Page 103 of Stars on Fire

‘You going to this shindig on Dunia?’ Kage probed.

‘Maybe. Maybe not,’ came the clipped reply.

‘Why ‘maybe not’?’ Riv insisted, leaping nimbly over the counter to get himself a drink.

Kainan didn’t reply, choosing instead to glower into his glass.

‘You don’t want to seeher,’ Kage guessed. ‘But you’re dying to seeher!’

‘Brother -’ Kainan protested with a low rumble.

‘Tis true,’ Riv went further. ‘Life with you recently has been as miserable as those first weeks after the crats captured us over twenty-five years ago. Lately, you’ve become the most flamin’, growling, angry, prickly son of a bitch we’ve ever had to live with.’

‘And all because you won’t admit that you can’t live without her,’ Kage added.

‘Fokk off, you two. I can live without her,’ Kainan grounded. ‘I’ve been through the worst shit. This is nothing!’

‘So why are you acting like your world is ending?’ Riv kept on. ‘Vastly different, Kai, to the smiling cat calling us every day when you two were alone at J’Urg Mihòr. Looking like he’d tasted the sweetest nectar in all of Pegasi.’

Kainan half rose in his chair and eyed Riv across the split bar, a heated rage washing over his face. ‘Watch your fokkin words, brother,’ he warned roughly. ‘Give her some damn respect!’

‘See!’ Riv said triumphantly. ‘She turns you into an overprotective Simian bear. You need her. And from what I’ve seen and heard, she needs you too.’

Kainan slumped back into his seat and glowered for a long moment. ‘Riv, I can’t. You know I can’t tell her what I am.’ The words dragged out of him slowly, painfully.

‘Give her the benefit of the doubt. Let her make a choice,’ the silver-haired man shot back.

‘Look at it this way, brother,’ Kage proffered. ‘If the tables were turned and she was suffering deeply from something out of her control, what would you want her to do?’

Silence fell in the expansive bar.

After a while, Kainan stirred. ‘I’d want her to tell me, so I could fokkin’ turn over the moon and stars to make it better for her.’

Kainan’s friends exchanged a look. The trio fell silent.

By and by, he huffed under his breath. ‘Nice. Colour me reversed with your pop psychology.’

‘So you’re coming?’ Riv murmured with a grin.

Kainan shook his head at his two friends, exasperated. ‘Damn it all to Iccythria and back. I’ll be there — I need to straighten out a few things with her. So I s’pose tis the best time as any. What does one wear to these kinds of shindigs anyway?’

Riv shot his friend a grin. ‘Between Zane and I, we’ve got your evening dress needs covered from top to toe.’

‘Fokk me,’ Kainan groaned. ‘You’re going to truss me up like a peacock!’

‘All’s fair after the wounded Ccyth dragon act you’ve been pulling all week,’ Kage said, ending the discussion with a grin and a whisky pour into three glasses.

Selene

The biggest night in the history of Dunia!

Selene looked up at the flashing neon holographic sign floating above. In line to deposit her onto the red carpet, her flyer inched forward towards the iconic front steps of Parliament House. Crowds lined the streets leading to the event. Large LED lights lit up the night with prismatic and shard-like beams. Drones flitted mid-air, some capturing video, projecting Dunia’s happy faces and overjoyed souls into the dark sky. Others looped and danced in sprawling aerial displays and illuminated, synchronised formations over New Malindi’s city and bay.

‘Didn’t think Dunia had it in us,’ Selene commented. ‘We’re rivalling Enia with all these lights and colour.’ She smoothed her dress and fiddled with an earring.

‘We’ll probably never see this kind of spectacle again in this lifetime,’ Rina said.

‘Yet it feels so wrong, celebrating before we say farewell to my father,’ Selene added. ‘But as he said, the people of Dunia and our service to them come first, before our personal troubles and grief.’

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