Chapter 8
Amreth
I followed Ciara outside the house while trying to sort out my conflicting emotions. From the moment Kayog revealed her existence to me, I pictured a million different scenarios as to what our first meeting would be like. As much as I prided myself on being the rational and stoic type, I hadn’t been able to resist fantasizing about countless heroic scenes of me rescuing her, dashing through the skies with her in my arms while being pursued by fiendish enemies. She would cling to me, confident in my ability to keep her safe despite the extreme peril we faced.
Being captured on my first excursion, in no small part because I hadn’t properly prepared, couldn’t have fallen shorter from those grandiose expectations. My gut still burned with embarrassment at having her calling me out on it.
Although she was undeniably physically drawn to me, Ciara had not seemed particularly impressed by me as an individual. It stung. But what had I expected? I didn’t believe in love at first sight, even though she took my breath away the moment Kayog shared her image with me. Still, I had hoped for more of an instant chemistry that would have confirmed what the Temern claimed about us being meant for each other. In truth, without that assertion, I probably wouldn’t have pursued her further, in light of her lukewarm response to me.
Nevertheless, I took heart in the one or two instances where she seemed to let her guard down and show a less distant and reserved side of her personality. That was rich coming from an Obosian. We were reputed to be quite stiff. And that certainly had always applied to me.
But I had truly wanted a hug from her.
For a reason I couldn’t explain, I felt it deep in my bones that physical contact between us would be required to initiate the bond. And I didn’t mean sexual. Even something as simple as holding hands would help break the invisible barrier separating us.
A part of me wondered if I was overthinking things. But another strongly felt that if we didn’t manage to fill the gap between us early on, it would simply widen with each of us increasingly struggling to find a way to establish that connection. In a way, knowing that we were meant to be created this strange expectation that things should flow a certain way. Under different circumstances, had our first meeting been on a romantic date carefully planned by us, I believed it would have been a lot smoother than this awkwardness.
That didn’t stop me from being even more impressed with my Ciara. Beyond her physical beauty and the enchanting marvel that was her soul, my woman was smart, strong, and no pushover. I loved that she bluntly expressed her thoughts on a few occasions, even if it put me in a bad light. It was very Obosian of her. I had no use for a meek and skittish female who couldn’t speak her mind or call me out on my failures. The absence of cruelty as she did so, and the sliver of guilt that emanated from her for having possibly hurt my feelings reassured me as to her being a kind person.
But it was her determination to do right by those who had been wronged, and to use the skills she honed over the years to better other people’s lives that truly warmed me from the inside out. People often wrongfully assumed that we Obosians had a sadistic side that made us enjoy the prisoners’ suffering. They couldn’t be more mistaken. It actually broke my heart every time one of my convicts failed to redeem himself or met a dire end because of their poor choices.
They didn’t see the amount of effort and work we did to get inmates to use their time in prison to improve themselves so that they could have a brighter future by making better choices thanks to the new skills and wealth they acquired.
Although I couldn’t deny having far less sympathy towards the criminals in our Dark Quadrants, some of them actually went out of their way to redeem themselves. Considering the atrocity of the crimes that had landed them there to begin with, seeing one of them complete their sentence and turn their lives around was probably one of the greatest accomplishments for us.
My mate hurrying up to the two humans I recognized as Mehreen Aziz and Ernst Wagner put an end to my wandering thoughts. Her two colleagues had already gathered around the wheeled cart pulled by a beast I didn’t recognize. A large animal lay dead on it. Ernst was looking at the interface of an analysis device, having likely drawn some blood from the beast. Mehreen was running a handheld scanner over every inch of its body.
My mate caught up with them and exchanged a few words with Ernst, who showed her the interface. She tapped a few instructions on it then pulled out what looked like a long needle from the top of the device. She held it up while Ernst replaced the needle with a fresh one and fiddled with the device while Ciara pricked the creature again.
Not wanting to get in the way of their work, I stood back and observed the villagers. Quite a few of them had entered the inner courtyard, although they remained by the gates as if worried about trespassing. They were observing the scientists with undeniable wariness, but devoid of any aggression. It struck me then that the concern was likely more about the safety of their food than about the doctors themselves.
Once again, it sent my mind down a spiral of speculation as to who in Tharmok’s name were the friends who had so thoroughly convinced them that we could be trusted to do right by them. I needed to write to Maeve to set her on the trail of whatever powerful entity Elias might be in cahoots with.
Or could it be beholden to?
I made a mental note of the things I would want her to look into. As one of the Enforcers’ top hackers, there weren’t too many secrets that escaped Maeve once she set her mind on discovering it. So long as it had some sort of digital print, she would find it.
