26. Chapter 26
twenty-six
Hue
Life returned to normal almost immediately after the attack, seamlessly, so simply it was clear that, despite there having not been a successful breach in a while, this was routine.
The very next night, we held a vigil despite there being no losses, at least on our side of the fight.
Sor’en explained it was a moment to restore balance, to move past and leave it behind.
Everyone gathered in the fields, ate the flowers, and meditated in silence for nearly five zentics.
Despite my best efforts, I fell asleep rather quickly and woke up groggy and high as all hell, sprawled between Jin, Sor’en, and Melion.
That was over three kintics ago now. Sor’en and I are good, better than we were before, despite the secrets still between us.
Melion is still offering me his bonding tendril, and I’m still too scared to take it.
Although I can see how sad it makes him, every time I try, some kind of deep, primal fear sends me into a near panic.
Me’alma offers me her blessing of balance as she passes me on my way to Jin’s.
It’s surreal to see her stomach so swollen so suddenly.
Apparently, Xyrelith gestation, like everything else about them, is kind of odd.
From the onset of pregnancy, there are very few signs for kintics that a pregnancy has even taken root.
During that time, their tiny death omens are preparing their bodies with a gestational toxin that prepares them to expand rapidly within solars.
Fucking horrifying.
Most Xyrelith women don’t even know they're pregnant until the great balloon expands in their stomach, and after that, it is no more than a mere limtic before they give birth. I scratch my stomach as I round the corner into Jin’s tent, plopping my basket down loudly on the table, eyeing whatever sweet-smelling thing he’s working with, and checking my pee flower corner.
It's only when I don’t hear anything snarky that I lift my head to find him.
My heart stops at the still sight of him slumped over in his chair.
My stomach bottoms out as I bolt for him, my hand meeting him so roughly I bruise my knuckles on his bony body. “Jin!”
He doesn’t move, his head shifting toward the side as I shake him.
“Jin’rayal!”
Panic hits me hard and fast, making tears swim in my eyes until he groans, swatting at me. His milky eyes open slowly in a deep scowl. “Would you cease your yelling? You’ll have the entire city in a fuss.”
All the air leaves my lungs in a rough whoosh. Sucking my budding, snotty nose back into place as I feverishly wipe at my eyes, pretending like he isn’t staring at me. “W-well, I needed help and you’re horrid and lazy,” I choke out.
For once, he’s quiet, looking down at me with familiar sympathy. With something that looks a lot like the way Sofaxi would look at me while I cried over something she didn’t know how to fix.
I jerk my basket off the table and shove it at the old man as I blink rapidly, trying to breathe past the tightness in my chest. “Bless these. Please.”
That shifts his attention as he unwraps the flowers in the basket, lifting his brow line. “It is poor form to ask a male to bless his own death flowers.”
I frown. “What? No, I picked these for Sor’en. I was going to offer them to Pamora and Famore.”
He huffs out a laugh at my botched version of their names. I’ll get it, eventually.
“I would perhaps rethink that, unless the botanist died in his sleep last night.”
My chest tightens further. “Of course not!”
“Black Lyr’lumara flowers denote grief.”
I scramble up onto an outrageously high stool in defeat. “I spent hours in the fields this morning trying to find those because they matched his skin.”
He laughs at that, more heartily than before, but there's something wrong about him today. Tired. He doesn’t stand. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him still in this tent for longer than a domtic.
I’m staring down at the table, letting loose a list of profanity in my head.
I’d wanted to do something sweet for Sor’en…
something to show him how much I love him.
Mates give blessings; he’d done several for me without me even knowing until Jin let it slip a few solars ago.
The glass beaker twists in my palms over and over as I stew.
“Hue?”
I glance up, thinking about how odd it is to hear him use my name. “Huh?”
“I am dying. I have waited for too long.”
The glass beaker drops to the grass as I stare at him like he just grew a second head. “Why would you say something like that?”
I slip off the stool, getting to my knees to reach the beaker where it bounced under the table, when suddenly his hands are on my face, making me gasp, forcing my attention back to him.
“When a Xyrelith is close to death, the spirits whisper across the cosmos. They have a lot to say. I have been listening, and I have overstayed my welcome somewhere my soul no longer belongs.”
I shrug him off, but he doesn’t let me, so I screw my eyes shut, refusing to look at him. My heart pounding so hard in my chest even he can probably hear it. “Stop.”
