Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
“I can’t believe you did it,” Eun-Ji commented as she pushed down the dough. She was learning a new pastry recipe and was trying it out.
Olivia groaned and rubbed her head. As soon as she and Kaias had their breakfast, she dressed and ran to the temple.
Two guards followed her down the quiet roads, annoyed that they would have to trek the distance instead of riding another one of those reptilian horses.
The walk was necessary; it helped the blood flow to her brain and made her think more clearly.
She wished she knew what was going on in Kaias’s mind.
There was an undeniable attraction between them, and the sex was phenomenal, but she wasn’t an idiot. Kaias had plans, and she wasn’t a part of them. No, she had to get that thought correct; she was a part of the plan. She just wasn’t privy to the plans that involved her.
It was aggravating.
“It wasn’t that hard,” Olivia smirked.
“Damn,” Eun-Ji sighed, “He’s so chiseled and stiff, I would have thought that if he had an erection, it would be hard.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Olivia coughed out a laugh. “I meant that he is so attractive that it’s not hard to do that with him.”
“Mmm,” Eun-Ji nodded, “I agree. Even the ladies in the med bay agreed. They’re a bit salty that you were the one he chose. But, I heard they are thinking of finding themselves a Vrex man. Brian’s not going to be able to get a date anywhere.”
“Good,” Olivia shook her head. “Can you believe he tried to bring a camera in there?”
“He’s done worse,” Eun-Ji shrugged, “and he’ll do more in time. But don’t worry about him. Tell me about Kaias. What was it like?”
Olivia hummed in thought. She tried to think of how she would describe him.
“Intense.”
“Oh?” Eun-Ji slapped the dough on the counter. She floured the roller and began to roll the dough. “Care to elaborate?”
“Well,” Olivia watched as the dough flattened under Eun-Ji’s pressure. “It’s like how you are pushing the dough to your will. He does the same.”
“You are a ball of dough, and he flattens you?”
“No,” Olivia laughed, “I don’t know. He is demanding and forceful, but not once did I feel I didn’t have a say. He didn’t outright ask me if I wanted to, but he would have stopped if I asked him to. Kaias is…”
She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know what he is aside from what we’ve seen.
He keeps so still, he’s like one of the statues here.
He just watches and waits. When he acts, I can feel every part of him, but is it him doing it or me wanting to think that?
Why am I even feeling this way? We don’t know each other! ”
Eun-Ji laughed and shook her head. She took out a slicer and cut into the dough.
“So, he is an intense baker kneading the dough to what he wants, but the dough doesn’t know what he wants.”
Olivia snapped her fingers and pointed at Eun-Ji. “Yes!”
Eun-Ji looked at Olivia and sighed. “He sounds like any man. They don’t talk about their feelings. The ones that do are a lot less work. He’s going to work. And you need to allow yourself some grace here. He is a god king of sorts, and you are just a lowly worm in comparison.”
“Thanks,” Olivia snorted. “How did I get such a great friend?”
“By applying to a federal job that promised to pay all your student loans and being hired by the United Nations to work on an ambassador mission. Which you seem to have taken to a whole new level.”
“Brat.”
Eun-Ji laughed. “You love me.”
She separated the strands of dough she had cut and began to braid a few. “I find it interesting how similar their foods are to ours. It feeds my conspiracy brain.”
Eun-Ji’s observation surprised Olivia. It always seemed to surprise her, too, how much they had in common. Even the culture of Vrex had a connection with Eastern cultures.
“Maybe ancient aliens are real,” Olivia wondered if she needed to apologize to Crazy Jim, her Pop’s neighbor back in Louisiana.
That man believed every satellite was an alien spacecraft watching their handiwork.
When she got the job with the UN, he was the first to demand that she ensure everyone knew the truth.
She promised just to get out of his breath.
Eun-Ji pushed on the braid, shaping it into a flower.
“What are you making?” Olivia asked, interested in the pastry.
“Emil and I found it in the market. I bought a few and had to try making them myself.” Eun-Ji said, “I can’t remember what they called them, but they are delicious. I think there’s one left in the cabinet, if you want one.”
“I’m good,” Olivia shook her head. An idea popped into her mind as she watched Eun-Ji work on a new braid. “Maybe I should make beignets.”
“That’s a great idea!” Eun-Ji exclaimed. “Food is a universal language. If you share food, you share something about yourself. It’s why my mother always loved being in the kitchen.”
Olivia nodded, remembering times when she would go to Pops and Mama’s house. There was always something cooking on the stove or on the grill. No one went hungry in their house.
“I’m going to do that,” she decided. Olivia moved around the kitchen, grabbing the ingredients she needed to make the fried dough.
She worked quietly next to Eun-Ji, making the popular dessert from her home. As she cooked, she thought about Kaias. Would the food help open him up, and could they work together on whatever was on his mind?
Olivia sifted the powdered sugar on the beignets and took a step back. Finished with her own pastries, Eun-Ji handed one to Olivia. It was a braided flower with custard and fruit compote.
“I used the fruit they use here,” Eun-Ji explained. “Here, take one.”
Olivia took a bite. The pastry was good. She could see it in a bakery in Europe, displayed and ready for patrons.
“I like it.”
“It’s good.” Eun-Ji nodded. She grabbed a beignet and began eating. “Oh, he’ll like this, and if he doesn’t, he’s not human.”
Olivia laughed. “He isn’t.”
“Eh,” Eun-Ji shrugged, “he’s more human than most.”
Olivia laughed. She placed a bundle of the beignets into a basket and shook her head.
“It’s getting time to head back,” she sighed.
Eun-Ji rolled her eyes. “Oh, of course, feel homesick about the awful air conditioner and lumpy cot. Never mind the fact you probably slept in something plush and soft last night.”