The thought that I couldn’t just take off right now and go to my ship didn’t sit well with me. I hated being a prisoner in that courtyard. How ironic for a Warden. My inmates wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if they knew of my current predicament. Technically, I could leave. They were clearly giving us enough freedom of movement so that I could grab Ciara and fly to my vessel before they could get into close enough range to disable me with their psionic powers.
But I would never do it.
Beyond the fact that I felt a strong moral duty to help them, I was honor-bound to stick around. With a certainty I couldn’t explain, I knew that Aku was not the type to easily grant his trust. And he had granted me his. It didn’t matter that some Seer’s prediction cemented that conviction. A part of me believed that our interactions convinced him that I was a male of my word. Had he felt I couldn’t be trusted, Seer or not, I didn’t doubt he would have shackled me.
Anyway, trying to bail now would be the surest way to torpedo any hope of a smooth relationship with my woman.
I refocused on the scientists just as they finished their tests. Based on their body language, they hadn’t found anything suspicious or that could aid their research. Ciara gestured to the Kreelar hunters, indicating that they could take the meat away. She then faced me while her companions turned towards the lab only to stop dead in their tracks as they finally noticed me.
“An Obosian!” Ernst whispered with shock, quickly replaced by excitement.
He swiftly approached me, followed by the two women. I remained still as he closed the distance between us.
“My Lord, we’re so glad to see you. Where are the others?” he asked, peering over my shoulder.
“I came here alone. There’s no one else, only me,” I replied in a calm voice. “And you can simply call me Amreth.”
In theory, he should indeed address me as Lord Amreth as I was of noble descent. Many of my peers were sticklers for hierarchy. I didn’t particularly care. And under the circumstances, those stiff protocols didn’t seem appropriate. The approving glimmer in my mate’s eyes did something delightful to me. I hadn’t done it to impress her, but I welcomed anything that could help smitten her towards me.
He blinked with confusion. “Alone? Whatever for?”
With a will of their own, my eyes flicked towards Ciara. I caught myself right before I would have told him that I came to rescue my mate. While true, it didn’t feel appropriate for me to expose the nature of our bond without her consent. Although she had acknowledged knowing of our connection, she was yet to express any eagerness to see it through.
“He came for me,” Ciara responded in my stead, stunning all of us.
“For you?” Ernst and Mehreen echoed simultaneously.
The most adorable timid expression flashed over my woman’s face even as she tried to look nonchalant.
“Guys, please meet Amreth Vahna, a Warden on Molvi, who also happens to be my soulmate. Kayog matched us right before the Gladius was attacked.”
The way her companions’ mouths dropped, and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads would have been hilarious if I had not been too busy preening to have thus been publicly claimed. Ciara didn’t strike me as the type who loved to boast. To me, that she openly revealed this to the others broadcast that she was committed enough about us working out that she had no qualms sharing it.
“Kayog? The Temern matchmaker?!” Mehreen exclaimed.
Ciara nodded.
“Holy cow! I didn’t know you sought out his services,” she added.
My mate snorted and shook her head. “I didn’t. We met on the ship and started talking after assisting a woman who was feeling a little under the weather. And next thing you know, boom, he told me he knew my soulmate.”
“But… But when did you two get to talk before we got abducted?!” Ernst challenged.
“We didn’t,” Amreth replied in a factual manner. “Once it was confirmed that Ciara was among the missing, Kayog contacted me.”
“And so you decided to come rescue her?!” Mehreen asked, an air of pure awe descending over her features.
“Of course. What kind of male would I be if I did not?”
My mate burst out laughing, while Ernst rolled his eyes with false despair when Mehreen pressed both her palms to her chest and stared at me with an air of wonder.
“Be still my heart! That’s so freaking romantic. Please tell me you have a single brother!”
It was my turn to burst out laughing. “I do,” I replied with a nod.
“I demand a formal introduction,” Mehreen said before shamelessly batting her eyelashes.
“Woman, rein yourself in, and stop flirting with my man,” Ciara said with false severity.
That, too, did funny things to me. It was silly how much pleasure I derived from her possessive display of me, however playful as this current situation was.
“Spoil sport,” Mehreen replied with an exaggerated pout. “Anyway, the name is Mehreen, and he is Ernst.”
“He already knows and has read all our files on his way here. Now let’s go eat. We can catch him up on the parts I haven’t gotten around to.”
We all fell into step following her lead. It was starting to become apparent to me that the two scientists deferred to my woman’s authority. She led us into one of the houses adjacent to the lab. To my surprise, the interior had been set up as a meeting room next to a dining area. The table was already laden with a generous amount of food. To my dismay as we took our seats, I noticed the substantial percentage of fruits and vegetables with only a small portion of meat and some dry breads.
