Deus
She slumbers in my arms. Her face, still with the pink dots on her cheeks, her eyelashes brushing her skin which is not as pale as it was. Lydia is covered in my scent as she should be. It mixes with her own and makes something perfectly distinct.
This female is mine. She has been filled, then I helped clean her up, a process she seemed to enjoy very much. Now she sleeps in my arms, in my cabin, in my sector.
I care not what Dalox says, not in this moment. If we are banished, then I have her.
Only I do not know if this is what she wants. Whether she wants me, whether she would want to leave Vorostor and the other humans behind.
Lydia stirs.
“Do you want to stay?” I ask, unable to stop myself.
“Why? Are you kicking me out?” she says, her voice filled with sleep and a soft smile on her face.
“Never!” I growl.
“Then, of course I want to stay, Deus.” Lydia opens one of her eyes and gives me a searching look.
“If we are banished…”
“We won’t be banished,” Lydia says, shutting her eye again.
“I have to prove myself by working for the other warlords.” I push the words through my teeth as they grind at me. “Starting with Dexx.”
“I’ll come with you,” Lydia says, her eyes still closed. “We can work together. I know you can do this.” She has her single eye open again, fixed on me. “Because you are not a traitor.”
I dip my head away from her gaze.
“I am not a traitor, but sometimes…it is hard.”
Her hand is on my cheek, turning me to her.
“I can’t even pretend to know what it was like for you, Deus, but what you did, you did in grief. It is not an excuse, but it is a reason, and it is the reason you are not a traitor,” she says.
“A good Sarkarnii warrior…”
“From what I’ve seen, a Sarkarnii warrior is strong because he is part of a whole, Deus, not alone. That’s what Dalox means when he wants to see you work. He knows what makes Sarkarnii strong is how they work together.” She smiles at me. “And he knows you did, once.”
“He just wants me to go fight spaceworms again,” I grumble.
“I don’t know about that.” Lydia wrinkles her nose. “But one thing I do know is, if he wanted to banish you, he would have done it. And he hasn’t.”
“You know a lot about Sarkarnii.”
“I watch,” Lydia says, her hand moving to my chest. “I do a lot of watching.”
“And what does your watching tell you about me?”
“I haven’t watched you enough yet,” She replies. “But so far, it would appear you have an ego to rival Driok, a darkness to rival Dexx, an appetite to rival Darax, a feral side to rival Dante, and enough wisdom to rival Dalox, if only you’d let go of your guilt.”
“That seems like you have watched me a lot.” I stroke my thumb over her lips. “Although I will never be such a great Sarkarnii.”
“There’s always time. I never thought I’d let another man, or male, into my life and yet here you are,” she says.
“I rut for you, little ember. It is not something I take lightly.” I lean in to capture her mouth with mine, luxuriating in the sweetness of her. “You are all the light in this universe.”
She takes my kiss, leaning into me until I release her.
“I hope so,” Lydia says. “Because we’ve got to work together, and I can’t imagine that’s going to be easy.”
I look out the window where the suns are rising.
“In which case, we should make sure we eat well, you are dressed well, and we are ready for the new nova-day in Dexx’s sector.” I press a kiss to her forehead. “He is unlikely to treat me well.”
“We’ll see about that,” Lydia says, uncurling from my arms and making her way to the food dispenser. “I suspect it will depend on how well you work for him.”