“Maybe,” Olivia smirked, “but I miss my roommate.”
“Oh, stop,” Eun-Ji waved her hand away, “he’s better looking and you know it.”
“What are you talking about? You’re drop-dead gorgeous.” Olivia bumped Eun-Ji.
Eun-Ji laughed. She shook her head and began cleaning the kitchen. “He’s more your type. Now, go on, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Maybe you can find out what he’s hiding from you.”
Olivia nodded, hoping she was right. She walked out of the pods and into the temple, and the two guards followed her. One coughed, and she turned to look at them.
“You two haven’t eaten,” she observed. A pang of guilt hit her. She wondered how many hours these men kept themselves without food. Slowly, she reached into the basket and pulled out two beignets. “Here. Eat one. If you like them, I can teach your family how to make them. Or I could make more.”
The guards looked at each other, silently speaking to one another. One shrugged and reached for a beignet. He hesitantly took a bite. His eyes widened, and a grin grew on his face. He looked to his partner and nodded. The other guard slowly followed.
“You can talk to me,” Olivia said.
They looked at each other. Powdered sugar speckled their chins as their mouths worked the food. Olivia smiled, waiting for one of them to swallow. Slowly, a throat bobbed up and down before he bowed his head low.
“Forgive us, Lady,” he stammered, “Lord Kaias has not informed us how to address you. We were unsure how well you knew our language.”
“Well,” Olivia nodded slowly, “I do know more than the others, but I’m still learning. If you’d like, I could teach you my language as well.”
They looked at one another and quickly shook their heads. “If Lord Kaias commands it, we will.”
“I’ll talk to him about it,” Olivia promised.
The two guards glanced at each other but didn't say anything.
Olivia sighed. She wondered if they were afraid of her or just cautious about what Kaias would do to them when talking to her.
She imagined what his childhood must have been like.
He must've been treated like this, with a mixture of fear and hesitance.
It was a wonder that the High Sister was able to have as much of an influence as she did.
Olivia sighed and began walking again. “Do you think we could find a . . .”
She paused, unsure of what kind of animal Torque was. “What is Torque?”
A guard snorted. “You don’t have Draxzon on Earth?”
“Oh, no.” Olivia shook her head, “We have horses. They have fur and aren’t used in the same way anymore.”
“What do you use for transportation then?” A guard asked.
“We call them vehicles,” Olivia said. “I’ll show you a picture of some later.”
”Picture?”
“It’s,” Olivia paused again, “hard to explain. A picture is a moment of time captured in an image.”
“You capture moments?” There was a momentary fear in the guard’s voice.
Olivia bit her lip. Before she joined the United Nations, she worked with the Peace Corps, teaching English in disenfranchised countries, but even there, they understood pictures. She had forgotten how less advanced Vrex was despite how affluent they were.
“Let me show Lord Kaias instead.” She mumbled. The last thing she wanted was for the guards to spread a rumor that the humans were the Vrex equivalent of witches.
The guards sighed with relief, making her shake her head. She walked through the temple, thinking of all the things she and Kaias needed to talk about.
From a distance, she could hear a child and a grown man talking. The child laughed.
“You’re saying it wrong.” The child said between gasps.
“The sounds make no sense,” the man argued, “look at these symbols too. Can you read these?”
“A little,” the child sighed, “but I have a lot to learn. Miss Ol-via says I’m the best, though.”
“Olivia,” the man said, “that is how you say it. Not Ol-via.”
“I apologize, Lord Kaias.”
Kaias sighed. A low grumble rolled out from the room he was in. The girl hesitantly giggled.
“Perhaps I should let you keep this workbook,” she said, stopping her laughter.
“No. I will get one from Olivia.” Kaias said, “I am tired of learning these.”
Olivia smiled and walked to the room. Maia looked up from her workbook and smiled.
“Olivia!” She got up and ran to Olivia, pushing past Kaias as she did.
Kaias frowned, but didn’t say anything. He looked at Olivia and watched as Maia hugged her.
“I’ve been teaching Lord Kaias the alphabet.”
“I heard.” Olivia smiled at Kaias.
His frown softened to his stoic calm gaze. Slowly, he stood up from his seat and looked at the basket in her hands.
“Why are you holding that?” He glared at one of the guards. “Take that from her. And the bag on her back. She shouldn’t be holding anything.”
“I can handle it.”
Kaias shook his head. “You are my Kou.”
“You are?” Maia gasped out. She let go of her embrace and bowed down to the floor. “Forgive me, Lady. I did not know. I will take whatever punishment you give me.”
“What is a Kou?” Olivia asked.
“You are my Kou and I am yours. The Heart Binding makes us do that.”
“Get up, Maia,” Olivia said as she lowered herself and pulled the girl to her feet. “You never need to bow to me. I am not a Lady. Where I am from, we do not have those titles. I am no one special.”
Kaias frowned. “She is to bow to you as any other person would. As my Kou, disrespecting you is disrespecting me.”
“I never agreed to being treated in this way.”
“You did agree. We are one.”
Olivia glared at him. Something was missing in their communication.
She understood what it meant to be Heart Bound and where that put her in their world, but it felt foreign to her.
There had to be a middle ground. Somewhere where she could be herself, treated as an equal and a friend, without sacrificing her independence.
Being followed by guards and treated as royalty was a world she never really wanted.
In his world, she wasn’t just a queen, but married to a god.
Existential dread crossed her mind. She thought she had gotten over this, but it was one thing to understand it on paper and another to see it in practice.
“I agreed,” she nodded, “but we need to talk more about this.”
She stared into his eyes, daring him to say something about it. Kaias nodded slowly.
“We will.”
Olivia swallowed the anxiety growing in her throat. As he stared at her, she felt how heavy the basket of beignets was.