Ciara chuckled upon seeing my expression, her own face taking on an air of commiseration laced with a hint of mockery.
“Someone isn’t vegan?” she asked teasingly.
“Definitely not,” I replied in a grumpy tone. “Our Nundars make the most delicious gastronomic dishes one could dream of.”
“Nundars? What are they?” she asked with curiosity.
“We call them our familiars. They are a spiritual species of hermits who require living with an Obosian to thrive. They are highly intelligent and possess extremely powerful psionic powers. They feed off emotions but are also extremely sensitive to them. Negative emotions greatly distress them, which explains their need for isolation,” I explained.
“Why do they thrive around your species specifically?” Ciara asked.
“Like my people, they mainly feed off emotions. Obosians naturally constantly emit a certain energetic aura that we can deliberately expend more of as needed. Therefore, around the time we reach maturity, we will be surrounded by young Nundars in the hope some of them will like our energy. Those who do will choose us as their patron and move in with us in the section of our dwelling reserved to them.”
I deemed it wiser to skip the part where that selection occurred during the wild weeks when young Obosians reached their maturity around the age of eighteen. Prior to that, we were basically asexual. But once that moment occurred, we practically became rabid and were thrown into an orgy with other teens our age while we worked out our unbridled libido with everything and anything that moved. Young Nundars would supervise, making sure we kept hydrated, fed, and rested during that time when our minds were completely addled. Seeing us at our most uncontrolled and primal state helped them better assess if they could see themselves serving us for the rest of their lives.
“Isn’t it a bit invasive? It sounds like you could end up with a lot?” Ciara asked carefully.
I snorted and gave her a reassuring smile. “They truly are not. Like I said, they enjoy living in isolation. You will be lucky to see them even once a month. Normally, you’re only aware of their existence because they take care of all the chores around the house, including cooking, cleaning, and doing the laundry. But as they can sense our presence and state of mind, they know exactly how to make themselves scarce and only show up if they feel that we want to speak or interact with them.”
“Wow, invisible and efficient helpers, who cook great food and take care of all the house chores? Sign me up!” Mehreen said, her voice dripping with envy, although her tone remained playful. “About that introduction to your brother…”
We all snorted, and my mate shook her head with false severity at her colleague as if she was a hopeless case.
“So it’s true then that Obosians are like Incubi,” Ernst said pensively.
“To the extent that we feed off the emotions of our partners, yes, we are. We don’t need it, but it sates us far more than regular food. However, we do not drain the life force from our mates when we do so. They’re not negatively affected in any way,” I said teasingly.
“Well then, you’re all set,” Mehreen said with exaggerated enthusiasm. “No need to torture yourself with all that bird food,” she added, waving at the mostly vegetarian meal on the table before casting a meaningful glance at Ciara.
“Hey! I’m not food!” Ciara exclaimed with false outrage.
“Technically, yes you are,” I said with a shit-eating grin. “Or rather your emotions are.”
I silenced the part that her pleasure would be the most succulent feast I would ever indulge in when the time came.
“But fear not, Ciara. I shall never feed without your express consent,” I said in a reassuring tone.
Apparently determined to cause as much mischief as possible—although without any malicious intent—Mehreen further playfully needled my mate in a clear attempt to make her blush.
“Seeing as you two are soulmates—not to mention that you are every shade of hot—I’m sure Ciara will be more than happy to grant you that consent,” Mehreen said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “By the way, are we to assume that you’ll be sharing Ciara’s house?”
Ernst bit the insides of his cheeks to keep from laughing while my mate gasped in disbelief, still stuck on that first comment. Mehreen was growing on me. It was strange as my people tended to be on the stiffer side. I also unfairly assumed that scientists would be boring and stuffy. A part of me suspected that her humor was also a coping mechanism for the stressful situation they’d been thrust into.
“Uhm… according to Aku, we are indeed meant to share her dwelling. I challenged him, saying that it was highly inappropriate. He informed me that there was a guest room, so it should be a non-issue. But if it was truly problematic for either of us, then he would provide different accommodations for me,” I explained, factually.
“Wow!” Ciara whispered, looking at me with a hurt expression that took me aback. “Do you find it that dreadful to share a house with me?”
I recoiled and gaped at her. “What?! No, not at all. I just found it extremely presumptuous of him to assume you would be fine with it.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Did he tell you why he wanted us to share a house?”
“He said we were soulmates,” I replied calmly.
“Which is accurate,” Mehreen said with an obvious tone.
