mud to finally get to a crescent shaped platform at the top of the spiral and when I stepped onto it, a breeze wrapped me in its cool embrace, licking the sticky sweat that had coated my body. I took a deep breath, savoring the mild scents in the air. Plants. Rain. Dirt. They were the best smells in the world.
And then I saw the view and it was like I was in a dream. Mountains were silhouetted against the red star, which looked ten times closer to Sylos than the sun looked to the Earth. Colors danced in the sky as squalls of dust fogged the distant mountains. Purple, pink, red. There were so many colors in one picture and I couldn’t stop looking at it.
Smiling ear to ear, I collapsed on the platform, letting the cold metal further calm my overheated body. I looked up at the sky and all the clouds that were rolling in from the oppositedirection. Rain seemed to smell the same everywhere and I relished it, taking in everything Sylos had to offer before I was sent back to the Nexus.
And most likely jail.
32: Vahko
I ran. Every time I got close to her, my mind retreated and now my body had. I knew why and yet I still did it. She was mine. My body knew it and my soul knew it and my hearts knew it. When I left her in that room, it was not to humiliate her or to deny her, it was because I was captured by an unavoidable thing and I wasn’t sure how I could dismiss it now.
If only I hadn’t gone to see her in the first place. I could smell her from the other room. Feel her pulse like it was my own. I could sense her need and I couldn’t ignore it. It called to me like her soul was saying my name and I couldn’t block it out. It had kept me up, tossing and turning in my bed wishing she was with me. It was foolish to go to her when I knew that having ataste would only make it harder to see her go, but I did and now I was suffering in my decisions.
I returned to my room, head spinning with indecision, and bathed, doing my best to get her scent off my skin.
Her wonderful scent.
She smelled of fresh air and sweet flowers, but there was something beneath it that was uniquely her. Something sweeter than sweet. When I washed that aroma off of me, my body acted betrayed. My hearts slowed and my skin became cold like I was suddenly missing something. All I wanted to do was go back to her, but I was a soldier. A soldier who was good at what he did and one who should have full control over his body. If the gek were truly trying to restart a war, I couldn’t have a mate. Gek had targeted vulnerable mates so many cycles ago in the height of the war. I couldn’t look after her the way a man should and on top of that, she was human. Unlearned in our ways. Not built for our various planets. What would be the point of keeping her?
I slipped into a loose, black shirt made of thin fabric to let the air dry my skin while I paced my room. Innifer must have been confused. Perhaps even offended by the way I’d left her, but I had no choice. We were fruits from different trees and we thrived in different environments. Together, I feared we would lose ourselves entirely.
I needed to blow off steam and I knew only one person that could tolerate my aggression.
Solukh had dodged my last four swings. He was getting better. After I’d cracked his crown some time ago, he’d grown faster. More aware.
Good.
The training facility was across the settlement, as far as I could get from Innifer, her scent, and the sound of her pulse. And sparring was a good way to focus my mind. If I wasdistracted, I’d get hit. So I forced my mind to comply and focus entirely on my fight with Solukh.
“How long are you going to do this?” he said, out of breath as he sidestepped my kick.
We were both in lazy stances. We’d been going at it for some time and though I was exhausted, I needed more. More time away. More time to drain myself so I had no room or energy to put elsewhere.
I swung again, sending my fist in a crescent sweep toward the side of Solukh’s head. He ducked, groaning with fatigue.
“Look, I get that you’re bothered by this whole situation, but you’re—”