His worn fingers dance over my shut eyes gently, and my heart aches. “Perhaps you should offer those flowers to your mother. Plant her in your mate’s fields and give her a proper goodbye. Let her rest too.”
My lip wobbles and tears squeeze through the cracks in my eyelids as he tries to soothe the tremor. “How can I say goodbye to her?”
How can I say goodbye to you?
He laughs, letting go of my face.
My eyes burst open so that I can glare at him. It helps when he grabs my hands, squeezing them softly, because right now, he's okay. For right now, he's right here.
“Hue, she is already gone. And what a beautiful thing to be loved by a child. You gave us both something special. But it is time for goodbyes.”
I scramble away from him, getting to my feet. The beaker forgotten so quickly that it makes me dizzy. “Look, we could’ve had a really nice day and you’ve gone and ruined it.”
He just smiles from his spot on the ground. “Our goddesses have a way of forcing such things, star child.”
I shake my head, helping him to his own feet, ignoring the fact that this time he lets me. Sucking in a calming breath as I snatch my basket of shitty flowers from his chair, desperate to get them out of his tent. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jin.”
I’m not halfway home on a craft before a large black shadow tackles me, the bars releasing just in time before I crash into them.
“Melion, what the hell!?” I curse as he lifts me with his warm air, sweeping me in a blur toward the house.
The sight of the cart reversing to zip back toward the docking section of the city center lets me know my mate sent him to get me.
Sor’en, being Sor’en, already thought to return the cart for someone else since, apparently, I will not be needing it.
“You know I’m supposed to be your favorite now, which means you should listen to me, not him.” I sink into his swirl, apparently no longer deserving an outside view, as he offers me a tendril of shadow, as if to compound why I am not his favorite. “Fair enough.”
All in the matter of a few moments, I am back in our home, discarded gently-ish on the recessed center.
I barely have a domtic to get my bearings when the smell of freshly cooked food fills my nose and makes my mouth water.
Not even fully getting back to my feet, my legs tangle in the long skirt of my dress when Sor’en’s mouth is on me, kissing me, testing the seam of my mouth in ways that make my bones turn gooey before he pulls away and abruptly dumps metaphorical ice water over my head. “Me’alma has gone into labor.”
I blanche, still trying to untangle myself. “No, I just saw her. She was fine. Isn’t it too early?”
He nods, helping sort me out before leaving to load up a plate with said yummy food. “Labor comes on quickly in our females. It is early, but she and the youngling should be fine. It will simply be a painful affair.”
He swoops me off my feet, sitting on a stool before depositing me on his lap and dragging the plate toward me. His hand resting oddly on my stomach. I shove it away, scratching the area instead. “I can’t eat at a time—"
He settles me deeper into his lap, his cock vibrating against my ass. “It is time for your midday meal. You will eat, then we need to gather fresh flowers for her. She has requested you prepare them with your blessing.”
I pause my bratty wiggling. “Wait, what?”
“You mean a great deal to the female. She wishes for you to prepare her labor veil as well.”
My mouth pops open before closing again. “I-I don’t even know what that is.”
“It is similar to the bonding veils, but much shorter. I will guide you in blessing it.”
“Why is she veiled during labor?”
He offers me a bite of my favorite lumpy white stuff he calls flamet. I take it despite the unease growing in my stomach because I am pretty hungry. I’m always hungry lately. “To hide her unbalance, should she make faces or sounds that are—"
“That’s insane,” I interrupt around another bite. “Doesn’t she need that now?”
He shakes his head, pressing his face deep into my neck to nuzzle me, wiping oil across my skin there. “It will be a while yet, maybe even a solar since it is so early. But we need to be ready when she is.”
I take over the bites now, removing the oval-shaped long spoon thing from his large hand. “Aren’t only you and Jin supposed to bless things?”
“Me and other elders, yes, but you are my mate. You walk close to the veil beside me.”
“Spooky.”
He laughs. “Yes, very spooky.”
He wasn’t kidding about being ready. As soon as I was done eating, he sent Melion and me out into the field closest to the house with a detailed list of colors and their meanings.
After skimming the list, I vaguely remembered him telling me about the whole color thing before.
But I’m pretty sure I was seated on his cock while he worked, making it very hard to pay attention.
I avoid the second field that was still healing from the attack, and the section where I saw…
whatever I saw. I won't pretend I didn’t spend an unreasonable amount of time after that, trying to catch another glimpse.
There’s been nothing. It's probably for the best.