“Yes, but how does he know?” I challenged before glancing at my mate. “I doubt either you or Kayog told him.”
“Their friend did,” Ciara said with certainty before scrunching her face in frustration. “I hate that our memories have been wiped. I just know that their friend claimed that we all play an important role that will lead to the success of our efforts.”
“It sounds like the vision of a Seer or Oracle,” I said pensively. “Could those friends be Korletheans?”
To my shock, all three humans responded in unison with a definite no. That surprised them, and they exchanged amused looks at their instinctive reaction.
“I don’t know why I can say this with complete certainty, but the Kreelars’ friends absolutely hate the Korletheans,” Ciara said carefully, to which her colleagues nodded.
“Yeah, I feel something very icky when their name comes up. It has to come from those mysterious friends,” Ernst said with a frown. “I wonder if their friends could be Sarenians.”
Ciara nodded “It’s plausible considering they possess mind controlling powers. With a single command, they could have wiped our memories. They also hate the Korletheans. But what would they be doing here in the Dead Zone? They mostly stick to their own region at the opposite end of the Eastern Quadrant.”
“Does it matter?” Ernst countered.
“Absolutely!” I exclaimed sternly. “Unlike humans, who are also part of the Galactic Alliance of the Eastern and Western Quadrants, the rest of us here in the Northern Quadrant know very little about the Sectarians. They helped perform an attack against one of our most powerful Ally vessels. Was this an isolated event or are they up to something more nefarious?”
“Fair question,” Ciara said in an appeasing tone. “But the Kreelars truly need our help. Without their friends’ intervention, they might have become fully extinct in the next few years. Also, so far, I’ve perceived absolutely no evil or deception from Aku and his tribemates. They only want to save their people.”
I nodded begrudgingly. “I also do not perceive any treachery from them. But why are their friends so secretive?”
“You know why,” Ciara said in a reproving tone. “They broke the law to help the Kreelars. Even though they have done this for good reasons, you would breathe down their necks if you could get your hands on them.
“With valid reasons!” I exclaimed.
She gave me a hard stare, her face closing off in the most unpleasant fashion. I didn’t like stirring that type of response from her.
“If I have to break the law to save a dying species, I will do so without hesitation,” she said in a harsh tone.
“There were other ways they didn’t explore,” I argued.
“Were there?” she challenged. “They believe we are the one hope with the best outcome for all. So far, their foresight has been right, including you coming here.”
“A crime is a crime,” I said stubbornly. “People got hurt because of their attack.”
“And they made every reasonable effort to mitigate injuries, including saving my life and fully healing me,” Ciara said in the same stern voice. “You violated the Prime Directive to come and rescue me. Should you be sentenced to Molvi?”
I waved a dismissive hand. “Some exceptions are made when helping relatives and also based on the intentions of the person who committed the trespass.”
“Exactly!” Ciara exclaimed as if that should be obvious to me. “You don’t know what their intentions were.”
“Fair,” I conceded. “But what were they doing here on Kestria in the first place?”
I shrugged. “What were we, humans, doing here as well? What were Elias and his team doing here? This is the Dead Zone. The UPO has no more jurisdiction over the Sectarians who come to this planet than the Sectarians do over us. Whoever their friends are, they might have had legitimate reasons to be here. And clearly, they have a strong bond that strikes me as having spanned many years. So technically, if there are any intruders, it appears to me that we are.”
I pursed my lips as I reflected on her words before nodding slowly.
“You make valid points. But why are you so protective of them?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
She appeared taken aback by that question. To my delight, rather than instantly denying or going on the defensive, Ciara took a moment to assess her thoughts and feelings about it before responding. That pleased me a great deal.
“When I became a doctor, I pledged to do no harm and to aid those in need. The Kreelars are in desperate need. Without their friends, they were guaranteed to die. You spoke of an attack, but not of a slaughter. Aku swore that they harmed no one, not even the guards, who they had also psychically disrupted. You confirmed as much. Yes, people got injured in the panic. But that was not the Kreelars’ fault, or rather not directly. The way they saved me proved they were trying to mitigate any damage done to innocents.”
Once again, I found myself begrudgingly forced to nod in concession. That seemed to please and embolden her.
“I think the Kreelars are good people, and their friend saw it, too. They could be treating us like shit for what they’ve endured, even if Elias and his team are the ones responsible for it,” she continued.
“They have been extremely kind to us,” Ernst concurred while Mehreen nodded in support.
“Ciara says you might have found a trail. You think you can help?” I asked.
Ernst nodded, his face lighting up with hope. “We found the responsible prions—the infectious agents that are causing this variation of prion diseases,” he added quickly in an apologetic tone, although that explanation would remain less-than-clear for most people.
