Chapter 25 #5
“Ecter,” Ryna spit after her quickly retreating form as others in the archive jeered and heckled her. Though Holly couldn’t hear their words as the pod door had shut, she saw their sneering faces and mocking gestures.
“You all right, Holly?” Hattie asked, touching her hand gently.
Holly nodded, smiling at her. “How about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Hattie turned to Ryna. “Thanks for looking out for us.”
Ryna grunted in response, but she was staring at Holly curiously.
“What?” Holly asked, frowning.
Ryna grunted again. “I see it now.”
“Huh?”
Ryna waved away the sound. “Forget it. I’m hungry. Want to go with me to the cafeteria to get something to eat?”
Surprised by the offer, Holly accepted without thinking.
That’s how the three of them ended up leaving the archive and crossing the campus to a completely different tree.
About halfway up, on a platform encircling the entire tree, there was a cafeteria serving hot and fresh meals to students and staff alike.
Some took their food and left, but there were also tables and chairs aplenty, sheltered from the ever-present rain.
And while they walked and ordered and waited, they just chatted. Not about anything in particular. The three of them talked like friends.
It wasn’t until Holly was sitting that she realized that’s exactly what this was. Ryna was treating her like a friend. She was not ready for that and didn’t know what to think about it. But she found that she actually liked the Second Scholar.
Ryna, like Romival, was highly focused on her studies and duties.
She loved learning, but in a different way than Romival.
While, for him, it was more like a tender, happy thing, for Ryna, it was a fire that burned her up on the inside.
It was her passion and her desire and, combined with a much more aggressive personality than Romival, it meant that she saw learning as a challenge that needed to be conquered.
“You really won’t tell me anything?” Ryna asked, pouting as she poked at the remaining sauteed mushroom dish she had ordered.
Holly grinned, shrugging a bit. “Sorry. It just feels weird to tell you anything before I have a chance to tell Romi.”
Ryna sighed. “That’s fair.”
“It is?” Hattie asked, chuckling as she looked between them.
“I understand,” Ryna said, trying to nod the way Holly and Hattie did. It looked strange and stilted since it wasn’t a motion she was used to performing, but she seemed eager to learn. “I actually admire your dedication to First Scholar.”
“Really?” Holly cocked her head curiously. “I thought you said you didn’t understand what he saw in me.”
“That was then. I see it now. You really are a vora vakara,” she grinned.
“But you’re the one who stopped Valorii. I didn’t do anything. I just kind of hoped she would stop it and go away.”
“Until she threatened your friend,” Ryna gestured at Hattie.
“You fight for the sake of others. That is the mark of a true warrior. Warriors without something to defend fight only for the sake of violence, and there is no more base reason to fight. It’s not considered dishonorable, really, but it’s certainly looked down upon. ”
“Really?” Holly said, surprised. “I thought you domini loved to fight. Isn’t your whole thing being aggressive and competitive?”
“Certainly,” Ryna grinned proudly. “And there are definitely historical scholars that postulate that, if it weren’t for the cultural shift brought about by the writing of the Omoni Otorsi, the domini would have ended up making ourselves extinct.
It’s not an uncommon fate for the more violent sapient species.
But because we do have the Omoni Otorsi, because it was so widely accepted as the proper standard for being a warrior and the proper way to conduct yourself in combat, our ancestors learned better. Thankfully.”
“You guys do fight a lot,” Holly said thoughtfully, “but I rarely see you actually hurt each other. At least, not badly.”
“Naturally. Part of our primary education is learning how to fight. Both to protect ourselves, but also so that, when our aggression erupts, we don’t accidentally hurt anyone. A warrior who can’t control his weapon will hurt himself more than others.”
“Is that from the Omoni Otorsi?” Hattie asked, earning a slightly smoother nod of confirmation.
“It’s a valuable lesson. Almost everything in the Omoni Otorsi is a valuable lesson. And what isn’t, is just good advice.”
“Alanna certainly would agree,” Holly chuckled.
“That’s the human with black hair, yes? I’ve heard that she goes to the archive occasionally.
She seems very interested in the Omoni Otorsi.
And poetry. She could probably test to be a scholar of linguistics if she wished.
I’ve heard that one of the humans has already tested to be a healer. The blood haired one, right?”
“Yeah, Scarlet,” Holly nodded. “She’s really smart. And motivated.”
“And vi Adassani is helping vi Dominani. What do you two do?”
“I’m cooking,” Hattie beamed excitedly. “Our diets are similar in a lot of ways, but there’s a lot of big differences.
You guys can’t eat cooked meat like we do, and we can’t drink raw blood like you guys.
So, I’ve been working on a menu that both of us can enjoy.
As well as learning about all of your traditional cooking and ingredients and mixing them with recipes I know. ”
“Her food is really good,” Holly said, smiling.
“I was a caterer back on Earth,” Hattie smiled, her face flushing with pleasure. “I love cooking and I love feeding people.”
“That’s an interesting project,” Ryna agreed. Her eyes turned to Holly. “So, how about you? How do you fill your time?”
Holly was explaining yoga, meditation, and how she was helping Romival to find Earth when a happy sound from Hattie cut her off. She looked to her, then followed her gaze to the entrance of the cafeteria.
Immediately, she smiled at the sight of the male in question. He was already looking at her and was walking her way with purpose.
“First Scholar,” Ryna greeted, her previous genial smile turning into a scowl as her competitive nature immediately reared its head.
“Second Scholar,” he returned without looking away from Holly.
“Hey, Romi,” Holly smiled at him.
“Hello, Holly,” he said, his voice warm and deliciously growly.
“Ryna,” Hattie called to the female across the table. “How about we head back to the archive. I’ll help you look up those equations you needed.”
Holly turned to her. She knew immediately that Hattie was trying to give her space, but her entire purpose in bringing Hattie out here was to make her feel better. Before she could say anything though, Hattie smiled at her.
“I’m fine, Holly. Promise. Come on, Ryna. You can’t challenge Romival. That time limit of yours isn’t up yet.”
Ryna growled, annoyed and aggravated, but she didn’t resist Hattie as the two of them stood and left the cafeteria together. All the while, Ryna kept glaring back at Romival like she might very well attack him instead of issuing an educational challenge.
Holly waved at them, but Romival didn’t take his eyes off her, sending a wave of heat over her body at his direct, unrelenting attention.