I smiled in a reassuring fashion. “Ciara already did a great job of explaining to me what prions are.”
“Oh, excellent!” he exclaimed. “So we found the prions in the brain cells of the four current patients here. Two of them only started showing symptoms yesterday. We knew for sure that it was a prion disease because of the initial spongy plaque formation in their brain tissue seen in scans. As Ciara likely told you, prions must be ingested. We’ve scanned every food in the village as well as their water sources. Everything is clean. We must find what they are eating that’s causing it, and that’s a total Hail Mary.”
I didn’t know the formal meaning of that expression, but in the context, I suspected it meant that it would be an extremely difficult task to achieve.
“The important thing is that since this is happening in other villages, we know that the problem isn’t restricted to one herd or one farm. There is something out there infecting these people,” Ernst said.
“Can you cure it?” I asked.
All three of them shook their heads.
“There are no known cures for prion diseases. Normally, we can only make the human patients as comfortable as possible while the illness progresses until their passing,” Ciara said with a troubled expression. “But it is behaving differently with the Kreelars.”
“How so?” I asked with genuine curiosity.
“The symptoms appear faster where with most other species it can take many weeks to months to manifest. But more importantly, some of the Kreelars survive whereas humans die within two years. Sora was the first case, and she’s still alive. She’s Aku’s sister and the wet nurse who attacked the doctors by the river. Not only does she have antibodies, but her brain tissue also mutated to grant her psionic powers.”
“Do the others, like Aku, have the same antibodies?” I asked, fascinated.
Ciara hesitated, seeming unsure how to respond.
“The antibodies are fairly similar but not the same,” Mehreen said. “We believe the prions shared the same origin but that the source of contamination was different, and the variant Sora consumed through that doctor’s blood was a mutated version of the one that has been infecting the others.”
“We’re still trying to figure out why females are more likely to die,” Ciara said.
“I would have assumed it was a hormonal factor,” I said carefully.
“That’s what we suspect as well, but what specifically? How is it interacting with the prions to precipitate the catastrophic failures that killed them?” she said pensively.
“At least, we can now detect who is infected, even if they are not yet showing symptoms,” Ernst said. “We must test everyone and provide them with test kits to ensure infected mothers and wet nurses aren’t passing anything to their children.”
“I’m assuming they have many villages spread over a vast territory. Do they have quick communication systems?” I asked, trying to assess how many villages we could reach in the shortest time possible.
“Yes and no,” Ciara replied. “They have the equivalent of old CBs, which basically only require an antenna and a receiver to catch the radio frequencies. They can talk over them, but there is no vidcom. So we can’t show them virtually what to do. It at least allows Aku to give them a heads up of what’s going on and that we will start visiting them as of tomorrow with test kits and medicine.”
“Medicine?” I echoed with a frown. “I thought you said there was no cure?”
“We’ve prepared something derived from Sora’s antibodies with synthetic immunoglobulins that will help prevent normal prions from turning abnormal. This should significantly slow the progress of the disease and give the patient’s body a chance to fight back and mutate instead of dying. So far, it has been working well for our first two patients.”
A sudden thought struck me. “Is there any chance that they are in fact consuming whatever this is on purpose? Is there a possibility that the Kreelars want to undergo this mutation? After all, it has given them the type of offensive psionic powers that many hunters would love to have.”
To my surprise, they all simultaneously shook their heads.
“Definitely not,” Ciara said with certainty. “They were happy the way they were. But they will take the mutation over death. They just fear what other changes may occur in the future and would love confirmation that this mutation is the final result of their exposure to the prions.”
“Fair enough. So what’s the plan?” I asked.
“We travel to nearby villages with a couple of Kreelar escorts in the morning,” Ernst said. “With your wings, you could take Ciara to one of the more distant ones.”
I nodded. “We were discussing it before the hunters returned with their catch. My shuttle would be a lot more efficient though. Hopefully, things will go well tomorrow enough that their people will feel more comfortable with our advanced technology. It would allow you and Mehreen to travel farther while I fly my mate.”
I flinched inwardly when I caught myself using that term of endearment. It was the second time I had done it. I cast a nervous glance at Ciara but was relieved to find her smiling with approval. I doubted it was because I had claimed her. But I welcomed the fact that it didn’t seem to trouble or displease her.
“Sounds like a plan!” Ciara said.
We finished our ‘bird’ food meal in an amiable atmosphere. Afterwards, Ernst and Mehreen went back to making more medicine while Ciara taught me how to administer the test so that I could help her in the morning.
In a way I couldn’t explain, it felt good.